New beginnings mean new challenges!

It's been an exciting week at Catz's Corner! Our son and his lovely girlfriend have become engaged! He even (in a cold and frosty London park) got down on one knee with the ring, who would have thought our lad could be so romantic? A winter wedding, in the north, next year is planned.

It is all very exciting but also means the budget will have to be pulled in a notch, so that we can have a worry free celebration. We will have to travel north and book into a hotel etc., and we would like to contribute something towards the costs but not sure really these days what the grooms family are responsible for. We will have to do some research and then diplomatically offer if we can.

We nabbed a bit back from our savings this week to cover the cost of some amazing lovers (they cuddle!) lead cystal decanters, as an engagement present, so that has contributed to their bottom draw collection.

To kick off the new tighter budget I have started a store cupboard challenge for this month, still getting the organic deliveries and any fresh needs (not wants) to the total of £50 only for 2.5 of us! Miss C is only really with us for a few days of the week and Penny's food lasts a long time, so unusual for a spaniel type dog!

I have plenty of flour, oil, butter in freezer, lentils, oats, sugar, chickpeas, beans, tinned tomatoes, potatoes, 1 froz joint pork, 1froz med chicken, some froz pollack, salmon, loads of frozen vegetables from the garden, powdered milk, rice, pasta, tuna and tinned fruit.

Yesterday I made the first "storecupboard" meal which was very tasty and would suit vegetarians and vegans but still kept my meat eating hubby happy:-

Curried Red Lentil Soup

1/2 medium peeled and chopped onion (from veg box)
2 tablespoons oil (used olive oil)
1 chopped garlic clove (from neighbours home grown supply)
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger (I used a tsp of lazy ginger from larder)
1 + 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup of rinsed red lentils (from big bag in larder)
1 + 1/4 cups water
3 cups of stock (I used home made chicken stock but vegetable would be good too)
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (I used some tinned plum ones)
Fresh lemon juice to taste (jif bottled juice worked)
seasoning to taste

Method
In a large saucepan, cook the onion in the oil stirring until golden brown

Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds, stirring the whole time

Add the rinsed lentils (I also soaked them for 1 hour) with the measured water and stock

Bring the liquid to the boil and simmer, covered for 25 minutes - once ready to simmer I transferred all to the slow cooker and left it to it's own devices for the afternoon.

Stir in the tomatoes and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add the lemon juice and seasoning and serve with lovely thick slices of home made bread.

This makes a lovely thick and spicy soup, loads left for today as well :)


Now I must find some chickpea recipes!

A monthly shop

I have decided to avoid temptation and will try to stay out of the supermarket as much as possible, I have done a monthly shop costing £75. Because of the higher prices I have had to drop from organic in a lot of cases but will still be getting our organic box deliveries. The bread (23 rolls, 1 loaf ) was all yellow stickered and cost 50p instead of £3.35 - all frozen away individually for Mr C's packed lunches. there are 5 bags of flour 2 self raising and 3 plain - white instead of wholemeal which I normally buy but these are for making up baking and pastry mixes and will keep longer - also I read somewhere that it is only worth buying wholemeal flour as organic as it is the husks etc that would have been treated by pesticides. I have plenty of organic bread flour in stock anyway.

We are also trying some of the basics range - preserves, cornflakes, onions, boxed orange juice, tinned tomatoes, some cheeses,, if we don't like them then next time we will go up a level. Mr C had the next level up for his bran flakes and I still had my "rocks" blackcurrant squash which tastes like squash used to back in the day! (I must remember that this is very concentrated)

There is enough pasta there (2 basics 19p bags, 1 large wholemeal penne and 1 spaghetti) to last us and if we do run out I shall have to learn how to use the pasta maker. the fresh pasta was a treat and cheaper than a takeaway, there is also enough left over for a nice lunch today! We also have 2 organic chicken quarters for dinner on Sunday.

Penny had her treats too - a box of bonios, dental stixs and some rawhide chews - this will have to last her at least a month. We still have enough food for her from a large sack.

On a budget of £150 for myself, Mr C, visiting family and a cockapoo for the month, I have £75 left to cover the box deliveries and any top ups but the freezers still need emptying so some interesting meals ahead, mainly vegetarian as there is not a lot of meat left.

Just to add that this shop was done Friday evening about 7pm so very lucky with the bargains!
Saturday was the first no spend day of august - nsd 1/10

Everythings growing in the garden!

Even the Cockapoo! I guess at 13 months she won't be a puppy for much longer, try telling her that though! She is so full of fun and loves to play fetch, we alternate between pulling up a weed and throwing a ball!

We didn't get an organic veg box delivery today, either they messed up or I ticked the wrong box probably the latter! Never mind we saved £12.80 and have enough fruit and veg in the freezer plus things are starting to grow in the garden and some of these things are edible, including some green peppers - yum! the rhubarb has gone mad, the courgettes are giving me a couple every other day and I am picking about half a dozen tomatoes a day. We are raw beginners though as you can probably see from the photos, more luck than judgement but we are learning. Hopefully next year we will have the main vegetable garden up and running.

Another no spend day and I have saved(rescued) 6 sweet potatoes from the bin which are about to be made into soup using Arkonites recipe. I had to throw 1 away though as it was beyond help, must make sure to remove produce from any plastic packaging as it doesn't keep so well, I normally use old flour bags to store potatoes in and that works really well.
My grocery challenge (www.moneysavingexpert.com old style board is brilliant for support for this challenge) this month is to stick to £150.00 for the month - so far £82 spent so £68 for the rest of the month and I haven't started on the lentils yet! :)