I'm a big fan of meal planning but even so, there's often an occasion when I have to magic up a meal with just what I have in the house - usually when someone has eaten a key ingredient of the meal I was planning because they fancied it! I do have a few standby recipes that usually save the day though....Some sort of variety of Macaroni Cheese depending on what we have in the fridge. I generally have some of my homemade tomato sauce in the freezer which is great with most things - mixed with pasta, as a base for tuna pasta bake or even with some grilled chicken wrapped … [Read more...]
Thirty Thrifty Family Meals from around the web….
I've said this before and I'm pretty sure I'll say it again many times in the future but meal planning is definitely my favourite way to save money - it costs me less each week when I go shopping and saves me time each day as I know what I'm cooking.I wrote a guide over on my Meal Planning blog about what meal planning actually means and how I do it but it's not just about the planning side of things. You need to be able to stick to it which is where I've often struggled in the past - mainly because I get bored of cooking (and eating) the same things week after week but I find that a lot … [Read more...]
Five frugal things I’ve done this week (and five very un-frugal things I may or may not have done)….
We're away on a last minute break this week so I cashed in the spare change that we save and found out we'd saved £21.54 since the last time we cashed in - extra spending money for our week away! Miss Frugal likes to drink bottled water as she says it tastes different to tap water but I save the bottles and on a night I fill them with tap water and put them in the fridge so when she thinks she's drinking bottled water, it's more often than not actually tap water! Packed a lovely packed lunch picnic for our loooong journey so we don't need to pay service station prices. Got some great … [Read more...]
Thrifty Thursday – The Spring Cleaning Edition….
Spring is definitely in the air.Which is great, obviously.Except for the fact that the sunshine outside always seems to highlight the fact that my house is due it's annual spring clean and de-clutter. As you'd probably expect, rather than actually start the job itself, I'm going to put it off for as long as possible - firstly by sharing my top tips for Spring Cleaning with you....De-cluttering is a great way to not only make some space in the house but also to make a little bit of money at the same time and as an added bonus, it's easier to clean because there's less … [Read more...]
Thrifty Thursday – Leftover pies and alternative pie toppings….
Who doesn't love a good pie?I've always been put off making pies because (a) I worry about a soggy bottom and (b) I always thought pastry was difficult to master. The soggy bottom thing is probably a fear of Mary Berry jumping out from my kitchen cupboard to examine my pie (impossible I know, not least because there's no space for her by the time I've squeezed every kitchen gadget known to man in there). The difficulty thing I definitely get from my Mam who I always used to think could make great pastry until one day she told me that most of the time she actually used ready … [Read more...]
The Thursday Thrifty Tip round up….
Last week I was considering hiring a skip for the day (at a cost of £90) so that I could clear out some of the junk from my garage and one of my friends pointed out that I didn't need to pay for a skip when I could arrange a collection from the council for a fraction of the price. I didn't even know the council offered that as a service let alone that they would come along and take my rubbish for just £15.00!I saved a fortune because someone pointed out something they thought was obvious.So, I started thinking about how many other little tips there were that may seem obvious for … [Read more...]
