REDUCED FOR QUICK SALE!

On Monday I went to Aldi.  This was the first time in a month.  I've been doing the rest of my shopping at other stores but only buying things that were listed on the checkout smart app and the shopitize app.  I also only buy things that are reduced for quick sale.  I don't buy any meat because I don't think that it's all that much reduced but fresh veggies and fruit I will usually buy.

For example,
I've learned that Food Co-Op marks down their prices extraordinary at the end of the day.  I bought a few heads of lettuce for .10 pence.  .10 pence, thats all! I went back the next time during mid-day and the same head of lettuce was only marked down to .60 p.  Not a good bargain considering that M & S next door was selling fresh heads of lettuces for .60 p.

I also bought a bag of potatoes for .10 p the other day at Tesco, not end of day.  They also had bags of salad and fresh that were reduced so much that I bought all the bags.

I've also learned that the person that is marking them down has a lot of wiggle room regarding price.  Some days they are reduced heavily and other days they aren't.  I sincerely believe that this has to do with the person marking them down.  I'm still trying work out the best days to go shopping at the stores but so far it really seems like hit or miss.

I also tried to follow some advice given but this youtuber about going at the end of the day and most of the time that doesn't work.  Either all the items are gone or they haven't been reduced further.  There's no reasons for me to wait all day and then go in the evening when its exponentially colder to try to score some basement prices.

I've also learned that I can bargain for lower prices.  Once, just once, there were something on reduced and I saw another item that was similar for a lower price and I thought why aren't these the same price. I ask if I could have both for the same low price and the manager said yes.  So don't be afraid to ask.

Now, the freshness of reduced for quick sale items. I've generally found that veggies last a week past the use by date.  They stay fresh as long as you keep them in the crisper and keep them dry.   I'm happy to announce that the many bags of produce I bought lasted for more than a week and I was able to eat salads and fresh cooked veggies for days and days.  It was wonderful.
So go for the clearance items and hope these tips work for you.

:)

Taking time to stop eating!

Last week my husband and I decided we should do a fast.  It is a discipline and a way for us to remember that man does not live on bread alone.  We live by the words of God as well.  I'll just say this now...It was really really hard!
I love to eat. I really do.  I love to cook and think about food and planning about food and everything that has to do with food.

I also complain very loudly about being hungry something that really annoyed my husband.  It's hard for me to feel hungry because it's natural for people to just reach for food when we are hungry.

It made me think about how much time I think about eating and planning and how much I take for granted having food in the fridge.
I have food in the fridge most of the time and if I don't I just go out and buy something more to eat.  It's very simple and I couldn't help but think about the people in most of the world that don't have things to eat for days.
If not eating for one day was this difficult I can't even imagine how difficult it would be not to eat two days in a row.
It was very eye opening for me.  Just thinking about food gives me happiness.  I love planning my meals and figuring out new recipes but to stop all of that put so many things into perspective for me.
I just want to challenge you to try to not eat two meals.  Don't do breakfast because that's too easy and don't do it on a day where you have work all day because you won't really think about it that much.
On a Saturday when you have time at home, try to not eat lunch or dinner.  Or just don't eat dinner and see how you feel.  Suddenly you'll see that you have lots of time on your hands and how much you appreciate living in a country where food is easily accessible.
Food is a great thing and we only live because we eat food but our soul also needs to eat.  Our soul needs to be woken up to all the things in the world and grow to have compassion, patience and gratitude.
If you think you can do it, give it a try and let me know how it goes.

The husband and I have decided to fast three meals a week, mostly dinners on different days and to save the money and give that amount to the poor.  Hopefully we can do and I hope you try.
Fast so that you can go slow and give thanks.

Cooking for four

My husband's parents come to live with us for a week and it has been really fun.  I have a great relationship with my in-laws and I know I will miss them when they leave.  Since they have been here they have helped buy the groceries and make purchases for us.  It's been wonderful to not have to swipe the credit card as often or make any huge purchases.
I'm sorry that I haven't updated for a week but I have some great dinners for you to see.  I've been cooking up a storm but the most fun one to make was Nutella Star bread.  It is really easy to make and really good.

First I have to build up to the grand finale.  One evening I had to cook something really quick and had some beef steaks in the fridge. I sliced it up into strips and started sautéing them.  I then cut up some celery and broccoli.  I had to do something with those as they were starting to go bad.  I also had some tofu in the cupboard so I cut that up and tossed it together with the celery.  I tossed the beef strips with the broccoli, made some steamed rice and called it dinner.  This dinner took me a totally of 20 minutes and allowed me to watch the salt content, oil content and fat.  I was really happy and so was my husband.  He almost ate all of it.  I really want to try to eat less meat, less refined carbs and more veggie carbs and meat.  But moving on to the next picture you'll see that not true yet. 

So I had ground beef that also needed to be used so I decided to make a simple lasagna.  I'm one of those people that likes to look up recipes but when it comes to lasagna, I say anything goes and this was no exception.  I layered it the traditional way but I through it two layers of frozen mixed vegetables.  The vegetables were the perfect tenderness and added some much needed color to this dish.  I would high recommend doing that for all mothers who have picky eaters. 

Lastly I had this apple pie.  I'll be the first to admit that I didn't make this one. I bought it half off at Sainsbury's.  Usually 5 quid but on sale for 2.50.  I was really happy with how it came out and it wasn't sweet at all but nice and sour.  The way I like apple pie, you can taste the sourness. 

Now, the grand finale! Here is a picture:  I know....you are practically drooling over the computer right now.  And trust me it's as good as it looks.

I would recommend doing this and it's really easy.  Just make a basic bread dough, roll out four circles and layer with Nutella.  Then cut strips and twist.  Brush with egg wash and bake! Done!

GO NUTS

The end results and a new challenge

Hey!
I finished my challenge of not spending more than 40 GBP a month on groceries and these are the results.
It's not possible! It was difficult but what I did learn was that I could survive on 40 GBP for about 16-20 days.
There are some things that I had to buy more often for example eggs/bread/milks.  Things that expired sooner rather than later.
I looked over all the receipts for the last month and it looks like I spent a total of 85 GBP for the month on groceries and other non-perishables.  That's not too terrible considering that we started with nothing.
I went shopping the last day in October for groceries because my refrigerator was literally empty as was my pantry.  Picture below.  I had one chicken left that I roasted and used for the next few days.
We had a friend stay with us for a week so I had to buy a few more items to take into consideration that this person probably wanted to eat something different and fresh.

I did try to BBQ in my oven and it worked out well.  I used a yogurt curry indian marinade and skewered the chicken and it came out really well.  It was very tasty and I'll probably try to do it again.
I bought a total of 50 GBP worth of groceries.  My goal it to not spend more than 80 GBP for the month but we will see how it goes.  My husband's parents are coming for about 10 days so I don't know how well I can keep that goal but you never know.
Things I've learned about stretching the dollar.
Buying fresh vegetables is a gift and cooking them and storing them the minute you get home keeps them around longer.
Milk goes bad very quickly.
Meat is overrated and we are learned to eat less meat and more greens.
My husband really has a sweet tooth and loves chips, granola and sweets.  Things I don't usually buy because it is not in the budget but when I do buy them they are gone in minutes. (its a problem.)
Below are pictures of some  of the dishes I made, if you are interested in the recipe drop me a line.

My way of stretching the dollar. I had very little roast chicken left but I had some spinach, and puff pastry left so I just combined it and rolled it up.  They were really good and my husband loved it.  This cost .25 pence to make per serving!

Made a beef stroganoff for my husband.  Very good!

BBQ some chicken, yogurt flavored.  Very nice. 

Fresh made pita bread with a nice salad and the chicken.  Great meal!

Our very empty fridge. The yogurt I bought was on reduced clearence.  We need to get our protein somehow. 

My first time making yorkshire pudding.  I was very proud!

A lovely roast chicken. 

Roasted veggies with steamed kale topped with a savory lemon dressing. 

Only 5 more days to go

So we made it another week on our crazy budget for food. I do have to confess that I did go shopping again because we have a friend staying with us and I can very well have him starve and think that we are nuts with nothing in the fridge.

I also found this really cool app called shopitize that gives you cash back on items that you buy from tesco, asda, morrison and the like.  For example one of the things that you could buy was milk and you would get a whole quid back.  Which basically means that the milk I bought was free.  I also stumbled upon a store called iceland.
Everything in there is basically frozen and very cheap. I haven't bought a lot of ice cream so I decided to buy jonas some ice cream since he loves it and it was only .89 pence.
Iceland had some really good discounts so I decided to buy a few things from Iceland to cook for this week for our extra guest.
I did go to tesco to buy a few things such as fresh veggies.  It was painful to buy those items considering how much cheaper they are at Aldi. I will try with all my might to not shop at tesco as long as there isn't a good discount such as the milk.
My neighbor and I will be going to Aldi again to use our awesome 5 quid off vouchers! I was so happy to see that Aldi was doing that again and it saves us a good amount in the long run.  At the end of this month I'll take a picture of our fridge and cupboards to show you how scare things have become.  It really looks like we have no food.
Tomorrow I'm making spaghetti and meatballs and this last weekend I made a beef stroganoff. Jonas loves this dish and I had to use the sour cream I bought the 1st of October.
My grocery bill including the food I bought for this week to account for the extra guest comes to 88 quid.  That's roughly 22 quid a month which was my estimate.  If it was just for Jonas and I, I think I could have kept it at around 65 quid.  I also learned from a few of my mistakes from before of things that I can buy that last for a long time and things that I shouldn't buy.  I also do allow myself certain luxury items such as chips and dips but in the next shopping drip I'll have to control myself.

In the home stretch! What a crazy experiment. Next month I'll be working with a 65 quid budget but breaking that up into two shopping trips.  So on this next shopping trip with my neighbor my goal is to buy only 40 quid worth of items. These items will feature a lot of frozen items, some fresh and lots of root type of vegetables.  I'll buy a few more things of flour as I'll be making lots of bread as well.

A very vegetarian week

Last week my husband and I ate only vegetarian food.  We did this for two reasons.  1) to save some of the meat in the freezer to last until the end of the month and 2) It's always good to eat less meat and try to focus more on greens.

It wasn't an easy week but we made it work.  Yesterday we had a roast chicken and it was marvellous.  I'm hoping to do this vegetarian week thing at least 7 days out of the month.

We had vegetarian pot pie, baked tomato pasta, vegetarian stir fry, broccoli creamy pasta, rice and cajun beans and some burritos.  It wasn't hard to think of vegetarian foods but it was hard making sure that the food had enough protein in it.  We didn't seem to miss any meat and it was easy to cook this way.  I was pretty happy with the way things turned out and hopefully we can do this again.

Only 10 more days until the next shopping trip. So far I've spent around 65 quid on groceries, just food including some flours, oils, butters, fresh potted herbs.  I thought about not including those items in my total food bill since those things last a long time but I thought it was probably better to include them.

We did eat out once so that did cut into our food bill but I think it will be okay.  Now that I have a few extra items I think I can buy some other types of food this time but it seems a bit hard to go shopping once a week.  I think it makes more sense to have a food budget of 60 quid a month and go twice a month.  But I like challenges and I'll try this time to last on 50 quid a month.  40 quid is a bit low and towards the end of the month we ran out of things like fruit so I'll allow myself a little bit more space to cook with and hopefully it will work out.

I'm still tweaking costs so hopefully I can find a good relatively low budget and stick to it.   Still have one frozen chicken in the freezer along with some ground meats.

We'll keep you updated.

Half way mark

I'm halfway there!! Only 15 more days to go and I can go on an actual shopping trip!

I'm starting to get a bit worried though.  My cupboards and pantry are starting to look scarce.  It's a strange feeling to think about using up all the food in the house before going shopping again.  As you know this week has been vegetarian week.  It was a good idea to go vegetarian this week which will help push me through the next two weeks.  I still have those chickens in the freezer and the ground beef.  I'm running low on bread but I did buy a bread mix at Aldi on October 1st so I'm going to try to make some bread.
This week so far I've made a tomato basil pasta bake, vegetarian pot pie, vegetarian and tofu stir fry, vegetarian pizza, pita bread and chips, hummus (bought chickpeas last friday) and nutritional yeast baked tofu.
Tomorrow I'm making spinach quiche and on Friday I'm making some chinese steamed buns. On Saturday I'll make a broccoli cream pasta.  I'm surprised that Jonas hasn't complained about the meat but it seems like we aren't missing it.  
Sunday I'm actually going to roast a chicken finally.  I have a good amount of potatoes, onions and garlic left with a little bit of rosemary so it should make for a really good chicken.
I do feel like I've cheated because I bought that flour on Friday and I've made a few good breakfast items with them.  I've made some muffins, scones and pizza.  If I hadn't bought that on Friday I don't know what we would be eating.  Well I tend to eat bran with milk and Jonas eats toast with peanut butter.  We are having nice breakfasts because we have a friend staying with us and I want her to have a good time.
Although I will say that its has been really fun to bake and make things from scratch. I'm still learning how to do it but practice makes for good scones eventually.  
We will see what kind of food I end up making towards the end. I'm sure it will be odds and ends of weird combinations.  Adventures adventures...makes for strange combinations.

got a pretty decent puff in my pita pocket. 

pita bread and soon to be pita chips (baked)

Baked hash brown eggs.  (way too much pepper because I shook a little too hard) 

Looks weird because I didn't want to throw away the extra crust but tasted great. 

Legit chow mein (I'm taiwanese)

Nutritional Yeast baked tofu

Pizza (two ingredient Pizza dough) Flour and greek yogurt.  Google it, its legit and super easy to make this pizza dough, tastes great!