Good Friday and The Results

This is how it started........... 

Out of curiosity I thought it would be interesting to see what Value/ Just Essential ranges were available in Supermarkets again after many disappeared during covid. I went to AL = Aldi. M = Morrisons. AS = Asda. My plan was to see what recipes I could come up with and what it would cost eating meals based on these things for a few weeks. Some items I've bought are not Value Range but the best value I could find.

But first I have to admit to making a mistake! 

I used Value Range Penne Pasta  (something I always have in the cupboard) which is 41p for 500g in 6 meals instead of spaghetti for 28p which is what I'd priced and  included in a photo and NOBODY NOTICED! So I've added 13p to the total. But I'm disappointed you weren't keeping a closer check on my experiment!!

What I ate.......... 

Breakfasts were toast and marmalade, or rice crispies or canned grapefruit 

Second small meal was sandwich using  1 round of the sliced bread and either egg/ cheese/ chicken/ sardines/corned beef/tomato. Or some fruit or crumpets.(or both depending how hungry I was feeling)

Then I made 2 lots of plain scones, a small sultana sponge and peanut biscuits  for snacks and also ate the rest of the peanuts as a snack.

My Main Meals

1. Fish Curry and rice
2. Pasta Salad with Feta
3. Quiche
4. Quiche
5. Quiche
6. Quiche
7. Pasta salad with Feta
8. Corned Beef Hash
9. Tuna, Pasta and Broccoli Bake
10. Roast Chicken Thigh Joint etc
11. Ready made Beef Pasty
12. Chicken Stir Fry
13. Omelette
14. Fish Curry and Rice
15. Minced Pork Patties 
16. Chicken stir fry with Fajita seasoning over Pasta
17. Tuna, Pasta and Broccoli Bake
18. Pizza
19. Potato, onion, bacon and tomato layer bake
20. Roast Chicken thigh joint etc
21. Fish Pie with mash topping
22. Toad in the Hole
23. Fish Curry and Rice
24. Sausage Rolls
25. Leek and Bacon Pilaff
26. Baked Potatoes
27. Leek Fritters
28. Tuna, Pasta and Broccoli Bake
29. Roast Chicken Thigh and Roast Vegetables
30. Pizza
31. Vegetable and Cheese Pasty

What I bought

I also used 4 packs of 8 Nescafe decaf Cappuccino sachets for my evening coffees.

What I used from things already open in the cupboards - I guesstimated and added £4 for the odd bits of these things used.

Looking online I found the following figures quoted

The average grocery bill for 1 person in the UK sits at around £140-£150 per month. This means that on a weekly basis, the average grocery bill for one person in the UK should be around £35.

Figures in surveys dating to January 2023 say an 'average' person spends roughly £47 a week on food including £13 eating out

My total spend for the food eaten over 31 days was £74.23 + 13p = £74.36p. So around half the average. I didn't really go without anything and mainly things were made from scratch using fresh ingredients. 

I can think of a few ways that it would have been even cheaper and of course if the value of the remaining ingredients that I still have are deducted it does come in at less than that £74.

The only really bad thing was the Asda Value Range minced pork - never bought before and will never be bought again! (In normal life I usually buy local sausages and bacon that are produced about 15 miles from home and rarely buy any other pork products or lamb or beef) . Some products were rather bland or tasteless but not inedible.

I did have coffee and cheese scone out at the church a couple of times and a coffee at the Suffolk Wildlife Trust Booksale but I've put all those in the Charity part of the accounts!!

And I can cheerfully say that despite the comments that said............and I quote..............

"I would be so depressed if I had to eat like this". and "I too would be depressed if I had to eat so much processed rubbish. Life’s too short."

I didn't get depressed at all! 

Now I shall go back to normal and will probably treat myself to a Chinese Takeaway in celebration!

Back Tomorrow

Sue 

The Last Day of the V.R.E

Thank you for comments yesterday, sorry I didn't reply, I've got  6 year old Eldest Granddaughter here for a couple of days - makes things a little  busy!

 Day 31 which I decided would be the very last of the experiment because almost everything I'd bought had been eaten!

 I used the other half of the home made pizza dough which I'd frozen and made a tomato topping by cooking an onion and the last tomatoes from the 4th tin and a squirt of tomato puree. Then on top I added all the remaining grated cheddar plus a good amount of the remaining parmesan and the second half of the mozzarella from out of the freezer.

I was going to take a photo but then thought it looked just like the first one I'd eaten so didn't bother again.

So what's left over from the things bought? 

Almost everything from the two pictures of stuff from the cupboards is still around in smaller amounts.(I'd added £4 at the beginning for the parts of things used)

Plus also left...............

Part packs of Rice Crispies; Self Raising Flour; 1 can carrots; Some of the grated cheap Parmesan; Half tub Gravy Granules; Almost all the Mayonnaise; Pasta; Most of the second cabbage; Few slices of the sliced wholemeal bread; a few of the Very small Yorkshire puds; some of the bland frozen mixed vegetables; a little coffee; two pieces of the frozen white fish; a couple of apples and pears from the last fruit purchase and  2 medium potatoes.

I'll come back tomorrow with more details.

Sue

P.S. A brief bit of pastry info to answer a question for readers not in the UK..........

Shortcrust pastry is flour, butter in the ratio 2:1 and water and that's about all

Puff pastry is pastry that's folded and butter  added and then folded again and butter added and I've never made it because it's easier to buy ready made if needed for something lighter and fluffier than shortcrust.

Flaky is Puff but without so much butter and folding and rolling - I think.

There are other sorts too like filo - never made that either.

In other words I only make ordinary what we call short-crust!

April 5th - The Penultimate Day

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. It's the fresh fruit and open space all round that I miss most as well as Colin of course!

Those photos from the smallholding were from the last two years but before that we'd kept goats and sheep, established the popular camp-site and built the selling side up ready for Colin's early retirement from the County Council, because for most of time he was working full time too! Have no idea how we fitted everything in - much younger and fitter back then I guess!

Day 30 and the penultimate day of the experiment was a pasty using the rest of the shortcrust pastry that I put in the freezer when I made the sausage rolls. I part cooked a couple more small potatoes, and softened a small onion and the last chopped leek, put in half the last of the grated cheddar cheese and some of the grated parmesan .

It made a rather(too) large pasty which I ate with yet more of the frozen mixed vegetables and a good spoonful of my homemade red onion sweet chutney.

Very filling and quite tasty, would have been even better with extra mature cheese instead of the rather bland  Asda Value Range grated cheese.

Tomorrow is the last day and I'll see what's still left and do a round up of meals eaten and costs on the day after.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

4th April = 10 Years Blogging

 My first attempt at blogging was on Wordpress around Christmas 2012 - it didn't last . Next attempt was when I switched to Blogger and began on 4th April 2013. I found it very complicated to work it all out to start with and wasn't helped when I couldn't load photos - only to find that it wasn't my fault at all but a local connection problem.

I  never thought about how long the blog would last but knew I liked writing and that's probably the reason for carrying on and still writing ten years later with no plans to give up.

Thought I'd share some photos of the smallholding from the first years of the blog- they make me feel incredibly sad for a life that's gone but proud of all we did to be self-sufficient.

We had 23 years at the smallholding and 8 years after illness forced us to sell up I still miss it.

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Meal 29 was the last chicken thigh joint roasted with small potatoes, a couple more of the very small yorkshire puds plus the very last carrot (still firm 4 weeks after purchase) and cabbage with gravy of course.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Day 28 V.R.E + Blackbirds

 Yesterday we had the best sunniest day there's been for weeks. It was due to be followed by a frost, so when I look out this morning I'm hoping to see the fig tree is still OK and the early flowers on one of the young pear trees and on the magnolia haven't turned brown overnight. Fingers crossed.

Thanks to Jan who was able to tell me what odd conspiracy theory I'd heard on the radio in the middle of the night - no wonder I'd not remembered it as it sounds like some sort of nightmare! Apparently in  towns and cities all facilities like shops, schools, doctors etc will be within 15 minutes of peoples homes - not for convenience but to keep people within their own area. They will not be allowed outside of their area! This is believed to be true in many places............ Have to say I'm a tad doubtful.

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Another garden visitor who also makes an appearance in the book "A Sparrow's Life's as Sweet as Ours"

Photos from a few weeks ago while the flowering cherry was still in bud.

And the illustration from the book

From the information page I read

The ousel-cock, so black of hue

With orange-tawny beak

which was sung by Bottom in A Midsummer-Nights Dream. Lots of birds were named Ousel until the C17 when they got separate names. 

Blackbirds declined during the late C20 but have increased in the 21st century and were the 4th most common in the 2018 R.S.P.B. Great Garden Birdwatch. Blackbirds are native to Europe, Asia and North Africa and have been introduced to many other parts of the world. Many of the Blackbirds we see here in winter have arrived from further north to spend their time in a slightly milder climate.

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The meal for Day 28 was the 3rd Tuna, Pasta and Broccoli Bake from the freezer. I didn't take a photo as it was just the same as the other two days I'd eaten it.

Total spend so far is £72.03 + £2.20 for the 4th box of decaf frothy coffees = £74.23. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The 27th Meal of the Value Range Experiment

Thanks to everyone for baked potato comments yesterday. I'm never going to enjoy potatoes except in a potato salad or roast and thank goodness it's easy to avoid them nowadays.

 I needed more fruit to last the rest of the month. From Aldi................

6  Apples      99p

Small Pears  99p

£70.05 + £1.98 = £72.03

 

The Day 27 meal was leek fritters served up with the one remaining slice of bacon and tomatoes from the 4th tin.

Leek fritters use 1 leek, washed and sliced  and softened in the microwave then mixed with an egg and enough flour to make a batter and fried.

I don't often read this blog nowadays but looked at it yesterday and  came across something that puzzled me...........

 If people have a different opinion to me, they are not welcome here.

Oh dear!..............I'm pleased to say everyone is welcome here!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

April Days and Country Ways + My Least Favourite Choice

 

From 'An Illustrated Country Year' by Celia Lewis

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England  - now!

                                      Home-Thoughts from Abroad by Robert Browning 1845

April was associated by the Romans with the goddess Venus, and the word April may be related to her Greek name Aphrodite or from the Latin aperire, to open - referring  to the opening of buds.

The Anglo-Saxons called it Ostermonath or Eosturmonarth connected with Easter  or the East or from Eostre, thought to be the name of a pagan goddess of the spring.

There are many weather sayings for April probably because it was peak time for farming and gardening but can have such varied weather, so country people would be looking for any clues as to what sort of weather was likely.

April weather, rain and sunshine both together

April wet, good wheat

April has 30 days, and if it rained on 31 no harm would be done

A dry April is not the farmer's will

April wet is what we should get

Till April's dead

Change not a thread.

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Day 26 and my meal was the least favourite (apart from that horrible pork) .....Baked potato with some butter, some more of the grated cheese and the rest of the tub of coleslaw. I put the potato back in the microwave to melt the cheap grated cheese and it all got a bit messy! 

I wished I thought of some other meal!

`

I managed to eat it but won't be making a baked spud again - however much butter, cheese and salt it has on it!

Always seems odd to me that people go out for a meal and choose a boring baked potato! 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

March Finances + Day 25 of the Experiment

The end is nigh!

But only to the last days of the Value Range Experiment so don't panic!

Here is my regular end of the month look back at everything.

First of all it was a wet month but after the exceptionally dry February that was probably a good thing although why did it have to be raining on almost every car boot morning? I've kept fairly busy despite the weather and gardening has started - mainly in the heated propagator and greenhouse.

Income was 2 pensions as usual, plus the £67 from the government towards electricity and £14.70 from books sent off to Ziffit.

March was not too bad for spending and of course it's been almost a whole month of spending less than I usually do on food.

 The car annual service and MOT was the main expense. It passed with nothing needing doing so just oil and filters and labour and the MOT to pay for. Had to buy 2 lots of diesel this month - been out and about a lot. 

I bought a basic photo-copier/printer at last and stocked up on a few stamps before the price goes up in April. I thought we weren't going to be able to do this because of the new bar codes on stamps but it was on the Martin Lewis Money Saving Website so  hope it's correct.

My personal spending was one new book, W.I Subs, a haircut - price gone up again (and going up again in April), plus 4 x swimming and 4 x exercise group, second hand books and one bunch of tulips..

For the garden I bought 2 net cloche tunnels, onion sets and lettuce seed, 3 primrose plants, 2 rhubarb plants, wallflower plants and leek seedlings and finally an unusual perennial geranium.

Purple leaved perennial Geranium 'Storm Cloud' 

 A gift was bought for my Sister and Son in Law's birthdays and something ready for youngest granddaughter's birthday next month. The rest of the spending was the usual direct debits for charity, phones and broadband. Electric bill was nothing again thanks to the Governments one off  £200 'Alternative fuel allowance' and their £67 monthly allowance and I'm still well in credit for next month. Other spending was the usual odds and end  and I needed washing soda and 5L of Ecover Laundry Liquid for the clothes washing and some wild bird food again. Right at the end of the month the window cleaner appeared. It never seems seven or eight weeks since he was last round.....but it always is.

The information about next years Council Tax came and I was correct in working out that a 5% increase meant £7 more each month to pay for 9 out of the 10 months of Direct Debits.

All month I've been clearing things out of the house for Losing-it-in-Lent. Some baby toys went to DiL as her sister has just had a first baby. Also out went several books and lots of duplicate card making peel-off labels to charity shop. Then I had a sort out of a couple of small craft drawers and chucked several bits, moving the pens, pencils, hole punch and similar bits into my big chest of drawers. The little set of two drawers also went off to the charity shop along with two boxes of staples for a stapler I no longer have. Plus I sent a small box of books off to Ziffit.

• The Value Range Experiment has kept food spending to a minimum
• Still mixing milk half and half
• Always trying to avoid using tumble dryer (but bad weather meant it had to be used 3 times)
• Shut curtains as soon as it gets dark
• No magazines or newspapers except Radio Times Subscription
• Mainly reading free library books
• Sowing Aubergine, pepper, tomato and cucumber seeds
• Using only 2nd Class Post
• Don't buy alcohol and beauty products
• Only use dishwasher when it's completely full - every 2nd or 3rd day

So into April and no more government help with electric costs and another unit price rise, but I'm still well in credit so the bill will be covered. It's month one of Council tax and my TV licence is due. Youngest Granddaughter's birthday and House Insurance too.

Meal for Day 25 - something I used to make quite often until one day Colin said he didn't really like it as it was too sloppy. He wasn't at all fussy with food and generally ate anything and everything but I thought it best to stop making it - and that was probably 20+  years ago! and I'd forgotten  just how sloppy it was so fished half a garlic bread baguette out of the freezer to go with it. I've added 25p onto the running total. £69.80 + 25p =  £70.05

So what was this thing that I'd not made for years ?.......... Leek and Bacon Pilaff . Using ordinary long grain rice, sliced leeks, 2 slices of bacon and vegetable stock.

I'll be making it again. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Day 24 And The Other 'Not Value Range' Sausage!

Turned the page in the diary and realised I'd nearly forgotten Son-in-Laws birthday so dashed to the nearest place to get gift cards to send, which is Tesco - I really don't like shopping there and avoid it but as I was there got the last few bits I needed for the Experiment. Goodness, Tesco is pricey - unless you have a club card which seems to take money off. 

Apples -90p

Cabbage - the cheapest green vegetable 65p

Leeks - reduced price to £1

Coleslaw 80p - this was more a want than a need  because I fancied it to go with the sausage rolls. 

Total here = £3.35 Added to the running total £66.45 = £69.80

I mixed up a small batch of shortcrust pastry using 2 oz of the baking fat and 4oz flour and used half  to make Meal 24......... 2 sausage rolls using the other quality sausage. They were served up with the coleslaw and yet more of the frozen mixed diced vegetables and some home made tomato chutney. (There was pastry left over, which I put in the freezer and it will be used later for a pasty)

While I was doing that I used the rest of the baking fat, flour, a little sugar and some of the peanuts from that Essential Range Fruit and Nut Mix to make a batch of small peanut biscuits.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Day 23 of the Value Range Experiment

 I finally got around to buying a new printer/photocopier last week and amazingly it worked! What I mean is I actually got it to work fairly easily.  I went to the computer shop in Diss where I got the laptop and asked for the simplest printer and photo copier for occasional home-use and thank goodness it really was simple and much cheaper than I thought too.

The one I had was second-hand when we got it and must have been nearly 20 years old. The photocopier bit hadn't worked for several years and the printer part was very temperamental. It went to the recycling centre when I had to empty the bedroom last year. With the new machine I straight away made some copies of our Keep Moving Group poster so  can now put them up round about the villages. If we get a few more people coming it won't cost so much per person to cover the hall hire.....would be good if we could get it to less than the £2.50 we are paying at the moment.

Day 23's meal was the 3rd and final curry made using the Value Range White Fish looking very similar to Day 1 and  whichever other day I ate the second one.

It used............

2 small onions

3 pieces fish

1 tin tomatoes

Curry powder

Stock cube to make stock

Tomato Puree

Tablespoon of flour

Couple of Tablespoons from the bag of mixed frozen veg.

Chunky pieces of cooked potato.

This is a variation on the curry I usually batch make using squash and spinach which doesn't have a can of tomatoes added.

I'm going to do this sort of curry again - giving me three different types in the freezer.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Lackford Lakes + Day 22

 Every March there is a second-hand Book Sale at Lackford Lakes just a little way North-West of Bury St Edmunds. The site is managed by Suffolk Wildlife Trust and is made up of open water areas which were once sand and gravel pits and reed beds.

I've never before been to a book sale here when the sun was shining! But is was a fine morning this time.

Although sunny, the wind was really strong as you can see by the reeds below.

I had a bit of a wander with the camera in the hope of spotting an unusual bird but the only thing that I saw that I wouldn't see at home were .......Canada Geese. I think it was too windy to see anything small, they were all hiding.

When I  went in the cafe for a coffee to get warmed up there were some Reed Buntings hopping about under the  birdfeeders, along with Chaffinch and Blue-tits.

The book sale isn't huge and is mainly non-fiction natural history but the books are always lovely quality and often look as if they've never been read and I came home with these for £5. They all look interesting.

In the shop they had some note cards with illustrations by Angie Lewin whose work I wrote about in the post about The Book of Pebbles . They looked nice but a bit expensive.

Day 22. What do you do if you have just 2 quality sausages to make 2 meals? Answer is to put one in a Yorkshire Pudding to make a Toad in the Hole. Not the silly small ones in the Value Range Asda pack but a proper home made Yorkshire.

It was a thing in my Mum's family during and after the war for the adults in the family  to have a slice of Yorkshire pudding with some gravy before getting their smaller plate of meat and vegetables. A filler to make sure there was enough meat for the younger children. Mum was second oldest of six children and there was no money to spare. She often wondered how her parents managed when all three girls passed their 11 plus exam to go to Grammar School and needed school blazers and all the rest of the uniform.

I seem to have got off the subject! 

So the 22nd Meal was Toad in the Hole. I twisted the sausage in half so it looked like more than 1 and made in the smallest dish I have. It was a good size so no potatoes needed. Carrots and the last of the cabbage again and gravy.

For the Yorkshire mix I used 1 egg (difficult to use less than one) so it needed 50g of flour + milk/water and that left mixture over - which I thinned down and made a  pancake for my tea.

Anyone else watching the short new series of Grace - police drama set in Brighton. Oh my goodness it's slow - the police seem to stand in a row and say nothing for several minutes. There are only 3 in the series - which will be enough.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Day 21 + Seedlings

I've always grown some leeks from seed - they are so expensive to buy from the supermarket in winter and well worth growing. I had a fail last year when all the plants got trampled on when the new oil tank was moved in or they were eaten by pigeons - not sure which. I bought new seeds for this year and will sow later.

Then I spotted trays of seedlings outside the pet/garden shop in Diss and thought it would be good to have some earlier leeks too. They were £1.90 for these below which is much cheaper than buying from one of the garden seed catalogues where they are £7.95 for 20 plants.

I gently lifted the seedlings from these pots and teased them separate to re-pot as they are still too small to go out. There were 26 in total.

Meanwhile indoors all 8 Aubergine seedlings are growing but only 2 pepper seeds germinated so I sowed a few more..............and then five more appeared from the first sowing! I may have too many peppers! Yesterday the tomato seeds went into the electric propagator - just 2 varieties this year and both have been grown before. Usually I try something new and I do more different sorts so I hope there's no crop failure. Just Cucumbers left to do indoors now.

Meal 21 was a Fish Pie. Using a couple of small pieces of the frozen White Fish (which is actually Basa), I poached them in milk/water then used it to make a white sauce and added a handful of the mixed vegetables and a hard boiled egg, plenty of pepper and some parsley. Topped with mashed potato that I'd cooked up in the first week and frozen. With a little cheese sprinkled over before final cooking.

 Now considering I'd been avoiding mashed potato since Colin died (he loved mash and I don't) this was a strange thing for me to make. But it was the obvious way to use a couple of pieces of the Asda Value Range White Fish which were 7 small pieces for £2.50.

It certainly needed the black pepper and a little salt and could have done with more cheese too. But it was good and very filling which is what's needed if you are trying to make meals without spending too much.

Running Total £64.25 + £2.20 box of 8 decaf frothy coffees (up 20p from last week) for the end of third week = £66.45

There are two things here from the Value Ranges that I will use again, the fish and the bag of grated cheddar cheese. I've used the cheese for so many things and still some left, lasting much longer than a block of cheese (mainly because I'm not tempted to eat it by the slice like I do with a block of Extra Mature cheddar!)

Did you watch the little bit of annual tradition on TV yesterday? The University Boat Race is something I've watched as long as I can remember, always supporting Cambridge as it's just over the county border from Suffolk. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Quick Post for Day 20 of the Value Range Experiment

Good Morning..........it's later than you think.............especially if you forgot to put your clocks forward overnight!

Day 20 of the experiment and time for roast chicken again. Once more I roasted a chunked carrot and the last parsnip and a few of the small potatoes along with 2 chicken thigh joints. One to eat hot and one to make sandwiches. Served with a bit more cabbage.........which is lasting well. I just cut a slice off and then chop and steam quickly. Wrap it up tight again. The carrots are still firm nearly 3 weeks after being bought. I always take them out of their plastic bag and put them on a tea towel in the salad drawer covered with another tea towel. 

Added a couple more of the Value Range mini Yorkshire Puds and gravy from the Value Range gravy granules - Phew..........Full Up!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Saturday 25th + Day 19

 Flowers on the table this week have been a beautiful bunch of roses from Son and DiL for Mother's Day.

Son texted me Wednesday to ask if I was OK because DiL and both children had been poorly since Monday and I'd been there Sunday, but I seem to have avoided bugs again.

 Day 19 of the Value Range Experiment

A potato, bacon, onion and tomato layer bake served with cabbage. This is something I'd not made since the children all lived at home when it was something we often had as it's a way to stretch a little bacon. The first time I came across it was when Colin's Mum made it. 

Sliced potatoes are par-boiled for a few minutes and chopped bacon and onion fried but not too crispy, then layer up everything with a couple of tinned tomatoes and some of the juice from a can of tomatoes and plenty of pepper.

It's a bit of a faff to make for one person but used minimal ingredients from what I'd bought for the experiment.

I took a photo but it was only when I came to upload that I found the camera dial had accidently been on an odd setting and the photo was almost dark.

It's there somewhere!

It was good to have a mild and dry morning on Tuesday to get a bag of onion sets planted. After not planning to grow any this year until one morning I woke early and switched the radio on the farming programme where they were saying that last years' drought had put some farmers off growing onions this year and there might be a shortage. Despite the poor growing conditions and my onions being smaller than they should have been I've only just come to the end of what I grew last year so probably saved myself several pounds. So the sets are in and covered with one of the solid net frames that BiL made for me - hope it will stop the birds pulling them up or Crumble, next door's cat, digging them out. Something has already nibbled the leaves on the two new rhubarb plants.

I'm sending off for some small net cloche tunnels because I reckon it's the blasted pigeons. They've been sitting in the flowering cherry pecking the flower buds for weeks, it's a wonder there are any left for the header photo.

Pigeons are not my favourite birds!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Revising Plans and Day 18

I had to have a rethink on meals because of that disgusting minced pork. I'm using some of the bread flour to make pizza so bought another loaf of the Essentials range from Aldi to use instead of buying another bag of flour and making another loaf. Because I'd been hoping and planning for sausage rolls I popped into the butchers and bought just a couple of sausages. I bought 4 potatoes (bigger than the mini ones I bought last week so they can be used differently) and eggs again for sandwiches or whatever.

AL Loaf sliced wholemeal 39p

AL 4 Medium Baking Potatoes 67p.

Eggs from a different roadside stall £1.20

And 2 sausages from the butchers for £1.41 (the opposite and 100% better than Value Range- and the only way to buy a small amount)

Total £3.67. Running total brought forward £60.58+ £3.67 =  £ £64.25

I used the bread machine to make a Pizza dough, which I'd not done before. It made quite a lot so I divided into two before stretching on two baking trays

 and then topped half with bacon bits that I'd fried, onion ditto and then turned it into a topping by using another tomato and a bit of juice from the third tin. Finished off with cheeses - half the Value range mozzarella ball, little of both the Value Range grated cheeses.

After cooking it looked huge so I cut in half and had half for one meal and the rest later. 

A mixed salad with it would have been good but I only had a few mini plum tomatoes. Of course if I was a perfect gardener I'd be harvesting my own leaves from the greenhouse!...as someone is sure to tell me!

It was very delicious and didn't really need the bacon, which I don't normally use on a pizza but I'd got some out of the freezer for the next meal and found there were 4 thin slices rather than 3. 

I'll definitely use the bread-maker to make pizza bases again but will divide into 4. The other pizza base was baked for just 5 minutes and then frozen. 

So what's left out of the 64 pounds  worth of food to make meals with for 10 days.......if I do 28 days or 13 if I do 31 days?

1 Tuna, broccoli and Pasta bake in freezer

1 curry still in freezer

Pieces of white fish in freezer

Mashed potato in freezer

1 Pizza base " "

3 chicken joints " "

2 sausages " "

2 or 3 slices of bacon" "

Few small Yorkshire puddings " "

Frozen mixed vegetables

3  Fresh Carrots

1  Parsnip

Tin carrots

1 can of pineapple

1 can of peaches

1 can tomatoes

Self raising flour

Baking fat

Grated cheese (both)

Half a mozzarella ball

Rice Crispies cereal

Sliced bought Bread 

Half loaf home made.

Tin Sardines

Few Small potatoes

4 medium baking potatoes

Peanuts

Half cabbage

Few apples and grapes

6 eggs

Few crumpets

Coffee

Milk

 

I'll need more apples that's for sure.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue