Bringing In the Cabbages

The high winds of the weekend took one of my little net wigwams off the Veggie Patch under cover of darkness ... where they took it too I have no idea, it's completely vanished ... so the cabbages that were safely nestled under it have been exposed to the elements and the critters that live on the hill, that last bit sounds like something out of a horror movie doesn't it  ;-)

Alan even walked along the road looking for the wigwam but no luck!! 

So I had no choice but to start bringing the cabbages in and processing them.  This first lot were soaked in salted water, rinsed and then shredded and whizzed in the salad spinner before being frozen as they are.  As we should be eating them over the course of the Winter I thought I would see if I could get away with not having to do a mammoth blanching session.

The Sweet Chestnuts in Nut Wood were falling off the trees so they have all been brought in and taken out of their very prickly coverings.  This is the first proper crop from these trees, we were really pleased to get so many/

In other news ... I still don't waste anything and this lone crust was whizzed in the Nutribullet ...

... just three seconds later and I had a tub of breadcrumbs for the freezer, the next crust I get I'll do the same to and fill the tub up to the top  :-)

Sue xx

Mice with a Sweet Tooth ... and Saving Every Penny

Alan is partial to a box of these every now and then, this flavour and the others that you can get these Wheaties in ....

... and so it would seem are the mice that I have been catching in the net tunnel in our humane mousetrap.  It turns out this cereal is a favourite all around  ;-)

Nothing goes to waste here, and although I don't often buy boxes of cereal, when I do I use every bit of what I have paid for.  The cereal was obviously eaten, by Alan and the mice, the waxy paper inner bag was used to wrap the sandwiches we took to the car boot sale with us (it stops you spending the profits you make if you take a flask and sandwiches ... although this time Alan was totally captivated by a huge cream scone for £1.50).  So that left the cardboard, well that was easy ...four shopping list blanks and some little bits and pieces to pop into the fire-lighting basket next to the log burner.

While I was in waste not want not mode I cut up a just washed yogurt pot to make some plant labels to use in the plants that I sell at the car boot sales for 50p each.  After all if I have gotten everything for the plants I'm selling for nothing or just pennies then I am making much more profit on each one I sell and that's the name of the game from now on.

Sue xx

Mother Goose and the Toilet Roll Inners

I had a little helper in the polytunnel this morning.  

 Mother Goose the Hyline hen is on her last legs.  I actually think she has had some sort of mild stroke as she went from being perfectly healthy to not seeing and not being able to walk properly in the space of one evening.  Over the past few days she has been slowly getting back the use of her legs and is no longer missing her step and falling over as often as she walks.

Putting a few wriggling little worms in front of her got her instincts going again this morning and apart from perking her up a bit with the relative warmth of the polytunnel and a few high protein snacks, it showed me that her eyesight has also improved greatly.  Unfortunately she has the hunched over stance that most chickens get when they are convinced their time is up.

Oh well she is another hen that has had a brilliant life and if I can spend a little bit of time with her and make her feel better before she goes then so much the better.

I was in the polytunnel with my little companion for a mass seed planting marathon using my favourite method ... planting in toilet roll inners.  Myself,  my Mum and Mary from next door all save them  through the Winter, flattened and banded in big bunches they wait for planting time.

Then they are cut in half ...

... and placed forty to a tray.

Then  filled with sifted compost.

 I use a mix of general purpose and John Innes fine seed compost in a 4/1 ratio for good seed germination and to keep costs down.  Then I sow one or two seeds per tube and water well.

Once the seedlings are strong and well rooted the whole lot, cardboard tube and all is potted on into a small plant pot or later in the year I plant directly into the raised beds either in the polytunnel or out on the hillside.  With lots of watering and rain outside the cardboard inners soon disintegrate and are absorbed into the soil.

It's very cold here at the moment and these pictured courgettes have suffered a little bit as a result, even in the polytunnel.  They are currently back under a plastic cloche to help them warm up and hopefully survive.  They were lusciously green and healthy only a few days ago.

It's proving to be a very strange Spring, the hills opposite were absolutely white with snow and hail first thing this morning, and we have had on and off hail showers and heavy rain all morning, not good for a grower with itchy to get on with things green fingers!!

Sue xx

Lots of Bananas

On the subject of saving money and prepping food, as I was talking about the other day, this is something I've recently started doing with bananas.  Instead of just buying a small bunch every week and using them up as quickly as I can so they don't go too brown, and I hate it when they do go all brown and speckly and then get overly sweet, and that window of opportunity to use them when they are at their best for me is so narrow.

Now I buy a couple of big bunches when I'm out shopping, leave them on the kitchen worktop until they reach that stage of perfection that I like and then cut them all into thirds, 

Then they are open frozen for a couple of hours in trays and then bagged up.

Once like this they can be added to my morning Nutriblast to thicken it up nicely and add a bit of sweetness and lots of goodness, or a handful of them can be whizzed up quickly in the Nutribullet or the food processor depending on how much I need and voila ... instant ice cream.  Totally delicious and if you are making ice cream you can add some vanilla paste or some chocolate chips depending on what you are fancying.

It's good having things prepped and ready to use, and things with multi-uses are even better.

Sue xx

Prepping for the Freezer

As well as growing our own food there is always some foods that get bought from the shops, markets or supermarkets near us and I always try to make full use of everything I have to pay for as well as that which I grow.  

Nothing should go to waste with foods, it's a crime to  hand over your hard earned cash for anything and then not make the best use you can of it.  So with this in mind whenever I shop, whether I pay full price for things or manage to snaffle some 'yellow stickered bargains', I always spring into action as soon as I get home .... well as soon as I've put other things away and enjoyed a reviving cup of coffee, ..... we have a good drive to all the nearest shops.

Meat is always packaged in serving size portions, always ones ... if Lovely Hubby is feeling extra hungry it's easy to take out two portions but sometimes not so easy to separate two chops that have frozen together.   So meat in single pieces,  

Bagels are cut in half and then put back into the packs they came in.  That way the halves can be popped straight into the toaster without risking slicing off a finger whilst cutting in half a frozen or semi frozen bagel, and if I need just a half with a cup of coffee it's there for the toasting :-)

Sausages are taken out of their packets, cut into singles and then open frozen before being bagged up and labelled.  

I always find it is easier to cut off the label from the pack of anything, as well as having the description of the product on it, it has the date you bought it ..... and to give you a smile in the case of bargain buys, the nice cheap price you paid for it in the first place.

I've done this for years now but I find I'm doing it more and more these days.  It's very rare for anything to be bought and simply put in the freezer, even something that you would think would always be eaten as a whole, say a pizza is first unpacked cut into wedges and then frozen, that way it's available for us both to eat, one of us to eat or if we have a guest or two, we can simply take the lot out.  But the main thing is that we have the option of any scenario with any of our foodstuffs, especially the bought ones which have cost us good money.

It just makes sense doesn't it  :-)

Sue xx

My Favourite Magazine (or one of them anyway!!)

If you find a magazine that you love it's always worth asking for a subscription to it for your birthday or Christmas, or if that fails simply pay for it yourself up front and have a whole year of reading ready paid for ... and at a much cheaper rate than it would be if you were to be tempted by issue after issue each month.  I bought this subscription myself sometime last year and it's saved me about half of the cover price if I were to pay for it every month.   

I have loved every copy of the magazine that has dropped through my letter box.  With my gardening magazine subscription bought a couple of months ago I have been inundated with freebies, mostly seeds, which will mean we are eating for free out of the poly and net tunnels this time next year, so that was a deal worth doing.

But so far this magazine has had no free gifts .... not that I expected any, but then this issue arrived with something attached.

Four free postcards.

Images of the back covers that have been on the magazine over the last few months.

And I love the back covers of this magazine, I featured one of them on the blog a while ago.

They just stop and make you think.

And are completely my philosophy.

Love it.

And when I took this one I realised, we have the same tiles :-)

I had to break off from this post briefly to answer the door to the postman, it's brilliant when Geraint the Post has to knock at the door it usually means he has something exciting for me. and I had totally forgotten I had ordered this particular parcel.  I'll let you in on what it contained tomorrow, for now I have to go and do a bit of reading about the contents, so I do them justice.  

Unfortunately I don't think I'll find what I need to know from my magazine so I'll save that until later.

Thank you for all the well wishes for my cold yesterday.  To be honest I'm feeling crappier than crappy crap today, ..... and I now have a clown like red nose to add to my woes.  Thank goodness for magazines and surprise parcels eh!!

Sue xx

Frozen Treats during Austerity August

On my shopping list was ice cream, we needed some to go with all the fruit crumbles that are in the freezer.  But then I thought well that's not very austere or in the spirit of using things up for Austerity August, and it's not that healthy if we are having so many juices in our bid to get ourselves nice and fit for the hard work of the next few months, so what can I make instead.

 

Yes, it's in a Carte D'Or tub but I can assure you this is very yummy homemade icecream and it took minutes to make. 

 

 

For some reason I always tend to buy four or five bananas when in fact I could probably get away with two or three a week, we don't eat them that often.  Sometimes Lovely Hubby will get a taste for them and suddenly start having one every day and I start buying more, and then as men do, he changes his habits without informing me and I end up with bananas on the worktop going brown and spotty. 

 

Well not one to waste them I started to make choc ices out of them, see the pictures below.  But I thought to myself if they make such good choc ices they are bound to make good icecream.

 

 

So before I went away last week I simply popped the bananas into the freezer, in their skins.   Next time though I will make it even easier and slice them up and freeze them peeled, they freeze so quickly they don't get chance to turn black.  When they were solid I put them in the food processor and gave it a quick whizz, a strong fork would work just as easily though.  Then I added a swirl of toffee sauce that was lurking in the cupboard, but it would be brilliant with chocolate chips or berries if you had them.  Then I scraped the mixture into the icecream tub and popped it all back in the freezer.

 

It's not soft scoop, but you can get it out of the tub very easily, and it tastes divine, and not that bananary (sorry most definitely NOT a word).  It just tastes like a densely flavoured richly textured icecream.

 

Result!!

 

Of course if you have some chocolate that needs using up, you can make Banana Choc Ices which I have been doing with lurking spotty bananas up to now.

 

 

Simply melt the chocolate, either in a dish over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave, but do keep an eye on it, it melts very quickly, then dunk your bananas in the chocolate and lay on some greaseproof paper on a tray in the freezer until they are frozen.

 

  Once frozen pop your choc ices into a bag or box and they keep for ages (if you let them).

 

 

Not the prettiest things in the world, but most definitely very tasty, and half a banana is a good sized portion for one person.  They are very filling unlike normal icecream choc ices which simply melt in your mouth leaving nothing but calories that travel straight to your waistline, at least with these you are getting the goodness of the banana.

 

 

Of course also lurking ready to give us tasty treats throughout Austerity August are our second batch of 'Smoothie' Ice Lollies ....

 

... and possibly the easiest ice cold treat in the world - frozen grapes.

 

I simply wash my grapes when I first buy a bunch and all the loose ones that fall off the bunch are dried on a tea towel and then thrown into an open tub in the freezer.

 

When you need something cold and juicy to cool you down between jobs there is nothing more easy or delicious than grabbing a couple of frozen grapes to bite into.

 

Let's just hope for some more warmth and sunshine to help us enjoy our ice cold treats for a while to come.

 

Sue xx

 



 

 



Miserly March - Thrifty Thursday Tips - Week 4

 

The last three Thrifty Thursday tips have been about freezing, leftovers and growing, each requiring the input of the previous, well if we are looking at things that way what comes first in this list of ways to save money - YOU DO !!

 

You have to look after yourself to be able to do any of the others.  To be able to grow the food to freeze and to use as leftovers you have to be as healthy as you can possibly be and as happy in your own skin as possible.

 

Well to my mind you do.  And this is how I stay healthy on a budget.

 

 

 

The first thing I do, and this is really cheap and easy, is to drink lots of water, whether it be free from the tap, or bottled water it really doesn't matter, what I do know is the most expensive bottled waters don't taste any better really than the cheap ones.  I drink either filtered tap water or any supermarkets basic Sparkling water, sometimes I have a slice of lemon or lime in it either straight from the freezer or at the moment I have a jar of these slices in the fridge that were reduced to 39p from £1.59 an offer I could simply not say no to :-)

 

 

 

I eat as healthily as I can.  I have treat now and then, and I can rarely say no to a piece of chocolate (that would be  so rude), but by and large we eat well, we eat what we grow and supplement it from the shops and supermarkets aiming to have the fewest possible additives.  I don't read the fat/calorie/sugar content of the foods I buy I read the ingredients list on the packet or label instead.  I buy foods that have only the ingredients that I recognise and as few of them as possible.

 

The best foods to buy don't have labels at all. The longer you can stay in the fruit and vegetable aisle the healthier your supermarket shop will be, and also the cheaper.  If you buy vegetables to make a nice veggie casserole or curry you will get a heck of a lot more for your money than if you buy a pre-prepared ready meal version.

 

If you're short of time during the week have an afternoon at the weekend when you set to and make big pan fulls of soup, stews or curries and freeze them in meal sized portions, then you will have ready meals of your own for pennies rather than pounds.

 

 

 

Once you've got your insides nice and healthy, the outside is starting to look better too, so don't throw money at buying fancy products, find out what you like and what suits you and stick to it.  I make our own soaps because I like to have simple ingredients and it works out so cheap compared to buying the same quality of soap from the shop.  But you can find some really good bargains, especially if you buy supermarkets own baby or 'simple' soaps.  But find out what suits you and use that.

 

 

 

Find products you like and trust and stick with them.  I dye my brown hair blonde because it brightens me up and makes me feel good, but I do so economically, as my hair is so short I only use half a pack at a time, so these four packs bought when on offer will last me nearly all year.

 

 

 

I recently pared down my make up bag and rarely any make up now, the chickens just didn't appreciate the effort :-)

But I do spruce myself up when we go out together, using my favourite brands of foundation and mascara, even these I buy when on offer making sure I get a years supply at the time.

 

I did try switching my face creams to the supermarkets own brands, working my way down the price scale, but I honestly found that for me it didn't work, my skin was dull and sometimes greasy and I had more spots.

So now I've switched back to my favourite brand,  yes, it is more expensive but it suits my skin and I use it wisely and try to buy only when it's on a really good offer, stocking up when it is.  In my opinion being frugal is not about struggling to manage with something you don't like or that doesn't like you it's about knowing what to spend your money on and when.

 

 

 

And once you've spent your money on something, it's about making sure you get every last drop of that product available for use.  If you hear a quiet 'thud' in this house it's usually the sound of an upended bottle falling off the neck of the bottle it's been balancing on for hours as it finally lets go of every last little bit of content.

 

 

 

 

  In this picture you can see cheapo shower gel being dispensed into our handwash dispenser, I do this because it costs only 10p for the shower gel and it does a brilliant job of getting our dirty gardening hands clean, this is one cheap product that does suit us both.  I usually add a couple of drops of tea tree oil to it and give it a good shake, this helps to heal any cuts or scratches we might have picked up and makes the 'handwash' smell lovely.

 

In this house all tubes are cut in half and the products scooped out for use, usually you get at least an extra few days out of them.  If you have never done this before next time you think you've used all your hand cream or toothpaste just snip the end of the tube, you will be amazed at the amount of product left in there clinging to the sides trying to avoid being used.

 

So it's all about commonsense and getting the most for your money, spending that money wisely on products that suit YOU.  No matter what the adverts may promise us and what the airbrushed girls in the glossy mags imply that we might end up looking like, we will a;ways ever only be ourselves.  If we get the inside as healthy as possible then we can work on the outside in the way that suits us best.

 

The best beauty treatment of all of course is absolutely free and that is SLEEP and while you are asleep you cannot be spending any money at all ... so the most frugal tip of them all is to go for a nap.

 

I hope you have enjoyed Miserly March's Thrifty Thursday Tips, now what can we do for April :-)

 

Sue xx

 

 



Half a Slice of Steak =

 

Half a slice of steak doesn't make much - does it?

 

 

Well if you think how you can pad it out it can go a long, long way.

 

Lovely Hubby had steak on Monday night for his tea, he does like his meat that man of mine.  When I opened the pack there were two slices of steak, a really good man sized portion, but as I had cooked lots of lovely vegetables and tasty gravy there was really no need to use all of the steak for one meal so I surreptitiously cut one of the slices in half, once cooled it was popped into the fridge ready for the next day, when I had more time to turn it into something else.

 

 

 

Added to an onion, a couple of sliced carrots from the freezer and a good portion of Bist* it looked a lot more like a filling meal, indeed at this stage I could have added a couple of potatoes and it would have been a lovely stew, but that would only have given me one or two meals at the most out of my half slice of steak and I wanted more, much more.

 

 

Thawing out a pack of the pastry that has lurked in the freezer for I don't know how long and I was in action, I quickly made up three Steak and Veg pies and two Cheese and Onion pies for me (I don't eat meat), and still there was more filling for both type of pies.

 

We had pies and veggies for tea on Tuesday night (I had one, LH was very hungry and had two) with some more Bist* poured over (Bist* gravy although tasting very 'beefy' is in fact vegetarian!).  So that left two pies to be popped into the freezer for another nights tea.

 

And still there was more pie filling over for both types, so I got another pack of pastry out of the freezer to thaw out overnight.

 

 

 

Yesterday I made up yet another batch of pies, three each of Steak and Veg and Cheese and Onion.  So that's four pies of each kind now nestling in the freezer.  As I was baking a loaf of bread these were cooked at the same time so will only require reheating when we fancy them for a meal.

 

So out of two slices of steak that I got on offer (yellow sticker) for £3.40 I managed to get a total of six meals, LH will only be getting one pie each time and more veggies for the next meals, he did admit to being very full after eating two!!

 

In the past I have also done this with sausages when there have only been two left, making a pie with chopped up sausages and beans instead of steak and veg, you could also make good use of a solitary burger or a single pork chop.  It's amazing how far you can make a small amount of food go if you wrap it in pastry.

 

 

I also ended up with some pastry over so I made two more pie bottoms and tops and popped them back in the freezer, naughty I know it does tell you not to refreeze once defrosted but I have successfully done this before and it tasted just as good once cooked.

 

*** *** ***

 

Some of you asked questions about the last post (see HERE), mostly to do with how I freeze my potatoes and veggies.

 

Well it's quite simple I just pop them in the freezer!!  When I first started out on this self sufficient lifestyle I used to religiously blanch every vegetable for the required time, cooling them quickly and then getting them as dry as possible before open freezing them and then bagging them up.  Then I did a little experiment one day when I was feeling very busy lazy, and I simply popped them straight into tubs and into the freezer.  I did remember to give them all a little shake after an hour or so, so that they wouldn't stick together in one huge mass.  And guess what - IT WORKED.  There was very little difference in the properly prepared veggies and the simple 'bung them in the freezer' option veggies.

 

So now usually I go down the simple route.  If I have my own veggies or nice fresh shop bought veggies I will have one prep session, rather than starting from scratch for every meal.  So for instance a bag of potatoes will be used on the first night I have them for whatever meal I have planned  and then the rest will be divided up into groups.  Some will go in the freezer in Stew Packs like in yesterdays post, some will be cut into wedges (with the skin left on), some will be sliced thinly to use as a layer on a pie etc and a couple of the biggest ones will be put back in the cupboard to be used as jacket potatoes.  Of course if I am doing jacket potatoes (or baked potatoes as some call them) I usually do a couple extra and then these are popped into the freezer as 'filled jackets' (simply scrape out the potato with a spoon mix it with some cheese and a bit of onion and a dash of Worcestershire sauce then pile it back into the potato skin and open freeze until frozen solid then double wrap and keep them in the freezer ready for a quick supper).

 

You can do the same with lots of veggies, carrots, cabbage etc, why leave things lurking in the cupboard or fridge waiting to be used and leeching out their vitamins and nutrients as they age, when you can snap into action and freeze them at their freshest.  You don't have to grow your own to eat the freshest food, just buy the best you can find and use them all up straight away.  It's a good way to make use of any bargains you might get especially the 'Buy One Get One Free' that so often happens on fruits and veggies when supermarkets have vast quantities to get rid of in a rush.  Doing this can even work out cheaper than buying pre-prepared frozen veggies.

 

I have a big chest freezer with a fast freeze option so if you have a different style of freezer or have never done this before I would recommend just trying it with a couple of portions to see if it works for you with your freezer.  But I can honestly say I have never had a failure (yet!!).

 

Thank you for all the lovely meal ideas for the Stew Mixes, there are a couple that I really fancy, but I am going to let Lovely Hubby choose his favourite and as my next post will be my 1000th I will let you know which he chooses and how it tasted with the recipe I used.  The commenter that gave us the idea will be getting a little gift to say thank you. So I will be asking for the address of the sender at the end of that post.

 

We are now going away for a couple of days, calling in on family in Preston, Peebles and Manchester over the course of a long weekend and also having a day at the Country Living Fair in Glasgow on Saturday as our Christmas treat to ourselves, so I will be back next week with that 1000th post.  To those of you who have read from the start (or the few of you that have just read it all from the start up to the present day) WELL DONE, I do appreciate you all being there and reading the wild and wacky ramblings of this townie turned country girl.

 

To those burglars out there who are reading this the house will not be empty!!  We are leaving it in very capable two legged and four legged hands.....if you know what I mean....lol!!

 

Sue xx

Making the Most of What You Buy

 

 

I'm still concentrating on using up the contents of the freezers and cupboards, so most of what I bought this week has been fresh items and things we had run out of, oh and a couple of treats for Lovely Hubby for while I'm away next week (the Shreddies and Nuts and Raisins).

 

I did quite well, the salady stuff that I bought to go with what we still have growing here was all so ridiculously cheap.  I guess it's not selling that well at the moment with the weather being so cold.

 

Here's what I bought.

 

 

2 Bottles of Sparkling Water - 34p

3 Bags of Onions - £2.50

1 bag of Potatoes - £2

An Iceberg Lettuce - 80p

2 Cucumbers - £1

Pack of 3 Peppers - £1

Pack of 8 Tomatoes - £1

Four Individual Sized Pizzas - £1.50

Block of Cheddar Cheese - £6.01

Pack of Honey Shreddies - £1

Bag of Jumbo Nuts and Raisins - £2

Bag of Cinnamon and Raisin Bagels - £1 (not pictured)

 

Total Spend £20.15

 

(The food you can see lurking in the background is from my Approved Food order received on Saturday, I'll post about that tomorrow.)



 

 

 

To make room for all the lovely fresh veggies I emptied my veggie drawers in the big fridge and chopped everything I had into chunky sized pieces.  These were roasted in the oven with herbs, garlic and oil and served for tea on Monday with Salmon fillets from the freezer and Cous Cous from an AF order last year.

 

The leftovers, and there were quite a lot, were already earmarked for my little bit of batch preparation yesterday.

 

 

 

Why did I buy those little pizzas you may be wondering?  Well they cost me not much more than making my own from scratch, they are simply a  medium thick pizza base with tomato paste and a sprinkling of cheese, they saved me some time and they meant that I could use some nice fresh toppings and leftovers to make them come to life easily and cheaply.

 

 

 

Firstly my cheese is always grated, it goes so much further that way.  The food processor is put into use for 5 minutes and the whole block is grated and loosely packed into freezer proof boxes.  It flows freely if you give it a shake a couple of hours after freezing and you know then that there is always cheese on hand for sandwiches, toppings for dishes, cheese on toast etc etc  It never goes stale on you and thaws within minutes of removing from the freezer in the portion size you want.

 

 

 

So out of the fridge I then pulled the veggie leftovers, some meatballs that Lovely Hubby enjoys and a pack of ham nearing it's sell by date.

 

 

 

The pizzas were placed in my open freezing trays on greaseproof paper, I use this quite a few times before it gets thrown away, this had the scones on it at weekend.

 

 

 

Then the toppings were added, a Meat Feast style pizza with Meatballs and Ham, a Meatball pizza and two Veggie pizzas (just in case there are any left when I get back from my holiday).

 

 

 

Sprinkled generously with cheese (about a £1s worth of my big block).

 

 

 

And then stacked, with the freezer stickers loose in the tray ready for wrapping and labelling when they are frozen.  Then they and the box of leftover cheese were popped into the chest freezer.

 

This morning they were individually wrapped, labelled and then placed in a large box to keep unsquashed and perfect until we need an all instant meal, or have the urge for a 'takeaway'.

 

So four pizzas that cost me about £1 each to make, including all the toppings and they are big enough to have either one each for a meal, or a half each with a jacket potato, salad or handful of chips.

 

Good tasting simply made food, that's a brilliant standby in the freezer. 

 

 

Even the Bagels have been split and frozen, this way you can just have half a Bagel whenever you fancy it and they don't go stale if you freeze them this way on the day you buy them.  No wastage at all.  Frozen they can be popped straight into the toaster (or under the grill) and take only seconds longer than if they were toasted from fresh.

 

 

 

The bag of Jumbo Nuts and Raisins that I bought was tipped into a bowl and added to.   Some Almonds, dried Goji Berries and the last of my jar of Cashew Nuts and then popped into a large jar to keep nice and fresh.  So now Lovely Hubby has a luxury nut mix for dipping into next week while I am away, just in case he gets the nibbles .... and he does!!  So much cheaper than actually buying a bag of 'Luxury Nut Mix' that are usually padded out with the cheaper nuts with just a couple of the big favourites.

 

I hope these examples of what I do with some of my shopping when I get it home give you some ideas or at the very least make you stop and think, 'I do that too', and give yourself a pat on the back for saving the pennies and pounds that would otherwise be spent on buying foods that someone else has prepared for you.  Where you are paying for the labour and not the quantity or quality of the foods.

 

Sue xx