Healthy, cheap meals, minimal waste.

Moving!!

2009-03-22T15:51:00.002Z

I am going to be moving all my blogging activity to a LiveJournal account.
At the moment I blog on Allotmenting, Healthy Eating and Reducing Waste, and reguarly post to other Yahoogroups, & Social network sites. In moving to LiveJournal I hope that I can write about everything in one place, I have only been doing this for a couple of days, and content has been a bit thin, but hopefully I will find it works and post more regularly.
The address is http://purplexoo.livejournal.com/
I look forward to seeing you there.

How is the challenge going?

2009-03-17T14:54:00.003Z

It is going very well!!
We are more than half way through the month, and so far we have spent £22.25 on food.
I do have to go shopping tomorrow, and have quite a list, but so far so good.
It is not going to be successful next month though! I already have a Suma food order for £220!!
As it is bulk buying and lasts for more than one month, I will need to work out my spend over months, rather than by the month.

I have started making Pasties, made from Stew!! Day 1 is vegetable and tomato Stew, Day 2 te stew is used as the filling!!
This is very cheap! It costs about 70p for the pastry. The Stew costs, around £2. So £2.70 for 2 days meals for 5 people!

Today I have planted tomato seed. 4 different types. Early potatoes are also in, so food will be even cheaper in the summer!!

Food so far this week

2009-02-27T13:37:00.002Z

At the moment Porridge is the favourite breakfast in our house. I buy a sack for £6.79, this lasts around 6 weeks. There is always dried fruit, nuts and yoghurt available as a pick and mix.

Lunch is sandwiches, marmite and philidelphia are the current favourite fillings. With a snack pot (fruit/nuts/seeds), a cake or biscuit.

Dinner times this week so far.
Monday we had butter beans in a tomato sauce (onions, garlic, butter beans, passata) the cost was £1.60 for 5 people.
Tuesday was a vegetable bakes form the freezer (on offer in Morrisons a few weeks back 80p) potatoes and beans. £1.80 for 5 people.
Wednesday was lentil soup this was £1.40 for 5 people and is still going now!
Thurday the lentil soup with added spice - lentil curry - 20p for the spices!
Friday the lentil soup again, this time with a couple of eggs to thicken, with breadcrumbs and cheese on top. cost 50p for 5.

So this week 5 evening meals for 5 people has worked out at .... £5.50, so 22p per person per day!!

Our waste is still kept to a minimum, we don't have a bin as such anymore, we just use a small draw. The main waste is cat food sachets (I do not buy these, I am given them as Jin, my sisters cat that lives at my Mums does not like all the flavours!! So they are an extra treat for Tatty, who normally eats dried food, bought in sacks (£7 for around 3-4 months).

The chickens are laying well, we are back to 4-6 eggs a day. But havent had a 7 egg day since a week before Christmas!!

A bigger challenge

2009-02-27T13:22:00.003Z

Gosh, has it really been that long since I posted??

In November I was signed off work, I am am suffering from Tennis Elbow, an RSI brought about by repetitive work and the impact of date stamping.

Since that time I have taken on a more supervisory roll in the kitchen, it was tough at first with my husband feeling I was invading his space by being home during the day. He also had to look after me and do the jobs that I couldn't. He had to make me cups of tea, make the bread and cook the meals. The children have also been brilliant and have made biscuits, meals and cakes.

It has been a challenging time.

On top of that as I am signed off from work as sick, I am suffering from the lose of earnings. I have had to take a hardlook at finances and try to manage the housekeeping with great detail.

Thanks to my frugal cooking, we have actually been okayish (Christmas was tough!). Month on month I have reduced the shopping bills, and this month we have spent £106 with 20p still in the pot! On top of this only £46 has been spent on non foods, petrol, a cinema trip, swimming, a clarinet lesson, cubs.

But next month I need to try harder!!
I have cupboards full of food, so next month I want to set myself a challenge to spend only £10 a week on food. Thinking about what I end up buying each week it should work, I buy milk, fruit and vegetables and Orange Juice. Hmm, next week I will need Stork for baking and margarine as well. But if I overspend next week I can always go into the week after, as long as it works out to be only £45 for all of March.

2008-09-17T21:07:00.002+01:00

Tonight I cooked an omelette with garlic sauted courgettes.
The only real cost was the cheese to go on top (and cooking oil), as the eggs, courgettes and garlic were our own. I used around 6 very thin slices of cheese, no idea of the cost of this as the 3kg truckle was only £18 so much less than 50p.
I have to confess that I did create some waste today, but didn't bring it home! I was on a course in Bristol with work, and by lunchtime I NEEDED chocolate! I bought a double decker, 52p, when did chocolate go up to that price?
I have felt a little unwell all day, I hope I am not coming down with something, just a little hot and cold, and tired. Maybe I am overtired, I could also be a little dehydrated, as I only had 1 glass of water at work yesterday, just didn't have time to get anything else. And today I had 3 cups of tea. I have drunk before and after work, but to go 10/11 hours with hardly any liquid!
If you read yesterdays post about cooking lenti curry tonight! Well, the cooked lentils are still in the fridge, and will be curried tomorrow night, I just fancied omelette, and we had 8 eggs too many to fit in the the china chicken and bucket that we store them in!
Anyone want to buy some eggs, £1 for 6, please bring a box!!

2008-09-16T17:59:00.004+01:00

Today we had lentil soup (onions, stock, lentils), it was lovely, I have made extra so it will become Lentil curry tomorrow!
Cost 80p for the lentils and this will last 2 days.
Waste - none.

I am on the verge of getting rid of the kitchen bin, it sits there for weeks with only a couple of items in it. So, we don't really need it.
Now, do I use it to put the recycling in? Or get rid of it completely?
It would be nice to have something to put the recycling in, especially when it rains and we can't get outside to the boxes, but then it might be too easy to to pile it into the bin and forget about it. Also it takes up a lot of room.
As we have too much recycling in a week to fit in our 3 recycling boxes, maybe I could drill some holes in the bottom to make a 4th recycling container.

So far my shopping for this month has cost £70.21, not bad going for half way through the month!!

Friday

2008-09-05T22:46:00.002+01:00

Tonight was a rushed tea, I was late home from work, an Ashleigh had to get to Scouts.
We had Beans on toast!!
= 3 cans for recycling
I can't remember what the beans cost, but it works out to be quite an expensive meal comapred to normal!
Tomorrow night should be curry night, but I am off out to Blossoms for a meal.

Urad Dhal

2008-09-04T20:17:00.002+01:00

I tried something new for tea tonight - Urad Dhal.
I can buy large bags of it, but decided to pop by my local indian shop yesterday (very nice people in there) to pick up a 2Kg bag to try it, and also some black eyed beans, as I dont have enough to last until my next Suma order and some lovely naan bread, for when I havent got time to make my own, far better than the stuff that they call naan in the supermarket, and some poppadums, at 89p for 3 pkts, each containing around 10 proper poppis!! And I havent worked out how to make them yet!! Anyway, I digress.
The urad dhal was very easy, its just dhal, onion, garam massala, turmeric, salt and pepper, garlic. The dhal cost 2.89, I used 500g, so that's around 73p, it made enough for maybe 8 bowls. And of course, having the proper indian naan bread to go with it was a treat.
I think I can do lots with the urad, various combinations of spices etc. It will be great to try a few different things!

Suma

2008-08-31T08:36:00.003+01:00

I received the latest Suma catalogue yesterday, and already I am excited about the special offers and Christmas food! Yes, I know we have 3 months to go!

In this catalogue, it is now cheaper for me to get good Organic juice than buy normal juice in the supermarket (not the cheapest one, but the normal shops own brand).
And the pulses are on offer too, so I will stock up with a couple of crates of each of them.
There are lots of christmas goodies, but I will need to find someone to share the order, as I dont think we will get through 6 stollen on our own! etc.

There are also some nice gift sets for Christmas, so I will need to start thinking about who I need to buy for this year!

Holiday. £52 and a tank of petrol

2008-08-30T08:01:00.006+01:00

Last week we had a holiday, with a difference!!!
We had planned to go camping at Beddgelert in north Wales, but as it got closer to the time that we were to go, and time we really should think about booking the campsite, I became concerned at the costs.
Not neccessarily the cost of camping, or activities while there, but the 4.5hr drive along winding roads and the cost of petrol. I remember when we went last year that I was shocked at how much it had cost us in petrol compared to a run straight down the motorway at a fairly good speed to Cornwall - In cornwall we usually drive down, run around all week visiting places and then fill up again before we come home. In Wales we had to fill up shortly after arriving and then fill up again on the way home. I know we had an older car last year, but petrol has gone up and we would be looking at around £150 in petrol including visits. Plus £100 to camp, plus day trips. Plus food.
I then thought about somewhere like Exmouth, straight down the motorway! At least the petrol cost would be less.

In the end we had a holiday at home!!!! Cheaper, and we didnt need to find anyone to look after the cats and chickens.
The rules were - we get up early, we work together to get lunches packed, we go out as if we were on holiday, in the evenings we sit together and watch cr*p telly/play games, no playstations, no computers.

Saturday
This would have been our travelling day. Instead we chose the Forest of Dean, I love the Forest, we lived there for 4 yrs, and I really miss the green, the trees and the countryside.
As we are National Trust members we decided to do to Westbury Court Gardens. We had a great time, we arrived there as it opened and we had the whole place to ourselves. I loved walking round the gardens, happily naming the trees and plants and flowers (to myself and anyone who was listening), the colours, the shadows, the tranquility was beautiful.
We then went on to Cannop Ponds, initially considered having a long walk, but I have not walked far since I damaged my foot (and it still isn't right) so we decided to take it easy and see how I get on. We had a lunch on a picnic bench overlooking the ponds, and then went for a walk. Spend a good 30mins resting watching the swans. Walked back to the car and went home.
For tea we cooked Curry.

Sunday
We went to the Beach. A trip down to Weston Super Mud! It was cold, or should I say I was cold, I am a person that is cold most of the time!! It was nice to see the children playing, but i sat on a towel, the wetness came straight through, so I sat watching them, cold with a wet bum! After a few hours we decided to go to Tyntesfield, a National Trust property a few miles up the road. If you have never been there this place is well worth a visit. The gardens are gorgeous, the kitchen gardens, and the parkland. The house is in gothic style, it looks very nice from the outside. The tour around the house was pleasant, full of old portraits, luxurious furniture and a step back in time. The kitchens were more familiar!! With items and style similar to that of our old house in theForest of Dean. Our old house was built in 1861, while Tyntesfield was renovated and occupied by the last owners in 1869.
For tea we had a take away! Pizza Hut! £19.99

Monday
On Monday we went to Toddington Railway, we rode on a steam train from Toddington to Cheltenham Race course and back. It cost £27 for a family Ticket and £5 for ice creams all round! When we finished at the Railway we went to Hailes Abbey, again free for National Trust members.

Tuesday
On Tuesday we went to Cardiff, it was free entry to the Museum. The Museum was very nice, lots to see. And then we spent a little while walking round the shops, but didn't buy anything.

Wednesday
This would have been our day travelling back. I was back to work on Thurs. So needed to spend the day catching up on things - the washing, the allotment and baking. We also went into Gloucester to do the 'back to school' thing - shoes, uniform etc.

Thanks to our National Trust membership, we had an exciting, relaxing and active holiday from home with minimal cost!!

Sunday

2008-08-10T09:13:00.002+01:00

Hello!
I have now decided to do a weekly post, if I get time I may post more often, but once a week might be manageable!!

Breakfasts
At the moment for breakfast there is a choice of muesli, porridge, home made granola or oat meal. And once or twice a week we have boiled eggs or poached eggs on toast.

It is becoming difficult to calculate the costs of breakfasts, the granola is costing around £2.34 a week to make, muesli and oat meal has not been popular this week, with only one portion eaten this week. The poached eggs on toast are very cheap, using around 1/8 of a loaf of bread and 2 eggs per person, the eggs are free! Well we have to feed the chickens, but the eggs are an added bonus to having chickens as pets! We also feed the cats! Each loaf of bread is still costing only 30p to make, thanks to a store of flour, but the price of flour this week has gone from 58p for 1.5Kg (organic dove flour) to £1.09!!!! Porridge works out at 50p a Kg, and the average weight per serving is around 30g!
So to have a go at working out the cost of breakfasts for this week....
Hmmm, £2.60 and then there is bread, milk and yoghurt on top ( I will add this in at the end)

Lunches
Bread and butter or sandwiches, a homemade biscuits or piece of cake and dried fruit and nut pot.
Again, I am not sure where to start calculating this now, it is only a few pence so maybe 20p per person, per day - £7 a week.
Yesterday we had pea soup and bread for lunch, I used up the glut of peas from the allotment, some carrots and onions.

Evening meals.
Sunday was vegetables from allotment with a cheese sauce (80p)
Monday was pasta and left over cheese sauce (£1.90)
Tuesday was lentil soup (80p)
Weds was lentil soup (from yesterday so 0)
Thurs was lentil bake - the lentil soup plus cheese and eggs (80p)
Fri was omelette with courgettes and mushrooms (80p)
Sat was curry (2.80)

So £19.50 plus 6.36 in milk and 2.10 in bread.
£27.96

Waste -
Lots of cat food wrappers!!
4 plastic lentil bags
And thats about it!

Although we went for ages without emptying the bin, it is already smelling from the cat food wrappers, so the bin will be emptied today and put out for the bin man this week.

As you know, I do not like using cat food in wrappers, I buy tins and boxes of dried food, but Mum's cat is so fussy that it will not eat certain flavours of the sachets, so we get these. I have tried to convince Mum to only buy dried or tinned, but he doesn't eat that either! I'm glad our cats aren't that fussy. They'd starve!!!!

Todays pickings

2008-08-02T15:04:00.004+01:00

We took a blue basket and my trug to the allotment, unfortunately we still didn't have enough containers to carry the produce!

We picked a couple courgettes - as youcan see in the picture, but left another 6 marrow sized behind to pick another day!

Then theres the beans, I only picked a few! These are 'prize' runner beans, and I can't remember what the purple ones are, they could be purple queens (but I also planted purple dwarf beans). Today I didn't even get around to picking the dwarf beans!

We also picked some chard, when washed it filled 6 steamer pans, now steamed and it will go in the freezer.

Hidden under the chard are the other runner beans, teenie beanies, more than 1kg of them (that's 1kg of topped and tailed and de-strung and another couple of handfuls that I might put in tonights curry), I am in the process of preparing them for runner bean chutney! I just need to slice them and they are ready to cook down.

hopelessly behind

2008-07-30T20:32:00.002+01:00

Just a quick drop by, I just havent got time to keep this up like I used to, so the odd post here and there will have to suffice.
Meals are the same as usual, very cheap, and costing around £20-30 a week for 5 people.
Waste - well that has been so minimal, that the flip top bin in the kitchen was emptied this week!! It has been 3 weeks since we last emptied it! (At least 3 or maybe 4 since the bin went out for collection!)
It wasn't smelly and full of flies! The only waste in there was plastic, it wasn't actually completely full, but after 3 weeks sitting there, it did need to go out.
Recycling the polythene with the carrier bags has been the best thing since sliced bread, as the saying goes, but I don't think sliced bread is particularly good, Hmmm!!!
As for the food, it's been very cheap. We have been eating a lot of homemade granola (575g - £1.17, it lasts 4-5 days). Lunches are usually bread and cheese, or chutney or jam! Evning meals have become even cheaper as we now have lots of our homegrown goodies - onions, garlic, potatoes, beans, peas, chard, courgettes, and eggs of course. Although the children are beginning to get fed up with courgette rich bolog. sauce, roasted courgette, courgette cooked in garlic, raw courgette, and courgette omelette!
We also have a demi john of rhubarb and a demi john of courgette wine bubbling away.
I was given some local cherries the other day, so quickly knocked up 3 jars of cherry jame, the kids love it, I must try to get to try it before it's all gone.

We have gained a new allotment, we started digging last sunday morning, and by evening we had planted 15 amaranth plants.

Where does the time go?

2008-07-14T22:30:00.002+01:00

I have now been working full time for just over a week, I have managed to keep up the baking and making meals from scratch, but have not found time to post here!
We had a Suma delivery last week, and things will now be even cheaper as I have bulk bought bigger quantities.
I am experimenting with oaty bisuits at the moment, with the oats costing less than £7 for 12.5Kg, they are a good staple.
I have tried oaty biscuits (oats, flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, bicarb, golden syrup) using a recipe from a book, then varied the recipe to try demarara sugar instead of caster, and the latest ones had dem. sugar and 2 tsp ginger - voila! ginger nut biscuits. And the cost for 40 bisuits is only a few pence per biscuit!
I have also been making granola, I havent worked out the cost of this yet, but I know it is quiet reasonable (Oats, cashews, sultanas, d. coconut, flaked almonds, honey, & oil).

Now I am recycling the polythene, the plastic waste has gone right down. I still find the odd plastic item that I cannot recycle, but on the whole very little goes into the bin.
At the moment theres beer bottle tops (I am wondering about putting these inside tins, but they have a plastic coating on the inside!). Plastic tops and foil/plastic seals off the top of tetra packs, (although the last lot I bought were the cheap ones that you just snip). Still the occasional cat food sachet, and a lid off a peanut butter jar.

Cat litter.

2008-07-03T18:51:00.002+01:00

What can I do with cat litter, I can see that I have completely overlooked the cat litter in my weekly rubbish.
It occured to me the otehr day when Mrs G asked what the rubbish looked like! Well, it wasn't very much, but it wasn't very pleasant! Dh empties tha cat litter into the top of the bag!!
But what else could I do with it? We use wood litter, but I will not put it in the compost as it can contain nasties. In a biodegradable plastic bin liner is it really bad to send it to land fill?
The garden isn't big enough to dig a hole, do you have cats? What do you do?

Thurs meal

2008-07-03T18:49:00.003+01:00

Tonight was spag. bol.

As I only used half a bag of quorn this worked out quiet cheap!

50p pp

So todays cost was £1 pp

Waste What's that??

only fluff!

2008-07-03T18:47:00.001+01:00

Everything that has been put in the bin ths week has come back out! And will be used!
So all that is left is some fluff from sweeping the floor!

a note to me

2008-07-02T18:39:00.002+01:00

Monday - chilli £2. £1pp for day
Tues - salad and pastries £2 £1pp for day
Weds - soup £1.50 98p pp for day

waste - none this week as far as I know. But I will need to check if anyone else has put anything in the bin.Dh admitted putting a chip bag in there (Hmm, I know, when did he have chips???), so I told him he had to take it out and put it with the polythene!!

Make money and recycle

2008-07-02T18:31:00.002+01:00

Do you remember taking the pop bottles back to the shop when you were younger?
How much was it? 10p the last time I remember doing it!
Well now you can make money, well points, on your recycling!!!!
Tesco Brockworth have a new fangled machine that eats plastic bottles, cans and glass, and in return you are awarded 1 tesco green point!!
Ok, that works out at 1p, but that's better than nothing, and IF you use the points in the deals, it works out at 4p! That's much better isn't it?
And the points accumulate until someone puts them on the card!! So if the people before you forget to take their card, or haven't worked out how to do it, then you can collect their points as well!! hey hey!!
We haven't tried it yet, because yes, you guessed it, we forgot our card!! When Ds finished putting our recycling in the machine, the total on the screen to be collected was 80p, hmmm, that could have been £3.20!!
So, we are now stopping our kerbside recycling of cans and bottles in favour of recycling at Tesco! We go there anyway to do the polythene, tetra packs and cardboard, so it will not take an extra trip!
We have never been abroad on holiday before, but I am saving my recycling/tesco points to go to Brittany next year!

What I found in the bin

2008-06-30T20:15:00.002+01:00

An ice cream container, and a yoghurt pot.
Dh said he got fed up with seeing them on the side, and he was tidying up!
Ok, if I had been able to use my hands and crutches at the same time I would have put them away!
I could have taken them out ofthe bin, but it looked like Dh had also swept the floor, and tipped the sweepings on top, it wasn't very nice!
Roll on Weds, fingers crossed that I will be off these crutches!

My monthly spend June

2008-06-30T08:38:00.002+01:00

Although the meals work out very reasonably per person, my shopping bill is still very high.
This month I spent £478!!
This includes all food, ingredients, drinks (inc. Alcohol), non foods e.g. toiletries and cleaning products, and pet foods. It also includes a large bulk buy shop, some items of which will last me many months.
I have not recorded my monthly spend before, so this is something new that I will be looking at in future.
It is likely that the spend will go down over the summer months, as more and more meals (wine, chutney and Jams) will be made from 'free' food. This includes veg from the garden/allotment, eggs from the chickens, fruit and other berries from the hedgerow, and homemade wine and beer.
The bulk buying will become easier, as I will know how much we use, there are some things that I have bought to last a few months, but then there were things that I was unsure of, so I only bought a few Kilos, some of which we used up a while ago, and have had to buy more expensively from the supermarket.
I also 'offer shop' buying many things while on offer in the supermarket, that I would not consider buying at full price.
We are currently looking at making a storage area in the garage, this means that I will be able to stock up on more things while on offer, or by more things in bulk, meaning the price will be lower.
I currently have a stock of 30Kg Basmati Rice! 10Kg Red Lentils! 25Kg Bread Flour! 1Kg Yeast! 5l Washing up Liquid. To name just a few.

BUY NOW

2008-06-30T08:22:00.003+01:00

Rice, lentils, and some spices are continuing to rocket in price.
But the price being charged by some supermarkets is still to increase.
As I write this the best prices on 10Kg Basmati Rice and 1Kg Red lentils are from Sainsburys.
They can be stored for 12-24months.
So if you use a lot of these foods, and have room to store, it might be worth stocking up on them now.

Sunday

2008-06-29T16:08:00.011+01:00

We are coming to the end of a nice weekend, and I'm wondering what to cook for Dinner!

I'm usually quite organised on a Sunday, I make bread early in the morning, a nut roast for Dinner and I also find time to make cake(s) or biscuits, but not today!

I have wanted to get 3 more chickens since my birthday at the beginning of April, but I just have not seen 3 that I want, all around the same age, and so it has gone on and on until today!

Dh was in a good mood, he got up at 6am, and went on a 30mile bike ride. I tried to sleep in, I just can't sleep properly with this enormous uncomfortable boot on my foot!

When he got back from his ride, knowing he would be in a good mood, I thought it might be a good time to talk chickens!! We needed to go to the allotment to plant the sorrel, kale and amaranth, and then if there was still time we would go to Poultry Park (I call it Poultry paradise!) to get our new girls.

That meant that I would need to go to the allotment straight away with no time for baking!

We went, we planted, and dug. Actually, we went, dh planted, and dh and ds15 dug. I just supervised from my chair!

We got back home about 11am, so still time to get chickens before lunch!! I phoned Chris at PP to check the chickens that they had before we left. Yes, we were in luck, they had plenty of POL chickens, including the types that I wanted!

We now have 3 new girls, 2 Amber stars, called Snowdrop and Amber, and a Bluebelle, called, yes you guessed it, Bluebelle!

We then had a quick lunch of bread and cheese and chutney.

I have spent most of the afternoon chicken watching, and listening to the singing! I don't think Daisy, Tilly, Rowan and Hazel are very impressed with the newcomers! They are separated at the moment, but we have a few days excitement ahead of us when we put them in together!!

Anyway, with such a hectic day I haven't even though about food until now!

We have some homegrown potatoes, and some chard, and some rhubarb that we collected from the allotment this morning. So maybe I will knock together a lentil bake (onions, lentils and carrots) Hmm, no carrots! So maybe just onions and lentils, with egg and cheese, and steam some potatoes and chard. Yum! With Rhubarb and nut cream (milk and cashews) for dessert.

Update.

The Lentil Bake ended up being a lentil and chard bake with new potatoes. Cost 75p/5 so 15p per person. We were so full after Dinner that we did not have a dessert. Instead, I am making wine with the rhubarb!

Sundays totals

Meals 25 + 10 + 15 = 50p pp

Waste

plastic/foil seal off the top of the milk bottle

Cheese wrapper

Plastic packet from Papaya (Although this might be polythene)

2 beer bottle lids

*Mrs Green - Do you know if the bulk dried fruit and nut packets from Suma are Polythene? (then it can be recycled with carrier bags). I am wondering if the cheese wrappers are also polythene!

A quick note from Saturday

Breakfast and Lunch

25p + 10p

Dinner

Chick pea curry (onions, spices, potatoes, chick peas, tomatoes) and Rice with homemade Naan.

70p pp

Saturday cost £1.05 p pp

Waste

3 beer bottle lids

End of week three

2008-06-28T16:04:00.002+01:00

This week..
the meals have continued along the same lines as previously.
Friday was a quick chips and veggie burgers.
Weds and Thurs was Rogan Josh (homemade)
Tues was spinach omlette with potatoes and a tomato sauce
Mon was tarka dahl with noodles.
Sun Chilli
Sat Curry

Total spend £33.05, so 6.61 pp. For 3 meals each day.

Waste.
Now this week I am afraid to say that plastic mini roll wrappers have joined the rubbish, along wth those horrible foil/plastic cat food sachets!
Other than that just general plastic wrappers again.
2 plastic quorn packets
plastic washing tablet wrappers
2 Cheese wrappers
3 beer bottle lids
2 foil/plastic yeast wrappers
1 plastic sugar packet
2 plastic muesli packets (we have run out of muesli bulk bought, so needed to buy some from the supermarket, next weeks bulk buy will include 20Kg muesli!)
I think that's about it!

Wednesday already!

2008-06-25T14:27:00.003+01:00

Behind...

I am getting so far behind with my blog now!

Our meals have continued along the same lines as always, but our waste, to my disappointment has increased this week wth the addition of plastic chocolate mini roll wrappers and plastic cat food sachets, not bought by myself, I must add, but from Mother and Mother in law!

Today I decided to have a clear out of gardening catalogues, got as far as the first one... beautiful pictures of flowers, I decided that I was not going to through them straight in the recycling, but I was going to cut out the best pictures (the ones without 'New' and 'special offer buy one get one free' and 'plant now' printed all over) to keep for making cards. I cut out about 6 pictures, laid them nicely on my desk and then decided that if I put them away, they would get creased and I would never get around to using them......

So, I have made 9 cards, with no message! Ideal for Birthdays, Easter and Mothers Day!!!

This weeks waste and meal cost.

2008-06-20T22:41:00.002+01:00

Waste
5 metal beer bottle tops.
plastic soya bean packet
Plastic inner from burgers,
Tilda rice packet
plastic quorn pkt
plastic pkt from bacon
a coffee sample sachet
cheese packet
Hayfever tablet blisters

7 days meals (not including drinks, pet food and non food items)
£6.10 pp so £30.50 in total for 5 people eating 3 meals per day.

Thurs and Fri

2008-06-20T21:55:00.003+01:00

I am unable to cook as I am resting my foot, the children are cooking at the moment, and I just sit in the chair with my fot on another telling them what they should be doing! If they don't cook, they don't eat!

Thurs
Dinner - Black bean curry (onion, spices, black beans, tin of tomatoes) with rice.
40p pp and theres some left over for the freezer.
Waste - a coffee sample sachet

Fri
Dinner - Omelette with cheese, sausages and beans.
60p pp
Waste - cheese packet

Coming to the end of week 2 now. I will need to work out totals for the week.
I have felt detached this week as I am resting my foot and unable to cook or do very much. I am not sleeping properly during the night, I try to sleep during the day, but keep being woken up by noises. I just feel tired all the time, and cant get my brain into gear!
I am also wondering if I will have time to do this when I am at work full time! We'll see.

Catch up

2008-06-19T10:46:00.002+01:00

I am a bit slow on this now. Things have been busy at home, so my posting has suffered.

Tues. (usual breakfast & lunch)
Eve meal was chilli (onion, mushrooms, herbs & spices, quorn mince, red kidney beans, rice)
waste plastic quorn pkt
cost 46p pp
Total for day £1.06 p pp

Weds
Eve meal was cheese omelette, veggie bacon and beans.
cost 50p pp
waste plastic pkt from bacon
Total for day £1.10 p pp

Monday

2008-06-16T19:21:00.002+01:00

Usual breakfast. 25p pp
Lunch 3 childrens packed lunches, one left over curry, 2 cheese in pittas. 35p pp
Dinner - Another quick convenience meal! Nut burgers with noodles! 65p pp
Total cost £1.25 pp
Waste - Plastic inner from burgers, Tilda rice packet.

Sunday

2008-06-15T20:48:00.002+01:00

Usual breakfast less than 25p pp
Lunch - I ate lots round at MIL so wasn't hungry at lunchtime. The others ate tuna sandwiches total 62p. 13p pp
Dinner - Homemade Nut roast, own potatoes, carrots, soya beans.
41p pp Yoghurt (home made) 5p pp

Waste - plastic soya bean packet
Cost - 84p pp

Recycling Christmas cards

2008-06-15T11:02:00.003+01:00

It's the middle of the summer, so why am I talking about Christmas!! I must be mad!
Every christmas I save my cards, I then cut them up and reuse them the following year for tags. Every year I plan to make my own cards as well, but never get around to it!

The children made Fathers Day cards yesterday, so I got out my card making bits (that I have never used!)I found last years Xmas cards, spent around an hour cutting them up, saving bits for cards and tags.

If I leave them on my desk, I might actually get round to making some of my own cards this year. Maybe if I just try to make one a week, I may enjoy it, and even find time for one a day, we'll see!!

Saturday

2008-06-15T10:55:00.003+01:00

Usual Breakfast less than 25p pp
Lunch - Egg sandwiches, and salad 3p pp (our own eggs and salad)
Dinner - Curry (Veg Korma 90p, Bombay Pots 80p, chick pea curry 85p, naan 30p). 57p pp
Cost - Total 85p pp
Waste - Plastic cream pot (not yet put in the bin, washed up and thinking of a way to use it!)
Other waste - 5 metal beer bottle tops.

Homemade on Saturday

2008-06-14T10:36:00.002+01:00

Well, the yoghurt I made last night was 100% success, why don't we all make our own yoghurt? It's easier than making a cup of tea!!!
So far this morning I have made 2 loaves of bread, and 5 large Naan breads.
I have just come up to find a recipe that Mrs G. has given me for a cake made with yoghurt.
I will also be making curries for tonight, so that might be a chick pea curry, Bombay potatoes and either a Korma or Rogan Josh (with maybe lentils, or black beans or quorn, I havent decided yet).

The weeks waste

2008-06-13T20:55:00.002+01:00

plastic Quorn packet
plastic cereal packet
a small free sample sachet of coffee.
Sanitary wear.
Plastic wrapper from soap tabs.
tablet blister pack (from Steves hayfever tablets),
a very dry bread roll
the plastic pitta wrapper
3 plastic noodles packets
plastic quorn nugget wrapper
3 metal beer bottle caps
plastic shower gel container
plastic yoghurt pot
plastic pasta container
wax from the cheese
sachets from the cat food
Plastic wrappers from the almonds, and sunflower seeds

Spend for meals for the week

2008-06-13T20:51:00.003+01:00

This week we have spent a grand total of £7.41 per person for 3 meals a day for 7 days.
We are a family of 5, so that works out at £37.05.
This does not include non food, pet food or drinks.

Home made

2008-06-13T14:58:00.003+01:00

Yesterday, for the first time, I made some Omega seed mix. (Pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, linseed and sesame seeds, baked with soya sauce.) and Oat cakes (Oatmeal, oil, salt, bicarb and water.)

Everyday I make bread, and most days I make cakes or biscuits. I make curries from scratch, and nut roasts. We also make Wine and Beer. And towards the end of the summer I get into Jam and Chutney making mode.

I plan to make cheese soon, but might give yoghurt and butter a go first. My parents have a butter maker - a little tumbler, I asked them if I can borrow it (but it's at the back of the cupboard) I must remind them next time I am round their to see if they have found it yet.

What other things are easy to make?

Friday

2008-06-13T14:35:00.003+01:00

So, it's friday, and I have been doing this a week.
Friday is an exciting day for Dinner, it's the day that anything hanging around in the fridge gets used up, usually with chips. Other than a few bits left from last night, we don't have anything to make a meal from! We have one stuffed vine leaf, a couple of pieces of sun dried tomato, feta, and garlic. It is also the day that if we dont have very much we have a look in the freezer! It's our day for eating rubbish, well, not rubbish rubbish, but the only day that I allow chips. Friday has always been a rushing around evening, it is Scouts night. So it has always been a throw it all in the oven and see who wants what.
My freezer doesn't get fed very often, it usually contains things that I have cooked double (one for now, one or the freezer), it does have a nut roast, some rhubarb, some black berries, breadcrumbs etc. AND it gets whatever has been on offer recenlty in the supermarket! I think we might have some quorn burgers and some spicy bean burgers.
So I think spicy bean burgers chips and greek leftover will go very nicely together :)
£1 for the burgers, and 45p for the chips.
36p pp
Waste - None

Other waste today
Plastic wrappers from the almonds, and sunflower seeds.

So total for today 96p pp

Thurs

2008-06-12T18:50:00.002+01:00

Thursday
Well we have the same for Breakfast everyday, so there is no point continuing to list it! And similar for lunch children have packed lunch, we have bread and cheese!
So unless we have something different I will just give Dinner!
Breakfast less than 25p pp
Lunch about 35p pp

Dinner
Now today we had a lovely dinner, Miranda visited this morning bearing gifts of greek food (Feta, garlic, stuffed vine leaves, olives, sun dried tomatoes, lime chutney) so we had that with some fresh pasta.
Cost £1.79 for the spinach and ricotta pasta 38p pp
waste plastic pasta container.

Other waste, now there was something that I threw in the bin earlier, I just can't remember what it was, ah, wax from the cheese. And sachets from the cat food. Our cats normally eat dried biscuits that come in cardboard, but Mum's cat dislikes one particular flavour that they get in their box, so our cats get the occasional treat of Sardine whiskers sachets!

Todays total 98p pp

Cast

2008-06-11T08:36:00.003+01:00

I am due to have my cast taken off 3 weeks today, but what should I do with it?
Really it should be binned, I don't imagine it will smell too good!
But can anyone think of a way I could reuse it?

Flower pot? But I could't get it wet! Work of art - no too smelly!
Any other ideas? Or shall I just leave it with the hospital?

Wednesday

2008-06-11T08:35:00.002+01:00

Breakfast - the usual
cost less than 25p pp
waste none.

Lunch - children - usual packed lunch 48p pp
adults - egg sandwiches. 9p
cost 31 p pp
waste none

Dinner - Pasta Bake (onion, mushrooms, quorn sausages, campbells soup, cheese, pasta)
Fresh pineapple and yoghurt.
cost 98p pp
waste - plastic yoghurt pot

Total cost 1.54p pp

Making things from rubbish

2008-06-10T20:43:00.002+01:00

I have found a cool site on making and recycling things
instructables

A shopping bag from plastic shopping bags

Tuesday

2008-06-10T09:50:00.005+01:00

Breakfast
Pick 'n' mix muesli
cost less than 25p pp
waste none

Lunch
The children had their usual school packed lunches (see Monday for details) 48p pp
Bread and cheese and chutney 23p pp
34p pp

Dinner
Lentil Soup (onions, celery, garlic, carrots, lentils, stock)
This will last 2 days. No it won't! It was so nice!!!
cost 86p /10 9p pp (so now 18p pp)
waste none

Other waste
plastic shower gel container

Total cost for todays meals 77p pp

Onya Bags

2008-06-09T20:16:00.003+01:00

Thank you for the link to the gorgeous Onya bags Mrs G.
I now have all of my children asking if they can have one, or two, and the Wrap n mat!
At the moment I am having a 'discussion' with my daughter over who gets the purple and black onya side bag, me or her!

Healthy lunches for my children back in 2003!

2008-06-09T19:35:00.001+01:00

Haven't they grown up since then!!

Monday

2008-06-09T15:32:00.004+01:00

Breakfast
Muesli, with 'pick 'n' mix' seeds, nuts and dried fruit, with milk and/or yoghurt.
Waste - None
Cost - less than 25p

Lunch
The children had sandwiches (with tartex, peanut butter and marmite), Apple, fruit and nut pot, Biscuit (homemade). Bread was about 3p, the filling around 10p, Apple was 20p, f&n pot 10p, Biscuit 5p.
Steve had leftover curry (so cost already included in saturdays Dinner)
I had 2 pittas with cheese (we had no bread, it was still cooking!) Cheese 20p pittas 17p.
Waste - the plastic pitta wrapper.
Cost - £1.11 /5 22p pp.

Dinner
This was cooked by dd13, as I am now resting my foot. I am really proud of her that she took it upon herself to look after us all.
We had super noodles and quorn nuggets. The noodles were 75p and nuggets £1 (was bogof). Waste - all in plastic packets (4)
Cost 44p pp

So 91p pp for the day.

Other waste - 3 metal beer bottle caps (from last night), Sanitary wear

The Monthly inconvenience!

2008-06-09T14:59:00.007+01:00

I am researching washable menstrual pads,
here are some useful links to sites I have visited...
Make your own

Or buy ready made
Lollipop
Fairy Hammocks
Fannyfanackapants
Wemoon
Moontimes
Ellas House

Has anyone used any of these, or do you make your own?
What do you favour, all in ones, ones with inserts, poppers or velcro?

I never fancied the mooncup, I guess I feel a bit squeamish about it, but washable cloth might be the way to go. I do have heavy periods for the first few days, and at night, but even if I can cut out the disposables for the rest of the week, then it will be a step in the right direction.

I have some bits of fabric, and some old cotton baby sheets, that would be a start to making some. I might have some poppers somewhere too! I don't have anything to use as a barrier layer though!

The Rubbish Diet: The reaction on the street...#links

2008-06-09T14:07:00.001+01:00

The Rubbish Diet: The reaction on the street...#links
Have a look at Mrs A's website, and this fantastic Bin can can!

Foot in cast!

2008-06-09T11:52:00.002+01:00

I hurt my foot on the 23rd May, I was told I had sprained it.
This morning at a fracture clinic, I was told that I had bruised the ligaments, which can be more painful than a break, as well as sprained my metatarsels. I was then sent for an xray, and the 'good' news, I have broken a tarsel! So I am now in cast :(
So I guess I will be spending more time on here, or reading Mrs A and Mrs G's blogs! I will be an expert at the end of 4 weeks!
Only thing is, I am not sure how able I will be to cook 'proper' meals!

Sunday

2008-06-08T09:59:00.006+01:00

This morning we added a plastic cereal packet to the rubbish, as we finished off the Cornflakes that were bought on holiday.

Breakfast - 2 had pick 'n' mix muesli, 1 had eggs and bread, 1 had cornflakes (1 child on camp).
Cost muesli <25p

Lunch - Bread, cheese, chutney, salad. Homemade biscuit 5p.
Waste - None
Cost - about 28p pp

Dinner - Walnut roast (Onion, garlic, celery, lentil, walnuts, shoyu, breadcrumbs, parsley, egg) I am making 2, one for tonight, one for the freezer. New Potatoes and salad. For dessert we had Strawberries with coconut yoghurt.
Waste - The plastic yoghurt pot not anymore! (the strawberry container will become a mini greenhouse!)
Cost - 1.70/2 so 85p each, to feed 5, therefore 17p per person and 35p for the potatoes. So a total of 24p per person. The strawberries were £2 and the yoghurt £1.11 so 62p pp.

Other waste - a small free sample sachet of coffee. Sanitary wear. Plastic wrapper from soap tabs. tablet blister pack (from Steves hayfever tablets), a very dry bread roll brought back from camp, I could have reused it as a football, but it went in the bin!

12.42pm
I am going to have to look into washable sanitary wear, I hate the thought of these bits going to landfill!
I have just done some washing, each 2 soap tablets are wrapped in little plastic bags. I must get round to trying the soap pods that Mrs G has given me, and the Clearspring laundry liquid.

6.13pm
I went shopping this afternoon, spent £17, I must add it to my list of shopping purchases spreadsheet, I will add it to this blog when I have worked out how to import an excel ss!

8.34pm
I have now found a use for the plastic yoghurt pot, it didn't quite make it to the bin, as I told myself I must find a use for it! Well I did! It is now a container that I can keep my egg shell in for taking to the allotment (a slug deterrent). I have also remembered what I was collecting plastic containers for last year, it was to put our own produce it! Last year I worked for a company that used the plastic pots, instead of throwing them, I took them home, filled them with our home grown peas, courgettes, tomatoes etc. and put them in the fridge!

Total spend today £1.39 per person.

Saturday 7th June

2008-06-07T20:00:00.001+01:00

Our meals today...
Breakfast
Muesli, with 'pick 'n' mix' seeds, nuts and dried fruit, with milk and/or yoghurt.
Waste - None
Cost - Hard to say, everything is bulk bought, the muesli itself is £2.75 for around 90 portions, the pick 'n' mix is only pence. The main cost is yoghurt or milk maybe 15p per person. So thats under 25p per person.

Lunch
Bread, cheese, chutney, salad.
Waste - None
Cost - Bread is about 30p per loaf divided by 10 = 3p. Cheese maybe around 20p per person. Not included as minimal cost - Chutney - homemade, salad - from garden. Marg - pence.So thats about 23p per person.

Dinner
Curry (Onion, ginger, spices, carrots, quorn pieces, chutney, sultanas) and Rice
Waste - plastic Quorn packet
Cost - Onion 10p, Quorn £1.78 Not included spices, oil and dried fruit is pence. carrots - from allotment. Chutney - homemade.
So £1.88 to feed 5 or 38p pp

Thoughts - I think this is a good start, shame about the Quorn packet!
Should I be calculating the cost of food from the garden and allotment? The seed, the compost?Should I try to give a price for the minimal items? spices etc. It all goes in the shopping bill!Should I be including Tea and Coffee in my costings?
Todays spend - 86p per person for 3 meals!

Why blog?

2008-06-07T19:58:00.001+01:00

Inspired by Mrs Green and Mrs Almost A and the article in The Citizen.
We are a busy family of 5; Myself, DH, DS15, DD13, DS7, 2 cats and 4 chickens. I want to provide Healthy meals for my family, save money and produce zero waste. Can it be done?
I don't think so! Not unless facilities are supplied for recycling of mixed plastics, which is not available in my area.
Looking back over the past week, we have produced very little waste, but what we have had is plastic packaging - the bags that the lentils came in, the bags that the nuts and dried fruit came in etc. Although I now buy in bulk, so one plastic bag of e.g. 5Kg Nuts is sent to landfill every other month, compared with buying 50 little plastic bags of nuts from the supermarket.
I hope to use this blog to record our eating habits, food spend and monitor the amount and type of waste.We have pavement collection of Glass, Tins, Paper, Plastic Milk Bottles, Shoes. A point for recycling mixed plastic bottles, and Cardboard are about a mile away, Tetra Paks within 2 miles and a foil recycling bin is about 7 miles away.