Showing posts with label £12 Charity Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label £12 Charity Challenge. Show all posts

17.3.14

Charity Challenge Day 2 - Meal Plan

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!


Day 2 of our Charity Challenge, and I thought this little fellow might distract the kids from the general lack of breakfast on the table this morning...

The egg cosy body and head are crocheted, and the rest is knitted - still more confident knitting the fiddly bits really, especially if I'm making it up as I go along.

Shame we had to share the egg…

Anyway, now you know what I spent the £12 budget on (shopping list is here) I thought I'd run through our 7 day meal plan.

You'll notice I've started and ended the week on a crowd pleaser - the other part of my cunning plan is to make some morale boosting chocolate brownies on Thursday, just when I reckon spirits will be flagging. I'll have to alter recipe quantities as I could only afford 100g of dark chocolate; but it's the good stuff - 74% cocoa.

I'll be doing some recipe fiddling with other things like the apple cake too - it all has to fit with what we've got. The apples are our own; we had a bumper crop last year and stored some in the garage. Mind you most of them are rotten, or look pretty manky…


Not great, but managed to make some reasonably decent stewed apple. A friend has kindly donated 4 eggs from her hens and a few leeks from her garden. I'll be using 4 rather soft looking potatoes I found at the bottom of the cupboard, plus 3 onions. I'll also be using up old bags of flour -some so old I wouldn't be surprised if they started moving, but I'm purposefully not looking at use-by-dates - rather not know…
I've mixed in some of the new plain flour I bought with my old strong flour, for bread-making, and so far so good. A little flat looking maybe, but the kids seem to like it.  I found half a bag of oat bran too, also of questionable age (from a failed attempt at the Dukan diet I think) and I've been adding that to the bread and muffin ingredients.

Breakfast is homemade bread, though I'm hoping there might be some pancakes left over for Thursday morning.

Sunday
Lunch  Pesto pasta with a sprinkle of cheese, then apple crumble.
Dinner Tomato and cheese pizza/garlic bread pizza and peach muffins.

Monday 
Dinner Vegetarian sausages with rosti potato and carrots. Apple cake for afters.

Tuesday
Dinner  Almost Spanish omelette and carrot muffins.

Wednesday
Dinner  Leek and carrot soup with cider bread, followed by pancakes. 

Thursday
Dinner   Not quite Puttanesca pasta and chocolate brownies.

Friday
Dinner Savoury rice and chocolate brownies.

Saturday
Lunch   Lentil soup and homemade bread followed by peach muffins.
Dinner  Tomato and cheese pizza/garlic bread pizza and whatever's left for pudding!


Such a beautiful day on Sunday, so we had our pizzas outside. It was getting a bit parky by teatime, but that didn't seem to matter, seeing as all the grub disappeared in five minutes flat. I used a whole tin of chopped tomatoes and all the passata plus an onion to make the tomato sauce, but only spread a little on the pizzas - the rest has been put away for Thursday's pasta.

I'm really conscious of rationing everything out, and using things like butter/milk sparingly. I've even grated all our cheese into a tub...just makes it look like it'll go further somehow!


I'm doing the £12 Challenge for Sport Relief - if you're interested, my page is here.

16.3.14

Day One Charity Challenge - The List

Okay, so call me Norma.

No other takers for the Charity Challenge….obviously didn't make it sound remotely tempting!
Don't blame you really.

Anyway, my £12 shop took me all of 5 minutes, but planning what to buy took A LOT longer. It's all about the prep with something like this: squeezing as much as you can out of every single penny.
There was a good deal of list tinkering, calculator bashing, sighing, crossing out, cheek puffing, more sighing….


I'd have liked to try a few different vegetarian meals, but there's no point if the kids won't eat them, so I've played safe. All my groceries came from Lidl, except the tin of peaches I bought in Tesco's last week. The cheese was reduced which meant I had enough money left to buy some cream crackers…the height of excitement I know, but they'll provide a bit of variety for after-school snacks, so the kids don't tire of muffins. I purposefully haven't given them muffins for a while…or carrots. We'll be eating a lot of carrots.

It goes without saying there's nothing organic going on here...

15 eggs                 £1.35
Cheese 250g            90p
milk 4pts                £1
butter                        98p
2xplain flour (3kg)   98p
tinned toms               34p
passata                      29p
carrots 500g              75p
sugar 1kg                  79p
vegetarian sausages   98p
tinned peaches           35p
Pesto Rosso               89p
cream crackers           38p
dark chocolate           79p
pasta 500g                 29p
red lentils 500g          89p

TOTAL               £11.95

One big advantage I have over last year is I don't have to make packed lunches. The kids now have school dinners - pre-paid - so this should take some of the pressure off, and possibly ease the whinging.  I'm thinking mainly about the eldest here - he eats more than his Dad and is permanently starving.

There are five of us to feed today and next saturday, but during the week it's down to four. I'm starting off gently with homemade bread for breakfast, and tonight, everyone's favourite - margherita pizza and garlic bread pizza. Got to keep them happy. Like I said, it's all about the prep…

I'll post the full 7 day meal plan tomorrow, and explain why I blew 79p on a bar of dark chocolate.

15.3.13

Trolley detox, Team Honk and a few home truths

Almost there! And I'm not stressed about the rest, because it's homemade pizza tonight and that's everyones favourite.
It's certainly been an interesting week - tough but rewarding, with a fair amount of late night baking.. Still, no one starved.. or cried, and I have managed to feed the 4 of us on just £12 - so, Yay!

It's made me more resourceful, more organised and more grateful for what we have and often take for granted. It's also made me wonder what on earth I'm putting in my trolley..apart from the boring, obvious stuff.  I've already said I don't think I'm that bad at budgeting, but my weekly spend can be erratic - I've had to guess at it - I do know it's many times more than £12. What am I buying? Mmmm. Too many things that aren't on my list. I do suffer from a bit of BOGOF-itis - you know, when you go in for 'a few things' and come out with a boot-load of groceries that are on offer.

Okay, £12 is extreme - but this trolley detox has made me focus on my spending habits. The thing is, like any detox I'm full of good intentions straight after - all these plans for radical change, and then...it's just too easy to slip back into old ways. Well it is for me. That's what happened last time I did the Challenge: I was going to have weekly meal plans, and write a shopping list that I'd stick to like velcro, but it all went out the window, and I drifted back to last-minute 'creative' cooking. I'll try harder this time: definitely try harder to stick to my list - and I've liked feeling more organised about meals, so we'll see.


We wouldn't have got far these last 7 days without homemade bread - the saviour of Challenge..well that and the 4 trays of muffins. I thought the week would be good for my waistline, but I think I now have an extra spare tyre around my middle, made completely of bread.
It's a good job I'm a late bird too, because there was quite a bit of night time baking; and I'm really pleased I've finished off the old, mostly used up bags of flour in the cupboard (probably past their sell buy date..dared not look..)

The kids have been great: I think the Challenge made more sense this year - they know they're doing it for Comic Relief and understand where the money's going. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few trying moments, and they've moaned and complained about having no choices or treats (apart from muffins) - but I know they feel involved, which is brilliant. My 5 year old asked me yesterday if she was allowed to have a biscuit when she went to her friend's house for a play. I squeezed her really tight for that.

And I'm massively slow off the mark with this, but we've joined Team Honk at the 11th hour - we have our very own Red Nose Day sponsorship page and everything!..which is HERE if you'd like to take a look. I know the week's almost up, but if you'd like to give some money to Comic Relief by sponsoring us, that would be amazing.

So, why £12? Something I've been asked a few times: the answer is I'm not absolutely sure.. Originally it was going to be a tenner, but that would have been such a struggle, unless we grew more fruit and veg and did the Challenge in the summer. I'd have had a mutiny on my hands.

Will we do it again? Do you know, I'm sure we probably will - but think I'd like to try a £12 vegetarian week next time..

13.3.13

Comic Relief, Carrots and Cake



'DAY 5 in the Comic Relief Charity Challenge house, and the housemates are getting restless...'


not really a massive surprise considering there's very little food left from my £12 shop. Just two more days to go now.
And in case you're wondering, £12 is all I've spent to feed the four of us for 7 days! Definitely a challenge. Possibly mad. Still, it's for a very good cause, as the rest of the money I'd normally spend on my weekly groceries is going to Comic Relief.

It's certainly keeping me on my toes and I'm baking like a dervish, trying to stay a step ahead. The kids are doing pretty well; they haven't gone hungry, but inevitably the lack of choice and empty fridge takes it's toll, and there's a rising wave of whinging! I'm doing my best to gee them along, and I've heard the older two talking to their friends about the Challenge and why we're doing it, which is encouraging. It's great they feel involved.

Now who'd have ever thought you could get bored of muffins? But I know the kids are tiring of them, and fair play really as muffins have been the only sweet treat on offer for the last 5 days. My supplies are limited: I haven't any butter and just enough marg left for sandwiches - the only thing I can use is vegetable oil. So my cunning plan was to make muffins that look like CAKE...and seeing as The Gallery theme this week is the letter 'C'.... I give you Comic Relief Charity Challenge Carrot Muffins Cake!


I just poured the carrot muffin mixture into a cake tin - and the shape change plus the absence of muffin cases seems to have done the trick! They loved them. Should get us through to friday. I'm sure the topping helped too, but only enough cream cheese spare for these three, and HUGE disappointment when they realised the carrot was made of plasticine..

There's more about our Comic Relief Charity Challenge here

and The Gallery theme this week is the letter 'C'

12.3.13

Frugal food - Charity Challenge day 4

I've had to plan meals down to the last grain of rice so I can stretch the food bought with my £12 budget across the week. I don't really mind the planning bit, and it's less daunting than last time, because things like making bread don't phase me as much as they used to. I make it regularly now, thanks to the very lovely, talented Recipe Junkie and her tutorials on growing and using a sourdough starter. I wasn't totally sure what a starter was to be honest; now I have a jar of bubbly, yeasty goo sitting on my window sill, constantly reminding me to make bread.

sourdough starter

So, this week breakfast is bread or toast, and lunch for me is some kind of orange soup (lentil/carrot or to spice things up carrot and lentil..)  I have packed lunches to make too: my fussy one has them all week - the others have a mixture of packed lunches and pre-paid school dinners. I'm giving them ham and cream cheese sandwiches, a muffin, 2 cream crackers with marg, and a carrot.
They are going to be sick of the sight of carrots by friday.


So the family meals work out like this:

Saturday      Lunch: Lentil soup and bread
                       Tea: Homemade ham and mozzarella pizza and garlic pizza
                       (sauce: one tin chopped tomatoes, half the passata, onion, tsp sugar, seasoning)

Sunday         Lunch: Tomato, mozzarella and ham pasta
                       (leftover cheese and sauce from pizzas + chopped up ham)
                       Tea: Roast chicken, potatoes and carrots

Monday         Spanish style frittata
                       (chopped and fried up potatoes from day before, half an onion, a little ham, 4 beaten eggs + cheeky handful of peas from freezer for a splash of colour..other than orange..)

Tuesday        Savoury chicken rice
                       (leftover chicken pieces, half a leek, half an onion, carrot, stock)
                   
Wednesday   Tomato and ham pasta
                       (another batch of tomato sauce made with spare tin and rest of the passata - save about half for friday pizzas. Maybe add a dollop of cream cheese to pasta sauce)

Thursday       Leek and carrot soup with cider bread 
                        (Cider bread is really worth a go - so quick, easy and delicious. I'm using some cider I keep in the fridge for this recipe - but no cheese or butter)
                     
Friday            Ham pizza and garlic pizza

I bulk out the meals with bread, and after-school snacks and puddings are muffins. Peach, carrot or banana on offer this week. Squirrel is having break.


Snackless squirrel

The homemade pizzas on saturday night were a great success



375g of flour made dough for 4 bases (2 tomato, 2 garlic)

We even had enough to feed a hanger-on; and apart from one slightly tense moment as I watched my son's friend carefully pick all the precious pieces of ham off his pizza, everyone was happy!

Sunday roast is always a winner - and there's enough chicken left for savoury rice tonight, plus a big bowl of fresh stock. I cut the potatoes up really small for the frittata yesterday, but they were spotted by my fussy potato avoider.
spanish style frittata
Still, he did eat it. Very slowly. Every single thing has to be eaten up this week!

No one's going hungry, that's for sure, and I keep reminding them we're doing it for Comic Relief - but think the novelty might be wearing a little thin..

You can find out more about our Charity Challenge here

11.3.13

£12 Comic Relief Charity Challenge

..possibly a bit mad, but we're doing it again! It's been just about long enough since the last time for everyone to have forgotten what it was like...
So a quick recap if you're wondering what I'm on about - I've squeezed our weekly food shop down to  £12. £12 to feed four of us for 7 days. And that's it. Bar a few basics I have here.

Why? Well the why is for Comic Relief, because that's where all the money I'd usually spend on the groceries is going. We started on saturday - quite a good distraction because that's when my sister left for Australia - we finish at the end of the week on Red Nose Day.

I do like a good challenge and it's going to be interesting, planning, cooking and trying to keep the kids happy. But it wouldn't be much of a challenge if I raided the freezer and the cupboard for the week, so my self-imposed rules are no digging about in the freezer for meals, and no tins or packets except the ones bought with my £12 budget. I'm allowing myself to use up what's left of staples like flour, sugar, oil - and also the opened tub of marg in the fridge, tea bags, 3 onions, half a packet of split red lentils and a few wizened cloves of garlic I found at the back of the cupboard. It's not much extra, and sure, wouldn't it be wasteful to buy more when they're sitting there? Anyway, my rules and hey, it's for charity!

I think I'm pretty good at budgeting, but my grocery bills have been fluctuating a fair bit recently. The Challenge has made me take a long hard look at what I usually spend, and what goes into my trolley - as well as my rather slack approach to meal planning.
We're into our third day now, and the kids are still reasonably enthusiastic, but when they start moaning about the absence of treats and choices (and they will), it'll probably be a good time to gently remind them of the children who can never grab an apple or a biscuit when they feel like it; the children who have barely enough food to live on. Hopefully I'll get them to think about why we're doing this.

So my £12 list is reasonably similar to the one last year. I shopped at Lidl and Tesco's and bought the cheapest of the cheap. Quite a few are the same price as before which really surprised me, seeing as most of the things I usually buy are getting more expensive.

Doesn't look like much, does it..


Small chicken £3.09
milk £1.00
400g ham £1.65
cream cheese 50p
ball of mozzarella 40p
1 kg rice 40p
2x500g pasta 60p
1 kg potatoes 69p
loaf of wholemeal bread 47p
cream crackers 39p
2xtinned tomatoes 62p
passata 29p
1.5kg carrots 63p
4 bananas 32p
2xtinned peaches 58p
1.5kg flour 45p

Total £12.08

There isn't a lot in the way of fruit and veg. I'd thought about buying more instead of the chicken, but I can stretch the chicken to 3 meals, and we're only talking a week. I haven't included eggs because a very kind friend with hens has given me 8 lovely fresh ones, as well as 2 big leeks from her garden. The other advantage I have is I'm just feeding me and the 3 kids, because my husband's away. And I've only one milk drinker too, which helps cut costs.

Things seem to be going well enough, but it's early days! I'm trying to stay one step ahead and definitely doing more baking. I'll post my menu plan tomorrow so you can see what we've been eating. Some things crop up A LOT...Hard really to have much variety.

I think it would be fair to say homemade bread and muffins are the food glue that hold this Challenge together..