Frugality reality

The final two weeks of lean living this January have been hard, in fact, its been nigh on impossible to stick to £25 per week, the budget had to be increased to to £35 per week just to get by. The larder is looking uncomfortably bare and there is little left in the freezer apart from peas. On the positive side,  the change habits has embedded in and I don't miss the expensive coffee on the way to the office (or that cheeky glass of vino on my return). It's also a very effective diet (maybe I should called it 'The Skint Diet' and market it).

As well as being frugal with food, I've been busy repairing too. The massive hole in my old (but much loved) coat has been darned with multi-coloured yarn so that its now a feature and stray buttons have been collected and re-attached. The yearn for a new knitting project has been met by using up existing yarn from a long forgotten half made shawl. Empty jars have been cleaned and re-purposed as storage containers for spices. Frugality is making this a greener house.

“If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can’t buy.” Proverb

Week 3

Eggs for breakfast at the weekend are the norm in this house, boiled with Marmite soldiers on Saturday and poached with bacon on Sunday. After a week of snatched breakfasts on the hoof, such a simple meal always feels a luxury. Good eggs are necessary and my favourites are the tanned freckly Burford Browns, nothing is more cheerful on a winter morning than their golden yolks. Weekend lunches were also simple, cheese sandwiches made with the remaining bread and a handful of rocket from the garden. A dish of spicy chicken with cous cous (chicken simmered with onion, garlic, cumin, lemon, chickpeas, and a healthy dose of harissa) warmed up a cold Saturday night. Pork with a handful of leeks, mustard and butterbeans made a large creamy stew, served with mashed potato and mustard greens (again from the garden). Weekday breakfasts were plain yoghurt and if the train timetable permitted, sometimes with chopped apple. Lunches were mainly leftovers or the last remaining pots from the freezer of red cabbage and caraway soup, various recycled containers of the lurid pink broth defrosting on the kitchen sideboard overnight. Leftover harissa chicken and pasta (a weird mix of cultures but perfectly fine when hungry) was a welcome Monday supper. Tuesday, a wholesome chickpea, pumpkin and cauliflower curry with rice, Wednesday leftover pork from Sunday with pasta. More pumpkin, red pepper, tomatoes and black beans made a vat of vegetable chilli, spiced with lots of fresh chillies and the joyous luxury of grated cheese. On Friday we had a long standing invitation to a vegetarian friend, a generous cook who was worried we may not be able to eat all on offer. She needn't have had any concerns, a huge vegetarian shepherds pie was demolished, as was the bread and butter pudding with indecent amounts of cream. Best of all her tiny cottage was cosily warm from the Rayburn and open fire, compared to our rather draughty cold renovation project. Warming my permanently frozen toes by the fire was bliss.

Week 4

The final week of January felt like the last leg of the longest marathon, payday at the end of the week almost in touching distance. Weekend breakfasts were again toast and eggs, with simple sandwiches for lunch. On Saturday, a homemade chicken curry and rice and on Sunday, a slow cooked sausage and cannellini bean stew stirred through with shreds of inky green cavolo nero. On Monday a frugal lemony lentil soup with more of my favourite dark kale, a recipe from Jane Hornby. This is just a wonderful soup, its fantastically easy, tastes divine and uses cheap ingredients. Definitely a keeper, the full recipe can be found here. I will be investigating more of Jane's recipes throughout the year. Tuesday, another day of leftovers, lentil soup for lunch (in my trusty flask) and leftover sausage and beans with pasta. Wednesday's menu made use of some veg remaining from the previous week as well as some of the seemingly endless windfall apples from last summer (still going strong). Two small florets of cauliflower, shaved wafer thin on a mandolin with chicory, apple, parsley and leftover pecans tossed in a mustardy vinaigrette (inspired by a recipe in Country Living) was pretty good, although I spiced it up with some fresh red chilli. Dinner was a little more spartan, a miso broth with soba noodles, mushrooms, pak choi and plenty of Chiu Chow Chilli Oil. On Thursday the cupboards were bare, lunch was going to consist of a couple of tangerines but as luck would have it, I managed to blag a free sandwich from a promotional stall at the station who were advertising their new range of vegan 'cheese'. It wasn't great, to be honest, but it was free and filled a hole. Dinner was a frugal dish of pasta, with spicy sauce of tinned tomatoes, chilli and olive oil with enough leftover for lunch the following day. Friday...PAYDAY! Yes, we celebrated with an Indian takeaway and a few beers.

This month has made me very aware of just how expensive food (and life in general) has become. It's extremely hard to eat eat cheaply and healthily, nigh on impossible to get your 'five a day' on a very tight budget. Yes, you can live on lentils and cabbage but this isn't sustainable and its very (very) difficult when you are assaulted by the constant availability of takeaway food, food adverts, people constantly eating on the go. Everywhere you turn there is food. This is a rich country with plentiful availability yet there is a growing chasm with more and more people unable to afford to eat well but also growing levels of obesity. Definitely time for a rethink. Now back to budgeting for February!