Making your own freezer meals is just for big families. Right?/ Paprika Chicken Thighs Recipe

 Wrong!

It is a constant that cookery books and cooking shows by-and-large assume that you are a part of a family, usually family of 4. YouTube is full of creators producing freezers full of large trays of food for large families. However there is nothing to stop you dividing the same recipes into smaller portions and giving future you the gift of the time you save by reheating rather than cooking from scratch.

Another thing that is true is that it saves money because of supermarkets where family packs are less per 100g than smaller packs.  It doesn't matter if you divide bigger packs and freeze things like meat raw or if you cook two or three times the amount you need and freeze the surplus the pennies add up even when you include the cost of running a freezer.  Although you do need the money for the bigger packs up front to save money further down the line.

So, if you don't know where to start go to the freezer section of your supermarket for inspiration- anything that you can find there can be the starting point for your own variation.

Meanwhile I am making a batch of paprika chicken thighs on the stove ready to serve with potatoes and veggies or salad or rice another day.

Paprika Chicken Thighs (serves 4)

8 chicken thighs, skin on

oil

1 onion,chopped

2 tsp smoked paprika

3 rashers streaky bacon, smoked if possible, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp tomato puree

1/2 tsp dried thyme

100 ml chicken stock

100 ml creme fraiche or soured cream (full fat, low fat or no fat do not freeze well)

Start with a pan which will take all the thighs in one layer and with a lid.  Add a little oil to the pan and cook the chicken thighs skin side down for about 10 minutes, you want the skin to be nice and Brown.  Remove from the pan.

 Fry the onion until soft. Add the bacon and fry until it loses it's pink colour.  Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds being careful not to let it brown.  

Return the chicken to the pan and add the tomato puree, thyme and the stock.  Stir well and pop on the lid.  Cook for about 10-15, giving it the occasional stir - you want everything to be covered with the sauce.

Check that the chicken is cooked (cut into one of the thighs and see if near the bone is pink).

Add the creme fraiche and stir well so it is incorporated into the sauce.  Leave the lid off and leave to bubble for 5 minutes to reduce slightly.

Serve with rice, pasta or potatoes.

To Freeze.

Allow to cool and then freeze in portions as desired (2 thighs per person),

To serve, allow to thaw and reheat in the oven or the microwave until hot through.

Are you missing this envelope? :Cost of Living Crisis and Cash Envelope Stuffing.

 Envelope stuffing has gone viral. You Tubers make millions of views from videos from watching someone count out dollars onto cash trays and put it in plastic wallets labelled with Cricut vinyl words like "taxes" and "vacation" before storing it in one of several fancy ring binders specially for the purpose.  There is a whole new vocabulary with terms like "sinking funds".  All these things are a bright shiny and new way of managing your finances right?  You need to rush to Ebay or Etsy to buy your cash tray or binder or wallets because otherwise it won't work-right? Wrong.

Sorry to burst the bubble but these are just sexed up versions of how your great grand parents budgeted before credit cards.  Sounds SO much more boring doesn't it!  

What each (successful) envelope stuffer has identified is the budget categories that apply to them and worked out out much they can afford to put in each category.  This includes those things for everyday like  "groceries" "rent"; but also categories to replace things like your washing machine when it breaks, these last are your sinking funds. But never, ever, in all the videos I have watched for research purposes have I seen a category that I use all the time. It saves me hundreds of pounds a year, protects other budget  categories, and after a while is self-funding.

Let me give you a scenario...

You're doing your shopping in the supermarket, list in hand, budget in mind, all under control (well some of the time). As you round the end of the aisle the clever supermarket people have placed a display of  the latest item on offer.  It is something you normally buy  and at a great discount! But if you buy it it will totally blow your budget - what do you do?

a) Leave it be and live with the loss

b) Break into your emergency fund- even though this is not what it was intended for and will leave you a little more vulnerable

c) Think ahead and use a separate budget just for this kind of thing.

Obviously from the title of this post you know I am a "c".  I have a separate budget that is just for "stocking up" - sometimes called the "third purse system".

The idea is a simple one - I collect money from vouchers, coupons, reduced stickers plus what ever I can spare into one envelope.  This is used to buy long life items such as dry goods, tinned goods, toiletries and laundry products, and cat food wherever there is a saving.  These could be special offers, BOGOF or multibuy, reduced for quick sale, time limited offer (i.e. coupon), or simply from a shop which I do not normally visit due to geography.   

As I use the items I pay my envelope back from my grocery budget (these are all items that I would otherwise be willing to pay full price for).

How much does it save me?- well last month I saved about £32 on washing liquid capsules alone (courtesy of ASDA and a combination of rewards into my ASDA rewards app due to star products and and in-store special offer).  The stash of these will take four months to go through, £20 of this is rewards via the app so can be realised almost straight away the other £12 will dribble into this envelope over the next four months.  This was an exceptional offer I have to admit but would not have been possible without this envelope - I laid out £32 in cash up front to realise the £32 saving .  A more normal week would be saving £15-20 once you get a good "stock" going.

Just incase this sounds like too much work let me explain that I do the money transfer just once a week when I sit down and write my grocery list anyway- it take me about 10 minutes total and regularly saves me three figures a year.  The envelope does not need a weekly top up either (although it helps at first) as you're paying yourself back the full price.  For me it is a fair trade - how about you.?

More KDP goodies - this time it is cross stitch cats

 More in my KDP repertoire.  These are generated from a FlossCross chart which I have edited to make into a book - some singles, some collections.  The only bugbear is that Amazon seem to be clamping down on KDP as they now limit the number of books you can upload to three a day so I now spend my weekend making the books and then the weekday early mornings uploading three at a time.

Hera

willow

Bella

Amber

Gemma

Athena

Caesar

Sukie

Daisy

Toffee

Natalia

Jasmin

Sapphire

Smoky

 

Loki

Amazon KDP projects - cross stitch butterflies

 Having fun generating cross stitch patterns for sale on Amazon.  Lots of competition so not expecting many sales but still interesting to do.  Amazon lets you upload to KDP for free but revenue is dependent on sales which without paying for advertising can be small, however every little counts as they say...

Images below are linked to Amazon UK below but of course the same books are available worldwide.

Butterfly collection

My author pages..

Cat collection is under construction...

Cost of Living Crisis : cutting fuel bills : Not leaving things on standby

 Interesting read on the BBC news website today about "Vampire devices".  No I had not heard the term either!  These are electrical devices that are left on standby.  In the article here  it claims that most households waste £147 of electricity through items being left on standby every year, across the country that is nearly £2.2 bn. 

To quote the article:

"It may be convenient to leave the television on standby and wake it up with a press of a button on a remote - but it costs £24.61 per year, the research suggests, plus a further £23.10 for a set-top box, such as from Sky or Virgin Media.

And there's more:

• Microwave: £16.37

• Shower: £9.80

• Washing machine: £4.73

• Printer: £3.81

• Phone charger: £1.26"
• and Games console £12.17 and computers £11.12"

Now I cannot get to most of the plugs on things like consoles etc as they are hidden behind shelves etc  so up to now I have largely ignored this with the attitude that it can't be that much fuel we are wasting anyway - however these figures really make you think and as it points out you can buy plugs that will allow you to turn off the device.

A quick check on Amazon shows that a 3 pack with mechanical timers come in at about £14.99 so about a fiver each - these are definitely the easiest (and would stop my teenage sons being on the console at midnight!) but they are bulky - here is an example (please note not endorsing this particular model in any way!).  If you have already invested in something like Google Home or Alexa you can get plugs that you can control from your phone for a little less than double that.  I am now thinking that it is worthwhile sneaking a few of the mechanical ones into my budget; starting with the TV's and consoles followed by the microwave - even if they are turned off just at night time then they should recoup the cost over the course of a year and put more money into my pocket from then on in.

Any other belt tighteners that have a small initial investment?

Another ah-ha moment - the cost of living crisis how to pick yourself up and start again.

 Do you ever have a moment when you realise that you are just kidding yourself?  Mine came today as I handed over £150 (ish) at the supermarket for a weeks shopping for four adults.  I mean over £37 per person for (mostly) food.  What has happened to my finances and how can we beat this when there is more month than money.  I am extremely lucky - I am in the situation where I am not in danger of losing my home thanks to energy bills , I do not have to go to bed hungry or send my kids to bed hungry and I have no debt.  Part of this is hard work over the last 40 years - part of this is just plain luck. If you are in the middle ground where you are not going without food then the following thoughts may help.  If you are in the situation where it is about to lead to starvation or homelessness please seek professional help (citizens advice is a good first port of call) and good luck to you.

Now for the majority...

First it is easy to sleepwalk into this kind of situation when you need your days to be 34 hours long, it happens, and if it happens to you then just think thank goodness I noticed now and do something about it.  The fact you noticed is a win, take it.

Second, do yourself a favour and do a financial audit -list all your weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual or any other regular bills; are there any for subscriptions or memberships that you can cancel, even if you can't cancel immediately (for example you signed up for a minimum membership term) write it on the calendar or put it in your phone to cancel ASAP.  In my case there are a couple of subscriptions that I signed up to when I needed to homeschool my youngest son (post pandemic) hopefully the arrangement we have now will hold so these can be cancelled; if I need to later then I can always re-join.

Your financial audit should also point you at any debt like credit cards, store cards, overdrafts etc.  It goes without saying that as soon as inflation goes up the amount you pay in interest goes up too.  I am lucky personally that early on I prioritised paying off my debt and I have not had extreme enough emergencies to push me back there again.  Every penny that you pay off now over the minimum amount will save you more pennies later on.  Go to a site such as Moneysavingexpert and look at the advice from experts on how to consolidate/reduce/payoff etc your debt.  It doesn't have to be in one go - it has taken a long time to build up why would it be wiped out in one go? - but even if it is just overpaying the most expensive debt first take control and move the mountain out of your way once stone at a time.  Every penny that you overpay is a win, so is every time you resist adding to the mountain because you feel like hell.  Never underestimate the effect of mental happiness on spending - when we feel like cr*p we treat ourselves, be honest with yourself and if this is you then remind yourself that you will feel better for longer (not just a quick rush) when you clear the mountain you have buried yourself under and if you can treat the cause not the symptom and find out why you are unhappy.

Now that you have looked at the things that feel like they are beyond your control lets look at the food/household spending.  This is less of a big weekly saving and more of a steady drip drip but it does add up.  Have you fallen into the habit of buying set brand leaders for some of your shopping.  Have you stopped shopping around and only go to the nearest "average" supermarket to save time and hassle (that's me folks!). Have you had to return to the workplace and are relying on lunch deals or canteen food because you are not organised enough to bring in a pack lunch (guilty again). Are you stuck in a rut on the meals that you cook when you could substitute a few cheaper meals during the week (yes again).  I freely admit that I have (and repeatedly do) sleepwalk into all of these - it is my default of the least hassle way of life so when things get complicated (and there is plenty to get complicated with three autistic offspring) then this is what happens.  But you know what - everyone has their own personal point where this is true depending on personal circumstances, human beings are genetically programmed to save energy (mental and physical) the trick is when it does happen don't beat yourself up about it at the time and make up for it later.  It's not a wagon that you can't get back onto.

So having identified food spending as my major slipup I am off to inventory my cupboards and freezer, make a meal plan for the first time in a very long time...Restart my price book for long shelf life items.  Sign up to  a personal commitment of just once a week trying a new recipe and digging out the tupperware for packed lunches.  Wish me luck - I wish the same for you

Recipe ideas for £1 a head- Cost of Living Crisis

 Trying to find recipes that are a one size fits all is difficult as so much depends on personal circumstances. You Tube especially is rife with videos claiming to do a full week for x pounds and then you discover it is only 5 meals for 2 adults with no drinks/snacks/lunches/breakfasts etc (nope not going to say who...) or the videos are so old that the inflation rises have not been factored in. Or there are those people who have a large family so can bring the price down per head by buying the large economy packs which are less per 100 g than the standard sizes.  Not everyone has access to the same supermarkets so pricing can be widely variable across the UK and across the globe - that being said here are some lovely ladies who recently put out their own collab videos to try and give people ideas and I have found their claims to be far more realistic than most.  Hope you find some ideas to spark your own recipes.  Enjoy!