ACT YOUR WAGE!

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Chocolate Mufffins:Home-made versus shop-bought

One of the treats that we like to pick up when we do our weekly shop is Double Chocolate Chip Cookies or muffins. Even with special offers they set us back at least £1 for 4, (although if you buy them singly at Tescos they are 80p each!). Normally though I pay on average £1.50 for 4 big sized muffins (38p each) for the kids lunchboxes once (or maybe twice!) a week.

After a quick search I found this recipe which should make 20 muffins (albeit smaller than the ones I usually buy) and they should freeze so they don't get snaffled by a the family gannets!

The recipe uses the following ingredients:

140g plain chocolate
375g self-raising flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
55g unsweetened cocoa powder
85g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons sunflower oil
375ml milk
140g white chocolate chips

Although I followed the recipe I substituted a the same weight of basic chocolate bars chopped up for the white chocolate chips- naturally the plain chocolate was basic too so about 30p a bar

Here's the costings courtesy of the Tescos website for convenience.

2 x 100 g basics dark chocolate bars (half of one of these to make chocolate chips) @30p each= 60p

1 x 100 g basic white chocolate bar (chopped to make chips)= 30p

basics self raising flour @52p for 1.5 kg = 13p

own brand baking powder @99p for 170 g (1 tbsp is about 15g) = 9p

basics cocoa powder @£1.29 for 250g = 29p

sliver spoon caster sugar @ £1.08 for 1 kg = 10p

everyday value eggs @ £1.50 for 10 = 20p

vanilla extract @ £1.04 for 38ml (1 tsp is about 5ml) = 28p

sunflower oil @£1.39 for a litre (tablespoon is about 15ml) = 13p

milk @£1.18 for 2.2 litres = 21p
cake cases @55p for100 = 11p

total for 20 muffins - £2.44 or 13p per muffin (before fuel costs...)

So assuming that I use the oven when something else is in there so that the fuel cost can be disregarded that would save me 38-13=25p per muffin. If my 3 children have chocolate muffins twice a week (regardless of school weeks or home weeks for once) that could save me 25p *3*52 = £39 across the year.

Of course the one item that really sticks out as making the whole thing very expensive is the vanilla essence - I for one would not have thought that vanilla essence would add 28p to a recipe; in fact if pushed I would have guessed at about 5p. Maybe future experiments can see if this can be halved or even omitted without spoiling the recipe. If I can get away with no vanilla then the cost would be £2.16 or 11p per muffin saving another £3 across the year. Maybe worth thinking about.....

More updates :
Music Magpie - £24.46
Saved from housekeeping budget over last month - £317.15

total savings - £859.90+24.26+317.15= 1201.31

1.7% of total.

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Car boot sale

Another £85 for the pot from the things we don't want via a car boot sale as manned by OH.
Savings to date :£774.70 + £85 = £859.70
1.2% of total. from March 2012 to my sons 18th birthday is 113 months (just under the 10 year target I set myself in March) 6 months have already gone - 5.3% of the time ; not looking good is it? Must do better as school reports are prone to say :) never mind onwards and upwards and onto the next challenge.

Thursday, 30 August 2012

More decluttering with music magpie!

Another £12.18 for the pot from Music Magpie.

Savings to date -£762.52 + £12.18=£774.70
Still 1.1 %

Sunday, 26 August 2012

Claiming refunds etc

Our people carrier broke heavily in April and has been at the garage ever since. However it has now been sold and although the £3000 we got for it after the garage bill has already been allocated somewhere else (out-building roof) we had filled in the SORN forms at the beginning of June once it became obvious that it was not going to be a quick fix and the car was going to be off the road for a while. This means a refund on road tax of £110 - well worth the 10 minutes it took to fill in and post the forms but one which in the past I probably would not have bothered with since it is a hassle to get stamps and take it to the post office. (stupid huh!)
Other things I probably would not have bothered with in the past include the printed coupons you get given at the checkout. This month I managed to bag £9 worth, (provided that I can be organised enough to use them within date!)
£119 for the pot takes me over 1%

savings to date = £643.52 + £119= £762.52 - 1.1% of total

Friday, 17 August 2012

School holidays updates

The school holidays have thrown my budgetting into chaos thanks to the extra diesel, food and expenses generally. A reporter this week was throwing round the figure of £500 per week to keep little people amused during the school holidays - not in this house! (Although my in-laws wouldn't agree as they disapprove of all our belongs generally and what we choose to spend our money on ) We did our usual thing of raiding the pound shops for cheap craft materials and activities, using the library for free, going to £1 showings or midweek showings at the cinema (I also registered with Cineworld which gets us 10% off when I book online - and they have scrapped the booking fee too), painting pots from the garden centre for our garden and this summer we upcycled some redundant p.e. tops from school with tie dye.

Other updates since my last post include:
More savings from my second purse style of budgetting - my stockpile value now stands at £117.88 and the "money" in my second purse itself is £38.24 ; I've yet to put anything into my third purse!
Tescos giving away vouchers since the last week in July (spend £20 and get £5 off your next £40 shop) as well as double vouchers at the moment meant I was able to get £48 of Skylanders figures (for A's birthday) for free.
£4.20 on money off per litre of fuel voucher (Morrisons)
Another box for music magpie £12.33 when the money comes in.
Left over housekeeping from last month from scrimping and saving generally £56.37

savings to date : £643.52 - 0.92% of total

Sunday, 29 July 2012

A more healthy menu from a MSE poster

One of the posters on the £7 per day thread was very concerned that I was peddling unhealthy stodge as a long-term diet. Of course if you read the other posts you'll see I'm recomending it as a temporary short-term emergency menu only.
Anyway this menu was kindly suggested as an alternative.
In summary:
drinks: tap water
breakfast x 7 :banana omelette
lunch x 7: chicken and quinoa soup
dinner x 7 : spaghetti and cheese

and the costings for food items given as per the Tescos website.

£7 per person with no storecupboard week 2

£7 budget for week 2 plus 15 p carried over from week 1 = £7.15 to spend 2% increase on last week!

Drinks

teabags carried over from week 1 - 0 p spent

sugar carried over from week 1 - 0 p spent

milk - 1 pint whole milk -49p by buying whole milk I could water this down half and half and end up with 2 pints semi-skimmed for the price of 1

49 p spent £6.66 remaining

breakfast

cornflakes carried over from last week 0p spent

sugar carried over from last week 0p spent

milk - from above 0 p spent

49 p spent £6.66 remaining

lunch

margarine carried over from week 1 - 0p spent

Tescos Everyday value garlic sausage 12 slices - 55p

Bread Tescos own label medium sliced loaf 69p about 22 slices

everyday value baked beans in tomato sauce 420 g i.e 2 servings 26p

gives

2 rounds garlic sausage sarnies

beans on toast

2 slices garlic sausage over

£1.99 spent £5.16 remaining

dinner

3 portions spaghetti carried over from week 1 - 0 p spent

2 slices garlic sausage from above

4 sausages from week 1 - 0 p spent

1/2 head of garlic from week 1 carried over - 0 p spent

Tesco Sieved Tomatoes Passata 500G 29p (3 servings)

tescos everyday gravy garnules 20p

Tesco Everyday Value White Potatoes 2.5Kg Tray 89p - assume 250g per serving (tessco uses this as its serving size for nutritional information) -gives 10 servings

tescos everyday value mushy peas 4p!!!!!!!!x 2

Onions - tescos everyday value onion pack 69p - contains about 12 small onions, better than buying 1 large and having to cut it in half

tescos everyday value vegetable oil - 1 litre (so should last the remainder of the month easy) £1.29

everyday value stock cubes 10p for pack of 10

Tesco Everyday Value 12 White Rolls 35p - use 1 freeze remainder

2 carrots loose 16p

Tesco Everyday Value Cooking Bacon 500G -74p use 50g a time gives 10 servings

3 bananas 36p (just cos we can now!)

pea and garlic sausage soup - for 1-2

chop 1 small onion and brown in 1 tsp oil. Add 1 tin of mushy peas (drained) plus 1/2 stock cube and enough water to cover peas, bring to the boil and simmer

for a few minutes until heated through. Blend until smooth (or mash with a potato masher). Add 1 slice garlic sausage chopped fine. Serve with a bread roll.

bacon hash serves 1

Peel 250 g potatoes and boil until tender and allow to cool. Cut into chunks (alternatively if you have left over mashed potato use this instead) Peel and chop 1 small onion and fry along with 50g bacon (diced). Add potatoes and fry until heated through.

gives

pasta with tomato and garlic (use 1 75 g portion of the spaghetti plus 1/3 passata and 1 crushed clove garlic)

pasta with tomato and garlic sausage (use 1 75 g portion of the spaghetti plus 1/3 passata and 1 slice garlic sausage chopped)

pea and garlic sausage soup with roll (see recipe above)

sausage and mash with carrots and gravy (2 sausages from week 1, 250 g spuds 2 carrots)

sausage and mash with mushy peas and gravy (2 sausages from week 1, 250 g spuds 1/2 a tin of mushy peas)

bacon hash with mushy peas (see recipe below and 1/2 a tin mushy peas)

spent £7.10 remaining 5p

carried over to following week:

10 small onions

9 1/2 stock cubes

gravy granules

7 servings potatoes

2 servings cornflakes

11 bread rolls

38 teabags

oil

9 servings bacon

Day 1