Monthly Archives: June 2013

Finding Good Value Clothing at affordable prices

Frugal beauty

Hello Dear Reader,

I am a long legged tall bird! Six Foot plus in heels! Finding clothes to fit is a nightmare! Dresses have waists too high because my body is longer than average. Trousers have waists too low because my body length is not standard. Jackets don’t fit as the arm holes are not deep enough for me. Consequently, I am a dreadful shopper. There is nothing like clothes shopping to make me feel like an ugly freak. If you work in a clothes shop then please be patient with me when I come. I am likely to try on everything in the shop and I might find just one thing that will fit me. Currently, tunic tops are fashionable and on me, they are just long enough.

I was asked to place an advert for Bonmarche on my blog and before I agreed, I went to visit their local store. Firstly, why haven’t I been in here before? Secondly, they make clothes that fit normal women, even the display mannequins are based on normal bodies. Although I didn’t buy anything, the thing that impressed me most was the empathetic attitude of the staff to my sizing dilemmas. Their clothing is budget and is priced well but like other budget stores, they had no tall clothing and their trousers all had 29″ inside legs and mine at are 33″.Their dresses were sized to 39.5″ from the nape to the seam and I need a dress of 50″ to be a modest mid calf. Their tunic tops were gorgeous and one is on the way to me in part payment for the infographic. I’m a ‘modest’ dresser and like clothes to completely cover, look appropriate and be well made and if I was six inches shorter then I could have happily bought anything in the store. I’ve got to mention their staff in the Cornwall St store in New George Street as they really couldn’t have done more for me.

You might be asking why a frugalista like myself buys new clothes and not just clothes from charity shops. I certainly do use charity shops but I’m faced with the same issue, not many women are 6′ in heels with legs like stilts. So, in the interest of good value and good research I will look for clothes anywhere and in all the budget stores as that’s my affordable price range.


Over to you Dear Reader, where do you find good value and good service at affordable prices. Who else uses budget stores for clothing? Who else has difficulties finding clothes to fit due to sizing issues? Who else is modest dresser and finds it difficult to look stylish with out dressing like your gran? Oh the dilemmas of clothing, please share and leave a comment.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

Disclaimer - I am being sent ‘tops’ from the new lines from Bonmarche and I’m looking forward to them. I have been paid to place this advert but my opinions about the quality and service are genuinely my own.

Spiralling Cost of Food and Veggie Paella

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Hello Dear Reader,

Take a good look at £28! Blink and you’ll miss it! If you squint really hard, you’l find one luxury item - sun dried tomatoes. They make any meal tastier and cost £1.19. The only meat is ham for our lunches at £1.79 a pack and the peppers are becoming prohibitively expensive and I’ll have to use frozen in the future.

We both have good jobs and a reasonable budget for food and could spend more than we do. My great concerns are for the families up and down the UK who just can’t afford fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh milk or dairy products and rarely if at all eat meat. Meat isn’t essential but good proteins take some creativity if you can’t afford soya or quorn either. Unfortunately, junk food is cheap. Starchy cakes, pizza, frozen chips are cheap in comparison to fresh fruit and veg. The only fruit we buy are apples and bananas and they cost us around £3.50 a week, it would be double that if there were children in the house. I’m becoming increasingly concerned for British families who are struggling to eat fresh healthy food.

I’m not an extravagant shopper and some of the items I bought will last a lot longer than one week and I won’t need to buy them next week such as: Bran Flakes, Loo Rolls, refuse sacks, lard and marg for pastry (to make pasties for DB’s lunches) and Bread Flour (only £1 in Aldi and £2 anywhere else).

Tonight’s supper - Veggie Paella with a handful of prawns found lurking in a bag in the bottom of the freezer!

Serves 4

500-600ml of vegetable stock - made from cubes from Approved Food.
200g of long grained rice - I have the European rice mountain in my cupboard.
1 onion finely diced.
3 garlic cloves - crushed.
2 courgettes - diced - not essential but I’m using them up
1 diced red pepper
1 cup of frozen peas.
Tablespoon of dried parsley
Tablespoon of Paella seasoning - some one brought this back from Tenerife for me and it goes on and on. You can use smoked paprika if you don’t have any.
You can add any cooked meat, such as gammon, chicken or any fish or just have it with veggies.

1. Make the stock
2. Fry the onion, garlic, peppers, courgettes and peas,
3.Add the stock and rice and seasoning.
4 - If too dry add stock, if too wet, add rice
5. Stir over a low heat until rice is soft and fluids absorbed
6. Ta-da!!! Paella

It’s totally delicious and wonderful comfort food.


Now some news! We’re in the middle of operation deep clean and tidy along with back breaking gardening as we’ve booked some estate agents to come and appraise our house with the intention of putting it on the market. We’re having another attempt at downsizing! We’ve no idea to where, just South East Cornwall and wherever we can afford and can get a mortgage on. You heard it here first. It will be a few week before the house goes on the market but the adventure begins!

Over to you Dear Reader, who else is increasingly concerned about the price of food? Let me know or just have a good moan! We’ll all be digging for victory at this rate!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxx

Salmon Fish Cakes and Sweet Chilli Sauce

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Hello Dear Reader,

I love sprouts. I usually sprout seeds in the depths of winter to get some ‘fresh veggies’. I’m using up what I have so these seeds were found at the back of the cupboard. I eat the ‘sprouts’ raw in salad.

Salmon Fishcakes and Sweet Chilli Sauce.

500g of cooked mashed potato 36p
250g of cooked salmon - £1.50
1 beaten egg - 17p
1 tablespoon of dried chopped parsley -12p
3 tablespoons of flour 3p
2 slices of homemade bread - crumbed in the food processor - 3p
Squirt of value ketchup - 2p
Total - £2.23. Makes 8 - 28p each. I used four on each plate for the sake of the photograph but we only ate two each and we’ll have the other two for lunch tomorrow.

1/4 bag of rocket - 23p
1/4 bag of baby leaf spinach 23p
sprouting salad.

Total cost of dinner - 79p per person.

I added two hard boiled eggs because I’d cooked them for sandwiches and they hadn’t been eaten and I didn’t want to waste them.

Combine the mashed potatoes, flaked salmon (I cooked mine in the microwave for two minutes), parsley and squirt of ketchup. You do not need to add left over hard boiled egg!

Form into patties with your hands and roll in flour.

Dip in egg and then roll in breadcrumbs. They will all stick to your fingers but never mind, it all washed off.

Heat a small amount of oil in a non stick pan and fry on a low heat, allow to crisp on one side before you turn them over.

For those who have asked - this is rocket. A peppery and extremely tasty salad leaf.

Here are the cooked Salmon Fish cakes. I bought my sweet chilli sauce from Approved Food and three bottles cost £1. Anything ‘fishy’ is great with sweet chilli sauce, including crab cakes.

Here’s our finished supper and as I said, the plates are piled high for photographic purposes but we only needed two each. This is what a 79p supper looks like in our house!

Close up of the sprouting salad alongside the fish cakes.


Here’s what the insides look like with the crispy breadcrumb coating. If you want to make fish cakes, you can use tinned salmon, tinned tuna, yellow stickered reduced smoked haddock, try with smoked mackerel as you can buy them for around £1 each. You could make a veggie version with steam leeks and cheddar. Over to you now Dear Reader, who else is eating really well from their store cupboards? Who else has some ideas for fish cakes?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxx

Coping with the costs of school trips

money saving

Hello Dear Reader,

It’s that time of year again! As a parent, I knew about this time of year from September onwards and it worried me from September onwards. If this time of year is breaking the bank or in my case my spirit, then you know I am talking about ‘activities week’. My kids used to bring home letters for kayaking in the Ardeche, trips to Barcelona, German exchange and wildlife trips to Madagascar. They went on some of the trips some of the time, but I can assure you that it was at the expense of us as a family have a trip together.

I’ve been getting emails from worried parents who are struggling with the bills for expensive trips when they can’t afford it. It didn’t used to upset me but infuriate me that schools could divide up the rich children from the poor children and exclude some of the children from learning experiences based on parental income. However, this seems to be increasingly the norm in schools all over the UK and yet the recession deepens. In real terms incomes are falling, the cost of living is increasing but according to readers, parents are being asked to find sometimes £700 - £1500 for school trips to far flung and exotic destinations.

Activities such as coasteering, kayaking, sailing or rock climbing can cost £50 - £75 a day. I’m a great believer in stretching and challenging children but a week of this would be totally unaffordable for most families.

Just do a google search dear readers and you can find organised excursions for UK schools to all parts of the world. I knew of a school that took the school orchestra to Australia! The students fund raised but mostly paid their own way. Schools regularly take a skiing trip each year and parents get the opportunity to pay monthly instalments. I feel that expensive school trips are that they are socially divisive and if I were the secretary of state for education, I would set a cost cap that any school could charge for school trips at an amount that even parents on minimum wage could afford. Life is divisive enough without parents worrying about the cost of education which is technically paid for by taxation.


I will add, for those who live outside the UK, that some schools have abandoned ‘activities week’ because the whole process is divisive and parents couldn’t afford the activities. I know schools that offer activities that are free or at a very low cost. I really enjoy taking children on trips where they can learn in other ways and will often see the best of them outside the classroom. Some families make the decision to not have a holiday as a family and pay for their children to go on activities week instead.

When my children were at school, I was a mature student who worked for minimum wage and DB also had a low paid job. We did our best and kept a roof over our head and food on the table. Our children didn’t have much but did go on some of the school trips. I remember getting ‘the letter’ and almost shaking and crying with despair at how I would find the money to pay for it. I really feel for parents who are struggling and would say this to them. If you can’t afford it, talk to the school as a lot of them can help with costs. If you feel the school is being socially divisive then write to the Chair of Governors and politely voice your concerns. You have a right to express your opinions. My heart goes out to parents who have to say no to their children when the children know they are being left out. Life can be very unfair.

Over to you Dear Reader, I would love to know your opinions on the increasing costs of ‘extras’ that parents are being asked to pay towards their children’s education. What bank and back breaking costs do you have to pay for? How expensive are some of these school trips? Dear American readers, did you find the money for your children to go to summer camp? What do other parents in other countries have to pay for school excursions? Does anyone have children at a school that doesn’t have activities week?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Making the most of a slow cooker or crock pot

frugal food


Hello Dear Reader,

Vegetables have to be able to get up and walk away on their own before I throw them away. Scruffy ends of celery can be used if you chop them up and throw them in a sauce or stew. It also doesn’t have to be winter for me to use my slow cooker or crock pot. How many of you use yours in the winter but stow it away in the summer months. It saves me so much money that I would otherwise spend running the electric oven. It even uses less electricity than my mini-oven.

We both get back from work by six in the evening and after work and an hour in the gym, I’m really hungry and it’s great to be able to eat really quickly. I try and use my slow cooker all year round as it saves me time and a lot of money too.

Beef Stew and Dumpling - Serves 4.

375g of Braising Steak - £1.50 - Here’s how I bulk buy from the butchers to save money on local meat.
1 onion 23p
2 carrots 7p
half a head of celery 35p
1 pack of dumpling mix - 20p (5 for £1 - Approved Foods)
Mixed beans 23p
Beef Casserole recipe mix - 10p (10 for £1 - Approved Foods)
1 tin of peas - 20p
Spring greens - 69p

Total - £3.34 - 83p per serving.


There’s two parts to this - AM & PM.

Before work, cut beef into cubes, peel and chop carrots, celery and onions, take beans out of the fridge that I’d cooked earlier and add the lot to the slow cooker. You can add or use any vegetables that you have. Just use them up. Use anything from the freezer, that you’ve canned yourself or that is in a tin in the cupboard. If you have an abundance of chick peas then use them. I used a pack of recipe mix, which made the gravy and added that. I then stirred it, switched it on and went to work for the day.

After work, I followed the instructions on the dumpling mix and formed them into six dumplings. Two for DB and one for me. I balanced them on top of the bubbling stew and prepared the spring greens. I finely sliced them, rinsed them and steamed them. Whilst it was all cooking, I went out to sweep the driveway and water the garden. I popped the tinned peas, minus the tin of course, into a bowl and microwaved them.


Well, Gordon Ramsay did not cook this dinner! It would not have been my first choice on a warm summer’s evening but it is using up what we have! I didn’t intend to stretch it to four portions but now I have tomorrow’s dinner ready for ‘ding cuisine’ and it means I can spend more time in the garden and less time in the kitchen, plus there will just be two plates to wash. Everyone’s a winner!

I thought I would show you my food savers, which covers the food in the fridge and when I reheat them.


That’s another part of the stockpile eaten. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am on a roll!!!! How’s everyone else’s frugal food faring? Who else keeps their meals under or around a pound? No idea if you can eat a meal for an Australian, Canadian, American or New Zealand dollar? How about the readers in the Eurozone, can you eat for a euro? Let me know what frugal fare you can cook for your equivlent of £1.

Take a look at Mandy’s blog - she’s on board - click here

Until tomorrow,


Love Froogs xxxx

Spinach and Mushroom Risotto

frugal food

Hello Dear Reader,

My oh my! For ‘Just doing with what I have’ - this was delicious! We have so much to thank Italy for, ice cream, Gino D’acampo and wonderful risotto. It’s just a huge bowl of deliciousness and no matter how much I reduce the portion size, I always feel totally stuffed. I have a rice mountain in my larder cupboards so rice is big part of my ‘Just doing with what I have’ menu planning. If you’ve ever made risotto, then you are told to add the stock bit by bit, I don’t do that. I add some, loosen up the rice until it starts to absorb and then add all of the rest and just stir over a gentle heat. Also, I only use a small amount of Parmesan cheese and don’t add much butter either. I think the glutinous nature of the rice adds to the silky texture.

1 tbsp oilive oil - 5p
1 tbsp butter/marg - 5p
2 large cloves of garlic crushed
1 onion finely chopped 23p
140g mushrooms sliced - half a punnet - 45p
140g of Arborio rice - 30p
4 sun dried tomatoes - diced - 11p - you could leave these out
2 veg stock cube and 650ml of boiling water - dissolved
2 tablespoon of dried parsley or fresh chopped from your garden - 3p
25g parmesan cheese - finely grated - 36p
100g spinach - half a bag - 45p

Total cost £2.03 - as ever in Frugal Towers, that’s supper for £1 per person. To be truthful, this could have fed four and we could have eaten this with some homemade bread and some salad but it was delicious albeit too much.

How to make it?

1. Dissolve the stock cubes in boiling water
2. Heat the oil and butter
3. Fry off the mushrooms, onion and garlic,
4. Add the rice until it absorbs any butter or oil,
5. Add the stock, bit by bit, stirring all the time until absorbed
6. Whilst doing this, add the Parmesan and sun dried tomatoes,
7. Keep stirring, check the rice is soft but not mushy.
8. Add the spinach and stir through until it wilts.
9. Serve straight away.


I thought I would show you the progress of my sprouting salad. It will be ready to eat at the weekend. That’s one half eaten packet of rice - gone! The sprouting seeds had been in the cupboard for months too. What have you eaten today? Who’s using up what they have and can share it with all of us?

Over to you Dear Reader. Who isn’t going to need to shop this week and is eating what they have? I saved half my shopping bill this week and I think I can do the same for the next three weeks. Who else is just making do with what’s in the cupboard, freezer or pantry?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

How to haggle for the best price

money saving
Hello Dear Reader,
This is not a sponsored post and I haven’t paid for this but I do work with MoneySupermarket on various money saving campaigns where they ask for my imput. I was asked for my haggling tips which they’ve added to the infographic. 
I’m a haggler by nature. I’m also really cheeky and not afraid to ask for something for nothing. I’ll haggle at least 20% discount on shoes if one has been on the shelf and has been tried on………..I’ll remind them that one shoe is now second hand! I’ll also haggle for free shoe polish. I haggled for a cheaper price on my lounge furniture and told them I would buy it for the right price and free delivery. I haggle on work I have done on my home and tell them that I’m sure we can come to a mutually agreeable price. I haggle with sponsors and never tell them a price out right and let them offer me something then haggle to get the price up to where I would prefer. I haggle at car boot sales and ask ‘What else can you throw in?’ I haggle at jumble sales towards the end and ask how many items I can have for 50p or £1. I have been told to get knotted on more than one occasions but I’ve lived to tell the tale.
I hope you enjoy the infographic and it was great to get my contribution added.
Now, Dear Reader, let me know, are you a haggler? Is it just not British? Who is never going to accept the price asked ever again?

How to menu plan - Three week menu plan

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Hello Dear Reader,

A quick post today and I wanted to share my menu plans for my ‘Just do with what I have July’ menu planning. We always eat the same meal on Sunday and Monday. I just plate up four meals and cover two and put them in the fridge and just eat ‘Ding Cuisine’ on a Monday. We all need a day off cooking. I pass the local pizza/takeaway shop on my way home from work and it’s always busy. I’m sure every one needs a day off cooking and a little planning keeps us out of the takeaway.

Where ever you see the word ‘salad’ it will be supplemented with either rice or cous cous. I have plenty of tinned pulses and will be adding them to salads too. I make my own salad dressing with oil, vinegar and Dijon mustard. Salads are a mixture of tomato, cucumber, grated carrots, shredded white cabbage. I sometimes add tinned cooked new potatoes and will be adding cooked beans such as haricot or kidney.

I have to make two loaves of bread for DB to have toast and sandwiches and shop for the following.

‘Just make do with what I have’ shopping list - dried cat food,95p 1 pack bathroom tissue,1.59 1 iceberg,49p 2 packs cherry tomatoes,98p 1 punnet of mushrooms,89p frozen mixed veg,£1 - Morrisons frozen green beans, £1 Morrisons 3 courgettes,89p 1 butternut squash,89p 1 small bag of value potatoes,£1.89 1 bag of carrots,75p onions,69p 4 litres of skimmed milk,£2.12 2 packs bananas, £2.46 2 packs apples,£2.78 2 large tub of natural yoghurt, £1.58 1 pack of wafer thin ham.£1.79, DB deodorant 89p, 4 pack plain soap, 89p, parmigiano reggiano cheese, £2.89 (lasts for weeks and flavours anything cheesey), custard creams 26p, shortcake biscuits 39p, Gravy Bone dog biscuits (puppy training treats) 89p - £28.95! Fresh fruit and vegetables are so expensive and even with planning, my bill is still very high for just the two of us.

I have the rest and even if I don’t like it, or I’m not that keen, I’m going to use it up and make do with what I have. Now, it’s over to you all. I want you all to share your ‘make do with what you have’ menus. If you are ‘up for this’ then leave a link to your blog in the comments and I’ll put hyperlinks into Monday’s blog post and subsequent posts to share our menu planning from around the world. Lots of really cheap but healthy food ideas would be great, especially ones that use pasta, rice and cous cous as I’m up to my knees in the stuff!

I’m off to do my week’s shop and make some bread and a fruit cake.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

How to use pulses

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Hello Dear Reader,

In the spirit of use it up and wear it out, I’m going to use all of the pulses that I have lurking around. Pulses are a good source of protein, but beware they are also high in starch and not great for the fat fighters amongst us so don’t eat them with abandon unless you want to get bigger not smaller. They are low in fat and can be tasty if you know what to do with them. I use beans in salads and dress them with a low oil version of vinaigrette along with shallots and tomatoes. I use sprouted beans in salads and they are great in sandwiches with some hummus, which again is made from pulses.


The bean mix will need soaking over night and in the morning, I will change the water and bring them to the boil in a deep pan as instructed on the back of the packet. I make sure I always cook them for long enough and follow the instructions. I will also use the bean mix in veggie soup that I will make for lunches. I will use up all the stored goods!


The sprouting seed mix will take a week to germinate and sprout. It is incredibly high in nutrients and vitamins and I have always loved sprouting salad. You can sprout salad in a jam jar. You can soak them for a few hours first to swell the beans and speed up germination but you don’t have to….I don’t and they germinate just fine.


I use two tablespoons per tray and rinse them twice a day, morning and evening. They will sprout in 4 - 7 days depending on the temperature. Once they have sprouted, rinse again and store in the fridge. If you don’t eat them that day then rinse them every day.


Here’s a fabulous video about how to make your own sprouter. They have other interesting sustainable living films too, take a look at them if you’re interested.




Over to you Dear Reader. Who’s got their finger on the pulses? Who will admit they’ve got some in the cupboard and do not have a clue what to do with them. Who is vegan or veggie and uses these all the time? Who has some great recipes or ideas. I think they are a great addition to our diets, they are cheap, go a long way, they’re nutritious and really versatile but what do you think.

As ever, I really look forward to your comments.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

How to cook the basics - The classics that save you money

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(This post has been sponsored by a provider of motor traders insurance who specialise in classic cars. I’m interested in what they do as I love old cars and would happily go any buy one but worry about the logistics of getting insurance cover for one. DB and I both love the original Minis and don’t think much at all of the new ones. Those iconic small cars were easy to find in our teens and early years of driving and my first memory of DB was of him tearing up the streets of Bath in his. I’m impressed with the service and range of insurances offered by Footman James and knowing what I know now, wouldn’t hesitate in buying an old mini, travelling around Europe in it and reliving scenes from the Italian job! As I said, this post is sponsored and they can save you money insuring your classic cars and I can save you money by helping you cook classic recipes)

Hello Dear Reader,

As promised it’s the start of ‘Just do with what I have July’. I’m going to be sharing the deepest shades of frugal cooking to use up what I have. I cooked on Sunday and we’re still eating pasties, scotch eggs, bolognaise sauce which can be made into lasagne or just served with pasta. I always make it go further by having it with green beans or sauted courgette strips or just a salad.

We make our own bread and even frugallers like us have some spare bread every now and then. I simply place a few slices in the food processor and wizz up some bread crumbs. These little bits of leftovers can make a real difference when I cook.

Scotch eggs - You will need: 1 pack of sausage meat, one bowl of homemade breadcrumbs, one beaten egg, 6 hard boiled eggs with shells removed.

1. Roll out your sausage meat on a floured board.
2. Cut into six squares
3. Place one egg on each square and bring the sausage meat up around the egg and mould until even.
4. Roll in beaten egg
5. Roll in bread crumbs and pat some on to give a crispy coating.
6. Spray with fry light or any sprayable oil and bake in a medium oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Turn so crispy all over.

Fish Cakes - You will need - any fish - look out from frozen ‘white’ fish in the value section - check the back if it says Pollock, usually from Alaska, then it’s a great fish. Either microwave on low for a few minutes until cooked or steam. Mashed potato, some parsley or even cooked leeks and mix the lot together. Roll in beaten egg and then roll in bread crumbs. It makes a small amount of fish go a long way. It’s also a great way of hiding fish and veggies from children. To cook - either fry in shallow oil or spray with frylight or something similar and bake for 15-20 minutes in a hot oven. Serve with roasted veg or salad or even a mixture of seasonal steamed veggies. Dear Reader, I’ve even used just one small tin of tuna and it will make several fish cakes.

Cheesey vegetables with a crispy coating. - You will need any cooked chunky vegetables such as butternut squash, carrots, onions, parsnips, courgettes then some steamed leeks, or cauliflower or green beans, all tipped into an oven proof dish. Make up a cheese sauce and stir into the vegetables. Use your breadcrumbs to form a crumble on top, stir some grated cheese, black pepper and mixed herbs through the breadcrumbs and sprinkle quite a thick layer on top. If you can pick any chicken from the left overs or some cooked sausages and chop those up to mix in with the vegetables, then it will make a bit of protein go a long way. Cook in a hot oven until the cheese sauce bubbles through the crumble and the top is crispy. Again, I give this a spray with frylight



Pancakes! I love them and usually use them in savoury recipes. They are easy to make and can be separated with greaseproof paper, made in advance and heated in a medium oven on a plate covered in foil.

Pancakes - Here is what you’ll need - 250ml milk (don’t have a measuring jug? - weigh 250g of milk) 2 medium eggs, 110g of plain flour and a pinch of salt. I use my stick blender for this and put the lot in a very high sided big jug and blitz until blended. If I have my food processor out, then I’ll use that. If you make the batter mix in advance, the gluten strands will improve and you will make better pancakes. I sometimes make the batter a day in advance.


Here are some ideas of what you can do with your pancakes.

Left over bolognaise sauce - a spoonful in each pancake, roll and place in an oven proof dish - cover with a cheese sauce and bake in a hot oven for 20 - 30 minutes.

Spicy chick peas and butternut squash - Peel and chop one butternut squash, one onion and one courgette. Spray with oil and bake (I use my mini oven) for 20-30 minutes. In that time, make a cheese sauce or a tomato sauce. Open a tin of chick peas and drain. Combine the squash, onion and courgettes with the tin of chick peas, stir in any of your spice stir fry sauces that you bought in bulk from approved foods. You could use a supermarket value brand curry sauce or some harrisa paste and a tub of passata to make a sauce. Place a spoon full on each pancake, roll, cover in a cheese or tomato sauce and bake in a hot oven.

Any leftovers can be put into a pancake, such as left over roast chicken, some boiled and chopped gammon, if you defrosted too much fish or you have some left over cooked vegetables. I would mix with a cheesy sauce and then cover it all with a tomato based sauce or the other way round and mix the leftovers with a tomato based sauce and cover with a cheesy sauce. I will be making quite a few pancakes as I have a lot of flour and there won’t be much meat so this is a good way to make vegetables interesting.

Finally, homemade bread. I can (and do) buy bread flour from Lidl or Aldi for about 60p a bag and can make four loaves for that in my bread machine. If you have a bread machine, then this is the time to dust it off, find the instructions of use Google to find the instructions and make your own bread. I want to know who does and if it saves you any money.

These classic money saving recipes might seem very weekday and boring but having a few ‘go to’ staples in your repertoire saves a fortune as it will use up the most basic ingredients and make a tasty supper at a low price. Here’s another classic of veggie lasagne for you to peruse or even try.

Over to you Dear Reader, give me some more ideas for breadcrumbs. I never throw a crust away and I never waste any food if I can possibly help it. More savoury pancake ideas please. I would love to hear from anyone who has started to ‘Just do with what I have’. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

This is a sponsored post and I have been sent a supermarket voucher for this.