First Thing on a Monday Morning

 

First thing on a Monday morning I am trying to get into the habit of checking through the previous week's menu plan, ticking off what I did eat and noting what I didn't use up.  Then I try and make those missed off items the first thing that I use on the following week's plan, especially anything that has been in the fridge for a few days.

Then I look in the fridge to double check that yes they are actually there and see what else I have that needs using.  I still have lots of vegetables that I want to use up this week if possible, but luckily everything seems to be in good condition at the moment.

Then using the freezer inventory I did a couple of weeks ago I start to plan out the meals, just roughly on a piece of paper.

Then I give myself a break from that and weigh out the new weeks rations.

I have found ... much to my surprise ... that I use only about one and a half ounces of instant coffee each week, I honestly thought I drank a lot more than that.  Maybe that amount will go up a bit now that the cooler weather seems to be here to stay, we'll see.  But even if it does I have my 2oz a week and the build up of all the extra half ounces that I haven't used, and I have not touched the first month's extra monthly ration of 4oz.

I'm going to have to switch to a bigger jar soon if I carry on having a backlog!!

Now that I have used a good proportion of my sugar for the Compost Heap Jelly I made last week, this weeks ration fitted into the jar easily.

One good thing came out of my search of the kitchen for the jelly bag for straining the fruit ... I found a stash of Love Hearts in one of my enamel containers.  It seems that I can have five packets for my 2oz sweetie ration.  😁

Week Six - Weekly Food Rations

Once everything is weighed I take a photo for the records and then get everything put away.

This is the first week that I am not taking an egg as part of my ration and I have instead chosen to take fish for the next few weeks.  So two veggie sausages instead of one egg, as has been the norm for the first five weeks, and a fish portion instead of the other.  The idea of this is that it will give  me a nice protein rich simple meal.  

This may be re-evaluated in the coming weeks as if I am trying to keep my food spend down this isn't really helping.  Fish is pretty expensive ... and quite rightly so ... and it would make up a large percentage of my £10 per week budget.   I will have to have a look through my cupboard and see what tinned fish I have in.  Although in reality tinned fish was only available through the points system during the war years, however, I may be lenient with myself to use up any reserves that I already have in as wartime housewives would have done ... we'll see.

Some things take a bit of thinking about!  🤔

Anyway after all the menu planning and weighing out it was time for my breakfast, and as per this weeks menu plan this was porridge ... and a well earned cup of coffee.

My Menu Plan for Week Six

Sue xx

One Full Month on Rations

 

It's been exactly four weeks since I started on my new rationing lifestyle, so I think it's time to have a little recap and check my figures.  Here's me just popping on my reading glasses.  😄

Each week up to now I have been able to take my ration foods from the stores of food that I already had in, so for the first month I have not had to buy any of the milk, cheese, fats, oil, sweets, sugar etc etc.  It was the same for the monthly, bi-monthly and points shopping.  All came from my food cupboard or fridge.  So the only spending I have had to do was on bread, vegetables, some washing up liquid ... oh and multipack of sanity-saving crisps.

My spending has been as follows:

Week One from Booths - £5.25

Week Two from Sainsbury's - £13.80

Week Three from Aldi - £1.15

Week Four from Booths - £3.59

So a total spend during this first month of rationing of just £23.79.

As I am allowing myself £10 a week at the moment ... it might change  further down the line if that proves too little ... that leaves me with £16.21 of my first months £40 in my royal mug.

Now officially, as I have been doing this for four weeks it should be time for me to have another twenty points to buy the next months Points shopping, but I have decided that doing this mid-month every month is just too complicated, so from now on I will get another twenty points on the first of each month.  Luckily I still have a lot of the foods I bought with my points available for me to be able to ride out these three weeks, although the three biscuits that I have left are not going to last me three weeks!!  😄

Now all I have to do is complete the rest of September on the foods that I already have in and the additional weekly rations that I should still be able to get together from the fridge and cupboard each Monday.   

I have also decided that I am going to try not to spend any of my money until the first of October.  If I have to then I have to, but my aim is to get to the end of the month with NO SHOPPING AT ALL.  If I use up the fresh vegetables that I have left in the fridge first and then work my way through the frozen ones in the freezer that I have had since before the Challenge began, this should be possible.

I am already out of bread, but after last weeks mouldy bread incident I think a couple of weeks without eating bread will be just fine.  I do have a couple of boxes of crackers in the pre-rationing food cupboard and once they run out ... Potato Pete will be my new best friend instead.

So in a way the last three weeks of September are to be a bit of a reset.

No, or very minimal shopping.

No points rations available.

Use up what I have in the freezer to make space.

Top up The Royal Cash Pot with as much as possible ready for future shopping.

Sue xx

Salads, Growing at Home and Freezers

 

It's definitely the weather for salads at the moment.

Luckily I have my own tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce leaves of a few varieties, cucumbers and the last few blueberries and raspberries to eat straight from the garden this weekend.

I'm still getting at least one cucumber a day from the two plants that I have in the smaller bed at the end of the garden, as many spring onions as I need each day, and suddenly thanks to this week's heatwave nearly all the tomatoes are ready for picking.

And I'm very happy about that, I'm thinking of roasting them all with some garlic from the freezer (which reminds me I must plant some garlic soon ready for next year) and some onions.  Whizzed up and then popped into the freezer in single serving sizes of sauce it will be lovely to have some Summer freshness later in the year. 

Aren't we so lucky to have freezers, I just cannot imagine not having one now.  The ease and money saving they bring to our lives is just something to be really grateful for.  

The first freezers did appear in the 1940s, known then as a 'deep freeze', but they did not go into mass production until after World War II and didn't appear in homes until the 1950s when they became a bit more affordable.  The earliest freezer section in a fridge was like this one, which is a British refrigerator from the 1940s.

I remember us having a gas fridge in our little pantry-sized kitchen when I was growing up in the 1960s.  It whirred away, occasionally making fizzing and popping noises that we just got used to, and when we opened the door to get the milk out we had to catch the door of the tiny freezer compartment that wasn't attached to anything and fell off every single time.

Sue xx

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb ... and Garlic Kievs

I picked all the rhubarb from our little garden last week.  The one plant we have there was HUGE and was taking up far too much space, the amount of rhubarb it has given us is brilliant for it's first year in situ, this is the second harvest that we have had, the first one a little bit smaller.

Once washed and chopped I divided it between two bags so we could have half each.

Almost 3lbs each of lovely homegrown rhubarb from my little Victory Garden.  Now tucked safely in Alan's freezer as mine is full to capacity.  It means we will both have lovely homegrown fruit for Winter use. 

 (Yes, I know officially it's a vegetable. 😄) 

The reason my freezer had no room for the rhubarb!!

This is the inventory that I did last week and it has all these things on it.  When these things are used up gradually over time, more than half of them will not be replaced.  Although I might allow myself a sneaky Garlic Kiev every now and then. 😏

Sue xx