use it up meals!

With about £10.00 left in my budget for groceries for the next week I am faced with the possibility that as good as my intentions are, I am a sucker for food shopping and must be buying on a whim....that or I am not as good with money as I thought I was!! oopsie!


David has (very kindly) in his role as breadwinner given me a budget for the weekly food purchases...and because we have veggies delivered once a fortnight and milk three times a week, there really shouldn't be too much in the way of additional items that we should need. Well...as a ROOKIE housewife I have found it difficult to stop myself from buying TREATS and SURPRISES and well, it is tough!!


Regardless I have to reign myself in and use up what is lurking in the fridge. Over the past six weeks or so the BBC has been airing a programme called Economy Gastronomy where two professional chefs help a different family every week to reduce their spending on food, as well as reducing the waste and chucking out of unused or leftover food. I have watched in horror at families who throw out left over mashed potatoes and veggies, or the left overs of a roast chicken. Families on this programme regularly spend over four times when David and I spend on the monthly food shop, granted most of them have children, but even then the money is astronomical!!! One great segment on Economy Gastronomy is dedicated to showing how to use up the spare bits floating around in your fridge....how to create whole meals out of bits and bobs (Nigel Slater's latest programme also focuses on this), and now it is my turn! My very own economy gastronomy!!


So here is the challenge: £10.00 for 7 days and it has been 5 days since the last veggie delivery.



the contents of my fridge (i have emptied the crisper drawers...) 4 eggs, carrots, squash, cauliflower, celery, red cabbage, spring onions, tomatoes, pak choi, leeks, swiss chard and a bottle of bubbly!!!

and my cupboard...(i am so embarassed by how BARE it is....old mother hubbard...) too much baking stuff, pastas, rices, tinned tuna, Dolmilo sauce (don't judge, i add it to my stewed mince), teas and coffee. Oh and in the other smaller cupboard, Jacobs cream crackers, digestive biscuits, spices, stock cubes, peanut butter, honey and a loaf of bread on the counter.


So can I do it? I have no idea...Stay tuned!!