No Spend Food Challenge

I had another look at the cupboards and the freezers over the weekend, and decided that as Dave is off work this week and we might go for days out that we could do this for another week; I have cancelled the veg box for this week so I can get everything used up, I do have some frozen veggies if needed, and may have to buy some salad.

Monday - fried new potatoes with hm meatballs

Tuesday - Beef Casserole served with noodles

Wednesday - Fish Fingers and hm chips

Thursday - Macaroni Cheese but using penne pasta

Friday - BBQ - still have sauasages in the freezer, will make some buns

Saturday - hm pizza

Sunday - Roast Pork, (found a joint hiding under the bananas in the chest freezer)

I will more than likely do a grocery shop on Friday or Saturday to replenish stocks, as there definitely isn't enough to keep us going another week after this.

Weekly Weigh In 33

Todays landfill bag weighed in at 327g (oh no!!).

It did have chicken bones in though which will account for some of the excess. So all in all this isn't too bad.

There haven't been as many crisp packets this week as I have been popping corn a plenty, add in a little salt and there is a big bowl full for sharing which costs pennies.

Dave is on holiday this week so we will see if that generates any extra waste as he likes to graze during the day whilst at home, and then just have his evening meal.

We have only got approx 6 cotton buds left with the plastic sticks then we will be using the paper sticks which are then compostable. This is only a small thing but "every little helps" as the advert says.

A Day in the Life Of

Over on MZW Mrs Green has done a "Day in the Life Of" and she asked her readers to do the same.

Here goes:

This is a typical day whilst the boys are on school holidays.

6.45am - alarm goes off

7.00am - Myself and Dave get up, we have a cup of tea, I make his pack up and put an extra load of laundry in if needed. I also make the bread dough into whatever bread I want for the day and put to prove whilst the oven is heating, if we need cakes then these are also made at the same time.

8.00am - Dave goes to work, I put bread and cakes into oven to bake; prepare the dinner to put in the slow cooker if using. I then peg out first load of laundry. Obviously I am checking the bread and cakes as well. The computer is switched on so it is ready for checking online banking. ( I try to do this daily)

9.00am - The second load is usually finished by now so this also gets pegged out. I then empty the dishwasher as this has been running overnight on economy 7 electricity.

9.30am - David gets up, I chat to him and check emails, blogs, facebook etc.

10.00am - David has breakfast usually cereal, ice cold milk and fresh orange, he watches some tv.
Tom usually surfaces around this time, he gets himself a cup of tea and some cereal, has to be hot milk.
I will then put away the laundry from the day before, and quick clean the bathroom.The boys make their beds and ensure their rooms are tidy.

11.00am - Coffee break, I check emails etc again, boys are either already playing outside or are on Playstation or Wii, this depends alot on the weather.

11.30am - Hoover the upstairs and gather laundry which will go in overnight. This is the time I would also spend half hour doing a bit of sorting out.

12.30pm - get boys their lunch (usually been complaining hungry before now)

1.00pm - I have my own lunch and check emails etc again, the boys will have gone back outside with their friends,(only usually see them now when they want a drink or a snack). I would spend some time reading maybe or do some extra sorting and hoover downstairs.

4.30pm - Dave comes home, we have a cup of tea and catch up on the day.

5.30pm - David usually comes in and spends and hour on the PC on MSN, Facebook and the online games he likes.

6.00pm - I will prepare dinner if not done earlier in day.

6.30pm - I prepare the remainder of dinner, the boys set the table etc.

7.00pm - we eat dinner, the boys clear the table, I load the dishwasher so it can be put on timer to run overnight. I also load the bread machine and set the timer. I set the washer as well on its timer. Myself and Dave will either read or watch tv, we also sometimes sit outside with a cup of tea. The boys both go back outside with their friends, they usually come in approx 8.30pm.
Tom then has approx 1 hour to catch up with his other friends on MSN, Facebook etc (certainly cheaper than him phoning all of them).
David either watches tv with us or a dvd in his room or goes on Playstation or Wii.

9.30pm - David goes to bed, Tom either comes and watches tv with us or goes to his room

10.00pm Tom goes to bed

11.00pm Myself and Dave go to bed.


NB: If the weather isn't nice enough in the evening for the boys to be outside playing then often we have family games of cards etc.

Also we only have the one family PC which is situated in the dining room so I can monitor activity at all times.

Weekly Weigh In 32

The landfill bag weighs in at 194g.

It is again silly things with having the boys around, sweet wrappers from their forays to the shop.

Odd bits on non-descript plastic that have been found whilst cleaning and tidying.

Also the plastic wrap from the pizza Tom had for tea on Saturday (luckily it didn't also have the polystyrene base).

All in all though I think this is still a good week, and considering the landfill wheelie bin was emptied approx 8 weeks ago it is not even 1/3 full again yet.

The total is now 8.187kg which avaerages 255g over the 32 weeks passed.

Week 2 of No Spend Food Challenge

I have decided to carry this over a second week, as I still have plenty in the freezer meat wise and loads in the cupboard. I also decided to try and plan for the week this week rather than looking in the freezer each day, as we are having a more stay at home week.

Breakfasts and Lunches will be as last week, Cereal, fruit & yogurt; and sandwiches or hm ready meals.

So dinners this next week will be:

Monday -Fish, baked with butter and lemon juice, and served with new potatoes and veggies from the veg box.

Tuesday - Lasagne with garlic bread ( found a couple of bought ones lurking in the back of the freezer the other day), will also do a side salad with fixins from the veg box. Have Mince in the freezer and loads of tins of tomatoes and tomato puree in the cupboard.

Wednesday - Not sure as yet as David has a football match and we have to be there 5.15pm. So maybe jacket potato when we get home.

Thursday - Will be a Chicken Curry this week as have some drumsticks in the freezer and still some tubs of Curry Sauce Base; this again will be served with Basmati Rice cooked through with the garlic & herb stock cube.

Friday - Will be Omelette with salad, this is an easy dinner for the boys, Dave doesn't usually have dinner Fridays as he has a chippy lunch at work.

Saturday - Weather dependant we may have a bbq as I have burgers and sausages in the freezer and will just make some buns.

Sunday - This could also be a bbq as there would still be enough burgers and sausages even if we used some on Saturday.

Saturday and Sunday will also depend on what we are doing as Dave starts his weeks holiday when he finishes work Friday night.

My Weeks No Spend Food Challenge

I joined in the challenge over on MZW at the beginning of the week.

I get my milk delivered from the milkman, eggs from the farmgate and have an organic veg box delivered weekly, so in theory I shouldn't have needed to go to the shops for any food items whatsoever.

I had also done a small grocery shop on Saturday so did have some bits in.

Breakfasts are usually cereal or fruit and yogurt.

Lunches are usually sandwiches or rolls. Unless Dave takes a hm frozen ready meal.

Here is what I cooked for dinners throughout the week:

Monday - we had Turkey Stir Fry with noodles, using all ingredients from either the freezer, pantry and veg box.

Tuesday - we had Savoury Mince Cobbler, again using some mince frozen from a previous batch of mince in gravy, adding in a scone cobbler topping and some cabbage from the veg box


Wednesday - it was Macaroni Cheese, but using penne pasta instead of macaroni, I also prepared a salad to go with this.

Thursday - was Pork Curry and Basmati Rice. Pork Curry base was already in the freezer from a previous batch so just had to add in some onions, garlic and pepper and cook the rice.

Friday - Omelettes and salad, with fried new potatoes, cooked these up specialy to be able to fry them off.

Saturday and Sunday - these 2 days days are a little difficult as myself and Dave aren't at home on Saturday, and David is at a friends, so Tom is having pizza and oven chips (admittedly already in the freezer); Sunday we are out for the day so will be sandwiches and maybe a jacket potato when we get home if still hungry.

No Spend Food Challenge

Over on MZW they are having a





Why not head over and have a look at what is going on.

Myself I have cleared out and defrosted a freezer and found some bits lurking in the backs of the shelves.

The idea of the challenge is to only use what you have either in your pantry or fridge or freezer.
If needs must you can purchase fresh milk and veggies.

This idea also uses up things that maybe you've bought thinking they would be a good idea but never gotten round to using.

I run a pantry store cupboard so the theory is that I should never have to "nip" to the village shop for a staple ingredient.

As items are used from my pantry I mark them onto my master shopping list, so that they are replaced on the next shop. The idea behind this is that I could if necessary (illness, weather, unforseen extra expense) use the items from the pantry and not have to worry; we live approx 10 miles from the nearest big supermarket.

Weekly Weigh In 31

This weeks landfill rubbish weighs in at 218g.

So a little over my target of 200g per week, but not too bad in the scheme of things.

This weeks included a bag that fish had been, so even though washed had to be put into landfill, a chicken wrapper although the tray is aluminium so I will keep that to reuse.

The other is just silly bits of non-recyclable packaging including choc wrappers and crisp packets .

Recycling CDs and DVDs

I am shamefully copy and pasting this from MZW, but it is easier as Mrs Green explains it so nicely.

When we did our zero waste week last year, Recycling cds sponsored one of our prizes with their best selling cd clock.
Now they are asking you for your help!
Recycling cds have teamed up with Bruce Munro; a lighting design, chandeliers and illuminated sculptures company.
Bruce Munro are are currently working on an exciting art project involving a quantity of unwanted CDs and DVDs. They need 1 million unwanted cds and dvds by September and to date have 42,649.
This is your opportunity to sift through your cupboards and drawers and find all those unwanted discs ready to be recycled into a work of art.
In order to take part, you need to fill in a short online form on the Recycling Cd’s home page telling them the amount of discs you have to recycle, your name and email address. You will then be sent details on how to send your cds and dvds to them.
Get together with friends, family, school, college, community or other groups to gather all the unwanted CDs and DVDs you can find. If you run a website, blog, twitter or facebook, then help spread the word.
Not only will you be helping to reduce landfill but you’ll be contributing to a very special art work.
Go on; you know you have some unwanted discs lying around and it feels great to declutter!

Weekly Weigh In 30

This weeks landfill bag weighs in at 187g.

There is however an extra bag this week as we had some of Tom's friends over for a BBQ/games night. This weighed in at 400g.

Including Tom and David there were 12 lads ranging in age from 11 to 19.

I had set up 2 bins one for rubbish and one for recycling; they were all very good and put things in the right bins.

We had said we would sort the food if they all brought their own drinks, but they all brought some food as well.

I did a cooked breakfast for them when they got up at 9am and including this between them they devoured the following:

48 sausages, 24 rashers of bacon, 3kg new potatoes, 24 burgers, 20 drumsticks, 36 bread buns (hm), 2 whole cucumbers, 2 whole celery, approx 50 cherry tomatoes, 36 millies cookies(hm), 2 marble cakes(hm), 12 gingerbread muffins (hm), 24 bags of crisps, 2 loaves of white sliced bread.

They also had a few cans of beer/cider and bottles of pop.