Truly Thrifty Thursday.

A good start to my day, my Approved Foods parcel arrived at mid day, look how well I did.

I do not normally buy cake mixes but these have been praised on some of the blogs that I follow, and they were so cheap I decided to spend a little and give them a go.
The herby dumpling mix is very good, it makes a delicious pastry crust as well as fluffy dumplings and this time I also bought a plain version, jam roly poly anyone?
I went "scrumping" in my garden and came up with these.

Blackberries, about half of my pickings, soaking in a little vinegar water.

Two different types of apples, 1 breaks down into fluff and the other holds it shape, best of both worlds.

Throw these into the equation and I will have.

I vanilla crumb cake, using half the sponge mix and half of 1 packet of crumble sprinkled over the top before baking

1 apple and blackberry crumb cake using the second half of the sponge mix with finely diced apples and blackberries, rinsed and dried off, stirred into the mix and then topped with the second half of the crumble mix.

2 apple and blackberry crumbles  using the rest of the fruit and the second packet of crumble mix.

These will all cook together and take 30 minutes.

We are having Big Yorkshire Puddings filled with beef casserole for dinner tonight. I will time my baking so that when the cakes and crumbles come out of the oven the Yorkies go in they will cook in 20 minutes. The casserole will simmer in the bottom and reheat beautifully. By the time dinner is ready all the washing up will be done and when we have finished eating the cakes will be cool enough to cut into portions to freeze, we will have 1 crumble and Nev, my neighbour will have the other, and a slice or 2 of cake.

This little lot has been packed away and will keep us going for ages, the cake mixes, crumble mix and dumpling mix means that I will not have to buy flour. That may seem senseless to you but I aim to spend a maximum of £10 a week, for as long as possible, just buying dairy and fresh veg and salad as part of my "use it up" challenge. I will be able to shop in my local Co op and one of the most expensive items that I use is Flour. It is over £1 a 1.5 Kg bag whereas in the big 4 it is less than half that. I do not want to have to drive to Wisbech to buy flour, all that petrol cost, but equally I could not bring myself to pay the inflated local price. 

I was given a bag of carrots, beetroot and runner beans last night so my veg stocks are up and I was given 2 bags of salad leaves at work last night. Quite a saving and these will eke out my homegrown stuff.

Reasons to be grateful. 

1. A wonderful sunny day.( these will be memories all too soon)

2. A delicious dinner coming soon.

3. A fantastic nights/mornings sleep thanks to my new blackout blind. ( It was a  Mackintosh until yesterday afternoon)

4. A lovely chap from the village came and cut some rampant shrubs hard back for me. It took him an hour and would have taken me all day.

5. 4 consecutive no spend days and no need to spend for another 4.

That last one is music for my soul, not only am I saving money but the time saved will be put to good use in my sewing corner.

A quick note to say that I have just realised that the threads I should have posted off are in the boot of Francesca's car, which is as you all know in the garage. It returns to the fold on Saturday and said parcels, along with 3 other parcels and a small handful of letters  will be in the post. With all the hassle of dealing with her car breakdown and the rush of getting away to Wales it just slipped my mind and went walkabout. Add to that that when I tried to send some emails the 'puter sent them all to Michael's work email, so I could not apologize personally.

It will all come out in the wash, I hope so anyway. Now it is definitely time for tea and time to make the Yorkshire mix, I am old fashioned and like it to rest for a couple of hours, before cooking.

Another old fashioned thing about me is the way I clean, white vinegar is my best friend. The shower head was beginning to look "iffy" so it is soaking in vinegar and will be as clean as a whistle soon. The vinegar will then be poured into 4 little plastic bags with some cotton waste and tied around the bathroom taps overnight. Once removed and the taps rinsed they will be sparkling and have no trace of limescale. Double bubble.   TTFN    Pam