Thifty stock ideas

A while ago when I was starting my budget and looking for thrifty idea's, I saw someone who suggested freezing leftover wine in an ice-tray to add to cooking. I laughed when I saw this, because, I thought to myself, I never have leftover wine or would waste wine like this!

But then, a few weeks later, I noticed that the bottle of red wine we had been drinking had a tiny bit of red wine in the bottom - not enough for a glass, it was barely 2 sips.  And so, I did the thing that had previously made me laugh - I added it to an ice tray,

When I tried to remove them from the ice-tray to convert it to a ziploc bag, I noticed that the wine hadn't frozen really well and was a bit mushy.  I suspect that this is from the alcohol content which doesn't freeze well.

 Another idea for stock comes from my mom.  In a pinch, she would use a teaspoon of marmite in a cup of boiling water as stock.  I have done this a few times when cooking mince that needed some extra flavour.  My thrifty tip though, when you finish a jar of marmite, add some boiling water to the jar to get all the marmite out.  Remember, thriftiness is about using up every extra bit that you can out of something.  I did this last weekend, and used my icetray to freeze the marmite-stock water until I'm ready to use it.

Homemade chicken stock

I don't usually bother making my own stock - I mean, chicken stock cubes aren't expensive and don't take much effort to mix up.  On the other hand, chicken stock is great thing to add to almost any meal to give it extra flavour and that "made with love" taste. Plus, the real thing is full of health benefits anyway that you can't get from the cubes.*

So, since I have the bones anyway from the chicken breasts, I have started making my own chicken stock. I also have started saving up all the bits of vegetable and vegetable peelings that don't make it into my meals in a tub in my freezer, so this batch is my first chicken-and-vegetable stock.  It came out a big darker than my usual chicken-only broth, but it tastes okay so I am sure that the vegetables are the reason for the darker colour.**

The vegetables I used for the stock - mostly carrot peelings, some tomato and baby marrow.

The finished product, after straining and a day in the fridge

After making the stock, I strained it and left it in the fridge for a day to cool. I prefer to do this, so that I can take off the layer of fat before storing in the freezer. It still looked like it had some vegetable bits in it, so I strained it once before.

I bought these juice bottles earlier in the year to store soup for perfect lunch-size portions (They cost about R2.00 each).  They have come in super handy over the year.  Each bottle can take about 250ml of liquid.  The rest of it I decided to freeze in an ice-cube tray (each cube is 15ml of liquid). I like to use the cube-size portions when I just want to add a little bit of something extra. 

When you are done making the stock, keep the chicken bones.  It's amazing how much chicken is still leftover. Not enough for a meal, but just enough for a little something extra. 

The leftover chicken bones after making the stock

The chicken meat I took off the bones.

You can use the chicken meat for any number of things.

1. Freeze it in an ice-cube tray.  For those days when all you can manage is toast and cup-a-soup or 2-minute noodles, that bit of extra chicken can really make a difference.

2. You can add it to scrambled eggs or omelets when your breakfast needs something a bit extra.\

3. My favourite: add some mayonnaise for chicken mayo sandwich filling.

I'm sure that there are tons of other things you can do with it.

Ready for the freezer until I need to use it

*Read this article for the health benefits of chicken broth: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2013/02/21/10-reasons-i-drink-bone-broth/

** If you want some info on how to make a stock, you can check some recipes here, but it's not exactly brain surgery: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_chicken_stock/

Chicken breasts - the big cost saver

The biggest way that I have saved money this month is buying chicken breasts on the bone. It takes a little bit of extra effort, but you get way more meat for your money.  The last time I bought chicken breast, it was R29.99/kg compared to R49.99 for the pre-cut chicken breast pack.

In the past, I have always bought the pre-cut chicken breasts, preferring the convenience. Plus I really don't like touching raw mat of any kind.  But I have put this dislike aside, and made the decision to put a little extra effort in preparing the chicken breasts myself in place of the convenience of having it already cut.

In addition to saving money this way, it also forces me to prepare the chicken breasts for the meals that I am going to make - cutting it into chicken strips, cubes or whole breasts before freezing.

The chicken breasts before I get started - this is almost 1 kg of chicken, which cost me just under R30.00

 My mom would always buy chicken breasts on the bone, and she would always get me to help prepare them for dinner. Each chicken breast can yield 2 - 3 portions of chicken meat.

The chicken breasts once I am done -  each pack is worth R7.50 towards my meal budget of R20.00

From the 3 chicken breasts, I got enough meat for 8 portions - because I am only cooking for 2, that is 4 meals.  Plus because some of the meals require cubes or strips, I don't have to worry about cutting up nice portions of chicken breasts.  The chicken breasts which I did keep whole, are actually really thick, and I could probably have sliced them a bit thinner, but didn't because of what I will be using them for. 

Ready for the freezer - I have lots of little bags which I clean and reuse until they really need to be thrown away. I use masking tape to mark the bags so that I don't have to write on them.

Another thing I learned from my mom was to save the bones and skin for making chicken stock. Once I am done preparing the chicken, I usually don't have enough energy to make the stock as well, so I put it in the freezer until I am ready - there is only so much kitchen work I can do in one evening.

So yes, it does take a bit of extra effort, but remember that you don't need to do everything in one day. But for me, making this change made such a big difference budget wise and meal wise. I don't have to cut the chicken up for whatever meal I am making in the evening - all I need to do is defrost the meal pack.

Being on The Budget

So this is week 3 on the budget, and it has gone really well.  It has also been really tough though.

For example, day one - I wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner (it was Friday after all).  Usually on a Friday we do takeaways, but I decided against it because it was also month end and I was in no mood for queues and crowds or a 2 hour wait for delivery.

And so I found myself walking the aisles of the store on a Friday afternoon trying to think of a quick and easy dinner for myself and The Mr for R20. And they were making boerewors rolls in the store, so I was getting hungrier and hungrier. And I was ready to say "Screw it, screw the budget". But it was day one. So I decided to stick to it. After a very long time, I left the store with 4 hamburger rolls and 1 tomato. At home, I quickly defrosted a pre-prepared pack of chicken strips (pre-prepared by me - more on this later), which I fried up with some green pepper and barbeque sauce - and then made rolls with them. On the side, I made some oven baked chips and onion rings (which comes from my general grocery budget because I buy this for the month).

That weekend, I decided that I would never again find myself wondering the aisles of the store trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I drew up a meal plan for the whole month. Ofcourse, every few days I would change things around, depending on what ingredients I was able to buy and the prices. But it has definitely made my life much easier.

Other thrifty things I did this month:

1. I started a stock tub in the freezer: any bits of vegetables, or vegetable peels, gets put into the tub in the freezer. When I eventually make my stock later this week, I will use the veggies for added flavour.

2. I saved half a tub of yogurt by freezing it and turning it into frozen yogurt.

3. I saved half a loaf of bread by freezing the slices and using it for toast.

4. I saved bits of sauce from 3 different dinners, ready for a second life in another meal.  For example, this was the sauce leftover from a chicken casserole I made on Monday. Instead of throwing the sauce away, I transferred it to a ziploc bag and froze it. I am sure that I will find a use for it soon.

I only wish that I had a larger freezer!

But I must say that it is going well, and The Mr is completely onboard, which definitely helps.  So far, the only meals that have gone over R20 are over the weekend - and usually those meals are bought with spending money anyway, and not with grocery money.

I may do a few things differently in the upcoming months - I am going to review the process at the end of October and decide the way forward. But I can already see how much money I have saved this month.

My new health craze

Source: http://imgur.com/pzqfmru

We have a rule in our house (kind of) that we only drink fizzy cooldrinks on the weekend. We generally don't stick to it very well, unless I put my foot down.

But during the week at least, and especially at work, I try and drink a lot of water. 

Having said that, I really don't like the taste of plain water, unless it is ice cold (I do keep a glass jug in the fridge with water in it). But what has really helped me is making my own infused water each day.


It was something that I had wanted to try for a while, but didn't because I thought it would be too expensive and time-consuming. But a few months back, we had some leftover frozen fruit in the freezer (which we usually use for smoothies) and as we were over our smoothie phase, I decided to use them up by adding them to my water bottle.

It's been working really well for me, and after trying a few combinations, I have found that lemon and mint water is my thing, sometimes with a couple of slices of cucumber or strawberry thrown in.

Here is how I do it: First of all, I buy the fruits. Then I chop them. Then I freeze the slices. In the morning, I grab a few slices, throw them into my bottle and fill up with water. It takes about 20 minutes, so by the time I get to work the water is ready, and I can fill up the bottle a few times during the day.

I use a smoothie shaker - it is BPA-free and has a handy mesh-thing to prevent the fruit from coming out when you drink it).

This is the type of bottle that I use

If you are keen on trying, here are some websites which give some great combination ideas and nutritional facts:
http://www.nutritionstripped.com/simply-infused-water/
http://www.prevention.com/food/cook/25-flat-belly-sassy-water-recipes
http://www.infusedwaterrecipes.com

The Month of the Budget

I have really been struggling with the cost of living lately.

The Mr and I made some career decisions, plus we had some set-backs, all of which put some strain on our monthly expenses and savings.  Unfortunately, we did not change our lifestyles much to cater for those changes and so now I find myself in the situation where I have some debt and little savings.

I have never really had to work on a budget before, because I have always been quite frugal.  But for some reason I am just not getting it right anymore.

So now, I have instituted the major budget! Budgeting is not fun, but I have worked out a schedule whereby I can pay off my debt by next year and still live comfortably and eat properly.  I will just have to live carefully.  But I think I can adjust and I am quite excited about it.

The 4 major portions of my budget are:
1: Spending money will be drawn in cash for the month. I can only use my cash for entertainment and luxuries, not my cards.
2: All meals which I cook have to be within a certain cost range.  The grocery money should cover the groceries for the month, and I should not have to use my own money to cover additional costs.
3: I am going to pay the same amount on my credit card each month until it is paid off.  For example, if my budget allows for me to pay R1000.00 to my credit card per month - this is my R500 minimum payment plus an additional R500.00.  Each month, my monthly minimum payment will decrease, but "my" contribution will increase so that I will still pay R1000.00 per month. This will only work if I do not spend anything extra on my credit card, which will be the tough part.
4. Zero wastage in the kitchen - no leftovers to be wasted, no groceries to be thrown away because it went off before getting eaten, etc. Everything to be used!

This is my first month on The Budget - so lets see how it goes!

I have also been online and looked at just about every website about how to save money and be thrifty. And none of these are South African based, so it has been a little hard. I don't have a gym membership to cut, I don't buy coffee on my way to work every day, I already use public transport and I don't get manicures and pedicures. So trying to cut my cost of living has been really hard.

The meal planning will be the major change for me. The Mr and I have a joint account where we each contribute money for the groceries each month.  In theory, this should cover our groceries for the month but yet every month I end up spending a lot of my money on groceries.  I tend to buy things like "Mince Mate" and I love Ina Paarmens Sauces - but these make the cost per meal rise drastically.  We also end up using the grocery account for weekend braais and takeout. This will now come from our entertainment money for the month. I have split or grocery money into 2: the general fund will cover cleaning supplies, and groceries like spices, rice, pasta and potatoes, juices and cereals (i.e., general foods). The meal fund will cover dinners only, as this is the only meal we really eat at home except for the weekend. But I will worry about weekend breakfasts and lunches once I make it through the month. Like I said, this is my first month on The Budget.

My budget for dinners is R20 for 2 people. I know it sounds ridiculously low - but remember that things like rice, pasta and potatoes are part of my general grocery bill and not my meal grocery bill.

What I did this winter

This winter I planned to work on several of my goals:

1. Craft projects, including knitting and sketching
2. Sorting my Photographs
3. Continuing my health and fitness plan
4. Decluttering and sorting my home

In actual fact, I achieved very little of this and spent most of the winter hibernating.


At first I was disappointed with myself, when I realised two things:
1. The only person putting pressure on myself was me
2. I am not a 1950's housewife - this is 2014 and I work full time

I tend to take on most of the housework and cooking during the week (reason being, I get home from work 1.5 - 2 hours before my boyfriend). Almost every day he comes home to a cooked meal, dishes and laundry done, bird fed and cage cleaned - all he has to do is sit down and eat in the evenings.

The other reason that I tend to take over the housework, even over the weekends, is because of my personality. I like to plan and organise. I spend long portions of my day (when I am not working) thinking about meal plans for the week, grocery lists, my schedule when I get home and spring cleaning that needs to be done.

So perhaps the winter hibernation was good for me. Although I still did the cooking and cleaning every evening, I didn't pressure myself to do anything more that I could cope with. And if I felt like everything was too much, if I was just too tired to cook and clean and do everything all the time, Mr never put pressure on me to be Perfect Housewife (this is one of the reasons I love him so much).

But now it is spring time - the days are getting longer and the evenings are warmer. And so it is time to restart my healthy living routine.