Fantastic Freecycle

If you've never heard of Freecycle, take a look for one closest to you.  Rather than the local paper classifieds or swapshops, it's a great way of picking up things that are useful to someone but would otherwise end up in landfill. When we bought this house five years ago, it was the first time we'd lived "alone" (no flatmates or furniture) so we furnished most of the house with things that other people didn't want.  We still needed some big things, like our bed and sofas, but Mac got himself a bed with a slide, we've had a couple of dining tables before we settled on the one we have now, and various chests of drawers, toy storage and a little cupboard that I intended to restore but has ended up as my tool shed at the bottom of the garden.

This week's Freecycle classic was a freezer. We already have a fridge freezer, but now we have an extra one, in the porch cupboard. I was desperate for one last year as I was on Christmas dinner duty and I wanted to be prepping veg in advance, but we've finally got one now for nowt (except about 10 miles of petrol). It also mean that the porch cupboard had to be cleared out (mice had taken up residence - heaven knows where they'd been getting nuts from, but there was an abandoned nest to tidy up) and the freezer itself had to have a good anti-bac spray out. I'm very pleased with it!

Once cleaned, rested and ready to go, we traipsed off to Asda to fill it up. £58 later (well, £51 and a Commander Cody figure) we were back ready with what we hope will be enough shopping to last us until payday on 15th.

The point of the freezer is that this month, I'm going to be cooking bigger batches of things, thus utilising the old economies of scale principle.  It will also mean that I can meal plan more effectively as I will be able to see quickly what we have and not have to worry about what I can dish up quickly when B hasn't been home to have dinner on the table when I come in and, by the time I've picked up the boys, it's already 6pm when we get through the door.

I will ponder scanning the till receipt later on this evening and then working out how to post my meal plan for the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I am curled up under a duvet waiting for my Extra Special (??) potatoes to bake ready for tea. Should've bought some salad cream...

Breakfast
Tea & toast

Lunch
Sausage rolls, bits of salad and fruit

Dinner
Jacket potatoes, beans & cheese. Yoghurts for pud.