Trying to buy less.... (Saving September)

[HedgeHugger]

....Meat and use up the freezer contents!
I already have pretty frugal habits.
I do find it hard to turn down a bargain!
Realised that we couldn't really fit anything else into the freezer. It's taller than me (I'm 5ft 4") and there are only 2 of us here!
I cook and freeze a lot of stuff (cook once, eat thrice, good habit ). There's blackberries in there still from last year. Not picking any more 'til they're gone.
Gawd knows how many pork chops. Lidl kept doing 3 kilos for a tenner. Mince, chicken. Frozen bags of beef, bought for a geriatric ferret that's no longer with us. He won't mind us scoffing his dinners!
Bags of spinach that must be 2 years old and probably 3!, will still get used though, even if it's just a lump into the gravy.
Homemade frozen yogurt and cake.
Various bags of potato products, and veg, and dumpling things.
Could feed a family of 4 for a month!
So the idea is run the freezer down, clean it out, then fill it back up again with new stuff :)

[Mo]

I am now more careful about how much fruit I freeze. Plenty of plums and I couldn't resist cooking and freezing (in 1/2 kilo packs so that I could make jam or crumbles later). But I realised how many years stuff I had in there, so started giving it away instead. Still keep more than a years worth as some years the crop fails. (This year there was just enough, eat, cook and eat, a few jars of jam, but use last years crop for winter)
Then there are all the bits of cooked meat left from Sunday joints and frozen to stop them going off. Must get them down.

Still you won't starve & neither will I.

[KathJ]

I think the key to left over food going into the freezer is to have it for another meal fairly soon after. The longer it stays in there the less tempting it becomes and then probably gets thrown away in the end which isn't the idea at all

[HedgeHugger]

I'm already failing @ this hehe.
Went to Lidl early so I could get a couple of pairs of those colourful leggings, bought them, but also left the shop with more pork. It was a quid off, nice chunky chops.
On the other hand we sort of won too, as we didn't clear the freezer in the shop of the reduced stuff, just bought the one! :)
Fried chops today with noodles, cooked dinner tomorrow, who knows for the other 4.

[HedgeHugger]

I think the key to left over food going into the freezer is to have it for another meal fairly soon after. The longer it stays in there the less tempting it becomes and then probably gets thrown away in the end which isn't the idea at all

I am also quite terrible for not writing on tubs, saying what's in there. Gravy is easily identified, some of my soups could be anything from chili con carne to beef stock!
Sometimes I guess accurately, otherwise it's pot luck :)

[Barkingharper]

Last month (or was it the month before?) We ate everything that was left in the fridge, freezer and cupboards before going out shopping. My youngest thought I'd lost my job!
Anyway, we had some odd meals but I had an almost empty freezer (just a few redcurrants from the summer before) before I went again. From what I can remember (and my memory is rotten) I only bought bread, nutellllla (life wouldn't be worth living re son) and a few veg in that time. Not easy but fun, in an odd sort of way.
Chrissie.

[Bluefinch]

I agree about eating everything in the freezer before buying more but don't seem to have managed it. I now have a second freezer which is almost full - couldn't resist the salmon sides on offer in Morrisons. Really must not buy any more meat/fish for the next few weeks. Just need some new recipes for the salmon, sausages, chicken bits etc which are in there.