I am now really strapped for cash owing to my lovely employer having a policy of not paying invoices for 60 days! So I have done a load of work – and paid out for expenses like taxis, meals etc – but I won’t get the money for a while. The other thing is, I spent £5,000 last month! I know. On what, right? There weren’t even any massive expenses (OK, £600 for my accountant’s fees) but the rest was just £40 here, £67 there etc, and it all adds up. I HAVE to economise. Soooo, it’s back to Lidl. Typically 25% cheaper than the other supermarkets, as I have said before. I have just bought:

Potatoes, 2.5kg  - £1.49 (£2.28 in Waitrose)

German Pumpernickel bread, 500g – 79p (£1.35 in Waitrose)

Organic carrots, 750g – 96p (1kg is £1.78 in Waitrose, so 38% more expensive)

Cucumber 25p (69p in Waitrose)

Choc Advent calender, 75g – 89p (£3 for 100g in Waitrose, so 250% more expensive!)

So, the point is Lidl (and other ultra low cost outlets) are a lot cheaper.

Recipe wise, today I am going to share my storecupboard brainwave. My husband is sailing across the Atlantic this December and he needs recipes for the third and fourth weeks which are all made from storecupboard ingredients (as the fresh food will all have run out or gone off). Actually lots of things will keep for more than 4 weeks (apples, potatoes, garlic, onions, red cabbageg etc) if you store them correctly AND KNOW HOW TO COOK. But that ain’t him.

Creamy Pasta

100g dry pasta each (so, 300g for 3 people)

1 x 300g tin CONDENSED cream of mushroom or celery soup

300ml UHT milk

100g Parmesan cheese

300g tin sliced mushrooms, drained (or sundried tomatoes)

chopped ham or bacon (fried and chopped) or corned beef (chopped) or 200g tuna, drained

Method:

Cook pasta according to pack instructions (most are about 7-10 minutes). Mix with everything else except parmesan (sluice out the soup can with the milk to get all the dregs). Either eat as it is covered in Parmesan – or pile into a baking dish and sprinkle over parmesan and bake 180 degrees 15 minutes. The pasta and everything else is already cooked so really you are just melting the cheese and getting it to meld together as a ‘bake’.