My oldest son is terrified of birds so even though we live just down the road from a free range egg farm and they have regular sales where older birds are only a pound or so each we do not have our own chooks. This morning when I had the craving for something sweet but did not have eggs to make any muffins or cupcakes I reached for an old notebook and made some shortbread.
I think the recipe came from an old microwave recipe book that came free with the appliance which has long since been replaced. It uses just three ingredients - caster sugar, butter and flour and only takes 5 minutes to cook in the microwave. You can also cook it in the oven - that takes a massive 10 minutes instead. This is one area where I use butter rather than margarine because I prefer the taste, but both will work in the recipe. If I am pushed I will use half and half for the plain recipe. As always there are variations you can do to jazz up the recipe if you have a few pennies more. I did not have caster sugar either so gave some granulated sugar a blitz in my blender before using (old Shirley Goode tip for saving a few pennies).
Basic Shortbread Makes 8 (big) wedges
250g plain flour
125 g butter (must be at room temperature i.e. soft)
60g caster sugar
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin suitable for the microwave (I use a Pyrex one but silicon ones also work well- poundland sell them), a standard sandwich cake tin will work for the conventional oven. If you are using a microwave, and do not have a tin, I have been told you can put the dough directly onto a piece of baking paper that has been sat on the turntable.
Mix together all the ingredients to form a soft dough, I just use a big metal tablespoon. You only need to mix until just combined - this is not like pasta dough or bread dough where it needs to be kneaded.
Press the dough into the tin using the back of the spoon (it's too soft to roll out) and prick over the top with a fork to prevent it rising too much as it cooks.
Pop into the microwave and cook on HIGH for 5 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin for at least 4-5 minutes more- don't skip this stage as the shortbread will just disintegrate as you cut it. Turn out onto a chopping board to remove the paper and gently cut into wedges. Serve with a cup of tea.
Variations- use whichever your hearts desire today
If you don't have plain flour self raising will still work - they just puff up a bit
Makes a good base for millionaires shortbread, add a layer of caramel and then melted chocolate
Drizzle the top with melted chocolate and/or chopped nuts
Drizzle the top with basic white icing (icing sugar and water) and/or coconut
Add chocolate chips (or in my case chopped value chocolate bar)
Add chopped nuts
Add dried fruit and candied peel (giant garibaldi)
Substitute 25 g of the flour for ground nuts such as almonds (gives a moist texture)
Substitute 25 g of the flour for cornflour (gives a smoother texture)
Substitute 25 g of the flour for ground rice (gives a slightly crunchy texture)
Add grated zest to the dough (lemon, orange, and lime all work) I like to use orange if I am drizzling with chocolate and lime/lemon if using icing and coconut.
I believe that it should last up to 5 days in an airtight tin, but have never had the chance to test it!
Wednesday 22 July 2020
Monday 20 July 2020
Saving money on dried pasta.
Farmfoods used to send a flyer through our door once a month. For those of you that don't know Farmfoods is primarily a frozen food outlet but it has a small selection of things like bulk packs of cat food, biscuits and crisps and other things like rice, pasta and condiments. Not everything that is for sale is a bargain. This is one area where you need to look at the size of the packet and work out if it really is better value, for example the branded soup for sale is actually a smaller sized tin. Nowadays they have started giving the vouchers that used to be on the flyer on the website as single use codes. Although I go infrequently I usually do some research and get a trolley full of things that are better value and then I have the vouchers on top. Definitely not (for me) a whole week shop and weirdly enough there is very rarely any frozen food in it.
Nowadays you get an email rather than a physical paper flyer and the list of bargains this week included dried pasta (penne) at 19p a pack. I used my stocking up fund outlined here to buy 4 packs of 400 g each (again smaller pack size than for example Tescos).
Price I paid (no coupons used since I did not get to the £25 threshold) =4*19p=76p for 1600g total.
Price at Tescos is 53p for 500g pack so 1600g would have cost me (53/500)*1600=170 pence or £1.70 (rounded up to nearest penny) - nearly a pound saved but only so long as I use the same amount of pasta. The tendency when you "eyeball" the amount of food that you cook is to use slightly more if you have more in the packet - or if you are hungry. I always weigh out the pasta that I cook using a set of digital scales (75g per person for a main meal), even if it is just a few pence saved each time then it still adds up over the year (we have pasta at least twice a week). If you don't have these and don't want to spend your budget getting a set just yet then use a cup or mug to get the same volume each time (the weight will obviously be different depending on the shape of the pasta but when I am on a tight budget I don't get sniffy about which shape pasta I buy)
How do I serve it - well the most simple is referred to as Love Pasta in our house. When my oldest kids were small they did not want Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce and would announce loudly that they did not like it. The next time we called it Love Pasta (since it was made with love) - clean plates all round.
For 4 people
300 g pasta - cook in boiling salted water
Whilst the pasta is cooking in a separate pan heat up one carton of value passata and a good sprinkle of garlic powder (I buy mine from Lidl).
When pasta is cooked mix together and serve.
Variations
Loads....Try one or a combination...
Top with grated cheese before serving
Add chopped bacon to sauce
Add sliced sausage to sauce
Add mixed dried herbs (or a spoonful of pesto)
Add grated carrot/courgette to the pan to soften before adding the passata
Add sliced mushrooms to passata
Use an onion which has been chopped and softened in oil instead of the garlic.
Add chopped fresh chilli to tomato sauce
Add sliced chorizo to sauce (good with the chilli)
Add lettuce or chard or rocket or spinach to the passata and allow to wilt before serving.
Add seafood such as prawns to sauce
Leftover roast meat can be added to sauce
Roasted veggies (peppers/tomatoes/aubergine/courgette) can be added to the sauce.
Nowadays you get an email rather than a physical paper flyer and the list of bargains this week included dried pasta (penne) at 19p a pack. I used my stocking up fund outlined here to buy 4 packs of 400 g each (again smaller pack size than for example Tescos).
Price I paid (no coupons used since I did not get to the £25 threshold) =4*19p=76p for 1600g total.
Price at Tescos is 53p for 500g pack so 1600g would have cost me (53/500)*1600=170 pence or £1.70 (rounded up to nearest penny) - nearly a pound saved but only so long as I use the same amount of pasta. The tendency when you "eyeball" the amount of food that you cook is to use slightly more if you have more in the packet - or if you are hungry. I always weigh out the pasta that I cook using a set of digital scales (75g per person for a main meal), even if it is just a few pence saved each time then it still adds up over the year (we have pasta at least twice a week). If you don't have these and don't want to spend your budget getting a set just yet then use a cup or mug to get the same volume each time (the weight will obviously be different depending on the shape of the pasta but when I am on a tight budget I don't get sniffy about which shape pasta I buy)
How do I serve it - well the most simple is referred to as Love Pasta in our house. When my oldest kids were small they did not want Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce and would announce loudly that they did not like it. The next time we called it Love Pasta (since it was made with love) - clean plates all round.
For 4 people
300 g pasta - cook in boiling salted water
Whilst the pasta is cooking in a separate pan heat up one carton of value passata and a good sprinkle of garlic powder (I buy mine from Lidl).
When pasta is cooked mix together and serve.
Variations
Loads....Try one or a combination...
Top with grated cheese before serving
Add chopped bacon to sauce
Add sliced sausage to sauce
Add mixed dried herbs (or a spoonful of pesto)
Add grated carrot/courgette to the pan to soften before adding the passata
Add sliced mushrooms to passata
Use an onion which has been chopped and softened in oil instead of the garlic.
Add chopped fresh chilli to tomato sauce
Add sliced chorizo to sauce (good with the chilli)
Add lettuce or chard or rocket or spinach to the passata and allow to wilt before serving.
Add seafood such as prawns to sauce
Leftover roast meat can be added to sauce
Roasted veggies (peppers/tomatoes/aubergine/courgette) can be added to the sauce.
Sunday 12 July 2020
Free Food! Blackberry season is here. Time for Blackberry Crumble Cake.
Normally I fight the brambles all year (they come through the hedge from both neighbours) and have got rid of the climbers that used to cover the fences on both sides of the garden since this just gave the brambles a place to hide. But I have a patch which were just too much of a pain to get to that I have left and now they are covered with ripening berries which should keep us going without having to leave our property (shielding thanks to COVID) until the season runs down in October. Of course I'll have to fight my eldest son off as as soon as he knows they are there he will strip the entire bush just for a snack. I do not know what it is but I have a plant which I bought from Poundland a couple of years back which is a blackberry cultivar with no thorns- this grows stems and leaves like a weed but I have never had a single berry. The plants I try actively to destroy are the ones which give me a steady but small supply to supplement my kitchen.
The next thing is to decide what to make with them. Not being a fan of any kind of jam (don't know why, I love fruit but don't like the taste of jam) I will not be preserving the bounty this way but prefer to freeze the berries instead.
Not enough to do this yet though so I think the first harvest (which is after all a little small) will go into my favourite blackberry pud and that is a crumble cake.
This is sponge cake on the bottom (plain or flavoured), topped with fruit in the middle and then finished off with a crumble topping. Warm with vanilla icecream (or even custard) the use of the sponge means that even for eight servings you need only the equivalent of one supermarket punnet of fruit. Other berries and fruit can be substituted for some or even all of the blackberries.
Blackberry Crumble Cake (serves up to 8)
For the cake:
110g butter or cooking margarine
200g caster sugar
4 large eggs
2 tbsp yogurt
200g self-raising flour
Topping
150-200g fresh blackberries (you need enough to make a single layer over the sponge mix)
Crumble topping:
100g butter or cooking margarine(the block kind), cut into cubes
140g plain flour
50 g sugar
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 C.
Prepare a traybake rectangular in by greasing and lining with parchment paper.
Make the sponge mixture by creaming together the butter and the sugar until creamy. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating between each one. (If the mixture splits add a tsp of the flour and beat again). Stir in the yogurt. Fold in the sifted flour. Tip this mixture into the tin and smooth gently over the surface to give a layer at the bottom.
Scatter over the berries to form a single layer.
Tip all the ingredients for the crumble into the same bowl and use your fingertips to rub in the margarine. (I find block margarine works better than the soft spread, don't know why...) You want something that resembles breadcrumbs; it should not look like a dough, if it does add more flour.
Scatter the crumble over the fruit as the top layer.
Bake in the oven until skewer inserted into the sponge comes out clean. About 40 minutes depending on your tin.
Variations:
Add cinnamon and/or nutmeg to the sponge (1/2 tsp each)
Add 50g ground almonds in place of 50 g of the flour and add a 1/2 tsp of almond essence to the cake mix
Add cinnamon and flaked almonds to the crumble
Add replace some of the flour with oats in the crumble (take out a couple of tbsp and substitute with 2 tbsp oats)
Use brown sugar or muscovado sugar for a deeper flavour.
Change up the fruit by using other berries like raspberries or chopped strawberries as well as blackberries. Frozen summer fruits from the freezer section work for this recipe all year round. No need to defrost.
Peeled and chopped apples or pears also work well with the blackberries.
If you don't have fresh or frozen fruit then use jam instead - small "dollops" over the surface of the sponge in a layer before putting the crumble topping on.
Serve warm with icecream or greek yogurt/ creme fraiche.
Serve cold with a cup of tea. - this is one you need a drink with.
Saturday 11 July 2020
Meal Planning - don't do it backwards!
There have been trillions of posts written about meal planning. But one thing I have found that the vast majority do is start with the meals you want to make first. Why is this the wrong way round? It gets you to focus on what you might want to eat - not using up what you already have. If you take an inventory of what is in your kitchen (including the fridge/freezer/veg rack/larder) you probably have food which would cost a couple of hundreds of pounds to replace like for like for the average family. And yet we are all guilty of claiming to have "nothing in". Cue the phone call to the local takeaway at the worse, or a trolley full of duplicates at best. (Don't believe me, go and look at just the stuff in the kitchen cupboards now and tot it up in your head).
So how to do it the "right" way round.
First work out how many meals you need to plan for - this needs to include breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks/drinks - if you eat/drink it, include it so if you know you (almost) always have a cup of tea and a biscuit midmorning include a space for those.
If you have an activity that means that you don't need to feed as many as normal (or more than normal) note these down. Or if you won't be back until late and want something quick, or conversely need to be out early and won't be back until late this will also dictate the kind of meal you have. For example Thursday (pre COVID) was brass band night for my son and I was the taxi service so dinner had to be done and dusted by 5.45; cue pizza from the freezer, 20 minutes and on the table with little or no supervision once it was in the oven. Fill these days in first.
Second thing to tackle is breakfast - if this is normally cereal due to time pressures of school and work fill these days in. Do you have fresh fruit to be used up or frozen fruit in freezer, maybe smoothies or pancakes would be good. Oats are always cheap. Scrambled eggs give a filling protein hit. Finally there is always toast. etc. Go on be a devil and try a variety of ideas.
Now go to fridge and freezer and pantry and see what you have already there. For me I look at the protein first as my husband is an avid carnivore who will pick at something and not touch it until he finds the meat. Do I have any chicken breasts in the freezer, how about bacon in the fridge, do I have tins of tuna on the shelf? I concentrate on the fridge first as these are the things that will perish first, then the freezer, then fill in the gaps with the pantry. Sometimes I even have a ready-made (home cooked) meal in the freezer from where I have cooked in bulk and frozen some for another day. What I do not do (because I am rubbish with it) is have a running inventory of how many of each thing I have in stock; this means I physically go and look and being a visual person this also inspires me more than just looking at a list. By now you should have an broad idea of what you are eating for quite a few of the main (for us evening) meals for the week, go to the cupboard and look at the flavourings etc you have to refine your ideas. Do you have pasta but no lasagne sheets - swap pasta bol for classic lasagna. Do you have long grain rice and cajun spices but no risotto rice, then that ham risotto from the storecupboard becomes jambalya instead. What order do you put them in? Well if the pepper you have in the fridge is on the way out faster than the carrots then make the meal that uses the pepper earlier in the week. Obvious isn't it. Next is lunches - do any of the evening meals offer the possibility to have leftovers the next day for lunch? Put those in. Make your challenge to not throw any food away because it is spoiled.
Next look at the website for your local supermarket for any special offers - use those as ideas to fill in some gaps only if they make a sensible choice. (That whole salmon for £12 may be on offer but if it blows the entire budget it is a no no).
Now fill in the remaining gaps. Less daunting than looking at the whole blank sheet isn't it.
By now you should have a list of those things that you intend to buy based on what is missing from home for your plan. Next thing is a final check which can save embarrassment at the checkout further down the line. Work out how much it totals out to (past receipts or a price book are useful here) and if it is over your food budget (and yes I do encourage you to make the time to do one) then adjust the meals in the plan. Do not be tempted to be a little over with the intention that you will be a little under next week - this is more likely snowball and lead to a lot less money for the last week before the paycheck. This is more damaging to your morale than swapping chicken thighs for chicken breasts and red lentil dal instead of meat curry now.
Finally you are ready to hit the shops- if there is anything you can't get (random empty shelves have become a reality this year haven't they!) then you now have the knowledge of what is still left at home to make a substitution so you and yours don't need to miss a meal.
Confession time. Do I do this every week? I would love to say yes but in reality with 3 autistic offspring, a job, side hustles and a husband who is MIA more often than not because it is "all too much" life gets in the way. A meal plan isn't a contract or a life sentence it is a guide to ensure you have enough meals to prevent those top up shops which always cost more than they should. There are no meal plan police to check that you have really had shepherd's pie for dinner today. Swap according to your mood or go off piste with a similar costing meal if you have the ingredients in. Sometimes this means the plan is done but not followed faithfully, sometimes the wheels have come off before the plan is written and I do a more generic shop and rough out a plan later. Sometimes you just have to forgive yourself for falling off the wagon, you are after all a human being - what is more important is that you get back on again, no matter how many times this is. Long term this will save you money and that will help you achieve your goals whatever they are.
So how to do it the "right" way round.
First work out how many meals you need to plan for - this needs to include breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks/drinks - if you eat/drink it, include it so if you know you (almost) always have a cup of tea and a biscuit midmorning include a space for those.
If you have an activity that means that you don't need to feed as many as normal (or more than normal) note these down. Or if you won't be back until late and want something quick, or conversely need to be out early and won't be back until late this will also dictate the kind of meal you have. For example Thursday (pre COVID) was brass band night for my son and I was the taxi service so dinner had to be done and dusted by 5.45; cue pizza from the freezer, 20 minutes and on the table with little or no supervision once it was in the oven. Fill these days in first.
Second thing to tackle is breakfast - if this is normally cereal due to time pressures of school and work fill these days in. Do you have fresh fruit to be used up or frozen fruit in freezer, maybe smoothies or pancakes would be good. Oats are always cheap. Scrambled eggs give a filling protein hit. Finally there is always toast. etc. Go on be a devil and try a variety of ideas.
Now go to fridge and freezer and pantry and see what you have already there. For me I look at the protein first as my husband is an avid carnivore who will pick at something and not touch it until he finds the meat. Do I have any chicken breasts in the freezer, how about bacon in the fridge, do I have tins of tuna on the shelf? I concentrate on the fridge first as these are the things that will perish first, then the freezer, then fill in the gaps with the pantry. Sometimes I even have a ready-made (home cooked) meal in the freezer from where I have cooked in bulk and frozen some for another day. What I do not do (because I am rubbish with it) is have a running inventory of how many of each thing I have in stock; this means I physically go and look and being a visual person this also inspires me more than just looking at a list. By now you should have an broad idea of what you are eating for quite a few of the main (for us evening) meals for the week, go to the cupboard and look at the flavourings etc you have to refine your ideas. Do you have pasta but no lasagne sheets - swap pasta bol for classic lasagna. Do you have long grain rice and cajun spices but no risotto rice, then that ham risotto from the storecupboard becomes jambalya instead. What order do you put them in? Well if the pepper you have in the fridge is on the way out faster than the carrots then make the meal that uses the pepper earlier in the week. Obvious isn't it. Next is lunches - do any of the evening meals offer the possibility to have leftovers the next day for lunch? Put those in. Make your challenge to not throw any food away because it is spoiled.
Next look at the website for your local supermarket for any special offers - use those as ideas to fill in some gaps only if they make a sensible choice. (That whole salmon for £12 may be on offer but if it blows the entire budget it is a no no).
Now fill in the remaining gaps. Less daunting than looking at the whole blank sheet isn't it.
By now you should have a list of those things that you intend to buy based on what is missing from home for your plan. Next thing is a final check which can save embarrassment at the checkout further down the line. Work out how much it totals out to (past receipts or a price book are useful here) and if it is over your food budget (and yes I do encourage you to make the time to do one) then adjust the meals in the plan. Do not be tempted to be a little over with the intention that you will be a little under next week - this is more likely snowball and lead to a lot less money for the last week before the paycheck. This is more damaging to your morale than swapping chicken thighs for chicken breasts and red lentil dal instead of meat curry now.
Finally you are ready to hit the shops- if there is anything you can't get (random empty shelves have become a reality this year haven't they!) then you now have the knowledge of what is still left at home to make a substitution so you and yours don't need to miss a meal.
Confession time. Do I do this every week? I would love to say yes but in reality with 3 autistic offspring, a job, side hustles and a husband who is MIA more often than not because it is "all too much" life gets in the way. A meal plan isn't a contract or a life sentence it is a guide to ensure you have enough meals to prevent those top up shops which always cost more than they should. There are no meal plan police to check that you have really had shepherd's pie for dinner today. Swap according to your mood or go off piste with a similar costing meal if you have the ingredients in. Sometimes this means the plan is done but not followed faithfully, sometimes the wheels have come off before the plan is written and I do a more generic shop and rough out a plan later. Sometimes you just have to forgive yourself for falling off the wagon, you are after all a human being - what is more important is that you get back on again, no matter how many times this is. Long term this will save you money and that will help you achieve your goals whatever they are.
Friday 10 July 2020
A Tale of Two Soaps
Now that we are encouraged to wash our hands multiple times a day indoors and out soap has become something that my eldest (who is doing my shopping since I am shielding) has been finding stripped from the supermarket shelves. But not once in our house have we run out, or even low. Why? Because soap is soap whether it is labelled hand soap, baby wash, shower gel or cleansing bar - even shampoo works in a pinch.
Multiple times "soap" has been on the shopping list and they has swanned round frustrated customers haranguing frazzled staff for when the hand soap will be restocked, picked up a bottle of baby wash from the next section of shelving and said knowingly to those decades older than them - "this is still soap you know". One of my colleagues was complaining that during the early pandemic he was buying his favourite soap online at £1.50 a bar more than the normal price, and it is just a relatively basic brand. This is someone who is an engineer with a degree and further qualifications. Sometimes thinking outside the box sidesteps the sales patter and saves you money in the long run. Don't keep expensive habits that you cannot afford.
In this case it was saving time and sanity running from shop to shop more than money but I was thinking about this later when stocktaking the shampoo in the bathroom. We buy a favourite cheap brand. I also buy it from a freezer food shop (Farmfoods) as that is where it is cheapest, not somewhere I would have automatically thought of to look. However I am not so precious that if I see something similar on offer at a cheaper price I do not buy that instead. Using a price list (on my phone) means I can check if I need a reminder of the usual cheapest price and I keep a separate budget for if I need to stock up. Toiletries keep for ages so it is an ideal area to grab those savings if you can. (this post explains my system)
For use the contents get decanted into an opaque bottle with a pump both so that we do not use too much but also so that I do not get complaints that it is not the usual stuff. (In fact the only one who is bothered is my husband - the kids just call it Mum's Shampoo and quite like the fact that it might be a different smell today!) I have a second bottle which I refill with whatever I have to hand and swap when the first gets low. No more shaking bottles in the shower to get the last dregs. (Incidentally I let gravity do the work overnight to get the last dregs out of the bottles by balancing the part used bottle in a funnel over the pump bottle- far less frustrating.) I do the same thing with conditioner.
Over the last year I have saved over a tenner on shampoo and conditioner alone just by shopping somewhere a bit different. The pump bottles also reduced our consumption by about half when we started using them a few years ago.
Will that saving make me a millionaire? No. But it will help pay for a weeks food for my daughter as she heads off to uni in September. It is only a tenner for what may seem like a load of effort but by equating it to something that I know I want to get (or in this case cover) it encourages me to see how little dribs and drabs make a huge difference overall when added together.
One final money saving tip for soap - if you are a bar soap user rather than liquid soap user and you use "normal" soap rather than glycerine style soap take the wrapper off the soap when you get it home and put it in the cupboard to store. This allows the soap to dry out or cure even more and the resultant bar will not get as mushy as quickly and will last longer.
Challenge yourself to think outside the box. What can you save?
Multiple times "soap" has been on the shopping list and they has swanned round frustrated customers haranguing frazzled staff for when the hand soap will be restocked, picked up a bottle of baby wash from the next section of shelving and said knowingly to those decades older than them - "this is still soap you know". One of my colleagues was complaining that during the early pandemic he was buying his favourite soap online at £1.50 a bar more than the normal price, and it is just a relatively basic brand. This is someone who is an engineer with a degree and further qualifications. Sometimes thinking outside the box sidesteps the sales patter and saves you money in the long run. Don't keep expensive habits that you cannot afford.
In this case it was saving time and sanity running from shop to shop more than money but I was thinking about this later when stocktaking the shampoo in the bathroom. We buy a favourite cheap brand. I also buy it from a freezer food shop (Farmfoods) as that is where it is cheapest, not somewhere I would have automatically thought of to look. However I am not so precious that if I see something similar on offer at a cheaper price I do not buy that instead. Using a price list (on my phone) means I can check if I need a reminder of the usual cheapest price and I keep a separate budget for if I need to stock up. Toiletries keep for ages so it is an ideal area to grab those savings if you can. (this post explains my system)
For use the contents get decanted into an opaque bottle with a pump both so that we do not use too much but also so that I do not get complaints that it is not the usual stuff. (In fact the only one who is bothered is my husband - the kids just call it Mum's Shampoo and quite like the fact that it might be a different smell today!) I have a second bottle which I refill with whatever I have to hand and swap when the first gets low. No more shaking bottles in the shower to get the last dregs. (Incidentally I let gravity do the work overnight to get the last dregs out of the bottles by balancing the part used bottle in a funnel over the pump bottle- far less frustrating.) I do the same thing with conditioner.
Over the last year I have saved over a tenner on shampoo and conditioner alone just by shopping somewhere a bit different. The pump bottles also reduced our consumption by about half when we started using them a few years ago.
Will that saving make me a millionaire? No. But it will help pay for a weeks food for my daughter as she heads off to uni in September. It is only a tenner for what may seem like a load of effort but by equating it to something that I know I want to get (or in this case cover) it encourages me to see how little dribs and drabs make a huge difference overall when added together.
One final money saving tip for soap - if you are a bar soap user rather than liquid soap user and you use "normal" soap rather than glycerine style soap take the wrapper off the soap when you get it home and put it in the cupboard to store. This allows the soap to dry out or cure even more and the resultant bar will not get as mushy as quickly and will last longer.
Challenge yourself to think outside the box. What can you save?
Thursday 9 July 2020
Post Furlough Food/Student Food : Pea, Ham and Lettuce Rissotto
This year we joined the hoards of people who had the same idea and mid March decided to grow some veggies in the garden. Normally I have an embarrassingly black thumb and can kill anything 24 hours after it is planted out but this year I researched and seem (touch wood) to have found a way that works for me using containers rather than planting in the soil in the garden. The thing is that now I have two reused stacker boxes filled with cut and come again lettuce. Only 3 out of the 5 of us eat lettuce and frankly there are only so many salad sandwiches you can eat so this recipe was inspired by one I remember from the late great Shirley Goode who was a TV cook who had the reputation of making something out of nothing way back in the 1980's. Whilst she is no longer with us her blog is still around and can be found here. The original recipe used peas and lettuce to make a soup but I turned it around to make a more substantial meal by using it for a basis of a risotto. As always there is a cheap and cheerful basic version and a splash out a bit more cash version. Quantities should feed 4.
Lettuce, Pea and Bacon Risotto
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 rashers bacon, chopped (smoked or plain, I use scraps from a cooking bacon pack)
350g risotto rice
100g peas, fresh or frozen (we got to use our own)
2 litres stock (veggie or chicken, from a cube will do)
2 little gem sized lettuces or equivalent, shredded (great for using lettuce that would otherwise be headed out the door thanks to unseasonal weather)
Fry the onion in the oil until transparent but not brown. Add the garlic and bacon and continue to fry until the edges of the onion are just starting to brown.
Add the rice and stir well to coat.
Add the stock a little at a time and keep stirring to encourage the starch to come out of the rice grains. Add another ladleful of stock when the previous one is mostly absorbed. When you add the last of the stock stir in the peas and allow to cook for another couple of minutes before adding the lettuce.
Taste the rice to test to see if it is cooked.
Variations:
Risotto rice is the perfect rice to use but if you don't have it and/or can't get it then long grain rice will still give you a tasty meal it just won't be as creamy. Pudding rice is also a starchy alternative.
A knob of butter added when you have fried the onion will add more creamy flavour.
Substitute a glass of white wine for the same amount of stock if you are lucky enough to have some.
Lemon zest and/or juice make a nice addition when you add the stock
Ham, gammon, pork or chicken can substitute for the bacon - excellent potential for using small amounts of roast dinner leftovers here.
Parmesan cheese or other hard Italian style cheese can be grated over the top before serving. (50g is plenty for 4 people). Do not be tempted to buy the cheap pre grated stuff in tubs; smell and taste are quite disgusting compared to the real thing and the cost isn't that much more.
Chopped fresh coriander leaves also add a slightly citrus garnish - again we used homegrown in ours.
Lettuce, Pea and Bacon Risotto
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 rashers bacon, chopped (smoked or plain, I use scraps from a cooking bacon pack)
350g risotto rice
100g peas, fresh or frozen (we got to use our own)
2 litres stock (veggie or chicken, from a cube will do)
2 little gem sized lettuces or equivalent, shredded (great for using lettuce that would otherwise be headed out the door thanks to unseasonal weather)
Fry the onion in the oil until transparent but not brown. Add the garlic and bacon and continue to fry until the edges of the onion are just starting to brown.
Add the rice and stir well to coat.
Add the stock a little at a time and keep stirring to encourage the starch to come out of the rice grains. Add another ladleful of stock when the previous one is mostly absorbed. When you add the last of the stock stir in the peas and allow to cook for another couple of minutes before adding the lettuce.
Taste the rice to test to see if it is cooked.
Variations:
Risotto rice is the perfect rice to use but if you don't have it and/or can't get it then long grain rice will still give you a tasty meal it just won't be as creamy. Pudding rice is also a starchy alternative.
A knob of butter added when you have fried the onion will add more creamy flavour.
Substitute a glass of white wine for the same amount of stock if you are lucky enough to have some.
Lemon zest and/or juice make a nice addition when you add the stock
Ham, gammon, pork or chicken can substitute for the bacon - excellent potential for using small amounts of roast dinner leftovers here.
Parmesan cheese or other hard Italian style cheese can be grated over the top before serving. (50g is plenty for 4 people). Do not be tempted to buy the cheap pre grated stuff in tubs; smell and taste are quite disgusting compared to the real thing and the cost isn't that much more.
Chopped fresh coriander leaves also add a slightly citrus garnish - again we used homegrown in ours.
Wednesday 8 July 2020
Post Furlough Food/Food for students: Bubble and Squeak
When I think back to times when income has been virtually non-existent for my husband and I (thankfully few) I think of bubble and squeak. For those of you who don't know this is an English dish which is made from mashed potatoes and cabbage. which is far tastier that it sounds. Regional names for the similar thing throughout the UK include colcannon and rumbledethumps.
At it's simplest Bubble and Squeak is mashed potato and chopped cabbage mixed together and fried in a pan. (Probably where the bubble and squeak name comes from) , it is dirt cheap, uses widely available ingredients and it is also possible to jazz it up depending on what you have available.
-Potatoes - these should be floury potatoes that mash well, use the kind often labelled as just plain "white potatoes" in the supermarket do not fall for a particular variety with a pricier tag, in the small print it could say something like "Estima", "King Edward", "Maris Piper" if you are buying from a typical UK supermarket. The proportion of potatoes to cabbage should be about 2/3 potatoes to 1/3 cabbage but I have been known to up it in desperate times as the carbs in the potatoes is the filling bit. Tinned potatoes do not (in my experience) work as a substitute because they are a little more waxy - they have chosen a variety that will hold together when pressure cooked in the tin rather than one that falls apart when cooked. If you can't get fresh spuds (can't think why but the last few months have had runs on odd things in the shops...) then use instant mash - works fine. Do not be tempted by the ready made mash, it is a rip off.
Cabbage. Classically this would be chopped and boiled (presumably to death as this is the reputation that British cooks of the past had :)) In our house it is steamed to just tender in a metal colander over a pan of boiling water (no fancy plug in steamer used here); my mum used to cook it in the pressure cooker but again the tendency is to overcook and lose all texture, colour and vitamins. I have also been known to substitute other brassicas (brussel sprouts/broccoli/cauliflower) instead. If you are using a fresh cabbage then the core can be grated and used with the chopped leaves in a pinch, the same is true for the outer leaves and stem of broccoli or cauli.
Method
Simple as can be. Take your potato, peel cook and mash(with a splash of milk if you can spare it). Take your cabbage, chop it or cut into strips. Boil or steam the cabbage until just tender. Mix everything together. Take a frying pan and press the mixture into a layer like a frittata. When the underneath is brown (sneak a look and then press the edge which will break apart back together again) either flip using a plate or if you can put the frying pan under a hot grill (mind any plastic handles) brown the top under the grill. The brown bits are the tastiest bits so don't turn it too soon. Cut into as many wedges as you need.
Variations
Many and varied depending on what you have knocking about in the fridge and cupboards, exactly why I like this dish. Add as many or as few as your heart (or budget) will allow.
Onions- fried onion is the best basic thing to add in my opinion. Fry the onion before adding to the potato and mix through. You can also use chopped spring onions or chopped leeks in the same way.
Cheese - sprinkle grated hard cheese on the top before going under the grill.
Soft Cheese- Cream cheese (like philadelphia) can be stirred into the mash before frying - the herb or garlic ones are also good.
Garlic - either use fresh chopped garlic that has been softened in the pan before hand or a squeeze of the puree. Mix into the mash potato before cooking. If you are adding onions and garlic and frying them before adding to the mash only add the garlic when the onions are already soft. Garlic burns quicker and burnt garlic tastes bad.
Roasted vegetables - Red pepper that has been softened in the pan can be added the mix straight away but I have been known to chop up peppers/tomatoes/courgette/aubergine/squash/sweet potato/carrots etc and roast them in the oven to fill the space and then freeze them, this is one of the dishes where I will throw in a portion to improve the flavour (they also go great in pasta sauce)
Leftover cooked veggies- the story goes that this would be made on the Monday for the thrifty cook to use the cooked veggies left over from sunday lunch. Carrots, roasted parsnips, broccoli, green beans, peas - all have made it into my recipe over the years. If you do not have leftovers of the cooked veggies but want to add some carrots (for example) cook them in the microwave first or in the same pan as the potatoes or cabbage. Tinned veggies can also be used as is. If I am doing this variation I leave off the cheese and serve with gravy (either left over or from granules)
Meat - so far so veggie but... leftovers from sunday lunch, chopped fried bacon, chopped ham (even the sandwich kind or tinned), chopped (cooked) sausages, all can be added and mixing them into the mash rather than serving them on the side makes a little go much further. If you have a little bit of leftovers of the meat kind (not enough to freeze or justify it's space in the fridge) this is the place to use it. Many a single sausage has been snatched from my husband just in time. Again goes great with gravy.
Mustard - If you are throwing in sausages then a spoonful of mustard in the mash will add more flavour - personally I hate the stuff but I have known those who do this...
Horseradish - a spoonful of this lovely stuff however is one I like. Goes into the basic version or the one with meat or roasted veggies for me.
Butter - If you want a more luxury mash then add a knob of butter when you mash the potatoes if you have it.
Poached/fried egg - cook separately and serve on the top for a protein hit.
Baked beans - for another protein hit serve a portion of these on the side.
At it's simplest Bubble and Squeak is mashed potato and chopped cabbage mixed together and fried in a pan. (Probably where the bubble and squeak name comes from) , it is dirt cheap, uses widely available ingredients and it is also possible to jazz it up depending on what you have available.
-Potatoes - these should be floury potatoes that mash well, use the kind often labelled as just plain "white potatoes" in the supermarket do not fall for a particular variety with a pricier tag, in the small print it could say something like "Estima", "King Edward", "Maris Piper" if you are buying from a typical UK supermarket. The proportion of potatoes to cabbage should be about 2/3 potatoes to 1/3 cabbage but I have been known to up it in desperate times as the carbs in the potatoes is the filling bit. Tinned potatoes do not (in my experience) work as a substitute because they are a little more waxy - they have chosen a variety that will hold together when pressure cooked in the tin rather than one that falls apart when cooked. If you can't get fresh spuds (can't think why but the last few months have had runs on odd things in the shops...) then use instant mash - works fine. Do not be tempted by the ready made mash, it is a rip off.
Cabbage. Classically this would be chopped and boiled (presumably to death as this is the reputation that British cooks of the past had :)) In our house it is steamed to just tender in a metal colander over a pan of boiling water (no fancy plug in steamer used here); my mum used to cook it in the pressure cooker but again the tendency is to overcook and lose all texture, colour and vitamins. I have also been known to substitute other brassicas (brussel sprouts/broccoli/cauliflower) instead. If you are using a fresh cabbage then the core can be grated and used with the chopped leaves in a pinch, the same is true for the outer leaves and stem of broccoli or cauli.
Method
Simple as can be. Take your potato, peel cook and mash(with a splash of milk if you can spare it). Take your cabbage, chop it or cut into strips. Boil or steam the cabbage until just tender. Mix everything together. Take a frying pan and press the mixture into a layer like a frittata. When the underneath is brown (sneak a look and then press the edge which will break apart back together again) either flip using a plate or if you can put the frying pan under a hot grill (mind any plastic handles) brown the top under the grill. The brown bits are the tastiest bits so don't turn it too soon. Cut into as many wedges as you need.
Variations
Many and varied depending on what you have knocking about in the fridge and cupboards, exactly why I like this dish. Add as many or as few as your heart (or budget) will allow.
Onions- fried onion is the best basic thing to add in my opinion. Fry the onion before adding to the potato and mix through. You can also use chopped spring onions or chopped leeks in the same way.
Cheese - sprinkle grated hard cheese on the top before going under the grill.
Soft Cheese- Cream cheese (like philadelphia) can be stirred into the mash before frying - the herb or garlic ones are also good.
Garlic - either use fresh chopped garlic that has been softened in the pan before hand or a squeeze of the puree. Mix into the mash potato before cooking. If you are adding onions and garlic and frying them before adding to the mash only add the garlic when the onions are already soft. Garlic burns quicker and burnt garlic tastes bad.
Roasted vegetables - Red pepper that has been softened in the pan can be added the mix straight away but I have been known to chop up peppers/tomatoes/courgette/aubergine/squash/sweet potato/carrots etc and roast them in the oven to fill the space and then freeze them, this is one of the dishes where I will throw in a portion to improve the flavour (they also go great in pasta sauce)
Leftover cooked veggies- the story goes that this would be made on the Monday for the thrifty cook to use the cooked veggies left over from sunday lunch. Carrots, roasted parsnips, broccoli, green beans, peas - all have made it into my recipe over the years. If you do not have leftovers of the cooked veggies but want to add some carrots (for example) cook them in the microwave first or in the same pan as the potatoes or cabbage. Tinned veggies can also be used as is. If I am doing this variation I leave off the cheese and serve with gravy (either left over or from granules)
Meat - so far so veggie but... leftovers from sunday lunch, chopped fried bacon, chopped ham (even the sandwich kind or tinned), chopped (cooked) sausages, all can be added and mixing them into the mash rather than serving them on the side makes a little go much further. If you have a little bit of leftovers of the meat kind (not enough to freeze or justify it's space in the fridge) this is the place to use it. Many a single sausage has been snatched from my husband just in time. Again goes great with gravy.
Mustard - If you are throwing in sausages then a spoonful of mustard in the mash will add more flavour - personally I hate the stuff but I have known those who do this...
Horseradish - a spoonful of this lovely stuff however is one I like. Goes into the basic version or the one with meat or roasted veggies for me.
Butter - If you want a more luxury mash then add a knob of butter when you mash the potatoes if you have it.
Poached/fried egg - cook separately and serve on the top for a protein hit.
Baked beans - for another protein hit serve a portion of these on the side.
Saturday 4 July 2020
What to do about food when furlough ends...or tips for extreme food budgeting
What happens if the S**T hits the fan and suddenly you have a very limited income. This was the worst case - won't really happen so don't think about it reality that is now looming on the horizon for lots of people thanks to COVID-19. With the UK stopping furlough in October (or in the case of my employer the end of next week (gulp)) what kind of mindset will help with the food budgeting at least.
1) Start preparing as soon as you can, any money that you can save now will help form a buffer ready for any gap in employment. If this means reviewing any debts such as overdrafts and credit cards then get rid of as much as you can now by paying off what you can and move any debts you can't pay to a lower interest option if possible.
2)Not all supermarkets/shops are equal - again obvious, shopping somewhere like Aldi or Lidl can save you money on what you normally buy; but not on everything as the lower cost comes with lower choice. Remember to include the cost of travel to the shops as well, if it costs you more in bus fares than it is going to save I don't need to tell you it is a false economy.
A price book where you list the things that you commonly buy and compare prices will help you work out what to buy from where. Working like this I alternate shopping at Tesco/Morrisons/Lidl and buy slightly different things from each shop with enough to last me until the next time I am in the supermarket where it is cheapest if it is something I use every week. I update the price book if I see the overall total of my shop at that supermarket rise sharply or if a new brand is introduced which may be cheaper.
If you are lucky to have a local market or ethnic supermarket use those where possible to get the cheapest fruits and veggies and herbs and spices. I also pop into my local Poundland, B and M, Iceland and Farmfoods if I am passing as they have random food items which may be cheaper than the normal supermarket - only if I am passing, not worth the travel expense of a specific journey and I have a separate budget for those kind of unexpected bargains. Needless to say this will be different depending on where you live.
3)Buy cheaper/generic brands where possible. Try the generic/budget brands and if you can't tell the difference or like them better you are onto a winner. Don't assume that higher cost=better quality or taste. One example of this is for our house is baked beans. Heinz for when it is on toast or as a side dish for the kids, generic when I want to do something like throw them in a sausage casserole or chilli, savings can be up to 50p a tin.
4) Learn to cook. Whilst ready meals are convenient they are also more expensive and filled with junk like high fat/salt and additives. Cooking is a skill and it has never been easier to learn skills than it is now thanks to the internet.
5) Shop your own cupboards 6) Meal Plan and 7) Use a shopping list. These go together although I have to confess that 6 is hard for me to stick to. Using up what you already have will reduce the food thrown away in the case of fresh food or other perishables. Making a meal plan and resultant shopping list will reduce the amount of impulse buys you do. It will also encourage you to use up all those jars of herbs and spices which you have only used a pinch of and then shoved back in the cupboard; gram for gram those little jars are the most expensive items in your shopping trolley so use them.
8) Research - one of the things that is hardest is that extreme food budgeting can lead to eating the same day in and out. I know I have been there and it can be soul destroying. If you have access to the internet you have a wealth of free ideas from Facebook groups (Feed Your Family for £20 for example), forums (e.g. moneysavingexpert.com - the Old Style board has a monthly grocery thread and recipe archives), and websites (Jack Monroe's Cooking on a Bootstrap is a good starting point)- not to mention You Tube. A couple of caveats. First just because a recipe is cheap to make in the US (and it is more often than not that these kind of sites are in the US) does not mean that it is cheap to make where ever you live in the world, double check, with a calculator (BTW in the UK prices can vary according to geography even within the same supermarket chain)...Second, just because a recipe is claimed to cost so many pounds and/or pence per serving does not mean that all you have to do is multiply the cost by the number of people you are serving and you can buy all the ingredients for that amount of money. When recipes are costed it is per gram of the ingredients used, so yes that bean enchiladas recipe may be only £1.02 per serving but that is because they have assumed you are only using 5p of taco seasoning for the whole recipe - if you have to buy a new jar it doesn't only cost 5p does it! To repeat point 5 above shop your own cupboards first.
9) Don't fall for the sales patter. Only buy the special offers if it is something that you will use, can use up before it expires, does not take the money from elsewhere in the food budget and/or is not a swap for something cheaper. Knowing the special offers in that shop in advance is a useful thing - most shops have a website which will list the latest offers - you can then take these into account when you write your list.
10) Bigger is usually better value but not always. If you are faced with the same product but in different sized packets work out the cost per 100 g to compare (calculator on my smart phone- always there...)Sometimes it is cheaper to buy the bigger family pack sometimes not (especially if there is a multibuy on a particular size of pack), bear in mind things like Best Before Dates as well - will you use the whole pack before it expires. If you can get together with someone else to share buying things in bulk packs - when you divvy the cost between you it will be cheaper than the smaller packs but you won't have to live on it everyday for the next month.
11) Stocking up fund. For things with a long shelf life like tins and household cleaning stuff consider having a separate fund for stocking up as and when you see the bargains (I posted about this way back). This safeguards the food budget but will allow you to take advantage of those multibuys when you can.
12) Use the equipment/space available. If you have a freezer use it - batch cooking or splitting bulk packs and freezing will save you money overall (big outlay now, savings tomorrow); however it will take a while to recoup the cost of a new one so do not go out and buy one unless this was something you were already planning. The same goes for grow-your-own if you have a garden or somewhere to stick a pot the initial cost of plants/seeds/compost and other equipment is immediate- you will have a wait to get the return in savings but if you are successful then it can be a way to help supplement your food budget. If you have a blender/food processor then cheap meals like homemade soup are a good standby, but only if you do not need to recoup the cost in the first place. If you have a pressure cooker or slow cooker, now is the time to use it to cut the cost of fuel. If you are using the oven fill it - it costs the same fuel to cook one pie as it does to cook one for now one for the freezer. Make extra buffer money by selling any kitchenalia that you do not use, we all have some!
13)Already mentioned in passing above but BUDGET. Yes it is boring, and takes time, and, and, and, but if you know how much you have to spend each week you never get to the end of the month and find you only have 23p to feed all of you for the remainder of the week. That is far more stressful and soul destroying than spending the time in the first place. Don't forget to include drinks and snacks in any food budget and meal plan that you do - this can cost more than you think even just for orange juice and tea.
14)Remember that this is only temporary for most people and it will get better. Cliched but a good mental attitude will make it all go smoother so look on this like a challenge you can win, not a burden you have to endure.
1) Start preparing as soon as you can, any money that you can save now will help form a buffer ready for any gap in employment. If this means reviewing any debts such as overdrafts and credit cards then get rid of as much as you can now by paying off what you can and move any debts you can't pay to a lower interest option if possible.
2)Not all supermarkets/shops are equal - again obvious, shopping somewhere like Aldi or Lidl can save you money on what you normally buy; but not on everything as the lower cost comes with lower choice. Remember to include the cost of travel to the shops as well, if it costs you more in bus fares than it is going to save I don't need to tell you it is a false economy.
A price book where you list the things that you commonly buy and compare prices will help you work out what to buy from where. Working like this I alternate shopping at Tesco/Morrisons/Lidl and buy slightly different things from each shop with enough to last me until the next time I am in the supermarket where it is cheapest if it is something I use every week. I update the price book if I see the overall total of my shop at that supermarket rise sharply or if a new brand is introduced which may be cheaper.
If you are lucky to have a local market or ethnic supermarket use those where possible to get the cheapest fruits and veggies and herbs and spices. I also pop into my local Poundland, B and M, Iceland and Farmfoods if I am passing as they have random food items which may be cheaper than the normal supermarket - only if I am passing, not worth the travel expense of a specific journey and I have a separate budget for those kind of unexpected bargains. Needless to say this will be different depending on where you live.
3)Buy cheaper/generic brands where possible. Try the generic/budget brands and if you can't tell the difference or like them better you are onto a winner. Don't assume that higher cost=better quality or taste. One example of this is for our house is baked beans. Heinz for when it is on toast or as a side dish for the kids, generic when I want to do something like throw them in a sausage casserole or chilli, savings can be up to 50p a tin.
4) Learn to cook. Whilst ready meals are convenient they are also more expensive and filled with junk like high fat/salt and additives. Cooking is a skill and it has never been easier to learn skills than it is now thanks to the internet.
5) Shop your own cupboards 6) Meal Plan and 7) Use a shopping list. These go together although I have to confess that 6 is hard for me to stick to. Using up what you already have will reduce the food thrown away in the case of fresh food or other perishables. Making a meal plan and resultant shopping list will reduce the amount of impulse buys you do. It will also encourage you to use up all those jars of herbs and spices which you have only used a pinch of and then shoved back in the cupboard; gram for gram those little jars are the most expensive items in your shopping trolley so use them.
8) Research - one of the things that is hardest is that extreme food budgeting can lead to eating the same day in and out. I know I have been there and it can be soul destroying. If you have access to the internet you have a wealth of free ideas from Facebook groups (Feed Your Family for £20 for example), forums (e.g. moneysavingexpert.com - the Old Style board has a monthly grocery thread and recipe archives), and websites (Jack Monroe's Cooking on a Bootstrap is a good starting point)- not to mention You Tube. A couple of caveats. First just because a recipe is cheap to make in the US (and it is more often than not that these kind of sites are in the US) does not mean that it is cheap to make where ever you live in the world, double check, with a calculator (BTW in the UK prices can vary according to geography even within the same supermarket chain)...Second, just because a recipe is claimed to cost so many pounds and/or pence per serving does not mean that all you have to do is multiply the cost by the number of people you are serving and you can buy all the ingredients for that amount of money. When recipes are costed it is per gram of the ingredients used, so yes that bean enchiladas recipe may be only £1.02 per serving but that is because they have assumed you are only using 5p of taco seasoning for the whole recipe - if you have to buy a new jar it doesn't only cost 5p does it! To repeat point 5 above shop your own cupboards first.
9) Don't fall for the sales patter. Only buy the special offers if it is something that you will use, can use up before it expires, does not take the money from elsewhere in the food budget and/or is not a swap for something cheaper. Knowing the special offers in that shop in advance is a useful thing - most shops have a website which will list the latest offers - you can then take these into account when you write your list.
10) Bigger is usually better value but not always. If you are faced with the same product but in different sized packets work out the cost per 100 g to compare (calculator on my smart phone- always there...)Sometimes it is cheaper to buy the bigger family pack sometimes not (especially if there is a multibuy on a particular size of pack), bear in mind things like Best Before Dates as well - will you use the whole pack before it expires. If you can get together with someone else to share buying things in bulk packs - when you divvy the cost between you it will be cheaper than the smaller packs but you won't have to live on it everyday for the next month.
11) Stocking up fund. For things with a long shelf life like tins and household cleaning stuff consider having a separate fund for stocking up as and when you see the bargains (I posted about this way back). This safeguards the food budget but will allow you to take advantage of those multibuys when you can.
12) Use the equipment/space available. If you have a freezer use it - batch cooking or splitting bulk packs and freezing will save you money overall (big outlay now, savings tomorrow); however it will take a while to recoup the cost of a new one so do not go out and buy one unless this was something you were already planning. The same goes for grow-your-own if you have a garden or somewhere to stick a pot the initial cost of plants/seeds/compost and other equipment is immediate- you will have a wait to get the return in savings but if you are successful then it can be a way to help supplement your food budget. If you have a blender/food processor then cheap meals like homemade soup are a good standby, but only if you do not need to recoup the cost in the first place. If you have a pressure cooker or slow cooker, now is the time to use it to cut the cost of fuel. If you are using the oven fill it - it costs the same fuel to cook one pie as it does to cook one for now one for the freezer. Make extra buffer money by selling any kitchenalia that you do not use, we all have some!
13)Already mentioned in passing above but BUDGET. Yes it is boring, and takes time, and, and, and, but if you know how much you have to spend each week you never get to the end of the month and find you only have 23p to feed all of you for the remainder of the week. That is far more stressful and soul destroying than spending the time in the first place. Don't forget to include drinks and snacks in any food budget and meal plan that you do - this can cost more than you think even just for orange juice and tea.
14)Remember that this is only temporary for most people and it will get better. Cliched but a good mental attitude will make it all go smoother so look on this like a challenge you can win, not a burden you have to endure.
Book Review: Feed Your Family For £20 A Week.
However, what is not apparent from the description on the website is that the £20 a week is the average cost of an eight week meal plan and shopping list. All the old advise is there - use oats for breakfast and eggs are a good source of protein etc but the cost is so low mainly because of the use of value packs (presumably) which are then less money per 100g. I personally do not know how you get the fresh ingredients like fruit and vegetables listed in the shopping list to last 8 weeks either so I would end up having to top these up which would cost more I guess, and of course seasonality comes into play in the case of the cost of fruit and veg (unless you rely on frozen).
The other bug bear that I have is that the author does not give where she bought these things. Certainly where I live it would be impossible to get some of the items for the prices that the author has (eggs spring to mind). One little known fact is that the cost of food throughout the UK will vary even if you use the same supermarket chain. If you are short of money then the cost of actually getting to the cheapest source can be prohibitive and you could be faced with the more expensive (local) convenience store. Lidl or Aldi may be a great way to save up to one third of your shopping (from personal experience of Lidl at least) but if it has to include £10 for a taxi to get there then it may not be worth it.
The book also includes a list of items expected in your storecupboard. Although these are not included in the shopping list they are in the recipes so if you want to follow the meal plan allow extra money for these if you do not have them already. You only need to have to throw in a couple of jars of herbs and spices and a litre of vegetable oil and suddenly the overall total has jumped by a fiver even though the nutritional value of your shopping has not increased by much.
The authors assumption is also that you have the large lump sum of £160 to begin with - personal circumstances may mean that you get your income monthly or weekly or even in dribs and drabs rather than a regular amount and do not have a large sum to fall back on, making one giant shop impossible; this can impact on the size of packs of food that you can buy and will drive up the average cost per week if you still wanted to follow the meal plan as is (just shopping more often). The only other way to drastically drive down the cost in those circumstances would be to minimise the variation in meals within each week so that some of the ingredients were bought week one but some waited until the next week and so on. Not having done the exercise I am not sure if this is possible. This is the classic way of extreme food budgeting and means that the variety of meals (which are overall good within the book itself) gets lost.
It now sounds like I am slamming the book and the author but I am not. It is a very good start, has a lot of good ideas for meals and does not rely solely on coupons, multibuys and other money off offers which are often recommended but in effect mean that you would be eating pre processed food all the time. Cooking from scratch and even growing your own herbs are recommended. But, and it is a big but, do not expect it to be a blueprint that you can follow wherever you live and you automatically will only spend £20 a week for four people. When you are at the sharp end of food budgeting personal circumstances make it impossible to do a one-size-fits-all solution so the author is completely forgiven! There are 100 recipes to follow which can used as a starting point, and often suggestions for variations are included in the recipes itself which again is good. Some of these will be dirt cheap, some more expensive in terms of ingredients so the meal plan is a clever way of suggesting that you get a range of these. The book should be used as beginning of the journey and is excellent for those who have never had to worry about this kind of thing before - but perhaps a better title would be "Feed YOUR family FROM £20 a week" or "How I feed MY family for £20 a week" instead...
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