50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

hmkn

Hi all,

been away (helping at guide camp ) and doing things like trying to keep allotment under control, so just spent 3 days catching up on thread! Hope veryone's ok.

Another allotmenteer has been leaving his overgrown courgettes to rot :eek: so I've rescued them (and given him a jar of marrow and ginger jam)- even if I feed them to the chickens that's got to be better than them rotting :cool: Consequently, today I will be making more marrow and ginger jam, trying Cheryls marrow chutney, making more soup and courgette bread for the freezer etc etc.
Incidentally, I've just borrowed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver from the libray and can strongly recommend it.
Her family of 4 moved from Arizona (where they can only grow food locally by draining the Colorado river and where 'buy local' means within a 250 mile radius!!) to her husbands farm in the Appalacians in Virginia. They aim to buy/grow/raise their food locally for a year, but do allow themselves coffee, hot chocolate, spices and dried fruit snacks as their treats.
It is very readable with lots of information and good recipes (similar climate to the UK, so they grow/eat similar foods to us). It may not fit in perfectly with a 50p/head budget, but they did save money by not paying huge transport costs. And 2 'zucchini' recipes to try- one where you saute grated courgette with garlic then mix it with pasta, herbs and grated cheese (very nice, and I've done it for the children with pesto- stretches the pesto and adds another veggie. For those with garden-phobic children, the courgette does almost dissappear, more so if you peeled it first ) and zucchini choc chip cookies- I think it's on her website- animalvegetablemineral.com, I think.

Lady in the road had a plum tree chopped down (at this time of year!!) and my 3 'scrumped' the bruised fruit in the road (cul-de-sac) for our chickens :rotfl:. She saw them and they ended up in her back garden and we now have a wheelbarrow half full of windfall apples and plums :j Made delicious one crust (ie low-faff) plum pie last night.

Even guide camp was profitable- it was opn a farm and they have lots of last years 'tail corn' to use up. I took half a sackful home, and I can go back whenever I need more :money: It's not organic (which I usually buy at huuge expense) but it is only about 5 miles away and it's free!!

DD2 is asking for breakfast (porridge with blackberries I picked yesterday) so must go, but will post my recipe for green tomato chutney later. DD1 and I had to pick all the green toms at the allotment in the week as they had blight (when the leaves and then the fruit go brown and then they rot :mad: ) so we picked them and chutneyed them before they all went bad. It's the recipe my gran used from the Farmers Weekly and it's lovely. The smell reminds me of my Mum making it...
I also pickled a few green tomatoes for the first time- I'll be interested to try them.

HMK

shaz_mum_of__2

BigMummaF wrote: »

Hope you don't mind my jumping in, but I realised that if No2 offspring had anything with orange or other citrus flavour, life would be unbearable! Arguementative; sulky; stroppy...& later on that was on top of the usual teenage trumpts too:eek: Pure orange juice was--surprisingly--the worst culprit, so we stuck to the red-coloured fruit squashes instead. HTH Shaz but be warned...it's still the same now we have reached adulthood :cool:

never really tried orange (pure or otherwise ) realised about 4 years ago that squash and sweets had an effect and thought orange juice a bit acidic so he has always had pure apple juice (smartprice has doubled to 58p per litre) he drinks about 10 L weekso tryed high juice apple squash and no adverse effects so far

He still doesn't have sweets although i am not convinced it makes any difference i do give him friut leather type things and he loves raisins but he is really good ,when at friends he tells them he isn't allowed and doesn't seem to bothered :A

Chocolate on the other hand....................................his old school gave him a chocolate coin as a reward (they knew they shouldn't) when i picked him up he was running around manic i hd to call at the shop for a card and he was climbing the walls and fixtures and screaming ...................i reported the teacher to the board of goveners but nothing was done :mad:

We are still waiting for an assessment i think he has ADD/aspergers and his teacher agrees but the school seem scared to asses i think because of "labelling" but until it's done theres no support :mad: he gets etra support at scool but we could do with some advice about home

He really is lovely but the older he gets i realise more he's not like the other kids and hope he does't get picked on .............his new school is a small village school and really friendly so no problems yet


Slightly OT sorry but his needs do affect my budget!!

Shaz

In_Search_Of_Me

re the pie dishes what about shops that do house clearance? funny how we go back to the old stuff for comfort isnt it! Mr M that was a past life...the most exciting I get now is discovering a new jam recipe or x factor on sat night!!!
ooo sorry crossed posts! hope you sort the dignosis out soon shaz...well done on all the cooking hmkn...wezzles would be proud of you all and what a fab saving mrs m!

happy1234

New on this board!!:T

50p a day? do you save 50p a day or spend 50p a day??

Thanks

cw18

hmkn wrote: »

It's not organic (which I usually buy at huuge expense) but it is only about 5 miles away and it's free!!

Maybe not organic, but definitely beneficial to the environment.....

if they need using, then it's less waste to be disposed of by landfill or incineration -- and to my way of thinking, reducing waste of produce is just as important !!!

cw18

happy1234 wrote: »

New on this board!!:T

50p a day? do you save 50p a day or spend 50p a day??

Thanks

Welcome

Weezl's target is to spend 50p a day on food
(ETA: That's 50p for her, and 50p for Mr Weezl - aka Acetate Monkey - so £1/day in total)

I don't think any of the rest of us are anything like that..... I'm just working out my target for September (as today is pay day), and reckon if I can stay under £2 per person per day (including all toiletries, cleaning products etc) then I'll be a happy bunny. My target for October will then be a lower figure !!

tattoed_bum

hi and welcome to the board ,
mrs weezl has set a challange that they can feed the 2 of them for 50p each a day .this includes breakfast ,lunch ,and main meal and all snacks ,
this is also including their daily fruit and veg requirements

one heck of a challange but she is doing it some of her recipes are amazing

walmerstores

Its spend 50p a day on food for each person in the house but the rest uof us aren't quite as good :rolleyes: I f you look an the first thread you will find lots of lovely recipes:j :j :j :j :j

munchki

ISOM- chutney been simmering for nearly 2 hours now, still some liquid in it, not sure if that is ok or if it is ready now......eeeeeeek where are you when I need you!! .

Will let it simmer a bit longer I think and see what happens! Smells amazing tho!! Going to be worth it when it is done!

Kath xx

weezl74

Hello there all you lovely readers, lurkers and posters :hello::hello::hello:,

Have popped in at elevenses to let you in on a little secret... here's your coffee and cake :coffee::bdaycake:

Decorating aside, I must now confess to another thing which has kept me from posting so much of late.

It would appear that a small Weezl is on the way. I am 13.5 weeks pregnant.

Gulp.

Now the thing is, that having spent my whole life priding myself on being a tremendously unfussy eater, I quickly realised this had become a thing of the past!:rolleyes:

Lentils-yuck
saag bhajee-yuck
Anything made out of the pig's head-yuck (I was 7 weeks pregnant the day I excavated the pig's brain!_pale_)

What were we to do? I ate all the meals in the freezer I could keep down:eek:, and then hit a dilemma. I couldn't tell you all, cos it felt too soon as family and friends didn't know yet. I couldn't cheat, as I am a woman of my word.

Much head scratching ensued....

Acetate Monkey, protective of miserable food-hating me, and concerned for the development of Fergus the foetus (his current nickname:eek:) concocted a plan.

It's 50p per person per day, quoth he...you won't have cheated if you eat another 50p. He in fabulously magnanimous fashion has remained true to his 50p throughout:o. (although Fergus gave him a bowl of muesli t'other day!)

So, that's what I decided to do. I really hope I haven't let anyone down and have remained true to the spirit of the challenge. I have lots more geeky maths related to how to get enough calcium etc for pregnancy on my new plan!

I felt if I posted my daily figures before, the game would be up, but if you'll all still have me, I shall continue to post away in earnest!;)

Other facts you might like to know, due date 05/03/09. Scan was wednesday and heart and limbs were all present and correct.

Love to you all, and may I beg your forgiveness for my secrecy?:D

Weezl x