£50 a week to feed family of 6, does anyone do it cheaper??

Penelope_Penguin

boospurgeon wrote: »

someone wanted a recipe for jam - my dad gave me one that is foolproof

whatever your weight of fruit, add same weight of jam sugar and leave to soak overnight. mash the fruit first if you want. bring to slow boil, turn heat down to simmer then periodically check for setting point (when you put a bit on a plate, wait a few mins and then poke it with a finger. if it wrinkles, then it's prob ready. pour into jars that have been preheated (on low heat) in oven,along with lids, then put lids on tight and leave to cool. totally infallible in my experience! enjoy!and works for every fruit or mix of fruits have ever tried. have used dried fruit like this too, tho have soaked it first to plump it up.

It might well work for "fleshy" fruits (raspberries or strawberries) but not for blackcurrants, for instance, they need the fruit to be cooked in water first

Penny. x

Lunar_Eclipse

MUMOF4 wrote: »

My hm fruity cookies didnt last long this afternoon, 1 tins of peaches in syrup, mixed with porridge oats and flapjack, then spoonfuls dropped onto oven tray and baked in the oven.

Hi - you're doing a great job!

Could you please elaborate on these cookies/flapjacks? I thought it was just a tin of peaches including the juice, mixed with porridge oats? Is this right? And then how long do you bake them for? Sound delish, I'd like to try them.

mumtoomany

Hi Mumof4,

"Well done mumtoomany for your budget and the huge amount of places you buy it all from. That must take up a lot of time, trailing around all the shops to pick up all the bargains."

We tend to visit some places only once or twice a month. Eg big sunday market/car boot sale for potatoes, carrots, onions by the sack. Also get toilet rolls from here, and any meat. Lidl is once a month for dog food.

Asda, Sainsburies, Aldi and Tesco are all within 5 minutes walk of each other. I usually shop at these on foot, taking the buggy I no longer need for my youngest. I then go in each in turn, buy anything that I need and carry it all home on the buggy.

Sommerfield, Home Bargains and the freezer shop are also close together so once or twice a week I walk to them.

Milk I buy from our local corner shop. It is cheaper than any of the bg supermarkets! DH usually picks this up when walking the dog.

I do spend more time shopping than some people. But I don't have to pay to go to a gym. Pushing several bags of shopping for 30 minutes to get home (uphill all the way) keeps me quite fit.

Mumtoany.

thriftlady_2

luckyJ wrote: »

. It is hard work cooking every meal from scratch, and the people telling you to make your own bread need to get a grip on reality as well as a life! The cost of the ingredients alone would exceed what you pay for a loaf, not to mention the cost factor of baking it! The same applies to cakes.

Well, I am one of those people who make my own bread, and although I don't work I could easily make the 8 loaves and batch of rolls that my family gets through at the weekend if I had to. I always bake 4 loaves at a time and do a batch of rolls whilst the loaf dough is rising. Roughly 45 mins of hands on time for a week's worth of bread which still leaves me plenty of time for a life As for my grip on reality, it is pretty firm, for instance I know for a fact that it is most definitely not cheaper to buy a loaf than make one and the same applies to cakes.

Lunar_Eclipse

thriftlady wrote: »

Roughly 45 mins of hands on time for a week's worth of bread which still leaves me plenty of time for a life

:rotfl:

... and nicely put too.


ETA: I'm not following you, honest, just checking if the fruity cookie details are up so I can go to Sainsburys!

Another ETA: Need to go soon so I'll just blag it. Usually works. So I'm off now; enjoy the rest of your day folks.

MUMOF4_2

hi,
Im not sure how helpful this is going to be, as im a bit of a chuck it all in person, and often dont weigh things!!!
I used 1 tin of value/basis/smartprice peaches in syrup, cheapy porridge oat, and some cornflakes or crunchy nut cornflakes. We cut the peaches up really small and put them in a big bowl along with the juice. You can then just add porridge oats until it starts to all bind together, or you can add a combination of oats and cornflakes. You dont add anymore sugar, as the syrup holds it all together. You can then drop tablespoons onto a well oiled tray, or you can make it in a big tray like a flapjack, just make sure you grease it well. Then you cook until they start to look golden. They taste best when they are still warm.it made about 15 cookies last time i made them.
Same as you would cook flapjack. Hope they work!!!!

MUMOF4_2

Ok, i have just mixed up the flapjack version with just the porridge oats, and its 200g of porridge oats, to one 400g tin of peaches, if you want to make the cookies, just measure out 100g of oats, mix that in first, then pour crushed up cornflakes in, until you get a mixture that binds together.

bloomers5

well done -- I feel so uninspired food wise - especially as my husband is almost masterchef quality...he does cook most of the dinners but is getting really annoyed that I am not. Fair point but I feel really stressed 'cos he's so good and we def spend too much on food a month - more than £400 for 2 adults and 2 kids...sorry everyone.

Mum of 4 I fancy making dhal - what is your recipe?

jackk_2

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

Pennylane and Chameleon

Whilst I get that both of you have your points about what to feed your animals , please dont post negative comments towards each other on someone elses thread, please continue it privately if you feel the need to do so. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and views.

Also yes i agree sodium is a part of an animals needed diet but again an animal can get seriously ill very quickly and many symptoms can occur at once and an owner can be clueless to the cause unless themselves a vet/veterinary nurse. So feeding a dog tuna may worsen a condition in an unhealthy dog because of the added sodium in the product.

It is recommended that dry dog foods contain at least 0.3% and dry cat foods contain at least 0.2% sodium for both bodily maintenance and to support normal growth and development. These are minimum recommended levels. While high sodium intake may cause increased thirst and water consumption, the extra sodium is excreted in the urine of dogs and cats. Healthy dogs are able to consume diets with higher sodium levels than found in most commercial pet foods without increased blood pressure or gain in body water.

A veterinarian may recommend decreasing a dog or cat’s sodium intake if the animal has some types of kidney, liver, or heart disease, in order to help decrease high blood pressure or the accumulation of excessive body fluid.
Although older dogs and cats may be more likely to develop these diseases.

But like I said how would you know you animal had these conditions unless you were a trained professional with the correct tests? so personally i would think it was best to avoid it as a daily thing, just incase your animal has started to develope these diseases without your knowing.

My dogs don't get any salt, they are only fed raw meat and bones, as nature intended .

You can get some pretty reasonably priced working dog completes if you shop around, when i fed it i could get 15kg of complete for less than £10. might also be worth shopping around for the cats JWB as the prices cann vary tremendously (we need a pet food uswitch type place hey .

Keep up the good work

Jackie x

chunky79

Hi all

I must admit i found the first few posts to be quite funny and had a little giggle. A vegetarian that doesn't eat fruit or veg! Fresh air must taste lovely;)

I don't post on here much now but lurk a fair bit, i just have not got the time of late to do so.

BUT i finish my job in 3 weeks time so hopefully i will get a little me time. I am gutted to leave but hey ho! its life and a choice i have had to make due to OH now working away. But thats for another thread. lol

All i can say is it sounds to me like your doing a fab job:T , i also have 4 children and atm work 20 hours a week. Its blooming hard work. I sat down literally 30 minutes ago with my first cuppa since i finished work at 8pm.
I have been in a position many years ago where my shopping budget for 4 was £18 per week youngest still in nappies. My ex would walked out on his job and decided he didn't want to work. (Just one of the reasons we are no longer together) I literally lived on scraps from the kids and was a size 6 lollipop. Its hard work to get it right.

Anyways, i was brought up during the strike, we lived on corned beef hash,eggs, barely any fruit but plenty of vegetable home grown alot of the meals were cheap and cheerful. On e point i would like to make is 5 a day is all well and good but what people need to realise is that this is a government initiative to tackle obesity, not just for you health. Its all well and good having 5 which is actually the recommended minimum but if you have some chocolate and crsips etc.....you see where i am going with this don't you. Also its recommended that out of your fruit allowance that only 3 portions are fruit due to the sugar content especially in dried fruits as they can do just as much damage to your teeth as a sweety. Also milk as you know this is lactose, drink just before bed the sugar eats away at your teeth, through the day fine but none an hour before bed because even brushing won't get it all.

I make a lot from scratch but i am not nigella lawson wish i was but i try. My cooking skills are far better now than they have ever been and my confidence is growing massively i do try alot more things now. As for making my own bread i do it now and again, my oven uses 2 units per hour ( its a range oven, looks brill but it costs a bomb to run) and with the price hikes of late i need to work out whether or not its still wise to make my own! My friend owns a bakery though so i do buy fresh bread. I also buy 2 lambs a year from a friend of the family wait for it, i pay £3 a lb can't get that anywhere and its the best lamb, far better than shop bought. (its a hobby for the gent that i buy it off not a business ya see!:T ).

Also back on track lol, i spend between £60 and £75 per week on groceries. For 6 of us and never need to go to the shops during the week. It took a lot of practice but i have now mastered the art of ordering enough. If ever i have run out, i ask my dad to pick it up. I am an impulse buyer so supermarkets are evil for me. I also must say my attitude is changing as i won't line Mr tescos or mr Asda pocket further than i have to, they are so full they are going to fall over soon!:rotfl: