Stop me buying a Tefal VitaFruit jam maker!!

Primrose

Eating your way through £70 worth of jam which this piece of equipment will cost you is going to put an awful lot of calories onto your waistline! You can make jam perfectly easily in a microwave as long as you have a really large high sided deep Pyrex bowl. You can use less sugar than the recipe says but might get a lighter set, so put in a couple of extra dessert spoons of lemon juice (to taste). The jam won't last so long but the secret is to make small quantities at a time and keep it in the fridge.

Caterina

If you aren't 100% sure that what you are about to buy is an essential item, why not use Martin's Demotivator tool? I find it very effective when deciding whether to make an inessential purchase:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/demotivator/

kunekune

If you're on a diet, you shouldn't be eating jam!

Does that help? No, didn't think it would.

But seriously, that's what I think the problem with WW is: the focus is on calories (sorry, points) in, and not on what those calories (sorry, points) come from. Hence the heavy reliance on sweetener and low calorie ready meals. I'd prefer to get my calories from non-processed food.

KathyJam

What is wrong with a time saving machine? We all use them for all kinds of things. Next I will be hand washing clothes all day on a Monday!
As for jam, chutneys etc, the day that I can't have a bit of jam on my toast or a nice bit of chutney with a ploughmans, well that is so sad. I really hate it when I hear women go on about calories, life is too damn short.
I am all for getting back to basics, but I haven't the time or inclination to be spending hours making jams etc (I stand by the fact that you do have to stand over a large pan). However, I would much rather make my own than buy a cheap jar from the supermarket.
The Tefal jam maker is great, just made a load of chutney for Xmas presents. So for those of you who are unsure, read the reviews on the Lakeland site.

mummysaver

I love my jam maker, but it's only worth buying if you will make and use/give away a lot of jam and chutney. It also has a juice extraction programme which I use a lot for jellies, much easier than straining things overnight, makes rice pud and also dulce de leche! Neither being particularly good for diets though!

mumoftwo

Probably not what you want to hear but can you receive the jam maker as an early Christmas present from your OH? and if you are going to use it a lot, why not? Sorry, you want people to tell you not to buy it...

kunekune

Kathyjam, I totally agree ... but I was taking as my starting point the OP's point that she has just joined weightwatchers. And this was a voucher given away by WW! There are other ways to lose weight, but WW is about reducing calories (too much, in my opinion, but this isn't a let's bash the weightloss industry thread) and if you reduce your calories, you need to be very sure that what you eat is nutritious. Jam isn't. It's fun.