I need to spend in order to start living OS! Advice please

HurdyGurdy

I am now unemployed and realistically don't expect to find another job before the New Year (although I am looking hard)

I am having to look hard at our expenditure and really need to cut back. I reckon our food expenditure is a good starting point. We are four adults (well, two adults, and two late teens with voracious appetites!) and a dog. We spend about £100 a month at Costco (mainly on meat) and about £100 a week at Tesco (I know, I know - I can hear the thuds as all the OSers faint clean away!)

I want to get a breadmaker and a food processor but no idea where to start. I have rheumatoid arthritis which affects my hands and wrists the most, which is why I need a FP to help with food preparation. I have an old 1970s kenwood chef food mixer which is fine as far as it goes, but obviously doesn't chop/slice etc.

I have £60odd worth of vouchers that I can claim from doing Shop and Scan which I can use towards the purchase of a FP. A breadmaker, I think I will probably be able to get from Freecycle, but I've never seen FPs offered on ours.

Anyway - getting to the point of my post! Which FP would you recommend. There is such a huge range out there. I've looked at MagiMix in John Lewis before and thought they looked ok, but now I'm turning a bit OS, I'm wondering if you're paying as much for the name as for it's functionality.

Also, if a breadmaker isn't available from Freecycle, which one should I be looking at purchasing. I would love to have a go a baking bread by hand, but the arthritis is a definite stumbling block there, as I'd never be able to knead properly.

Anyway I'd appreciate advice on the two items above, and will no doubt be back on this board asking for help over the coming months, at least until I get a job, and probably beyond!

TIA

HariboJunkie

Hi there. Sorry you have lost your job and good luck in finding a new one.

Your food shopping is a great way to cut back. The first thing you need to do is meal plan like a woman possessed and only shop for the ingredients for the meals you have listed. Start by looking at the threads on cheaper, helathy meals and then maybe join the grocery challenge which is stickied at the top of the OS board.

Secondly... you don't need a breadmaker (IMO), particularly if you are getting a food processor. I too have difficulty with my hands and cannot knead bread but if you buy a FP with a dough hook you can finish the bread in the oven when it has risen. I do have a BM but only ever use it for it's dough setting as my ancient magimix has no dough hook. (and my BM was free)

Good luck. x

angeltreats

You could always post a message on Freecycle asking for a food processor and/or breadmaker and see if anyone offers them, rather than waiting for them to be offered.

If you don't have a dough hook for your Kenwood mixer you should be able to find one cheaply (try Ebay) and that would help you along. I think everyone on MSE recommends the Panasonic breadmakers but they are quite expensive. Mine is a Rachel Allen one I got half price in Argos and it's absolutely fantastic.

Mrs_Thrify

Hello and welcome. I will be the first to say it "baby steps".
Things are a lot diffrent being at home all day to working. First you have a lot more time. With this time you can do a lot more home cooking and save on the pennies. Home made cakes and casseroles. Get the cook books out!

Time to sort out cupboards and put into use thoose forgotten items.

Go shopping for bargins and whoopsies.

Bake a Christmas cake.

Read all the sound and tried methods of advice on here.

HurdyGurdy

Oooh, that reminds me julie_d lol. I've got a slow cooker tucked away somewhere. I stopped using it because my daughter (not living at home now) hated casseroles or any "sloppy" food.

That's another helper I can bring out.

My baking skills are quite poor, but I'm willing to give it a go again.

I have to say that the supermarkets around here are very stingey in their reductions. I've never seen any massive bargains in either our Tesco or Asda, but will keep looking.

We also have Aldi, Netto and Lidl quite nearby. Aldi is walkable, but the others are definitely driving distance. I wonder if it's worth going to them once you factor in petrol costs.

My eldest son works in FarmFoods and gets a 15% staff discount, so I think I'll be going in there rather more than I have done up until now.

Am having some real jaw dropping moments reading some of the threads in this forum and feeling quite guilty about my spending habits up until now!!

ChocClare

If you've got an old Kenwood chef, then that will knead your dough for you while you're saving up for a breadmaker. You could make several batches of loaves at once that way, which might work out cheaper if you were having to put the oven on anyway.

If you haven't got a dough hook (which looks like this, by the way - I chucked mine back and forth into junk drawers for YEARS before I realised what it was :rolleyes:), then you can usually get them on ebay - might still be cheaper than buying a new bread machine. If not, I have somewhere a recipe for no-knead bread - I will look it up for you so that you've got something to be going on with... yep, here it is - excuse the Americanisms!

HurdyGurdy

thank you choc - I think I have got one of those hooks somewhere, so that'll be great for starters.

Thanks for the bread recipe. I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on.

Curlytop40

I haven't got an aldi or lidl near to me but would definately recommend fruit and veg from netto. Its lots cheaper than my other local supermarkets ( and the market) and keeps pretty well too.

sunflower76

Hello,

Sorry to hear you're out of work.

Before you go and look for a food processor have a think about what jobs that you want it to do. Mine for example does everything from chop, grate, slice, mix, whisk, to juicing fruit and veg and half of the attachments lives in the loft.

I use it for making cakes mostly, which I could do just as well with a hand mixer, so it might be worth you really considering it's intended use before you go out and buy.

I hope this doesn't sound patronsing in any way - I don't intend it to.

culpepper

my FP is a Kenwood and is very reliable(second one I have had,the first lasted about 12 years). Its not a chef just the ordinary processor and came with all the slicers and blades,citrus juicer thing and a blender. Very good for chopping up vegetables, grating cheese, chopping orange peel and juicing oranges(for marmalade) and it will knead dough but wont take enough dough for a the big 2LB tins so your kenwood chef is handy for that and would also be good if you do christmas cake as they can get quite heavy with all the dried fruit they need.
I have a Morphy richards bread maker. They seem quite popular. You can cook a loaf in 3 hours and leave it to do it on the timer so it will cook on economy 7 if you have it.
It Can also make dough without cooking to use for rolls and pizza bases.
I love that you just put in the measured ingredients and come back and slide out the finished loaf.

ivyleaf

I've got a Kenwood MultiPro food processor, I use it a lot for chopping and slicing veg. It had a dough hook but I haven't tried using it for dough yet, nor making cakes. I'm very happy with it (much better than the Moulinex I used to have, which was a present from DH rather than being chosen by me!).