Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

knithappens

i have a 200 a month shopping budget for me DD14, DS8, and DD7months - this includes toiletries etc, not just food, if i can feed my family for 100-150 a month it will give me the extra 50-100 to stock pile, buy seeds to plant ect, i think weezls idea of 100 is great, and people can then adapt their budget, life style to suit. i already do this following grocery challenges, recipe ideas etc, 1 plan will not fit all, but having a plan to start with to show it can be done is an inspiration in itself and will give people a starting point

weezl74

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

in terms of the 100 budget would it be orth having a treat allowance in it so people like me dont feel that theyre on a "diet" as such? Just thinking of us rebellious types who will automatically fail before weve started cos were busy pulling the opposite way?!!

Hi, couldn't people who wanted headroom for treats rather than any suggestions of what the treats were live on 50p a day a la previous thread on old-style and use the remaining £62 in a month for all the families food treats?

My feeling there was tho that when I offered the 50p challenge, people were more saying, ah! but how can I have some treats/meat etc, rather than wanting to just be left to come up with them themselves with any extra money....

Maybe I was wrong though.

Oh well shall we just try it and see if we can't help just a few people. I'd so love to

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

What do people think about replacing a roast with a pie on one occasion at least ? We will sometimes have "pie with all the trimmings" as opposed to a joint of meat, and 100g of meat could easily stretch to feed 4 with some veg/pulses etc. if stuffed inside a nice crust. Is that just too non-traditional for an average Brit, and is the health aspect affected too negatively by the possible change ?

As for the budgetary constraints - I kinda feel that the worst part of being really strapped for cash is that one could find it really difficult to learn how to fish because the budget would not allow for equipment, bait, etc. etc. - so one would have to rely on being given fish, month in month out. Am I making any sense ? Probably not. What I mean is that having just £100 to feed 4 for a month will only allow for the food for that month, and not for building up a good storecupboard, stocking up on deals and whoopsies, buying herb and lettuce seeds etc. - all strategies which will allow much cheaper and healthier months ahead.

So, if a debtor's budget allows for £120, then a £100 plan for a month that only caters for 5 a day and £20 put into buying essential gardener's supplies could mean 6 months ahead of 7 or 9 a day with no more money, plus FR eggs, plus whoopsied meat every other day, and so on. In effect, we are giving them a fish and teaching them how to fish.

I know this is not nearly as thought through as it ought to be, but perhaps it is something to think about for the finished resource ? Not just feed-a-family for a month on next to no money, but also make sure that they are fed progressively better for an indefinite period without increasing the budget. And that way, any perceived "deficiencies" of the first month would not matter quite as much, because the way would be paved for addressing those in the future.

great post- completely agree :T:T:T

In_Search_Of_Me

what about a,b,c optons or personality type options...ie if you are x then try the x challenge, y have a bash at y etc....? That way you cover more of the population and are helping accross the board ikwim? May also help people become more self aware Off to have a bath or will be late! Keep up good work!

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

Oh well shall we just try it and see if we can't help just a few people. I'd so love to

You have done already I joined MSE after stumbling across your 50p a day challenge, and although I have never done as well as all that, I had pinched sufficent ideas to halve our grocery budget, to mention but one thing.

I think that what you are trying to do here is an absolutely brilliant idea - and while it's a fish rather than a fishing line (I bet you are starting to regret mentioning fishes in the first place !), sometimes people have a very rude financial awakening and have to be reeducated in a hurry - but no matter how willing to learn, it won't happen overnight, and while Mummy and Daddy are learning how to live frugally, kids still need to be fed - and just having a resource to follow for a month while they get their heads around the concept could be a life saver in many cases.

Yes, it's triage, not specialist treatment, but that does not make it any less valuable. If someone was bleeding at the site of an accident, and all we had to stop the bleeding was a non-sterile and perhaps none too clean clothing we were wearing, would we hesitate to help the injured person because our makeshift dressings did not meet the recommended standards ? Yeah, I know, not quite the same thing, but does not totally invalidate the point.... I think

homegrown_life

I was thinking about making a little list of some very basic things that might be needed or would enhance the meals. Nothing much, just £5 worth of things that might help and a start to a storecupboard. I know we're assuming salt and pepper is on hand, but with breadmaking it's going to go down a bit more than if you were just using it for seasoning.

These are from Asda:

Smartprice Mixed Herbs - 19p
Salt - 31p
Smartprice Pepper - 18p
Red Split Lentils - £1.16
Rajah Chilli Powder - 49p

so far this is a total of £2.33 and just a first thought about it. Anyone think it's a good idea? Feel free to add more. I need to get moving off this computer now but thought I'd mention the idea.

HariboJunkie

What about some more soup recipes? We have soup night once a week whether we're cutting back or not. In fact it's one of my family's favourite meals because it's alspo the one night that we have pudding. I do HM soup with HM bread or cheese and crackers followed by HM rice pud or Sponge cake and custard.
This morning I have made spicy parsnip soup (rough costings are 8 portions for <£1). We'll have this for tea with cheese (all reduced to clear) and crackers.
While I was at it I made brocolli and stilton soup (6 portions) with brocolli stalks I've been saving and a small piece of stilton left from Christmas. Also did a plain veggie soup (6 portions) with bendy carrots, one parsnip, spuds and frozen leeks.
All the soups were made with chicken stock made from the last roast chicken we had.
I'm a BIG fan of soup as it's healthy, frugal, quick, forgiving and very tasty.
Just a thought.

misskool

Weezl, this thread is moving quite fast and losing the recipes and the feedback to the recipes. I thought it would be an idea to just set up a free blog, then post a recipe and only post feedback for that specific recipe in the comments section then someone else can collate it for you (as you must be super duper busy!).

edit to add: or i can start it and work the way through the postings on here?

nopot2pin

misskool wrote: »

Weezl, this thread is moving quite fast and losing the recipes and the feedback to the recipes. I thought it would be an idea to just set up a free blog, then post a recipe and only post feedback for that specific recipe in the comments section then someone else can collate it for you (as you must be super duper busy!).

edit to add: or i can start it and work the way through the postings on here?

Hi misskool...
I am the process of setting up a spread sheet for the comments / feedback for specific recipes...
Although this is proving to be a little more problematic than I had first thought, as everyone has their own variation of a particualar recipe, therefore the findings/comments will always be different.
I am not sure what the correct way ahead is, to collate such variations *confused*

I think you might be right, in that the way ahead, would be a blog, for testers to add there own individual comments (*kicks self as didn't think of that )
At least that way, it is the individuals OWN comments on a specific recipe, and not the thoughts of the persons collating the inforamation....

Weezl, I will wait before doing any more work on the info provided so far, to see what you think

taka

What about a google document/spreadsheet for all the recipe feedback? A food version of what they have on the 2010 MFW thread for updates? That way we'd have to fill in certain bits (if you want feedback on certain things) but still be able to add comments on how we got on and what we changed?