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

phizzimum

DH (should that be phizzidad?) has questions!

what is the plan re making the pea and ham soup? using some of the roast pork?

we make pea and ham by cooking up a gammon joint in water, veg, split peas. the gammon usually does one main meal with enough left over for a quiche, and the liquid is frozen as soup. We tried it once with Tesco value gammon joint and it tasted fine - a 750g joint costs about £4. more expensive than the pork leg but could do more meals?

HariboJunkie

Weezl, I've been thinking about the budget again and I can't help but think that there are so many discrepancies with the price of food both from region to region and from shop to shop. As I said, I have no access to 3 of the main supermarkets but do buy alot from my independant stores and farmer's market (all of which are cheaper options for the particular things I buy there).
Would it maybe be better to simply state that this is a frugal meal plan and recipes based on the cheapest, good value for money foods which tend not to rise in price and which are also healthy and accessible rather than set a budget to it?
Therefore you could base it on Asda and know how much it cost you but also know that it would be a frugal plan for others who either don't have access to those particular prices or are able to find even cheaper alternatives.

Maybe I am completely missing the point. It wouldn't be the first time.

HowlinWolf

Well, I got home this evening ready to make the onion tart only to discover that dp had used up all the cheese. It got me to thinking that this might be a risk with the plan (I have just read the braeburn apple conundrum of a few pages ago too). If there is nowt to spare because everything is being used for something (as it would have to be on this budget) then a snack-happy family member could have a serious impact on the plan.

So having been thwarted in my onion tart testing plan I made the tomato tarte tatin that I posted earlier (I substituted gran padano for the cheddar in this recipe but didn't think it would be a fair test if I did this with the onion tart). Not for the 100 budget but might fit into one of the other plans. Anyway I costed it out and it works as follows:

Egg 15.9 pence
basic butter 30.8
basic cheddar cheese 29.9
wholemeal flour 20.12 pence
soft brown sugar 2 pence
mustard powder 9 pence
balsamic vinegar 21.42 pence
carrots 22 pence
onion 12 pence
tomatos 84 pence

Counts as 9 portions of 5 a day.

Makes 4 portions. Cost per portion is 57 pence. However, the issue is that the initial outlay on ingredients for the store cupboard - flour, mustard powder, sugar and the cheapest available balsamic would raise the initial outlay cost significantly so the family would have to either have a well stocked store cupboard to start with or have the means to stock a store cupboard if that makes sense. Working it all out really made me see what Weezl was getting at in one of her earlier posts.

I also had cause to think about the husband's who won't eat veggie meals conundrum. Over the length of our relationship I have persisted in feeding dp veggie food only to be met with stiff resistance. I have made veggie meals and disguised veggie meals and concocted veggie meals which no-one else would miss the meat in only to find dp heading for the fridge for a slice of ham because it isn't a meal without meat. We have had inumerable stonking rows over this even though dp knows that the only way we can start to tackle our terrifying debt is to continually look for ways to reduce our grocery spending (inc cleaning household stuff etc). So he had a gammon chop with his tomato tart - having given him the option and making him cook it himself. This increased the cost of his dinner alone by a pound. :mad::mad::mad:

He still poked the tart and queried the consistency of the pastry asking what I had put in it. He wanted to know if there were weetabix in it as I apparently seem to have been putting weetabix in everything. Now DP isn't unintelligent and he isn't generally an unreasonable man, he has however been cursed at resoundingly this evening for his ungratefulness.

I think my experience might be shared by a number of people and they, like me, might find themselves in the situation of having more veggie only meals themselves so that they can stretch the amount of meat bought/afford to buy meat for the veggie-phobic in the household. I think there is a lot of pressure on the cook/shopper in the family (whether male or female in these situations) and I think that a plan like Weezl's can really help to take the pressure off that person in terms of meal planning, shopping and budgeting. What will be left though is the family politics and the pressure to convince the rest of the family to follow along and abide by the plan.

I liked Lesley's idea for the lunchbox plan to get children involved.

Sorry for rambling on just thinking aloud really.:(:o

grandma247

Some coconut oil is heat processed and there is some that can be used for anything including chips because it has no taste,that has been heat treated and is not as good for you. Virgin oil is usually cold pressed to preserve its goodness. Many asian countries as well as south sea/pacific island peoples use it. They have nothing else to use. They also eat more fresh foods and most are too poor to buy western processed junk food.

HariboJunkie

HowlinWolf wrote: »

He wanted to know if there were weetabix in it as I apparently seem to have been putting weetabix in everything.

Sorry but that really made me :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'm married to one of those. My current problem is in trying to get him to eat offal. He says he doesn't mind me cooking it for me (and I do as it's good for me and my iron levels) but he whinges the whole time it cooks....
What I don't get is that he eats haggis, black pudding and I think he married me for my chicken liver pate but he won't entertain lambs liver, whole chicken livers or kidneys.... and won't even have oxtail as it's too close to the cow's bum. :rotfl: Apparently rump steak is ok though. :huh:


I know exactly what you mean about the responsibility being on the meal planner, shopper, cook (housewife in my case). It's a hard balance to strike to keep everyone happy AND save the pennies.

weezl74

phizzimum wrote: »

DH (should that be phizzidad?) has questions!

what is the plan re making the pea and ham soup? using some of the roast pork?

we make pea and ham by cooking up a gammon joint in water, veg, split peas. the gammon usually does one main meal with enough left over for a quiche, and the liquid is frozen as soup. We tried it once with Tesco value gammon joint and it tasted fine - a 750g joint costs about £4. more expensive than the pork leg but could do more meals?

well I squeezed in some cooking bacon by adjusting the quantities of carbs needed because things had stretched further than I at first thought. So I was imagining using a little of that, but if the roast pork could do 2 meals and flavour a soup that would be grand. Hmmmmn or do we need it's juices for the gravy, ponder,ponder,ponder.:)

Chaps you may be wondering why I was cautious about the order of the plan this morning, please can I share my dilemma and get your views and maybe a way forward?

*assumes that's a yes*

At the moment I've ordered the plan to fit around by imagining of a normal family life. The weekday breakfasts are simple, requiring more time at the weekend. The weeekday lunches can be put in a lunchbox, the weekends have soup. Sunday has meat gravy and trimmings because that's what a lot of people have always had on a sunday... etc etc. I have also placed things to give the maximum days gap between each repeated item, so that you don't have the same breakfast 2 days running.

However. Having done that, we have now got a planner that isn't as healthy as we'd aimed for because the balance of colours in each day is therefore wrong.

Can anyone with a geeky brain help me see if there's a way to achieve all of the above without sacrificing the healthy part?

TIA!

Haribo, that's a good point. Hmmmmn. I'm still very tempted by the alluring headline 'feed your family of 4 for £100 a month' because it's so easy to have a comparator to ones own life. If you're single you could think 'that's £25 a month for me, wow that's loads less, I'll click on that!' and most people seem to have an approximate sense of how much they spend monthly...

But I also totally agree that if we enter the same asda list in 3 months time it will no longer be £100.

Hmmmmmmn. Will think further, thanks for your thoughts

ceridwen

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Well, I got home this evening ready to make the onion tart only to discover that dp had used up all the cheese. It got me to thinking that this might be a risk with the plan (I have just read the braeburn apple conundrum of a few pages ago too). If there is nowt to spare because everything is being used for something (as it would have to be on this budget) then a snack-happy family member could have a serious impact on the plan.

So having been thwarted in my onion tart testing plan I made the tomato tarte tatin that I posted earlier (I substituted gran padano for the cheddar in this recipe but didn't think it would be a fair test if I did this with the onion tart). Not for the 100 budget but might fit into one of the other plans. Anyway I costed it out and it works as follows:

Egg 15.9 pence
basic butter 30.8
basic cheddar cheese 29.9
wholemeal flour 20.12 pence
soft brown sugar 2 pence
mustard powder 9 pence
balsamic vinegar 21.42 pence
carrots 22 pence
onion 12 pence
tomatos 84 pence

Counts as 9 portions of 5 a day.

Makes 4 portions. Cost per portion is 57 pence. However, the issue is that the initial outlay on ingredients for the store cupboard - flour, mustard powder, sugar and the cheapest available balsamic would raise the initial outlay cost significantly so the family would have to either have a well stocked store cupboard to start with or have the means to stock a store cupboard if that makes sense. Working it all out really made me see what Weezl was getting at in one of her earlier posts.

I also had cause to think about the husband's who won't eat veggie meals conundrum. Over the length of our relationship I have persisted in feeding dp veggie food only to be met with stiff resistance. I have made veggie meals and disguised veggie meals and concocted veggie meals which no-one else would miss the meat in only to find dp heading for the fridge for a slice of ham because it isn't a meal without meat. We have had inumerable stonking rows over this even though dp knows that the only way we can start to tackle our terrifying debt is to continually look for ways to reduce our grocery spending (inc cleaning household stuff etc). So he had a gammon chop with his tomato tart - having given him the option and making him cook it himself. This increased the cost of his dinner alone by a pound. :mad::mad::mad:

He still poked the tart and queried the consistency of the pastry asking what I had put in it. He wanted to know if there were weetabix in it as I apparently seem to have been putting weetabix in everything. Now DP isn't unintelligent and he isn't generally an unreasonable man, he has however been cursed at resoundingly this evening for his ungratefulness.

I think my experience might be shared by a number of people and they, like me, might find themselves in the situation of having more veggie only meals themselves so that they can stretch the amount of meat bought/afford to buy meat for the veggie-phobic in the household. I think there is a lot of pressure on the cook/shopper in the family (whether male or female in these situations) and I think that a plan like Weezl's can really help to take the pressure off that person in terms of meal planning, shopping and budgeting. What will be left though is the family politics and the pressure to convince the rest of the family to follow along and abide by the plan.

I liked Lesley's idea for the lunchbox plan to get children involved.

Sorry for rambling on just thinking aloud really.:(:o

Yep...my point exactly that I made earlier - ie of wondering whether its basically more likely to be the man in a household that ends up "setting the parameters" on everyone else too....hmm...not in that situation myself...so dont really know what one could suggest here...

I must admit that I might be showing my age a bit here with the way I "register" comments about the poster having gone to the fridge for some food to make up a meal and finds that a "snacker" has eaten it all already. The "age" bit being because I remember always having to ask for any food that I wanted in between meals - dont know whether thats a reflection of my age or the fact that there wasnt enough money made available for food in my book as a child or both. Hence my determination now to have plenty of fresh fruit - as I recall specifically that I was very rarely allowed to have a bit of fruit if I asked for it and there was such a small amount bought each week (I eat more fruit on my own in a week now than I recall there being for the whole family as a child).

Hmm...dont really know whats the answer here. Guess we all have our own parameters - ie personally I'd buy plenty of fruit regardless for my household BUT I'd go totally ballistic at any errant spouse expecting meat regardless of whether there was sufficient money to cover the cost of it or no:eek: - as one of the (various) reasons why I am vegetarian is the cost of meat.

Hmm....would fish fill that "meat-shaped hole"?

shanks77

I havent worked out the cost of these but this recipe for peanut butter cookies would be really easy for our family to make maybe someone more maths savvy than me (a 5yr old child perhaps) could work it out.
260g peanut butter
220g sugar
1 egg
1tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingred together and spoon into ball on a greased baking tray. Flatten slightly with a fork and put in a 180 degree oven for about 8 mins.
Makes approx 20

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

I think my experience might be shared by a number of people and they, like me, might find themselves in the situation of having more veggie only meals themselves so that they can stretch the amount of meat bought/afford to buy meat for the veggie-phobic in the household.

This was very common in the war years where women would be found to have fairly severe protein deficiencies and when queried (because rationing did cater for their protein needs) it was found to be very common for mum to give her meat/eggs/milk to DH and the kids.

Thank you for saying what you have howlinwolf. Poor you, and also thank you because you are being brave enough to give me/us a really good insight into behind the scenes with bob and shirley.

I have appreciated all the candid responses you have all given and the powerful insights they give into this mythical family we are all keen to help.

Thanks :A

homegrown_life

weezl74 wrote: »

However. Having done that, we have now got a planner that isn't as healthy as we'd aimed for because the balance of colours in each day is therefore wrong.

Can anyone with a geeky brain help me see if there's a way to achieve all of the above without sacrificing the healthy part?

TIA!

I'm happy to have a look at it, but I'm not sure which meals/foods satisfy the requirements for which colours so would only be guessing at the moment which might not be that helpful!

I'll give it a go and see what I can come up with anyway