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

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

Yep! Seeing midwife to check it out tomorrow thanks for remembering



Fascinating question Canidothis :A

I guess it depends a bit on the personality type of the different DHs.

My DH is an idealist with a very generous good heart. For him therefore, to understand that I'm doing this to try to help and give to people is motivating.

So he read my epic posts about what I was worried about in the UK and what I'd like to do.

And now if I say: 'lovely, how much extra potato will we need to add to that dinner to make the whole plate add up to 50p' or somesuch, he tends now to just help unquestioningly.

I guess for each of us, we'll have to appeal to our families in a way that's tailor-made to the type of person they are?

For me I am more motivated by the detail and by saving us cash . So he would've needed to say to me, 'weezl let's test these recipes, if this thread is right about the costings we can halve our food bill!' that would have appealed to me

This is another point which we will need to look at after we have a useful meal planner and costings. If it's only Bob who's scared about the money, then he'll need to get shirley and the kids on board. And I guess that's part of the challenge too.

Hmmmmmmn, I wonder if Mark88man might write a little something about his experience of needing to get his OH and 4 kids on board with their challenge and how he's gone about that. That could be very handy. Possibly then another thread title after we've done this bit of project called:

'How do I get my family on board?- your 10 top tips for winning them over to frugality!'

There have been a few on OS which Penny and Pink might merge if we asked, and maybe the new thread could attract more tips?

I hope this isn't too outspoken, but the reason I haven't found those threads very useful before is that they are entitled something like 'can't get DH to see OS ways:mad:!' with a poor original poster who needs help.

However it seems that something in the question or the thread starter seems to trigger lots of folk to respond at the level of: Hugs to you/ my DH is like this too and it drives me mad/ mine's not he's lovely/have you thought of tipping the value ketchup into the Heinz bottle and he'll never know! etc etc.

It's not that I don't think that's therapeutic/comforting, but it's not quite the resource I'd like to offer Bob and Shirley in terms of a positive, proactive approach to winning the hearts and minds (Ooooh get me, Tony Blair!) of the whole family.

(can never resist it when I see that mans name - Tony BLIAR you mean....;):))

Reet....I know what you mean. I've seen those threads too and tend to agree with you about a different approach to this matter. I'm single - so I've only got my wayward self to "get on board" - and that can be difficult enough sometimes;):).

However - it is a thought that has been wandering round my mind for the last coupla days to the effect that "with the times to come - then households are SERIOUSLY going to have to pull together". "There will be no room left in many households soon for one member to take a Lions Share of the income coming in any more - they will have to share more...like it or lump it" - closely followed by thinking "Thank goodness - I dont have to deal with that issue myself - whew!".

In my own life - I've noticed that theres more "sharing" going on between me & my "friendship group" on the one hand. Also more "sharing" going on between me and my parents. We are looking out more in both respects to see what we can share around of our "surplus". So - obviously - its going to be even more vital to learn to "share" within a family. One could coin a phrase about "the family that shares together stays together" and the way things are going - families will have to take this to heart or we will have a lot more marriages heading for the divorce courts than we already do.

So - yep a thread along these lines would be valuable. A practical tips thread - rather than an "empathetic - been there, done that" thread.

canidothis

weezl74 wrote: »

Fascinating question Canidothis :A

I guess it depends a bit on the personality type of the different DHs.

.

I hope you dont think Ive put a hurdle in the way of your project - really wasnt my intention I think it has a lot to do with headspace (something C mentioned earlier) My DH is incredibly busy and how to feed us on £100 per month just isnt on his radar - I guess in an old fashioned way (feel Im opening myself up for criticism) he just leaves me to it, and to be honest 99% of the time Im very happy with this arrangement, it means I can justify why I am serving up frugal food -' its my job and I'll do it how I want to '. I do have a problem with soup night but that topic was dealt with on another thread. Its just that Im so motivated with this project and want to talk to ALL about it and find it a bit frustrating that I cant get anyone DH included to enter into the spirit.I'll find a way somehow tho - probably when I can show him a substantial amount of money saved, maybe that will make him sit up and take notice

phizzimum

you're so right ceridwen.

although i have to admit to being guilty of saying "just put the value cereal in a Kelloggs box" - I know that no-one likes to feel manipulated. In the long term it only causes more problems.

the keys to any successful relationship are love and respect (both thriving on honesty) - I don't believe there are any shortcuts.

weezl74

canidothis wrote: »

I hope you dont think Ive put a hurdle in the way of your project - really wasnt my intention

not at all

weezl74

Lesley, you asked yesterday if we have a target amount for the frugalisation of each meal.

For me and DH we tend to have much cheaper breakfasts and lunches and more of our resource is in the evening meal. The lunch feedback makes me think that this isn't the norm, so I'm now more thinking:

breakfast aim 8p
lunch aim 14p
dinner aim 40p
snacks/pudding aim 8p
milk in tea 5p (1 / 7th of a pint per day, so not lots of cuppas!)

How does that sound?:)

Lesley_Gaye

weezl74 wrote: »

Lesley, you asked yesterday if we have a target amount for the frugalisation of each meal.

For me and DH we tend to have much cheaper breakfasts and lunches and more of our resource is in the evening meal. The lunch feedback makes me think that this isn't the norm, so I'm now more thinking:

breakfast aim 8p
lunch aim 14p
dinner aim 40p
snacks/pudding aim 8p
milk in tea 5p (1 / 7th of a pint per day, so not lots of cuppas!)

How does that sound?:)

great, I can get an idea if something is likely to fit or not when looking at recipes/ideas

weezl74

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

great, I can get an idea if something is likely to fit or not when looking at recipes/ideas

Thanks

I think we need to lose 10g of cheese from the Delia tart (currently 100g) so that the wedges and veg can be accomodated. Could anyone who used less than 100g of cheese in total in the tart, maybe pop back and say if that was ok?

I can't trawl through it all to get a sense of how much cheese you all tried!!!

xxx

phizzimum

I used less cheese - can't actually remember how much less - but it was fine. think next time i would put all my cheese on the topping and none in the pastry, as it's the filling that possibly needed a bit more oomph.

finally got round to transferring some of these recipes to a word file - keep losing them on the thread!

going to make falafels and sweetcorn fritters tonight - I told you we were greedy . can anyone remember if the red cabbage chutney was tasty? still got half a jar of cabbage left and have no idea what else to do with it!

ETA: just looked back and I used 20g cheese in total, so definitely room to cut back on the yellow stuff IMHO

Kaz2904

I think the response from most people was that it was ok to lose 10g cheese. They all seemed to leave it out of the pastry. I've not tried it yet and have too much stuff to use up at present to be able to fit it in until next Tuesday. I will try it then.

weezl74

oooh thanks Kaz and Phizzi, that's great news