Subsistence cooking equipment

Penelope_Penguin

ariarnia wrote: »

Does that make sense?

It doensn't answer my request for a link to the assertion that "debt correlates with being middle class"

In the current recession, many middle class people, in work, have felt little effect. Their bills may have gone up, but mortgages are at historically low interest rates.

Unless, or course, you can give me evidence to the contrary

ariarnia

I'm not disputing that, I'm saying that the middle class who are no longer in work (due to widespread redundancy) or that have taken paycuts or similar, will have suffered more of a shift in finances and manageable debt that those in the working class that have been made redundant or had paycuts.

domesticgoddess789

ceridwen wrote: »

Thanks for that - I've just been evaluating the comments made on it on the Argos website.

Does it have the two blades the Argos site says it does - or the one blade one poster commented that it has instead?

It has a chopping blade and then a second blade. One side of the second blade slices and the other side shreds. You turn it around depending on which function you wish to use. I'd definitely recommend it for Shirley

MrsE_2

ceridwen wrote: »

Okays - I've swopped round and put a roasting tin on the essentials list and a traybake tin on the optional list .

Right what is a tray bake??????

Is it a baking sheet or tray?

Penelope_Penguin

MrsE wrote: »

Right what is a tray bake??????

Is it a baking sheet or tray?

It's a cake It's rectangular, made in a deep tin, and cut into squares; traditionally then sold at fetes or cake stalls.

Penny. x

anguk

MrsE wrote: »

Right what is a tray bake??????

Is it a baking sheet or tray?

It's one of these (normally without the lid):
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/traybake-with-lid/F/keyword/traybake/product/12787

I just use a smallish rectangle baking tin.

ariarnia

it's a (normally) square tin that you can bake one large(er) square cake/flapjack/similar in then cut into smaller portions.

[Deleted User]

I've just come to this thread and have not been able to catch up with it all so this might have come up before. As a student in the 70's I had to manage with very little equipment. I did not have scales or measuring spoons. In my experience measuring spoons are a relatively modern essential as my grandparents and parents never had a set. If required a child's medicine measuring spoon would do.
I made pastry, cakes, scones and pancakes quite satisfactorily "by eye" and rolled out my pastry with a milk bottle or glass (it took a little longer than using a pin). A previous post mentioned cutting up butter in quarters etc.

katholicos

Phew, I'm exhausted, I've just read through the whole thread, thus far!

There are some really interesting posts and novel ideas for using items in ways that they were not originally intended for. I don't have much to add that would be of use really, but i thought i would just share a few thoughts....

Re the debt discussion, i personally think the whole 'class' thing sucks and that those who are referred to as being middle class would be more adequately referred to as the 'privilidged class'. As someone on an extremely low income I would consider myself underprivilidged in many ways,and not just financially.

Having said that, I try not to label myself or anyone else, but it seems to me that those who live privilidged lives (and whom consider themselves badly off) would have done better to live within their privilidged means and at the very least, not be so vocal (read: whiney) about how dire their situation is, particulalry when what they consider to be their dire situation would be considered by many low income families, as positively affluent.

Of the many low income families i know, debt is most often accumulated due to not being able to afford even a basic standard of living (excessive bills/ debt being built up before losing their jobs etc)...though of course, there are always the exceptions...those who go into debt purposely to take holidays abroad or make purchases of luxuries they can ill afford.

Anyway, back on track.

My advice to B and S (wish they had different names as B and S makes me think of the americanism in so many films nowadays...ie, 'that's just a load of BS and you know it'...kind of thing)....would be to invest as much as they could afford in good quality products that would last them until their twilight years rather than have the expense and inconvenience of replacing items again and again over the years.

In my experience, cheap kitchen items usually don't last very long....there are items bought cheaply that last and last but these are very few and far between....also, they tend not to perform as well as better quality items. Thinking about it, the sarny toaster i bought cheaply in asda lasted two weeks before there was an almighty BANG and when i inspected the underside of it found the wires all melted and blackened and their plastic cover melted....also the cheap toaster i bought for £5 that lasted only a couple of months...the list goes on. I've learned my lessons over these 41 years of being alive though, one of which is that I now make investments for 'life', so to speak and i fully expect to get 15+ years out of the purchases I make. It may take a bit longer to save for things, but i feel it is worth it in the long run.

weezl74

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

It doensn't answer my request for a link to the assertion that "debt correlates with being middle class"

In the current recession, many middle class people, in work, have felt little effect. Their bills may have gone up, but mortgages are at historically low interest rates.

Unless, or course, you can give me evidence to the contrary

ok cool, why did I say that higher debt correlates with being middle class (I think the higher part is important Penny!) this is just my own simplistic understanding, but I'll do some more thinking and am interested if this isn't true...

Um, I said this because the higher one's income plus the perception of one's profession, the more likely to be able to borrow bigger sums of money one is. We were told by our lender that based on DH's professional status (and mine but less so), we were able to borrow a 6 times multiplier of salary.

I also thought that since a lot of the credit cards that Martin explains about in the weekly tips seem to have provisos for application like 'subject to salary above £23000' or something, that the debt is therefore more attractive and more likely to have a higher take up.

I think it's also based on a lot of the television programmes like 'economy gastronomy', lots of Martin's shows doing money makeovers, Spendaholics etc....

I read on the office of national statistics website, but now annoyingly can't get the pdf to load that debt was proportional to household income plus increases if the main job holder in the family was in a 'high standing profession' . I'm frustrated I can't link to it now though!

I know it's not very well thought through, but that's what I've been basing my thinking on so far. I guess it's only been a couple of years this has taken my interest, and I know this is your field, Penny, so if you're saying it's not a middle class issue then I'm happy to agree with that, no problem

I think in terms of the planner needing a certain bit of kit, which is a piece of electrical goods costing £24.99 then I don't see this as being particularly middle class. I understood from one report that homes with a higher spend on certain electricals (PS2 plasma TV) etc, were more prevalent in lower income homes. So I guess I'm just thinking it's not really out of the question that there be a £25 quid electrical purchase... I don't know, is that really naive, I don't mean to be..

It's just that this planner would save the average uk family in excess of £4500 per annum on food, and to me it does justify a spend at the start if they can't get hold of a liquidiser on freecycle.

I don't know...

I'm losing faith in my ability to do the project anyway, so perhaps this thread and is a timely challenge to not move forward at the moment.


hmmmmmn, I'll think on....

Thanks for everyone's input, and for Ceridwen helping me out with finding people's views

Weezl x