Weezl and friends Phase 2 -giving it a whirl for Shirl! Testing meal plan for a month

Allegra

I'm thinking - but I'd love it if the resourceful folk here were to prove me wrong ! - that the rainbow recipes are kinda limited. By the time you've done all-the-colours soup and all-the-colours curry and all-the-colours pie and hotpot and, um, cake ? - there isn't anywhere else left to go.

Or is there ?

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

I'm thinking - but I'd love it if the resourceful folk here were to prove me wrong ! - that the rainbow recipes are kinda limited. By the time you've done all-the-colours soup and all-the-colours curry and all-the-colours pie and hotpot and, um, cake ? - there isn't anywhere else left to go.

Or is there ?

good point as ever

I guess maybe every type of meal could have space to be a 5 a day one if we included side dishes?

and maybe there are a good 4/5 different curries with the full rainbow?

weezl74

hmmmmn thinking more maybe it isn't very expansive.:D

Perhaps just collecting more frugal meals, ideally with some of our basic ingredients...

Not sure- what do people think?

one thought I have is that other than the now infamous carrot cake we don't really have much in the way of frugal puddings...

Shall we look to remedy that?

Bigjenny

Can you repost a summary of the rainbow challenge please Weezl I cant remember them.

Hope Daddy Weezl is taking it easy and will soon be feeling better.

artybear

Hello all!!!!

Whilst trying to work out a budget for meals for next month I have been debating the use of 'happy/organic' meat. Obviously this is more expensive than say asda chicken but i worry that I *shouldnt* buy cheap meat. I think this is because of a number of factors 1) Jamie tells me that animals arent happy (which worries me) 2) The media tells me cheap chicken is full of water/chemicals and 3) i just feel a bit embarrassed buying it but not sure why.

I was just wondering what my other frugal fellows think/do about issues such as these?

SusanC_2

artybear wrote: »

Hello all!!!!

Whilst trying to work out a budget for meals for next month I have been debating the use of 'happy/organic' meat. Obviously this is more expensive than say asda chicken but i worry that I *shouldnt* buy cheap meat. I think this is because of a number of factors 1) Jamie tells me that animals arent happy (which worries me) 2) The media tells me cheap chicken is full of water/chemicals and 3) i just feel a bit embarrassed buying it but not sure why.

I was just wondering what my other frugal fellows think/do about issues such as these?

I usually buy my chicken when it is reduced in the Coop so it is usually Elmwood chicken which has slightly higher than average standards. (In fact OH has just been despatched to the Coop because there were lots reduced this afternoon so I'm hoping there will be some left now that are reduced even more.) I don't by the basics/value/smartprice stuff because I don't trust it and would rather pay more (although most of the time I buy meat from the reduced section so probably doesn't cost more but I have the luxury of being able to wander into the shops in my village most days). I don't usually buy organic meat but would if I had pots of money. But that's just what I do.

Julimk

Hi Arty

I can’t see the point of paying extra for organic. I haven’t seen any evidence that it is so much better than non-organic to warrant the huge price difference.

As a preference I would prefer free-range chickens & eggs, but it seems that barn is not too far below in terms of chicken welfare, as they have some space & aren’t caged. So don’t get too concerned at that. But I can’t bring myself to buy caged chicken/ eggs.

The minimum would be the red tractor scheme, which ensures that it is British & a certain level of animal welfare has been adhered to, even if it is not as good as Freedom Foods, free range, organic …

http://www.redtractor.org.uk/site/REDT/Templates/Home.aspx?pageid=1&cc=GB

I prefer to buy British, as I feel that our standards might be higher than elsewhere, for example you can only get rose veal here because we have banned veal crates. Have no idea about standards in other countries. And I feel we should support our economy/ farmers & of course less carbon footprint!

But I think that it is becoming less & less an issue that needs compromise. I mainly shop at Mr T (we have 3 & it is only a small town! A small Mr S & no Mr A at all). And the value/ market value meat is generally red tractor standard anyway.

All that said, nearly all the meat I buy is reduced price. Did particularly well last night as got 500g organic British steak mince for 57p, another 800g of non-organic British steak mince for 77p & 400g of British stewing steak for 49p!

As I said that was particularly good. But I rarely buy meat for main meals unless it is reduced (since starting the grocery challenge a couple of years ago) & rarely pay more than half price. So buy the meat or fish when it is reduced & then meal plan from what I have in.

I really need to actually use what I have in. There are over 50 home made ‘ready meals’ in the freezers plus over 8kg of meat/ poultry/ fish!

zarazara

I am now baking bread and making cakes and growing fruit and veg and making jam and preserves. I have reckon my food bill is about jalf of what it used to be. I am now going to make Laundry gloop and soaps.

queen_of_string

Good work zarazara! I hope you dont mind but I like your aim so much I am going to steal it and adapt it.

Gtg, cheesecake is bleeping from the oven.

System

Thought you might be interested in this link for an Australian poverty-awareness campaign. The idea is to live on $2 AUD per day, but it is based on the figure of $1.25 USD per day as the average daily food expenditure of someone living in extreme poverty (worldwide). At today's rate of exchange, for four people, for 31 days, this comes to £101.35 for the month (more or less exactly what you are planning here), although the campaign is running only from 2nd to 6th August.