Preparing for winter II

skintbint_2

confuzzled - i have borrowed my sisters dehydrator for doing my own dried veg, have only done leeks so far and they have turned out great - tonight i am doing onions as just lifted the ones from the allotment, lakeland do them http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14210/My-Kitchen-Food-Dehydrator wee bit pricey but depends on how much you want to dry, i believe you can do it in the oven on a really low heat too. possibly might be worth trying freecycle or fleabay

this gives you a link for ideas of what you can do with them - it includes fruit! banana chips, apples and strawberries can be done as well, http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Food-Dehydrator-Guide-and-Food-Dehydrating_W0QQugidZ10000000010981023

Confuzzled

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi, hun, do you have any "ethnic" foodstores around your way? If so, I'd take some time and have a snout around to see what they have.

sadly i no longer live near a morrisons and we don't have an ethnic grocers but when i'm in edinburgh in september i'll head down to my favourite place i call 'ethnic row' (3 middle eastern and a chinese shop :T) i usually buy my spices in large bags from them and polenta for making cornbread. i will def need more polenta and i also get coconut cream from them far cheaper than the supermarket (well that's IF i can find it!) if i still lived in edinburgh i'd go back there for my meat too halal meat is usually cheaper and good quality... i miss edinburgh for things like that but after my last few trips back i realised city living in a place that has soooooo many stairs everywhere won't cut it for me and my dodgy knee anymore so i have to plan shopping trips to coincide with pleasure trips and hope my knee can take the extra weight of it in my rucksack on the way home...

wonder what the people at travelodge would think if they saw me come in pulling a shopping trolley... :rotfl:

Confuzzled

skintbint wrote: »

confuzzled - i have borrowed my sisters dehydrator for doing my own dried veg, have only done leeks so far and they have turned out great - tonight i am doing onions as just lifted the ones from the allotment, lakeland do them http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14210/My-Kitchen-Food-Dehydrator wee bit pricey but depends on how much you want to dry, i believe you can do it in the oven on a really low heat too. possibly might be worth trying freecycle or fleabay

this gives you a link for ideas of what you can do with them - it includes fruit! banana chips, apples and strawberries can be done as well, http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Food-Dehydrator-Guide-and-Food-Dehydrating_W0QQugidZ10000000010981023

i actually do have a dehydrator but found it took so long to dry some things i wondered if i was saving much money. i do find it useful for making fruit leathers or yogurts and fruit leathers and if we get a windfall from the neighbours apple tree we'll make apple rings again. i also like sauteeing onions then drying them, they taste like those expensive crunchy onion topping things you buy and sooo much cheaper!

i suppose i could run it overnight in my bedroom (so i'll smell smoke if it overheats!) then i'll be able to take advantage of the cheaper economy 7 electricity.

i'd already considered cooking chicken in the slow cooker in my room overnight... someone was saying on the forums that they do that and it has the added benefit of keeping their room warmer... might be an idea in the depths of winter as i don't heat my room at all in winter i just open the door and let the hall heater heat it an hour before bed but if i had the slow cooker or the dehydrator running in there i could close the bedroom door and then let the heat stay in the living room instead... hmmmm

Rainy-Days

abwsco - I love your fire and the surround is lovely as well very arts and crafts which is something that I think stands the test of time. It's a good job it didn't get ripped out during the 1980's :T

mumoffour77

I never seem to get a bargin....

BOO HOO woe is me ect ect.....

Im heading to the charity shops tomorrow, to get some curtains!!!!

Im also going to see if I can not pay for them....

It sounds bad, but I help a local charity shop out with their displays and festival committes usually run best dressed window display....
This St Patricks day they won, and kept all the things I had made...( I didnt mind as it was a wee bit of advertising for me)
Then a few months later, one of the staff was telling me that I was selling my things too cheap, she had just sold 4 of my items for £5 each (I sell them for £3.50 a pair!!) and wondered if i would make more!!

So, tomorrow im going in with a bag full of stuff, in exchange for some curtains!!

abwsco

Rainy-Days wrote: »

abwsco - I love your fire and the surround is lovely as well very arts and crafts which is something that I think stands the test of time. It's a good job it didn't get ripped out during the 1980's :T

Thank you:D We're in the house of one of the brothers who built these houses. We've also got some lovely leaded lights and we've had some encapsulated and the others that couldn't be encapsulated copied when we had double glazing done. We'd have a load more money if we hadn't done that but it would have spoilt the house. Sorry, gone OT.

lovesabargain123

Just been to tesco and they have loads of last winter bits reduced, big tins of de-icer 62p small 32p , ice scrappers in packs of 3 50p, letter box draft excluders 1.72 fleece throws about £3 these are kids ones. Electric blankets £7-£10 depending on size.. I also bought a bathroom cabinet £15 reduced to £3 and loads of home wear reduced! Then I met my friend and was chattering so couldn't look round cos the store had closed lol but there seemed to be plenty more!!! Also went to b and ms this morning who had a massive half price section...dressing gowns for kids fleece £2-£3.50 kids pjs £1-£2.50 kids slippers between £1-£2 there was also undies and vests for about a pound and crocs , they had ladies and kids gloves hats and scarves reduced to 50p and some adult night wear but tbh didn't look at them!! Finally tj Hughes yesterday I got a king size quilt, 1 4.5 tog the other 9.5 tog and the Velcro together iykwim for a fiver, deer stalker hats and thermal gloves for about a pound and 3 wheat bags u warm in the microwave for £1.20
So all in all I'm really happy with my stash so far :-) x

chirpychick

Hey everyone
hubby did the carboot this morning and we made £60 so thats £40 for our Cornwall petrol fund which is now complete YAY!! at least now we can get down there! We will be putting a whole load on ebay on Saturday and hopefully that will cover spending money.
I have also this afternoon cleared out hubbys wardrobe and am a little irritated as i found his old waterproof rain coat which still fits him - he had told me he needed one and so i had brought one from sports direct about 2 months ago and kept it for his birthday in october. The thing is now he has 2 and will prefer his old one because that was over £100 OMG!! and the one i got him was £13. And admittedly the old one is far better quality. Im half tempted to see if the new one will fit me as i dont have a waterproof and am in desperate need.
I am going to sort out my wardrobe tomorrow. I seem to have a complete lack of any clothes so im hoping if i make enough on ebay ill have enough for a few pairs of jeans as well.
So im getting there with the pre winter sort out.
I think my stash of food supplies isnt going to exist this winter, but im not too worried as we are practically in town and never get much snow anyway.
Im just hoping we manage to make enough to cover the dentist and holiday as the dentist is desperate and the holiday has been paid for by the inlaws so we cant not go.
We are going to be very very tight until november and then its christmas lol.
I do feel like somehow we need to get some winter clothes as we have nothing and hubby walks 60 miles a month to and from work so he is more desperate.
hopefully once ive got on top of everything this week ill feel a bit more perky and like im making progress!

squeaky

Gettingtherequickly wrote: »

Don't know if anyone will be interested, but Groupon have a special deal on full car valet within the M25 area, £19, but needs to be purchased by 23:59 today. Can only start to book from 24th, but may be worth considering as a pre winter task. I want to change my car, so this is a bargain for me!

Be aware that there are sometimes problems with such offers. The link below is just of threads that have this name in the title...

groupon threads here on Consumer Rights

anguk

A quick reminder ladies! I've just been going through my winter list, checking to see what I need to buy in bulk this week and when I got to the toilet roll & kitchen towel bit I realised I'd missed off "ladies monthly products". I've got some washables I could use if needed but DD wouldn't, she likes a specific brand.

I've realised that we're okay for the big things like winter clothing, insulating the house, food etc but it's the little things I forget.

Thanks for the link someone posted earlier about the folding shovel for the car, I've bought an extra one for the ambulance men who come to pick hubby up for his dialysis. We had terrible snow last year but they never failed to get through for OH and always managed to bring him back but they did have to borrow my shovel once and another time the ambulance got properly stuck on a bank and a passing Land Rover pulled them out! The folding shovel will be ideal to keep in the ambulance.