How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

kezlou

My store cupboard is still a shocking a state of affairs after the recent bashing. But right now have i think i have about 5 (1.5kg) of bread flour, 4 of the same of plain flour. Also have some tins in the cupboard now.

So although my store cupboard needs work, i'm feeling slightly relived at opening my cupboards and seeing two tins of corn beef! Lol i know, but it means i can make stew out of it!

Had a lovely day out today, been so nice, we packed a picnic of sausage rolls, pasta salad, oranges and sandwiches with a huge flask of hot chocolate. The boys loved it, i even managed to walk up a hill:T first time since June last year:D. A lowly mile all round trek from the hill to the car.
I'm shattered like, but i've decided if all well next were going to walk up to captain cooks monument.

Love this time of year, cold,but sunny and refreshing.

So today = a NSD for me .

jumblejack

I feel so proud of myself today! I bought the weekend offers from lidl: lean steak mince £1.19 and new potatoes 59p a kilo.
I also bought 4 packs of potatoes from Tescos at 30p. When I got home I noticed that they had charged me £1 for each bag. Took em back and they gave me double the difference!! It was £5.50 odd!!!

I made mince n onions in gravy with new potatoes and cabbage.

I only used half of the mince n onions.

I put some of the left over mince mix with the leftover steamed baby potatoes into a large pie!

The remaining mince mix was added to a tin of rinsed kidney beans. I also added paprika, chilli & cumin, yum!!

As I made a LOAD of pastry, I made a flan with hm soft cheese (some of my thermos yogurt separated into curds n whey so I seived it and it's yummy!). I just added eggs, milk, herbs & salt. I poured it over broccoli florets in the case.

I reserved some of the hm soft cheese to go with the chilli tomorrow instead of soured cream.

With the pastry cuttings I rolled it and cut out discs with a cup, popped them into a bun tin and spooned in
lemon curd to make tarts.

The flan, pie & tarts all went in the oven together and it has cost next to nothing for several days worth of meals!!!

£1.19 mince
39p new potatoes (I still have some of the bag left!)
10p cabbage (whoopsied!)
26p flour (half a bag)
19p value kidney beans
7p broccoli florets (whoopsied, half a bag)
25p margarine (3rd of utterly butterly tub on offer at 75p)
15p lemon curd
20p hm soft cheese (made from UHT milk)
5p spices

(My eggs are from my hens so i havent put a price)About £2.60 for 3 main meals and a batch of tarts!!
This is for a family of 4!!!!! If you bought eggs then it would have cost just under £3 in total

Gosh, how CHEAP is that per head, per meal!!!! It feels so great to not waste anything and to feed the family at less than 25p a head feels great too. **runs off to shine her halo!**






Yay!!!

purpleheather2810

Jackie - have you thought about requesting a change such as working condensed hours (ie your normal 37 hours or whatever spread 4 days instead of 5) or working from home one day a week? They can only say no. Maybe it's worth a try?

All peeps with hens who have lots of eggs to eat - do you ever make your own pasta? That would use up loads of eggs in a less "eggy" way iyswim?

Just got half a lamb from our local butchers. DH and I both love lamb but this is the only way we will be buying it (bar yellow stickers) - so we now have several different joints of lamb, chops, steaks and mince in the freezer. Was about €5 per kilo so still more expensive than other meats we buy such as free range chicken, pork, beef, etc but it is just so darn yummy. And I find that you don't need much of it because it is so well flavoured. I like to serve pulses of some description with my lamb to make it go further (very French peasant of me), such as borlotti bean stew with lamb steak/chop, lentil/black eyed beans/chick peas with a small amount of roast lamb for curry, etc. I will use the big leg joint when I have parents+grandma joining us on mother's day.

kitschy

Quick question - does anyone know of any price checking sites for groceries that include Morrisons or Lidl? My Supermarket only does the supermarkets that home deliver, but I wondered if there were any more? I drive past Lidl, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons on my way home.

ceridwen

kitschy wrote: »

Thanks for this - have added it to my "to read" list as it looks interesting.

I'm running out of space in my current layout, so may have to rejig under the bed as I live in a suburban shoebox! I have about 10kg of sugar, a few kilos of flour, lots of cereal and a few other bits.

With so many of us having to live in smaller spaces than anticipated (including me) then I do think there is a "gap in the market" for a blog specifically on how to cope with this. Things like:

- storage space ideas for cramming a kitchen into a kitchenette,

- cramming a normal size garden worth into a "pocket handkerchief",

-minimum workable wardrobe (and thats a problem on its own - with the way that many of us have clothes in a couple of different sizes - ie our normal one and a "fat" one - so have some items doubled up...:cool:),

- soundproofing measures if having to live in a flat/terrace house/semi-detached house

- ideas for achieving some level of privacy in an overlooked garden

etc

Does anyone know of a blog (or book) like this? I've rejigged and rejigged - I've long since lost count of how many times I've reorganised in my kitchen or garden trying to get everything to fit in and trying (and miserably failing) as to how to achieve any privacy at all in the garden. Its a frequent cause of "headaches"...

EDIT: It would also be useful if anyone knows of manufacturers of seating and kitchen white goods that specialise in making decent-quality, modern, reasonably-priced items in smaller sizes. Very frustrating to go shopping for sofas and spot lots of nice squishy attractive modern ones and its all one can do to find anything small in anything other than "granny style" or to go shopping for a cooker and look longingly at range cookers and find its all one can do to find any cooker much at all thats only 50cm wide.

I dont think a lot of manufacturers have cottoned-on to the fact that many of us have to live in one level or another of "shoebox" and are getting very frustrated at the fact that seating and cookers are both coming in bigger styles these days and our little shoeboxes won't even take "standard" size models - so we have to automatically reject the one we have chosen to have and 90% of the other models too and are lucky to have a couple of items to choose from for our places.

kitschy

Ceridwen, that's a brilliant idea.

this is one of my favourite websites, and if you search for storage it'll come up with some novel ideas. The good ones are there many times as because of the nature of the site we "re-pin" things we like onto our own boards. My boards are a little empty as I haven't spent anywhere near enough time on them, but am getting into the habit of "pinning" things I like - saves clogging up my favourites!

ceridwen

kitschy wrote: »

Ceridwen, that's a brilliant idea.

this is one of my favourite websites, and if you search for storage it'll come up with some novel ideas. The good ones are there many times as because of the nature of the site we "re-pin" things we like onto our own boards. My boards are a little empty as I haven't spent anywhere near enough time on them, but am getting into the habit of "pinning" things I like - saves clogging up my favourites!

Thanks.

I'll have a look at that later - had very quick glance and thought "oOh...some nice photos" - so will study in detail later.

meanwhiles - I thought "Why dont I just google the question 'how to cope with living in a shoebox?' and see what comes up. I found an interesting little clip (of course - it helps if you know an architect - or, at least, a handyman):

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34867/a-luxury-shoebox-apartment-draws-the-spotlight-in-hong-kong/

After which I had a "DUH!" moment - as I thought "Idiot - ceridwen - look to the even more overcrowded countries - Hong Kong, China, Japan, India - and they will have started thinking about this before the British did.....DUH!"

<Blames fact I havent got my brain up to speed for the day yet - am only on first cup of coffee.....>

grandma247

Wow Ceredwin that place is great. I like many of the ideas I have seen in ike@ over the last few years. I would do a lot of things like the ones in ike@ etc. If we were not set on moving. I hate living in this town and we are trying to get things in place so we can move away. I am not too bothered if we can only afford a small house because there are so many space saving ideas. I just want a decent size garden.

GreyQueen

If anyone finds the uber-book on this subject, can they pleeeze post the details up here. My flat is 24 sq m or 240 sq feet, which might sound a lot but to give you an idea; kitchen is 6 x 6, hall is 75 cm wide, living room is about 9 x 15, bathroom is just big enough to open the door without hitting the sink or the tub but open it wider than 90 degrees and you smack into the loo. Bedroom takes a standard double against 2 walls with 1 foot clearance on the third wall and an alcove just big enough to hold a wardrobe or a chest of drawers. Cannot have a bedside table as it would be struck with the door when it opens. Have 3 cupboards in the hallway. Door of flat open staight onto the public walkway so zero outside space unless in my bin cupboard (unlocked) or down the row in my bike shed (5' 9" x 3' wide). Locked, but we are inner city and the often get broken into; you wouldn't want to leave valuables in there.

To pardon the pun, you have to think outside the (Shoe) box and accept that it'll mean storing some stuff in unconventional spaces. As long as the storage won't attract vermin or be unhygenic or otherwise foolish (i.e. cause ruin in the stored item) I'll give it a go.

As mentioned elsewhere, I am storing tinned goods under the bed in wheeled trollies (mine were £3 for 2 at a b.s. but Ar*gos sold them for £25 a pair at the time). I'd love another pair but mine are steel grids and wood whereas the ones in the current cataglogue are wood-and-cloth, albeit £3 cheaper a pair. I'm getting some tray-type boxes from the supermarkets to stand it. The underbed is on a tiled floor so things run smoothly. Would love another two of those trollies from the b.s.

I've also decided that the dead space formed where the washing machine abuts the undersink unit at right-angles can't be left as it is. It's accessible thru a 6" gap and a rummage but it's a case of stick your arm in up to the shoulder, press your face against the cupboard and grope around blindly. I tend to stand bottles up there.

In the spirit of make-do and mend, I retrieved a 3 tier old style storage rack from my lottie shed. Bought it donkey's years' ago for 50p from a b.s and it served in my previous kitchen but there was no room here. Scrubbed it clean and I've taped the bottom of it's legs with electrical tape in the same colour (they were starting to split off their plastic coating) and have glued the caps from tomato puree tubes on the sharp metal leg ends to give it feet. Later today, I shall drag the washer halfway across the kitchen, clear out and clean the cubbyhole and insert the rack. What lives under there will have to be impermiable as in worst case scenario the washer hoses (which cross the space) might leak. Or the washer itself.

I find that I really have to limit my purchases, sometimes more due to lack of space than lack of money; some stuff is free for the taking or as good as giveaway at b.s prices but I have nowhere to put it and like a visually calm and uncluttered home. (looks across it at the mo with stuff all over the place as have hardly been in all weekend; smiles wryly to self.)

Underscale furniture from ex-show houses?
I've read that, in order to make boxy new-builds look a little bigger, that show homes are kitted out with furniture which is slightly under the normal scale. It goes to be sold when they've finished with it. Does anyone know where? I've seen reference to this in a book on thrifty living but I can't recall which. Probably in the S.E. somewhere towards London.

Ceridwen, I have a sofa that was originally from D*S and was a cast off from a friend. It is a 3 seater and replaced the 2 seater I had. The kicker is, the external dimensions are exactly the same but I can stretch out and lie down on the 3 seater one. I've mended the wooden frame a couple of times and titivated the leather but when it is beyond repair, I am dreading shopping for a replacement as the ones in the shops are such massive puffy things.........

I've found a few small scale homewares in L*keL*nd which seems to be aware that some of us are living in shoeboxes; skinny clothes racks and linen bins. I know its a temptation in there, and I really shouldn't even look......

Some other tips are;

1. Can you screw it to the wall? I have my landline phone on the wall behind the sofa, a quarter-circle shelf up a corner as a "bedside table", knives on a magnetic strip on the kitchen wall.

2. Can you shelve the dead space at the top of a cupboard and stack containers on there? You can also get racks which hang from the undersides of shelves, giving you a narrow extra shelf. I'm sure I've seen them in Betterw*re or that other door-to-door catalogue whose name escapes me at the moment.

3. Square or oblong containers/ dishes take up less space than round or oval ones.

4. Can you hang things on the backs of doors of cupboards?

5. Look under, over, and behind. Bet there's some space somewhere.....reaches for screwdriver as eyes up the bath panel once again.....

Kleopatra

ceridwen wrote: »

With so many of us having to live in smaller spaces than anticipated (including me) then I do think there is a "gap in the market" for a blog specifically on how to cope with this. .

People living on boats have a major space problem have you looked for any blogs or books on living on a canal boat or similar?