As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

ginnyknit

Well you learn something new everyday on here I didnt know you can fry off and freeze peppers :T I do waste a bit and I have a nice new pack here so will try that later. Dgs is having a snooze so made his lunch and chucked a tater hash in the slow cooker for tonight, makes me feel terribly well organised! Its started to rain as predicted so its play day here. Found out that Dgs's playgroup that he goes to with his childminder is totally O/S they even make their own play dough. Im loving his new childminder as much as the last, they both cook from scratch for him. When he left his other minder she handed me a bag of baby pasta and bits and bobs she had got whoopsied - my kind of girl. Mind you we were both in tears when I left as she adored him but couldn't do early mornings any more as her children were struggling being woken at silly o clock - Mr M just doesnt cater for staff needs!.

Anyway am going to run round there when we pick Ds up later and hopefully get a few bargains. Was happy with my vouchers yesterday at Mr S saved 3.00, pound off fairy liquid, free rice fusions and half price St's. Going to check the coupon thread now!

mardatha

Tried this one ?
400gm flour
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 TBLS sugar
4 TBLS cooking oil
225 ml water
Turns out fine for me.

mardatha

Is Weezl still on MSE ? Is her meal planning site still going?

Broomstick

I'm setting up a price book type list again. Last time I did this regularly was when the children were under-5s.

I had a method for supermarket shopping that worked really well for me using the price book and, although it sounds a bit barmy, I thought I'd post it just in case it helped someone else. It turned the shop into a real challenge and made something that was exhausting and tedious into a bit more fun. I only used cash to do one big shop each week for everything and I'd only top up at local shops where I absolutely had to if the supermarket didn't have an essential in stock.

I'd meal plan in detail and make my shopping list accordingly. I'd then price it using the previous week's/latest prices in my book, add it up and make sure it was within my very strict budget for that week. If it was over, I'd fiddle with the menus and the list until I'd got it under.

Then I'd take the priced shopping list to the supermarket with a pen and cross off stuff as I collected it. If the price had gone up I'd mark the rise in the margin (eg if it was 55p and was now 58p I'd mark +3). If it was less than I'd calculated for I'd do the opposite (so 87p down to 81p would get -6 in the margin). In that way I could keep tabs on all the pluses and minuses as I went round. Before I got to the till I'd do a final check and if I'd managed to save some money I could then use it to buy something else - it was useful for topping up things like herbs or going back for a bogoff offer. Dealing only in pluses and minuses made the mental arithmetic a great deal quicker and less prone to errors!

I'm in the throes of setting up a food coop and so am now wanting to get my price book up and running to double check prices against supermarket ones to make sure I really will be saving money.

B x

7_week_wonder

Hello people,

Thanks for all the advice about price books, gradma247 they were a couple of great websites: it had never occured to me that special offers and stuff would be cyclical. I'm definitely going to try and keep a track of the prices of things and vary where I shop accordingly. At the moment I am mainly a MrM girl; but I have very easy access to a S@ainsburys and a Lidls.

Smileyt there are many things I would do for my hens - but shampooing their rear end isn't one of them :eek:. My maran isn't talking to me at the moment: she had a broody fit the other night and wasn't too impressed when I turfed her out of the next box (well it was 8 at night and I knew there was no way she was actually laying!)

CBHM I too am really impressed by your positive attitude - I hope things continue to improve for you. Don't forget to pass on any good OS tips from your new neighbour.

I'm pretty fed up today: last weekend we boght a new laptop to help me stay on top of my work whilst I'm going back and forth to mums - and late last night it had a hissy fit and I suspect the hard drive is corrupted. I'm going to get the guys at work to have a look at it - but if it is corrupt and not fixable would I be within my rights to take it back and ask for a new one? (It was from Lewis's - but I'm wondering whether because I've used it and had s/w (all legitimate) installed on it they might claim it wasn't guaranteed)

Oh well at least it isn't raining here today: we also cracked and put the heating on last night, it was so miserably cold here.

Oh and weezl's website is still up and running (at least it was a coupld of days ago)

[Deleted User]

Ahh re bread dough. It actually needs to be wetter than you think as a dryer dough = brick. It is easy to manipulate wetter dough with the hands if you put oil on them. Bread dough doesn`t need too much working, the popular conception is that you need to bang it about and huff and puff over it but no need. Just give it a lot more time and stretch and fold with a bit of flour incorporated to make it easier. I give mine a stretch and fold about every hour when I make my sourdough bread. Then the last one in a tight rollup and proved in folded cloths or banneton or tins.
There are lots of ways to make bread

Is this any use to anyone
10g fresh yeast=5g active dried yeast=3g fast action yeast

I have a book called `bread matters` and it is inspiring me to wake up my sleeping sourdough starter

LittleBrownFrog

ooh - thanks for the crumpet recipe. I'll definitely be giving that a go - we love crumpets - perfect for the miserable weather we have here at the moment as well :beer:

smileyt_2

A mixed bag so far today. The yoghurt worked :T - I heated the soya milk to 48 degrees C and put in about 25 ml of yoghurt and this morning I had lovely, creamy yoghurt waiting. I also went onto my allotment before the rain started and picked about 2 dozen strawberries and a few raspberries (the raspberries I carried home in my tummy ).

Unfortunately about a quarter of my tomato plants are dead. The weather and wind has just been too cold for them I have managed to set up a plastic sheet over the remaining ones in the hope that the shelter will perk them up, but what we really need is a few weeks' sunshine and gentle breezes, not near-frost temperatures at night, howling gales and hailstones!

I need to burn off my new oven before I can use it but I'm not looking forward to the fumes. However I am going to capitalise on the heat by making some bread. Even with the backdoor open to let the fumes out it should still be a warm environment for the bread to rise. I am going to try to make 3 or 4 loaves to make full use of the oven.

Later on I think I will start knitting some mug hugs. A friend gave me a mug hug book and it's kind of knitting weather!

Have a good OS Sunday folks.

Greying_Pilgrim

claudiac wrote: »

..... I work in a job that takes me around the supermarkets, and I have been looking at the price of basics stuff recently I bought pasta at *sda about 6 weeks ago at a price of 9p per pack, which was great, but this week the price was 32p! In S**sbugs yesterday the price for the same pasta is about 18p, so will be buying it from there as soon as I get paid, and buying enough for a good few months supply because the only way is up as far as the price of food goes!

Claudiac - that's very interesting, I posted on here a couple of weeks ago about noticing ASD@ smartprice pasta going up to 32p (I'd spotted it on the mysupermarket site). And surprise, surprise, our local ASD@ put the price up to 32p. However, at the time (in my post) I said that Mr S and MrT were still charging 17p and 18p for their versions. When I went into ASD@ on Thursday this week, I noticed that the smartprice pasta was back down to 18p. Now, it is interesting that different ASD@ stores are charging different prices, because I assumed that either there was 'playing silly bu**ers' going on, and that week it was asd*'s turn to be the 'dearest', or whether market pricing actually does exist, and whilst ASD@ had broken ranks and charged a higher price, the others had not followed, so they'd reduced their price again.

Good grief, no wonder shopping has become akin to a military planning exercise! :rotfl:

Greying

Dee5565

Hi Everyone,
I joined here in Nov 10 and was enjoying being in here, learning how to do things while also getting rid of debt.Then in early in the new year my OH had a nervous breakdown. So things kind of went out the window for awhile But I am now back and ready to start again, I have been reading for a few days on here and picking up alot of tips.
I have had to give up work to look after the OH, so have been trying all the ideas on here to save spending money. I have debt that I have been working away at since November 10 and it is coming down slowly but surely. Would like to thank everyone here for all the tips and ideas.
I have learned alot.



Dee