Where do we go from basics?

donnajt

This is a small saving but...I've stopped serving cottage/shepherds pie instead, I make up the mince (my fav is Hairy Bikers Mum Knows Best recipe), half goes into the freezer and the other half is served over a large jacket potato with a sprinkling of cheese on top, no butter...I reckon this saves me at least £4 a week and i have a meal for the following week and its so much more filling

donnajt

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Wonder what Cameron, Osborne and cronies would make of this thread???

don't tell them they will put our taxes up if they think we have got a couple of pennies to spare...

dianadors

Thinking about this topic, you need to bear in mind that hard times are not anything new, and we all need to keep things in perspective. I was born in the late 1950's and cannot remember a decade when at some stage my family - working class - have not had to really struggle. My mum had been brought up in the war years and she really does know how to "make do and mend" - something I have often laughed at her for, but now am really glad I took notice. For tasty but economical food, Italian peasant cookery is the business. Home made pizza base using flour, yeast and water, spread with just a cheap tin of tomatoes or some Whoopsied fresh ones with crushed garlic and only a really small amount of cheese. Cooked at the highest your oven will go for a few minutes is delicious. Any other topping is a bonus. Chunky vegetable soup - using whatever is cheap or free with a bit of pasta thrown in for bulk is nutricious as well as cheap. When I think back to the tough times - that is when I was my slimmest! and they reckon the war time diet was a lot healthier for your heart. I'm glad I was taught to cook well at school. We had lessons about economical cooking and using leftovers and meal planning.

grizzly1911

bluebag wrote: »

Bless you, tht reminds me of my mum who when we were little was often on a 'diet' and didn't have a meal with us, but always scarfed anything that was left over. I didn't realise until I was an adult that in reality there wasn't enough food.:(

Funny I thought it was just my mum that did that.

Luckily we were able to move on.

Whilst I know there have always been a proportion of people struggling it does seem to be accelerating.

As PP said it is disturbing just how far the main supermarkets have gone up. I went into a M recently, as I had to drop someone off close by, to do the weekly shop. Only got as far as the fruit and veg, had already picked up a couple of impulse buys (cakes), looked at prices, turned round and put stuff back then off to Al.

As well as the increased taxes, benefit reductions, fuel costs the government deliberately devalued the pound a year or so back, which has accelerated inflation. Part of the problem is that things have gone up as much in 1 -2 years as they used to over 5 -10.

dibblersan

I don't know if it's a question of being flexible.

I bought £58 of meat that wasn't on my budget this month - it's at least 69 (generous) portions (assuming that a lamb joint or a pack of mince will only do 4 portions for example when it will do much more depending on what I do with it)

I've also previously taken advantage of when the man at the market had too much - he was selling trays of chicken for £10 (22 Lb of chicken legs so £1/kg) I forced them into the freezer and then ate chicken for months (still have a load to be honest (more than 10 at least)

I always get a sack of potatoes for £6/25kg (30p/kg lasts 2/3 months) a sack of onions (£6/20kg going on 4 months the last sack) and big bags of carrots (50p/2kg in a month)

i rarely buy basics to be honest, as i find buying in bulk, rtc, offers and away from the super market can save me more.

Quenastoise

marking to read later - plenty of good ideas as far as I can see :T

pelirocco

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Funny I thought it was just my mum that did that.

Luckily we were able to move on.

Whilst I know there have always been a proportion of people struggling it does seem to be accelerating.

As PP said it is disturbing just how far the main supermarkets have gone up. I went into a M recently, as I had to drop someone off close by, to do the weekly shop. Only got as far as the fruit and veg, had already picked up a couple of impulse buys (cakes), looked at prices, turned round and put stuff back then off to Al.

As well as the increased taxes, benefit reductions, fuel costs the government deliberately devalued the pound a year or so back, which has accelerated inflation. Part of the problem is that things have gone up as much in 1 -2 years as they used to over 5 -10.

I think its because for the last 30 years we have 'never had it so good'

Back in the 60's i dont think we expected much , as everyone around us was in the same boat , today we have more media coverage and we want what everyone else ( appears) to have .

We didnt own a house , didnt have central heating , baths once a week , ice on the inside of windows and very basic meals , no snacks , no flavoured drinks , rarely had days out etc .............I cant remember feeling hard done by

quintwins

donnajt wrote: »

quintwins could you briefly explain (if u don't mind) do you mean you plant the sprouting potatoes or just the skins ??? i want to try this

thank u x

i mean my my seed postaoes are sprouting so need to go in the ground soon before there too 'past' it

i have seed poatoes from poundland and some i got on offer from the grabits, but you can plant normal household spuds if you wait for them to start sprouting first altho they are more likely to get blight and spots apparently i've never tried it as theres always seed ones on offer

you can also grow spuds in pots and grow bags/old compost bags so it's def worth giving it ago even if space is limited

Tibbie's_mum

unixgirluk wrote: »

Try your local market for scoop shops, they usually have one or two. Stock up on cheaper items when you can. Be inventive, in my lasagne instead of all meat layers I now have one veg layer for every meat layer, it makes it go much further and use whatever veg is cheapest.

We are also doing more surveys, clicks etc and using this money to buy rice, potatoes, noodles etc and fill up the store cupboard.

Lasagnes are also great for using up leftovers, tonight lasagne includes one portion of leftover chilli, the last few bits of meat off a chicken carcass, some veg that was skulking at the bottom of the fridge and the remainders of last night Somerset Pork, minus the pork. Having added all that lot to a tin of tomatoes, red lentils and pearl barley, it's been layered up with cheese sauce and it'll be yum.

VJsmum

donnajt wrote: »

thank u so v much, i bought some potato seeds a couple of years back and somebody told me u couldnt harvest until they flowered, well, mine never flowered, about 6 months later i decided to empty the pot and found about 20 rotten potatoes AARRGGHH!!

It doesn't hurt to have a little rummage round every now and again to see what they are doing. You could harvest early for "new" potatoes, or leave for a bit till they get "old" (but not rotten :eek:).

I would anticipate harvesting mine in September time after planting 3 weeks ago.