A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

Mrs_Chip

Yes it was called Debris, and was really good for silver jewellery, OH knew to get my pressies there . Still empty, like a lot of the shops in town. We were under threat of a big Tescos being plonked right in the centre for years, it pretty much blighted the town. Now they have pulled out, god knows what will happen, but I doubt all the old 'proper' shops will come back.

Still, new marina might help things when they sell the 243 new apartments they are going to build.... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:. You could not make it up!

katieowl_2

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Still, new marina might help things when they sell the 243 new apartments they are going to build.... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:. You could not make it up!

They'll all be holiday lets? Not local housing I'm guessing! Grrr :mad:

Kate

Possession

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Thanks P, that's really helpful. I think I will make our own fishcakes rather than buying in, as the ones from wholesalers are rubbish. We are going to sell 'proper' sausages from the butcher rather than the usual nasty ones in chipshops. It will mean less margin, but will sell a little bit dearer and that they are 'local' - people here are very keen to buy local and good quality, and advice is that they will pay a bit more.

I have done my pricing, and compared with local chipshops, so hope I have the prices right!

Yes we put on our website and menus that our sausages and bacon are from the local butcher, and it does make a difference. Luckily he gives us a fairly good price. Homemade fishcakes sound yummy! what about some kind of homemade relish? We use homemade chutney in our cheese and chutney sandwiches and people like it.

Mrs_Chip

Eventually we will be in the villages in the north of the county, but got to get that sorted through council licencing. We also need to see what the Ceredigion licencing arrangements are as we could slip over the border....

We can be flexible and do one-off shows etc, then I can expand the menu options, even the cuisine. Plan to do things like currys, mexican, seafood, all depend where and what people want. Will also do parties and weddings!

ETA: I am guessing they will be private sales, so could end up as lets. Noting in plans to say any have to be social housing. They will be on the marina, so not really family-type homes i'm gessing!

Mrs_Chip

Good idea P, chutneys etc. Plus I will make my own coleslaw and tartar sauce, as it cheap as chips and much nicer.

I want to do chicken nugget type things, I know they are very popular with families, but hate the idea of selling horrible ones from wholesaler with about 10% chicken in them.

lizzyb1812

Mrs Chip - have just had to have a drink - £17-99 for one ball of wool :eek: I'd be scared to wash it! I've just restarted crocheting and am finding the price of yarn frightening.

Re trying out stuff on the van and what Possession said about pricing - how about introducing stuff in a snack/fun size? Sell in a sort of "would you like x to go with that.." sort of way. If snacksize goes well you could introduce full size with no pricing problems. Imagine mini burgers, sausage rolls, etc in different flavours or mini pots of soups, stews, sauces, etc. A bit faffy but it might work - says she who has no idea about this sort of stuff really :rotfl:

Thank goodness the wind seems to have died down for a bit - am fed up of picking up next door's recycling from my garden because the bin went out a day early and got blown down - repeatedly. I'll get up early tomorrow and put mine out just before the binmen come.

Doing very well so far on not spending on groceries and using contents of fridge, freezer and cupboards but will have to shop tomorrow, although I'll go with a small list.

Smileyt - what took you so long?

meme30

Hi, am de-lurking just to say Happy new Year to everyone. Thanks for a great read, and a source of inspiration! Have finally used up the last of the festive bits today by using the last few lemons to make the Microwave Lemon Curd! It worked great! have felt so chuffed with myself I ate a big bar of Xmas chocolate!! Carefull eating starts on Monday, so three more days left in which to make a pig of myself!

paidinchickens

mrschip I worked in a chip shop part time when the kids were little and the biggest seller was

One of those large yorkshire puds with chips, sausage, peas and gravy and

On a Friday and Saturday we would do a

Big yorkie with slices of beef, veg, mash and gravy.

These could then be wrapped and frozen or kept for sunday dinner. The single people and old people bought a lot plus couples looking after relatives used to come for miles to buy home made to give to their families as they could not cook for them in person.

Sorry if I am butting in and you have already thought of this


DH thought he would help with pud as I made tea and washed up. I asked him to chop up some ripe bananas and make some choccy custard to go on top. After he had been mixing the custard a while I had to go and see what the blummin eck he was up to............ after investigating what he was up to I saw there was hot water with chocolate lumps floating on top.

He had used choc value angel delight instead of custard :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: which is obviously my fault for colour matching everything in value wrappers :rotfl::rotfl:

PIC x

Mrs_Chip

PIC - now that does sound interesting! Not quite sure of the logistics on the van, but I do want to do something that will appeal to a wider audience, and there are a lot of older people in the villages who I know would like to have access to hot food they have not had to cook. So will def be doing things like cottage pie, but those yorkshires are a good idea!

Possession

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

PIC - now that does sound interesting! Not quite sure of the logistics on the van, but I do want to do something that will appeal to a wider audience, and there are a lot of older people in the villages who I know would like to have access to hot food they have not had to cook. So will def be doing things like cottage pie, but those yorkshires are a good idea!

I meant to say, we did homemade soups last year as well, but we've taken them off this year as a) we had a lot of spillage probs and then its a complete pain to clear up and b) by the time you've bought insulated cups and lids just those cost 20-25p let alone the cost of ingredients/time/fuel. Our van goes to industrial estates and business parks and it was cheaper for people to buy whatever soup was on offer in Tesco and heat it in the microwave. With your customer base you might not have that problem. We also did paninis which were very popular but they didn't keep for long on the van and it only had warming facilities, not cooking ones so we stopped those too.
You'll want to experiment, of course. I did too but really its DH's business, I'm just the cook and I have a 'proper' job which pays the mortgage so I can't spend too much time on it. Then today an order comes in for 200 cakes and I'm wondering where on earth I'm going to find the time to make them! I think I forgot to mention we make our own cakes. Bestsellers are chocolate unbaked, lemon drizzle, crispy mallow cake and millionaires shortbread. Lemon drizzle freezes and the others have a good couple of weeks shelf life which is a lifesaver for me as its a real killer to be having to throw away the things you've made yourself rather than bought in!