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

meme30

Thanks for the recipe Posession that looks like a simple one to start with.
I do think it's the metabolism thing thinking it's starving that stops you losing weight. My big struggle is portion size, my OH likes a full plate so I eat more!?! Something like that! :rotfl:
Sammy-kaye I'm so pleased its not just me who gets nervous when the food cupboards look empty. It's a siege mentality I think. There have been hard times when our store cupboard has kept us for a month. It makes me laugh, one of my daughters has inherited my siege mentality, her store cupboard and freezer are still bursting and they are on a six week month! She used to laugh at my full cupboards! I never worry about them starving...now running out of loo rolls is another thing!

Austin_Allegro

I've been watching the 1970s series 'Survivors' on Youtube. It's comforting, and cathartic, to know that however bad this recession/depression gets it's unlikely to get that bad!

(In the series, 99% of the world's population is wiped out by a virus, and the rest have to survive on subsistence farming and scavenging).

It's also quite interesting from an o/s point of view, they use things like tinderboxes instead of matches, and home made candles from mutton fat etc.

rosieben

it was a great series AA, hope you're enjoying it. I'm old enough to have watched it first time around

mardatha

Yesss me too

rosieben

I didn't pick up on the OS stuff then though, I was a flighty teenager and couldn't care less about what my granny did

3v3

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

... Plus I need to pick up a compost bin at some point - all these veg peelings can go in it and give me some compost for my new project - I figure if I can at least grow half my dinner it will save in the long run.

....
Also to all on the board - I wanted to ask an opinion. We are eating a lot of fruit at the minute and Im debating buying an apple tree - Im thinking golden delicious as I think they are fairly good all round apple. Ive found a tree for £14.99 - obviously Id need a big pot for it to go in and soil etc but do you think it would be a worthy investment?

Compost Bin:- Check your local council, sometimes they offer reduced prices on compost daleks. Or, go the "free" route. If you can find some pallets about, just tie them together in a U shape, then use a 4th as a door. Before then though, if you have a large, thick cardboard box, as a temporary measure open up the bottom of it, stand it up on the bare earth and begin throwing your veg peelings/old newspapers into that. Why wait?

Apple trees:- I bought 6 fruit trees from "£Saver" last April. These were bare rooted trees which really should have been planted way before. So, instead, I put them in a quiet spot in the garden in a bucket of water (naughty me). Come the end of October, I planted them all in the garden. I am delighted to say they are doing really well! Can't wait until proper Spring (not the pretend one we're having today!) to see them come into blossom. My garden already had two apple trees, one pear and several plum trees. Last Autumn was a bumper year for the apples and pears and I stored/cooked & froze most of them. I think I paid something like £5 for the trees from PoundStretcher and one of those was a Golden Delicious. Even a non-dwarf variety of apple planted in the garden isn't a problem size wise *if* you keep it pruned each year and managable. Also, consider fruit bushes so you can freeze those fruits for leaner times. I bought 6 fruit bushes from the £1 shop last Spring. Lost 2 but the other 4 have grown. At those prices it really wasn't heartbreaking to lose 2 of them.

Oh and as for the school trip money ... does your school have a fund for people who may not be able to afford trips? If its classed as an "educational trip" and you can't afford the travel fees, you can ask for it to be paid for from the school fund

Back to 3v3's World.

Going to admit I made a "false economy" yesterday. Saw a prestige pressure cooker in Asda for just £18 - bargain! - got it home, read the manual and apparently it only has 7psi and the better quality ones are 15psi (although it also states 7psi is nominal operating pressure and maximum allowable pressure is 14psi ... but it doesn't explain that any further? ) Still, at that price, it will still be worth it to experiment and see how often I use it. At worst, I'll use it as any other saucepan. So, not a total disaster whichever way I look at it.

jackel

Sammy - You'll need two apple trees (in the same group) for pollination. Unless of course you have a neighbour who happens to have one in their garden. Well worth growing financially but you will not got a worthwile crop for a few years. Jackel

HariboJunkie

Happy New Year Toughies!! I have been catching up on real life over the festive period and am back with my nose to the grindstone and juggling the finaces in the joyful world of self employment.

Am being so careful with money atm in the hope of building some more savings. OH has plenty of work coming in but we have had serious problems with non paying clients recently so I want a back up for when that happens. We have done the unimaginable though and booked a holiday!!! :eek::j_pale_ Two weeks in the sun at a lovely resort and going all inclusive so you can be sure we will get our money's worth. :money:Scrimping like mad to make up for it just now though as it's not like we have pots of extra money to pay for it. Keep telling myself we deserve it.

Hope all are well and as happy as you can be in these austere times.

Haribo x

HariboJunkie

jackel wrote: »

Sammy - You'll need two apple trees (in the same group) for pollination. Unless of course you have a neighbour who happens to have one in their garden. Well worth growing financially but you will not got a worthwile crop for a few years. Jackel

There are also self polinating apple trees. I got one from Aldi a few years ago but there are plenty out there at quite reasonable prices.

saratoga

rachbc wrote: »

Gailey - for packed lunches I reckon about 50p-£1 too - dd had cream cheese sarnie (cut in heart shape lol), - maybe 6th packet of aldi cream cheese and 2 slices aldi bread (20p ish), aldi apple (15p), carrot cut into sticks (5p), yeo choc mousse (25p rare treat - usually has a yeo tube or hm jelly made with juice juice). My poor kids don't get crisps, sometimes hm biscuit once or twice a week but not everyday.

I know £3 and over sounds a lot for a packed lunch but they were having(on their requests!) two sandwiches full of some nice meat(their words not mine!) two packets of crisps ,some form of fruit,normally banana or apple,a couple of snack size chocolate bars and a drink(and anything else they could grab on the way out!).None of them are overweight ,in fact my daughter has gone from a size 14 to a size 8 in about a year,but they all claim they are starving all the time. If they just get the £3 thats all they get they don't take anything out of the cupboards and have to budget it for lunch and a snack at breaktime.
The decision was made to do this after my 14 year old confessed he ate most of his packet lunch at first break and was starving again by lunchtime!!!