Hypno's kick up the backside debt diary....

hypno06

Seaxwyn wrote: »

Crikey, I wish I had a storecupboard like yours - ale and wine!!!

The ale isn't real, but a cook in sauce type thing that I got BOGOF a while back!!

The wine.....well, urmm, that's a basic just like pasta and tinned tomatoes isn't it

hypno06

slowlyfading wrote: »

wow, those meals sound fab! If you've got any tips on how to survive on tins of tomatoes and not much else, feel free to throw them my way. Am having to live on next to nothing for the next three weeks like £10 a week for everything i might need.
sf x

£10 a week is plenty - we are doing that for a family of 5 this month and so far are managing!

Get a big bag of pasta from Sainsbury, Tesco, or Asda - £1 for 1kg, it will last you all month! A couple of rashers of bacon and an egg will make you a carbonara, a tin of tuna and "basics" tinned sweetcorn will give you a fab pasta dish and if you can run to a tub of own brand philly style soft cheese, you can make a really creamy sauce.

If you go to an Asian supermarket, you can pick up a huge bag of basmati rice for next to nothing and can do the same meals as above but with rice instead of pasta. Variety!!!!

Tinned tomatoes form the basis of most of my cooking!! Pasta sauces, curries, bunged in a slow cooker they make a fab gravy with some cheap meat. If you have some dried chilli flakes you can give these a bit of a "kick", or else just add fresh black pepper from a mill.

If you get some eggs, you can make frittata or my fave - egg and chips!!

My best tip though is to go to the fish counter or the meat counter at the supermarkets and ask for offcuts - when they cut all the stuff to put in polystyrene trays on display, they make it all nice and regular shaped. Of course fish and meat are not generally square shaped so what happens to the offcuts! They get chucked usually but if you ask when you go into the supermarket you can get a whole load trimmed for you to collect when you have finished your shopping! I have had loads of fresh salmon for 30p which makes great pasta dishes or fish pies and bacon offcuts, again for pasta, or risotto for next to no cost!

The most expensive thing for me each week is coffee - I get through a significant amount of it but although I try the cheap stuff, I just can't put up with it long term. For everything else, though, I can do a weekly shop on a shoestring!!

slowlyfading

thanks for that, i'll have a look around and see how it goes
sf x

dreams_R_free

Hypno you're an inspiration for providing such yummy-sounding food for next to nothing. I get a lot of my ideas from your meals:T .

Do your family eat small/normal amounts? My DH needs food in industrial quantities:eek:. I'm really trying to shop and cook economically and think I could do well at it (thanks to you and others on here) but DH greets whatever I've made with 'I'm ravenous, is that all we're having?' He expects masses of meat in his casseroles, loads of salmon in a pasta concoction etc:eek: . That's on the few occasions when I make anything with pasta as he hates it. Same with rice, he'll eat it with a big meat-filled curry but that's about it. I use loads of different veg (which he does like) but he always wants to know 'where's the meat?' He's really doing my head in!

spud30

Hypno, your storecupboard meals are truly inspirational hun :beer:

Where do you get your ideas from?

I think I need to set myself a few hours aside tomorrow to read your diary in full

hypno06

My lot have hearty appetites - I try and get them to eat less but to no avail!

because of all the sport that the children do, they need to eat a reasonable amount, but by being careful I can make decent casseroles with not too much meat but loads of veg in to pad it out.

Last week I didn't have enough mince for all of us to have spag bol so added a load of bulghar wheat which no one complained about - made the dinner go twice as far!

I find that with a stew or a casserole, because there is loads of fab gravy/sauce, it takes away that need for extra meat because the flavour is there already.

Plus I am really good at looking for reduced meat and fish which I can then put in the freezer. Bacon freezes well, so when it is on offer I get a couple of packs and put them away, the same with sausages. Decent Sausages (on offer of course) with mash and gravy. Yum yum! Or sausage casserole, to make fewer sausages go even further.

I have a rule that no meal should cost more than £1 per person. In reality it costs about half that.

hypno06

spud30 wrote: »

Hypno, your storecupboard meals are truly inspirational hun :beer:

Where do you get your ideas from?

I think I need to set myself a few hours aside tomorrow to read your diary in full

Thank you!

Weightwatchers cookbooks gave me loads of ideas a few years ago when I ditched processed foods and went back to proper cooking, but basically I cook by instinct - trial and error!!

spud30

hypno06 wrote: »

Thank you!

Weightwatchers cookbooks gave me loads of ideas a few years ago when I ditched processed foods and went back to proper cooking, but basically I cook by instinct - trial and error!!

I also want to move away from processed foods.

We have already started to make our own pizzas, curries, lasagne etc and all are much nicer than you can buy.

hypno06

spud30 wrote: »

I also want to move away from processed foods.

We have already started to make our own pizzas, curries, lasagne etc and all are much nicer than you can buy.

Much nicer, much healthier and much cheaper.

Can't go wrong really:D

spud30

hypno06 wrote: »

Much nicer, much healthier and much cheaper.

Can't go wrong really:D

Absolutely hun.

I fail on the days that I work 7.45 till 6, and just need something quick for me and the kids when we get in :rolleyes: