let there be cake

greenbee

Best way to guarantee an immediate start would be to get DH ripping more bits out of the house... Guarantees he'll be too busy to put it back together!

Memory_Girl

Wicked greenbee

My halogen oven is just like that one - and the prices are falling too I see. Great price for replacement bulb as well - might save up for one of those.

I love my pressure cooker - use it for loads - big pots of soup, batch cooking pulses, huge pots of tatties for gnochhi and fishcakes and of course I use it without the lids to do all my jams n stuff.

Third part of the Holy Trinity is of course the Slow Cooker (Marvin!!)

................. and my fuel bills are over half of what you are paying BTW (and I to have power tools, sewing machines, overlockers, sanders LOL)

MG

TiredIAm

Thanks MG, will have a think. Nervous of parting with money for any more gadgets! I had a breadmaker and hated it, I burnt the motor out on the meat slicer, the juicer gets used once a year (lots of apple trees), as does the dehydrator. The single best thing has been the Kenwood.

The fuel was £120 a month before he was off, and he is running some serious industrial machines - like a proper full size planing machine that can take unsawn planks of inch thick, 15 inch wide wonky oak and make it into pretty planed all round oak planks. We have rather a lot of this (bulk bought from ebay some years ago) that he has been making into the kitchen cupboards and furniture. The measuring thing goes mad when he uses it but it has to be done. If he wanted to set up for himself making furnishings we wouldn't need to buy anything but living till he can generate an income would be difficult. I have suggested he makes some bits to e-bay - we have three sizeable off cuts of solid oak worktop that would make nice butchers block stands for example.

We have done all the easy things - changed to a lower powered shower, put 5 minute timers on for the boys, have all bulbs as low energy ones, switch everything off, used the measure thing to work out what cost the most (oven!). The house is big, and old with an ancient central heating system and an old and inefficent boiler.

I am just in credit, and can move if somewhere else is cheaper or the cashback is worth it. I will have a look at that today.

Just making breakfast for the boys and noticed they have finished the chocolate cake last night. Only two slices of carrot cake left too. Need to make something that doesn't go in the oven as I don't plan to switch it on today. There is a packet of chocolate desert mix if need be.

I am feeling distinctly uninspired this morning

never_too_old

greenbee wrote: »

If they sell, get him to make some more metal men!

Look out for, and ask for scrap metal on freegle and free cycle - I you explain that it's for art projects you may get it as people want to avoid stuff going to people who are selling to scrap merchants. I would have saved my gate/door scraper/BBQ but you're too far from me!

Remind me to send you a copy of 'leave it to cook' if you don't have one. It's a slow cooking book with dreadful 1970s recipes, but what it does well is show how to work out what to cook with what. The idea is to cook an entire week's food in one session, making the most of the time you have and the time the oven is on.

I'm glad you tolerated the pasta. Hopefully if the boys see you not being fussy, they'll gradually start to realise that you should all be able to eat the same thing and it should make life much simpler if you only have to cook one meal each time!

Could i possibly have a copy,i need inspiration and i need to cut my grocery bill again
thanks:D

TiredIAm

Still feeling uninspired, ho hum.

Going to experiment with trying to make falafels for lunch, served with salad and HM flatbreads. DS2 wont like it but he can starve .

Dinner will be sausages with carrots and bubble & squeak (if the floppy savoy is still fit to eat!).

greenbee

never_too_old wrote: »

Could i possibly have a copy,i need inspiration and i need to cut my grocery bill again
thanks:D

It's not available electronically, and i only have the one copy, but there are second hand copies on amazon and eBay if you want to have a look. Or try your library to see whether you like it

TiredIAm - when I unpack the boxes in the study I will dig this out (if it's still there) and send it to you with the next batch of reading!

How did the falafels go down? And did you manage to salvage the cabbage?

I have been out all day learning how to make croissants, pain au raisin, profiteroles, eclairs and macaroons (different method to the last class) which has been quite fun but wasn't particularly challenging. I'd like to have done something a little more technical and complex. And I now have rather a lot of pastries to get rid of!

TiredIAm

Can you freeze them Greenbee? Are they nice croissants? I have tried a few times and they have been ok but I want superb ones.

I liked the falafel, had them with mixed salad and some lemon mayo on the HM flatbreads. First time I have made them, next time they need some chilli in (and meat says DH).

I skinned the sausages, added some extra seasoning and made little meatballs, then made bungitin casserole with a little of the chorizo, lots of beans, red lentils and chopped tomatoes which I served with rice and peas. Adults liked it, boys didn't so they had peas and rice with peanuts. 3 good portions for the freezer.

Sticky toffee buns from the freezer for snacks. DS2 hates them and has chuntered all day about the absence of chocolate cake but I was avoiding putting the oven on.

Toying with an approved foods order, would be easier if I had actually tried the tofu to know that we like it.

Ending the first week with £2.89 in my food purse and plenty in the stores. I am going to put this in an enevelope for store cupboard purchases.

That cabbage is looking fairly grim - the hens will be having the outsides as a minimum but the inside should be ok.

Tonight I must get a couple of bags of stewing beef out to defrost and dust off the slow cooker. Curry I think with some of my coconut block and the 1p red thai sachets.

greenbee

Croissants are OK... Will be better if I'm making them myself rather than with someone else whose skills with a rolling pin leave a little to be desired will dig out the recipe and post it when I am back home and have a proper keyboard.

Sounds like you need to try the tofu soon, but it might be an idea to save up for a month or so before you do an order... After all, you have plenty to eat for now and need to build up funds to take advantage of AF deals. Things always come back round, and eventually you'll only be buying stuff on offer, as you'll have alternatives in your stores for if the price isn't right!

Good to see the boys are trying stuff, even if they don't like it. Don't forget to freeze the labelled leftovers for lunches or an evening when you and OH are both shattered.

Great idea to get OH making stuff from offcuts for eBay while he is job hunting. Get him to go through any junk you have lying around to see whether there is anything else he can get creative with! I'm sure the cats (clay ones, not the furry ones!) would sell too! Don't you have a domain name registered too? Perhaps he could get started on setting that up and building up stock/searching out other craftspeople to include if that's an option. Maybe post something on the other side if you want to get ideas on that project...

TiredIAm

We do have a website for the craft stuff, and I set up an Etsy account. We also decided that the windsurfing kit can go on e-bay as long as we keep the kayaks. There are some reasonable books that I can sell that I was keeping because they are collectable, and a pile of games/dvds.

Toast for me and DS1, milk and cereal for DS2. Bacon and egg sandwich for DH who is off meeting someone about some potential consultancy this morning - a long shot so I will be suprised if it comes to anything. After four rejections yesterday any interest is good at the moment.

Beef is defrosted ready to go in the slow cooker for the curry. DS2 needs chocolate cake or his world will be ruined apparently :roll eyes: so I will have to put the oven on at some point. I need to plan so that I can maximise the usage, and so I can work out what the side oven costs to run.
I also learnt last night that you can freeze twinks which is great. 4 shelves in the side oven, must check which trays fit as it is narrow.

Need to use up:
ham - cheese and ham toasties for lunch again
savoy cabbage
potatoes

Running low on:
Oil
Milk
Cheddar
Fruit

Greenbee - I didn't place the AF order. I applied the do I need it rule. We currently are working on a 'do I need it right now?' rule. This doesn't apply to the boys buying stuff with their savings (hence the Pi) but they are starting to see why savings are a good thing.

greenbee

Let me know what windsurfing kit you've got and I'll run it past my brother... He may know of somewhere better to sell it or someone to put you in touch with... Can you shift some of the trashy books rather than collectivise at this stage? I know they won't raise as much individually, but collectively they might...

If you're getting the craft stuff going, remember you need to market it. A FB group might be a good start, and there would probably be some help over the other side ...

Well done on resisting AF. You did better than me! I need to do meal plans when I get home and focus on emptying the freezers! OH and I are doing the anti-candida diet from next week, which will take some getting used to.

Do you have holiday plans, or are you holidaying at home year?