first days of retirement - Decompression Zone

Savvy_Sue

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'm not a bad cook and one of my little thoughts (ie now that I have more time for cooking) is whether I can reach a standard for the type of foods I like (not everyone's taste...) that they would be saleable and whether official "rules and regulations" would prevent me from doing so (not that I'm in a part of the country where people pay great heed to "jobsworth rules and regs":rotfl:so it might not matter that much anyway...;)).

You would be well advised to do some basic food hygiene training, whether you'd want to go the whole way and get your kitchen inspected by Environmental Health is another matter although you probably should, insurance is another thing I'd strongly recommend.

There may be little risk of giving people food poisoning from the kind of food you'd consider preparing, but if it happens, the consequences could be devastating.

moneyistooshorttomention

It wouldn't involve fish or meat, so I guess just a commonsense/my kitchen is clean anyway approach and I wouldn't be at risk of having a whack over the head from "Compensation Culture Times"?

I don't want to risk bringing the 21st century mindset down on top of me with its "who can I sue?" way of thinking. Hmmm...will investigate whether I would be at risk of that...

The mindset here tends to be too pragmatic to have much sympathy with any "fake claims" anyone put in for me making them ill (when I clearly hadn't) so I don't think I'd be at any risk...will ask around here a bit and see what the "community feel" is about this...

PennyForThem_2

Is there a thriving farmers market in your vicinity? Our FM has expanded so that it covers about 5 sites now and it certainly isn't just farmers that sell there although it is all about food or plants.

Ours is run by Community set up and its remit is also about education - so if I was doing this and thinking of FM outlet that would be first port of call for advice.

Otherwise not sure - Womens Institute but they sell for their funding, so maybe not.

Savvy_Sue

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

It wouldn't involve fish or meat,

but dairy, eggs and even vegetables can be potential sources of nasty bugs, which is why I'd recommend the basic food hygiene certificate, it's not rocket science but it does make you think. You can probably do it online at a very reasonable cost.

Although obviously you need to work out whether there's a gap in the market which you could fill, and a market in the gap ...

PennyForThem_2

other stuff that might gain income:

1. House sitting
2. Pet looking after - if I did not have son I would look for someone who could come twice a day to feed my cats
3. Dog walking

chesky

I think savvysue is correct; before you start producing food to eat for your neighbours to buy, you really must think about it in a professional manner. I for one wouldn't be too keen on buying something from a producer who hadn't got their health and safety under control. It's all very well to have a laissez-fair attitude to this and consider claims might be fake - but they might be very very real. And you wouldn't only be at risk commercially but socially - your neighbours might take a dim view of bad hygiene.

moneyistooshorttomention

I will doublecheck in all contexts in this area where it's part of the British Way Of Life to produce home-cooked food for sale (NOT the type including meat or fish) AND where it will be produced by perfectly normal hygiene-conscious cooks whether they have had any of the "stuff" I have heard of happening to W.I. members selling their goods/parents cooking cakes for sale at school fetes, etc and see what the "way of thinking" round here is in regard to whether it boils down to:

- as long as normal hygiene and commonsense are followed well it IS part of our Way of Life to do this

or

- parents have been scared out of producing home-made goodies for school fetes and the like and are sending in shop-bought cakes instead.

I don't wish to bother about anything that isn't fun, but is helping to keep some "official" in a job. More hassle than its worth and what would be the point in being retired if I was up against that way of thinking.

I'll check out the "locals" round here for their views hereabouts.
I know exactly the correct person to ask re this:)

If I were in somewhere like the London area I don't think I'd even think of this either, but I'm not...

PennyForThem_2

Although I think that the Food Cert thing is sensible, personally I would do your experimenting first and check if there is a demand.

If there is then sure go for it.

Trading Standards at your local council may be another source of advice i.e. minimum you have to get before you can 'trade'.

There are also small business grants I believe so if you think may be a demand maybe worth exploring.

How are you with websites? (And no, I don't know anything about either, but I would explore if I had something to sell - and paying for it to my mind is a waste of money if you can get to grips with it - just looked at a small Xmas tree site webpage and it is adequate but unprofessional and they paid good money for it! lol

lessonlearned

Money - re natural shampoos.

Boil down soap nuts, then add essential oils of your choice. Easy and cheap.

Re the discussion re food prep and hygiene regs.

I used to live in a rural area where we had the most fantastic WI group. They used to hold a weekly WI market in the local church hall. People queued up to get in.

The home cooked section literally sold out like hot cakes:rotfl: As well as the usual cakes and biscuits, you could buy wonderful savoury pies, casseroles and ready meals. This was back in the 80's.

In the end they had to stop selling home made food because of all the new regs. They were simply strangled by all the red tape. A pity because not only was the food delicious and healthy, the prices were really good too.

I now shop from local farm shops and a lot of them do sell home made and home baked produce but the suppliers - even the kitchen table type businesses - have had to really gear up. This has tended to make their produce a lot more expensive and I now rarely buy their offerings unless I am really pushed for time.

You have mentioned how expensive "natural" shampoos are. This might be a little opening for you for a nice little sideline business. Remember the Body Shop started out from Anita Roderick's kitchen table. :rotfl:

Home made shampoos, bath products, soaps etc tend to sell very well, especially if you learn how to package them attractively. I'm sure you could undercut the £6 a bottle shampoo. I visit a lot of craft fairs and there's usually a stall doing brisk business.

I rarely buy from them because I make a lot of my own products. It's easy and also very interesting. Shampoos, bath bombs, soap, scented candles etc are very easy to make.

Creams and potions are more complex and do require very careful and stringent hygiene requirements because creams in particular can go off very quickly.

As well as James Wong, take at a look at a book called Imperfectly Natural Woman, sorry can't remember author, to give you a bit of background. There are loads of books on the subject, plus internet tutorials and shedloads of websites.

Regarding your situation being reliant on your occupational pension and waiting for your state pension to kick in - yes I've been there.

When OH went into care his DLA and therefore my carer's allowance stopped. I was just short of SPA by 10 months. I was too ill to work and the state would not pay me any kind of sickness benefit. I refused to claim Job seekers so for 10 months I had no income whatsoever. Tough times but I got through it……

Given that you are in a rural area there might be some kind of unofficial "bartering/trading of skills" going on. There are number of areas that have set up these kind of schemes on a more organised basis. If you google "Transition Towns" you should be able to find out if there is anything similar in your area.

In the meantime join as many groups as you can, choirs, book clubs, WI, U3A etc and of course really utilise your local library.

Get to know loads of people. Once you are "in the loop" you'll find there are loads of opportunities to make money/barter/share and swap skills to streeeetch those pennies.

Re your fuel poverty (as per your signature;).

Do you have an open fireplace/wood burner. Now that you live in a rural area there's loads of free fuel just waiting to picked up - especially after the recent storms.

My son has a wood burner and I'm always picking up bits and pieces to feed it.

And of course - there's this site with it's very knowledgeable posters, the OS board in particular is a gold mine of information.

moneyistooshorttomention

Some good thoughts there LessonLearned...will note them and have a think.

Unofficial bartering wise...to date...my experiences have included more than one workman having their eye on something they can see I am chucking out anyway and there's been several bits of "little bit knocked off bill and you get so-and-so thrown in your direction that you've asked for". That never used to happen Back Home...but I've gotten into that idea so far.

I remember those W.I. foodstalls and how cheap the home-made produce was on them and then subsequently reading that they have been rather stymied by "Rules and Regulations Brigade". I'm tossing around one or two possible ways round Unreasonable Rules in my head...where there's a will and commonsense then there's a way if I can just think of it;). Hmmm....maybes a "raffle" ticket per wanted purchase and with every ticket "winning a prize" of the person's choice. You want that product that I wish to charge £2 for for the sake of argument, then I will sell you that raffle ticket for £2. Its not an item purchased....its a prize iyswim. Might be one way to deal with jobsworths....Who is to say that the number of prizes on offer has to be limited?

Nope...no open fireplace or woodburner. My moneysaving on the home front will just have to extend to growing what food I can...once I can make some sort of headway on the garden front (thinking cap on on that one too...because there's a lot more wind and rain here than I am used to).

Doing my best to get to know loads of people. You wouldn't believe how often strangers in the street strike up conversations with me round here....so I'm getting used to keeping a smile on my face and ready to make comments back if it looks like someone is in Chatty Mode.