How long would this last you? And How?

meritaten

you buy an awful lot of fruit and veg in one go - does it all get eaten? or do you end up throwing it away?
my food shop for OH and me in Aldi is about £50 for the food (I don't count the 'special offer buys like toasters and tellies). But, I have Grandkids 5 out of the 7 days a week and they eat like starving navvies! I don't buy half the fruit and veg you do. (I have six grandkids and two/three days a week I have three of them!).

If you mealplan are you just thinking oh yes -roast dinner sunday (then have a half head of cauli left, carrots - huge bag and you only use three or four, see where I am going?).
are you thinking 'stretching' meat and fruit and veg? a bag of carrots can last me two weeks.
a bag of apples can sit in the fruit bowl and half go bad. unless I decide to do baked apples for tea - simply core the apple, cut a slit round the middle and fill the cored area with sultanas and honey, bake for around 35 mins. serve plain or with custard or a dollop of cream.
bananas - used to be the bane of my life - OH always picks the biggest bunch! then refuses to eat them if a brown spot appears! then discovered banana bread recipe. also that bananas are delish mixed in smoothies, made into ice cream or caramelised. they are also a good alternative to 'toffee apples'!

I do my main shop at Aldi - that's why its about £50! when I have compared prices with Tresco and Adsa I save about £28 to £35 a week. and I know Sainsbobs is dearer than those two.
BUT - it does take some sacrifice and research and dedication to swap! Aldi is a different 'type' of shopping. You do have to get used to reduction of 'choice'. Same with Lidl I suppose.

skogar

Sorry, I've not been online much recently and missed the request for the ham recipe.

To cook the ham hock
Put ham in a large pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. This helps to remove some of the salt from the ham hock. Discard the water.

I cook the ham hock in the slow cooker. Put ham hock in slow cooker, cover with water and cook until tender (e.g. low 8-10 hours, high 5 hours). Alternatively if you don't have a slow cooker put the ham hock back in the big pan, cover with water and simmer for 2 hours (until meat falls away from bone).

Remove the ham. Cut into pieces and use as wanted.

Ham in cream and mustard sauce
serves 2
Not really a recipe, but here it is anyway.

Reduce 1-2 ladles of the stock, add wholegrain mustard to taste. Stir in approx 1/4 pt double cream (I'm sure single would work as well).

Add pieces of ham to sauce (still warm if just come out of slow cooker) and heat through. We serve it with rice and veg (OH doesn't like potatoes).

Lentil with or without Ham Soup
Liquid left from cooking ham makes a good soup. I make one based on this recipe using lentils and what veg I've got in. I tend to use carrots, celery and onion. You can add some of the meat back into it if you like but it is also very nice and hammy just with the lentils and veg. I haven't added the cream or curry powder but feel free to experiment. I don't blend it either as I quite like chunky soup and am very lazy.

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/9103/lentil-and-ham-shank-soup.aspx

mummyyof5

I feed 8/9 each week and spend about £75 a week at most....this is through necessity not choice but we eat pretty well for that..includes breakfasts..pack ups for 4 and all evening meals...Shop mainly at Lidl and Aldi but do buy MrTs smart price pasta and tom sauce,also Toilet rolls and a few other bits from Home Bargains x

newthrift

There is just me and my boyfriend at our house but usually I spend £50 on the food shopping a week (£60 when I am having a stock up) and this includes Aldi and then the Butchers for our meat.


The best thing is to make a meal plan and then make you shopping list from that, and take in to account what you already have in the cupboards. Is there a different supermarket you could go to that isn't Sainsbury's as I do think that the prices are on par with Waitrose & Marks and Spencers. Ideally you want to visit a HomeBargins / 99p Store / B&M Bargins sort of places for toilet rolls, kitchen roll baby wipes, rubber gloves and cleaning stuff. Consider buying these in bulk which although more outlay in the beginning they are not perishable which usually means bigger savings. With things like your tinned tomatoes consider doing a one in one out type of system so you keep it stocked and try to just buy tinned tomatoes OR passata not both. If need be you could liquidise your tinned tomatoes to make more of a passata. With potatoes try buying a sack and then you only need to buy new and sweets ones when you go shopping.


Meal planning is hard at first but you get rolling with it eventually!

rozmister

Spendless wrote: »

If you find that your veg/salad is going off before you've used it, put a layer of kitchen roll in the salad tray first. I've been doing this for years and the produce lasts ages. I also wipe any veg that comes out of bags that feel 'wet' (have moisture on them) before putting away.

Actually some things shouldn't be taken out of the bags. I work in the waste industry (specialising in food waste) and my colleague went to a packaging conference last week where it was explained that actually some fresh fruit and veg lasts much longer even in a bag with moisture in it. This is because the packaging is designed to prolong the product's lifespan. I am cynical that it's a packaging ploy by the manufacturers but it seems to be accepted by lots of reputable sources that some packaging on fruit and veg is good and should be left on.

I second the kitchen roll in the veg drawer though, I do it too. And I'm a bit gutted about the packaging now I know because I like to let my produce 'breathe'!!

[Deleted User]

When I had young babies back in the early 1960s there were no such things as 'baby wipes' we used ordinary cotton wool to wipe babies delicate bits with luke warm water.This was the same as the nurses used in the maternity hospital.You could then buy 'best quality' cotton wool or 'household quality' Give you three guesses what most mums bought :):) cotton wool to wipe babies rear end was definately 'household stuff:):)

There were no 'household wipes either .In fact I don't think J clothes were even marketed then.I used cut up vests of my late OH (chaps wore vests in those days as there was very little central heating) or any old towelling cut up.I still have some towelling nappies from when my two DDs were small in the late 1960s and they are very thin now but make excellant cleaning cloths.I have a couple I use for cleaning the insides of my windows (with windowlene of course, or if brassic, some vinegar and scrunched up paper)I also have a couple I use as dusters.There were Harringtons nappies that I had bought in 1967 and two dozen did me for both of my children as the youngest was born just as the eldest stopped needing them

Today you probably use throw away ones (again no such thing then, it was a bucket and Nappisan under the sink in those days)Still a good bargain for me as I still have five left after over forty years :):) But you could go to a C/Shop and buy a couple of old towels and cut into four and hand run a hem around if needed, and use for cleaning cloths.Then bung them in the washing machine on a hot wash to clean (I didn't have one of those either I had a baby burco boiler to boil things up in and eventually a spin dryer to help get them dry ) As for rubber gloves the only time I use them is when cleaning the loo or painting ( I like to renovate old junk furniture )

When washing up (I have never owned or wanted a dishwasher ) I wash up when I have a sinkful (or at least one draining board full) I use fairly hot water to soak the mucky dishes in, then when its cooled a bit I wash by hand .I have hand cream in the kitchen,bathroom which keeps my hands quite soft I don't like washing up with gloves anyway.If you look in a pound shop you should be able to find some surgical gloves (usually five pairs for a quid) if your worried about keeping your hands clean These are great for using in mucky jobs, and far easier if you pop some ordinary talcum powder inside to get on and off Wash out well as well.If its a really mucky job then a couple of plastic bags with rubber bands around the wrist will do and you can bin the bags afterwards.

Lots of tiny things you can do if you look and see where you can save.As a previous poster said use cash when you go out and ALWAYS take a list of what you NEED and not what you want .

I list stuff on an old piece of cut up ex Christmas cards (my shopping lists :)) which I keep by the kettle so what I buy is only what's actually needed Using cash and limiting what cash you take with you when you go to the shops also stops you impulse buying.

I live alone now, and my food budget for a month is £60.00. a third of which goes on fruit and veg.I make my own cakes,biscuits and soups I also bake my own pies and pastries.Far nicer and cheaper than shop bought stuff.
Basic self raising flour and ordinary Stork marge and some caster sugar and a couple of eggs will make a smashing Victoria sponge cake or a pile of small fairy cakes for the little one.
Babies are suprisingly adaptable, and will eat more or less what you give them They aren't born only eating a certain food, and a blender will make nicer pureed food than any jar will.
I had a Mouli-grater when mine were small, and they ate virtually what we ate only mushed up in the grater.A jar was only used when we were out for the day, although I often had a jar or two of my own stuff in the fridge.My eldest liked Sainsbobs semolina and I would decant a tin into several jars for a treat for her and keep them in the fridge.
Lots of ways to make your precious cash streetch a bit further, buy a bit of ham in a small joint and cook in the slow cooker with a dash of coke,when cold slice thin for sarnies or to use up odd bits in a quiche.

I buy 'cooking bacon' from Sainsbobs you can get 500gms for around just over a pound and this will cook brilliantly to go into a pasta bake or even ordinary bacon sarnies.Cheaper than slices, and in a sandwich or pasta its going to be chopped up anyway:):)My four grandsons love this and as I look after them before and after school they love a crispy bacon sandwich when they come home from school and a 500gm pack does go quite a long way :)
Good luck honey and menu plan weekly it really does help cut down the bills for food
Cheers JackieO xxx

Spendless

rozmister wrote: »

Actually some things shouldn't be taken out of the bags. I work in the waste industry (specialising in food waste) and my colleague went to a packaging conference last week where it was explained that actually some fresh fruit and veg lasts much longer even in a bag with moisture in it. This is because the packaging is designed to prolong the product's lifespan. I am cynical that it's a packaging ploy by the manufacturers but it seems to be accepted by lots of reputable sources that some packaging on fruit and veg is good and should be left on.

I second the kitchen roll in the veg drawer though, I do it too. And I'm a bit gutted about the packaging now I know because I like to let my produce 'breathe'!!

Which fruit and veg out of interest? I am cyncial too and have been ever since I found the same advice about leaving it in the bags on a zerowaste (or something similar can't recall exact name) website because it is really not my experience. Eg I bought some leeks from Tesco that were about to go out of date that day for 3p.
These were loose, it was weeks later that they were used up, having been left in my fridge drawer with the kitchen roll. They were still in good condition. The same items left in a plastic bag even one that came with it, I reckon we'd have been looking at a black sludge by then.

It *might* be that I don't buy the specific produce where leaving it in plastic bags would work and therefore I have no experience of it. I also live in a large market town where a market runs 3 times a week all year round. There are loads of fruit and veg stalls and 95% of them use paper packaging. I'd really expect them to have switched to plastic if it really prolonged shelf life.


I shall be keeping to my method of using kitchen roll. If I live a long life and eventually in my dotage it comes out it was a marketing ploy, I shall tell my great-grandkids I was suspicious all along.;):rotfl:

maman

JackieO wrote: »

There were no 'household wipes either .In fact I don't think J clothes were even marketed then.I used cut up vests of my late OH (chaps wore vests in those days as there was very little central heating) or any old towelling cut up.

Thanks for the genuine OS advice JackieO.

There may not have been J cloths back in the day but I remember my grandmother used to buy 'stockinette roll'. This was like a big roll of dishcloth fabric. It was a creamy colour natural cotton so she used to bleach it with her whites so it was super clean for using for kitchen jobs.


I still use bits of old t shirt cut up for most dusting/polishing type chores and buy the dishcloths for other tasks. At 4 or 5 for £1 they are so much better value than J cloths. I wash them with my whites and just keep downgrading them over time from kitchen to bathroom to floors to loos before I throw them away. I keep kitchen roll but use it very sparingly.

Ladyluck1

That's quite a lot!
I spend £130-150 for 2 adults, a baby (doesn't count yet really) and a 3 year old a month.
We eat well, lots of fruit an veg and the odd treat too
I mostly shop in Aldi/lidl and sometimes morrisons if it'll be cheaper with staff discount.
Can you try fruit pur!e for the fussy one? Frozen bananas or mango wizzed in the food processor make lovely 'ice cream' even I like it.
We tend to eat a lot of HM soups for lunches or sandwiches.
Dinners; jacket spuds once a week a mince dish at least once a week ie chilli, cottage pie.
I do look out fr reduced things for the freezer though.
Also cheaper cuts of meat in the slow cooker, leave it on all day as dinner is ready. Great for busy family life

Butterfly_Brain

I only use Fairy washing up liquid and I use it half and half with white vinegar and a little splash of warm water for cleaning. I only every pay £1 a bottle usually at the landofpound. Saves a mint on all sorts of cleaning products