Old Style over cost?

chirpychick

Hiya,
I just wondered something.
I am trying to prepare some picnic things to save money as on a very tight budget and i was going to make sausage rolls but by the time i have all the ingredients it would be cheaper to buy the frozen ones and as cost is my main objective i will go with what will save the most money.
I wondered if you still make stuff oldstyle even if the cost is higher?

Also does anyone have any homemade finger food ideas for a picnic that would be incredibly cheap to make?
We will be out of the house from about 8am-8pm and have a 17 month old.

I thought if i could make them and freeze them in advance it would really help

karren

I enjoy cooking so I'd make, I'm off camping soon with friends so will take a massive pasty pie and cupcakes

Seakay

Mini pizzas - ths recipe makes them in muffin tins:

http://www.cheaprecipeblog.com/2011/11/muffin-tin-pizza-recipe/

Butterfly_Brain

the things that i have done in the past are:
cheese straws
chicken drumsticks
salad
make up a pack of savoury rice (25p for a golden rice in aldi, asda, tesco)
sandwiches or wraps
boiled eggs or hm scotch eggs
mini pasties
hm quiche or fritatta
hm fairy cakes
hm cookies
flask of tea, coffee or hot chocolate
bottle of made up squash
i didn't normally do a great deal because DD was prone to car sickness, so i didn't load their tummies up too much.
another trick was to eke te food out during the day, so if at 10am they are ravenous give thm a little something and save something back after lunch for the afternoon.

Chi-me

Interesting thought. Cost -v- quality really. I make my quiches, pasties etc from left over meat and stuff. I also make my pastry which works out a lot cheaper than buying in when you divide the cost of the raw ingredients. Then add to that electricity/gas... hmmm :think:

I've been on the Grocery Challenge thread since last month and have slashed our bill by at least a third. However, we shopped in random style without a care to cost or quality. Now, I'm making everything from scratch and planning to use leftovers rather than stocking up the fridge with nibbles.

If you buy really good YS produce you can probably stock up and freeze some picnic items in advance. However, I think all hm sandwiches (frozen in advance = fia), rice or pasta salads, hm hummous (fia) & flatbreads (fia) etc will be both more economical and tastier, not to mention healthier than shop bought.

Good luck... do post back what you decide to do.

PasturesNew

If you're out a long time, then unless you've got a good cool bag I'd avoid anything that might go "iffy" in warm weather.

I'd go for tomato sandwiches, onion bhajis, crisps, veggie sausage rolls etc rather than anything meaty.

thriftwizard

Chirpychick, in your calculation, are you making the pastry, or buying it? I can see that buying just what you need for the one picnic would work out cheaper, but using a very rough calculation, (T&sco EV sausage rolls £1.15, separate ingredients from same store, total about £3, plus say 50p for cooking fuel, but in an ideal world you'd be cooking other items at the same time) it seems to me that for the cost of the ingredients you could make enough for at least 4 picnics & freeze the other three. Then you'd be saving at least £1.10, over 4 picnics. But if you bought the pastry it would be ingredients £4.50, plus fuel - about even stevens with 4 lots of bought sausage rolls.

Sorry if that seems a bit OTT but after years of OS living, that's how your mind works! Not to mention the satisfaction of knowing you can produce 3 more picnics-worth at a moment's notice!

patchwork_cat

I think it depends why you old style. This is a perennial question. EG you can buy value biscuits for 25 p, but a lot of OSers pay more and make their own as the quality is better they feel.


Personally I think it is a balance and depends on your budget and motivation.