£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

wishingthemortgaheaway

VANILLA EXTRACT UPDATE (last one for a while I promise)

This morning the vodka has changed colour and the vanilla 'seeds' are starting to float around in the extract. It smells more like vanilla than alcohol, but there is still a harsh alcohol after smell.
I'm very impressed, thanks for the suggestion TOPM.

KxMx

The Iceland fish comes in a plastic outer bag only. The fillets are loose inside with no further plastic wrapping.

I respect your ideals, I really do. I try to be as environmentally friendly as possible with a pet & long term health issues. Sometimes that makes my life harder which I really could do without, but I do it anyway where appropriate.

You've said though that meat is generally unaffordable and the fish meal was very expensive.

If it came down to buying a cheaper, less environmentally friendly source of meat & fish meaning my kids could have more, I know what personally I would choose.

Doesn't have to be the cheapest of cheap either which I avoid myself. Just a little more affordable than you are buying now.

arsenalbarnie

Carrying on with stretching out the meat, does your local waste free shop do dried soya? I used to buy it in Tesco and do half and half with organic beef mince. (It was around the time of the BSE scare so I seemed to think organic beef wouldn't have bse god knows if I was right! We are all still here tho.) Bulks out the meat quite well. Also a couple of handfuls of oats works the same.

Like you say kids go through phases. If mine didn't like the dinner they were allowed scrambled eggs on toast and had to have carrots and cucumber sticks etc. Having five there was always one who didn't want it.

redofromstart

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

I was thinking Christmas presents too. How long does it last?

I made mine when Elaine originally posted it on the mortgagefreeinthree blog. I don't bake much now so it is still going strong six years on! Make sure the jar is very clean and it will be fine.

Treadingonplaymobil

Suffolk I have so abandoned chicken, even in rubber form, due to price that I haven't really contemplated it for ages, but as a once-every-month-or-two type meal it would add some variety. Good idea!

Wishingthemortgageaway Exciting re the vanilla extract! I'm looking forward to my pods arriving and doing mine. I'm heartened by redofromstart's news that it will last more or less indefinitely.

KxMx we all make different choices with the available information - if there was one obvious solution to every problem the world would be a lot quieter (and more boring) I imagine!

Arsenalbarnie ooh, we used to have soya protein all the time when I was little, my stepdad used to make curry with it. None in the zero waste shop, but I bet I can track some down sans plastic.

DC1 was astonishingly restrained with choices for DC2 and 3's birthday presents - under a tenner each, when I gave a budget of £15. Win.

Less winning - it's freezing and I have to go out and look professional and presentable later!

Cherryfudge

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Incidentally, if anyone else is uncomfortable with non-organic fruit and veg but similarly budget-limited, studies have shown that soaking fruit and veg in water with bicarb in it for 15 minutes eliminates a huge huge percentage of surface pesticide. It doesn't resolve the issue of any pesticides that the fruit has absorbed, but it does at least eliminate some.

I've read that soaking / cooking with bicarb destroys Vitamin C - how much I don't know, but it may be worth taking into consideration. It's going to be a balance of cost, organics, vitamins and pesticides, somehow.

Treadingonplaymobil

Cherryfudge wrote: »

I've read that soaking / cooking with bicarb destroys Vitamin C - how much I don't know, but it may be worth taking into consideration. It's going to be a balance of cost, organics, vitamins and pesticides, somehow.

I've heard that too, but I assume it's more the case with cut up fruit and veg, where the bicarb is reaching the flesh - I'm soaking it in bicarb whole, and it's not going to penetrate beyond the skin (apples, tomatoes, grapes etc). Obviously it's not going to get any pesticide below the skin either, but I think surface pesticide is an appreciable portion of the whole pesticide 'dose' on any piece of fruit/veg.

Honeybug

Hi,

Just popping my head up again to say that mince does go a long way with bolognsise etc, which is so versitile - spag bol, lasagne, jackets, mine even like it with rice. I also pop in a tin (or handful of dried if doing it in the slow cook pot) of green lentils. The family dont really notice them and it really bulks out the mince cheaply so it stretches to another meal. Just a thought

redofromstart

Back on the vanilla front, I also keep a jar of vanilla sugar which is used for baking. Basic white sugar and a whole vanilla pod in a kilner type jar, I shake and top up the sugar as I use it. I tend to use it in basic sponge mixes rather than adding essence, and again the same vanilla pod can go on for years. Its not as nice as blitzing a vanilla pod in with your sugar but its a heck of a lot cheaper.

Suffolk_lass

redofromstart wrote: »

Back on the vanilla front, I also keep a jar of vanilla sugar which is used for baking. Basic white sugar and a whole vanilla pod in a kilner type jar, I shake and top up the sugar as I use it. I tend to use it in basic sponge mixes rather than adding essence, and again the same vanilla pod can go on for years. Its not as nice as blitzing a vanilla pod in with your sugar but its a heck of a lot cheaper.

Yes, mine has been going for a good ten years - when I thought I must add a second, it was actually a bit too strong. It was one I had scraped the seeds out of and it just enhances my cane caster sugar (bought in paper bags).

My reservation about soya stems from the genetic modification days when my friend working for Defra reported that there was no reliable provenance for soya any more - so if you do buy some, don't bother with organic