Put away your purse & become debt-averse

crazy_cat_lady

Boo hiss to the car failing it's MOT, but great news that you could cover it. It's so reassuring to know that things can be juggled and sorted without too much stress isn't it? I'm looking forward to getting back to those days for sure.
The more I read about your jam and chutney making, the more I really want to do it. I picture myself all homely, in a cosy house, nice and warm with the lovely smell of chutneys through the house. It won't happen though, I will probably just make a massive mess and get stressed out and break something. But I promise I am still going to try. :rotfl:

savetosave

Please could I have the recipie for the Apple and ginger jam, it sounds lovely and I have apples to use up. ��

Chrystal

savetosave wrote: »

Please could I have the recipie for the Apple and ginger jam, it sounds lovely and I have apples to use up. ��

Second this request as I also have apples to use up.... would it be alright using Braeburns as I have loads on the tree? AND does anyone know the cheapest place is to get jars from?

So sorry about your Mum foxgloves. (((hugs))) XX

joedenise

Chrystal - try your local freecycle or local facebay. Also worth putting a Wanted ad on them.

Also ask around friends and neighbours.

Denise

foxgloves

Kantankrus - I've used elderberries successfully in hedgerow jelly. I just made jelly the standard way, but used a mixture of blackberries, elderberries, rosehips & haws. It was lovely with roast meats & made nice gifts.

Cheap jars - Have never, ever bought jars. I save them all year round & sterilize them prior to use. Once people know you are a jam/chutney/marmalade maker, etc, they start offering you jars. There are times when I run short, but then as we eat our way through our stores, my jar stash starts building up again. We have a rule that when both my 'jar cupboard' & my emergency overflow jar box in the shed are both full, then I can only keep a 'new' empty jar if I get rid of one from my stash, so a 'One in-one out' policy, lol. Otherwise I think I might turn into a mad jar hoarder, lol.

Oh, & hang fire a minute all those who want the apple & ginger jam recipe......I'm just finding it, oh, great, now cat is trying to slalom down back of armchair.......hang on.....

foxgloves

OK, here is the apple & ginger jam recipe I use:

6lbs cooking apples - peeled, cored & roughly chopped (the apples on our tree are Charles Ross, I think, which are good as cookers or 'eaters')
2 pints water
2 tsp ground ginger (taste as you go on, as I like a bit more)
Finely grated zest & juice of 4 lemons
4oz crystallized ginger, finely chopped (again, taste it till you are happy with the flavour balance)
6lb ordinary white granulated sugar

I'm assuming you can make jam, so no need for me to type out full detailed instructions, but you need to save a pile of the apple peels & cores & tie them up in a piece of muslin (or clean tea towel). Put the apples, lemon zest, lemon juice & water in your preserving pan & pop the muslin bag in too, tied to the pan handle. Bring to the boil & cook for 10 or 15 mins until the apples are soft. Squeeze all the liquid out of the bag back into the pan & discard the bag - this is just because there is useful pectin in the peels & cores, which will help the jam to set.
Add both types of ginger & sugar. Stir well to dissolve sugar, then jam it as normal.
This recipe makes about 9lbs of jam & it's lovely & autumnal on toast, buttered crumpets, porridge, etc.
I used to make marrow & ginger jam before I had a big old apple tree, but I always make this one now.
Enjoy!
F x

foxgloves

And now for today's update.....
I happened to mention to mr f that our grocery budget stands at £46.50 a week for the rest of this month & said 'I hope we can stick to that'. He said 'With everything you've been shoving in that freezer, we should get CHANGE from £46.50'. Decided to do a new freezer list before starting next week's meal plans. Oh my days! Talk about 'Shop from home first'. Ignore the rest of this post if you find the contents of people's freezers stultifying, but this is what we found (quantities given in portions):

Re-fried beans (2), Hake (2), Plaice (4), Haddock (3), Pork steaks (1), Roasted aubergine curry (4), Carluccio's recipe for tomato pasta sauce (6), Curried mince & peas (2), Meatballs in chunky veg sauce (8), Pesto (6), Tomato & lentil soup (6), Golden lentil soup (4), tomato soup (4), courgette & watercress soup (3), Sorrel soup (1) & ratatouille (4). Also a tamale pie base & 100g lamb mince.
Also 3 'tins' worth' of zizzed up fresh tomatoes, 450g rhubarb, 3 bags of french beans, 1.2kg fresh tomatoes to use for soups, sauces, etc., 2 sliced green peppers, 2 bags of blackberries, 7 pots of greengage compote, 5 bags of chillies, 1 pot of grapes, 6 tortilla wraps, 2 garlic flat breads, 1 large rhubarb crumble base, some leftover chorizo, 1 pot BBQ sauce, 2 pots of apple sauce & 3 containers of fresh stock (ham, chicken & lamb)..

Hmmmm. "I hope we can manage on £46.50 & not overspend" was how this major freezer investigation began this morning. So, having written a decidedly 'Shop from home' meal plan for next week, (i.e EVERY NIGHT'S MEAL will come from the freezer), I started a shopping list, which is looking nicely small, We do need a few householdy things & a bit of fresh stuff, yoghurt, milk, eggs, that kind of thing, & cat food of course, but I think our freezer has now reached critical mass & we can save money by eating our supplies down. That's one of the great things about batch cooking, although our own home grown fruit & veg have been good to us this year (except for lettuce, spring onions & radishes, which sulked or succumbed to flea beetle!) I haven't put any little treats on the shopping list either. We have plenty of apples & pears and I will make mini-muffins (calorie counted, as is everything atm) for when we fancy something sweet.......hopefully I can fit a box of them in the freezer once all next week's meals start coming out.
OK, so having already taken out 2 garlic flat breads & a pot of mixed chopped peppers to use in tonight's home made pizzas, I shall away down to the greenhouse for some fresh basil & a handful of cherry tomatoes.
Cheers all - Oh, & thanks for the kind wishes for my very poorly Mum. It is much appreciated. No change & still desperately stressful, but we have to carry on, don't we, & keeping very busy with banal but useful tasks like freezer lists & meal plans does help keep a semblance of normality. I've blitzed my wardrobe too, but had better save that saga for another day.
F xx

crazy_cat_lady

I have a freezer in the kitchen and a small chest freezer in our outhouse. It's amazing, but always full. I am determined to eat my way through and minimise my grocery budget over the next couple of months. The kids are more fussy so I'll need to buy for them, but I should be happy for ages on this.
Your enthusiasm for jam and chutney's is really rubbing off. I think it'll be a couple of weekends yet before I find the time, but I'm feeling quite enthusiastic about trying it. Chutney first.

foxgloves

You should save loads if you eat your way down your freezer stores, CCL. I'd love a 2nd freezer for storing bags of homegrown & foraged fruit & veg, but our shed, though brick & a decent size is a long way from the house & we don't have any electrics laid on outside.
Not much time today, as hospital visiting later, which involves travelling, but I did maintain my frugal habits in town. Parked on the outskirts for free & walked in. I needed to pay some money into the bank & buy cat food where I know it is cheapest. I enjoyed a quick browse of the local flea/vintage market, but didn't spend a single penny more than intended. Back in the Spendiferous Era, a mozy around town or city centre used to result in such shocking frittering. I so enjoy being in control of myself now - today I enjoyed the walking & sunshine as much as anything.
F x

foxgloves

Remember that failed MOT? Well, the car is still sufficiently new to be under warranty, so we knew we didn't have to pay for the repair to the cable on which it failed, but we HAD been told we'd be charged £54 for the brake fluid change. I've got money saved in our Car Piggy for just such occasions, so this wouldn't have been a problem, but it turned out when mr f collected the car, that he had been wrongly informed & the brake fluid change is included in our service plan. That felt like a bit of potential car expenditure going in the right direction for once! Car Piggy cash untouched. I'm pleased about that, as I think there is unlikely to be enough in our service plan to cover the next big service, so I will be ahead on that at least.
Our garden is still helping with debt-busting behaviour by producing food. Despite all the jamming & chutney, I don't feel I'm making much of an inroad into our apple crop yet, & the pears, while a much smaller crop than last year, are still going to provide us with fresh fruit for a good while. Four more courgettes picked today, plus a patty-pan squash and lots of cherry tomatoes & french beans. Chillies continue to ripen. I've got several strings of them hanging up to dry in the greenhouse eaves, some in the freezer & I shall soon need to string some more, before the plants give up for winter. I have managed to over-winter a chilli plant or two in the past, but our house is pretty cold & this isn't the easiest task, so I think I will just compost them this year, as they've worked very hard producing hundreds of fruits. It will soon be time to start properly clearing the garden & getting some autumn containers planted. I have some free plants & ivy waiting, which I divided up in Spring, so will just need to buy a few fresh bulbs. This will be a task to look forward to once our current schedule of hospital visiting reaches its inevitable sad conclusion. Despite the stress, I am planning properly & not resorting to old spendy behaviour patterns.
Anyway, I've just another little annoying job to do.....sorting out 'my' bookcase so I can fit a pile of gifted magazines onto it & free up a bit of space elsewhere, & then I'm going to settle down for an evening of TV & reading my library book.
Wishing everyone a peaceful evening,
F x