It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

euronorris

From that thread, there was a link to the recipes grouped by main ingredients:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/490232#Comment_490232

Brambling

We do have a community fridge in the town which started as one large glass fronted fridge which was crowd funded pre-covid with the aim to help yourself or to add your surplus food.  Over the last 18 months it has really grown due to donations from local supermarkets of yellow sticker food.  Now there are usually 2 days a week some weeks more for about a hour mid day where people can collect up to 5 items of fresh food / bread for free.  I understand there is no criteria of who can use it and anyone can go there, the objective is to save food waste.  Pictures on their FB page show they have lots of donated food which is all given away.

The other thing worth considering if you have broken household items you are unable to repairs are local Repair Cafes we have a monthly one where volunteers repair anything from clothes, toys, electricals, computers etc.  This is free but they appreciate a donation of what you can afford, again the aim is to avoid adding to land fill.  

maddiemay

happydenial Thank you for that, had not had chance to try and find it, will bookmark.

Floss

euronorris I've done whole chicken in my slow cooker,  and it's fab, lovely & tender & ready made stock too

nannygladys

It's a shame that the majority of us have to lower the grocery spends just to have a lower amount of heat but hey ho, it is what it is.

I use a food hub to get bread and veggies, although it's very hit and miss as to what's there and for me, how much I feel I can have. I use it once/twice a week.
I also use a community pantry but not every week as unfortunately quite a lot of donated food is highly processed and I preferred cooking from scratch but it's handy for tins, cereals and a few treats if your so inclined. I have found another one and had a 'tour' but there's a waiting list and you have to use it every week other wise you lose your membership and I don't need to use one that often, it's also about 6/7 miles away so not sure if that would work for me, although they have a better/bigger selection of foods and toiletries. But I manage quite well, I just have to eat the same things for three days running sometimes!!
Although I feel hard done by sometimes I know there are so MANY people worse off than me, I feel for the ones who had no cooking/sewing lessons at school or experiences of having to budget for the first time when there's very little monies to budget, especially if there's debt, big mortgages to cope with as well. I'm thankful that my dds and families are managing OK and all in work at the present time.
Nannyg

maisie_cat

SIRENS said:

maddiemay said:

Does anyone know if there has ever been a thread for slow cooker recipes/how to use etc?
If so it might be a good time to kick it into life or start a new one perhaps?

I'd be interested in some ideas too, mainly use mine for stew, chilli, spag and curry. I bought a new smaller one end of last year that has a non stick inner so I can brown food first. 

Not quite the same, but I do most of my cooking in a multicooker, it's a pressure/slow cooker combo. I use it because it's cheaper than using the oven, basically a smaller vessel.
You can cook a whole chicken in a slow cooker, although the skin is a bit anaemic the meat is delicious and it does help the rubber chicken concept.
Funnily enough I used a plug in power measuring thingy today to see what my slow cooker used in making a curry, saute followed by 6 hour slow cook used 0.44 KWH, cost 10p making dinner 75p a portion
I'm going to pressure cook some beans tomorrow so I'll compare what that costs, the beans are cheaper dry but have to be soaked and cooked.
There are quite a few groups on facebook for slow cooker & pressure cooker recipes.
I mostly make throw togethers using what we have in, although I do have a lots of spices and make my own mixes like fajita mix, poultry seasoning, lots of curry spice mixes. Having spices makes anything cheap like root veg and legumes into something special. 

otb666

in respect of using slow cooker instead of normal cooker the wattage is the same if you have a 400 watt slower cooker on for 6 hours to an oven on for 30mins to an hour 400x6=2400 / the average electric stove wattage coming in at around 3,000 watts./Also heats kitchen up as leave door open at the end of cooking just my opinion , i think the veg and butcher shops are good value. Personally i will keep myself warm and fed as dont wanna end up rundown as covid will be with us some time yet.  I am trying new things like using carrot leaves rather than binning and pumpkin  seeds.  I no longer spend on hair clothes and use baby shampoo and vinegar/baking powder for cleaning.as not going out so much and few visitors But I am well fed and warm which is my main priority.  Hope this deasnt make me sound like a wierdo and respect to you all.

otb666

I think a lot of money can be wasted on mobile phones and have never owned one.  I dont go out for meals as never liked the thought of others preparing my food But thats just me. I think we will all have to adjust our priorities.  I binned majority of my make up at the start of covid as just no need for it now.  I just feel thankful I have made it through so far

Rosa_Damascena

nannygladys said:

It's a shame that the majority of us have to lower the grocery spends just to have a lower amount of heat but hey ho, it is what it is.

You have hit the nail on the head. It doesn't matter how much tinkering around the edges we do, it's not going to touch the sides of our energy bills. I'm having to be brutal and switch mine off, but it's not an option if you have a family. 

We could starve to death and still not be able to pay our energy bills and this is a national scandal, and what's being offered by the government is derisory. Watching the BBC series "The Decade the Rich Won" is sickening, and this same government wants to take an ace to the BBC.

euronorris

I managed to turn the thermostat down a degree last night without DH noticing until about 7pm, but that's when DD goes to bed (she won't sleep in a hot room anyway) and we shut the living room door, which quickly warmed up the room. So I got away with it and the heating didn't come on until 9pm for a brief time 👍

I also managed to secure a morrisons too good to go box last night, so will collect that later today. I've had some brilliant boxes from them before, so am looking forward to seeing what I get