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

Coffeekup

London_1 

So sit and think this morning what you can make that will extend your food .Even if its only a saucepan of soup. A 40p bag of carrots will make, with a few herbs and spices and that odd couple of sprouting spuds in the spud bag a good two litres of spicy carrot soup for pennies to feed at least 8 people with some crusty bread, rather than the tin of soup from the shop at 75-80p that will only feed one person.

And or use that bread that's slowly going stale instead of throwing it out, toast it and cut them up for croutons, of fry a couple of pieces of bacon to garnish the soup with then fry the bread in the fat and eat with soup.

There is alot you can do on food savings if you look around the cupboards and try and tweak.

One of my cheap fave meals this time of year is mash potatoes all mashed in with kale, spinach boiled garlic and mustard, served with a couple of other greens with a branded meat gravy. Cheap, healthy and filling, salivating thinking about it.

bargainbetty

nannygladys said:

Brambling- thanks for the info, I was wondering if an air fryer for everyday use would be lots cheaper than putting the gas oven on, as I can't fill it up every time, the only other thing I thought of was one of those small electric ovens that stands on top of the work top.

I think the the one thing that worries me the most is that I am already really frugal and can't see where I can cut back anymore, but I suppose I can't do much about it until all the bills go up, council tax, fuel, food etc and we know what we're having to deal with.
Nannyg

Hi NannyG

I have had an air fryer for several years and I love it - I've bought my mum one too! I use it for all meats, most potato things (except mash) and have also cooked mushrooms, carrots, green beans etc in it. I do whole meals in it, just adding the bits at the appropriate time and giving it all a shake now and then. Definitely good for jacket spuds - 10 mins in the microwave and then five in the air fryer beats an hour in the oven... you can do a couple at a time too. 

You can get little baking trays to put in to cook eggs and cakes in etc, and you would probably find a cookbook at the library or free online. 

Have a look and see if there are recipes you like and would use often. 

nannygladys

bargainbetty -  I'm due at the library this week and will have a look out for an air fryer book, or if they haven't got one I will have a look on the net for recipes. Thanks.
I don't actually know anyone who has one, so never seen one used!!

Nannyg

Siebrie

We've had our airfryer for about 3 years now, but we only prepare fries and meat snacks in it. I tried toasties when we just had it (per the recipe booklet), but they turned out really dry.

littlemoney

Flugelhorn said:

the shallow supermarket trolleys are better as easier to get things out of the bottom and also hold less - I do smartshop and can keep tabs on the total as we go round

I do the same

EssexHebridean

Floss said:

TheAble said:

Wraithlady said:

I think she was more highlighting to make her point - pasta is, after all, a basic foodstuff.

Yes, you can get 20p pasta - 

It's 70p at Asda, specifically. Tesco and Sainsbury's still sell it for 20p. And they still sell 45p rice, and baked beans at £1 for four cans. 

I just thought the story was a bit sensationalist. You're not forced to buy it at one particular supermarket. And ok - you may not have transport, but Tesco will still deliver to you for £3, which isn't bad when weighed up against the cost of petrol and running a car.

Actually Sainsbury's cheapest is fusilli at  58p a kg, Tesco is 29p for 500g for the same shape. So not 20p any more, but a 45% increase.

I bought a packet of shortbread biscuits in Lidl last night that used to be under a £1, but are now £1.09 so there's a 10% increase.

Tesco's 500g bags of pasta shapes haven't ever been 20p as far as I can recall - it's the spaghetti that is - and that has been at the same price for years - at least 7 of them I'm guessing, probably more. 

I do get the point that was being made about the Jack Monroe article although I don't think I would have used "sensationalist" as the word to describe it - "selective" perhaps. It was a really important point that was made though - that the "inflationary" rises that get reported on don't tell the full picture - and it was certainly important that she called out Asda on their stealth removal of the budget lines from the shelves. 

The suggestion that people should shop around and buy everything from where it's cheapest assumes that people have the time available to do that - again it's easy to forget that this level of time is, in itself, a privilege. 

Milk is the thing we've really noticed an increase on. 4 pint bottles used to be £1 not so long ago - we're now paying £1.15 - that's a huge increase on an absolute basic. 

Wraithlady

EssexHebridean said:

I do get the point that was being made about the Jack Monroe article although I don't think I would have used "sensationalist" as the word to describe it - "selective" perhaps. It was a really important point that was made though - that the "inflationary" rises that get reported on don't tell the full picture - and it was certainly important that she called out Asda on their stealth removal of the budget lines from the shelves. 

Not just Asda - both Tesco and Sainsbury's have significantly less in their budget range now compared to a few years ago, and the price has increased

Rosa_Damascena

UK inflation rises to 30-year high of 5.5% amid cost of living crisis.

My non-essential expenditure is going to be limited to the chazzer henceforth. No more treats or putting money back into the economy unless its a must. We suffer, the disposable income economy is going to struggle even more.

A failure to listen to the proles is going to cost this Chancellor dear.

Slinky

Seeing the coverage of this on the lunchtime news, they interviewed a lady who was unhappy about the 16p increase in the price of beans. Not overly sympathetic when I'm looking in her cupboard at a tin of Heinz beans, in front of a tin of Napolina tomatoes.  My OH used to eat branded goods a lot when we first met. He's now eating Tesco reduced sugar beans and 33p tins of tomatoes. If you move down a brand at a time you can retune your taste buds. I've never been keen on Heinz beans anyway - too much sauce, not enough beans. I was brought up on supermarket own brands.

Happy_Sloth

Slinky said:

Seeing the coverage of this on the lunchtime news, they interviewed a lady who was unhappy about the 16p increase in the price of beans. Not overly sympathetic when I'm looking in her cupboard at a tin of Heinz beans, in front of a tin of Napolina tomatoes.  My OH used to eat branded goods a lot when we first met. He's now eating Tesco reduced sugar beans and 33p tins of tomatoes. If you move down a brand at a time you can retune your taste buds. I've never been keen on Heinz beans anyway - too much sauce, not enough beans. I was brought up on supermarket own brands.

That's the thing,  it's easy for people used to branded things to downgrade, but what do those living hand to mouth already do? 

if you already can't afford branded, then suddenly can't afford the cheap stuff either you are in real trouble,