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

ellenvan

Just an idea for the poster that was considering trip to see her mum in Canada.
Not sure what part you are going to - but shop around on the flights/airports 
When we travelled to Vancouver flights were much cheaper to Seattle so we flew there and then went on up in hire car.

Bluegreen143

@London_1 your stories are always so lovely. I hope when I’m a grandmother (if I’m so blessed) I have such a close and loving family of grandchildren! Though my children are only 6 and 3 so I don’t like to imagine my babies getting that big yet 😆😭

JinJinBlue

Well, I never would have thought that I'd find myself doing this. Today, I went to Morris for a few bits. I was low on coffee but was shocked by the prices of instant and how much it's gone up. I bought two packs of their ground coffee instead. Two packs for £4.00. Haven't bought ground coffee for a very long time because it was always more expensive than instant. Time to get the cafetiere from the back of the cupboard and give it a wash and brush up I suppose. 

Frugalista

Went shopping yesterday and decided to try Iceland because of the Tuesday Over 60's 10% discount.  It started well as I had to move a shopping trolley so OH could park - and found said trolley still had £1 in it!  In the store we found many items in the fresh food area that were marked down by 50% - including large 2lb blocks of Red Leicester for £2 (got a couple of them), french beans and tenderstem for 50p and a pack of 2 fillet steaks for £2 something.  Not somewhere I would shop regularly, but it was a nice change and we were thrilled with all our bargains.

-taff

euronorris said:

Well, making butter was a bit of a disaster for me. I did it in 2 batches (thankfully). The first batch ended up going past the butter stage and became a weird liquid. The second batch was going the same way. I think it was too warm, so I put it in the fridge overnight and then blitzed again this morning, which thankfully then worked. I don't think there's any saving the first batch of liquid though. I did put that in the fridge also. Anyone any ideas what I have turned it into? And is it worth trying again, or is that batch done for?

You can'tmake butter very well with Elmlea or things like that, you need proper double cream to do it. It's as easy as if you have that, you leave it beating until you get lumps and whey [ it isn't buttermilk, that'sa totally different thing]. You do need quite a lot of double cream to get a good lump of butter.

euronorris

I had double cream, morrisons own. Not Elmley. 

Anyway, the 'liquid' had returned to a cream consistency after being in the fridge for 24 hours, so just had another go with that batch this evening and got butter! Hooray!

Interesting that you say its not buttermilk, but whey. I just went by what all the videos call it. Can it still be used? And then, what is buttermilk?

Bluegreen143

Buttermilk is cultured/fermented (like yoghurt). Whey is just the leftover liquid from making butter or cheese. Whey can be used in place of water for making bread and things like that, it’s got protein in it so boosts it nutritionally.

euronorris

Ahhhh ok, thank you  

Bluegreen143

Tonight I’ve baked eight orange and chocolate chip muffins with my kids - using up two squishy oranges. We had four for pudding and the other four are in the freezer for my 6yo’s school snacks. I put his snack in a split container - one half is always fruit or raw vegetables, the other a piece of home baking, some cheese & oatcakes, hummus or mini finger sandwiches. There are still a couple of the last muffin batch in the freezer so at least I don’t have to panic about snacks for next week!

For dinner I made griddled coriander lime chicken with seasoned black beans/sweetcorn, broccoli and (for DH and the kids) some rice. I deliberately made enough that I can make a chicken & black bean salad for lunch and DH can have some of the delicious chicken in a sandwich (deli quality sandwich but not deli prices!). He is a nightmare for just wanting the presliced ham for lunches and even worse, opening the packs but not finishing them!! Would like to try to gently wean him onto less wasteful lunches… but as he’s on the go in a van all day and not keen on salad, it probably does need to be a sandwich. 

I’m reducing carbs so I skipped the rice so I could *whispers* have a muffin… it was worth it though! 

in_my_wellies

Bluegreen143 said:

Buttermilk is cultured/fermented (like yoghurt). Whey is just the leftover liquid from making butter or cheese. Whey can be used in place of water for making bread and things like that, it’s got protein in it so boosts it nutritionally.

This reminds me of a camping trip to Germany when I was about 7 or 8. Mum sent me to the camp shop for milk. I asked the man for 'a bottle of milk'. He hunted about a bit and I wondered why he didn't give me one from the counter. When back at the tent my dad poured it on all our cornflakes - not what we were expecting at all! I'd never seen my dad react like that before
The man had of course heard me say 'buttermilk'