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

Pollycat

JIL said:

For the stew makers, it might be worth buying a joint of meat and cutting it up yourself. 
Asda do a roasting beef joint that is £8 per kilo, the already cut is £11 per kilo.

My mother in law had a big family, she made an irish stew regularly and she put balls of mince (not fried first) into her stew as well as sausages.

I do this.
Sometimes I buy as many as 3 large beef joints when they are half price.
I cut slices for braising, diced for pies and stews and grade according to quality.
I think I must have been a butcher in a previous life. 🤔

freyasmum

Ooh, we've not had mince and tattie pie for ages! I love it. No matter what I do though, it's never as tasty as my mum's ❤️


I am very glad I've already got my turkey and some other bits in for Christmas. I was contemplating making the toffee and pecan roulade for pudding soon as well, what with potential egg shortages (whether caused by the avian flu itself or people stocking up!). 

On the topic of Christmas, I saw that Sainsburys have a box of elf cereal for £1.50, which I didn't think was bad value. I'm going to get a box and put it in the kids' advent hamper."Advent Hamper" sounds so much more grand that what it actually is - but it was given the name when my eldest was little and I used a leftover hamper basket. It contains all of our December toys, games and storybooks (the same ones every year), a little activity book (a new Christmas wordsearch or Colouring book), some hot chocolate, a handful or two of those tinned sweets as "confetti" and a pair of pj's for littlest. Oh, and their advent calendars! I think it's a nice way to kick off December, and doesn't cost the earth/includes stuff we'd have bought anyway. 

Auntycaz

@freyasmum the cadburyadvent calenders were £1 in morrisons yesterday, but I don't know how .long for, the next cheapest I think is tesco clubcard price at £1.25. Hope it helps someone.

YorksLass

@freyasmum - Interesting point about costing out meals.  Due to increasing food prices and the cost of energy to cook meals, home made definitely isn't as cheap as it used to be.  Still tastier and healthier though than shop bought.      Only my opinion, not necessarily everyone's.

Yesterday I went to collect DH's meds and then carried on to Sainsburys for the odds and ends I can't get from them online.  Got everything on my list plus some bits towards Xmas.  There's only the two of us so we don't tend to go overboard, more like a few "treats" that we wouldn't normally have.  Looking at my grocery inventories, the only things I'll need this month are fresh milk. potatoes and toilet rolls.  And of course any bargains I might spot while out and about.    If I stick to this then my reduced November budget (to compensate for a slight overspend last month   ) will easily last out.  There's a large stock of hm meals in the freezer I can use and I also want one empty drawer by December for Xmas home-mades eg mince pies, sausage rolls, stuffing etc.

Bluegreen143

Even if the cost of energy made home cooking more expensive than convenience food, I agree with @YorksLass that homemade is not just usually healthier, but so much tastier. Baking is expensive but I reckon you just can’t beat home baked cakes and cookies when you want a treat, I always find shop bought disappointing. Only thing is it doesn’t keep the same when homemade! Same with homemade bread, so tasty but tempts you to eat too much cos you know it doesn’t keep well anyway 😅

freyasmum

Auntycaz said:

@freyasmum the cadburyadvent calenders were £1 in morrisons yesterday, but I don't know how .long for, the next cheapest I think is tesco clubcard price at £1.25. Hope it helps someone.

That's brilliant, thank you! I'll pop in on Monday @Auntycaz


@YorksLass Yes, I quite agree. I make all of our meals with the exception of a carbonara - the dolmio sauce tastes just like the prezzo one we love! I think I've said before though that I've stopped making ALL our biscuits and treats though - I can't compete with 39p for 30/40 or so cheap chocolate chip cookies. Not when butter is so expensive.

Tonight's offering - savoury mince with a suet pastry lid (I do feel I should say that we don't eat pies all the time, but I needed something easy for my OH to take into the office) came in at a much more respectable 81p per portion (plus some elderly savoy cabbage and carrots).

freyasmum

Bluegreen143 said:

Even if the cost of energy made home cooking more expensive than convenience food, I agree with @YorksLass that homemade is not just usually healthier, but so much tastier. Baking is expensive but I reckon you just can’t beat home baked cakes and cookies when you want a treat, I always find shop bought disappointing. Only thing is it doesn’t keep the same when homemade! Same with homemade bread, so tasty but tempts you to eat too much cos you know it doesn’t keep well anyway 😅

Haha, the smell of homemade bread alone is enough to out on about a stone! Lol! 

I tend to slide them as soon as they're cool and then put the rest in the freezer. I do use butter and milk powder in my bread though to make it last longer. 

KxMx

I've had good results from freezing part of the batch when I bake things. Usually just in a freezer bag and I defrost and eat a few scones at a time for example.

I actually find shop bought a treat as I bake much more often than I buy!

I only use standard baking margarine etc. I will also sometimes reduce the recipies ingredients to make a smaller batch. 

One of the reasons I love baking is I have control over the ingredients and so know exactly what is in there.

Jellytotts

Since having my gallbladder out last year I can no longer tolerate lentils.  I was warned it might be the case but I tried about 6 months after the op and no, really, no.  Then last week at food pantry there was a box of gluten free (I'm coeliac) pasta that contained red lentils.  I read the box, the percentage of lentil to other GF flour seemed ok so gave it a try.....big mistake.   

Such a shame as lentils were a real staple before hand.  Todays veg soup had extra potato in to thicken (which it did nicely) but I missed the fullness that I used to get from lentils.  I can't have barely.  Can't tolerate mushrooms, bulk out most things with GF oats, plenty of other veg but feel I'm still missing something.

Managed to hit tescos yellow sticker fridge at the right time yesterday and got decent mince, sausages and some Christmas nibbles for the freezer all at under half price.  We don't eat meat every day so this will pad out meals for a good few weeks.  Some of the Christmas nibbles are cheese heavy which I have to be careful with too (thanks to no gallbladder) so will make sure they are a small part of a veg heavy picky tea.

Lots of people nearby posted up their unused pumpkins on FB and I grabbed a few from the surrounding streets, stored in the shed they'll last for a good while. One got chopped up and roasted off today ready to make a pumpkin risotto tomorrow night....can't turn down free food.

JIL

I had my gallbladder removed 10 years ago, first few years were strange. 
I can eat anything now. 
Hope it gets better for you @Jellytotts