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

Longwalker

elsien said:

It is vile, isn’t it. Very creepy.  I don’t know what they were thinking.

Morrisons had some lamb hearts today reduced to 28p which I used to like. But since my grandmother gave me a biology lesson on arteries using the heart as a demonstration, I’m not quite been able to bring myself to cook them again.

Oh I love lambs hearts, haven't had them in years

Its really hard to get offal here, any cheaper cuts really. Lamb is really difficult, its not the meat of choice about here, which is why I done so well at Christmas with my £8 legs

Even the one traditional butcher,, the one that slaughters their own beef, I have to order cheaper cuts in advance. They supply the higher end restaurants and there rest goes over the water too you guys 

Mind when I was in Newcastle last week I found a butcher who was selling, tripe , pigs heads, trotters, rabbit etc. They also had whole ox tail which is another favourite - £15 !!!! No longer a cheap cut then you think you are buying bone 

Nelliegrace

When we had to use on-line shopping I used the meat offers, 3 for £10 quite often though the portions were too large. I looked for the choices which gave the best savings, plain meat so I was not paying for pastry or stuffing, etc. and getting less meat for my money. I divided everything up and had a lot of meal size portions in the freezer, lots of mince and stewing steak. The larger meat joints were more economical, so I bought those and cut them in half and froze one part for another day. It felt like free meat, money in the bank. I froze small lamb joints when they were half price at Easter. I freeze half of each pack of sausages. We are limiting our meat to £2.50 each a week, or 500g, so any extra we get yellow stickered gets put into portions and frozen. 

This week we have some black pudding, a real treat, I check the price per kilo and there was quite a difference on the two packs available at Asda.
 
I think I would dice lambs heart rather than do the traditional stuffed version @elsien DH is a bit squeemish about the tubes, even though I remove them. We watched the heart dissection in biology too, one of the lads worked at the butchers as his Saturday job, and the teacher asked him to get a pig’s heart for the class. I found the first heart operations I saw really interesting. 

We all had Saturday jobs from fifth form. I worked at the bakers shop, so I could buy my own clothes and shoes. It was a lot to ask for our parents to keep us for the two years in the sixth form, a lot of bright children had to leave after “O” levels. The tradition was that the girls voted on a fabric and the needlework teacher ordered the bolt of cloth, and a team cut it into our dress lengths and we sewed our school summer dresses in our choice of pattern. We could all knit and sew, which used to save a lot of money. 

KxMx

I can understand about the freezer space @elsien
I bought my first one last year, I do wish sometimes since that I had gone for something a little bit bigger, but I am managing. It certainly adds variety to what I eat, because I don't have room for a bit of everything at any one time. Rather a few somethings on rotation!
I very much plan my batch cooking around when I have the space inside for the results, which isn't always.

Brambling

i enjoy cooking and finding new recipes to cook I find it relaxing but there is a limit to what i want to stuff into my freezer without becoming bored i could cook 6 portions of chilli tonight, 6 of curry tomorrow etc but by the end of the week that's a lot to add to the freezer and i don't want to eat the same food for the next 5 weeks to use it up!  and as elsien said not everything freezes well or keeps well in the freezer, i find chicken can go 'spongy'.   I also cook some vegetable sides in bulk, a root veg mash which i tend to use swede, turnip, parsnip, carrot and celeriac plus braised red cabbage freezes well however i want to use my freezer space for those YS and SO meat and fish bargains, cheaper frozen fruit and veg and during the growing season my own grown produce.  

JIL

I freeze stuff for my husband (meat based)  but I'm not keen on frozen "meals" myself. I tend to put mushrooms in quorn bolognese or quorn chilli and I really don't like the texture once they have been frozen.

Pollycat

Longwalker said:

elsien said:

It is vile, isn’t it. Very creepy.  I don’t know what they were thinking.

Morrisons had some lamb hearts today reduced to 28p which I used to like. But since my grandmother gave me a biology lesson on arteries using the heart as a demonstration, I’m not quite been able to bring myself to cook them again.

Oh I love lambs hearts, haven't had them in years

Its really hard to get offal here, any cheaper cuts really. Lamb is really difficult, its not the meat of choice about here, which is why I done so well at Christmas with my £8 legs

Even the one traditional butcher,, the one that slaughters their own beef, I have to order cheaper cuts in advance. They supply the higher end restaurants and there rest goes over the water too you guys 

Mind when I was in Newcastle last week I found a butcher who was selling, tripe , pigs heads, trotters, rabbit etc. They also had whole ox tail which is another favourite - £15 !!!! No longer a cheap cut then you think you are buying bone 

My Tesco Express always seem to have lamb's kidneys reduced, sometimes as many as a dozen packs.
I wouldn't have thought that it was an item that the customer base would be buying a lot in an Express shop where the majority of people just use baskets or have a couple of items in the hands.

I might get some next time I see it as OH loves kidneys. I'm OK with it cut into very small dice in a beef casserole and it does make very tasty gravy.

YorksLass

We love kidneys but nowhere around here seems to sell them anymore.  Sourcing liver can be difficult too.  It seems offal (and cheaper cuts of meat in general) has fallen out of favour.  

Grocery order arrived at lunchtime - one out of stock and one substitute, not a problem, otherwise all P&C.  Total for groceries came to just under £60 (ouch, that's half my monthly budget) but, considering I've had to stock up again after weeks of using existing stocks, it's hardly surprising.  Amongst that little lot is a large piece of gammon that was on promotion at £4 instead of £7.70.  That will make us several meals, not to mention the stock for a soup base.

I've finished reading another book I got from the Little Free Library - not my normal choice of book (a bit lightweight and "fluffy") so I'll return that tomorrow when I make my weekly trip to the Co-op.

Interestingly, this week's Co-op Membership offers are a percentage off the full price rather than a set amount - a new tactic?  I've chosen 50% off tinned fish (any kind) and 20% off fresh fruit (any kind).  There were no promotions at all in some sections - bakery, dairy, cereals/tea/coffee, food cupboard or household essentials whilst the meat/fish/poultry section was mainly ready meals.  The beer/wine/spirits section, however, had plenty of promotions.  

Let's hope tomorrow's Budget will be kind - although I'm not holding my breath!

Siebrie

I bought a small tub of Boursin cheese spread at 30% off because its date was that day. When I wanted to use it to fill some mushrooms, I noticed it was grey rather than white. Careful examination of the tub showed that I'd accidentally bought the vegan version! It's okay, but I prefer the dairy version. So far, I've spread it on bread that I then dipped in soup, and that was fine.

Nelliegrace

Re feeling the pinch. DH has taken his painful feet to the chiropodist. 

The receipt will go to the Hospital Saturday Fund and we will get about two thirds back. I added his name to my corporate membership years ago. We both wear glasses with varifocal lenses and it helps with the cost of those. At our age we get back a bit more than we pay, and it spreads the cost.
I don’t claim for hospital treatments or stays because we don’t get charged. 

Toonie

In terms of saving money rather than going to the shop to get some bread this morning, I decided to make some little barley flakes and rolled oat cakes to have as breakfast. A couple of cakes and a couple slices of cheese have kept me full far longer than two slices of toast would have done. I popped a little butter on each and they were fab.