Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

Great looking pantry there @foxgloves. We made one here, taking a bit of the sitting room recess next to the large central inglenook fireplace and leaving depth just for a bookcase, and putting doors flush with said chimney in the dining room. It's just under 5 foot deep by just over 4 foot wide and we used mostly reclaimed floorboards as shelves (with a pink hearth slab as a "cold shelf" and an old metal rack with MDF shelves on the 3rd side). I have to keep control of my hoarding instinct in that space, but buying 6 jars of chosen coffee every two months saves us more than we can in the SM. Still lots of bottled fruit to use up this winter (Spring doesn't count until the aga goes off here) and consequently, Greek-style yogurt and fruit or fruit and custard keep featuring!

Cheery_Daff

We've got a set of deep bookshelves that we use as a pantry, in the 'offshot'- the kind of utility room by the back door that we use as a very scruffy main entrance to the house. We have all kinds of tins, bags of pasta, rice etc, coffee, teabags, boozer etc out there (as well as boots, gloves, workweek etc in the lower shelves).  I do love it. When we had the kitchen done we chose not to have high level cupboards in there to keep the feeling of space, so the vast majority if our food is out there. I do keep herbs & spices, breakfast stuff, and open bags of baking stuff, nuts, lentils etc in the actual kitchen though. Makes shopping lists easy too as all the shelves are open.

EssexHebridean

Seeing things like the pantry picture makes me miss my larder somewhat more than normal! I had a massive spice rack on the door there which took just about all my small everyday use jars - those get filled from bigger bags bought mostly from the big specialist supermarkets - I use a Turkish one near work, and a Chinese/Asian one near home. We used to buy a lot from Foxes Spices when they used to have their stand at the Good Food show, but they've not been there since Covid sadly. The larger packs live in a big airtight plastic box in a kitchen cupboard now - and the regular everyday jars are split across one of those cupboard inserts designed to let you see what you have by arranging it on three levels, and a couple of plastic pull-out boxes which works quite well. 

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments, which I have just enjoyed perusing. I think builders can often work wonders with re-purposing small spaces. We just thought they would board off the low pointy bit of our old understairs cupboard to make a tall cupboard we could stand in with shelves on 3 sides, but they said it would be a shame not to make use of all the available space, so it is wedge of cheese shape, with shelves going right to the back. Yes, we need to bend & do a bit of bodily contortion to get at the lower sections of shelving, but I appreciate all the shelving for my preserves, etc. I can assure you there'd have been no nice comments about that space pre-refurb! It was a dark smelly cupboard which was bare brick as had never been dry-lined. Our house is 1930s & while some of us have understairs cupboards, some other houses on our street had an outside-accessed coal-hole in the same place. Our old cupboard was divided into two - washing machine plumbing in the lower section, so of course that's where we had to have our washer & the top half we used as a pantry. Mr F bought a sort of display unit thingy made up of cubes, which fitted the back, & he painted the bricks a nice clean white, so we did maximise space as much as possible, but the pondy smell was a continual problem (which was an issue with the old pipes being clogged with gunk). As the builder had already said that our equally shonky cloakroom could be turned into a small utility for the washing machine, having a proper walk-in pantry suddenly became doable.
It was interesting reading about other people's pantry arrangements. My sis-in-law uses some big wooden built-in cupboards in her hall & they look good. My Mum always used her kitchen dresser cupboards. In my previous little house (early Edwardian), I did have the original pantry complete with a couple of ancient-looking meat hooks, but it was so damp, it was a complete no-go for food storage. I didn't have the money to have it properly dry-lined because back then, I was too busy spending it.
I would miss our eco-refill shop if it closed. It began as a market stall. I think like everything else, if people don't use them, they will disappear, so we have various products we always aim to get from ours to try & help it to keep going. I think it must be doing ok atm though, as the owner recently posted that some of the prices on cleaning product refills have gone down because of increased sales volume meaning that they can access better wholesale prices.
Dilly Carter? I'd never heard of her & had to look her up. Ah, it's a programme I don't watch, so that explains my ignorance, lol.
Anyway, better get today's post-worth of efforts on.....
F x 

foxgloves

And hello again on this really stupidly over-rainy Thursday. I shall kick in today's little budget-helping positives forthwith, before heading off downstairs to make a snuggly hot water bottle to tuck up behind my back while I finish my book. Can't seem to get properly warm today. 
*Baked a sourdough loaf. As the starter jar was looking nicely volcanic last night, I mixed it up then (food pro). Covered it & gave it a quick stretch before bedtime (no faffy stuff, just literally about 3 dough grabs stretched as far as I could get them & folded back). Ditto first thing this morning, then folds done as normal before getting it into the proving basket. It was ready for our lunchtime toast. Mr F is not at work for a couple of days, so it will disappear very quickly.
*Last grocery shopping of Feb's budget cycle came in £22 under budget. I'm pleased with this as it was a 5-week shopping month & I didn't budget any extra because I think I already budget a generous amount for 2 people & 2 cats. Free coffee while there. Loads of yellow-stickered eggs, despite them being on a good BB date.
*Wrote list for eco-refill shop next week - easier to see my herb/spice jars, which is what motivated me to do it.
*2 more containers out of the freezer today. coconut milk & salmon for tonight's Malaysian fish curry....even better, Mr F said '"Oooh, I've never cooked that before, can I make it?" so we have swapped cooking nights & I will do Sunday instead.
*Entered a competition.
*Junk mail fell out of the post, as it often does, & was just walking it to the bin when I spotted that it contained some vouchers for the Watery Kitchen Shop. Now safely in my voucher wallet.
*Did a couple of surveys - not a lot around today, but tbf, I have rejected a few out of hand because of insufficient renumeration for the levels of faff required. This month's PA earnings now at £39-58, so there shouldn't be any problem hitting my target.
*Found £1 lurking in a coat pocket. 
*Monthly statement from the Cephalopods landed. Had a crunch of the numbers: We are down to £225-66 credit on our account. We spent £29-12 less on energy than last month, which breaks down into £27-79 less on gas & £1-33 less on electricity. Compared to the same period last year, we spent £33-25 less overall - probably this is more a reflection of gas costs than anything else. Our credit has eroded further than it did last year as our monthly DD was reduced to £79. I didn't need to be Nostradamus Foxgloves to know this would be too low for us & indeed, after about 3 months, it was put back up to £115. Unless we have a cold snap between now & the beginning of April, our usage should continue to drop off, so I shall continue monitoring credit levels V usage & see if I think we need to increase what we are paying. Knowledge is power & all that!
*Must progress cardi-knitting today, but first, I must lay it out on the dining table for a proper measure & place a marker. Need to crack on if I'm to wear it on holiday - I won't get lost on any beaches or heathland while wearing that, to be sure!
Off to warm up now. I'm not really a chilly mortal but I think it does make a difference getting some sun on the house - sun being an alien concept in our local weather forecast today. 
Hope everyone's had a decent day & not parted with too much in the way of big pence.
F x

Makingabobor2

I've been feeling very cold today as well. Think a wheat pack heated in the MW might be in order. Mind you, I have suddenly got a mysterious cold, so that probably isn't helping. 

foxgloves

Hope that cold soon goes packing, @Makingabobor2. I was in the supermarket the other day, walked between 2 people who were blocking the aisle just as one coughed all over me. I was sure I'd go down with whatever it was, but thankfully I didn't. I even bought a bottle of a made not-too-far from here cordial in before Christmas - the variety with echinacea, elderberries, etc, as I have found that really soothing for lergies if made up with hot water......so far, I haven't even had to take the top off. Still time yet though, not forgetting the time I got flu in June!! Picked that up on a campsite & I don't think I've ever felt so poorly! Yes, stay warm, m'dear. My hands are cold today & that makes them stiff because of my arthritis. Wheat bag for you, hot water bottle for me (we don't have a microwave) & a good book. 
F x

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

Hope that cold soon goes packing, @Makingabobor2. I was in the supermarket the other day, walked between 2 people who were blocking the aisle just as one coughed all over me. I was sure I'd go down with whatever it was, but thankfully I didn't. I even bought a bottle of a made not-too-far from here cordial in before Christmas - the variety with echinacea, elderberries, etc, as I have found that really soothing for lergies if made up with hot water......so far, I haven't even had to take the top off. Still time yet though, not forgetting the time I got flu in June!! Picked that up on a campsite & I don't think I've ever felt so poorly! Yes, stay warm, m'dear. My hands are cold today & that makes them stiff because of my arthritis. Wheat bag for you, hot water bottle for me (we don't have a microwave) & a good book. 
F x

Think this may have ben caught from the supermarket as well. There were people coughing in Mr M's om Monday. Why they don't put a mask on to go out if they are ill, is beyond me. Only 6 weeks since I went down with covid, so could have really done without this one. Still I'm sure I be ok by the weekend. Stay warm x

EssexHebridean

It bewilders me - during Covid most of these people were probably viral (armchair) experts, and yet now they're back to feeling as though coughing all over folk is perfectly acceptable! 

PennysIntoPounds

When we were walking down the street yesterday a man was walking towards coughing a hacking cough with his mouth wide open and not even covering his mouth. I swerved to not be in his immediate germ line then another unconnected woman did the exact same thing, it was like walking through a mediocre zombie apocalypse. I swerved even more and ended up walking in the middle of the road, no politeness to manky people on my part! 
Hope you feel better soon @Makingabobor2 and hope you stay well @foxgloves!