What things can't you compromise on?

tryingtoruletheworld

I too like to buy as much quality food as I can afford, and make the most of it!

Thriftlady, you mentioned sour dough bread, do you know how to make rye sour dough? I love the stuff but am a little wary to make it, and would love a recipe if you have it!

Thanks xx

thriftlady_2

tryingtoruletheworld wrote: »

I too like to buy as much quality food as I can afford, and make the most of it!

Thriftlady, you mentioned sour dough bread, do you know how to make rye sour dough? I love the stuff but am a little wary to make it, and would love a recipe if you have it!

Thanks xx

Haven't tried rye sour dough yet. I'm assuming you just use rye flour instead of wheat, both in the starter and to make the loaf. Have a google;)

Belisarius

thriftlady wrote: »

I think you should accept that good food is one of the things you personally can't compromise on. I can't either. However it is possible to be thrifty about it if you need to be.

You say you love to cook from scratch, me too, me too!

There are loads of things that cost a bomb to buy yet are really cheap to make at home. I'm thinking of things like preserves and chutneys that cost nearly £4 a jar in a posh deli or farmshop. Yogurt is a lot cheaper to make than buy and you can flavour it with your own homemade fruit purees.

Homemade chicken stock is way better than any cube yet is a thrifty thing to make that will improve the quality of your home cooking no end.

You can make soup of better quality than those posh cartons for pennies and it's easy too.

Bread, well don't get me started lol! I've been baking my own bread for years now, so long that I genuinely have no idea how much a sliced loaf costs anymore. I've just discovered the joys of homemade sour dough which costs a fortune to buy, it is simply fab -u-lous;)

And on the subject of baking homemade biscuits and cakes are so much better than bought ones, and even if there are good quality bought ones around yours' will be so much cheaper.

Meat -I love meat but we don't have it every day and I don't stretch it with lentils or oats to pretend there's more of it.

I buy cheaper cuts like shin of beef and cook it long and slow until it is luscious and melting, kidneys and liver are gorgeous cooked properly - lamb's kidneys with chilli, sheery and lentils -yum.

I also buy in bulk for my freezer from a quality butcher. That way I have mince, free range chickens and sausages at a reasonable price. I always make sure I get the most of a joint by rolling leftovers into other meals. I make up for the smaller quantity of meat in these meals by adding other ingredients like chickpeas and nuts to lamb for a pilaff, puy lentils to leftover baked ham, or bacon, mushrooms and sweetcorn to chicken for a pie. These sort of leftover meals are far from being depressing or second best, they are delicious in their own right- a bonus rather than an austere necessity.

There are lots of things I buy that might be considered extravagances by penny pinchers; good chocolate, good coffee, nuts, quality cheese, cream, alcohol for cooking, cold pressed oils, free range meat and eggs, butter rather than substitutes. I buy expensive fruit and veg like asparagus and cherries but only when they are UK produced.

However there are loads of things I never buy no matter how good the quality; biscuits, cakes, boxed cereals, jam, marmalade, chutney, bread, yogurt (except now and again to 'start' my hm yogurt), ready prepared desserts, meals, soups, packet mixes, ready made sauces (except Patak's curry pastes), butter substitutes, ready prepped veg, out of season imported fruit and veg, sweets, processed cheese products, anything marketed for children.

Yes I am food snob;):D I also find it difficult to be thrifty about cookbooks, but I buy fiction second-hand or use the library. I shop for second hand clothes too;)

Sorry, I seem to have written a manifesto:o:D

Haha - not, it's cool, It's nice to meet other impassioned foodies. To be honest, I do all of the things you mention above. Use every last scrap of meat I buy. Made the most amazing marmalade last year via my organic veg box delivery. I guess what I mean is that I won't scrimp on raw ingredients ... I like to buy "artisan" cured meats & cheese, loose leaf Earl Grey tea with REAL oil of Bergamot in it, organic / local meat & so on ... I just know that however thrifty I am with those ingredients it really isn't thrifty to buy them in the first place :rolleyes:

PS - sour dough is something I MUST DO! When I was growing up, my parents always had a sour dough starter on the go in the fridge! And there is no where to buy sourdough locally, so ... I will get onto it this weekend, in fact.

anguk

thriftlady wrote: »

Me too, I'm thinking of turning it on now actually, my hands are turning blue, and yes I have put another layer on;)

I wouldn't walk about in shorts & t-shirt with the heating on, to me that is wasteful, and I will snuggle under a fleece throw on the sofa in the evening, but I refuse to sit in my own home with things like scarves & gloves on just so I can save on heating costs.

Besides I think it's unfair on the rest of the family if they're cold but I refuse to put the heating on to save money, I think they'd all rebel! I'd much rather save money elsewhere so that I can be toasty warm with good food in my stomach.

Burp_2

Everyones an individual so not one set way of doing things will suit everyone ... you do whats acceptable and best for yourself and your family

I meal plan every week and don't mind buying economy/cheap brands for certain items

But there are things I won't go cheap on and thats

• toilettries like shampoo and conditioner and showergel, toothpaste, deodrant because the cheap stuff just doesnt smell as nice, work as well or make me feel good about myself
• make-up... I happily spend out on Clinique make up and Benefit because I used to suffer with bad skin and I since found out it was aggrevated by cheap make up and the clinique do a specialist range for unbalanced skin plus it makes me feel good about myself :rotfl:
• cat food ... the cats wont eat cheap stuff so there's no point wasting money on the chap stuff as it gets thrown away
• fairy liquid .... last longer and works better than any others i've tried

but thats about it ... happy to try any cheap brands to see if I like them ... and if I dont I'm happy to pay for the named brands ... the whole point of life is to enjoy it ... why make ureself miserable if you're unhappy with things

Burp x

laurel7172

Travel. The thriftiest thing to do is stay at home, go for bike rides/walks etc etc. Even a Ryanair £5 flight is expensive once you've got to the airport, paid for parking, public transport at the other end and whatever you do when you're there.

But I'd be deeply miserable if I didn't travel regularly. I've had my wings clipped by a recent illness, and until I can get travel insurance again I'm confined to the UK. (Well, I wouldn't exactly be arrested at the border, but it wouldn't be wise). That's OK-plenty of the UK left to see!-but I do need to get away every few months. Travelodge and advance rail fares are my friends!!

steerpike

Totally agree with buying good quality basic when cooking from scratch etc.
However sometimes ultra cheap is good too

We live in a 300+ yr old cottage with no mains drainage, we have a soakaway system of drainage, I buy the own brand cheapo loo roll as it is more biodegradable - which means that the septic tank has to be emptied less frequently. Strongly coloured and coloured cleaning products also kill off the friendly bacteria in the system without which things get awfully smelly so I use natural cleaning products as much as possible

The two things that I never compromise on are free range eggs and chickens. Not merely from a taste point of view - I think that rearing hens in cages is cruel and I would rather do without than buy eggs/meat from caged hens
this meansnot buying premade cakes etc as most of the manufacturers do not use free range eggs

candygirl

I can't do cheap toothpaste, coffee or bread;)The rest of the time I am quite thrifty but have to have holidays or i'd go mental:D:D

zara*elise

I can't do without:

• Weekends away with my DH. I could give up a massive holiday in Summer easily as long as I have my little weekends away.
• Parmasan and pasta! Although it lasts for ages if bought from an Italian shop rather than the tesco/asda imitations. And cheap pasta is disgusting.
• Free range and organic meat. I would love to grow my own veg but living in a small place with no real garden makes it impossible.

Everything else is negotiable!

xoxoxox

~BamNaggy~

*Milk and eggs, I buy organic and free range repsectively. I would rather go without than buy eggs from battery chickens.

*Toothpaste, washing up liquid and bread.

*Refuse to get rid of Sky (but don't have the movies or the sport, don't think they are worth it!)

*A big, deep hot bubbly bath. I have one nearly every day and I refuse to give it up!