Sneaky ways to save the pennies

Confuzzled

rosemary54 wrote: »

did any one watch Kirstie's homemade home?Good ideas ,looking in skips(all ours have are rubble!)markets etc.......BUT rather spolit by the double size mega expensive Aga in her kitchen!!!!!!!

the aga may seem over the top BUT many are connected to back boilers and supply free hot water, also you can easily heat a home with an aga, it's not that much work to make your radiators run off it's heat and for a room the size of her huge kitchen just using it at all (even if it's not connected to a back boiler and/or radiators) is a huge boon in colder months, i suspect her family does most of their living in that room

if one gets a dual fuel aga it could easily be fueled by pallets (found in or near skips) junk wood, twigs from their woods and such like, perhaps not all year long but for a good portion of it. i would never consider an aga an unneccessary expense if i were using it to even half it's true capacity (though you'd better bet i'd be using it to it's full potential and looking for more ways to make it work!)

oh and don't forget she can dry food in it, simmer potpourri on it and even cook in it!

Confuzzled

Aril wrote: »

When growing nasturiums...the flowers are edible in salads and the seeds are capers I believe.
Aril

actually the leaves are edible too

the smallest ones are best as they are quite peppery but if you have a good mix of other greens and/or veg you can get away with using some of the larger older ones too

Confuzzled

Jadeytee wrote: »

Could any one tell me what can and cannot be frozen?
Apart from the obvious like things out of the freezer isles

I know bread and milk are alright? What kind of meals can you freeze? What about cheese? Yoghurt? Salad?

cheese and butter freeze fine

don't freeze any dips or such like that have a lot of oil as the oil seperates when it thaws out and is very difficult to mix back in

kippers freeze fine even though they say not to freeze them

freeze ripe/overripe bananas in their skins, when you want to use them thaw them out in a bowl (to catch any sticky drips) then you can normally just squeeze them into your bowl, great if making banana bread, you have little mashing to do as they are already quite soft

there isn't much i can't/won't freeze to be honest, somethings lose their full taste/texture if used as normal after thawing but you can still use them for cooking

it's worth experimenting even if just trying small portions of things

Primrose

People advise not to freeze strawberries because they tend to go mushy. However we get too big a strawberry crop from our bed to eat fresh so the majority have to be frozen. They puree down well for use with porridge,rice pudding, ice cream and smoothies (saving freezer space if you freeze them in ice cube trays and remove to bags). The whole ones are perfectly satisfactory in mixed fruit compotes or popped whole into a raspberry or strawberry jelly (with marginally less water than recommended) to liven it up a little.

juliapenguin

My mother buys strawberries specifically to freeze them - I think she microwaves them very slightly with a very small amount of sugar (depending on how sweet they are) then pushes the mixture through a sieve and freezes it in ice cube trays. One or two cubes defrosted then eaten with ice cream is a taste of summer in the middle of winter...

aless02

Mushrooms freeze terribly, in my experience. Or else I'm doing something wrong!

I freeze big bags of cheese all the time...helps use only a tiny bit when you just need to toss a handful on top of jacket potato, etc.

nimpoppy

Can anybody tell me how to make HM oven chips please?

sparrer

nimpoppy wrote: »

Can anybody tell me how to make HM oven chips please?

I like them cut into wedges (leave the skin on), parboil or steam for a few minutes then place on an oiled baking tray. Sprinkle with a crumbled Oxo cube and bake in the oven at 175c for approx 30 mins, shaking once or twice during cooking to make sure they're evenly coated/coloured..

EagerLearner

Snap! Cut peeled potatoes into chips, rub with olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay out onto oven tray as separate as possible. Cook until lovely and golden (shaking a bit here and there so all bits get done)...

KiWi13

hi :T to you all ive been reading this thread now for about 3 weeks when im supposed to be working but its so full of really good tips so its awfully addictive.
My DH and I have just recently bought our first house and are wanting to make sure we do things right from the start and there are some very good ideas on here indeed. Thankfully he is very good with money anyway and is always willing to give things a go so hopefully shouldn't have too much of the "branding" problems at all.

on the reccommendations from this website when i was in holiday in england (I'm in N. Ireland) i bought some stardrops but haven't as yet got round to using it yet!

just wondering though - are people saving the pennies because things are already really bad or just in order to save wherever is possible so that it doesn't get to that stage? I was thinking about it the other night and thought it was good to know i could go down brands and have a bit left over to make ends meet where needed and it just made me wonder what i would then end up doing if i was already buying the cheapest etc.
Just makes you think is all and it made me wonder what peoples motives were? preventative or necessary.
(do hope i havent offended anyone it wasn't intentional)

sorry for a long post really have enjoyed reading all these tips and do hope to see more coming!:D

K