Sneaky ways to save the pennies

carolinosourus

Meal plans and shopping lists really do work! We've been finding this recently, we're throwing much less away and as I know what's for dinner each night it stops the "I don't really fancy anything, I can't be bothered, let's just get a takeaway" moans. Also when we have a list we spend much less time in sainsbo as we're not just wandering around aimlessly

Baileys_Babe

newlywed wrote: »

Beware of the metal hand pumps.... they rust
We've thrown two away, both rusted at the spout and the base where it sat on the sink (can't keep telling boys not to splash water - would rather encourage them to wash!!!)

One of them cost £7 and ended up in the bin!! Now I just use the cheap plastic pump handwashes.

Paint the bottoms with nail varnish to prevent rusting.

Mrs_Thrify

Hiya, I bought a slow cooker and am trying it out for the first time today!
It is said that it takes the same electric as a lightbulb so saves on the great power the greedy oven takes.
I am cooking a sausage casserole.Julie

Gina_of_course!

I have read through all 144 pages... its taken me a while...
Thanks for all the great tips..

oystercatcher

carolinosourus wrote: »

Meal plans and shopping lists really do work! We've been finding this recently, we're throwing much less away and as I know what's for dinner each night it stops the "I don't really fancy anything, I can't be bothered, let's just get a takeaway" moans. Also when we have a list we spend much less time in sainsbo as we're not just wandering around aimlessly

What do you do if you have unexpected guests though?
Or if people don't want what is planned ?
I never know how many I will be cooking for each day.

beerqueen

oystercatcher wrote: »

What do you do if you have unexpected guests though?
Or if people don't want what is planned ?
I never know how many I will be cooking for each day.

I try to have an idea of who's doing what and tell them they should let me know if they're not going to be in for a meal - it's only politeness really! If anything unexpected turns up, their portion can usually be frozen for another time. And if someone unexpected comes for a meal that can usually be sorted too with a little imagination -I swap meals round for instance so that if I was going to do pork chops (for which I have one each and so it can't be stretched) I'll swap if for a meal later in the week like spag bol which can usually be eked out to another portion.

Surely you don't buy enough for unexpected visitors for every meal anyway do you, you'd usually buy what you need? And there's always extra things in the freezer for emergencies.

Meal planning really does have more advantages than disadvantages.

Patchwork_Quilt

oystercatcher wrote: »

What do you do if you have unexpected guests though?
Or if people don't want what is planned ?
I never know how many I will be cooking for each day.

Neither do I. There's often a spare teenager lurking in our study.

Either I'm honest and say that they can't stay this time or more likely, I just serve with more potatoes/pasta/rice. I tend to cook more than we need anyway so that there is always some to take to work the next day as lunch. If this gets used up then there's usually another one in the freezer from when someone didn't turn up.

I don't let them tell me that they don't want what I've cooked. Bit of a meanie like that really.

My money saving tip was going to be:

Set your phone alarm for just before your parking ticket runs out. Got caught out recently and had to pay a £25 fine. That's not going to happen again

carolinosourus

oystercatcher wrote: »

What do you do if you have unexpected guests though?
Or if people don't want what is planned ?
I never know how many I will be cooking for each day.

True, but it's only me and bf, I'm veggie (but eat fish) and he's happy to eat a mainly veggie diet as I don't tend to use quorn, which he's not keen on. And we arrange with friends a couple of days in advance if they want to come for dinner. It's happened a few times with unexpected guests but I usually make extra portions of things when I cook to take for lunch the next day or freeze so it's never been a problem.

If you do a meal plan before you go shopping and get everyone to agree on it then there's no room for manoeuvre, my mother used to do this, if we didn't want something then tough!

This works for us, I'm not advocating that it would work for everyone.

Edit:

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

I don't let them tell me that they don't want what I've cooked. Bit of a meanie like that really.

Damn right!

northwest1965

Mellika wrote: »

My husband notices ANY changes



Unfortunately, he won't budge from expensive coffee

Its the one thing I cannot change, have tried lots of cheaper ones!

oystercatcher

beerqueen wrote: »

I try to have an idea of who's doing what and tell them they should let me know if they're not going to be in for a meal - it's only politeness really! If anything unexpected turns up, their portion can usually be frozen for another time. And if someone unexpected comes for a meal that can usually be sorted too with a little imagination -I swap meals round for instance so that if I was going to do pork chops (for which I have one each and so it can't be stretched) I'll swap if for a meal later in the week like spag bol which can usually be eked out to another portion.

Surely you don't buy enough for unexpected visitors for every meal anyway do you, you'd usually buy what you need? And there's always extra things in the freezer for emergencies.

Meal planning really does have more advantages than disadvantages.

I have three older teenagers who don't know if they are going to be in or out until the last moment...apparently you have to wait and see what everyone else has planned and then decide whether to join in !! They do let me know as soon as they know their own plans and they always ask before inviting friends but if someone is there it's only polite to offer them to join in, after all their families tend to feed my boys too!
Also the one who is a Police Officer eats at all sorts of irregular times and cooks for himself most often, he will be moving out next week but I guess will be visiting at short notice!

The children have to eat what is cooked. It's Husband who is always feeling ill or whatever and won't eat what is planned :mad: He lived on his own until he was 40 so has developed all sorts of bad habits which will take many years of training to lose!! I have to admit though there's days when I fancy a curry and days when it's the last thing I want so I prefer to be flexible.

So I normally keep a very well stocked freezer, store cupboard and fridge and decide at the last minute what we will eat.
Very little is wasted though, left overs go in the fridge or freezer to be consumed at a later date.

I do plan for when 'proper visitors' come of course. They don't tend to be unexpected it's just these blooming teenagers !