Dh and I did a month's food shopping today and spent ...

[Miaou]

£98.05

Beat that!!

MrMiaou has just gone out nutty, but I'll get him to post some tips when he comes back

how do you make jam?

Thanks Miaou

Really need to get our diet back on track.

i think this thread is fantastic and has inspired me to make more of an effort with cooking,
i would love to spend less in the shops and have money spare to take my girls out,
thankyou you are truly inspirational

Hi lunavix

Jam, dead easy!

1kg fruit 1kg Sugar bring to the boil, when really boiling (all the recipes say boiling til you can't stir it down) give it about 5 minutes, then place in jars.

If you are using strawberries or rhubard I would add some pectin, basically one sachet per kg of sugar.

If you want specifics for any particular type of jam let me know.

Also you should use a good big heavy pan, preferably steel or iron, LeCreuset are good as are pressure cookers.

Jars should be heated in the oven at about 150 for 10 minutes before filling. Put the lids on when still hot and if you use the tamper evident lids (which most are these days) you'll get a good air tight seal. No need for wax paper etc

Most good butchers tend to be very helpful, after all they know meat!

Go in tell them what you want to do with the meat, they will give suggestions, recipes etc

Tell me what sort of things you like to eat and I'll give you some suggestions.

should just add that I recently made some perfectly good strawberry jam from tinned strawberries. Using 4 tins of strawberries gave me just short of 1kg of fruit, and as they where in fruit juice I made up the weight with some of that. Added 1 kg sugar and 1 sachet of pectin (as I was using some juice and not just fruit I thought I would play safe!)

Made almost 5lbs of jam at a total cost of £2.10. I know that you can buy jam at that sort of price, but this was purely an experiment, and also I know exactly what has gone into the jam. Also it tastes much better than most cheap jam I've ever tried.

Nest on the list is rhubard and ginger jam using tinned rhubard. Just need to get some jars first

BTW I do know how to spell rhubard, just uisng a cheap keyboard

RHUBARB

I am always careful with the grocery budget but I must say I'm v impressed here. I too make a big pot of soup once a week - kids groan if any more frequent, and do lots of bread, cakes and biscuits. I would fall foul of the bogof and 3for2 offers, but there is never any wastage in this house!! I like yourselves would be in favour of buying own brands - the cereals are much cheaper and taste just as good. Surely they all come from the same food factories? Am mentally going over what I spent this morning in Sainsburys and know I could have trimmed a tenner off if I had been extra good...

I know I'm being thick here but if I buy meat from a butcher is it always cheaper than a supermarket and does it necessarily come from local farmers?

Even in London?

There is a butcher in my High Street and haven't ever really thought to go in there tbh. I would like to support small independent shops.

OK tonight's tea is pizza - dough recipe and tomato base mix posted already below by MrMiaou.

Toppings today - two ham and pineapple and one pepperoni, green pepper and onion.

Dough mix - 55p
Tomato sauce mix - 15p
1/2 tin pineapple chunks - 15p
1.5oz sliced ham - about 1/10 of a pack @ £1.10, so 11p for the ham
Pepperoni - about 1/4 of the pepperoni, bought on BOGOF for £1.29 - so about 16p
1/2 small green pepper - we got six in a bag for 90p, so about 7p
1/2 small onion - about 5p
Cheese - about 12oz - about £1.50 worth.

Normally we would serve that with some coleslaw but MrMiaou forgot to get the ingredients for coleslaw this time

Total for the meal: £2.74. That's for three 16" pizzas. Not bad!!

No, it's not always cheaper to buy meat from a local butcher. However you tend to find that small local butchers carry a better quality of meat. They usually have the cheaper cuts easily available, and will often prepare them for you.

In terms of quality a small independant butchers will be far better 99 times out of a hundred. the supermarkets seem to think that the best beef is a bright red, and hung for 10 days. A decent independent will know that a much darker red/purple colour is an indicator of a much better matured piece of meat, and will have hung it for upto 3 weeks.

And last but not least it will not come shrink wrapped, in a polystyrene tray and stuffed into an additional plastic bag at the checkout

I'm loving this thread.... mr and mrs miaou, do you want lodgers? Just me and 3dd . what cake and biscuit recipes go down well with your DC's ?

This thread is inspirational and has really got me thinking. We are usually over budget each month and I can't really fathom out why, except to say we start out well and somewhere around the middle of the month realise we are not on target. That said, dh does not rave about veggie meals (though he did love a veg curry I made last night), we do drink alcohol (budget around £60 a month for this, not alcoholics but like to offer friends a drink, honest) and we spend loads on disposable nappies/infant formula. I also think that fresh fruit and veg is pretty expensive, certainly where we live anyway. Currently have limited freezer space so frozen veg not really an option.

Have discovered Lidl is good for certain items so am hoping to reduce our grocery bill too. Mr Miaou, keep your tips coming, all greatly appreciated in this household!

ah we decided to use washable nappies, we've saved a fortune with those, and ds was breast fed, so never had to buy formula either.

Washables cost us about £100, and washable wipes too (Ikea face cloths cut into 4) ds is now 15 months!

As to fruit and veg, depends on what you call expensive. A banana costs us about 10p, and an apple is about 10p too. Tinned fruit, pineapple chunks in juice for 27p.

Veg, we just bought a pack of 5 leeks for 17p!

Peppers 6 in a bag for 90p.

So if you look around it doesn't need to cost a fortune. When you compare the cost of a piece of fruit to say a bag of crisps or a bar of chocolate they start to look pretty cheap.

I should also add that for our supermarket shopping we only have one choice, that is Morrisons, and that is a 40 mile drive away (80 mile round trip) including a short ferry trip. For local purchases we have one shop, the next nearest is 20 miles away!

So compared to most folks we pay well over the odds for everything. We use very little frozen veg, generally find that a weeks worth of veg will stay plenty fresh enough in the fridge. It is however important to make sure that what you buy is used. Throwing away fresh fruit and veg is the biggest waste of money there is.

The great secret is pre planning, and flexibility. Plan menus, and be prepared to change if there is a seriously good deal available when you go shopping. Also if you can buy staples in bulk.

I guess we eat a main meal involving meat or fish 4 days out of 7. Costs for meaty meals are not really any more expensive than non meaty. Unless you feel the need to eat a steak and chips type of meal. (And I don't intend any criticism by any of the above )

Thanks for that Mr. Miaou.

I will have a look next week. I'd hate to see these small traders go tbh. We even have an outside fish stall once a week in our High Street, there's always a queue but I've never even looked tbh .

Must try harder! To echo pacinofan, thank you for inspiring us.

Lidl are fantastic, if you like stews buy some of there cans of stewed steak, (last time I was in one they were about 60p!) Two of those and some carrots, leeks, swede, parsnips or whatever veg you fancy with some potatoes (or dumplings very bad for you, but delicious ) and you've got a good meal for 4 people (at least) for about £2.50

headless girl, flapjack always go down well in our house - oats form the bulk of the ingredients so it is relatively cheap to make. Throw in some raisins or sultanas as well for extra taste.

I find that plain biscuits, with perhaps a bit of lemon or ginger flavouring, satisfy a sweet tooth without disappearing overnight . Let me know if you want some recipes; I've got a couple of "favourites" I always use.

Right, slightly off topic, but can you tell me what washable nappy system you use? We went down that route a couple of years ago with dd1 and it didn't work out for us, however, am willing to have another go with dd2 if someone can convince me that the system they use is failsafe! Not wising to start a disposable v cloth debate btw, just curious!

pacinofan, I made a decision to go with TotsBots before I had ds and stuck with it, as I didn't want to try lots of different ones (didn't have the money!). I got size 2's non-aplix and folded them down at the front to start with. Ds was 8lbs when he was born and they were fine on him - in fact at 15 months he is still wearing them! I bought 12 and have a tumble drier, so intially did a wash in the evening then put them through the drier at night. We bulked them out with some kooshies basics and I bought a fleece blanket which I cut up for liners. As MrMiaou mentioned earlier, I got 10 IKEA facecloths, cut them into quarters and hemmed them on the sewing machine - instant reusable wipes - I just use a bowl of warm water (or run them under the tap) and then chuck them in the wash with the nappies. Now I am down to a wash/dry every three days.

He did look like I'd stuck his legs through a wee football to start with but otherwise they were fine! I have three size 3 Totsbots which I use with a booster (cotton bottoms prefolds given to me by a friend) and I have inherited/bought a couple of larger wraps - but I guess after my initial outlay of £100 I've since spent about £20 spread out over a year on the extra bits.

HTH - ask away if you want more info

Miaou - I'm a huge Tots fan too but it's seriously cheap and easy to use microbibre cloth to boost nappies. 89p each from Tesco - I bought 2 yesterday.

btw - I would recommend bumbles as a seriously economical and really easy nappy to use too. I use those and Tots.

Can I ask about your homemade bread? I do make my own bread from time to time, in the Kitchen Aid, recipe makes two big loaves. I find the bread doesn't keep and wondered how you combat this? Also do you freeze homemade bread? I've tried freezing it, wondered if it kept OK in the freezer.

Oh and I agree about Tots Bots, they are fab.

Our bread tends to keep for about 2-3 days, MrsSpoon, in a ceramic bread crock. It won't be quite as soft by the end of day 2 but is perfectly edible and not mouldy. But tbh we tend to go through a 2lb loaf in two days anyway so we rarely have stale/mouldy bread hanging around! Commercially bought bread will last longer, but that's because it contains preservative chemicals and mould inhibitors - more chemicals.

We do freeze our bread and find it freezes very well. MrMiaou tends to make four 2lb loaves and a couple of bloomers at the weekend, and freezes them in individual plastic bags. To defrost them he hangs the bag handles over the kitchen door knob, so it doesn't "sit" in its own condensation IYSWIM as it's thawing.

Hey Miaou -
Just want to say thanks again for your inspiration. Made a throroughly delish sweet potatoe soup for tea tonight which was enjoyed by all of us - and get some elusive veg into to DD! And the recipe was enough to freeze half for another meal.

Tomorrow I am making shortbread and banana cake/bread. Half of the banana cake will be frozen as read on another thread it freezes well.

And for dinner will be trying a stir fry - something we used to do before DD arrived and need to revive. My shopping delivery from Tesco looked so healthy today - and the cupboard are full for no more than I usually spend - but there hardly any processed crap!

You and Mr Miaou should be put up for a MN award!