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

[Miaou]

£98.05

Beat that!!

thanks miow

off out now but will post later...

I too 'know' it is possible to spend not that much on food if you make it yourself..
I as a nanny used to feed my self and 2 children for 5 days per week, on only organic food, and have change from £30 per week!... admitedly thats only 5 days, and 'basics' like ketchup, baked beans, milketc were always in the fridge / cupboard but it get alsomt all of outr food in that!

(BTW i didnt have a set amount of £30 per week, i just hate all the rubbish that gos into processed foods and was happier to make proper food myself, and the bill was rarely more thasn a few p over £30, and more often than not under!)

Yes, put raisins in the flapjack (MrMiaou kids himself he's getting one of his five-a-day then ). If they are too solid then I would guess too much syrup/not enough oats. Tbh although I've put the quantities in for the flapjack recipe I tend to do the oats by eye - but I think the proportions in that recipe should work out fine.

Oh, or the other thing that might be happening - are you baking it for too long? When it comes out of the oven it should be still really soft and squishy. It hardens as it cools - hence why you have to leave it in the tin for a while before turning out onto a cooling rack. Just score it with a knife whilst it's still in the tin.

Yup, we have done the 2 chickens for a fiver before now. It makes me feel terribly guilty re. the way they are farmed, but atm we really don't have much choice.

I know, althou I did feel the 2 for £5 from the butcher, althou smaller than the supermarket ones were nicer and had a lot more flavour. we did go thru a stage of getting the ready frozen ones from tesocs - until my butcher told me they were raised on about 22p and apparntly you can't do that?? anyhow they shriveled up so only brought them twice. hopefully the ones from the butchers are not as bad - least they don't have as much water.

thanks for the tips re the flapjacks! love mr miaows theory as well! lol.

ooh I have a cake recipe as well so simple and idiot proof - which I need! lol.

8oz flour
8oz suger
8oz marg
4 eggs
2 oz coco (I have started buying a good quality one as the differnce in taste is so noticeable.)

mix up gas mark 5 20-25 mins and bobs ur uncle fab cake put in the middle what you will suspect some nice plum jam would go down well.

(for a smaller one you can use 6, 6, 6 and 3)

Good on you the miaous, you're an inspiration, it's so hard and so tedious and so tiresome to stick to your guns in this situation, but it's do-able, as you've proved, I just with that we'd been more disciplined, maybe then we wouldn't bein the mess we are now., well, things are going to remain tight for the next five years now, so I'll be following this thread and will contribute some recepies when I think of some! For the time being, do you buy ham shanks? They cost about £1 each and make nice soups, stews or just roasted. Thank you again, and good luck with everything. maybe you should publish a website! I searched in vain for something like this! (could be a way to earn a bit aswell !

Miaou I think you do amazingly well on such a tight budget. I'm lucky in that I don't have to watch the food bill that closely but you never know what is around the corner. Luckily you have cooking skills. Imagine what would happen if you didn't.

Easy Brownies

3/4 cups melted butter or margarine
1.5 cups caster sugar
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate bar crushed into bits

Head oven to 350F/Gas Mark 4/180C (160 fan assisted).

Grease a 13x9 inch pan

Beat butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla in a large bowl. Mix in cocoa powder, baking powder, flour and salt. Add chocolate bits. Stir to combine.

Pour into pan and bake 25-30 minutes.

Miaou, where is the Morrisons you shop at? Is there an Asda within a reasonable distance?

I am going to sit down and go through this whole thread later. I need all the help I can get at the moment with food and shopping and money.

french bread pizzas are really tasty and cheap to make with a tin of chopped tomatoes, cheese and whatever you like on top. if you're not a good good it means you dont have to worry about making the bases.

Nutty, if there's anything you want to ask feel free

drosophila, thanks for the compliment but I'm a rubbish cook! MrMiaou does nearly all the meals, I just do the baking . I will pass on the compliment though!

Gillian, Morrisons is in Fort William, an 80 mile round trip away. There is a Tescos in Oban which is about 140 mile round trip. Asda - um - nothing within 100 mile radius I wouldn't think. Probably Glasgow?

And do you do that every month?

Good tip, satinshoes

And expat, thanks for the brownie recipe! Looks fab, will try that next week.

I made coffee kisses today - very nice, but they have butter icing in the centre so they don't keep.

This is the problem with delicious home baking - you can end up spending money on all the ingredients! I am aiming to only bake twice a week, and when it's gone folks'll just have to wait until the next bake - otherwise the cost just mounts up and it becomes a self-defeating exercise!

Yup Gillian - you can tell why we only do it once can't you! Takes us two hours each way (we have to use the ferry too)

My god. Can we all send you food parcels?! Must coast a bomb in petrol too. Do you have a Co-Op locally?

It does! We reckon over £10 in petrol, even in our tiddy little kia. All has to come out of the budget too. We try not to use the car for anything else.

Nearest co-op would be ... Fort William I guess! We have a super little village shop here that sells loads of stuff but is naturally pretty pricey so we try to keep our use of that down to a minimum whilst still supporting it.

lol at food parcels!!

Wow, congratulations to Mr and Mrs Miaow! Didn't realise you were pg! Looks like Mr Miaow makes more than just good food!

drosophila, I am ashamed to mention my food budget on this thread, but still find the thread very useful and inspiring. I am often appauled at how much I spend on food and still have nothing to eat, I think someway along having an increased budget I have lost the place with real food that we can all eat. If you scroll down and look at my most recent Tesco shop you will see that I spent around £80 and ended up with the basis of very few meals, in fact have already spent around £15 on extras since my shopping was delivered on Friday.

Keep the tips coming!

Lochaline is ringing a bell, would that be the leaving point for the Lochaline to Fishnish ferry?

That's right MrsS - have you been? If it wasn't dark I would be able to see the ferry from where I am sitting right now

(and isn't Fishnish just a fab name, btw )

LOL, yes it's a great name! I've been on the Lochaline to Fishnish ferry, twice!

Do let me know if you come up this way again!!

I will do Miaou, on both occasions I was 15 (went to Mull twice that year) but I haven't been since. Did look about a year ago for a cheap weekend break but it has become so expensive since Balamory started.

Had to post to say IL's visited tody and as I was saying about my soup and future cooking projects FIL complained he hates vegetables - in front of my DD! Everyone very quickly said how nice they were and grandad was very naughty - that man has no brain!

Please help me pick tomorrows meal - roasted veg soup, cream of sweetcorn soup or lasagne??

Can you freeze double cream?

I've been thinking about you and I wondered if you are getting everything you are entitled to. Your rent is pretty steep. Is there no help with this housing benefit or something.

Slightly off topic but it just seems wrong that you have to be so good with money IYKWIM when you are going through a period of unemployment.

VM - eek - you need MrMiaou for that! I'm just the baker and washer-upper!! He is away until Tuesday

Drosophila - it's a complex situation. We could get jobseekers allowance, but it is such a hassle, and would mean we would have to declare everything we earn above £10. As things stand, we can take casual jobs and earn a little extra without having to declare it, because we get WTC (which we get because I run my own craft business - just not generating much income from it atm!) I am in the process of setting up as a childminder atm which should ease the situation once I get going. As I said before, we could approach the council for help with rent,but they will only pay about £200 of it as they say that is all the property is "worth" - they won't take account of the scarcity of property round here . We had to move here six weeks ago and it was the only place we could find within a 50 mile radius without going onto the local sink estate in town.

But anyway - this is a happy, positive thread about how we can cope and manage on a low income!