So who's got India Knights 'Thrift' Book?

[Lauriefairycake]

I like her writing style so I love this book - I even went shopping this morning to buy milk to make cheese which is in the book. And I bought the ingredients for her simple curry idea to have this week.

Lots of great ideas (many of which I'm doing already but it's nice to read about them)

wouldn't the number 1 tip be 'stop buying books you don't really need' ?

Actually someone posted recently about a book - a cooking book with a really long title. If anyone knows what I mean can you remind me of the title.

I like India Kmight but she used to really annoy me when she was writing for the Observer about her relationship!

I bought the cook book she mentioned off amazon and wish I had not - abject common sense, all of it!

she recommends libraries wholeheartedly for that very reason - says she spends all day in them

I got it on amazon for £7.99

this one?

yay - that's the one. Is it any good?

I'm liking India Knight's thrift book, although don't know if I'll ever get around to making my own cheese!

Beanieb, if you mean How To Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, etc,etc, all I can say is, it's probably too basic for very experienced cooks (especially mums at home with a bit more time who are already brilliant cooks) and too much like hard work for anyone who wants to bung a readymeal in the oven every night.

Maybe the advice is simply "abject common sense" but there are also plenty of straightforward, economical and easily achievable recipes.... perhaps some of you know them all already, in which case you should have written the book before I did!

There is also the Kitchen Revolution book which I have been using loads, each weekend you do a big meal which gives you leftovers for more dishes in the week. They also have recipes where most of the ingredients will be in your cupobard anyway, and seasonal dishes. You can purchase the book, or go to their website and get shopping lists and recipes for each week of the year. Really handy to be able to print off the list for the week

www.thekitchenrevolution.co.uk/

I got one in Waterstones yesterday for a fiver! Now that's what I call thrifty!
It's a great, ranty read and very mumsnetty in tone, but is unlikely to really save anybody hard cash.
She describes a £15 foundation as 'cheap as chips' and claims to wear cheap denim - from Gap.
It's all relative I suppose. I'm also unsure about this whole 'only the devil shops at Primark' stuff. I agree that it is distressing that in many countries, working conditions are abysmal. What I don't understand is how we can improve that by not buying the stuff. Nor am I convinced that expensive shops pass on that profit to manufacturers.
It isn't really about thrift - it's about saving the planet, being a better person and trading down from £50 face cream.

"in which case you should have written the book before I did!"

So Rockcake, are you Gill Holcombe?

I bought it for SIL's birthday.

I'm in the middle of reading both the thrift book and the cook book!

(must be skint or somthing as both xmas pressies!)

I am enjoying the thrift book but think she is living in a different economic world than me...

I am all for buying decent clothes and not stuff that was made cheaply for ethical and economic reasons but she talks about buying a coat or something for £200, you can buy a decent coat for far less than that, and few people have £200 outright to buy a coat with.

the cook book is pretty basic but has some good basic recipes that I am missing

oh - I love the bit in thrift about sewing, am inspired enough to ask for machine for b-day for my family.

also the bit about cooking with cheap cuts of meat, have been looking at recipes.

I had a good browse of that India Knight book today. It reminded me of that line in the Railway Children where the mother says they are going to play at being poor.

That Kitchen Revolution site looks great though.

Quite ironic really considering that she wrote a book about shopping during the credit boom years. It's basically about how to max out your credit card on all those essentials of modern life- boutique clothes and jewellery, pricey face creams etc. Jumping onto the current bandwagon springs to mind.

India Knight could save a tonne of money by stopping the Botox? She earns a a great wage but has managed to just learn about budgeting. Frankly, she sounds like a twat.

i have it but only flicked through it so far though it is nice and easy to read much of what i have read so far is stuff we really already know/

I read an extract from this in a Sunday paper, and I agree about playing at being poor. She revelled in her spendthrift lifestyle, then I think was twice declared bankrupt.

That said, I did like her crafty suggestions, and it all seemed far more accessible to me than the previous swanning around Knightsbridge effort.