Money saving tips

[Scooby]

As an anti-dote to the thread 'It's not looking good for 2009' some money saving tips:

Food:

• Use more vegetables and pulses in your cooking - cheaper and healthier.
• Eggs are versatile, cheap and a great source of protein.
• If you do cook meat, use very cheap cuts and cook them slowly (slow cookers are great) and the flavour is much better.
• Never use your oven for only one thing - cook in bulk and freeze.
• Buy a stacking steamer - that way you can cook all your veg on one gas ring.  Food is healthier and tastes better too.
• Use 'one pot' recipes - again saves on gas / electric

• Invest in a chest freezer, if you don't have one already.

• Buy food in season and freeze.  If you can grow your own even better.
• Learn what other 'foods' can be eaten - sprouting shoots from pea plants can be added to salad, courgette flowers are edible (great stuffed with soft cheese and deep fried). Hedgerows and woodlands can be a great source of 'free' food - if you can beat the French there!

• Learn to pickle, bottle etc.

• Trade food for favours (see below).

Cleaning:

Use the old methods:

• Use vinegar and newspaper to clean windows
• Use salt and lemon juice to clean copper
• Bicarbonate of soda paste is a great cleaning agent - even works on stonework
• 50:50 mix of linseed oil and white spirit brings up terracotta tiles a treat
• Cinnamon or black pepper works great as an ant deterrent
• To remove rust from chrome use aluminium foil dipped in coke
• To remove food splatters from your microwave place a soaked sponge in the microwave and microwave on high for a two minutes and then leave in the microwave for 5 minutes - stains should wipe off
• Cornflour and talcum powder are absorbents and will work on greasy stains
• Apply a paste of vinegar and baking soda on ring-around-the-collar before throwing it into the wash
• Mix vinegar and baking soda in a plastic bag, tie it to a shower head to get rid of scum and hard water build up.

Presents:

• Shop during the year for presents - if you see a bargain buy it and put it away
• Make presents - homemade jams, biscuits, chocolates, personalised calenders, framed photos etc are cheaper and are more welcome than a bought present.
• Make your own gift toiletries - pick up nice jars etc in vide greniers etc and fill with fragrance free shower gel etc (bought in larger sized containers) and fragrance it yourself with essential oils (just a few drops of lavender essential oil etc is sufficient).  Finish with some nice ribbon etc - makes a lovely gift.  

• Make your own cards and wrapping - brown paper with natural decorative items - holly, pine cones and a little ribbon looks fab and costs nothing.  Personalise paper by a little painted / inked decoration, repeated personal greetings etc. 

Trade:

• If you are good at something: sewing, gardening, woodwork, cooking etc - trade your skills.  Offer to do some sewing in exchange for something else - both parties win.  For example I'm good at sewing so I made curtains and cushions etc in exchange for some carpentry.

Social:

• Rediscover the old pleasures - a walk in the countryside, evenings with friends
• Learn new hobbies - maybe someone in the village is good at something - see if they will teach you?
• Invite friends for dinner - fun, sociable and more effective use of your cooker - especially if they reciprocate!
• Use time to socialise with your neighbours and improve your French

[tinabee]

Some great ideas Scooby.

Following on from your last item, if you want to do some nibbles with your aperitifs, serve home made hummus with carrot and cucumber sticks. A tin of chick peas should only cost about 50 centimes, and the carrot and cucumber are cheap - even cheaper if you grow your own. 

 

 

[Katherine]

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[idun]

And I use the oven in my wood burner in winter to casserole or cook joints or chickens.

And I always have at least one kettle on top of my wood burner, no reason why it shouldn't heat water too.

Hated my slow cooker with a passion, never ever liked the taste of the food that came out of it, pleased when the lid broke.

And I NEVER use tinned chick peas, they taste awful to me too, made that mistake once and my coucous stew was not up to scratch, I buy a big bag and cook them all, OK it takes an age, but I freeze in useable quantities and then use them, and they are lovely.

[Théière]

[quote user="idun"]Hated my slow cooker with a passion, never ever liked the taste of the food that came out of it, pleased when the lid broke.[/quote]

Surely that is a reflection of what you put into it?

[idun]

LOL Teapot, I am not very good at many things, nay most things, but I can cook.

Can't serve though, that is something I try to do, but have never mastered. But what is in the dish or pan ready to serve is always good, and when I had my slow cooker, nothing was not my standards, at all. The most disappointing cooking thing I have ever every owned.