Money Saving Tips!

[swimfeeders]

Hi

That sounds a very good idea and very tasty.

Top oven is cheaper than main oven and a multi cooker even cheaper

[Donkeyman]

@Dextrous63 ,. " Warm air before breathing "
Wear a couple of covid masks ??

[Dextrous63]

@PixieKnuckles

Fairly sure there is a law which prevents the heating from being turned off if you have young children / sick people / are over a certain age, is there not?

Suppliers can’t disconnect you, but haven’t found anything (yet) about parents/guardians being legally obliged.

If you’ve been told your energy supply will be disconnected

Possibly discuss this on another thread? Warming breathing air would be a money saving tip if it could be facilitated somehow. Perhaps a mask/scarf may suffice, as Dman suggests?

[PixieKnuckles]

I was thinking of the Priority Service Register, I’m sure that covers the aforementioned groups.

[Dextrous63]

@PixieKnuckles

I was thinking of the Priority Service Register, I’m sure that covers the aforementioned groups.

Okey dokey. I think there is a fear that unregistered or other non applicable youngsters may suffer through parental decision to turn heating off/down, unaware of the potential dangers.

[strathmore]

I’ve noticed, here in France, that people regularly eat more of the bits of animal that I’d never have eaten when living in the UK. I can’t help but think these should be cheaper cuts as there is less demand in the UK but the animal is still being reared and processed:

• beef skirt
• duck heart and duck gizzard (ok, sounds better in French ‘gesier’)
• pork cheek
• pigs trotters
• calves sweetbreads (I think its the pancreas)
  I am now a regular eater of all the above. Ok, not the trotters.
  Of course not eating meat at all is probably even cheaper!

[Kazz]

Meal planning never really considered it before but its easy peasy when you get the hang of it especially living alone -

Azz I have always brought a whole chicken and cut into quarters like a nice joint of beef I take a couple of steaks off it.

Also store own brand stuff is really nice I swopped my tomato sauce from best known brand to Sainsburys own and find I like it more. My suggestion is try an item a shop/week and see surprising how hard it is to tell the difference really.

I also buy Comfort fabric conditioner and water it down always have done this as I find it too strong without so I buy 1 x 1.5ltr bottle which then becomes 2x3ltr bottles and the 1.5ltr bottle. I save the bottles as well. (that is money saving but not intended as that orginally)

[Dextrous63]

@Kazz

Meal planning never really considered it before but its easy peasy when you get the hang of it

Yep. On the rare occasions that we bother to sit down and plan the meals for the week ahead, we invariably spend less.

I also enjoy butchering a whole chicken. Wife and daughter prefer breasts, and the cats and I are happy with any part, so we get 3 or 4 meals from a carcass for the same price as a pack of two breasts, and it takes less than 5 mins to butcher it. Cutting it in half to make a crown is simple, as you know, and covering it with pepper or spices is just as good as M&S stuff, at a fraction of the price.

[Kazz]

I like the legs anyhow and in a curry nothing nicer thigh/leg

[Dextrous63]

Agree. Think they actually taste nicer and are deffo less inclined to dry out when cooking.

[Bruce]

It was possible to buy pigs trotters in the UK I ate them regularly as a child.

I was very excited when a local local deli stocked them here so I bought four. When my daughter came home from school she announced, “I don’t know what those things in the fridge are but I am never eating anything else from that fridge until they are gone.” I had to eat the remaining trotters tout de suite - as we say en francais

Also sweatbreads here are usually bulls testes.

Sorry not much of a money saver.

[Azz]

@pauline3

i haven’t had lamb shanks in ages, they have got to be one of the tastiest meals ever, if cooked correctly, I used to have creamy mash and greens with it, absolutely delicious…a real heart warming meal for those winter months.

That’s exactly how I was introduced to them Pauline! A client took us out for a meal (to the Celtic Manor) and recommended the lamb shanks, they were served with a rich gravy and creamy buttery mash

The recipe I adapted from my link here is obviously different, but extremely nicer and just as rich if caramelised

[AnnieS]

@Primus1

1. Turn the hot water thermostat on your boiler just slightly down by a few degrees, it will still be hot enough but will save money[/quote]

2. Buy a 1.5/1.7 stainless steel flask ( not glass type) fill with hot water and use for your hot drinks, it will save boiling a kettle every time you want a cuppa…

1. Ive read recently this is a false economy particularly if you heat the entire house if you are only using one room

2. This is a great move

[AnnieS]

@Bruce

It was possible to buy pigs trotters in the UK I ate them regularly as a child.

I was very excited when a local local deli stocked them here so I bought four. When my daughter came home from school she announced, “I don’t know what those things in the fridge are but I am never eating anything else from that fridge until they are gone.” I had to eat the remaining trotters tout de suite - as we say en francais

make some aspic jelly and don’t tell her what is in it

[Bruce]

I don’t have to worry now this was over 25 years ago. The fridge is my domain now.

Mind you, I haven’t seen pigs trotters since.

[Muddy]

I love skirt it’s a delicious cut . Also brevete steaks ( flank )
Also chitterlings ( intestines)
I don’t eat anything pork because the poor pigs are so intelligent because of the way they are kept and they know what’s going to happen at slaughter.
In fact I would be happy to be vegetarian but that would mean cooking two lots of food .

[SilverTabby]

@Dextrous63

if you’ve cooked eg veg by boiling, then use the strained/colandered hot water to wash up

@pauline3

I have usually tipped the veg water into my washing up water and washed up that way and as you say, rinse it off…

I use my veg water to make stock for soups and stews.

[swimfeeders]

Hi

Some very good ideas here.

I must ensure my butler and housekeeper are aware of them.

[strathmore]

@Bruce

Also sweatbreads here are usually bulls testes

Glad to hear you liked trotters - too gelatinous for me.
Where you are sweetbreads may well be testes but in the UK & France lamb and calf sweetbreads are the pancreas. Very rich, so you don’t need a lot, but (for me) delicious.

[Dextrous63]

I rarely use soap when I shower nowadays. Possibly by coincidence, a couple of heat rashes have cleared up since I cut down on this soap usage.

Anyway, that’s not the money saving tip in mind…my query is about the possibility of soaking laundry in cold water in maybe a bucket of soapy water and just using the machine to rinse and spin afterwards, so no water gets heated at all in the process. Whaddya reckon? Bear in mind that up to 90% of the energy used in a washing machine cycle is used heating the water up to temperature.