How frugal are you!

[puddicat]

I am crazily frugal i am the woman that opens the fridge and sees a couple of eggs a spring onion and nothing much else, and make a meal out of it,cannot abide waste,at my work they shop every week for the service users buying all different types of food, sandwich fillers and other useless stuff and the nightstaff have to throw half of it out cos it has gone out of date,me personally i would have used it but we are dealing with other peoples money so there it goes into the bin cos some staff dont look to see what the sell by date is,are they like this at home if so how much money is thrown away every week!!!

[scoobysoo]

I think I'm getting more frugal all the time. My shopping seems to take forever now, as I spend ages looking for the best bargains, and working out how I can make things stretch. I used to have to chuck out loads of wasted food, and this week I didn't chuck out a single thing. We have a lot more Tesco value items than we used to, and I don't spend money on luxury food and drink anymore - so no booze or cakes!!

[puddicat]

Well done you, i love the odd luxury but due to circumstances years ago didnt have the money,but i am a chef by trade so i suppose have quite a knowledge about food,forget that others struggle!i use the veg water to make gravy,keep the pastry scraps to make odd shaped jam tarts,let old bread go stale then put in food processor to make breadcrumbs for macaroni cheese and like!save the inner wrappers of butter products to grease my cake tins,etc etc

[zabo]

although i can afford whatever, i don't like wasting anything that might be useful. i'd rather store it until i find someone who needs it than throw it out.

[puddicat]

Arent you kind zabo!!!

[whiffey]

I am a compulsive buyer of ethnic sauces and pickles, with the result that my fridge accumulates loads of jars, so from time to time I have to blitz it, which led to my having cold turkey with mint sauce and hot shrimp paste last night. I'll pass on that combination tonight.

[China Doll]

With regards to food I only ever buy what I need for the week which in summer is basically going to be fish and salad stuff for dinner, soup and pittas for luch and those mullar breakfast thingies. I've started going to the market for my fruit and veg as it's so much cheaper, �1 for four avocardos for example, an they're big ones too. You do have to take the time to look for the decent bits on the stall but I quite enjoy doing that anyway. The supermarkets have got way too expensive with fruit and veg as far as I can tell, maybe they want us all to be lard arses!

[puddicat]

yep china agree! sadly i dont have access to a market and rely on shanks pony to get my shopping!i suppose it depends on where you live and how easy you can access markets and so on!

[China Doll]

Well I live in London and I use east street market. I was thinking of trying borough market but I'm not sure if they're for big shops and not home use. In fact, I think I might go look that up now. My sister and I spent �15 on fruit and veg on saturday and got ridiculous amounts. It's not the best quality in the world I suspect but then it's not packaged to bu88ery either. The only thing I will say is that my cherries are needing to be eaten quite quickly which is no great hardship!

[Abdulmajid]

I save and freeze ALL my crusts, baguette ends etc etc etc and my Mother makes a huge (and I mean huge) bread pudding.

[puddicat]

is it good abdul sounds scrumptious lol!!!

[Abdulmajid]

My mother's cooking is not that exotic. But when it comes to plain and simple English traditional stuff like roast dinners, shepherd's pie, steak, milk and steam puddings etc. she is better than Delia and Nigella put together.

Her bread pudding has won prizes at many a church do. The secret is loads of nutmeg and ginger in the mix and add the cinnamon only at the end. Also she uses chopped dates along with the raisins.

Absolutely delicious either on its own cold or warmed up with plain Birds custard.

[theonlyone]

Can't remember the last time I had bread pudding ...my Mum used to make it when
we were children ...lovely ..full of fruit
and spice ....hot with custard ...but lovely
cold ....think I will ring my Mum and ask her
to make one .....

[garner]

We must be frugal at our house, we never have any bread left we eat the crusts.As regards other food we have three cats and two dogs and two g/pigs so nothing at all gets wasted plus there is the garden birds and I must not forget the Grand kiddies so no waste at all.

[Abdulmajid]

Theonlyone, my mum makes better bread pudding than yours.

And my uncle is harder than your uncle.

so there.

[mrs_overall]

I saw a turnip for sale for 9p today so I had to buy it. I used onions & potatoes from the garden & the leftover veg from Sunday lunch and made a big pan of vegetable soup.
The total cost was about 20p and it fed 5 of us.

I abhor waste and no food gets thrown away in my house.

[puddicat]

good on u mrs overall my kind of woman!!!

[mrs_overall]

Thank you puddicat!
The Sainsburys adverts to feed your family for a fiver make me laugh. I can feed mine for less than �1 if I set my mind to it!

[Abdulmajid]

Humanely tarp some rabbit on common land or go fishing and it's free!!!!

Go careful with mixamatosis (sp??) however.

[puddicat]

maybe u could start a new thread mrs overall and teach us all lol hang on i am being serious!!!

[theonlyone]

We don't throw food away ..the birds get the
leftovers ..the dog next door gets the bone ...
I can make a meal out of ..not a lot ...
and a few herbs make it taste better ...