Friday 9 November 2018

Day 26 through to when the (thinner) fat lady sings...

Well it's done.  £30, thirty days.  I have 81p left, but only because the tutor at the quilt class gave me the unused milk to take home, or this would have gone on a couple of pints of milk.

I am slightly thinner, and a much wiser woman as a result of this challenge which has been interesting in a whole raft of ways.  I learned a lot about myself, and my shopping, cooking and eating habits.  I used a number of cookery books I haven't opened for years.  I've been creative in the kitchen and cooked, from scratch, for the whole thirty days (not a morsel of convenience food has passed my lips).  I've rediscovered kitchen equipment that I'd forgotten I'd owned and realised the benefits of planning, batch cooking and sensible use of the freezer, oven and microwave.  I've also begun to realise how easy it is to confuse luxuries with essentials and to take for granted the blessings of an adequate income.

Undertaking this challenge of a few weeks has had its fun moments.  It's been good to try out new recipes and to resurrect old ones.  I haven't been hungry, and for the most part I've not been bored by my food.  I have lost 4.5lbs - and I suspect this has occurred because I've not been eating the hidden sugars and fats found in convenience foods (palm oil, etc) and there has been precious little alcohol (not completely absent however, as chicken-feeding duty provided wee perks!) and no chocolate.  I've also - and rather surprisingly - been more active this month, or so my pedometer tells me.  I imagine this is due to the miles I've walked looking for bargains and comparing prices at different supermarkets. It has also been heart-warming the interest that friends have taken in my challenge, and the generosity of people in both supporting me with windfalls and garden produce (and indeed soup and bread) and in asking after my health and progress.

The rather unexpected downside of the challenge was how much time it actual took up.  Making £30 last for a month and eating reasonably healthy, balanced meals took a lot of time, planning, preparation and cooking.  I found for most of my waking hours I was thinking about food -- not because I was hungry but because I was considering how best to make use of what I had in my store cupboard and what I would have to buy.  How one does this whilst job-seeking, looking after a family, or dealing with a disability or long term illness, I have no idea. Yet the sad fact is that low income households often have these additional stressors.

There have been a couple of low points.  I'd once again offered to help out a friend in her fabric shop this week while she was away at a show.  The last time I did this I took a packed lunch that included poached salmon sandwiches, a peach and chocolate biscuits.  On Monday this week the bread was homemade, the cheese had to be grated as it was too dry to slice and I used the very last of a jar of chutney that had seen many, many days.    The only fresh fruit that I've had since the start of the challenge has come from neighbours' and friends' apple trees.  I ate the last of the apples last weekend and have missed my daily dose of vitamin C.  I found myself slightly resentful and looking forward the the end of the week and the end of the challenge, but it has an end  - the 12% of people in Stirling living in income deprivation are not so lucky.

I pledged to give the difference between £30 what I normally spend on food in a month to the charity (about £180) but I am so pleased that Start-Up Stirling will receive significantly more than this through the generosity of friends.  Your sponsorship has been incredibly motivating and the monies will be put to good use I am sure.  If you haven't yet, but still want to donate, the Virginmoneygiving page remains live for a few weeks yet.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Will the challenge have a lasting effect on me?  I'm not sure.  I would like to think that I will shop, cook and eat in a more canny fashion than previously, but only, I suspect, if it doesn't involve too much thinking.  My home cooked food has been far more enjoyable that most of the convenience food I usually buy, but I am looking forward to Sainsbury's vegetarian sausages, chocolate and a tad more wine.  And on that note, I'm off to pop a cork now in celebration of the end of the challenge.  Cheers!

Sunday 4 November 2018

Day 24 & 25: Just another lazy Saturday/Sunday

Saturday's heavy and continuous rain dried to a cold night and a bright Sunday but it was no hardship to stay home and await the weekend's deliveries.  Unusually the postman arrived early and so, knowing that I am at the end of the Amazon driver's route, I thought it safe to spend an hour or two at the SWI Stirling, Clackmannan and West Perthshire Federation's "Try a craft day".
I was a little late for the 11am start and as a result ended up on the 'book folding' table.  It wouldn't have been my first choice, as I've never really seen the point of folding books.  The resultant objects gather dust and you've lost the use of a book.  I may be a convert.  At the cost of a few pennies I have two Christmas decorations that exactly follow the spirit of my 'budget Christmas'.  Yes of course they will gather dust, but so does everything else at this time of year, and if at the end of the season they are too grimy to store, I can remove the decorations for reuse and them recycle the book without feeling that I am throwing money away.
Each of these designs was made from about half a cheap and surplus-to-requirements paperback.
The covers were removed from the paperback and then the book split into two pieces down the spine.  It is important to have a book that that has been properly glued, you don't want loose pages.  For the yule log each page was folded along its vertical axis twice, with the page edge and then the first fold ending up next to the spine. Half a book will provide a semi-circular log - if you want an entirely round one, use at least 240 pages (and you may get away with only one vertical fold).  Once folded the 'log' is stuck to a piece of card using double sided tape and then decorated.  The holly leaves and robin are little wooden tree ornaments, and the 'berries' are mini pompoms.  You could make your own from modelling clay or carboard, knit yourself a robin, raid your box of tree decorations (as I have done) or decorate with real holly and ivy.  A glue gun provided the adhesive needed.

The Christmas tree used the other half of the book, with each page having three folds.  The first fold takes the top right hand corner of the facing page to the spine to provide a right angled fold. (I've demonstrated the folds in the photo using a single page removed from the book -- but if you want to make the tree all the pages should be folded while still attached to the spine).
For the the second fold, take the right hand edge of the triangle and fold again to the spine. Finally make a small fold in the piece of the page that sticks below the edge of the book so that the 'tree' will be able to stand level.  (This odd page had a piece cut out of the bottom for some unknown reason.) Once all the pages are folded, add a piece of card to give it a flat back and then decorate the tree.  I used some glitzy Christmas parcel string and some of the wooden stars I had left over from last year's advent calendar.  Thank you Jennifer Carruthers, I enjoyed learning about this craft!


 The downside of spending a couple of hours out of the house however, was that I did miss a delivery - and this time it was unexpected.  I returned home to find a bag on my door mat, with a tupperware container of homemade soup, a loaf of wholemeal bread and a packet of Early Grey tea bags.  My good friend Jill (who worked with me for ten years, and survived, relatively unscathed) had made a mercy trip from Edinburgh with some goodies to help me through the last few days of my challenge.  In addition to two avocado from Steph and the eggs from my stint as chicken feeder, I've certainly been well cared-for this week.  In keeping with the spirit of the challenge though, I think I should count this largesse as using up the 'lives' I allowed myself at the beginning of the month.   Of course I could have frozen the soup and the bread until after the end of the challenge, but if you had smelled the aroma wafting from inside that bag, you'd have done exactly as I did and had a bowlful and two slices of bread immediately. Not having to do any cooking added to my sense of this being a very lazy Saturday and Sunday!

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!



Friday 2 November 2018

Day 23: November bites

Another morning with a bit of a bite to it and another day of waiting for deliveries.  So time to do more thinking about those £5 presents.  Around this time of year in addition to 'compilation' presents, there is also an upsurge in 'do-it-yourself' kits, especially of the culinary variety.  I confess I am rather keen on these (as a recipient, I mean) as I have reached the age when I have more than enough stuff, and so really appreciate consumables and experiences as presents.  Here are a couple of my suggestions for gifts that come in at about £5.
"Biscuits in a Jar" is a BBC Good Food recipe that you can find here. It would make a great gift for those with a sweet tooth that like to eat, but not really cook.  I had most of the ingredients in my kitchen store cupboard (except for chocolate - who ever stores that? And the Horlicks). You need a large Kilner or other air-tight jar, this one I found in Sainsbury's, but you could use any large clean jar,  with at least one litre volume  - but make sure it is odour free, you wouldn't want the biscuits to taste of pickled onions!  I calculate that the costs come out like this: flour 9p; cranberries £1.20; oats 17p; sugar 23p; chocolate (dessert not cooking, but from Lidl) 76p; Horlicks 15p (I used half of an individual sachet); baking powder 2p and the Kilner jar  £2.50; £5.12 in total.  You could leave out the Horlicks or reduce the amount of chocolate or cranberries to keep in budget. The recipe and instructions are tied to the jar, and explain that the recipient needs to provide their own butter and an egg. This jar won't make it to the Christmas wrapping night, though, I have some birthdays to buy for this month, and suitably wrapped this will make as nice a birthday as a Christmas gift.


This is the make-it-yourself kit for Snowflake biscuits, another BBC Good Food recipe.  A version of this is available in their 'Homemade Christmas' magazine, or here.
The snowflake cutter came from Hobbycraft and my only purchases this time were ready-to-roll fondant icing and silver balls for decoration.  The costs were:
castor sugar (I had white, not golden) 38p; plain flour 12p; fondant icing £1.50: royal icing sugar (it contains egg white already unlike ordinary icing sugar) 22p; silver balls (half a tube) 50p and the cutter was £1.  Total cost £3.72.  all the ingredients are in a recycled cardboard box covered in last year's wrapping paper, and to give as a gift I'd add cellophane and ribbons and cover the lot in more wrapping paper.  Recipients need to add butter and an egg (and a bit of creativity with the decoration).  

Of course I was so busy thinking about Christmas I forgot to take something out of the freezer this morning for dinner tonight, so it will be the last of the pre-prepared pizza bases.  This time, as I'm a bit short on cheese, I shall wilt some spinach and squeeze out the excess liquid before arranging it on top of the still frozen tomato-sauced pizza base, making a neat barrier into which I shall break two eggs.  Baked at about 190C this will provide a tasty meal.  I'm on chicken duty again this weekend, so am hoping the eggs will be replaced if the chickens are kind.  

Needless to say when I popped out to get the chocolate for the jar and the silver decorations for the snowflakes the delivery man arrived with my parcel.  Fortunately my neighbour was home and took it in for me.  The parcel contained a pair of wellington boots and a pair of flip flops.  It reminded me of this challenge a bit.  Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.  

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Thursday 1 November 2018

Days 21 & 22: counting down (in more ways than one)

As expected I had to do a little shopping this week: milk, red pepper, large mushrooms, spinach, vegetable spread, and yoghurt - so despite my shopping around to find the cheapest available, I am down to only £4.61 left of my budget to see me through the final week.  Let's hope that the power stays on, that the freezer doesn't blow up and that I am not suddenly beset by unexpected visitors!

Now that All Hallows E'en is past it feels as if we are counting down towards Christmas and the turn of the year.  The weather this week has been cold, frosty and misty interspersed with drizzle and grey mornings.  The heating has been turning itself on more frequently and the cats seem a lot less keen on staying out late at night.  My food thoughts dwell increasingly on comfort food. On Wednesday I ate the second portion of sardine fish cakes that I had frozen, along with a large portion of my homemade boston baked beans.  The saucy beans were just what the fishcakes needed.  I finished off the last of the apple 'crumble' for dessert.

Being Halloween, I thought I ought to get to work on my bargain pumpkin.  Not, I fear, to make a jack o'lantern, but to turn it in to something delicious. The Love Food Hate Waste website pointed out this week that Scotland throws away enough pumpkins every year to reach from Edinburgh to Stornaway, which is shocking, given how versatile they are.  So I cut my 99p Lidl pumpkin in half, took out the seeds (and saved them) and roasted both halves.  The first half was then peeled and chopped and added to a saucepan with chopped red onions (thanks Liz!) the chopped red pepper, a chopped chilli, stock cubes, water and seasoning, and then simmered until the veg was soft and pulpy.  In the meantime I cleaned the 'strings' from the pumpkin seeds, gave them a rinse and a bit of a blot with a tea-towel and placed them on a baking tray with a good drizzle of olive oil some sea salt, black pepper and fennel and cumin seeds.  I baked these for about 25 minutes stirring regularly to keep them well coated in oil.  They make a delicious soup topper or snack. Once the soup was cool I blitzed it in my blender (another piece of kit used for the first time in years) and stirred through the smooth puree half a tin of the coconut milk I bought last week, then portioned it up for freezing, leaving two portions (out of ten it provided) in the fridge for Thursday/Friday lunches. Yummy.  The remaining half of the roasted pumpkin I have plans for at the weekend.

Unusually all the deliveries have arrived more or less when scheduled this week, so I was able to get out today to have a mooch around for Christmas presents for under a £5.  One of the things you will have noticed is that at Christmas shops are full of what I refer to as 'compilation gifts'.  These are packs of related things wrapped up in seasonal packaging.  It is generally still cheaper to make these packs up yourself than buy those on offer, here are a couple of examples.

Sainsbury's provided me with a £2.99 novel (Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan) a mug for £1.50 and drinking chocolate 'shots' at 30p each, 15 grams of mini marshmallows (from a 180gram bag, £1) about 8p. A total of £5.48 (you could leave out two of the hot chocolate shots to keep in budget or find cheaper versions at bargain supermarkets).  The second collection also came from Sainsbury's.  A £2.75 mug, a £1 tub of Cadbury's drinking chocolate (on special offer as it is the end of a line - but the best before date is 2020), a 'winter edition' chocolate bar (Christmas tree shapes) for £1 and a slightly larger bag of mini marshmallows, 20p: in total £4.95.  I've placed these items in cellophane bags (I keep these in the house to package my handmade socks) and will decorate on the night I set aside for present wrapping. You could use recycled gift bags, party 'treat' bags, a decorated box, handmade wrapping paper or a nice piece of fabric if you preferred, they would all work well. Whether or not you are on a budget for the festive season, these would make nice gifts for someone who enjoys a cosy evening in.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!