living on a budget


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She`ll go bleddy bonkers when she get home from work, recipe said put the casserole in 180 degrees, now its all over the bottom of the oven.

There was no real problem with obesity when I was a kid. My mum baked nearly every day - cakes, bread - the lot. By todays standards we should have been as fat as little pigs. But no. We cycled or

Yes but haven't you noticed although a certain faction of the "bad off" can't afford decent food etc they can afford fags, booze and sky tv on 60" 3D top of the range screens while their badly shod br

A day of foraging and I have blackberries, sloes the size of grapes, elderberries and crab apples...and apples of my own tree. Tomorrow the preserving pan comes out and except for the cost of sugar lots of goodies for free.

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Right now around here there are lots of fresh bargains suitable for preserving - I have already done tomatoes, beet, and red cabbage. Today I pick up 1/2 bushel of apples and, hopefully, another 1/2 bushel of tomatoes. There were peaches available, but I think I missed them. All locally grown and excellent quality. In fact, the tomatoes are as good as home grown, and at $8.00 for a 1/2 bushel, are cheaper than growing them myself!

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Today I pick up 1/2 bushel of apples and, hopefully, another 1/2 bushel of tomatoes.

Intrigued by the 1/2 bushel. Is it related in anyway to a fraction of a chain or fathom, or even a percentage of an acre? Cracked it, it's slightly less than 3 cubits. :)

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OK , the easy thing is to say........... " Well stay in school, get an education, then you won't have to work in the kind of place that only pays you 'minimum wage' "

Alternatively , get these minimum wage payers to pay a decent wage. But then the expenditure to you normal hard working folk then goes up , so you'll just start moaning!

So it's a catch 22 situation!

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We never worried about bushels when we went scrumping. But we always posted a lookout.

There are quite a few wild apple trees growing by the river near us in Mansfield, but never seem to see any wild pear trees.

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For those who buy in bulk and have facebook, search for a group called 'bargain brands' ran by a couple who sell all sorts if bulk items.

Iv recently bought 3x sacks of guineapig food he was trying to get rid of for 10er and pets at home sell them for a 10er each!

They do 10k bags of persil soap powder. And as I can't use that Iv ordered a 5ltr bottle of clothing conditioner.

Thanks to them I can buy in bulk, cheaply and save money. They deliver to all over notts and surrounding area's and deffinately worth checking out!

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A half bushel is a little over 17.5 litres!

Yes, we still buy things by the bushel here, and a peck! Wood is measured in "cords" or "ricks"!

Yes, America can still be a little behind the times!

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:biggrin: I think pear trees may be a little more temperamental than apple trees - take longer to become established; this is so with the ones in my garden - I should think the same applies in the wild.

The old mans saying is " plant Pears for Heirs"

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Or into a stationers and ask for a rubber.

Wasn't there a song about a bushel and a peck. They used to play it on the radio years ago but I can't remember the words.

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For those wanting to go out to eat, the Toby carveries are doing a free 'upgrade' on their dinners - double meat, another yorkie pud + two sausages. Or 2 courses for £6.50 using their vouchers. Which can be downloaded onto a phone if you don't have a printer and the code presented to the waiter/waitress who should give you a little slip to fill in.

Me and a friend are taking advantage of the upgrade tomorrow for lunch, can't wait! & it's only £5.99 :)

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All this talk of food here, can anyone give me a recipe for good old fashioned meat and potato pie ? my mum used to make one that was great, not too runny with gravy, so left overs next day could sliced and be eaten cold.

She used home made short crust pastry not flaky stuff.

Also cheese and onion pies, lots of internet recipes but nothing comes close to my old mums recipes. Lost and forgotten now.

Oh and maybe a good ole steak and kidney pudding.

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All I do is make what is effectively a dryish meat and potatoe stew, not too much liquid. Then stick it in a pie dish and lay some pastry over it, trimming the edges. I make my own short crust pastry. Any liquid left over can be thickened and used for gravy when serving.

Use the pastry leftovers to decorate the top. Roll it out, use a pastry cutter to make circular pieces which I then cut into quadrants and positioned on top of the pie. Then brush the top with a beaten egg to give a glaze, and pop it in the oven. Got a funny chukky shaped porcelain pie lifter, which goes in the middle to stop the pie crust sinking whilst it cooks.

Snake and sydney pudding is something else again. You need proper suet for the pudding top, and when I make one I tie a cloth around the bowl, knotted at the top, and place it on a grill in a large saucepan quarter filled with water. Then steam the pudding, using the cloth to lift it out when done. Again I prefer to cook the snake and sydney before I put it in the bowl, then add the suet pudding on top.

Couple of times I have intended to make a proper steamed snake and sydney pudding, but ended using the suet dough as dumplings in the stew pot. I do like dumplings so much.

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Find it hard to understand. When I was young, we didn't know any fat people, far less obese, yet pies, puddings and dumplings were the norm.

I know people go on about more exercise back then to burn the calories, but for the last two years I have walked a golf course three to four times a week. That's a good 10 kms each time with lots of hills, plus hauled a golf buggy with 18kgs of clubs and kit. Add in all the chores around the house, vacuuming, shopping, etc. then I keep pretty active, yet I battle to keep the kilos off even when just picking at rabbit food. That's unless we all had bloody worms then. Would love to sit down to a good dumpling stew, but know it would take me weeks to lose the extra calories consumed.

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hellothere 'Good, old fashioned Meat and Potato Pie Banjo? Funny you should mention this because just lately I've been fancying one myself.

I've no need to reach for the 'Recipe Book', been making them since I was a child; will put recipe on for you later later - that is if somebody doesn't beat me to it.................. :biggrin:

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There was no real problem with obesity when I was a kid. My mum baked nearly every day - cakes, bread - the lot. By todays standards we should have been as fat as little pigs. But no. We cycled or walked to school. Did sport. With only 2 dismal black & white channels on the Tele and very little daytime TV we were outside playing all the time.

I feel privileged to have been a poor kid of the 50s and 60s. Most working class mums had to work to a very tight budget.

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