On Aubergines

I like aubergines, though I do find it quite easy to prepare them in ways that make them not so nice, whereas other vegetables are much more tolerant to mis–handling.  They are probably not something that those on a swingeing budget would ever eat, but actually, they are not necessarily off-limits.  Probably my favourite aubergine recipe involves cutting them into centimetre-thick slices, coating in breadcrumbs and frying over a reasonably low heat so that the aubergine softens as the breadcrumbs crisp.  The aubergine becomes soft and gooey, and gives away why our American friends call it an eggplant.  

My closest supermarket to home is a Waitrose, which has a perhaps unfair reputation for being expensive.  A single, quite decent-sized aubergine is 80p there.  You can probably get 6–8 good slices out of one.  On the university campus where I work we have a smart new mini market which sells some nice-looking fresh vegetables.  The aubergines come in at 89p.  Only these ones are rather smaller.  The picture shows me picking one up.  They're certainly rather cute little things, but not suitable either for slicing up, or eating on a tight budget

Cheap rice is cheap

A quick public service announcement for anyone who reads this because they are trying to save money on food.  I can't vouch for it, but I noted today that what is already rather cheap rice (Tesco's 5kg Everyday Rice) is currently half price -- at 60p/kilo. 

It's mixed basmati (pricy) and long-grain (cheap) rice.  I do note from their website that you can get their "Everyday Value" Long Grain Rice in 1kg bags for 45p,  which is clearly cheaper.  But I've written up this post now, so I'll post it anyway.  

Waitrose's cheapest (long grain) rice seems to be about £1.20/kg. 

Late night bargains

Hello!  

It's a year since we did the eating-for-a-pound-a-day experiment.  We didn't take it beyond the month that we planned, though it has gone on to influence our behaviour somewhat. 

Back in the first post on the blog on 1st December last year I pointed out that we are fortunate enough to be able to spend more than £1/day on food, but we still would like to save money to help us afford to buy somewhere to live.  Well, the good news is that we do now have a house of our own, and since moving in, a Waitrose supermarket has opened just under 5 minutes walk away.  

Now, Waitrose has a reputation of being more upmarket / expensive than other supermarkets.  I don't know whether that's totally fair, as they certainly have some cheaper options that one can stick to.  But perhaps more importantly for readers of this blog (hi, Mum), Waitrose will heavily discount perishable food on the last day of it being for sale.  By heavily, I mean items will go on sale for perhaps as little as 5% of the original price.  The nearby large Tesco typically has such goods discounted to about 75% of original price. 

The picture shows an example of some broccoli I bought for 5% of the original price.  I would probably not have ever bought broccoli in the form of the more expensive "tender stem spears" but at that price, it was definitely worth it.  Of course, we have to be a bit careful to make sure we eat the perishable stuff that has reached its sell-by date, but so far we have done a good job.  I don't eat meat, but my partner does, and her meat intake has gone up quite a bit because the meat counter is a particularly reliable place to pick up deeply discounted items, and meat freezes straightforwardly without preparation, unlike most vegetables.  

Today, I had an egg custard tart for lunch -- reduced from 70p for 2 to 15p for 2!

... and on into January

Well, the plan was to run the £1/day project for a month.  It was hard to keep up with it;  to keep track of everything spent, to weigh every last gram of food and convert it to cost, and to write it up and blog about it (and you'll perhaps notice that we have not managed to do the latter).  December was also a month in which our regular routine was broken and we visited friends and family, who catered for us.  But on the whole, I think we managed to show that it's possible to live on £1/day for food and not to do too badly.  

I learnt quite a lot during the month.  I know now when I have a slice of toast with butter that the bread and butter each cost about the same.  I know that that's around 4p each, though one can buy bread for various different prices, whereas there is much less spread (pun intended) in the price of butter.   I learnt that you can buy, and get through, 25kg of potatoes -- the old fashioned kind with soil still attached -- from farm shops for a cost much less than any supermarket sells its basics/value/essential brand, and that the latter are cheaper than the cheapest budget frozen chips you can get.  I learned roughly how much it costs every time I splash some oil in a pan, and what garlic costs by the clove, and I learned not to throw anything away.

I'm not sure whether we'll go on trying to stick to within £1 every day, but I hope to keep the blog alive to highlight some good-value recipes that I make in case they are of use to anyone else on a budget.  

Since passing into January, I've made some (v cheap) Indian food including some chapatis (pictured), which work out at about 2p per chapati.  Today I cooked some carrots and sprouts (going really cheap in the supermarkets post-Christmas) and used the water to soak some pulses and barley to make soup tomorrow, so something has definitely sunk in over the last month.  

Home-made soup

Having finished our Christmastime travels, we are back at home, so the scales are back in use, and I'm keeping a note again of the cost of our meals.  Having got back in the mid-afternoon yesterday, dinner was the only meal remaining.  We were both feeling a little under the weather, so I decided to make some soup - and attempted to make it sufficiently hearty to be a meal in its own right.

We still had a few potatoes left from the 25kg sack we picked up (despite donating them to the general Christmas supply at my parents'), and they were still in good shape. I used 4 small potatoes (244g = 6p), chopped into small cubes (picture above), and 110g (=24p) of "soup mix" - consisting of dried pulses and barley. The latter I had in a jar (see picture), so had to try to remember the proper way to reconstitute it.  I covered the mixture in water and set it boiling, then reduced to a simmer for a couple of hours, until the peas seemed soft.  It wasn't what I should have done.  The real instructions are through the link, above, and involve soaking overnight, and making sure they are well-rinsed.  Oops.  I don't think I've poisoned us, though, but I should remember for next time.  I added a bit of salt and pepper, and a bay leaf (from a huge CostCo jar - no idea of cost per leaf, but perhaps up to a few pence) while it cooked, and the water seemed to pick up a nice flavour.  I added the potatoes once I thought the soup mix borderline-cooked, and then left it all to simmer until the potato was cooked too.  I was pleased with the result; It was very tasty, though the soup mix was slightly too much on the borderline of being undercooked, but only just.  The colour was a bit wan, but I don't think unreasonable for a potato soup.

It made three bowls-full, which between the two of us we finished up.  By itself, it was quite a light meal, but it was enough for me.

Christmas Lunch

We're staying with my parents on Christmas Day, so according to the rules we are running by, we will definitely come under budget, as we are relying on the provision of food by others.  We did bring along what remained of our sack of potatoes, which is about half of the original 25kg weight.  

I haven't been accounting for food since we've been away staying with friends and family.  No doubt our generous hosts have been spending more than £1/day on each of us.  Yesterday, my mum made her amazing cheesy bean pie.  I might have kept to a reasonable cost with that if I had not had 4 or 5 helpings.  For breakfast this morning there was scrambled egg.  We've generally been avoiding eggs, as they are rather expensive (cheapest free range ones go for about £1 for 6).  The eggs my mum stocks are not as cheap as that, and I'm guessing I ate about 50p worth of egg for breakfast.  Lunch is no doubt going to totally blow it, though at least I know the potatoes didn't cost too much.

mid-way point

We're about half way through December.  I've started being a bit more slack about about weighing out everything single thing going into a meal, though that's partly because I've got a better idea about what everything costs without having to weigh it.  

For breakfast this morning I had a bowl of Fruit and Fibre (Waitrose Essentials).  I have quite a big bowl -- 50g -- which comes to 13p.  The milk adds 5p, so my breakfast was 18p.  I was a bit lazy with preparing lunch and didn't take any in.  Obviously not the best idea...

For dinner Natasha's sister was round so there were three of us for dinner.  I made parmentier potatoes (potatoes @700g = 17p + oil & rosemary = 20p -> 37p), some dhal (28p lentils + 10p oil, one small onion = 8p, 8g curry powder = 4p, 3 garlic cloves = 6p -> 56p) and some fried aubergine & mushrooms with oil and cumin seeds (120g aubergine = 30p, 33p mushrooms, 15p oil & cumin = 78p).  

The potatoes and dhal were split three ways, and the mushroom thing (pictured!) two ways between Natasha and her sister Sigourney.  

So I dined on 13p + 37/3p + 56/3p = 44p, to which I should two cups of coffee at work (6p) coming to 50p.

Natasha's breakfast was Waitrose Essentials rice pops (10p) + milk (5p).  Her lunch was a pre-planned Christmas party at work which completely blew the budget, but her dinner then came to 37p/3 + 56p/3 + 78p/2 = 70p, so at least dinner and breakfast was well within budget.

By the way, that dhal is just great, and I recommend anyone to learn to cook it.  The curry powder is cheap if you buy it in bulk (as in the link above), and lentils are also pretty cheap.  It's real comfort food but is also pretty good for you.  I don't think I'd get tired of eating it every day, especially if I could accompany it by roast potatoes, like I did today.  Mmmm.

[edit: When I first wrote this post I missed the lentils from the cost of the dhal.  Oops -- fixed now]