Frugal Food: Feeding a Family of Four – well – on £60 a week

T S Eliot may have been a brilliant poet but he didn’t know diddly squat about family budgets or late-stage capitalism and the hardships even relatively ‘comfortably off’ people suffer as they claw their way through debt-laden January. No, April isn’t the cruellest month, January is. It’s long, dark and hideously beset by money worries.

Feeding a family of four, tricky at the best of times – so and so doesn’t like mushrooms, not Spag Bol AGAIN, mum – becomes supremely challenging at this time of year. Forget running billion-dollar global companies, creating works of art or formulating political policies, the job of feeding a family of four, nutritiously and deliciously is the real tough job in January.

So, with just 60 quid to last me the week, here is my list of evening meal recipes which should provide enough protein, vegetables and – dare I say it – variety – for a fairly fussy family of four.

The recipes are based around some simple ideas: pasta, potatoes, onions, eggs, leeks, cabbage are all pretty cheap basics. Treats are a must and include my popular peanut butter flapjack, which provides delicious and filling ballast. Simply stir in two large tablespoons of unsalted crunchy peanut butter to the syrup and butter mix until a well-mixed smooth pale brown colour, then stir into the oats as usual. Chocolate brownies and home made apple cake are also welcome extras. We do not like to wear hair shirts in our family. I have also cheated – just once – in using leftover Christmas ham in one of the dishes.

Monday: Kedgeree: £8.00 (rice £2.00; kipper fillets £4.00; eggs: £1.00; store cupboard extras: £1.00)

Tuesday: Home made meatballs, mash and braised cabbage: £9.00 (minced beef: £4.00; potatoes: £2.00; cabbage: £1.00; store cupboard extras: £2.00)

Wednesday: Leek and Potato soup with cheesy garlic croutons: £5.00 (leeks: £2.00; potatoes: £1.00; cheese: £1.00; store cupboard extras: £1.00)

Thursday: Stuffed baked potatoes: £5.00 (potatoes: £2.00; cheese: £2.00; leftover Christmas ham; store cupboard extras: £1.00)

Friday: Pasta Carbonara: £9.00 (pasta: £1.00; cheese: £2.00; bacon bits: £2.00; eggs: £1.00; cream: £1.00; peas: £1.00)

Saturday: Potato, onion and red pepper omelette: £5.00 (eggs: £2.00; potatoes: £1.00; red pepper: £1.00; cheese: £1.00)

Sunday: Roast chicken, roast potatoes, parsnips, greens: £11.00 (free range chicken: £6.00; potatoes and parsnips: £3.00; greens: £1.00; store cupboard extras: £1.00)

Save the carcase, of course, for stock for next week’s soup.

Treats: peanut butter flapjacks: £2.50; home made chocolate brownies: £2.50; apple cake: £3.00

Total: £60.00

Store cupboard extras include: curry powder (for the kedgeree), glass of red wine (in the braised cabbage); dried fruit and nuts, butter, cooking oil, garlic, dried herbs, cocoa powder, onions, flour, stock and seasonings.

Home-made multi-surface cleaners

Cheaper than Mr Muscle and Better for the Fish too

Lemon, rosemary, lavender, bicarb: natural cleaners

The only downside of summer sunshine is that it cruelly exposes the slothful habits of winter: grimy work surfaces, dubious sticky patches inside food cupboards and hastily wiped hob tops. I have had a go at home-made furniture polishes and stain removers, however, the Holy Grail of domestic hygiene, the multi-surface spray cleaner, has, until now, eluded me. Shop-bought spray cleaners aren’t cheap – or certainly not as cheap as they should be considering they are mostly water. At a price range of £2.50 –  £4.50 per 350ml unit, depending on what brand you buy, these kitchen cupboard regulars are pound for pound more expensive than a bottle of decent Pinot Grigio. In addition, some of the synthetic fragrances are pretty revolting. So I tried making my own. Most recipes take just a few minutes. All worked out at less than £1 per bottle. Each recipe makes enough to fill a standard size 350 ml spray pump bottle (I keep used ones in my kitchen but if you need to you can buy from garden centres or kitchen equipment stores).

Recipe One: Lemon and lavender:

Lemon and bicarb are classic cleaning partners, the acid of the lemon and the alkali of the bicarb producing vigorous fizzing. Lavender essential oil not only smells divine but is a natural bactericide. Squeeze the juice of three lemons into a mixing jug and add three teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda. When the fizzing dies down, add one drop of washing up liquid, three drops of lavender essential oil and enough water to top the bottle (around one part lemon mixture to two parts water). Stir well and use immediately.

Verdict: A sublime natural scent of lemons and lavender made this spray a real joy to use. I made it in around three minutes at a cost of about 97 pence. It works well for wiping down lightly soiled work surfaces and dining tables but not heavy duty enough for tea and wine stains.

Recipe Two: Vinegar, rosemary and tea tree oil:

Put a sprig of rosemary into a saucepan and add about 150 ml of white wine vinegar. Bring to the boil, remove from heat and leave to steep until the vinegar is cool. Add three teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda, one drop of washing up liquid and about three drops of tea tree oil. Stir and pour into spray bottle.

Verdict: This both smells, and behaves in, a more businesslike manner. The astringent properties of the rosemary and antiseptic and anti-bacterial properties of the tea tree oil mean that this packs a powerful cleaning punch. The tea tree oil has a clean, camphorous scent and masks the vinegar.  The spray was more effective than the lavender and lemon mixture at removing cooking stains from my white melamine work surface. It even made short work of the build-up of grease and over-boiled coffee residue on the gas hob. Use cheap supermarket white wine vinegar and it comes out at around 87 pence.

Recipe Three: Vinegar, borax substitute and rose geranium oil.

Borax, a mineral compound, has been used for centuries as a cleaning agent. However it is an irritant and was recently listed as a ‘Substance of Very High Concern’ on the European Union’s list of restricted chemicals. Borax substitute is chemically similar to the mineral, but less of an irritant and is a compound of sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate. Essentially it is a more powerful version of bicarbonate of soda. I bought mine from Summer Naturals (www.summernaturals.co.uk) at £3.09 for 1 kg, which will last me about ten years. Rose geranium oil is a natural deodorant as well as being slightly astringent and antiseptic but you can choose whichever essential oil you like best. Sweet orange oil works well here too. Mix two heaped teaspoons of borax substitute with about 100 ml of white wine vinegar in a jug large enough to contain the quite fierce fizzing that ensues. Add one drop of washing up liquid, the essential oil of your choice and top up with warm water.

Verdict: The most powerful of the three spray cleaners, and I used it successfully all over the house, including the bathrooms. It is also the cheapest, costing less that about 60 pence to make, but you do need to order the borax substitute in advance.

All three are cheap, effective natural substitutes to shop-bought spray cleaners and if you keep the spray bottles, you will also save on plastic over the years. No more Mr Muscle.

 

 

From the sixteenth century to the twenty first century: how a couple time-travelled in their new eco home

Jane and Ian McClintock are unlikely time travellers. Living close to the land in rural Suffolk, Jane is an artist and writer who finds inspiration in nature and Ian, a farmer and keen bird watcher has always, as Jane puts it, “trod lightly on the planet, keeps clothes until they fall off him and is more interested in the nesting habits of swifts than modern technology”.

But this year they moved more than 500 years through time, from a listed Sixteenth Century farmhouse, to a Twenty First Century ‘passivhaus’-designed home. It has been quite a big adventure, resulting in a radical change in the way they live, move and dress, inside their home.

Anyone who has lived in a cold, old house knows the routine. It’s getting late and you need to go to bed. Sitting in the living room, with the wood-burner or fire throwing out warmth and light, you know there are metaphorical acres of arctic tundra to cross before reaching the relative safety of the duvet where your shivering, at least, helps warm the bed. This is how Jane and Ian lived until December last year.

“The old farmhouse is very beautiful, but very cold,” says Jane. “During the winter our heating bills were massive, but the house was still cold. Slippers, chilblains, jumpers and seeing your breath indoors were all part and parcel of the winter months. Occasionally frost would build up inside the windows.”

With retirement and mature years approaching, Jane and Ian embarked on a project to build their own home that would both shield them from the cold and also reduce their use of fossil fuels. The bold, cedar-clad new house, that sits beside, and echoes, the timber and corrugated iron outbuildings of the old farmhouse has changed their understanding of the concept of ‘home’.

“It’s like being on holiday all year round,” says Jane, who specialises in ceramics and print-making. “The weather outside seems far away, we feel protected by the house. During the winter, rather than huddling in one warm room, not wanting to move, we can move around the house, barefoot, whenever we like. It’s very liberating. It’s also very comforting to know that no matter how warm we keep the house in the winter, we’re not going to face shattering bills in the spring.”

As well as benefiting from high tech building techniques such as an airtight ‘skin’ and external solar ‘blinds’ to prevent over-heating, the house is designed to help and attract wildlife. The ‘green’ roof is sewn with different varieties of sedum, which flower at different times, extending the pollen-collecting period for bees and other insects; swift, swallow and house martin boxes are built into the structure and rainwater is collected for re-use.

Architect Meredith Bowles of Mole Architects (www.molearchitects.co.uk) says the solid, square design of the house takes inspiration from village rectories that typically stand on the edge of villages. The strong flat-roofed design means it does not sit higher than the older buildings on the site. “The third floor bedroom ‘pops’ up out of the roofline and looks rather like a bird-watchers’ hide, which is appropriate for Ian.” Meredith says it was no more difficult to build such a well-insulated house as it is to build a conventional one. “There is nothing about this house that is technologically difficult. Builders all over Europe are putting up houses that reach these standards and its rubbish to claim, as our volume builders do, that it’s hard to achieve these levels of efficiency. It’s actually incredibly easy.”

The McClintocks are unsentimental about leaving the historic, five-hundred year old farmhouse that has been in Jane’s family, in the Suffolk village of Palgrave, for generations. “Although it is very beautiful, it wasn’t a wrench leaving the old house at all,” says Jane. “Our basic need for warmth over-rides our aesthetic sense. Anyway the new house is very beautiful, with strong, simple lines and while it may not yet have the ‘character’ that a 500-year-old house has, Ian and I are the characters now.”

The only slight misgiving Jane had when she first moved in, was operating the ‘kit’ that comes with an eco house, with it solar thermal and pv panels, air source heat pump and ventilation system. “The way I altered the temperature in our old house was to throw another couple of logs on the fire,” she says. “This is a lot more complicated, and a little bit scary. But so far it’s working fine.”picture shows another Mole Architects project, their famous ‘Balancing Barn’