Go on a diet; save money.

Bad eating habits can be quite costly. The quickest way to save money on your food bill is to start cutting unnecessary items out. Examples of this are quite obvious, such as chocolate, biscuits, pastries, ice cream and other junk foods. Not only are the majority of these easier to make it home from scratch from the point of view of the budget but they are also small items that you don't think about when you're putting in your basket. They are cheap enough that we fall into the habit of justifying it as a cheap luxury. However if you are spending, say two pounds a week, on biscuits that can add up to over £100 a year. The same logic applies to all regularly bought junk food. Pizza, for example, is very cheap to make at home. From scratch it may cost maybe a pound, including home-made base. From the store, even a cheap pizza will cost you up to 3 pounds. More expensive pizzas will cost you upwards of seven pound. Even one pizza a week over the year will cost anywhere from £150-£370 depending entirely on the price of the pizza you buy every week.


Luxuries are a good thing to have in our diet, but we fall into the trap of eating them too often. I find by cutting them out, that I enjoy them far more when I do eat them. By cutting out a lot of the junk food items and not overeating I have effectively halved my food bill.

Dish liquid: cutting the cleaning costs.

Ordinary washing up liquid is very versatile and can be used as a replacement for most cleaning products. it can handle everyday grease and grime on every surface, from toilet bowls to shower tiles and glass. It can serve as a replacement for toilet disinfectant, cream cleaners, shower and bathroom cleansers, window cleaner, and everyday disinfectant. A mixture of hot water and dish-washing liquid is enough to kill household bacteria, as well as remove grease, grime, and dirt. When used on tiles and window glass it serves to remove built-up oils and can be buffed to a shine that competes with commercial window cleansers. It is pleasantly surprising how much dish-washing liquid removes. The only household duties it won't handle are heavy duty jobs such as the build-up of lime scale or stains such as coffee or tea (if you are staying away immediately you are fine, but if you allowed it to sit for a while the coffee or tea stain will burn into the surface).

If you are using products like Ecover (an environmentally friendly dish-washing detergent made from plan to derived sources), the washing-up liquid is so gentle that it can be substituted for hand-soap, shower gels, and soaps.

Dish-washing liquid:
Glass Cleaner
toilet cleaner
antibacterial spray
general-purpose surface cleaner
floor cleaner
shower and tiles spray
and so much more

Deep cleaning, the slow and painful process

Blargh

Suddenly really lacking in energy or motivation to even get up.  I have trouble finding the energy to make coffee, it's that bad.  It has been a harsh month and half with uni and despite my holiday I'm no where near recovered.  But at least my stomach isn't trying to land my hospital any more.

Still I'm planning a few posts and a few recipes. :)

Home made stock; gluten free.

Stock is very easy to make at home.  The best part is it can be made from the off cuts or scraps that we don't use in cooking so it is a very good way to make use of food that would other wise be wasted.  No matter what kind of stock you choose to make the process is identical so I will write directions for making it before creating lists of ingredients for the different kinds of stocks.

Directions:

Place all the ingredients into a pot and fill with water and boil.  Boil until the mixture has reduced to a quarter of the original amount. 1 litre of water will make 250mls final product.  Remove from heat and strain solids out of the liquid stock and throw away.


Vegetable stock - bits to include

Any peelings, off cuts, left overs and waste parts.

Chicken stock

Bones
Skin
Off cuts

Beef stock

Bones
Off cuts
Gristle
Excess fat

Fish stock

Bones
Heads
Off cuts.