I make my own baked beans sometimes, but always have a tin of baked beans in the cupboard.  They have quite a lot of sugar in them and so I try to make meals or [...]

This is the third in a series of blogs about what to do with cheap 'essentials' cans of food to make them more appetising. I wrote one about a tin of tuna, and one about [...]

I have people saying to me that they are scared about feeding themselves this winter if prices go up. Worry is just wasted imagination. The thing to do is to use that creative mind and [...]

I always make sure that I have some tins of tuna in my pantry. Once upon a time I only used it in a sandwich, or on the side with a salad, which I still [...]

Radish pods are a very under rated vegetable, and I didn't know about them until about 3 years ago. However, they are so versatile, and at this time of year I let a few rows [...]

Every ingredient is precious to me and I often stretch it to enhance several meals, or courses. That is how I keep my food budget at £750 a year. Last year I bought a tin [...]

At this time of year it is easy to feed ourselves using ingredients  mainly from our garden. I grow a variety of crops so that our meals don't feel restrictive, and are not boring. It [...]

I reached into my hessian onion sack yesterday and found 3 stored onions that had started sprouting. Instead of throwing them away and feeling disappointed, I plant them as a source of tasty food, pollinating [...]

People who have followed me for a while know that I keep my food budget low by buying items when they are on offer, bulk buying, and, also preserving home grown or foraged food. Buying [...]

Knowing how to make simple, tasty meals from cupboard staples is a life saver. It saves on shopping as there are no expensive ingredients, and keeping it simple means no technical cooking methods. A few [...]

I made myself an omelette today. Before I added the eggs, I sauted some radish tops with garlic and onion leaves, and added a bit of spinach. There are so many second crops that we [...]

I have been asked to share some frugal meals that we make. These are links to some of them, but there are many more on the website. These are old blogs and so prices of [...]

To provide myself with food at low cost, I tend to look back in history rather than have a modern food cupboard. Lots of people would probably open my pantry and think how boring my [...]

The oil crisis is going to hit us all hard soon. I am not just talking about the price at the pump. Supermarkets put out a warning this week in the UK to say that [...]

I have always followed world news, financial markets, and watched harvests and weather conditions. This has saved me lots of money for years. For example, I slowly stocked up on on olive oil and coffee [...]

Our household at the moment has lost more than 50% of it's income due to unexpected ill health that came right of the blue. No warning, and none of the expected health risks that someone [...]

Getting through winter and the hunger gap is my biggest challenge as we rarely buy any fresh fruit or vegetables at this time of year. My only exception is that I do buy an odd [...]

I have been asked to talk about what we eat in a week. This was a question from someone who was sceptical about our annual food budget of £750. If I shopped regularly, I wouldn't [...]

I probably make a chilli in the slow cooker twice a month. It is one of our favourite meals. Sometimes it has meat in it (I brown the mince first before putting in the slow [...]

During the summer I dehydrated  different herbs, fruit, and wild ingredients to make herbal teas.  Herbal teas are a fairly new thing in my life, but a way I have found useful to add more [...]

Christmas shepherds pie is a great meal to make on Boxing day, or later if you have frozen the leftovers from your Christmas meal. There are no quantaties as you use what you have. We [...]

I see people still filling their trollies up week after week in the supermarket. My mind boggles over how they can eat so much and how they can afford it.. The fact is they can't, [...]

Cooking from scratch is a forgotten skill. However it would be so easy to revive if the will was there. I learned all my skills at school and in the Girl Guides. I believe that [...]

Sainsburys, a supermarket in the UK, are selling half price chickens if you use their loyalty card (Nectar). They cost £2.98 each. We haven't had chicken for ages as it has become so expensive. Early [...]