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Do you go up to a stranger and tell them?

Shopping this morning at the supermarket we faithfully had our shopping list – we were a very distinct minority. To cut down our shopping time even more we now have a shopping list that I’ve sectioned off into the areas of the supermarket as we meet them. Yeah I know, starting to border on the insane! However I think there are so many things at the moment that we can’t control that it helps life go a bit easier if you control the things you can such as time. So anyway there I was at the butter noting that Rolling Meadows was $2.88 per 500g this week when a man bent down beside me and picked up the Anchor butter which was $4.74. I wanted to blurt out “Do you know the other one is almost $2 cheaper?!!” but I stopped myself. Should I have? – do you go up to a stranger and tell them? I thought there might be a difference in the two types of butter so I went home and checked. I have Anchor in the fridge from the last shop when it was on special for $2.64.  The only difference in the nutritional information seems to be that Anchor has 0.4g less saturated fat per serving, but both have the same amount of fat and sodium overall. So I’m still no wiser why the guy bought a butter so much more expensive? What I have learnt this morning though from looking at the butter so closely is that my butter has a shelf life of about a year so next time butter is on special buy it!

 

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Is your cat too fat?

We’ve been trying continually to see how we can shave our spending, seeing as we are on one income many weeks. I decided to work out if our cats are fat and could do with cutting down on the eating a bit. After all everyone in the family should make sacrifices during hard times. Some studies have estimated that from 25-40% of cats worldwide are overweight so it was highly possible my lovelies fell into that category Biscuit snacks can lead to fat cats – Obesity – NZ Herald News . Seemingly male cats should weigh between 4.53 -4.98kg and females 2.49-3.49kg. So I grabbed the first cat that turned up to dinner (usually a good sign of the best candidate for obesity) and dragged a rather bemused male off to the bathroom scales – 4.6kg – damn, more of a flat cat than a fat cat. Oh well it was worth a try, perhaps we could train our hunter cat to become a cat burglar so he can bring in items a little more valuable than mice……?

    

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You’re not going to rip me off!

I read this article a while back regarding a research project being done in NZ to determine the % of customers who are overcharged by supermarket scanners http://www.nzherald.co.nz/consumer-information/news/article.cfm?c_id=164&objectid=10560545.

The preliminary study showed that less than half of customers check their bills. Translated into monetary terms the overcharging could run to millions of dollars.  

 

I decided last week to see if my supermarket was ripping me off. I took a graphics calculator shopping – it allows me to enter the prices easily into a stats menu and all the information is held in the memory. The only draw back was hubby and I couldn’t split up to shop because we had to enter the prices so shopping took a little longer. ‘Disappointingly’ it all added up perfectly.

 

However tonight my day was made at The Warehouse when I checked my receipt and realized I had been overcharged by $2! It has inspired me to keep taking the calculator to the supermarket for a few more weeks to see how accurate the bar coding really is at my local supermarket. How does your local supermarket stack up regarding ripping you off?  

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Aunt Betty’s Rice Pudding – I made a difference!

I had a craving the other day for tinned rice pudding. On my British OE I used to eat a lot of it as it was really cheap and you can eat it right out of a tin without cooking it. I picked up a tin of Aunt Betty’s rice pudding at the supermarket to find it is made in Thailand from Thai rice and New Zealand milk. Aunt Betty’s is owned by The Old Fashioned Food Group who have product labels such as Hansells, VitaFresh, Real Yogurt etc. On their website it states it has three manufacturing sites – Penrose, New Lynn and Masterton. I don’t see Thailand on that list? So I emailed them to find out why they are implying that their products are made in New Zealand as opposed to overseas.

 

Today I promptly got a reply from The Old Fashioned Food Group saying that those three NZ sites were the sites they owned and their website would be adjusted in view of receiving my email. Sure enough their website now states “A majority of our products are manufactured at our 3 sites across NZ ……. and the remainder sourced from third parties throughout the world”.

 

OK it’s not exactly front page news but it’s my first triumph as an informed consumer!       

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Free range bacon

Well we’ve become a free range bacon household the last two weeks, buying Freedom Farms bacon. I’ve still volunteered to stay off bacon though as hubby has to buy a smaller pack for the same price as non free range bacon. Won’t do either of us any harm though. I hope we will be able to continue to buy free range at our Pak n Save as  living in a fairly low income area there is the possibility that it won’t sell that well and won’t be stocked after a while. There is no way we can afford the free range pork chops and roasts that we’ve seen and we earn a reasonable salary – our solution is just not to eat these products if we can’t afford free range. I’ve also found another company online that sells free range pork products http://www.thebaconstation.co.nz/ but hubby says he’s not buying food off Trade Me! I have to admit in terms of packaging and gel packs keeping it cool etc while being posted I would rather buy my bacon from the supermarket.

 

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Electricity Bill panic

Wow that’s a lot of money! I just got the electricity bill for the first two months of the cold season. This is the first ‘winter’ in our bigger house so we were not quite sure what to expect. I’ve realised that I’ve been stupid though by not keeping a closer eye on the meter. You don’t need to go out and buy a fancy electricity meter to read appliance electricity use etc. You can easily keep an eye on your electricity use just by recording what you are using each day from the meter reading and what this translates into in terms of money. That way I can start working out what we can do over the winter season to keep the power bill down a bit as we thought we were being fairly good!

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Shop bought vs homemade

Just got home from work and have had a snack of pikelets and lemon curd, mmmmmm. Sunday evening I noticed that the lemons had been there for a while so they needed to be used up. Found a recipe in my recipe scrap book for lemon curd and decided to give it a go. So there I am 8:45pm in the evening making lemon curd for the first time! Have to admit though it beats shop bought hands down and was a lot cheaper, especially seeing as the lemons were free. It also goes in a recycled jar.  

 

Lemon Curd

 

Half a cup of sugar

50g butter

Finely grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

2 eggs, lightly whisked

 

Place sugar, butter, lemon rind and juice in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir, until butter is melted and sugar dissolved, Add the eggs and stir continuously over a low heat, until the mixture thickens. Pour into a sterilized jar – makes about 1 cup.

 

There are lots of lemon curd recipes but I kept this one in my recipe file because it only makes one jar full which is just right for us.

 

Source: Foodtown magazine

 

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Will white vinegar harm my appliances?

It’s interesting sometimes to have a look at what people are searching for when they hit your blog. Some of the searches have been people worried about using vinegar on their appliances or their stainless steel. I wonder if people worry about their normal cleaners which usually carry warnings on the side re touching, inhaling etc and rarely ever disclose ingredients. Anyway just in case this type of search happens again relax searcher – I have been using vinegar for over 5 months now and am still smiling. There have been no problems on any surfaces that I have used – laminate floors, glass, porcelain, plastic bath, brushed stainless steel, stainless steel, mirrors and chrome. In general though think of white vinegar just like any other cleaner – don’t use it unless you have to. Most stainless steel is easily cleaned by a dry soft cloth or a slightly damp cloth – you don’t need vinegar for it. One of the big advantages of vinegar that I have found is I can change from surface to surface without having to change cleaner which is great in places like the bathroom or kitchen. I was a bit dubious at first about it in toilet bowls but combined with baking soda it keeps the toilets way healthier than toilet duck used to. I still have to trial it in the shower – that will be my next test. So if you’re reading this give vinegar a go without worry  – you will become a convert and your shopping bill will thank you. 

 

 

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Using up the pumpkin

Checking through the fridge last night I realized that the pumpkin was close to expiration so out came the recipe scrapbook. Last month I saw the Kiwi Chef make these on Good Morning (rather badly as he was talking too much and didn’t keep his mind on the job!) but I’ve tried these a few times now, mostly freezing them and taking them to work for lunch. I have dropped out the garlic from them as it’s not always a great idea at work unless everyone else also eats garlic J.  

 

Richard Till’s recipe – Pumpkin griddlecakes

1/4 pumpkin (approximately 2 cups of diced pumpkin)
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
2 small eggs
1/4 cup ground parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of flour
oil

Method:

1. Cube the pumpkin, roughly chop the onion and garlic and throw all of this into a roasting pan with a tablespoon of oil. Cook in the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes or until a little bit browned at 180 deg celsius.

2. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

3. Put the roasted pumpkin, onion and garlic mixture into a bowl. Add the eggs to the bowl, ground parmesan, flour and season with salt and pepper and mash together.

4. Heat oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, place large spoonfuls of then pumpkin into the oil, spreading slightly with the back of the spoon if needed. Turn the griddle cakes with a fish slice when the first side is cooked, cook the second side then put on a plate and set aside. Continue frying the pumpkin griddle cakes until all the batter is used.

 

Source : http://tvnz.co.nz/good-morning/richard-till-s-recipe-pumpkin-griddlecakes-17-april-2650399