Frugal Food

I went for a walk this afternoon with the friend I got Jess from and Jess's sibling Inca. Like most siblings they started bickering as soon as the saw each other and kept up the jockeying for superiority most of the afternoon. They were literally fighting to be top dog.
As is normal at this time of year, the conversation turned to money and the need to economise on food and I was able to boast a bit here, by telling my friend that I had only spent £40 so far this month on food. She immediately wanted to know how I'd done it and what I had bought. The answer is that we had made sure there was nothing thrown away from Christmas ( in fact the last of the turkey is being brought out of the freezer and cooked in the slow cooker overnight ready for tomorrow's dinner as turkey casserole), we have eaten out of the freezer and store cupboard and I have baked a lot of biscuits, cakes and bread.
My friend asked me to recommend recipes and I have actually referred her to two websites, the first is http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/ which is a great website for families who are really up against it as it provides a meal plan that will feed a family of four for £100 a month. I met the person who set it up on the Money Saving Expert forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ and did a bit of testing of recipes for her and can vouch for the immense amount of selfless work she put in, making sure that the recipes were not only cheap and tasty but also met nutritional needs. I still use her recipe for carrot cake and also the risi e bisi recipe.
The second website I recommended http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/  is more than just food (although it has a fabulous recipe for oatcakes on it), it is more inspirational than that. Please don't let that put you off looking at it though, in the belief that it is run by some dreadful self help guru. Elaine Colliar who runs the site seems to be a whirlwind of determination, making much out of nothing and bringing not spending to a fine art. As the title said, she has pledged to pay off her mortgage of £125,000 in three years. I don't know how she will do it, as she is a single parent of two boys, currently on an income of around £10,000 but I have faith that she will.