Thrifty tip...collect recipes and meal ideas

Thrifty tip number 2:

Collect recipes and meal ideas.

I have been cooking and baking since I was a child. I have collected many recipes along the way. I am lucky and I own quite a lot of cookery books, but I don't stop at that! For years I have been cutting recipes out of magazines and jotting them down as I find them. I use recipes from TV programmes and off the internet too. I have worked my way through many books!

Years ago I collected a Gary Rhodes  recipe collection. I think it was weekly and I had it put by for me at my local shop. When I looked at it recently, I realised that I hardly look at it or cook from it, so I got rid of all the recipes I would never cook ever. There were many different binders and I reduced it to one file. 

My odd scraps of paper jottings and magazine cuttings first went into this a4 book

Then when this became full...

This was a present from my lovely son x

Then I started to fill this a5 pad I had spare...

It's upside down??? Not sure how that happened!

The next is just for meat recipes...

This one is just for baking...

Finally, my daughter bought me this recipe book and I've almost filled it too. I am on the lookout for my next book now.

Collecting recipes is a thrifty tip because you can make your own book even if you can't afford to buy recipe books. 

You could also borrow cookery books to try out from the library before you actually buy one. 

I also pick them up really cheap from carboot  sales. I sell on the ones I don't use for pennies too, hopefully helping someone out, so they can have a go at cooking from scratch. 

Does anyone else make their own cookbooks?

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x

Thrifty tip... Use up every last drop

Hi everyone, not much to say at the moment, so I thought I would start sharing my thrifty tips and ways.

Thrifty tip number 1:

Use up every last drop

This means from any bottle, jar, tin or tube. I turn my sauce bottles upside down, I add a little water to tinned tomatoes to swill out what's left, I add water to the end of shampoo/conditioner/shower gel/anti-bacterial soap/washing-up liquid bottles, I cut open tubes of toothpaste or creams to scrape out every last bit. All of these containers end up in the recycling box completely empty so nothing is wasted. 

You have paid for a whole bottle, tin, jar or tube, so it's worth spending a little time getting at it all.

          ..............................

My meal planning has gone well and we've had some really tasty meals from my new Mary berry book. I've also done a little bit of baking...

Homemade coleslaw 

Fish pie 

That's it for now, but you can find me on Instagram mandymand95

Thanks for reading 

Mandy xx