Living below the line
Followers of this blog (and it's predecessor) will know that Man Wonderful and I have always followed the lifestyle of living below the line, so when the pandemic began a few weeks ago we didn't panic about stockpiling food or our income.
We are make do and mend-ers. Anti-consumers.
We have simple living mantras.
If we don't need something, we don't have it.
If there is something we need, we think about why we don't have it now, and can we live without it?
If it is a need; we wait, look around for a cheap or giveaway, and if that doesn't come to fruition then we buy - but it will be the cheapest one we can buy: not based on its colour/brand/additional guarantee, etc.
For example:- our washing machine 'died' and was so ancient that we could not get the spare parts to fix it.
We decided that a washing machine was a need.
We washed by hand in the meantime.
We looked on local selling pages/eBay/Freegle/spoke to friends.
Nothing came to fruition after two weeks so we went to a local electricity store and bought a cheap low energy machine. It had free delivery and we did not have to take out additional guarantee (it came with 5 years guarantee ).
We paid cash from our savings that build up for things like this, so we don't have any credit, and the machine was in and working the next day - and the company took the old one away for us.
Another example:- we have two settees in our lounge. It would be lovely to have two new ones in a more trendy colour, in velvet maybe.
Do we need them? No. So we don't buy them.
Why not? Well, the two we have are easy to keep clean, comfortable, are a similar colour (they are not a 'pair'), and although I think they are pretty old they didn't cost me much money: one was £35 when we moved in here, and the other was free!
Now then: the pandemic and shopping.
I have continued in the same food shopping vein as before - I think about what foods we have and what meals I can make with those resources. If there is one or two items I need, then we buy those things. I'm a 'cook once, eat twice' exponent and have been for decades. It is a brilliant kitchen technique.
Tonight we had a vegan pie - onion, garlic, carrot, swede and celery chopped and cooked gently in a little veg stock before adding a savoury white sauce (made as usual, but a mushroom stock cube and chopped mushrooms added) and dolloping into a casserole dish, then mashed potatoes put on the top and the pie popping in the oven to cook and brown the potato top. (basically a fish pie, but without the fish...). I cooked enough for dinner tonight for two adults, and four more dinner portions into the freezer for a future date.
I didn't need to buy anything for this meal.
What are you cooking during the pandemic?
Tracey xx
Shopping is getting interesting here. It's too early in our growing season to get any local produce. Fruit is starting to look tired and old in the shops.
ReplyDeleteBeef is getting harder to source. Two meat packing plants in my province are closed due to the virus.
My butcher is having a hard time of it. Suppliers short him in order to supply the supermarkets. He's making most of his money off the foodstuffs he imports from the UK, and even that is running low. Suppliers in the UK have told him they will ship nothing further and to not expect to receive any new items until November or December as they need to get up and supply the UK before overseas.
Sounds yummy! Today I did a defrost and clean out of the big freezer. We live in Northern Canada and it is a given that we have a freezer. Supper today was minestrone soup made with various veggies from the fridge and freezer, stock cubes, rinds from parmesan (removed before serving) , a dollop of jarred pesto and a jar of home canned 5 bean blend. I served homemade bread with butter and for desert ( which we don't have everyday) we had an apple pie that I found in the freezer. I had made several with gifted apples last fall and put them away for treats later on. All older fruit and veg from the freezer was put into the composter and the freezer was given a good clean. I really have to get a handle on the amount of stuff I put in there now that all the kids have flown the nest.
ReplyDeleteBarb
It's been a good opportunity to get to thge bottom of the big chest freezer.
ReplyDeleteI normally keep a decent pantry - for one person in a small apt. but - I saw the writing on the wall early and stocked up a bit more before panic hit. In the last six weeks I've been out 3 times for groceries plus a friend picked up some fresh fruit & veg for me.
ReplyDeleteMy plan going forward is to buy what is available at a decent price and then figure out meals. I do eat meat but have cut back on the size of servings and have introduced more vegetarian meals. I had been eating quite low carb but have had to add more rice, potatoes and grains back into my diet - although trying not to go overboard. I am also alternating between what is in the freezer and what is in the pantry and I'm trying not to waste anything.
I don't think we'll starve but I do think we will have to readjust our expectations as there is not the same variety and there are limits on how much we can purchase. For many of us this is a real shock and something that we will have to get used to over the next couple of weeks. I am trying to look on it as a time to try out new recipes and to really think about how I relate to food.
I generally try to batch cook so that I can save a little on the electric bill. All leftovers are used the following day so I don't stick to a planned menu.
ReplyDelete