We had our credit card statement through the post a few days ago and it was much lower than usual. Part of that, I know, is my propensity to shop in Primark rather than Monsoon, and my dedication to making my own face cream from bits and bobs I find lying round the house (some beeswax someone gave me, a bit of rose water I had left in a bottle from the Christmas Cake I made a few years ago and some very cheap face oil bought from Walmart does the trick) rather than buying expensive fancy pots at some unlikely price - which even at 3 for 2 would probably feed a family of 4 for the couple of months it takes me to smear it on my skin. But I was triumphant to spend so much less even so. 'It's Hugh!', I cry, 'You see all this cooking actually SAVES us lots of money'. I actually do believe that.
Go back in time a couple of weeks when we were going down to Heather's. As she says in her earlier blog, we like to come with a bit of food to pay our way a little for staying down there and eating her out of house and home and so we usually turn up with a ready meal or two, and the scrapings from our fridge at home which may well be a few tomatoes, a pepper and, almost inevitably, half a cabbage. We stopped off at Waitrose at Sandbach on the way down - a much nicer place than Sandbach Services on the M6, believe me. Waitrose is a bit of a luxury for us as they haven't extended their reach this far north west and Sandbach, some 70 miles away, is about as near as they come. I didn't mean to be long, but I went off to look for something to buy. And here a sudden Damascus moment occurred, right there in the ready meal aisle. There was nothing, and I mean nothing, that I thought would be nicer than I could cook at home using my trusty and increasingly rapeseed and smoked paprika splashed River Cottage Everyday book.
The prices were horrendous - you could pay restaurant prices here for a meal you had to cook yourself, then take out of the foil and arrange on a plate and then wash it all up. There was a lamb thing I quite fancied but it was £8.99 a portion - and that was without any veggies. OK, this was Waitrose and I can see that I could buy packaged meals 2 for £5 in Tesco. But even so would I actually LIKE what I was eating? I kept thinking about the standard ready-meal sauce consistency. What DO they use to make it that gelatinous?
Now there's no question that sometimes I make a meal, even slavishly following the recipe and we both think that it wasn't quite right somehow. I made the Fried Fish Fillets with Herbs and Lemon and it was far too lemony for instance, but overwhelmingly the recipes have been successful - more than successful and in some cases quite stunning. And at least I knew what was in it and I can use less lemon next time - and it is definitely worth another shot.
So since River Cottage I have learnt a few things.
1. Ditch the ready meals - they don't save you much work, they cost you lots more money and they aren't always very nice
2. Eat food - not things that are dressed up to look like food (i.e. most ready meals)
3. And with the money you save, you can buy better quality food and make meals yourself from scratch.
This sounds so prissy and I would be annoyed if I'd read anyone else writing this. And I am lucky enough to have the time to cook - and I am really enjoying it. I thought it would be a luxury being able to buy expensive ingredients like decent free range eggs and meat from the butcher and proper sustainable fish (I haven't quite got that sussed yet but I'm working on it). What I didn't realise is that even if I do that it still saves me money. And I do actually love eating it!
PS I forgot to mention the Blue Vinny and Leek Quiche...
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