Hi, I’m Sean, I’m a Hafod customer living in Merthyr, I wanted to share a few things I do in my home to save some of my pennies with my family.
Let’s start with food!
Nettle tea anyone? ok how about some elderberry and blackberry syrup on your ice cream, a spritzer mixer or some lovely jam on your toast, what better way to be frugal and thrifty, by foraging for yourself and family. When you have time at the weekend or evening with the kids or as a lone forager looking around your neighbourhood for the delights that are free to pick! I’m lucky that I live along the Taff Trail which has lots of different fruits on offer.
Firstly, if you are starting out, I would recommend some gloves, tubs of a few sizes some comfy clothing and suitable shoes as you may need to get to the best fruits. If you are not sure how to start foraging, or want to know more about the right ones to eat and avoid, I'd recommend checking out the BBC food Foraging guide.
It’s blackberry season right now and a good time to pick as many as you can before they spoil. They can be rinsed and frozen ready to add to your crumbles, pies, porridge or turned into jam! For small fruits to avoid crushing them I take a washed used milk bottle and start popping those lovely versatile fruits in. When you have tried a blackberry and apple crumble hand picked by your family, with lashings of custard or cream you know your getting the best in season food.
It's not all about fruit, I've baked a cake made of nettle tops and dandelion leaves, it was a deep green and we called it the grinch cake, the kids loved it!
Recently on the school run I spotted what I thought was conkers on a tree, but it was a walnut tree! I’ll have to wait a bit longer until they are ready, but I made a note of where it was and will be back before Christmas. My advice is get out there and start picking!
There are many other fruits to discover and lots of guides available online and videos to watch on YouTube, so get your walking shoes on and go find what’s hiding in your community!
Keep foraging, you can email getinvolved@hafod.org.uk to share your foraging stories and ideas.
It's pizza night!
Food glorious food as Oliver would say in the musical, is one of our basic everyday needs and of course, we all want those special meals to go along with the staples. A special meal in our house which we all love is pizza. The average pizza cost is £40 for my family, but if I made everything from scratch, I could get the cost down to just £5 depending on the topings, that’s a whopping £35 saving, making pizza night a winner in our house!
You don’t have to be a chef to cook lovely meals, lots of recipes can be googled and you can even cook along on YouTube! This is one of my favourite sites, Cheap Family Recipes as they have lots of ideas and can tell you how much each meal is per portion for you to be able to budget.
If you have a top tip you'd like to share, please email getinvolved@hafod.org.uk for our Customer Engagement Officer Michelle to get in touch.