The approach to budget eating is vast and varied. I can provide only a few suggestions based on experience but nutrition and fresh, not processed food, is a healthy and hopefully, cheaper option. I’m sure most people are aware that fresh fruit and veg and products like goats cheese, eggs and real honey can often be purchased from farmers markets.

Not as pricey as some may think (no plastic packaging) and mostly locally produced. Shopping this way about once a fortnight works for me as a huge bunch of carrots, parsley, leeks etc can be chopped up and excess bagged up in the freezer ready for a future cook up.

Having a store cupboard of pasta, brown rice, quinoa, couscous, cornflower, coca powder and sunflower seed husks can provide the basics for a plethora of interesting meals. Sunflower seed husks can be purchased from The Unwrap Shop in Falmouth and I have permission to mention them by name.

This product is not overly expensive but is packed full of nutrition and can be used as a base for veggie/vegan burgers, shepherds pie, spag bol etc. Just cook it in with the other veg for a nutty flavour. It might be worth considering that much of the Plant Food in supermarkets is pricey and highly processed. Let’s also not forget cheap standbys in the form of tins of tomatoes; add a little Basil and Oregano and you have the basis of a pasta sauce.

Many of us are busy people so forward planning might be the way to go. For example, cooking double portions and freezing half saves oven usage. Using leftovers has come a long way since Bubble and Squeak but leftover risotto can be enjoyed as a filling in a baked potato or yesterday’s extra mashed potato can be made into potato cakes fried gently in a little oil as can leftover veg be curried and added to rice, couscous etc. Equally, yesterday’s cooked veg can be added to eggs to make a Spanish omelet or Frittata. Served with a side salad this makes a substantial meal. I often add a few grapes and some raw, chopped apple to salads.

Towards shopping day there are always some gems, (and maybe a few horrors) lurking near the back of the fridge. Getting creative and wasting nothing is fun. Don’t forget, most people have a supply of herbs and spices which can pep up leftovers. The children or grandchildren might like to get involved but you may want to draw the line to adding cocoa powder to the curry!

Regarding leftovers there is a dying tradition which was prevalent when I was a child. Britain was then a land of a daily meal of meat and two veg and fish on Friday. Today, those now eating less meat might like to reconsider the occasional Sunday roast. Whilst it is an initial expense for a chicken or a joint of meat this should make two further meals for a family of four if one doesn’t pile up their plate excessively with meat on Sunday? Monday: cold, sliced meat, creamy mashed potato and veg. Tuesday: Shepherds/Cottage pie.

In childhood I would always volunteer to turn the handle on the mincer and watch chunks of meat turn magically into mince. A leftover chicken carcass can become soup, perhaps adding tinned or frozen sweetcorn to be enjoyed with a hunk of bread. Gravy can be made up from the meat juices adding a little cornflower, blended first with cold water. The meat juices when solidified make ‘dripping’ which is, believe it or not, delicious when spread over bread. As a post war infant bread and dripping was my suppertime treat.

Pasta is versatile and cheap: quick suggestions are to add a tin of tuna, some sweetcorn and mayonnaise, alternatively, frozen mixed veg, a little milk and plenty of grated cheese to melt into the mix. For a 10 to 15 minute pasta dish I use a steamer on the hob. As the pasta cooks a whole egg can be boiled in the same water. Steam veg in top part and serve with grated cheese, sliced hardboiled egg and/or a slice or two of ham cut into small pieces.

Macaroni Cheese: for anyone not having time to make a cheese sauce then stir some milk and grated cheese into the cooked macaroni and let the cheese melt. This can be cooked entirely on the hob. Adding a slice of ham or rasher of cooked bacon chopped into small squares and sprinkled over is protein on a budget.

I hope no one has to get as hard up as I once was and had to resort to Rat Stew! Fear not, no rodents were harmed in the process! It was just a jokey name for a veg stew with dumplings and I kept adding more veg to the pot and some soya chunks from Monday to Thursday and curried the dregs with rice on Friday. Yum? Well it got us through a lean week and we didn’t starve.

Please note all above food suggestions can be tweaked for vegan and veggie. I find vegan cheese delicious but, being derived from cocoanut oil is not recommended too often for those with high cholesterol. Palm oil is equally a culprit for this.

Using an electric oven is now possibly a rare occasion for many families which is why all my suggestions use only the hob. In my last blog I waxed lyrical on the versatility of the slow cooker. Plenty of people have also raved about Halogen Air Fryers but they are expensive when new. However, I happened to find one in my local charity shop for 10 quid!

Can you believe, it cooks a whole roast dinner, including meat if required and all done in 55 minutes! Cooks great chips and baked potato too. There might be some second hand halogen air fryers around and I like to speculate that mine ended up on a charity shop shelf because it is big and bulky and looks spookily like a robot! Judge for yourself.

One word of warning… they get incredibly hot during cooking so best not to place it near a fridge freezer or under a wall cupboard. Yes, I’ve stupidly done both and the multivits capsules in my cupboard are now fused together from the halogen heat! Cooking time can be reduced with air fryers. Uses between 1400 to 1700 watts of electricity on average which is 1.4 to 1.7 kW per hour of operation. A conventional electric oven uses 2 to 5 kW per hour.

One last thing. Winter is a time when I enjoy a mug of hot chocolate. Making up my own is inexpensive using cocoa powder, milk, (dairy or oat) and a little honey to sweeten. Can heat milk in microwave. Best to track down real honey and not the supermarket boiled sugar plus a tiny amount of honey imported from China with dubious additions!  Cocoa powder and honey can also be stirred into plain yoghurt to make a desert.

And finally, have managed to get hold of an old Victory Cook Book so will peruse this wartime gem as there are bound to be some ultra frugal ideas during a time when food was rationed. Perhaps a venture for the next blog. All for now folks and hoping some of the above will be useful.

This article by Carrie is one of a series of individual reflections by Transition Falmouth’s members as the cost of living crisis persists. Comments welcome.