What preps are you doing this week? Part 3.

[womble]

Best way I've found to take a pallet apart is to first drop it on its corner a lot, squashing it into a parallelogram, then do it on the other corner, stressing it the other way. The planks that don't just fall off can be easily persuaded to part company with the blocks and each other using hands, or, in the case of really sturdy pallets, a kilogram club hammer. That's for firewood purposes, of course.

[ForgeCorvus]

I think I'm in danger of getting chucked out of the club ... I just opened my last bag of ground coffee!

Move to disbar

Seconded??

[Yorkshire Andy]

I think I'm in danger of getting chucked out of the club ... I just opened my last bag of ground coffee!

Move to disbar

Seconded??

Or was you just running stocks down to refresh it

[Deeps]

I think I'm in danger of getting chucked out of the club ... I just opened my last bag of ground coffee!

We're pretty bad at storing coffee, its not got a great shelf life and we're coffee snobs so don't 'do' instant. We usually have a tin or two of Azera but day to day we use the wee pods which are pretty decent. I really should keep some ground coffee in and vacuum it. We've got some of these so can use ground coffee on the go.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bodum-Travel-P ... travel+mug

but I've used these in the past although no lid was why I moved onto the more expensive ones above, being at sea a lid was important, now not so much.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zyliss-Cafetie ... filter+mug

[Yorkshire Andy]

Well this weeks prep of sorting Mrs Andy's car out has paid off the MOT man prodded and poked at my welding then grumbled they are only allowed to use finger pressure told him to jack the car (was the jack point that had excessive corrosion ) it didn't make a creak or a sound and lifted tge he smiled said I'd done a good job and handed a nice a4 sheet of paper with pass on it... I'd rather have it fully checked and ensure it was s strong job


Having backed my car into a gate hidden in overgrowth my new light cluster came today so glad I'm handy with cars as it would have cost a fortune this week...

Steel for the patch was bartered with fire wood... The old its not what you know its who you know with help from dad who was draughted in as s fire watcher and a former mechanic (steel man) who double checked my work


Next on the prep list is reversing camera

And begin stocking up the pantry for winter

[sniper 55]

The mention of coffee reminds me. I'm not a big coffee drinker but used to drink cheap filter coffee now and again, some years back a mate brought me a packet of that "special" Colombia coffee that I'm told isn't allowed to be exported (it's supposed to be super-duper stuff) anyway I threw it in the cupboard and forgot about.
Fast forward some time and I get said coffee out of cupboard and find it rock hard, in the bin it goes, weeks later I mention it and I'm told it's vacuum packed, it comes rock hard. Bummer!

[Arzosah]

Oh Sniper! Thats a shame - yes, vacuum packed *is* like a rock

How interesting with all the coffee variants I've been using Sainsbo Basics range, which was £1.70 for an ordinary size bag. Did my online shop, and its not online anymore at any price. I do like one proper cup of coffee a day, so I'm experimenting with the next price upwards, £2.30 Asda here I come.

As far as the filter goes - I have a very high quality tea strainer, stainless steel, from when I was rich and after I've made the coffee in a pot, I use the tea strainer to pour it into a mug

Just been working on electricals too - will report later.

[Stasher]

I think I'm in danger of getting chucked out of the club ... I just opened my last bag of ground coffee!

We're pretty bad at storing coffee, its not got a great shelf life and we're coffee snobs so don't 'do' instant. We usually have a tin or two of Azera but day to day we use the wee pods which are pretty decent. I really should keep some ground coffee in and vacuum it. We've got some of these so can use ground coffee on the go.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bodum-Travel-P ... travel+mug

but I've used these in the past although no lid was why I moved onto the more expensive ones above, being at sea a lid was important, now not so much.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zyliss-Cafetie ... filter+mug

Same theme, different system, I have a couple of filters very similar to this......
http://www.anothercoffee.co.uk/products/item110314.aspx
which we use on holiday, I can't believe I paid this much for the ones I have (bought them years ago) so there must be cheaper, similar filters out there

[Arzosah]

Stasher, I used to have one of those in gold - I couldn't clean it the way I can clean my stainless steel tea strainer, so it "silted up" over time.

Now, the million dollar question: where do people buy their *coffee* from? Online in quantity?

I'm still prepping at normal stuff just spent a tenner in Boots, pain relief and tea tree oil - I get more Advantage points these days through a deal they offer, too

[Stasher]

Stasher, I used to have one of those in gold - I couldn't clean it the way I can clean my stainless steel tea strainer, so it "silted up" over time.

Now, the million dollar question: where do people buy their *coffee* from? Online in quantity?

I'm still prepping at normal stuff just spent a tenner in Boots, pain relief and tea tree oil - I get more Advantage points these days through a deal they offer, too

I always buy items when they are on offer. I allow an extra twenty quid in the shopping budget to splurge on offers (particularly bogof) and if that's run dry because the budget is squeaky tight I use a twenty I have in my purse. as back up I usually walk down every aisle every couple of weeks when I'm shopping to check out any offers that may be on for items not on the shopping list. I've done this for so long now I know the unit pricing for most major purchases (I count coffee as a major purchase because of the price!) Always check the tiny writing on the ticket for the 'price per 100g/100ml' if the offer drops the price per 100g to what you are prepared to pay then check the big offer label as it will normally display the offer end date. This means I can budget for the next 2 to 3 weeks and allow for multiple purchases of the offer item.

If the offer does not drop the price per 100g to what I've seen in the past (ie the price I am prepared to pay) I just walk away. It is worth noting that visiting different supermarkets regularly to examine their offers is well worth doing.

If I see an item at a knockdown price without a promotional ticket (this has happened several times to me in Asda) I just check the sell by/use by date and buy accordingly.

It's also worth experimenting with own label brands from time to time as occasionally the own label version is just as good as the branded product

Phew! Well that was really fascinating wasn't it!

Preps this week have mainly been jam making (btw using sugar I bought at a rock bottom price! fruit was from the garden..............)