By Julie Fletcher, Maria Jones and Neelam Rhuksar, The Making Our Money Go Further Team
‘I have never thought of using a slow cooker for such a variety of meals.”
‘I will look more closely into purchasing non-branded goods to see if I can save money’.
‘I would like to look into doing more shared meals with my friends to save a bit of money’.
We ran a Taste Test session at Eastwood Village Primary School at the coffee morning with parents. and delivered to a group of about 30 parents,initially it was not very interactive, but barriers were broken down by the introduction of the taste test.
The aim of the session was to increase knowledge regarding money saving ideas and enable the parents to better manage their finances.
We had a couple of parents who attended and carried out the taste tests. During this session discussions took place as to how to save money on purchasing non-branded goods, together with amounts that could be saved on the goods with the taste test, which would allow them to save to money to allow this to go to other outgoings. It was clear that the main worries parents were having was in relation to energy costs.
We also discussed different methods of how to cook foods and the savings you can make by switching from cooking in a conventional oven to an air fryer and we also considered the savings made when cooking in a slow cooker. Slow cooker recipe’s taken on the day were handed out and greatly received.
A small group of about 3 women were very keen to consider starting a group which would cook meals and share meals together, with a view to saving money rather than going out for meals. We discussed this with Hannah, who facilitates the coffee morning, who was keen for us to revisit the coffee morning, next term and do another session together with energy.
At the end of the session the teachers were inquisitive and were keen to do the taste test and this developed into a productive discussion about the costings of various groceries.
