I’d love the recipe for Beer Stew…
I reckon Joe and Ed between them get through 14 pints a week, and let’s assume that they pay for them. Joe’s drinking is irrelevant, as well as improbable, since he hardly ever does put his hand in his foetid pocket. Definitely shouldn’t be included in the ‘food’ budget
£100 a week for food and other household consumables for five strikes me as very low. £150-ish?
Help! This way madness lies.
So she does; sorry. I simply missed it!
S’okay. You can miss things without it meaning you’re a bad person… Just don’t make a habit of it 
Our weekly hundred quid for two is extravagant, I feel.
But yes, I should think the B&B food is a big chunk of the B&B income gone before you start, and I bet Eddie didn’t factor in the cost of washing.
I don’t think a hundred is extravagant for two. That’s only £7 a day, each.
You don’t have Eddie’s poaching extras.
Not much to be gained from economies of scale, with just two.
Like father, like son…
I like to think there are tensions at the micro level about the household budget as well as the constant worry about the rent: Clarrie would be happy to buy basics/own brand cereal and the like, whereas Emma insists that the kids get whatever pricey brand is the current juvenile ‘must have’
Don’t you believe it! Since I have the storage space, for instance, I buy both loo-roll and kitchen towel in gangs of 36 instead of 4, which reduces the unit cost considerably. Likewise I can buy a 20k sack of rice, and flour by the 3k instead of the 1.5k bag, and because I have a freezer I can buy half a sheep at a time, and those reduce the prices a fair old whack. Come to that, I have a large tin of mustard powder (454g) and decant into the 113g tin for use in the kitchen, and I have a five-litre tub of Hellman’s in the fridge, where it keeps for about a year: both those things are stable enough to be worth halving the price per mustard, as it were. See also the ten-litre dubby of white vinegar.
Oats on the other hand are prone to weevils, and unless you eat a lot of those it’s not worth buying in bulk. Can you tell that I am speaking with the voice of experience? But I would bet that the Grundy children eat the amazingly expensive sugar breakfast cereals, not porridge or even plain cornflakes, which I would not afford. And I expect that because they are poor they have to buy the smaller pack, which costs rather more than half as much as the ones twice the size, simply because Emma doesn’t have the less-than-twice-as-much to buy the twice-as-big packet when she goes to the shop.
Oh, and if she shops at the village shop at all, she will be paying a premium.
Only as a treat - I am very fond of a spot of jugged weevil on occasion…
Really? I have always found that weevil tastes very bitter.
That’s why you put redcurrant jelly in the sauce.
Well, I don’t, but then I don’t like currants much.
[quote=“Fanta, post:27, topic:207, full:true”]And I expect that because they are poor they have to buy the smaller pack, which costs rather more than half as much as the ones twice the size, simply because Emma doesn’t have the less-than-twice-as-much to buy the twice-as-big packet when she goes to the shop.
Oh, and if she shops at the village shop at all, she will be paying a premium.
[/quote]
She probably doesn’t have time or transport to go into wherever the nearest supermarket is, or budget or storage to do a weekly shop rather than replacing things when they run out. Even if she does get to the supermarket, it’s probably not at the end of the day when things are being put out at lower prices. And so on.
Place in a very hot pan, cover with lid and wait for the noise. Season with Sumac.
It’s a new artisan food fad Popcorn weevil - and as suggested by the nursery rhyme.
If there is inadequate storage space at Grange Farm, they’ve made it even worse than I had thought. There’s a whole cellar, isn’t there? And I am sure there is a proper farmhouse kitchen with umpteen cupboards, plus one under the stairs. Oliver and Caroline wouldn’t be the sort for Gracious Living and No Cupboards.
Wouldn’t the cellar be full of Grundyscam Junk?
Water, probably
I thought the stream had been re-diverted or culverted or something, as part of the perpetual renovation of Grange Farm. Though I suppose that since it has needed complete re-wiring twice in eighteen months, we have to assume that whoever Oliver has employed to do this work is completely incompetent and may in fact have diverted the stream into the cellar rather than out of it, possibly under the impression that they wanted a swimming-pool.
Eventually Grange Farm is going to do what the palace does at the end of The Princess and Curdie.
Thass Bulk Purchasing.
People with cash and storage space can save a fortune if they buy enough of a product. There, the economy of scale profit stays with the product manufacturer.
He can make maybe a thousand units of something, for small change more than 600. Meaning that the last 400-200 may be made for the price of the raw material and the final 200 are all profit.
Who needs expensive breakfast cereals when you can chop up kitchen towels and mix them with mustard powder and Hellmans. Perfect for growing Grundy children. 
There are spring hopes eternally in this human beast.
And for pity’s sake lay off the C-word. Had it up to by her with culverts, I have.
Who needs breakfast cereals full stop, actually. And in particular the ones I bet the Grundy children demand, with the 40% sugar content.
If the Grundys had any sense they would be keeping hens and eating eggs for breakfast, or getting the eggs that were the wrong size or shape for regular sale very cheap from Jill or Neil or whoever else about the place is keeping hens.