Getting Your Child Equipped For University on a Budget

By some strange set of circumstances, in the past fortnight I have packed both my daughters off to university for the first, leaving me suddenly with an empty nest. An emotional shock to the system, for sure, and also a financial challenge. Oh, and shall we throw the words "cost of living crisis" and "energy price hike" into the mix too?! But, amazingly, we managed to do it without breaking the bank so I thought I would share my tips for anyone looking to get their children off to university in the near future.

It is a bit weird, what with my two girls being 21 months apart in age, that they should both leave home for university at the same time. Because the eldest was born in October and the youngest in July, they ended up only being one school year apart, something we have become used to over their 13 years in school. However, with the pandemic and the distruption to university life, my eldest decided she didn't want to start university in 2021, whilst a lot of lectures were still being held remotely. Instead she spent a year, living a home but commuting into London to complete a one year Art Foundation course. In the meantime, my youngest completed year 13 and so it came about that they both started their degrees in September 2022, fortunately a week apart so we were able to help both of them move.

Having realised in September 2021 that this scenario was going to play out, I also realised that if I were going to send them both off with all the necessary equipment and living essentials I would have to start working on that straight away. So, should you have a child in Year 13 or college then I would recommend planning and acting early.

One of the first things that I would recommend, if you haven't got these things in place already, is to make sure you have supermarket reward cards, a Nectar card and other point earning schemes in place on anything that you already use. I mean, if you are already spending money in a particular way, in a particularly place, then you may as well earn some rewards from it, and it is suprising how well these things accumulate into useful amounts. 

For example, we have a Tesco loyality card and credit card so that just earns us Tesco points without us trying and these can be spent on useful things such as a student railcard, should you not get one as a perk from opening a student bank account (e.g. like you do with the Santander student account). Even if you can't find a reward like that to spend it on, then you can spend the points in store on anything you can buy in a supermarket (which is quite a lot of varied stuff). Having accumulated lots of points over the years I was able to buy them each a pack of 3 pans for £10 and £25 worth of essentials such as foil, sandwich bags, kitchen towel and toilet paper, all paid for with my Tesco vouchers and therefore costing nothing.

Similarly, I have my Nectar card linked to my ebay account, my energy bill and Avanti Trains so you can imagine that those points accumulate well too, especially during the year that my daughter was commuting into London 3 days a week. As it happens I ended up cashing those in as part payment on a new washing machine after our last one broke, but given that you can spend them in Argos, Sainsbury and ebay, that gives quite a bit of scope for getting more student essentials for nothing.

The next thing I would recommend is joining Freecycle or Freegle, or Olio, or Facebook Marketplace, or whatever local groups you have where people give away stuff they no longer want for free. I started to keep a keen eye open on these groups right from last September and over time I managed to pick up crockery, cutlery, kitchen utensils and airers for no money and as much effort as it took me to drive over to pick the stuff up. 

I would also recommend asking your family if they have any spare bits and pieces, and also to have a good rummage in your own cupboards. It is easy to accumulate stuff over the years, some of which you never or hardly use. After 19 years of being a parent, it is hard to imagine how your house will work when there are less people in it, but you just won't need as much stuff so it is worth viewing it as a good opportunity to have a bit of a sort out and declutter. My two took frying pans, knives and a few other bits from the kitchen. It's when you realise they already have a preferred sharp knife that you realise they are very much becoming adults! In addition, my mum and their elder sister found things in their kitchens to donate, and my mum gave them bedding and towels and over-purchased cleaning supplies too. Not only did this benefit my daughters but it helped with decluttering too so it was win, win.

Despite all this, I realised that there would be a few things that we would need to buy new so I viewed Christmas as another opportunity to boast their equipment. No 18/19 year old wants their Christmas to be dominated with boring domestic equipment so I didn't make it their main presents. Instead, I made them an advent calendar. These days there are all kinds of novelty adult advent calendars you can buy containing everything from socks to beer so I decided to make them a university kit advent calendar instead and gave them things such as potato peelers, mini air freshener (for those trips to the shared bathroom facilities), bottle openers etc. I confess that neither them found it very exciting to open their advent calendars last Christmas but they told to me that it all made sense and that it was all useful stuff when we got it all out again at the beginning of September ready for packing.

Also at Christmas they received a voucher for The Natural Collection website from their aunt and uncle. They had received the same vouchers the year before and it had been a bit of struggle for them to find things they wanted to buy that year but, having familarised ourselves with the website previously, I decided to pin the vouchers on the noticeboard for a few months (they were valid until December 2022), and we came back to it in August when they used them to buy dried food goods, stocking up on lots of pasta, rice, sauces and soups. I wouldn't necessarily recommend The Natural Collection as a go-to student website as it is all ethical, eco and organic so pricer than the usual student food of choice, but I would suggest that if you have any influence over what gifts your relatives give at Christmas/birthday then vouchers that could be used in this way are a good idea.

Oh, and a final thing to suggest, is that a few weeks before the move date you start saving boxes and maybe jars too. It can be handy to decant a small amount of spice or flour or whatever into a jar from the family stocks rather than buying them their own whole container. And you are going to need boxes for all their stuff!

So off they went with everything (and possibly more!) that they need to become independent and it had cost us very little. Not only financially savvy but environmentally friendly and immensely satisfying. And you know what, should any of it get broken or stolen this coming year, none of us are going to cry about it.

Growing Turmeric

It was several years ago that Laurence, from Wharf Distillery, gave me some turmeric root. Before then I had only ever thought of turmeric as a dried, ground powder in a jar, although since then I have seen the root become more readily available in specialist food shops. It is a knobbly rhizome that very much resembles root ginger, which is hardly surprising as they are related. 

I didn't know what to do with the bit of turmeric root that Laurence gave me so I decided to plant it. I had previously planted root ginger and, after some delay when I figured it was dead, that had grown. Indeed, it had grown very large, very quickly and buckled the flower pot it was in as it formed new root. Then, all of a sudden, it died back. It turned out this was quite normal and meant that the root was ready to harvest, which I did. A proud moment - harvesting my own homegrown root ginger.

In contrast, the turmeric root started to grow much more quickly. It soon became an attractive, slightly jungle-like house plant. And over time, it grew quite well. It had a tendency for the ends of the leaves to brown so I realised I wasn't watering it enough. Soon I was watering it every few days and it become a lush looking house plant. And it has continued to grow on my window sill ever since.

Well, it had, until this winter when it started to die back. I thought I was neglecting it so I upped the watering but it continued to die so I figured maybe I had over-watered it so I cut back and it still continued to die.  So then I wondered if it was just too cold, although it had previously survived winters in the same place. Then I figured maybe the compost in the pot was just exhausted as I hadn't repotted it for years and I usually neglect to add fertiliser to my house plants. 

So last weekend I decided to tip it out and see what was going on and maybe repot it in fresh compost if there was anything there that looked viable. To my surprise, I found some very healthy looking rhizomes that smelt amazing so I decided to take a harvest and to put some of the roots in fresh compost to see if they would grow again.

Although several years have past since I was first given the root, I still have no idea how I would use fresh turmeric. I'm sure that if I was into curries or other spicy food, I could probably grate it into a dish and use it that way. But I'm not. Indeed, the only reason I have turmeric in my cupboard is because I use it fairly often in chutney recipes and occasionally as an amazing yellow natural dye. 

It was at this point that I decided to see if it was possible to make ground turmeric at home from fresh turmeric. A bit of Googling later and I had learnt a few things, including finding out that the die back is part of the natural process of the plant and it occurs when the rhizomes are reclaiming the nutrients from the plant. I guess in more tropical conditions this would happen as part of a short cycle over several months, in much the same way as the root ginger had, but on my cool window sill it had taken several years for the process to complete.

The next step was the wash and peel the turmeric and then I used a potato peeler to par the root into thin slices. These I laid out in my dehydrator and after just a few hours they had turned very dry and brittle. Next I put it into my handheld food processor and blitz away until it formed a powder. And there it was - 8g of homegrown turmeric powder. And it smells amazing too - so fresh and spicy.

I'm not sure how the economics of this stack up, given that I have created about 15p of turmeric powder over about 4 years but it is one of those things that amuses and interests me. First there was the "I wonder" moment when I stuck it in a pot of compost and then there was the joy of the plant growing and thriving, and finally another "I wonder" moment when I managed to create my own dried spice.

Never let economical good sense get in the way of the wonder of growing.

P.S. Should you ever try this - wear gloves!

Passionfruit Curd And Other Delights

My eldest loves passion fruit, although she complains about the flavours that it is often paired with. It is true that it is hard to find it unaccompanied by mango, and she strongly believes that dark chocolate is too strong a flavour to put with it, preferring white chocolate. And so, despite her love of passion fruit, it is hard to find things of that flavour that she actually wants.

A while back she asked me to make some passion fruit curd so I duly obligued but we all found it a little bland. Despite using six or seven fruit, the flavour really was quite subtle so I gave up on that as an idea. However, just before Christmas, I received five passion fruits in my Odd Box delivery. It being so close to Christmas, there were other festive bakes that needed to be made so I knew we wouldn't have the capacity to eat a passion fruit dessert as well. So instead I decided that preserving them was the best thing to do and curd was the most logical option.

This time, however, I took the delicate flavour of the passion fruit into account and decided to modify my lemon curd recipe to suit and, success! A beautiful light orange curd with a distinct passion fruit flavour, if maybe a little too sweet.

With the curd made and the fruit temporarily preserved, we got on with Christmas and all that that entails. Then, on New Year's Eve I made a passionfruit cheesecake, or rather a plain cheesecake that I topped with passion fruit curd. And this weekend, I stirred some passion fruit curd into my white chocolate mousse recipe to make a white chocolate and passion fruit mousse. Surprisingly, there is still some curd left so I think next week it might make the filling of a Victoria Sandwich Cake.

Passion Fruit Curd

35g butter, melted
200g granulated sugar
2 eggs
5 passion fruit, juice/pulp only

Put the melted butter in a dish suitable for going inside a pressure cooker, then use a whisk to stir in the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, ensuring that it is thoroughly mixed in. Sieve the passion fruits and add the juice/pulp to the mixture and stir well. Put two cups of water into the pressure cooker then place the container on a trivet inside the pressure cooker and seal. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes then allow it to naturally release pressure. Remove, whisk well to recombine then ladle into warmed jars and seal.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake

For the base
150g digestive biscuits, crushed
75g butter, melted

For the topping
200g white chocolate
30g butter
1/4 vanilla pod
250g cream cheese
90ml whipping cream

Passion fruit curd

For the biscuit base combine the crushed biscuits and the melted butter in a bowl then press into the greased base of a 20cm circular tin or dish. Place in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to solidify. Next, melt the chocolate, butter and the seeds from the vanilla pod in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool. In another bowl, mix together the cream and cheese and beat until smooth. Once the chocolate mix is suitably cool add it to the cream mix and stir thoroughly. Spoon onto the biscuit base. Return to the refrigerator to chill for a few hours or over-night then spoon on passion fruit curd on top before serving.

White Chocolate and Passion Fruit Mousse

2 gelatine leaves
200g white chocolate
300ml double cream
2 tbsp yoghurt
2- 3 generous tbsp passion fruit curd

Put the gelatine in a small sauce pan with some water and leave to soak for a few minutes. In the meantime, break up the white chocolate and melt it over a pan of hot water. Remove from the heat and squeeze the water out of the gelatine then use the residual heat of the hob to melt the gelatine in the pan. Add a little double cream to the gelatine and leave on the hob a little longer as this will make it easier to pour out of the pan later. Whisk the remaining double cream in a large bowl then stir in the yoghurt. Pour in the gelatine and then the melted chocolate and fold in. Spoon in the curd and stir through then taste, adding more curd if necessary but being cautious about making it overly sweet. Spoon the mixture into glasses or other suitable containers then refrigerate for a few hours before serving. It should make 8 servings.

Cheese & Pumpkin Flapjacks

I cut into the biggest of our homegrown pumpkins yesterday. It did appear to be storing perfectly even though it was harvested three months ago but at some point it will start to rot and I wanted to use it whilst still in good condition. Of course, once you cut into a pumpkin you have to use it up quickly so I already had plans to make a couple of chutneys and some other delights.

Late on Sunday afternoon, as I washed up the chutney pan, I began to contemplate packed lunches for Monday. We have our shopping delivered on Tuesdays so the hideous Hovis white bread that my eldest chooses to eat is always a bit iffy for sandwiches by Monday so if possible Monday packed lunches don't feature sandwiches.

I was just contemplating whipping up a batch of couscous when I remembered the savoury flapjacks I had made last year. I couldn't remember the recipe so I had a quick Google. That failed to find the recipe I was thinking of but threw up a whole bunch of other savoury flapjack recipes and that led me to start conjuring up my own ideas.

Just in time for the Sunday roast to go in, the flapjacks came out of the oven. We each had a small taster piece on our plates at dinner time just to check that they would meet with approval and then this morning they were duly packed into lunchboxes.

Cheese & Pumpkin Flapjacks

100g butter
1 generous tbsp Bovril (or Marmite)
250g porridge oats
250g raw pumpkin, grated
2 tbsp milled flaxseed
100g mature Cheddar, grated
2 large eggs, beaten
Dried herbs
2 tbsp sunflower seeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas 4 and grease and tin a 20 cm square baking tin.  Melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds then add the Bovril and microwave for another 30 seconds. Add the oats, flaxseed, and grated pumpkin and stir to combine. Add the cheese, eggs, herbs and seeds and stir again until well mixed. Tip into the tin and press down with wetted fingers to level out. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the tin then cut into 12 pieces.