Really mean things people do to save money.

Older no wiser, my much loved mother in law (kisses here not spitting ) was also an east Prussian refugee. Sadly she died this year but some of her lovely and much missed dishes were konigsberger klops , made with a mix of mince meats and a creamy sauce with peppercorns, kartolfelnpuffe ( a dish of fried grated potatoes with an apple sauce ) and her beautiful Apfelkuche, with apples cooked inside a kind of scone-like cake, oh and fabulous red cabbage cooked forever with apples, peppercorns some vinegar and lots of seasoning. She never ever threw any food away, all of it could be used in some way, veg fried up in bubble and squeak etc.
Apparently we are the worst country in Europe for food wastage.

claireseptember all sound delicious.

We try not to waste food in this house - but there are some ropey looking apples left over from the tree lurking around which no-one is willing to peel. Perhaps when I have finished writing Christmas cards I could make a cake with them!!

I hope your MIL's money is not cursed Daddima, if she was apparently so horrible
Perhaps you should give it all to charity just in case it brings you bad luck .....

That makes three of us then, claire!
Kartoffelpuffer with Apple sauce were a meal in themselves, oh we could learn so much today from that generation.

ps bubble and squeak tonight with leftover casserole - a funny mixture but waste not want not as they say

Not food related, but my dm and df used to turn off the pilot light on their boiler when they went out, and then had all the faff of lighting it again when they came back home.

Really mean things people do to save money? More like, really mean things people do to their deceased MIL…!!

What a revolting post to write, Daddima. Dancing on people’s grave is such an appalling thing to do!

It’s not amusing at all, it’s just damn nasty and unnecessary. So you didn’t like your MIL, maybe she didn’t like you either - have you thought of that? Have you even tried to understand why she would have been behaving like this?

I just do not understand what on earth could have possessed you to even think about writing such a post. As a matter of fact, it turned my stomach and surely I can’t be the only one to think this.

Let’s hope your own DIL has more heart than you.

I have to agree with the previous post.

And me

Rosequartz I've just this minute chopped up some ropey-looking apples that have been lying around the kitchen for ages (free windfalls from a neighbour). I am making mince pies and have mixed the apple in with a jar of mincemeat to make that go further

Don't see anything wrong with being careful, personally

Yep, Claireseptember, I can and do cook all that - Königsberger Klopse need capers, that's what gives them that sweet & sour flavour, same goes for the sour apple in Rotkohl (red cabbage). And not forgetting a couple of cloves and bay leaves.
Sauerbraten is also a favourite here - a joint of beef, post-roasted on the hob with red wine, cloves, bay leaves, garlic, slowly simmered until it virtually falls apart.
My own personal favourite is fresh cod fillet, pan-fried in real breadcrumbs (made from real bread) with Senfsoße, a quite sharp mustardy white sauce, similar to the Königsberger Klopse sauce .... I could swim in that !!!

God, but you've made me feel hungry now ...

Pork chops without kidneys....I think that's one we have to thank the EU for. It was one of her favourites, and she wasn't pleased when her butcher told her he was no longer allowed to sell the two together.

Rosequartz .... you could try making cider ... ? .... hick

We say that every year OlderNoWiser, but never got around to it. Not that many left now, probably just enough for a couple of crumbles or apple cakes or for a nice layer on the compost heap

MamaCaz I have mixed apple with mincemeat before now as I like the extra zing it gives it.

But that means making mince pies ...
Oh dear

When my daughter was a teenager she and her friend went to stay with her friend's grandparents for a week. For lunch they had one tin of soup, for four people. My daughter kept phoning to say she was starving. The grandparents just didn't know how much teenagers ate!

There is far too much variety of food available nowadays. When I was married in 1946, after my husband and I were demobbed, not only did we find it difficult to find somewhere to live we had little money but my children were healthy on the rations available. Those days one learnt to stretch what was available, queuing up every day for fish, potatoes etc. but we were contented and happy. Even though I can now afford it I still economise , cook everything from scratch and deplore food wastage. Old habits die hard.

Not food related, but definitely about mean behaviour...
My MiL was extremely mean, and not just with money.
Tea bags were used three times, and hung on a line to dry twice, no light bulb in the fridge, central heating only on for 'visitors' even if there were icicles inside the windows, 4ozs of mince to serve 3 of them, (I was never invited for a meal), only served tea as coffee was too 'expensive', I'm sure you get the idea...
Every Christmas we had to return the card they'd bought us for our first Christmas married, so that they could give it back to us again the following year! They went abroad every Christmas, and never bought presents beforehand, as they would buy everything after the event, in the sales. When DH had a bad back injury and was in traction for three weeks, they didn't visit him, ring to see now he was, or in any way show any concern at all for their only child. I phoned them once to tell them how he was doing, but MiL said she was watching Coronation Street, so I'd have to ring back.....I didn't bother!
The worst thing of all is that she never, ever, not even once cuddled our son! She was cold in the extreme, to the point of weirdness. She even told me once that she was angry that I'd 'stolen' her son away from her, as 'Now I have to do all my own vacuuming and ironing, he used to do it for me'! She was not in any way disabled, just lazy, cold and mean! Both she and FiL dressed for our wedding in clothes they'd had for years, and they didn't buy us a present either!
If they'd been really poor, maybe the money part would be understandable, but when she died it emerged that she had been squirrelling away cash from the housekeeping for 52 years and had three accounts which even FiL knew nothing about, worth £65,000!
Unfortunately FiL is much the same as her, never rings to have a chat with his son, only ever calls to say he wants something doing/getting/fixing. He's 85 now and as fit as a fiddle, but won't do anything for himself, DH has to do his gardening, decorating, shopping etc or he'll make his life hell!
I'd have told him to sling his hook many years ago, but DH can't see it, so we just don't discuss him and I avoid him whenever possible, which doesn't include Chistmas day unfortunately!
And the best thing about all this, he lives less than 2 miles from us!
He asked DH to check his bank statements a few weeks ago, he's sitting on roughly £450,000 and when our DS (his only grandchild) got married earlier this year, he bought them a present for £14-50!
So, when I say that when he's no longer with us, we shall hopefully be moving into his enormous detached bungalow, having wonderful holidays and paying off DS and DDiL's mortgage, I'm not being cruel and nasty, but I would like to see DH benefit in some way after the years of rotten treatment he had from his parents! I say 'hopefully' because I wouldn't put it past him to have left nothing to DH or DS in his will!
I really don't care about how badly they both treated me over the years, but I don't like seeing DH or DS getting dumped on from a great height!

Relations!!

"Relatives you've got whether you like them or not, friends they come and go."

They had, and may still have, a product in the U.S called Hamburger Helper. I don't know what was in it, but it was widely used to augment the ground beef.

Old joke - "Would you like some tongue?"
"Oh no, I could never eat something out of an animal's mouth! I'll have an egg".

Went I was young and newly married teaching myself to cook I tried the hamburger helper. It's basically a package with salty beef seasoning,tiny pieces of dried veggies and either rice or noodles. It's for people who don't cook and want a cheap meal. You just add water.I'm surprised it's still around. Not something I'd recommend.

My (quite wealthy) brother-in-law has a great way of saving money. When we are out at a family 'do' in a pub or restaurant, he disappears from the room when it is his round!

We have friends who serve sausage meat on Christmas Day, to save on buying a turkey.

I knew a woman who didn't flush the toilet because she was on a water meter.