THRIFT

I am practising household economy.

Mr Trefusis made an utterly delicious Five Hour Roasted Lamb for a supper party we had on Friday evening, and we've been eating what was left all weekend. This evening, in a fit of 'Make do and Mend', I made a proper shepherds pie with the leftover meat, and made enough soup for a week by liquidising the remaindered the vegetables and stock.

It's not simply that it all tasted incredibly good, thanks to Mr T's initial effort, but I can't begin to tell you what a lovely smug sense of satisfaction I got from recycling the left-overs. It made me feel like a cross between Mrs Miniver and Barbara Good- not only had I saved money by making a meal go an awful lot further, I'd used up food which might otherwise have been thrown away.

So now I'm all fired up by a personal war on waste, I'm keen to visit an exhibition that's just opened at the Imperial War Museum, The Ministry of Food, showing how the British public reacted to the stringent rationing that was introduced in 1940 and which continued for another nine years after the war had ended. My paternal grandfather worked for The Ministry of Food during the war, helping implement rationing in the north of England and so I've always known that wasting food in wartime wasn't just frowned upon, it was actually illegal. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have inherited a wartime talent for frugality.

Lately, however, some slightly more challenging economic circumstances encourage me to consider if I could be more thrifty when it comes to the weekly shop. I'm neither about to implement my own version of rationing, and nor am I ready for Lidl, but by heck, I can definitely do what my mother used to, and make the sunday roast do for more than just one meal.

I could probably do with extending my repertoire beyond Shepherds Pie, soups, risotto and chicken curry, though - any tips?