Thrifty Pages

No such thing as a free lunch, but maybe a cheaper one!

If you want to get a cheaper treat at lunchtime, then a new website is the one for you...

Having noticed that there are some great lunch offers available the guys at mylunch.ie thought it would be a fantastic idea to make people more aware of them, and so www.mylunch.ie was born.

No longer will you have to go to the effort of walking aimlessly attempting to decipher handwriting on many a dusty blackboard in order to find the best lunch value around. 

Instead, a few simple clicks on a daily-updated website provides you with all you need to know.

Happy eating :)

Link: http://www.mylunch.ie

And after all that Budget woe - how about indulging in a low cost dessert?

An old fave of mine - yum :)

One world where everybody eats - the pay as you go cafe

This may inspire some budding social entreprenuers out there in the carcass of the Celtic Tiger.

An article in Time Magazine online describes the One World Café in Salt Lake City and the SAME (So All Might Eat) Café in Denver in the USA.

These cafes serve healthy organic food like many others. The difference is that they allow the patron to decide what they want to pay for the meal, even nothing! If you have no money, you are encouraged to pay for your meal by volunteering in the cafe to cook, clean or sweep floors.

"Our philosophy is that everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy, organic food while being treated with dignity," explains Brad Birky, who opened SAME with his wife, Libby...

Brad and his wife have launched a website at http://www.oneworldeverybodyeats.com to show others how they can set up similar cafes.

The SAME Café has a website at http://www.soallmayeat.org/

There is even a documentary on YouTube about volunteering at the cafe :)

Centra Meal Deals for May

Not to be outdone by the bigger retail chains, Centra are now offering their own meal deals for May right across their 480 stores across Ireland.  How about a cheap breakfast, lunch or dinner meal?

• €2 for a freshly brewed Centra Good To Go tea or coffee and a freshly baked fruit scone
• Centra Good To Go wrap or pasta salad and 500ml bottle of Centra Good To Go still water for only €4
• Centra Premium Burgers(2 Pack), Centra Simply Cook Wedges and Centra Coleslaw for just €5

These meal deals will run across all Centra stores from Monday 11th - Saturday 23rd May and other new €2, €4 and €5 breakfast, lunch and dinner meal deals will be introduced across all Centra stores from Sunday 24th May.

For more information on the meal deals and other savings brands, visit www.centra.ie.

Seven day menus for budget conscious, healthy eating

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. "
- Orson Welles

I have already mentioned the fantastic website of budgeting.ie in relation to how much it costs to live in Ireland, but the website also has a fantastic section on budget conscious, healthy eating.

Photo by oskay

The website publishes a list of seven-day food menus that were evaluated by nutritional experts from the Family Budget Unit from University of York for their nutritional value.

These menus are divided up into by meals and the days of the week. They come in PDF format for easy printing and may provide a good start in deciding your own budget menu.

The food menus included are

• Two Parent and Two Children 7 day Menu - girl 3 and boy 10

• Two Parent and Two Children 7 day Menu - girl 10 and boy 15

• Lone Parent and Two Children 7 day Menu - girl 3 and boy 10

• Pensioner Couple 7 day Menu

• Lone Female Pensioner 7 day Menu

• Single Adult Male 7 day Menu

Don't forget to also check out our friends at cheapeats.ie for more budget menu tips.

And also - in this time of too much doom and gloom, don't forget that good food can make you happy :)

Recall of Irish Pork and Bacon Products

RTE News has just announced that Irish pork products have been withdrawn from the market and that all pork bought before September 1st 2008 should not be consumed. The article states that the meat may have been contaminated by PCBs - Polychlorinated biphenyl, a very persistent, very nasty organic pollutant.

This news was based on a release from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland that states

The Government today announced that laboratory results of animal feed and pork fat samples obtained this afternoon by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) confirmed the presence of dioxins.

RET suggest that any pork products bought should be destroyed or returned to the retailer. Our advice is that you do return them to the retailer - under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 1980 the goods an Irish consumer buys must be

• Goods must be of merchantable quality
• Goods must be fit for their purpose

Quite clearly any pork since September 1st does not fall under these categories and you should try to get your money back. Learn how to make a complaint by reading the National Consumer Agency guide and go for it!