Quickly saving about £5 or more

This is how we save a bit of cash when we go out. It takes 2 minutes to gather mugs, coffee and spoon in small tub, milk in bottle, kettle boiled and pour water into stainless steel flask, edible something in bigger tub then everything into a bag. Done.
Our trip out Sunday morning wasn't very successful  although the idea was good. It was sunny in Ipswich and we decided to pop to Felixstowe just to check the padlocks on the beach hut and spray them with a bit of WD40 and have a cuppa while watching the sea. Halfway to Felixstowe and we ran into thick fog and down at the hut visibility was next to nothing and bitterly cold.

So we walked down the steps along the prom, opened up the hut, checked inside, oiled padlocks and hinges then back to the car, drove along the seafront (avoiding cafes and Sunday market) and right up to the dock view point - but still very foggy. Had our home-made cuppa and cake ( avoiding View Point cafe) and then home again, where the sun was still shining brightly.
Oh well.

Back in a flash
Sue

When Essential is not Essential?

In Asda the other day I noticed a whole aisle of what they are calling 'Stock Up Essentials' for 50p and £1 but they are all posher branded stuff or things that anyone on a budget would never buy or maybe just things that I would never buy............. I reckon that out of the 100+ items on their website labeled as 50p "essentials" I only ever buy one...........Heinz baked beans.

So if you avoid this aisle you can find real essentials - like tinned tomatoes- for less than 50p anyway. Tinned tomatoes are definitely on my essentials list and other items I count as essential are things like flour, butter, carrots. NOT Pot Noodles in 10 varieties.
 
Have to make an admission here sort of related to the above...................I don't find many yellow sticker bargains.
 Why?
Two reasons - I hate going shopping in the evenings which is when you have to go to get the best reductions and secondly quite often they are things we don't eat. We spent the first few years of our married life on one very low  wage, two children came along quickly and we were also trying to move up the housing ladder to a smallholding. We ate Basics everything including the cheapest sliced bread and spread  and I vowed that once we had the smallholding we would be as self-sufficient as possible and never eat tasteless or over processed  food again. So even if Pot Noodles etc were being given away for pennies I still wouldn't buy them - too many weird sounding ingredients. That's why I make curries from curry powder and vegetables, pasta sauces from veg and tinned tomatoes, cakes from flour, sugar and butter.

Here is another admission..............things have slipped since we've been in town and Colin has been ill, the upheaval threw me off course ..........I've been buying bread, biscuits and sometimes cakes. When I get back to cooking with gas I'll start doing all my own stuff again. That's the plan.......... which I hope I can fit it between all the hospital trips.

This is the sort of LPG cooker I would like but until we can get the pipework sorted we will be cooker-less as there is no electric cooker point and the lady is taking her Everhot (a sort of cross between an electric Rayburn and a storage heater) with her.There is a doorway from kitchen to dining room right where the pipework needs to go  so not a straight forward plumping-in job. It may be several weeks until I can get bread making and baking again!

Going back to shopping...........

The other things I often see yellow sticker reduced are ready chopped vegetables or fruit - something else I don't buy. With so many years of growing our own fruit and vegetables and eating straight from the garden I believe that anything that's been chopped before packaging has already lost a lot of the vitamins and has probably been handled more often than I'd like to know about.
 I hope we'll be able to grow some of our own vegetables again once we move even if age, illness and space mean we will  never be as self-sufficient as we were for our smallholding years.
And although I'd love goats again........it's never going to happen. Chickens - yes should be do-able.

Back Soon
Sue

Gifts without breaking the bank

This blog started off to be all about frugal living but because it's just our way of life I hardly ever mention it now. Anyway, here's a frugal type post today

Way back in the past, on one low (council roadman's ) wages and 2 small children we could never afford to give each other the sort of presents that we heard other wives and husbands swapped at Christmas.
Then later with three children and a big mortgage on the smallholding we still couldn't splash out on "top of the range" anything. And of course we didn't want to......... keeping the smallholding, feeding ourselves, paying the bills and treating the children were much more important.

Now years later we still don't bother with exchanging pricey gifts.
So I found Col two sweaters/jumpers from charity shops, (including a Christmas one that he'll be able to bring out every year!) and my presents were the Autumn Edition of The Scribbler


 - paid for using money in the Paypal account and my big box of Lindt - bought off the reduced shelf  from Morrisons using one of their Morrisons More £5 vouchers.
Do we feel hard done by........... with no Personalised Number plates, Coffee Machines, Perfumes or the latest electronic gizmo?
No of course not.
There's no point exchanging expensive gifts in December only to find you can't afford the electric bill in January.


I noticed yesterday that I have some new followers including Heron's View, Kelli and JE A, and possibly others who've not been welcomed. So hello folks and thank you for reading.

Back Very Soon
Sue

1,000 and counting

Drum roll please........this is post number 1,000.
Who knew that I'd still be blogging after 3½ years. So many things have changed, life is completely different and not by choice and changing again next year.
I hope that I've charted the ups and downs without regrets or too much moaning.

 Many people have been reading from the very beginning - Thank you all  for your encouragement and support.

 Anyway, enough of all that, where have I/we been out and about to so far this week?

 1.Into the town centre to put the Ziffit cheques into my building society and pay a bill. I was foiled at The Grape Tree shop as they've stopped their loyalty card scheme but the lady said if I sent off my card which has 9 stamps on they will send me a £9 voucher. So not completely wasted.
Went in Poundland and got some more items for the 3 hampers. Looked at the all their various fairy lights and Christmas decoration stuff but didn't buy any. Not something I buy every year like so many people do. I don't feel the need for a different colour scheme/theme. It's all a matter of contentment - I have no need to search for a new look!
2. Walking - especially Colin who is now up to 1.5 miles with no stopping and sitting down. I've kept him company on some walks and feel better for it.
3. His weekly trip to hospital for a blood test. Now he's fit again I don't need to go with him to drop him off at the door before driving round and round for a parking space. Platelets still not climbing as they should be D**n!
4.As I'd decided to use the Wyevale voucher for Christmas presents, we thought we might as well go while they were having their "Christmas Event" afternoon and get free mulled wine and mincepie and 10% off some things too. Not impressed by their Christmas decorations just camels and glittery reindeer.

Thought these were just plain awful!

  But the non-alcholic version of spiced drink was delicious and a bottle was 'bought' for us.

.
  Presents for Col's brother and Dad sorted. Big Tick off the list and all without spending any proper money so not included in the November spend.


"No" Spend November. Dried fruit and nuts for cakes for Christmas gifts + biscuits etc for hampers £16. Dark chocolate bars for Col £2.
Running total £284.

Back Soonish with 1001 ( and I defy anyone my age to say 1001 without starting to sing the cleaning carpet ad!)
Sue

No Spend November...........Well sort of

I'm doing my No Spend November challenge again this year. Last year it was because we had no produce to sell out the front on the stall and Colin was too poorly to work for other people - although at the time we didn't know what was wrong with him. So we started to live on savings and the income we had earned during the year from the campsite, selling eggs and produce and the car boot and yard sales.
This year we actually have more income than last year as we have the Employment Support Allowance of £109 a week until 31st December and a £10 Christmas bonus - WOW! But with the move approaching we will need as many pennies saved as possible

My idea of no spend isn't NO spend but rather limiting spending to paying bills, feeding us and the cat, diesel and Christmas stuff (because if I left present shopping until December it would throw me into a panic). Other than that I shouldn't open my purse.....that's the plan.To keep on track I shall list everything here for the world and his wife to ponder over!

I've also been thinking of ways to buy some presents without money......sounds good doesn't it.
I've got some Wyevale garden vouchers which I didn't use here - I could save them to use at the cottage,but the only things we will need are fruit trees etc and they are ridiculously expensive at Wyevale. so I could go  and see what I can find for pressies. Then if I spend £10 at The Grape Tree on dried fruit I will fill my savings card and that will make £10 to use for presents - chocs etc. The Morrisons saver card has provided me with a £5 voucher after yesterday main November shop - that will buy another present. Then we have about £25 left in the Pay Pal account after selling last years wedding clothes on eBay.....More presents.
 I need to make some more food gifts for the hampers for sisters and brothers in law. Cranberry chutney will be next and then mini Dundee cakes and I came across an idea for altering the tins of the cheats lemon Mamade by adding a tin of grapefruit to make it more interesting.

The makings for a different marmalade

  Therefore.......spent so far..............Direct Debits - Council Tax, 3 months Water and Sewer + Mobile phone + Charity = £200ish, Morrisons November main shop £66 (including Cats £12, things for making items for Christmas hampers and Christmas food gifts £10)

Total £266

On a completely different subject.............we were watching the lunchtime news on Tuesday when they were talking about the government putting more money into the fight against cyber-crime. The reporter said we are used to hearing about computer and phone hacking  but what about your kettle being hacked? I thought I'd heard wrong......kettle?? how on earth?. Of course I'm way out of date and apparently your kettle can be linked to your phone so you can switch it on so it's hot when you walk in the door. Good grief, whatever next. Just makes me want to run away to the woods and heat my kettle on a campfire!

Back Soon
Sue

Thrifty February? Ha Ha Ha!

Did I say somewhere that I intended not to spend much money in February? Who was I kidding! Of course I hadn't allowed for the small fact that we move house in less than 2 weeks time........ February has been very spendy.
I've picked out the few thrifty things I can think of from the last few weeks............and the small bits of  income.

• We were gifted 2 pheasants which fed 3 for roast, 2 for curry and the cat for a couple of meals too
• Col has lost weight so found a pair of jeans for him one size smaller from charity shop £4.50 (will look out for more)
• £6.50 Tesco loyalty voucher used 
• Used cheaper powdered milk for me as much as possible.
• Free heat and hot water using wood
• £46 income for selling 2 out of the 5 items we took to the auction rooms on the first Monday sale day
• £23 income for selling 2 more out of the 5 things on the second Monday sale day
• £40 into the paypal account for selling the old caravan chassis
• £40 back rent owed to us for boat storage
• £30 income for some bits of metal sold to a neighbour
• Reading free library books
• Avoided buying any snacks/drinks at hospital.
• Craft Creations are stopping their quarterly magazine and as it was the only one I subscribed to, it will save me £12 a year but I will miss all the readers gallery of card ideas.
• Home made bread.........until I packed my bread tins and baking stuff. 
• Avoided buying any Stuff so the only non necessary spending was £1 on a bunch of daffodils and £2 on a bunch of tulips and 2 "necessary" books at £1 each
• Council tax refund - already- from the District Council for the part of March after we move.
• Home grown cooking apples from store, apricots from the freezer and leeks from the garden.

On the other hand still no news on benefit money for Col and the car cost us nearly £600 for cam belt, parts and servicing ( which normally Colin would do) plus of course I had to buy a new cooker for the bungalow = A Lot of money!  Then £40 to the Post Office for mail redirection. £25 extra on car insurance because we will be in town.Extra diesel for all the journeys to and fro and buying some different food to try and find tasty things for Col.

March will be even more expensive. Carpets, removal company, estate agent and solicitors fees and probably loads of other things we will find we need.  Oh dear.

News Flash.........News Flash.............
Possible worst case scenario on horizon - delay with exchange and completion due to our buyers bringing date forward but then not being able to organise the small mortgage they need for the date they said, so heavens know what happens now. Our removal company need a definite date which we can't give until exchange. Have already set up phone, mail redirection, electric, family help etc etc for the date agreed.
Oh heck, nervous breakdown imminent!!

Back Soon
Sue

Lack of excitement and Frugal Friday

Nothing exciting has happened but I'm back anyway and thank goodness the weather is 100% better than yesterday.

I popped to Saxmundham this morning for Tesco and Post Office. Not a lot of shopping needed this month as we need to empty cupboards as much as we can before the middle of March but on the other hand I hate seeing the cupboards getting low at this time of the year when the weather could still turn nasty.
I'm still going round cupboards looking for things that I can give to the charity shop and packing other stuff that we won't need into boxes.
We've had 2 quotes from local removal companies, either will be OK to use and both can supply boxes well before moving day to give me plenty of time to pack.
I've also been making a list of all the people and companies we will need to contact, then I'm giving Col the job of finding all the phone numbers.

In between other things this week I've got well ahead by making some Christmas cards for my Penny Pincher Paper penfriends

Also been making a note of where we've stretched the pennies this week, thought I might make this a regular thing on a Friday if I remember.

Found 2p on the ground in town
Made 4 large portions of soup from 3 tired carrots, a small onion and a tin of tomatoes.
Ate leeks, beetroot, Brussels sprouts from the garden and apples from store
Col took the shower to bits, descaled it, fitted a new washer and got it working properly again.
Free heat from wood all week
Bought new shoes in January sales, saving £20
Found Tesco Christmas 7 cheese selection reduced to £2 and mince pies to 37p for 6.

Shall I list the non-frugal things? Nah!

Many thanks for comments yesterday. I think it's going to be a huge help to hear from other people reading who know someone going through exactly the same treatment as Colin. Thank goodness for blogging.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Still frugal after all this time

Do you remember this blog was once called Frugal In Suffolk?
I changed the name but haven't stopped being frugal.

This post will explain to new readers about some of the things we have done for all our married life that have enabled us to work our way up the housing ladder until we could afford this smallholding, pay off our mortgage several years early, save a goodly amount and be able to now live on two small incomes from self-employment.

Frugal Cleaning.
 These are the items I use for cleaning the house, clothes and the bathroom. I can walk past all the other cleaning products in the supermarkets and the Ecover products are bought on-line when on offer at Natural Collection. Ah Ha I hear you say, Ecover products cost a fortune!

  But if you have a septic tank they are the safest to use, they are also very concentrated so I use way way less than it says on the bottle. ( and I know some people make their own products but there are many others who spend a lot more than I do on cleaning stuff). I bought the bi-carb( in the pottery jar) as a giant bulk buy bag on-line and the dishcloths are home made. White vinegar is handy for the drains.

I buy non-scratch bath sponges and cut them in half to clean the
sinks and the Ecover Limescale stuff is the only thing I've found that will cope with our very hard water on the glass shower screen.





Frugal personal care
Soap and water was good enough for most people for years, now there is a half a supermarket aisle with just shampoos.These 4 items plus toothpaste are all I need. The soap is from Approved Foods, I use unscented and with no colour. These were 4 for £1 but I see now they are 3 for 99p which means Morrisons who have packs of 4 for £1.20 are cheaper. Whoever decided that it was more hygienic to make soap into liquid handwash in a plastic bottle obviously had shares in the plastic bottle industry!

I stock up on moisturising shower gel, when on offer and ditto with herbal essences shampoo, as its the only shampoo that doesn't make me all itchy. Or get it from Poundland. I use a roll on antiperspirant because I stopped using sprays years ago when there was all the concern about the ozone layer. I Know they took out all the CFCs but roll on only goes where you put it, not all over the place! Un-perfumed again.

Frugal Entertainment

A TV License, a Library Card and some Cross stitch. A lot of people begrudge the TV License but at roughly 40p a day ( I think) it doesn't seem to bad. I'm glad of it to be able to watch the tennis, special events like the Olympics, quizzes and access to so many radio programmes.
My Library card is free it lets me access any book in any Suffolk library - bargain, and it brings them to me on the library van every month.
Cross stitch is such a cheap hobby UNLESS you buy all the magazines new, which I don't. Instead over the years, I've picked up kits and magazines from car boot sales and charity shops until I have a stash to last me a long time. The only things I buy new is the Aida to stitch on and the threads, and even some of those have also come from boot sales. I have made many gifts using this skill.

Frugal Heat

I have lots of mentions in the blog about the way we get free wood to use on our woodburner and on the solid fuel Rayburn. So I'll not bother again here. Here is some we got a couple of years ago from the skip-hire place. We cut our way through all this amount in a winter.

Frugal food
Cook from scratch and stretch your meat. Here is a post I did about making 4 sausages stretch to feed 2 people 3 or 4 times.
Bread has to be the best thing to make to save money.I make all our bread and am working my way through some lovely malted wheat flour from Approved Foods which was £5.49 for 16kg, I'm mixing it with white Bread Flour that I stocked up on from Tesco when they had 3 for 2 on baking products. I haven't worked out this complicated bit of maths but I know it's under 30p a loaf. I also bought a box of 10 packs of Doves Farm yeast online saving me several pence per pack
Grow your own
I know most people don't have a smallholding but even a small patch can produce several pounds worth of food. You can save seed from one year to get totally free veg the next year. Take green beans for example, all those we eat this year will be free because I used saved seed. We've already eaten £1 worth and we will be eating most of the summer from 3 wigwams of beans. A tomato plant at a car boot sale is 50p this will give  several lb or £ of tomatoes. They take up very little room. The same goes for a pepper plant.
Wear blinkers when shopping! Metaphorically speaking of course.
 I sail past 99.99% of the supermarket shelves because I know what we need, what we like and what we can afford.
Use My Supermarket to find who has got what on offer before you go shopping. We can't visit loads of supermarkets in one day because they are too far away but if we are heading to Ipswich for shopping then I make the most of it by picking up the bargains.

 Amongst the posts labeled FRUGAL WAYS in my labels list is this post from 14th September 2013

Looking through new posts on my regular blog reading list I saw Frugal Queen had one titled" What have you done financially lately?". She has suggested that everyone takes a look at 10 areas of spending and tries to reduce them.
 It  made me smile when I realised that there was really nothing in her list that had any relevance to us at all. Her ideas were
1. Check you mobile phone contract.  WE HAVE PAY AS YOU GO = £10  now and again
2.Paying for watching dozens of TV channels? NO
3.Make sure you get points for petrol. THIS IS ONLY RELEVANT IF YOU LIVE SOMEWHERE WHERE YOU HAVE THAT CHOICE.
4.Don't spend supermarket rewards on food, swap them for other things. THIS IS ONLY RELEVANT IF YOU HAVE LOTS AND ACTUALLY NEED CLOTHES, AIR MILES ETC
5.Share transport to work. WE WORK AT HOME
6.Sell surplus stuff on ebay. TRY NOT TO BUY SURPLUS STUFF IN THE FIRST PLACE
7. Cut car costs by finding a reliable garage.TRY TO DO REPAIRS AND SERVICING AT HOME
8.Swap Energy companies.FEW ARE INTERESTED IF YOU ARE NOT DUEL FUEL. FREE WOOD ANYWAY!
9.Pay off credit card debts. WE DON'T HAVE ANY DEBT.
10.Stock-take food cupboards.I ALREADY  KNOW WHAT'S THERE


 and from October 2013   - More Things We Don't Spend Money On. Oh My Goodness. How preachy I was!

Back very shortly  - library day tomorrow.
Sue

Frugal Friday and Finding Pleasure in Small Things

I've said it before and no doubt will say it again, but the best way to be frugal is to be happy at home. If you are forever having to go out ( I'm not talking about going to work obviously) just for entertainment then it's bound to end up with money being spent.

We often spend four, five or even six days in a row at home and we both find plenty to keep us occupied. Our reasons for going out are usually to buy milk or fresh fruit and this will be combined with other errands such as paying a bill, sending a parcel, collecting chicken feed or needing an item from the hardware or DIY shop.

Today has been another stay at home, doing things for ourselves and saving money day. Col spent a while trying to find the puncture in the tyre on the mower trailer, cleaned out the small chicken shed, and cut some more of the conifer hedge, he's round the back now on the campsite, doing the sides little by little. I got 3 loaves of bread made, my bread costs less than 30p a loaf, did some cleaning and chopped kindling in between times. The other semi final from the Australian tennis was on 5 Live Extra on the radio so I listened as I worked.We refuse to spend extra on television channels so manage without, there's enough choice for us.

Because we stay at home we can wear old clothes, often from charity shops, we don't need to buy new clothes very often. Because we stay at home we can use the Rayburn for cooking and heating the kettle - we are here to put on our free wood to keep it going. Because we stay at home the washing can dry out on the line - I'm here to get it in if it rains so the tumble dryer doesn't need to be used.
It's good to be happy at home.

Here are the other things that have saved us money in January.

Homemade compost spread around fruit bushes

Biking to town twice instead of driving

Repairing a zip in a pair of jeans

Cutting free wood and kindling for free heat

Eating our own apples( until the 10th) onions,potatoes and beetroot from store. Brussels sprouts,leeks, parsnips and swedes from the garden. Apples,pears,apricots,plums and peppers from the freezer.

Knitting dishcloths

Making Christmas cards from my craft stash

Reading free library books

Finding pleasure from small things in January.

 Mabel -our very shy outside cat - following me all round the field as I go to collect the eggs.

Seeing more of our son and future daughter in law now they are back in Suffolk.

Being able to share ideas for books and lovely comments from strangers and friends on the blog

Crocuses in a pot on the kitchen windowsill.

 Thank you for comments about the books and bookshelves, I will be back with more pictures next week. I had a count up and there are around 50 pictures still to be taken before I get to the end! Forgot to say yesterday that there were 119 books on those shelves and 68 from the day before so the total so far is 307. Yes, seems  we do have over a 1000 books.

Back Soon
Sue

What being debt free, organised and frugal means to us

Choice.

Being frugal back in the 1980s gave us the choice of whether  I had to go back to work after having the children.
Being frugal gave us the choice to move house several times to end up here with  a home worth more than many others
Becoming  debt free a few years ago gave us the chance to save some money which in turn gave C the choice to change from full time employment to part time self employment.
Being frugal and debt free means we are able to choose what we do with our pennies.
Being frugal and organised is knowing there is always money put aside for bills and for all expenses and even for the unknown around the corner.

Fearless

We don't have to fear the postman bringing a bill
We don't have to worry about what will happen if C has another heart attack and can't work
We never need worry about being cold or hungry
We know we can downsize when we need to, we don't have to worry about being able to manage here.

Content

Despite having money to spare we are content living the way we do
We don't have to join in with consumerism
We don't feel the need to queue for the sales
We have hobbies that make us happy without costing a fortune
I'm happy with my blog and won't be adding lot's of ads and sponsorship.

Back Soon
Sue

Februarys Frugal accomplishments and todays news

February = 28 Days of frugal-ness - except for re-homing the cats with the required "donation" to Cats Protection!

Made our own bread every week
Avoided shopping and spent nothing on 19/28 days
Started knitting dishcloths so that we can stop using the sponge scourers which  don't last long.
Read library books for free
2 Free Jute shopping bags from the potato day.
I cut his hair and he cut mine.
Collected a free load of ply and other wood that had been destined for a skip.
Used free wood for heating house/water all month
Used the Rayburn/wood burner as much as possible for heating kettle.
Used the Rayburn oven as often as possible for cooking dinner
Used mainly our own vegetables so spent less than £7 on salad stuff.
Avoided using tumble dryer all month
Ate our own apples and frozen fruit + dried fruit so no spending on fresh fruit all month
Bulk buy of 10kg of Bicarb  for cleaning
My personal spending = NOTHING 


What news have I got for you from the east coast today?

The weather was bright first thing  so I got out to the shed to prick out the seedlings and pot up the largest of the tomato plants from modules into 3inch pots. I then sowed 4 of the frighteningly expensive cucumber seeds.
I had  a count up of seedlings/ plants growing so far, if they don't die on me we have
18 Sweet Pepper plants
10 Aubergine plants
75 various Tomato plants
All of the above are for the poly tunnels to produce things for us to sell
And several Parsley plants also to sell


Then I  washed all the pots and seed trays that have been used so far this year.

Him Outside has been starting to line out the new gents toilet shed.

Once it started to rain we decided on a lazy Friday afternoon.

I only found out last night that a lady who has just started commenting on my blog is the Nan of our youngest daughters partner. So an extra welcome to Janet!

1,800 Egg Boxes

We needed a new stock of egg boxes so had a morning out to collect them and while we were out we popped into Diss to do a tour of the charity shops. We took a flask as per usual and had a coffee in the jeep before heading out around the town.

No bargains except one which I will keep you in suspense about until tomorrow!

By the time we had been all around the town and heading back to the car we were getting a bit peckish so bought a couple of cakes from Greggs to have with the rest of our coffee. A £1.15 treat and then another cheap treat - a bag of watercress, which I love, to have with a lasagne for dinner tonight.
The joy of being frugal is that even the treats are not expensive. If bought cakes and salads-in-a-bag are your normal fare then a treat would need to be something for £5 instead of £1!

I once grew watercress from seed as it doesn't need running water but the plants didn't do very well. It needs growing in  pots that are stood in a big tray of water so that they are constantly damp. But I think they need feeding to get anything big enough to be able to cut to eat. I'm not sure if the seeds are still available.

This is what 1,800 Egg boxes looks like, what a good thing it is to have a spare room to keep them in!

Each bale holds 300 plain grey boxes for 6 eggs and work out to between 5 and 6 pence each box. This is the cheapest we have been able to find them. We are now selling about 58 dozen eggs every week and this lot  should last us most of the year depending on how many clean boxes get returned. Someone left us several the other day but they had obviously put the broken egg shells in the boxes as they were stained and dirty with bits of shell stuck all over. However, nothing is wasted as they are handy for fire lighting or in summer when the fires are not alight dirty boxes get torn into bits and added to the compost bin.

Being out this morning means I missed the Scottish girls winning their Bronze medal in the Curling but hopefully I shall get to see the mens final which I'm guessing is tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow is also library van day but my book picture will  have to wait until Saturday.

Keeping you guessing over what tomorrows photo will be..................................

Back Tomorrow

Learning to knit at age 58!

When I was small I learned to knit, but only scarves for dolls.  I know  my mum did a little knitting, jumpers, cardigans and hats with attached scarves for me and my sister and I do remember her having an early knitting machine that took forever to set up and tangled easily.
Once I married Him Outside I never needed to knit, as his mum could rustle up things for the children quicker than you could say Double Knitting Wool!

Then about 4 years ago I used to take baking to the Country Market at Framlingham and around then a new knitting shop opened in the town with classes for beginners and several ladies from the market got interested in knitting again. One of them gave me a ball of 100%  cotton double knitting and said if I could cast on and do a row of knitting then I could make squares - including dish clothes - which would be very handy. I went and got a pair of knitting needles from the charity shop and then...........nothing. The ball of cotton was put away and the needles stood in a pot on the craft room window sill.

But I've been inspired by dozens of bloggers who knit especially Bridget at Malbridge House who knits as quick as my late mum-in-law. So having found where everything was, I cast on a needleful of stitches and began, just ordinary knitting, although I THINK I know how to purl, didn't want to make things too complicated.

I'd done about an inch or so when I realised I didn't know how to cast off when I  got to the end. ( Possibly in about 3 weeks time?) Luckily our friend who comes around every Wednesday morning to pick up her eggs was able to remind me what to do.

So One dishcloth coming up..........................eventually!

 A decision needs to be made about a letter in the post this morning. Do I want to work on the 22nd of May for 15 hours plus setting up and packing up time? For £115 plus £10 pay for online training? Do I want to sit in a village hall somewhere for a very long boring day, getting a backache?
Would I earn that amount staying at home - No, but I'm still not enthusiastic.
I'll think about it for a day or two.

Back Tomorrow.

PS - Thank you to everyone for comments over the last few days, welcome to Susan,  a new follower via bloglovin' and hello and goodbye to follower number 137 in the pictures who was there for a day and then went again before I had a chance to welcome them!

Last months frugal accomplishments

I usually look at a blog from the USA by The Prudent Homemaker. An incredible lady who home schools her children, does lots of craft things, gardens and cooks. Most weeks she has a blog called "Last weeks frugal accomplishments". That blog always makes me wonder what frugal things we have done in the last week, then I thought I would make a list for  the whole month.


Used a pheasant given to us for a meal
Made own bread  every week
Sewed hem on bath towel to repair it
Shortened legs and re-hemmed a pair of overalls
Read library books 
Stayed at home and spent nothing on 21/31 days
Used leeks, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, parsnips,parsley, swede from the garden.Onions from store.
Made celery soup using the outside stalks of a head of celery.
Used the Rayburn/woodburner for heating kettle as much as possible.
Used the Rayburn for cooking as much as possible.
Ate our own stored eating and cooking apples 
Used free wood for heating house/ water all month
Personal spend =25p
Looked at two craft magazines but decided against buying
Put off doing the washing each week until a dryish day therefore avoiding using tumble dryer

The trouble is, these seem just ordinary normal things to me, and perhaps we should do even more.

Thinking about that reminded me of something that's in one of those books in the picture at the top of my blog.
The book by Patrick Rivers called Living Better on Less has a list of choices which he calls " The Marmalade factor". He says you can apply this principle to anything you do to see how low/simple you want to be. This is how it goes-

Choice one: Buy favourite brand, regardless of cost
Choice  two: Buy a cheaper brand or special offer
Choice three: Buy cans of prepared pulp and make your own
Choice four: Buy Seville oranges and make proper home-made
Choice five:  Do without marmalade
Choice six: Do without breakfast

So, looking at my list of frugal things perhaps I shouldn't have bought that celery as we have things of our own that I could make soup with. Perhaps we shouldn't have gone to that jumble sale where I spent that 25p on a little jug. Perhaps we should eat food raw to save cooking in the electric oven when the Rayburn isn't hot enough!

Now I'm just being silly...........we will just carry on as before, being frugal our way.

Back Tomorrow, 1st February, so it's review of the month time.




 

Simple Living - The "rules" we will live by in 2014

 MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL We don't want to be miserable so simple living must make us happy.

We will think before we buy things. We will use the internet if it's cheaper. We won't go shopping just for fun but on the other hand we will visit charity shops and car boot sales on our days out.

We will know the difference between wants and needs.

We will keep an open mind when looking at advertising and new ideas. We can look and read without buying.

I will avoid going anywhere that requires new clothes. Our clothes are often from charity shops, they last ages because we wear old clothes at home. We don't need to follow fashion.

We are self employed so any day can be a holiday. We don't need to spend a fortune on going abroad to find the sun as we can catch the sun anytime we have a sunny day.

We won't suddenly feel the need to spend money on hair cuts or things to make us beautiful ( too late for that!)

We will not start keeping up with any Jones or anyone else.

We will always know what money we have. We will save all that we can on the good days to use on the bad days. We will check bank statements, we will only use the  credit card when necessary and pay off every month. We will make our savings work for us and try not to dip into them unless we really have to.

We will grow and use as much of our own fruit and vegetables as we can, we will eat with the seasons and keep our food simple.  This means that a take away and Christmas food becomes a special treat.

We will have faith in ourselves in being able to manage  on what we can earn.

We will enjoy ourselves- LOTS

In other words exactly the same as 2013!

Oh what a night. Late December in 2013

There's windy weather and then there's VERY windy weather. I can't remember a night when it's been so windy for so many hours. I kept turning over to see if the clock was still going and then trying to work out how I would do a Christmas dinner for 6 with the Rayburn oven and the gas hob if the electric did go off. Thank goodness  it stayed on so I needn't have worried. Some parts of the country were not so lucky.

Our thoughts go to those who have lost family members in the storms just 1 days before Christmas. Loss of electric would have been a minor thing compared to that.

At day break we could see that our middle polytunnel had collapsed at the front, with the plastic tearing along the top and at the back.Everything else around the smallholding was OK. This is the first time in 22 years that we've lost a tunnel to storm damage.

Christmas Eve has chugged along with lots of list ticking and jobs done. Not too much left  to do really.
So tomorrow we will have
An Aldi 3 bird roast ( never had one before so hope it's OK) £9.99
Roast potatoes - Home grown - effectively free as we sold lots earlier in the year.
Roast Squash - Home grown -  "   "  "  "  "  "  "  "     "    "      "      "       "     "   "
Roast Parsnips - Home Grown - almost free
Brussels Sprouts -  Home grown - almost free
Swede  -  Home grown - almost free
Red Cabbage - Home grown - almost free
Carrots - Part of a value bag from Tesco approx 20p
Aunt Bessies Yorkshire puds 12 for £1 on offer at Tesco
Pigs in blankets in Honey mustard glaze - good sausages on offer at Co-op + value streaky bacon
                         from Tescos glazed with wholegrain mustard and honey.       
Bread Sauce - oddments of bread saved in the freezer over the last few weeks + home grown onion
                       Milk made from value powdered   + home grown  bay leaf +pepper+ bit of butter.
Cranberry Sauce - Value from Tesco, warmed in microwave with 2 teaspoons of port 50p + ?
Gravy - Chicken oxo cube plus thickening with cornflour - 10p + few pennies
Bottle of wine - A gift
Co-op pressed apple juice 75p
Water


Desert - choice of ( or both!)
Christmas pudding - Home made - not sure how much it cost
Custard Made with Birds custard powder and milk from value powdered.
Single cream
Chocolate Meringue Gateaux - recipe is here  about £3. - 2 portions still in freezer - YUM

For anyone still hungry ( Brother in law!)
Cheese and biscuits  £ 1 savoury biscuit mix from Poundland + cheeses
A decent cup of coffee.
AND FINALLY
"After Eights" A look-a-like box from AF. 2 boxes for £1 - I think

Believe it or not some people will still want something at around 6.30 or 7pm 

So Christmas tea on the table for those who will want it ( Father in law, brother in law and Him Outside) will be the delicious ham, celery, tomatoes, bread rolls, chutneys, cheeses. Christmas cake, mince pies, scones. I shall be on the settee watching TV with a ham roll, scone, jam and clotted cream.

Back tomorrow

Happy Christmas to all out there in blogland

     

Playing with numbers - How little could we live on?

Although I love the Hovel books by Elizabeth West and the Good Life TV programmes, there is one major flaw in both their lifestyles- Lack of Income.

So out of curiosity while I was fiddling about working out next years budget, (blog will appear about this some time) I wondered what would be the minimum we could live on if we still lived here but didn't have the campsite and smallholding businesses. ( I like playing with numbers and obviously have too much time on my hands!)

We would have to pay the Council Tax, the Water bill  for the house, Dentist, Optician and prepayment prescription costs. We could manage with secondhand clothes but would need shoes and underwear. There would be some sort of electric bill even if we used as little as possible and did every bit of cooking in the wood fired Rayburn. We would still need to buy food and  seeds to grow our own vegetables. I don't think I would like to be without house insurance.  Living here we would need the computer and phone  as we are too far from the library or a phone box.  It would be very difficult to manage without a car too, although we would only need a small cheap one if we didn't have the smallholding to run. Could we do without TV? Probably but I wouldn't want to. There would still be expenses for bathroom and cleaning etc.
So I added all those up and came to about £800 a month.
That's with no extras. No gifts for other people.Nothing over the very, very basics. Worst of all NO MONEY FOR BOOKS!

So it's a good thing we have got the smallholding, the campsite, the chickens and a bit of savings.

Yet another chicken shed

Selling eggs at the gate is one of our main income sources. We live on an unclassified backroad but it is used by people from several villages who are heading to Saxmundham and as we've sold eggs on and off for 20 years we knew that when Him Outside went self employed we would increase hen numbers.
The trouble is that in the fixed shed the chickens soon turn the grass to mud which is not good for clean eggs. So plan " turn old campsite loo block into chicken shed" was hatched (!).  Everything was stripped out, cleaned out and tidied up. Him Outside sorted perches and nest boxes, our farmer friend came with his loader and big trailer

 and just a few minutes later the old shed had been shifted right up to the top of the field and as soon as we get more electric fence we will move the chickens.
They will love  to have more grass, the fixed shed and run will have a rest and the eggs will be cleaner.

This is where I was while it was raining first thing this morning, at my "work station" chopping kindling ready for lighting the Rayburn and woodburner. It is something I will be doing regularly from now until April.  It keeps me out of mischief .

 I wonder if we really will get the weather that is forecast for Sunday or Monday. It sounds as if it will pretty rough, but sometimes when the weather is from the South West by the time it gets to us on the Eastern  edge it has worn itself out.

Thanks to everyone for Pasty and Autochopper comments yesterday!
Back tomorrow.

Stretching sausages

I've said before that we have cut down meat eating since we stopped producing our own and since prices went up. So now when we do have it I make it stretch. But is it possible to make 4 sausages feed 2 people three or even 4 times?
Answer  = Yes!
And can I keep Him Outside well fed with one sausage?
This is what I made today to feed us today, tomorrow lunch and tomorrow dinner and maybe another lunch too.

A toad in the hole and a sausage plait.
And is one sausage in the toad in the hole enough to feed him?
If you add in lots of  vegetables,mostly homegrown, then yes it's plenty.
Roast potatoes and squash, carrot and courgettes make a big plateful,enough for anyone.

Obviously the sausage plait has more in it than the meat from 2 sausages!

Sausage plait
Third of a pack of puff pastry (I buy from the chilled counter and divide into 3 before freezing)
2 sausages skins removed
2 tablespoons of value stuffing mix.(  about 15p a box, I tip boxes into a storage jar)
1 small onion chopped       }    Home grown
1 small courgette chopped  }      "           "
1 eating apple grated          }        "           "
Soften the onion and courgette in a spot of water in the microwave ( or in a teenie bit of oil in pan)
Add the stuffing mix and enough hot water to make the stuffing wet.
Leave to cool, then add the grated apple and the squidged sausage meat, and mix it all together.
Roll out the pastry into an oblong and put the meat mix down the middle.
Make cuts in the sides from the meat, out to the edge about an inch apart.
Fold the sides in alternately and stick it with water or beaten egg.
Brush with egg or a little milk.
Place on a greased tray
Cook in hot oven for about half an hour, turn it round to cook evenly.
Best eaten cooled a bit or cold.
( home made shortcrust could be used, but ready made puff can be rolled thinner)

With a plate full of delicious home made food, is it no wonder we rarely eat out?!

Small money saver tip -- see the jar of mustard on the table, I always buy powdered mustard and mix a little with water in a jar. Cheaper than buying a jar of ready made mustard.


Thanks to A Suffolk girl, Em, Attila, Compostwoman, Pam,  Angela, Buttercup, Cro, Bridget  and Kev for comments yesterday. Everyone is in agreement about waste from shops and in the home.

It was fine all morning so some outdoor jobs were done. Him Outside had a dentist appointment and actually got given a tube of toothpaste - handy. Then he went to our neighbours to fix an outside tap to a wall and to  a friends to re -fit a pane of glass in a shed.
My jobs were hoovering, cleaning and then some weeding, which I was in the middle of when a motorhome arrived on site for a couple of nights. So an unexpected extra income.
By lunchtime the promised rain had begun but just like yesterday it didn't last long.

That's today's news
Back tomorrow

More things we don't spend money on

Reading lots of other blogs on frugal living gives a window into other peoples lives that wouldn't normally be seen. Sometimes I see spending plans by people who are hoping to pay off their mortgage or debts and wonder how serious they really are.

They want to save yet still spend money on things that I consider unnecessary luxuries. Him Outside had a job that always paid just average earnings yet we wanted to be able to raise our 3 children, buy a smallholding, pay off the mortgage and to allow him to give up full time paid work at age 55. We took these plans seriously and looked at every way we could think of to achieve our aims.

The economic situation over the last 5 years is a new experience for young people, but those of us approaching 60 have seen it before. The oil crisis in the 70s caused prices to rocket. Then during the early 80s  prices went up and house prices doubled in just a few years. Another recession in the early 90s and mortgage rates shot up to 16% . We had just bought this smallholding and it made things very tight for us. So nothing is new.

 So my suggestions for others to think about would be-

Doing without anything with a label. Clothes, shoes, handbags etc. Take a step down to cheaper brands or two steps down to secondhand.

Always do the Martin Lewis( Money Saving Expert) one step down on supermarket food.

Grow as much as you can fit in and have time to care for.

Go without expensive brands of things like shampoo, make up etc etc. You might find the cheapest will work just as well.Use less of anything you do use.

Write down every single thing you spend money on and think of ways to spend less on EVERY SINGLE THING!

Do more for yourself. You don't need a window cleaner, cleaner, gardener, etc.

You CAN manage without  all the extra spending for TV. A TV license and Freesat is all you need! Honestly THAT IS ALL YOU NEED.

Never ever buy a new hardback book. In a months time you will be able to get it on Amazon for less and if you can't wait that long USE YOUR LIBRARY.

Never ever spend silly money on Birthday cards. Where do they go in a few days time? INTO THE BIN. It's the thought that counts, write a special note inside instead.


I could go on and on as there are hundreds of ways to pinch pennies IF YOU WANT TO. Look on it as your job if you are serious about paying off debts and having a good future.

I took part in the 30 ways to Save a £1 on Money supermarket. A few more ideas are HERE