Eating my words

Before I forget I must say welcome to a new follower lisamaywalters, now up to 52 followers, may be a while until I catch up to Ilona and Frugal Queen!

Yesterday I finished by saying I was off to check Approved Foods to see if I could find the sort of bargains other people blogged about. And what did I find straight away? Bread Flour! which I had also mentioned on my blog yesterday. AF had Hovis 3kg  ( i.e. double normal size) for 50p a bag - now that IS a bargain. I also found some other things which were on my shopping list for this month or next month, the cheapy tins of mandarins at 8 for £1 which they always seem to have in stock(  for winter stores) and a couple of things for next weekend when the family are coming to visit to check their Dad really is  OK! Total just a fraction over £16, with a saving of over £30. I'm semi converted. Although it was the bread flour that persuaded me and I probably won't buy from them again for many months.

Him Outside is beginning to get some energy back so we finally got around to doing some much needed weeding in poly tunnels and veg beds, which I hadn't had time for in the last fortnight. There is still a lot to do but we are taking it steady. He now has a date for the second visit to Papworth - Mid September, so not too long to wait.

We also had a look to see what our main crop potatoes are like - Oh Dear! Not good at all due to  signs of blight and lack of rain. The squash plants are also suffering from the prolonged dry spell. He then held the bottom of the step ladder and used a hoe to hook down the branches of the Morello cherry so that I could climb up and pick some from higher. Normally it would be me on the ground and him up the ladder!

Anyone else take Craft Creations Magazine? Its the only one I like as it is produced by the Craft Creations card making supplies company so there are discounts available for subscribers. Plus it is only 4 times a year for £12, so not wildly expensive like most of the crafting magazines at the newsagents. I had a card featured in the Readers Gallery in the latest edition and was expecting a voucher - I think it was £10  I had last time, but nothing has arrived. Maybe they don't do that  anymore. I shall email to find out.

It was hair cutting day today. No trips to expensive hairdressers for us. We have the cutters so he does mine - a 6 all over, and I do his - a 3 all over with a 2 round the edges. Simple, cheap, tidy. What more do you need from a haircut! How much does your hair cut cost? In the interests of frugality would you ever DIY?

Odds and Ends

How are some people able to buy 4 pints of milk for £1? I've read this on a couple of blogs lately. Around here CO-OP and Tesco have just both put their semi skimmed up by 10p to £1.39. Waitrose are the only other shop locally, I expect they are the same. I know some people have swapped to powdered but too many years of Scout Camps with horrible powdered milk - with lumps- has somewhat put me off, although I expect it is better quality nowadays.

We had even more stuff out on the stall-at-the-gate this morning as the runner beans have finally got going. They were covered in flowers which set then seemed to go slow. I was only able to give them a good watering two or three times over the last couple of weeks but with rain a day or so ago and another good downpour last night they are now  growing quickly.

Sara at Afrugalwife has been blogging about ways of cutting  laundry costs, this made me look at at my laundry costs over the last year. (I know there are only 2 of us , so with Sara's two tots a lot more washing would be done! and she has done really well.) My laundry costs - not counting electric - for the last 15 months have been about £22 ! I bought an Ecover Non-Bio Bag in a Box 5L laundry liquid. This is decanted into an old 5L container and then again into a smaller bottle as needed. I have a plastic thing once used to fill an iron with water and into this I put about 2 Tablespoons of the liquid and then top up with hot water and add about a tablespoonful of Washing Soda Crystals (99p kg). This goes into the machine. I don't use fabric softener and keep a bar of Vanish soap in the cupboard for stains. I guess we do about 4 or 5 loads of washing a week. Bath Towels are hung over the banister at the top of the stairs to dry after one use and only put in the wash after the second or even third use. When we go out and are forced to wear 'good clothes',  I change out of them the minute I come in the door and then hang them up at the end of the rail to wear again. Old work clothes are worn until they are dirty. I don't think we smell!! We do have a tumble dryer as we rescued it from my Dad's house after he died, but it is out in the shed and doesn't get used much. Clothes are dried outside whenever possible, over the airer above the Rayburn to finish them off  in winter. We have the advantage of living in the dryest part of the country so I can usually guarantee enough dry days in a week to get the washing at least partly dry outside. To save electric on days when I know the washing will dry outside, I turn the spin speed down. All washing is done at 40 degrees with an occasional hot wash to help clean the washing machine( We use Ecover as it is better for the septic tank and also because we  LOATHE the smell of both the cheap and the posh soap powders.)

It was bread baking day today. I'm very puzzled at the price of bread flour which seems to be going up and down at random. Allinsons was still £1 last time we went to Aldi so I stocked up with 4 bags and Tesco own brand was also £1 after going up and then down again. If I didn't have to cut costs I would buy Marriages flour from the CO-OP as they are an Essex Company using wheat from East Anglia. They do a lovely Malted Grain flour which, many years ago when there were 5 of us at home, I would buy by the sackful from a wholefood warehouse in Norwich.

GRRRRRRR - another cancellation for the campsite today from a family who were due to be here all next week. I suppose I should be used to it after all these years.But I still hate doing the crossing out in the bookings diary.

I'm now going to have another look at the Approved Foods site. Everyone keeps raving about their bargain buys yet every time I look I can't seem to find anything I would normally buy and is a bargain really a bargain if it is something that would normally not be bought?

It's all just Common Sense

We needed to go and get some chicken feed, wheat, oyster shell and hen grit from the Feed Milling Company and some packaging for vegetables, so that was our morning out. Him Outside is not allowed to drive for this week but he came along for the ride. I don't mind driving a 50 mile round trip on country back roads but the same distance to Ipswich I shall need more practice at. We  needed some perforated plastic bags and and small punnets for this year but thought that as we were there we might as well  stock up on punnets for next years gooseberry crop too, so I now have 500 x 500g punnets and 350 x 250g  punnets - be prepared is my motto - after 20 years as a Cub Scout Leader their motto rubbed off on me! 

Two things in the news have interested me.( Well, three things really if you include news about food banks, food price increases and the rush for the rich and famous to jump on the frugal food bandwagon) Anyway what I want to say was I heard about a survey that said how many people were unable to point to the part of their bank statement that showed the balance and didn't know that was how much money they had available (or not available as the case may be). The second piece of news was about the number of people on zero hours contracts. Zero Hours contract is when you are             " employed" but only if they want you to work and you only get paid if you do work. You are not unemployed therefore no benefits. This seems to hark back to the thirties where the men would queue at the docks or outside a factory and wait to see how many men would be taken on that day. In a way it is similar to being self employed. If you don't find a way to earn money then you have no income and you don't get any benefits either, at least not in the short term.

How can you educate people about money, surely it must start in the home and at school. I'm old enough to remember savings stamps at school where you took along sixpence ( that's 2 and a half p to anyone born since 1971) and bought a little stamp. This was stuck into a book and at the end of the summer term a lady would come to school and give out the money that you had saved ready for the summer holidays. An easy way to learn that if you save a little bit regularly it adds up a lot. 

As children we spent ages rubbing coins with paper and crayon, then cutting them out and playing shops with toys or whatever. I think there are plans to bring personal finance into the school curriculum, hopefully that will help.

We've never been in debt, thanks to Him Outside always being in work, although well below the national average for much of our early years together. And I have to say also thanks to my skill at working out what was  important to pay for and want we could cut back on.

The mortgage was always top priority, then council tax (or the rates as it was called back then). Water rates, electric bill, TV licence were saved for bit by bit. At that time you could buy savings stamps at the Post Office to save towards many things- stuck on a card to save them just like school days.

 Living in the country a car was virtually a  necessity, so road tax,insurance,MOT were also saved for in tins in the kitchen cupboard. Just as now, the things that could be cut back on were food,clothes,furnishings and extras. The trouble is that now many people think the extras are theirs by right. Somehow a lot of folk are going to have to take a different outlook on what they spend their money on.

We are self employed, we only earn money if we work. We have no pensions yet or insurance. If Him Outside is unable to work for other people for the next few weeks then our only income will be from the campsite, what we sell at the gate plus the bit of interest from investments.  Someone visiting yesterday to see how he was seemed very surprised that we had kept the campsite open for me to manage on my own. Last week another person phoned to ask how things were going for him in hospital and was surprised to find I hadn't been to see him for a couple of days. But chickens need tending to, plants need watering and campers need looking after. That's why I stayed to look after things and because of our skill at managing we will get through whatever happens. Can you learn that at school? or is it something that seems to be sadly lacking in so many areas of life nowadays-good old Common Sense. 

This morning Him Outside asked if I had ever taken a picture of the stall at the gate when it was fully loaded with fruit and veg? Then he passed me my camera - so here it is - full of goodies for lucky people to buy. I say lucky because by midday the whole lot except for the marrows had been bought! 

Belated Review of the Month- Looking Back At July

On the plus side first

1. We earned more than we spent - always a good start to the review of the month.
2. We were able to save some into the ISAs
3. The weather was lovely and sunny at last. ( Longest sunny spell since 2006)
4. Despite numerous machinery breakdowns ( and a useless hay turner that will have to be returned to the place we got it from) The HUGE haymaking job was done. The first 70 bales were sold. There is still money for 230 bales to come, plus 350 more bales will provide us with a small income through the Autumn and early winter, - the man who is having  them  needs to spread his cost and we are happy to do it that way too.
5. The campsite income was good and has been saved for winter.
6. The path along the back of the house was finished.
7. There were some excellent tennis matches at Wimbledon,  and Andy Murray triumphed and seemed a much less grumpy person than in previous years
8. An excellent gooseberry harvest resulted in a grand total of 286lb. Some were put into the freezer, 12lb swapped for picture framing and the rest were sold bringing an income of approx £375!!
9. No vegetables were bought during the whole month - we were completely self-sufficient. 
10. The new raspberry rows gave their first good crop so with strawberries available early in the month, the only fruit bought were nectarines/peaches.
11. Numbers 8 and 9 meant the food spending was well in budget leaving some spare to give to our youngest and her partner for food on the days they took me to hospital, and didn't have time to cook.
12. Another lovely pile of books from the library van( most of which I haven't had time to read yet - can't think why?!)
13. Loads of tasty fruit and vegetables to eat and to sell on the stall at the gate including Salad stuff, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Runner beans, Climbing French Beans, Chilli peppers, Beetroot, Raspberries, Courgettes, Marrows, Morello Cherries.
14. Lots of Best wishes from fellow bloggers helped to get me through the 10 days on my own. Special mention to Bridget who sent so many positive vibes that there were none left in Dorset and her minibus failed it's MOT!
15. Emails and a gift from my Penny Pinching friend S in  Hagley and an extra letter from my penfriend W on Tiree, also helped me through.
16. Him Outside got small cheques for moving the irrigator,grass cutting and for rotavating at Friston allotments.
17.  Got my paper storage sorted in the craft room for £10 after finding the drawer units at a car boot sale.

BUT

• Little did we know that when Him Outside returned from hospital after the angiogram he would then be rushed in by ambulance and be stuck there and at Papworth for the next 10 days!
• The hot weather and their age resulted in some of our chickens going off lay.

Happy Saturday!

Oh it is nice to have Him Outside home again. He has had a wander around the garden a couple of times and lots of rests. The tablets that he had to take for 8 days  to drastically lower pulse rate and blood pressure will take a while to get out of the system. Then it's 6 weeks or so of  pottering about here before another trip to Papworth after which he will be a new man! As my friend said " did you want a new man?" :-)
It's been a lovely day here today with a strong breeze keeping temperatures down to a comfortable level and a good rain during the night has watered all the outside stuff - saving me a job later.
Yesterday I said we had had a cancellation for the campsite  this weekend and today someone rang asking for a space for 3 nights so that worked out well.
My return to the world of village show competition was nice. I entered 15 classes, veg.,cookeryand crafts and came home with two firsts,six seconds and one third. Grand total of £6.70 won, less the £3 fees ( 20p  each class entered) less going up and down to Knodishall so maybe a profit of £1? But people don't enter shows for the prize money, it's to see these little stickers on the cards. I was most pleased with my 2nd for a jar of gooseberry jam. I had just enough fruit from our one red gooseberry bush to make a pound of jam and mine was the only red gooseberry. I've never won a prize in the jam classes before. Also got a second for pumpkin and pepper chutney. Firsts were for cucumbers and eggs. My poem came 2nd. Someone had come up with the idea of a poem with each line starting with the letters KNODISHALL. Very clever- why didn't I think of that!
I found a couple of books on the Church Secondhand book stall so all in all a very Happy Saturday!

 

Tomorrow I really will get around to doing the Review of the Month for July.

He is home safe and sound!!

Him Outside is now Him at Home Resting!
He had quite a nasty time at Papworth ( although the food is a lot better than that at Ipswich apparently), things didn't quite go as easily as they might have done. But he is now home and sitting in his armchair, feeling better than he has done for more than two weeks. The doctor told him that he is on "light duties" for 4 - 6 weeks until he gets back to Papworth for the second stent. I suggested this could be cooking dinner, washing dishes and wiping up !
Now I must say a HUGE BIG THANK YOU to all these people who left best wishes for us over the last week and a bit.

Pam

Trudie

Vicki

Sadie C

dreamer

Bridget

Julie

Sara

Gill

AlisonB43

Angela

Janice

Liz

Scarlet

Ilona

The Domestic Storyteller

Morgan

And I hope I haven't missed anyone

It was really nice to find all the lovely messages every day and it has  helped me  to know so many people were thinking about us.

Now some replies to questions

The giant tomatoes are a variety called Andine Cornue and I got them from The Organic Gardening Company. This is the third year we've grown them and the tomato I took the picture of is the biggest one we have ever had. They are grown in the poly tunnel and originally come from South America.

The campsite is a Camping and Caravanning Club C.S. site. In their Big Sites Book or on the web site we are 156/165. We are open until the end of October as long as the weather is OK. We should have had 5 caravan/motorhomes on site tonight but then I had a cancellation this morning. It made me smile as the lady, after apologizing for cancelling the three nights, said "we are self-employed so have to work around things". I thought -well so am I and that's £36 that I've just lost out on!

I shall have an early start tomorrow to pick and pack stuff for sale and then to choose the best 2 courgettes, cucumbers and peppers to take down to the local show. Entries have to be in before 10.30. Then I shall dash down again at 2pm to see if I've won anything and to check out the secondhand book stall and then pop back again at 4pm to collect any winnings! ( first prize =£1 second prize is 70p and third prize is 50p. So big money involved! and to bring home the cross stitched things. I'll leave the rest for auctioning off.

It's two days into August and I wanted to do my review of July but still haven't had a chance to think about things.Except to hope that August is slightly more peaceful so that I can go back to being just a Simple Suffolk Smallholder.

Flower show entry and a giant tomato

Many thanks to everyone who kept fingers crossed for Him Outside.News from Papworth is sort-of OK. He had a heart-stopping moment - literally - when they did the worst bit of the collapsed artery so although he will be home tomorrow he will have to go back again in a few weeks time with resting in between. Looks like I will still be busy!
I suddenly realised that the local village flower and produce show is on Saturday and as I had already made the jam and craft things I really wanted to enter them.

 Today was the last date for entries so I did a dash down to the village with my form. I decided not to do masses of cake cooking entries - not a lot of time for baking - so I'll just do Suffolk Rusks, Fruit Scones and Cheese Scones, with just a few things from the garden and the craft things. A total of  15 classes entered.

The poetry entry was a short poem about a village.
This is what I came up with

A Village

A chapel, a Pub and a Church

A lady who'll cut your hair

A School for village children

With a shop and a Post Office there

This is the perfect village

Once found both near and far

 Then along came modern life

When everyone has a car

But it is people who make a village

Who stop to laugh and chat

And the village flower and produce show

Is the ideal place for that.

My final photo today is the first of the giant Andine Tomatoes, pictured beside a £2 coin so you can see it's size. It weighed just over 13oz. They are a pain to get germinated, difficult to grow and always look as if they about to keel over. But the taste!! With virtually no seeds and a very thin skin they are just delicious.

Yes, honestly, that is a tomato! I had half for my lunch and the other half for my dinner. YUM
I really WILL get around to answering comments especially to potential campsite visitors as soon as I have a bit more time. I also need to do a review of the month for July too. Just need more hours in the day.
 Thank you everyone for your bloggy support.