A morning out - Not Shopping.

Him Outside was working 15 miles away around Woodbridge today and offered to drop me off for a couple of hours so I could have a look around the charity shops. I think there are 6 plus the Oxfam book shop and I went around the lot and bought................absolutely nothing.
Woodbridge has our nearest WHS so I had a good look at all the magazines, Home Farmer, Country Smallholding and Smallholder plus the craft mags, and I looked at their huge heaps of half price cookery books and I bought ...............absolutely nothing.
Woodbridge also has our nearest Boots so I went to see what they had in their sale and I bought.......absolutely nothing.
And finally there is the nearest M & Co so I had a look at their clothes and bought...... Yes you guessed. Not a thing.

I finished up by going to the library where I found 3 books to borrow - all ones I'd not seen before.
After he picked me up we came home via Wyevale to use our very last Garden Voucher from the ones he was given by  his colleagues when he finished work 2 years ago. We now have all the multi- purpose compost and seed compost we need for the year.  I had a look round at all their sale items but once again nothing appealed except for a half price Spode Cheese platter with 6 butter spreaders decorated with Christmas trees, which I thought might make a good gift until I noticed the full price was £34.99! Even at half price that would be more than I would spend.
We got stuck in Wyevale for about 15 minutes waiting for a huge downpour of rain to clear and then we came home.

So that was my Not Shopping trip over.

Oh what excitement I have!

The danger of oven gloves!

Welcome to Peg on Bloglovin and Blondie on Google who are new followers since yesterday.

Over the weekend we heard a cautionary tale about someone locally who ended up in A & E on Christmas day because of something like this.

This is the hanging loop on some oven gloves. The girl, using some oven gloves like this, took a tray full of hot fat from the oven and put it on the top of the gas hob, as she moved her hands away the loop of the gloves caught on the bars of the hob, lifting it up and tipping the fat all over her arm.  OUCH.
My oven gloves in the picture are the heavy duty ones from Lakeland as they seem to be all that I can find sturdy enough to use.They  have a small loop but I can see how a bigger loop could catch on the metal grid that gas hobs have.
We heard that she is OK but was in a lot of pain and the burn will take a while to heal.

Today  feels more like the start of the New Year being a Monday with everything getting back to normal. Everything  except egg sales which still haven't picked up since Christmas. There is a limit to how many extra eggs two people can eat without becoming egg-bound :-)

This morning I was in the kitchen baking bread, a sausage plait for dinner tonight and tomorrow and some carrot cake.Then I had dry washing to be put away and hoovering to do.
Him Outside was helping our farmer friend move  2 very old concrete pig sties from one farm to a huge heap of rubble on another farm, where next week the whole heap will be crushed by a large machine turning it all into bits useful for filling in pot holes etc.

I'm getting on well with the James Oswald book - Natural Causes, that I mentioned yesterday. It's modern police crime set in Edinburgh and the first by this author. It was a choice last night of watching Sherlock or reading, and after watching the New Years Day back-from-the-dead episode and being flummoxed,confused ( we are only simple country folk!) and disappointed  we decided to read. Did we miss much last night? I really enjoyed the first two series. Perhaps I'll catch up with it another day.
Alison B43 commented that she had read and enjoyed the James Oswald books, 2 so far and another one soon, and Susan commented that he has an interesting blog about going from farmer to published author.  I'm not sure where I came across his name, perhaps on the Recommended list on Amazon, but it's always interesting to find out more about an author.

No frugal news today, unless you count stretching half a pound of sausage meat to make 4 dinners and 2 lunches, And that's not really news as it's what I always do! (Apple,onion and stuffing mix is the secret).

So what shall I do today?

Let out the chickens from their 3 sheds and check they are all still looking OK.

Hang out the washing - not a lot of dry out but at least they get a bit of fresh air.

Some wiping up and putting away.

A bit of cleaning. Wood fires may be cheap but they do leave a trail of sawdust and bits around them.

A bit of cross stitch. I've started one of two pictures I'm doing which will go into "things", destined to be Christmas presents for 2 people who read this blog.

Enjoy a cup of my favourite coffee and 10 minutes of Sudoku.

 Use some odds and ends to make some of my favourite soup.

 
 1 onion, 1 carrot, 3 sticks of celery, softened in a little butter and water, a squidge of tomato puree and a couple of tablespoons of flour to thicken and the juice saved from a tin of plum tomatoes. Add some more water, pepper, a teaspoon of sugar, whizz in liquidizer and it tastes very much like a famous tomato soup. If I can make tomato soup without tomatoes, do they?

Sew a button on a shirt. Are there REALLY people out in the big wide world who throw things away when a button falls off, or is that an Urban Myth?

Lunchtime listening to The Unbelievable Truth and The Food Programme on Radio 4.

Some more wiping up and putting away.

Check the chickens are OK for water. Then collect, clean and box up 8 dozen eggs.

Reduce the size and photocopy some lovely pictures cut from last years RHS Diary, so that I can use them on the corner of writing paper for my penfriends.

Get the washing in again and put it to finish drying over the Rayburn

 A cup of peppermint tea and a bit of reading. I'm trying a "new" crime author - James Oswald

A little blog reading. A Look at all the updated entries over in my blogroll.

Add a book to my wish list. Thanks to Kev at An English Homestead, who has given a good review of a new homesteading book from the States.

 And at last a little blogging!

Welcome to 2 new followers on google, Julie and mumasu making 117, and 80 people have clicked the bloglovin' button too. ( I still don't really "get" bloglovin! The person at the top of the 80 list is a lady called Wendy  and I'm wondering if she is the Wendy who once lived in Cotton? If so Hello and I think you know Him Outside and I once worked at Middle School with your Mum. If you are not That Wendy, Ignore all I've just written!!)

Thank you to everyone for reading the blog and I do love getting your comments.

Back Tomorrow

The first seeds are sown

 The growing year has started.
Pepper seeds (Jubilanska and Marconi Rossa) are in my windowsill electric propagator and lettuce( Cuore and Winter Density) and parsley beside them plus our micro greens which were a Christmas present from us to us! I missed parsley from my seed order so I've used last years seed but as they are one of the worst for keeping from one year to another they might not germinate. If not I'll need new seed. The peppers are started as early as possible to give them every chance to ripen even though they will be put  in a poly-tunnel.

My blog yesterday about Secret Santa gifts got several commentators agreeing that they don't always work. I'm hopeful that as it's just us, our children and partners, everyone will have some idea of what people like.

Thank you to Laura at No More Spending for her input regarding No Shopping Days. We live in the middle of open countryside so no shopping just means staying at home. I suppose if you go to work everyday surrounded by shops it must be harder not to be tempted to buy stuff.

Also Thank you to other blogging friends Karen, Jane, Pam, Bridget and Lizzy for comments and to Stacey At Mortgage Free Journey who is now reading my blog. Sft ( Saving for travel) said I was an inspiration which is a bit worrying!

Just to show we are not always perfectly frugal here are some of the stupid things we have done!

The year after we moved here we planted a small Christmas tree plantation of 50 trees. Christmas trees DO NOT like heavy clay soil - that's what we have here,so after a wet winter when they sat in muddy puddles we lost most of them.

We thought about moving a while back and Him Outside cleared out lots of "might come in handy" stuff from his workshop. When we didn't move after all he had to start collecting nails, nuts,bolts screws and odd bits of wood all over again. 

About 5 or 6 years ago when my Dad died and left us some money we used part of it to buy a touring caravan. After using it for a year we remembered why we had stopped caravanning about  10 years ago, then we  part exchanged it for a medium sized motor-home so we could have a touring holiday in Scotland. Then after one more year when we went right off traveling we sold the thing! No profits were made anywhere on all those deals. :-(

Three years ago we had a new kitchen extension built and alterations to the house. While we did it we lived in the conservatory, an old caravan and it's awning and a couple of rooms at the front of the house. After living in this muddle for 6 months we moved back in and being desperate to get organised before Christmas we bought a few things that we wouldn't normally have bought new, like 2  chairs that turned out to be too uncomfortable to use for longer than half an hour at a time and a horrible modern sideboard/cupboard for the living room which I'm stuck with looking at and hating everyday!
( No regrets about spending on the house extension as it was something we had wanted to do when we first moved in 21 years ago).

Then there are all the books I've had at various times, cleared out because of lack of space and then regretted later.

I could probably think of more given time but I'd better stop.

Hopefully we've learned all the lessons that can be learned about wasting money and none of the things we've done ever got us into debt.

Back tomorrow. I  WILL keep frugalling!

January Sale Bargains? Not many in this part of Suffolk.

Apart from Him Outside getting some milk when he was at work last week, we hadn't been shopping since the Monday before Christmas! ( This is why I smile when I see people congratulating themselves on 2 "no shopping" days.) So this morning I went into Saxmundham for January's shopping and a hopeful look around in case I could spot any sale bargains. If there were any they must have long gone although in The Original Factory shop I did find a lampshade to replace one that fell apart when I dusted it a few weeks ago, and I got the next 2 years  Christmas Crackers - 20 for £2.50 they are only smallish ones with stickers instead of the normal plastic tat, but that will do us.

When I read in Johns Going Gently blog about the Superman outfit he was given as a Secret Santa gift, I thought "thank goodness we don't work anywhere where we have to get involved in one of those". Then Our Dear Son decided that as we are having a family get together mid month it would be nice to have an extra late Christmas present each. There is a web site he told us, that organises everything for you, then emails to tell you who you have to buy for. Now mystery  present buying/receiving is not really my thing but  I won't let the cat out of the bag and say who I have to buy for - but they will get something USEFUL. However I will drop a hint via this blog to let whoever is buying mine know that definitely NO smellies  or chocs please but what I did see in town this morning was  a special Tesco issue of a Gardening Magazine that has about £20 of free seeds with it. Now THAT would be useful as would postage stamps! Just a small hint!

Yesterday evening I got around to tackling "The Draw".

Now its  empty again ready for 2014

  This is the bottom drawer of the kitchen dresser where all  receipts, paper work, paid bills etc etc are put. Everything except Campsite stuff and Him Outsides work related bits are shoved in, then sorted out in the first few days of the new year. By doing this we know where everything is. After a year quite a lot can be chucked straight on the fire and anything that needs keeping is put into a box file.

We have had another lot of rain again overnight plus a downpour this morning, and the wind has been whistling around the house again. It seems we get one good day then 3 nasty ones.  I saw the lunchtime news with the floods along the West Coast of England and Wales and thought how devastating it must be to stand powerless when the sea or river surges into your house or business. Once again I'm glad we live on our flat bit of Suffolk Countryside well above the nearest river.

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday, the days rush by and I never seem to have time to reply properly. I do read them all and appreciate the input.

Back Tomorrow

January stores and January Weather

 Up until the spring of last year I wrote regularly for our local Suffolk Smallholders Society monthly newsletter. One year I did a page each month called " Country Days and Country Ways". I used  information from some of my many ( too many!) books of  weather sayings and country traditions.
I thought it would be fun to do the same now and again on the blog during 2014.

So here's a weather saying for the start  of the year

The first three days of January foretell the first three months of the year.

We shall see. 

 Yesterday as the weather was so wet, cold, grey and windy,  I made a start on my plan to clear out some things from the craft room. I filled a boxful with cross stitch kits that I will NEVER do, card toppers that I will NEVER use and other bits and bobs that have been lurking for years. The result only made half a shelf of less stuff. But I felt better! The box has gone upstairs to join our collection of things for a car boot sale.

After lunch, egg collecting and packing. I looked to see what was on TV....... Nothing. Old films and more old films. So when Him Outside came in I suggested we have our first game of Scrabble of the winter.
At the end it looked like this

We use a scrabble dictionary and cheat by looking up words in it before we lay the tiles. It's full of strange words that don't appear in The Shorter OED. We've now discovered that we have a letter Y missing. I think I'll have to make one from something.
 Despite my QUAIL on a triple word, I only won by 1 point.
We need some practice in case we get a chance to play a game with Him Outsides' sister - a demon Scrabble player!

It was good to make the first entry in my new diary - which is just an A4 note pad, I don't like the constraints of a normal diary. ( Although I keep a week to view one in the kitchen for reminders) I need blank pages for planning things, lists etc, and I like to start at the front and at the back!
Yesterday I made a list of all the food of our own we have available here on January 1st.
It looked like this
From Store - Beetroot, potatoes, onions, squash, cooking apples, eating apples.
From the garden - Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, leeks, parsnips. A few lettuce, radishes and salad leaves, a little chard and some golf ball sized swedes. ( + Sprouting broccoli soon)
From the freezer - Broad Beans, sweetcorn, peppers, pears, cooking apples, raspberries, gooseberries, cherries. Plus a few redcurrants and plum tomatoes.
In the kitchen cupboards - Jam - Marrow and ginger, Summer fruits, Plum, Greengage, Gooseberry, Strawberry and Gooseberry.
Chutneys - Pumpkin and pepper, Beetroot and Ginger, Hot tomato, Sweetcorn relish,Green Tomato,Onion Marmalade chutney,Gooseberry and date, Marrow and apple.


 Today after lots more heavy rain overnight, the weather is completely different  with bright sunshine and a clear blue sky and  I soon had  two loads of washing blowing on the line.
 Him Outside was working for the County Council this morning and I was in the kitchen making pies with the remainder of the beef stew we had for dinner yesterday. I cooked up a 2 packs of the meat ( 3 packs stewing beef for £10) used some value carrots from Tesco, and leeks, onions and swede from the garden,  added  stock using a couple of beef oxo cubes, hot water and a can of beer. This was simmered on the Rayburn, thickened with Bisto. We ate this last night with dumplings and Brussels Sprouts. The remainder has made 3 pies, each serving the two of us.  One for tonight and 2 for the freezer. We rarely eat beef so this is the best way to stretch it as much as possible.
Then I did a lot of hoovering and more tidying after which it was lunch time and egg collecting all over again.

I'm feeling a bit left out today as most people in blogland seem to be embarking on New Adventures and New Challenges.  Whereas here we will just be chugging along in our normal simple way.


 Although I do have a cunning plan to save any spare housekeeping towards one of these!

 

The iconic ‘Revival’ DAB radio is a nostalgic 1950s style retro radio with advanced DAB features.


I shall let you know how I get on.

I keep forgetting to say Thank you for lots of comments over the last few days, apologies for not replying to everyone individually also welcome to follower number 115 in the pictures and a couple more people on bloglovin.

Back tomorrow - Keeeeep Frugaling!

Review of the month - looking back at December

Before we get stuck in to 2014, just one more look back with my usual review of the month just gone.

I try to always make the positive list longer than the negative list so.......

1. We earned enough money in December for January's budget
2. We caught up on news with our Sisters and Brothers in law.
3. Our son and his girlfriend came to visit for the weekend.
4. Buying the bargain trailer that hooks on the mower will make life much easier for Him Outside.
5. Food spending for Christmas and December was well down on other years leaving me some bonus money.
6. We had a quiet Christmas with just Father in law,brother in law, youngest and her bloke here for Christmas dinner and just us four oldies for the rest of the day.
7. We had lots of lovely Christmas presents, books, chocolates, a watch each, a red microwave!
8. We still have vegetables in the garden for the rest of the winter.
9. We still have enough meat in the freezer for nearly 2 months.
10. We enjoyed some Christmas Specials on TV
11. Our eldest daughter got engaged
12. We were given 2 pheasants
13. Lots of good books from the library van
14. The chickens are back to laying well, despite the muddy field
15. The potato/squash/pumpkin field has been mucked and ploughed
16. Him Outside doing more work for the County Council - a bonus income.

On the negative side of the equation

The middle polytunnel was damaged by the storms, needing repairs to the frame and a new plastic cover. Then another bit of fence blown over 4 days later.

My Christmas present cupboard is bare. So I shall be searching car boots, charity shops and doing a bit of making ASAP.

Everywhere is very wet and muddy and some jobs that should have been done haven't been started.

So once again less negatives than positives, I hope this continues into 2014.


Before I go I must say a big HELLO and WELCOME to several people who have clicked the follower button over the last few days. Hope you enjoy reading about our simple Suffolk smallholding.


Back Tomorrow to start a month of normal  posts - Keeeeep Frugalling!

SSS