Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

sophiesmum_2

Was just contemplating the lovely green tops on my carrots and whether they were edible;) , anyway have googled and found a site all about carrots
www.carrotmuseum.com and YES you can eat carrot tops:p
Think i will stick a veggie/pulses stew in slowcooker and chop up the carrot tops to add to it, seems such a shame to waste them they look and smell lovely:D

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

...Nyk I am even [strike]meaner[/strike]more frugal;) than you, and managed to cut one sprouting spud into 5 chunks each with a sprout, planted these into black florists tubs and got 5 plants growing, these are first i have harvested...

Hi Sophiesmum, I CAN get even [STRIKE]meaner[/STRIKE] more frugal for next time. Apparently, you don't even need to use the potato. You can peel the skin with the sprouting eyes, use the potatoes as normal and still grow more just from the peelings & eyes! :j I already know this works because... I have potatoes growing out of my compost bin!! :eek: :rotfl: Mint is another ideal 'weed' food, as new mint plants grow from chopped mint. My strawberry plants are throwing out runners everywhere, must see how to rescue these to turn them into new plants.

Not to be too outdone in the frugal food harvesting department... guess who is making potato & leek soup tonight? The broccoli got eaten at dinner time tonight as one of our 5-a-day.



I must add that I did NOT plant red potatoes this year. These are a result of seeds or odd potatoes that we must have missed last year, so every one of them is a complete freebie.

lyndasharp

Just been doing my spend total and didn't do too badly this month considering! I haven't included my petrol to Lincoln and back when I was working there for a week, as it's going to earn me way more than that when the uni get around to paying me. £185 tax rebate today, hooray!

Bf has gone off to Derry today to stay with his Mum, hopefully she can help him sort himself out. Given how depressed he was I'm not sure if he'll even be coming back to Swindon, was saying he didn't want to stay here. Very ironic given that last week I thought it might be me living in Derry and him still in Swindon. Anyway, went out with housemate last night and we both got very very drunk... just about staggered into work this morning, think I was still drunk, didn't dare to drive in! Left my lunch on the kitchen worktop and had to get a lift back home again to get it. Housemate has been throwing up all day at work apparently, and she's out to dinner with a work client this evening so hope she manages to eat something!

sophiesmum_2

Nyk that leek looks lovely, not picked any of mine yet.

Re- the strawberry runners if you peg them down into the soil at the point where they have little leaves growing then eventually the runner stem rots away and the pegged down bit turns into a free strawberry plant:D I have about 40 plants half were got this way and I am aiming to have doubled them by next year;)

On the subject of potatoes some of my spud plants have now got seed pods on them, they look like little green cherry tomatoes at the tops of the plants, and inside each one is lots of little seeds. I'm curious if these will do to grow plants from next year or does it have to be from a sprout ?? If you can grow from seeds which I think you must be able to then I will save these and have enough for next year already.

You are right about the peelings as we also have a potato plant growing in compost bin, and also a tomato plant under the birdtable which i presume started life as a rogue seed in it's own fertiliser courtesy of the birds:D

Frugaldom

Sophiesmum - if your potatoes have seed pods (mine do and I've been picking/saving them) then these can be grown from seed next year. I read that one pod gives enough seedlings for an entire plot! The other article I read said that these pods are as a result of cross polination, so we have no way of knowing what type of potatoes will grow - you can develop your very own genetic spud-line. Growing potatoes from a potato is a bit like cloning, you'll always get the same potatoes.
Thanks for the strawberries tip - I'll need to move the pot into centre and surround it with nursery pots to cultivate my babies. :rotfl:

LyndaSharp - I hope everything works out for the best between you and BF. Good news about the tax rebate - wish mine would hurry up and arrive! I also hope your hangover disappears soon :cool:

Back in a mo with my monthly spends - July was a long month but a surprisingly frugal one, despite having a quarterly electricity bill to pay! I'm pleasantly surprised

Brighton_belle

Thanks sophiesmum. I got my new lakeland catelogue today too and have been drooling over it as usual:o . It reminded me that every 6 months I go through this ramoska debate, but now with utility costs spiralling and I hate using our oven anyway, I might dip into saving for this. Just doing research on which size. Apparently, the cost has gone up £10 in the new brochure, but if you quote from the old brochure when ording by phone, they honour the old catelogue(valid til 31st Aug). I love the fact it crisps baked potatoes - always seems a criminal waste utting on the oven just for two taters. Mmm, must go and see what the dehydrator is..... Nonononono bb, you do not need anything else:rotfl:
Was thinking of joining the grocery challenge bails, but wasn't sure if I could keep up to speed wih 3 regular forums and 'real life'! But you've convinced me:D . Really looking forward to the next month and seeing what I can achieve(PS bails- OH has a job interview next week:j ).
Have been good and borrowed 'jewelry' for outing tomorrow from house mate rather than buy something new. Can I have a gold star please:D . And bought new battery for old watch lying in back of drawer rather than buy new yummy watch I saw this week:j .
Lyndasharp - sorry things feel so uncertain with bf at the moment. Perhaps it is good you met his mum last week - might help her to help him sort out what is important, as you both got on.

bails

Looking good there too Nyk, will have to post some photos of mine eventually.

We've just capped our energy prices and are now with the 'Donkey Noise'. Our bill's now gone up 25% :eek: but hopefully it'll work out better in the long run. We're not tied in or anything and are getting £55 cashback so some upsides I guess.

Sorry to hear about your BF Lynda and echo what BB said. Fingers crossed for you.

What is one of these 'ere ramoska thingys? I never have JPs any more as I can't bear to put the oven on for them, and barely use our oven anyway so hard to multi cook things. Woo hoo for Mr BB - get out one of those fab smilies will you BB?! Sending lots of positive vibes southward xx

Frugaldom

Starting figure = £4000
Average daily spend should be £10.92 (actual spending average = £11.82)
Average weekly spend should be £76.50 (actual spending average = £82.75)
Average monthly spend should be £333.33 (actual spending average = £359.72)
7/12 x £4000 = £2333.33 (actual spend to date = £2518.10)

JULY 2008
UTILITIES - Quarterly electricity bill - £163.95
GROCERIES - £47.93 (Actual = £39.55 + £8.38 for bulk buys)
INTERNET ACCESS - £14.99
EVERYTHING ELSE - £14.75
GIFTS- £38.97
JULY TOTAL £280.59 :j
Year to date - £2518.10

Average now at £68.24 per week or £296.38 per month

I have £1481.90 to last me 5 months.
I will succeed! Failure is NOT an option. :rotfl:

DdraigGoch

Well, I took the plunge and went and joined the August GC. Put myself up for £180 and went and spent £120 - just like that - today, so that's £10 a week for milk, butter & veg for the next month. That'll scare the children!!

I've frankly given up on counting how awful I am, but just being here helps me keep a weather eye open, and I'm slowly crawling back up out of the ultraviolet into the red again ....

Thanks for your support and the giggles - boy, does it help *grin*

gotta go, hand is playing up [rsi]
love and best wishes to all, sorry can't comment properly
DG

Marru

bails wrote: »

Marru helped me be frugal today by giving me a book I was thinking of investing in, so well happy about that, thanks Marru! :T

You more than earned it! Thank you! Bails was labouring away today in my [STRIKE]junk room[/STRIKE] library. She has a plan to get me organised so I am hoping that as a return I can help out with some gardening as I am too hopeless to start my own veggie plot. Just bowing to all of you that are producing such a fantastic produce. :j

My Firefox crashed earlier this week and I mean crashed big time and ever since my logging onto MSE and also getting the emails has been a pain so I am not up to date what is going on so please do excuse me.

Off to have a look at MB thread and then book the last tickets for the night in the Bingo. Did win tenner yesterday on other site but in our Thursday bingo no luck for weeks now.

It has been NSD and NCD again today (I did have ice cream yesterday but that was after proper scrub of all the animal cages so I think I deserved it). Tomorrow first task is to get my half way numbers sorted to see if I have managed to keep in budget. I hope I am under as the last two weeks of August I will have a big eater here so it probably will be more expensive for me than Christmas.

Talking about that big eater. Earlier this evening I was sitting here in my office cuddling and kissing and we were telling each other that we love eachother... No - it is not what you think - DD just was in affectionate mood. :rotfl:

Off now so saying night night.

Marru