Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Frugaldom

Morning all, can I cheat and just agree with what Bails has to say to everyone? Plus add on the fact that a home visit for Marru may prove interesting unless your luck is anything like mine; in that case, you'd end up with the wrong vet and get charged a fortune. :rotfl:

I need some ideas for a really frugal 90th birthday present for my gran. I've racked my brains and cannot come up with anything. I'd intended doing the scrap book with pictures of all the family (5 generations), but can't get copies of enough photographs because everyone's too far spread about the country. I had also spoken to my photographer friend about taking up to date piccies at the party, but he's since been back in contact informing me that mum has decided she's doing the photo bit. So, with 2 days to go, I'm scuppered - left with no pressie! :eek: I thought about a mini-hamper of garden produce, but there's not a lot ready - potatoes, leeks, possibly an onion and a couple of pea pods? :rotfl: I could bake some biscuits and mini sponges, but that still doesn't amount to very much. Gran insists she wants nothing, using excuse that, "at her age, she has everything", so... help! :rotfl: What could I possibly get a 90 year old that claims to have everything? (Apart from a winning lottery ticket.)

Burlesque_Babe

afternoon all.

Nyk - is there anything you have a glut of that could make a quick chutney - maybe an onion one - that can be used immediately? And then make some bread, maybe a potato plaited loaf or something similar and pop it in a basket somehow to present it? If you have courgettes - also make a small courgette cake? Kind of make a gingham checked country fair kind of looking gift??

I've got my BM on at the moment. I bought a bag of reduced dried tropical fruits in Asda so I've chucked some of those in to make a fruit loaf.

Outgoings today: £14 pet insurance DD and £20 to Next. I will get the £20 back from Next - i ordered 2 items and when I sent them back they never received them. They are in the process of sorting it out but until then I need to make the payment so as to not incur any charges. Pain in the bum - it's the only things on the account so I'll have a credit on there!

Really need to get some petrol, never sure how reliable my petrol gauge is - one minute it's on the red, the next it is half way between red and 1/4 tank. I tend to go on number of miles done and re-set it each time. I've done 86 miles since I last put fuel in and I've just checked it was £20 so I should be ok today.

Shows how much petrol has increased - when I had my huge Carlton Estate, I was paying £40 a month for a 2 litre engine and £10 did 50 miles. I had that until 2006. I've now got a 1.6 coupe and it's still costing me £40 a month for the same mileage - my mileage is basically the same each month and £10 is doing the same 50 miles (or possibly slightly less) in a smaller engined car.

bails

Sorry Nyk, I'm drawing a blank at the mo...

Burlesque_Babe

or, how about, a flower/plant cutting of some kind that can be planted and will flower in a couple of months time? Paint the pot a pretty design and put a ribbon round it and she can have it indoors?

Frugaldom

I haven't a clue how to make chutney, but I do have an onion, green tomatoes in the greenhouse, apples on a tree and an empty jam jar, so will research that possibility I'll go and do that now. I've already packaged up some homegrown potatoes, a leek and some broccoli, plus I have a bottle of Scotch that's being passed on (for medicinal purposes, you understand ).

I do have some spiderplant cuttings rooted, but they won't flower. Hmm... wonder if I could decorate a little pot with pictures of DGD? Thanks again!

Edited in: found an easy chutney recipe by searching 'easy chutney recipe' in the MSE forums! Just need to work out what I can use to replace turmeric and if I can use white instead of brown sugar. OH, and seeing as I remembered about the apples, there could be a jar of apple sauce to add in as well

Edited in 2 hours later: Went out into the garden with DGD and collected some green tomatoes, apples, a leek, onion, a few sprigs of assorted herbs, a stalk of rhubarb and a handful of wild strawberries, the latter 2 being the suggestion of DGD, who ate half the strawberries! End result - everything has been chopped, cooked up with vinegar, sugar, turmeric (found in cupboard), sultanas, cornflower, mixed spice, salt, pepper and a dash of tobasco and then blitzed with the blender. It tastes like sweet & sour sauce but it isn't orange/red! And isn't it amazing how far 4 small apples and 4 large green tomatoes goes? :eek:

PS: Jar of [strike]'cottage garden relish[/strike]' sweet & sour sauce anyone? (I've now found the food colouring!):rotfl:

Aril

Hello fellow frugalites
Yes am still kicking around and reading regularly but don't tend to comment too often as you all seem to have all the bases covered. I'm very impressed with how you're all doing especially in the light of the current price rises!
Nykmedia- when it was my great Aunt's birthday one of the things we bought her was one of the gadgets with different sized rings which allows you to open lids of all different sizes [it has handles on it- sorry can't describe it any better than that] Although it may not have been the most thrilling present in the world she said it was one of the best things she received because it gave her a degree of independence aswell as being practical. Just a thought....
Frugalling continues apace here and Mr Frugal is combining a whoopsie walk together with buying some bulbs for our new freecycle light as I type. He really is getting very good in the gnat bottom stakes and is currently coming up with all sorts of ways of cutting back our gas usage yet further [we're at the stage now that we can only make small cutbacks but it all helps doesn't it] We've also frugally redone our kitchen...very inexpensive replacement doors [kept original carcases], a freecycle sink and knobs [and said light], inexpensive tiles which look classy and we've done all of it ourselves. Even the paint was bought with a 15% off voucher in Homebase. Other than the kitchen we've enjoyed some small success with home grown salad veg and I have discovered a very good local car boot sale which may yet prove to be a good source of gifts for the small person. Sadly I have also taken advantage of the current sales and have snaffled away some 75% off bits and pieces for a certain festive occasion which shall not be named in August:D
Anyway shall still be keeping tabs on all of you!!
Aril

bails

Glad you've had some help with ideas Nyk!

I've had a unexpectedly great day - wandered to my local raspberry bush to get out of the house and picked 2lbs of them! :j The bush was literally bright red and dripping in them, I only picked the ones that were about to drop off so lots more to come My parents came round this afternoon and were absolutely lovely as usual - Dad's going to help us convert the loft and they want to help us get our house a bit more uptogether so we can be 'happy here'. We're already happy so I think we'll be ecstatic! I love my parents! I completely forgot that potato plants die off when they're ready so I thought they'd had it while we were away. Mum reminded me so we emptied one out to find my first HG potatoes :j:j (I really was this excited ). I've now planted up another 14 tubs I think. Then I was taken out for a meal and when I got home I found some ripe blackberries growing just outside the end of my garden :T
WOOHOO, what a day!
EDIT: Ooh, hi Aril :hello: nice to see ya!

sophiesmum_2

Nyk how about a nicely decorated tin with some home made cookies or twinks hobnobs to go with your produce.

Burlesque_Babe

oooh, yes, do some Twink's hob nobs also!

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

Nyk how about a nicely decorated tin with some home made cookies or twinks hobnobs to go with your produce.

Already thought of this one and will be baking a load tomorrow 'm still not sure how the sweet & sour/relish is going to be but it looks OK and it has thickened up.

Bails - what a great day you've had! Well done and congrats on all the berries! I have my territory marked out but the berries must be a few weeks behind up here. Am planning on freezing them for using in icecream, pies and crumbles as sugar is too expensive for me to warrant making jam when it's only 39p per jar and I bulk bought my 6 months' supply.

Free bingo is not going well, but I've gathered loads of ideas for the frugal birthday pressie, many thanks for all of them. :T

Aril - great to see you still popping in, thanks for that! There are plenty of us 'power watching' for electricity and gas savings, I've even made it into another one of my mini-challenges. I'm aiming to beat the increases by reducing consumption by more than the percentage price increase IYSWIM :rotfl: I now have 2 flasks sat by the kettle so there's no hot water wasted.