Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 3

sophiesmum_2

No idea what has happened to mine then as haven't heard a thing yet. How much duty did you end up with, and who contacted you about it arriving?Bet mine will be the one out of the three that gets lost in transit :eek:

shaz_mum_of__2

It was p**** force worldwide sent a letter saying they were holding a parcel for me , total was just under £25 most of which was vat at this end plus a £8 handling fee ??

Hope yours turns up i need to get some jars now as been putting it off in case it didnt arrive

Grandma what kind have you been using

the kilner type i think are cheapest here
http://www.ascott.biz/acatalog/Preserving-Jar-Screw-Top-1000-ml-pk-12-DP264.html

but they dont sell the replacement discs but lakeland do 12 for £3.99

Thriftylass: fabric heaven here

http://www.abakhan.co.uk/

charity shops are a good source of fabric duvets and sheets etc are good

Shaz

blueberrypie

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

I was thinking more of having fatin a meal to aid the absorbtion of vits A,D,E,K and taking vit C(orange juice) with an iron based food(spinach ) .............................

Those things are true whether the proteins are meat-based or not, though.

but it was a while ago so accept things my have changed i think what i was trying to say is variety in diet is better.

Oh yes, definitely.

thriftylass

chika wrote: »

Hi everyone.

Can't help with the fabric store but I'm nosy, can I ask what you are making Thriftylass?

Not sure yet. Was thinking about a hand/tote bag and maybe a simple dress later on. So I'm looking for sth like canvas for the bag and cotton for the dress. I'll have a look at the link posted earlier. Thanks.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!

Well the last week has been hectic for me.

Firstly we were stuck in Guatemala city for an extra 2 days when our aircraft accelerated then decelerated sharply :eek: along the very short runway (ending with a sheer cliff). We were asked to leave the aeroplane and put up in the Holiday Inn for 2 days before we could go home. Very nice hotel, with free and tasty food. Unfortunately we could only leave the hotel in a group, wearing no jewellery as it was a very dangerous area. Even the armed guards didn't reassure us.

When we did get home we found out that the roof situation had gone from bad to worse. Our original bill of £3k will now be £13k :eek:. I didn't take the news well. However my parents wanted to give us the extra money we needed. We will have to take it but I have set up a DD to pay them back. They are pensioners after all and I like my financial independence. MF we will not be any time soon. But we still love the house and its setting. The previous owner appears not to have looked after the roof and the leaks were not sorted out year after year. At least now it will be properly sorted.

Since returning my sister has been spoiling us with dinners. We have been foraging-making beautiful elderberry and blackberry jam and greengage jam (using the fruit from an enormous tree in our garden). We've collected huge cones on a walk and my dad got a farmer's permission to gleen some potatoes from a field.

We will be joining the grocery challenge for September. Decided to spend £20 ish per week as Mr T has sent us some good money off coupons which we can use this way. Our Christmas savings have been severly hit since deciding to move (we only have £100 so far) so this will be our next challenge-putting our GC savings towards pressies! Does anyone give Home Made Jams away?

So thats my news. Going to read the posts now.

Hope everyone is well and hugs for anyone low or under the weather.

Much Love

SFT

cheerfulness4

Thriftlady - I used these https://sslrelay.com/s114512616.oneandoneshop.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=154a79f59749126/shopdata/about_us.shopscript

The cotton dress fabric can be as low as £1.19 sometimes. Got some lovely small ditsy prints for under £1.50 a metre.

sophiesmum_2

:eek::eek::eek: eek at the roof costs sft, not a nice surprise to come home to. Glad you got home safely too ,sounds a bit scary where you were staying the extra days.

Jam - I like to make lots of jams then I can give some away to family and friends as well as keep enough for ourselves. Gave some to the guy who catches trout for OH, the person who brings me the cooking apples, parents, few friends and so on. Home made jams are usually well received and good for gift hampers too.

savingfortravel

SM-Well I love home made gifts-esp useful ones like food!
I have given lots of jams/chutneys away for presents but never my own. But I have to say the jam has been delicious so far.
Will take some round to neighbours. Hoping to get some windfalls from them.

Still making my way through the posts but just wanted to say how wonderful many British youth hostels are. Meet interesting people of all ages. Most have private rooms, some en-suite and you can self cater. It so cheap and the locations are by the coast or in beautiful countryside, or make a city visit affordable. In non-school holidays you can even use your Mr T vouchers (4x face value)

sft

grandma247

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

My canner is in the Uk .............unfortunately it came with a bill for duty but have now paid it and it will be here tomorrow :T:T:T
Shaz

great news about the canner Shaz but not so good about the duty. Dare I ask how much?
Should have read further down. No idea how I got away with not paying it but its not as bad as I thought it might be.

I am using ordinary recycled jars that used to containg spag. sauce,mayo,pickles,saurkraut etc. I did buy some lids for them but after reading a discussion on the canning group about re-using lids I decided to risk a couple and see what happened. All have sealed. I probably will only do it this once and I will keep an eye on them but one we opened was very hard to open and it made that sucking sound when the air got in so it must have sealed properly.
I did five jars today,2 new potatoes with just a spoonful of lime juice to keep the colour nice,two of baby corn on the cob and mangetout(sp) and one of our own cut green beans. some of the potatoes were ones we had given ,I just used the smallest. and some were what I could not get in the dehydrater (got them cheap at Mr.t last night along with corn and mangetout).
I am just doing small quantities of some things till I get used to it. I do have some pea and ham soup cooking at the minute though and I doubled the quantity so that will make a few jars. Mr M does gammon hocks for £1.49 so I used that instead of ham.

grandma247

SF glad you made it home safe.
So sorry to hear about the roof I bet you just about had a heart attack.