FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 1. (Living on £4,000 a year)

larmy16

Minjara. I do a quite acceptable rice pudding substitute which is also fairly low fat.

I do mine in one of those plastic steamers made for the microwave (often seen at charity shops and boot fairs). If not just boil the rice for 20-25 mins till soft as you like it.

Strain the rice and then stir in a little milk to moisten. I then use that Elmlea 30% cream as much or as little as you like (depending on your weight issues).

Then add jam or golden/maple syrup. Dead cheap and all the ingredients can be store cupboard or kept in fridge - Elmlea is long life too. We love it in our house.

PS. forgot to say sweeten to taste also

rozeepozee

thriftylass wrote: »

One is only away for a day and there's another 8 pages, lol.

I also finally typed up my family medical history that I had on a worn piece of paper. Never know when you need it.

HELP NEEDED I got an old labtop that I want to recycle/sell. Has anyone advice what to do with it (charity shop, PCW0rld, 3bay or else?, I guess selling it will cost a fortune in postage) and how to erase all data. I downloaded some software that was suppost to do it but didn't. Thanks

I read once upon a time (when I intended to do some ebay selling) that old laptops sell quite well on ebay, for parts, I recall. Never tested it though and our two old laptops are still sitting there...

aeb wrote: »

Sewing machines can be found for a few ££ at car boot sales. A while ago I collected 5 hand ones for a tfsr who reconditioned them and sent then to a charity in Africa because the women could set up a little business. Here it is:
http://www.tfsr.org/how_you_can_help/volunteering/sewing_machines/
If sewing machines become fashionable they will miss out.

This sounds like a great idea, My gran has an old treadfle one just hanging around since she moved in with my parents. I'll have to look into it some more and see how it works in practice. Do they collect from you aeb?

I've really skim read today as I have an aching bump and back so can't sit at the computer very long.

I've only managed two NSDs thus far but I'm now so much more conscious of my spending patterns and our intention to empty the store cupboard and freezer before we do another major shop has really cut down on our grocery buying (spent £8.96 out of our £50/week allowance). Yesterday, I went to the camping shop. I could normally spend fortunes in here but I restrained myself and only bought a set of melamine tableware reduced from £20 to £9 for the campervan. I confess I've given myself a separate extra budget for the campervan as there will be a few one off large-ish expenses once it arrives in March. I also bought my son a pair of waterproof mittens given the ongoing weather outlook (can't stop him making those snowballs!). they were £12 reduced to £3. Thaks for the tip (whoever it was) to rename the T+Cs as clothes and shoes. That might be handier for us. Cheryl, I'm assuming this won't "break" the spreadheet?

Today I made a vegetarian shepherd's pie with a good amount of the many lentils and our home grown carrots (only had to buy spuds and celery, and I'll make celery soup tomorrow, I think). Had to buy some petrol today £10. Using the car in this weather is really thirsty as you have to drive so slowly. We managed about 35 miles on £10 worth of petrol!!!! Think we're gonna do a Costco trip tomorrow to stock up on butter, milk, fresh fruit and veg and tinned toms, so we'll be spending again.

Frugaldom

Minjara, dare I suggest you try reading post 1, handy links where there are several recipe threads listed including Weezl's 50p per day per meal thread. The handy links section is in alphabetical order, just scroll down to 'Weezl...'

Treacle tart has become a treacle & marmalade tart to save on the syrup, it's in the oven now. I used 2 parts syrup to one part homemade marmalade with a tablespoon of lemon juice all poured over hm breadcrumbs that get saved from the ends of the hm bread then blitzed in blender & added to bag in freezer.

Just going to try some of those lemon biscuits Thriftylass posted the recipe for, makes good use of the oven when it's all needing the same temperature. Thanks, Thriftylass Fitted just over a dozen on each tray and rest of cookie dough in fridge for using up through the week. I didn't add lemon to all the mix, I have cinnamon ones in oven now.

Temperature's dropped below zero here and it's getting very windy. Glad all the shopping's out of the way, it means I can just baton down the hatches and hibernate in frugaldom until it's all gone. :rotfl:

Welcome back on board Ram_Murdock, thanks for joining us.

Well done with the budget progress, Lynzpower.

[Deleted User]

KarrieBee wrote: »

Gosh I wish my knitting grew as fast as this thread.
Managing to have a frugal weekend, in part due to the snow.
Gave the house a top to toe yesterday including cleaning the oven, all done using stardrops and soda crystals. OH quite convinced I've lost my mind.
NSD today and yesterday:j
Will need to get my bus pass tomorrow as should finally be able to get back to work - unless transpennine continue to be hopeless!
Whoopsied duck for dinner today with some roast veg from the veg box and the leftovers of our foraged blackberry and apple crumble which OH made yesterday.
Off to get on with aforementioned knitting - MiL gave me a kit for wristwarmers with some lovely soft cashmerino and I need them in this weather!
Have a frugal and fun evening!

Likewise with the knitting. I have a long list of things to knit (planning is the best part isn't it?) but the reality is that one has to actually knit up the blighters after the planning stage:p

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j:j
Had a frugallicious day here today with many little frugal triumphs although not yet ready to remove my f.i.t [that's frugal in training:D] plates off by any way.

Lots of decluttering and sorting going on. Have erm discovered rather a lot of dollshouse kits and cross stitch kits that have been unstarted hiding away so that should keep me out of trouble and away from the temptation of buying small but very expensive little things when helping at the shows [miniatures were my blind spot previously along with books when it came to spending] Also made some other exciting discoveries including a frugal casserole book I bought last year for 10p from the jumble sale. My first frugal recipe attempt from there will be a carrot and sweetcorn crumble.

OH has also been decluttering the front room [the one which is due to be redecorated] In his man drawer he discovered a switch he had wombled away which he has been able to fit to his drill [where the switch had gone] and it's now working again. Small frugal success:j He has also added a table to his bird feeding station to allow the ground feeders a chance. We've had free frugal fun watching the visitors to our garden today including blue tit, blackbird, spadger, starling, long tailed tit and my fav a wren.

Been learning about making sweets today as a possibility for hm pressies. Cinder toffee [or hokey pokey:D] only uses sugar, vinegar and bicarb so I think I could make 3 pressies inexpensively. Also wondered about peppermint creams but using alternative flavours as for some reason I have a bottle of rose water and one of orange blossom that I bought for 50p from Mr T last year. I think it should work ok.

A quick frugal thought- why is 500g of the basics spaghetti 39p but 500g of the other basics one 43p. Might see if I can substitute spaghetti more. Only a small saving. Whoopsied pork joint for tea tonight [the rest will appear in pasties] and half a Viennetta from Xmas that needs decluttering:D

Arilx
Sorry it's so long but have tried to keep it on topic:o

lynzpower

Been learning about making sweets today as a possibility for hm pressies. Cinder toffee [or hokey pokey] only uses sugar, vinegar and bicarb so I think I could make 3 pressies inexpensively.

ive made this before, very very easy! Does make your kitchen rather sticky though - wear a pinny

rozeepozee

Cheryl I have a question about the spreadsheet please...

In my TOTALS worksheet in the "spent" column two of the spent cells (D24 and D26) have come up in red type/figures. I've exceeded my budget for the month on "Anything else" so this sort of made sense (although I have for petrol and this isn't red), but I haven't gone over budget on Groceries, so I'm now a little confused.

Can you help please? i can email it to you if that's easier.

TIA

NualaBuala

Evening All,:wave:

I spent more money today. I was quite good; I saw lots of bargains but resisted as they weren't strictly necessary. Stocked up a little as I'm planning a cooking session tomorrow, looking forward to having a go at some of Thriftylass's lemon biscuits.

I got great whoopsies; a pot of mint reduced to 25c. There was a pot of thyme for 75c - I asked nicely and they reduced it to 25c too. So I plan to repot them and hope they survive. My kitchen smells fabulous at the moment - they really scent the air. I also got 3 packs of organic fairtrade bananas for 25c each - so I'll make banana and walnut loaf tomorrow, yum! The bananas haven't gone brown yet - I wonder could they be frozen?

I was quite tired so I cheated and had a frozen pizza for dinner - had planned to do something with cooked cold sausages and mash but brain went a bit dead.

I'm back into my knitting so will spend the evening at that; I started a poncho ages ago and I'm finally getting into it. It will be really cosy and useful when finished.

cw18

Rozee - it was the problem with the 'changing to red' that I was fixing yesterday, so please send it back to me and I'll fix it for you.

IF ANYONE HAS ANY MORE QUESTIONS ON THE SPREADSHEET - DdraigGoch thought it might be a good idea to have a thread just for this, so we can hopefully keep all hints/tips/queries in one place (and reduce the "clutter" in this thread for Nyk)...... and it seems a fantastic idea to me.

The thread is here, and I'll pop back now to put a link to it in the post with instructions on downloading (which I hope to figure out a solution for tonight!)

rachelet

I have had a frugal day today. No spending as the snow is still covering my driveway and the lane down to the main road. I have made some chocolate chunk cookies ready for the kids snacks for school tomorrow so that has saved me buying them. Has left over cheesy chicken pasta bake for lunch and for dinner roast chicken where we had one chicken breast between me and the three kids.

Yesterday I made two and a half cheesy chicken pasta bakes and a chicken and mushroom pie and still had enough chicken left over for roast dinner today.

Will need to do a shop either tomorrow or Tuesday but want to do it after I have done an inventory as I think I have loads of meals in the freezer ready to be reheated.

I remember reading someone dilutes their fabric conditioner (or was it me reading things that aren't there) but if anyone does do this, then how much fabric conditioner to water do you use?

I have loads of knitting projects planned and I never know what to start first! I have also been inspired to dig out my sewing machine and start using it again. Not sure what I am going to make yet, but I am sure I will find something.

I am going to make Baileys chocolate truffles for presents this year as I seem to have a couple of bottle of Baileys in the cupboard which I don't drink very often and won't be drinking any until after baby is born in May.

Think thats all for today but need to sort out my tax return this evening so won't be able to do any knitting - boo!