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

ceridwen

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

evening,

well i've got a cooled batch of laundry gloop but it's not particularly gloopy. in fact it's set, solid, almost like a big bar of soap! (well several as i had left it to cool in the pan and had to chop at it to get it out!)

i used 3.75 ltrs as had 375g of soap, added 3.5 handfuls of soda crystals and voila hm soap mor ehtan gloop, so any ideas apart from what i've thought of, which is melting it down a block at a time in a little more water to make it gloopier (is that a word? gloopier??)

apart from that i did little else all day and i loved it!

ioiwe the confused

Does this mean you used a whole pack of soap?:eek:

Thats your problem - if so. You should use just one bar of soap (125 grams) - not the whole 3-pack:rotfl:. Its 250 ml of soda crystals and 4 litres of water with that.

*********************************************************
So the method is:
- grate ONE bar of soap (125grams)
- add it to 2 kettles of boiling water in a jampan (ie 4 litres) - I measured in kettles, as I presume all kettles are 2 litres worth of water
- when thats all melted together add 250 grams soda crystals (I said a quarter of a packet - thinking that way anyone without scales could just divide and divide again to get that amount)

*****************************************************************

Sounds like you need to re-melt your gloop and add a lot more water to it offhand - not sure how much weightwise several handfuls of soda crystals is? - but you may need a bit of adjusting on that.

If you have used 375 grams of soap - then you need 12 litres of water and 750 ml soda crystals with that quantity of soap.

The consistency of the finished product is sorta like blancmange and easily possible to take out a soup ladle worth to put in the washing machine. (NB: put it in the washing machine drum - NOT the dispenser at the top as one normally does....)

EDIT: just thought - with 12 litres of water being RATHER a lot - and you might be wandering what to decant this "initial attempt" to - have you got a large plastic kitchen swingbin? or a couple of those plastic garden trugs? I suggest decanting this "first attempt" into something like that and then adding the further water you will certainly need and soda crystals you will need as well to make it up to the quantities I think you will need to get that consistency right. Its going to be a bit of a "faff" to do this - so its up to you whether to try that or put the first attempt "down to experience". It will be about 30p worth of soda crystals and 13p worth of soap involved in your first attempt - so you might not think its worth it for 43p. Your call on that one...

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j:j
Other than the Wii January's been a good month for not wasting money- I've had 17 NSDs which can be difficult because school always seem to asking for money for summat and I came in £20 under on the GC. I've dropped that by £5 just to see how we get on as we had quite a lot of stuff left over from big Dec shop I did . Anyway we didn't buy anything unrequired but we got rid of loads and were also given some lovely bits. I hadn't really appreciated just how much stuff comes in and goes out of my house. OH's sister gave us a whimsy puzzle [it was a map of our home town] which is a wooden one with some pieces that are whimsies ie different shapes [we've got a caravan as one] - they were Victorian and the different shaped pieces were cut on a whim. Sorry- I'm easily pleased:o
Back on topic:o If you have a BT account they've just notified us that cheap calls are going to be from 7pm now instead of the traditional 6pm so be warned fellow frugallers:eek:
Mr T have very kindly sent mea pullout of seasonal veg which I hope might be of some use to my fellow frugallers when they drop the prices- I only got it on Friday so January's a bit late!
January: chantenay carrots, bramley apples, January King cabbage, beetroot [organic bunches], swede, sweet potato
February: shallots, purple sprouting broccoli, parsnips, celeriac, kale, chicory, cauliflower
I'll try to remember to post at the beginning of each month if people think it would be helpful?
Frugal plans today are to take a car full of recyling up to the tip, cook some rice and boil eggs for this week's new frugal recipe, ironing, washing and fill cracks in bedroom that we're decorating. I had my friend over yesterday and then my Imbolc ceremony with other friends last night so had all my fun then boo hiss!!:D:D Domestic trivia today ugh!
Arilx

ZoeGirl_3

Hi all ... am happy to say I have survived and stuck to budget for Jan 2010!! Very proud of myself. Have a freezer that is stocked up for lunches etc with 20+ HM wholegrain rolls, 4+ cakes cut into slices and wrapped/ frozen, a double recipe choc weetbix slice, double recipes choc chip/ ginger nut biscuits, a banana loaf cut and wrapped, 10 hot cross buns, etc so I don't RUN OUT of stuff and have mini food emergencies where I waste lots of money because I have been too unorganised hehe ... (prob doesn't sound like much but theres only 2 of us)

Also have been getting at least our 5+ a day too! Anyway, as I am in New Zealand I set my budget at $15k, which is all inclusive with bills/ rent/ food/ etc and roughly equates to 5000 pounds I think ... rest is going into savings which are for my house ... one day soon I hope!!

Haven't been as active posting on this board due to being ADDICTED to the make 10k challenge on the up your income board! But have been reading when I can and think you guys are doing fantastic :T:T

lynzpower

Good morning frugalistas!

I'm definitely ready to try making gloop- I do have 2 bars of "dove cleansing wash" that I wont use for face- could I use one of these? I bought the soda crystals yesterday ready to start :cool: i have a large flagon that I got the free W-U-L ( huge fairy flagon) which has a dreg or so in it, am waiting for that to finish as Ill need this for the gloop. http://www.persil.com/dosingproduct.aspx have just ordered us a dosing ball for this as we definatley don't already have one.

I guess I can grate the soap in my kenwood chef?

I finished planning the roof plot last night and OH had a cautionary word with me a about not getting to carried away and trying to do too much given the lack of attention we have shown these in the past Hes right you know!

Decided on
*seed potatoes *round carrots * beetroot in a crate *peas *chilli peppers *orange baby peppers * tomatoes *mini patty pan squash *climbing red bean of some sort *babycorn* mange tout. Id like to try Aubergines too and we have seeds for these?.

On the smaller terrace by the kitchen will be
*rocket *mizuna * variety of herbs, may do strawbs in a hanging basket.

We have binned off the idea of mushrooms, large sqaush, amaranth, Quinoa. I still want to do Edemame beans but OH suggests unless we pay great attention they will end up wasted. Maybe some other time

Has anyone ever done oyster mushrooms on pasteurised straw. I watched rather alot of youtube stuff on this and it does look easy- but does it crop?!?! Difficult for us to maintain any temp at the mo, so they definately wont work without some sort of heating as they like warm, dark and damp. ( damp we can do!) Would love to hear your experiences with this. Have read on here ( greenfingered) lots of people v disappointed with kits.

I've been looking at how to make an obelisk using cane and string, I think I can dig deep in my knot-making memory to make one there is no chance Im spending 20.00 on a cane obelisk

Have found a old unopened tin of woodstain downstairs, and have suggested to OH we need to do the patio furniture to get one more year out of it as its sun-beaten like mad and drying out. cant see it happening today though!

I have got the WM and DW on, and started to clean the kitchen- Im such a wuss I cant wash up without rubber gloves so will pop to Mr S today to pick up some and some conditioner while it is on half price offer. I love thier coconut conditioner, so very pleased with this deal.

The pie filling looks almost done in the SC now finally, so that will be ready for tea. Im going to make pastry here, there should be extra pastry to make something for the freezer too.

We are going out to a car boot sale this afternoon- strict instructions to buy only what is needed - dehydrator falls into this category! :whistle: and of course any extra pots or troughs we see for the garden. Im hoping to go past argos to use the nectar points for the electronic scales. We are lucky our ancient ones have lasted the week.

Love to all on this frugal sunday

moo2moo

Clearly maths is not my strong point. Went to calculate my month end totals but have changed cateegory headings over the month as my book wasn't big enough for my original selection. Having shuffled things about a bit I couldn't get them to add up. Thats because my initial totals were £1847 a month and not the £1667 I'd been working on. Having deducted savings out of this working on the theory that I haven't spent that amount its still available in times of crisis I'm now back to £1667 with a marginally more generous everything else allowance which includes council tax and mortgage repayments.

Formatting sucks. Annual figures in purple, monthly in black and Januarys in green (within budget) or red (mamoth overspend).

Groceries 3000 250 213.22
Domestic Fuel 2040 170 280.06
Comms and Entertainment 2664 222 129.62
Insurance 1260 105 38.52
Cars 4200 350 119.83
Clothes 480 40 0
Fags and OH 1200 100 51.59
Everything Else 5160 430 770.28

Total 20004 1667 1603.12

mooomin

Aril wrote: »

I'll try to remember to post at the beginning of each month if people think it would be helpful?

I would certainly find it very helpful, thanks for posting :T

I am having a NSD today so am declaring myself as under budget for January, which is great for my first month!

Budget = £666.66
Amount spent = £665.37

*phew*

This morning I have joined the Tesco Clubcard food & healthy living clubs as I was in there yesterday with my friend and she had many coupons for points, seems like a good way to make some cash from Tesco! I'm using my current Clubcard points to pay for treats when we go to York in March as I should have around £30 in points, £120 in deals

I'm also sitting in warm clothes to avoid using the heating at the moment and will be having a nice tasty dinner of gammon which I'm going to make later today, [strike]hiding leftovers from Mr Fresian[/strike] saving some of it to make Pea & Ham Soup for lunches this week.

annie123

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

well i've got a cooled batch of laundry gloop but it's not particularly gloopy. in fact it's set, solid, almost like a big bar of soap! (well several as i had left it to cool in the pan and had to chop at it to get it out!)
ioiwe the confused

That happened to me to when I made it last year, Mardatha told me to add more water to it to dilute it.
I filled up saucepan with water, added some 'homemade soap bits' and kept doing it till I got a gloop that was gloopy/liquidish.
I ended up with 16 ltrs of the stuff:eek:
Its used to clean the cars, wash paintwork, wash garden pots, infact it washes anything except my kitchen worksurfaces and floor.
Still got enough left to last me till xmas this year:D

ifonlyitwaseasier

ceridwen wrote: »

Does this mean you used a whole pack of soap?:eek:

Thats your problem - if so. You should use just one bar of soap (125 grams) - not the whole 3-pack:rotfl:. Its 250 ml of soda crystals and 4 litres of water with that.

*********************************************************
So the method is:
- grate ONE bar of soap (125grams)
- add it to 2 kettles of boiling water in a jampan (ie 4 litres) - I measured in kettles, as I presume all kettles are 2 litres worth of water
- when thats all melted together add 250 grams soda crystals (I said a quarter of a packet - thinking that way anyone without scales could just divide and divide again to get that amount)

*****************************************************************

Sounds like you need to re-melt your gloop and add a lot more water to it offhand - not sure how much weightwise several handfuls of soda crystals is? - but you may need a bit of adjusting on that.

If you have used 375 grams of soap - then you need 12 litres of water and 750 ml soda crystals with that quantity of soap.

The consistency of the finished product is sorta like blancmange and easily possible to take out a soup ladle worth to put in the washing machine. (NB: put it in the washing machine drum - NOT the dispenser at the top as one normally does....)

ok., i had used this link for the recipe as i'd had it saved, it is different to the one on the first page of here. hmmmm looks like i have some melting to do!!

ceridwen

lynzpower wrote: »

Good morning frugalistas!

I'm definitely ready to try making gloop- I do have 2 bars of "dove cleansing wash" that I wont use for face- could I use one of these? I bought the soda crystals yesterday ready to start :cool: i have a large flagon that I got the free W-U-L ( huge fairy flagon) which has a dreg or so in it, am waiting for that to finish as Ill need this for the gloop. http://www.persil.com/dosingproduct.aspx have just ordered us a dosing ball for this as we definatley don't already have one.

I guess I can grate the soap in my kenwood chef?

Well - speaking for myself - I'd use any standard soap going - as long as I was okay with the smell of it. (Dont know whether that would be okay or no - as havent tried it - but I would tend to assume it would be). I was thinking to myself - "shoulda kept those gift soaps I didnt like - I coulda used them for this".

I dont know about trying to use a machine to grate soap - I've not tried it. I would tend to be wary of doing so myself - unless it was a VERY heavy-duty type one (ie one of those Vitamix? blenders that cost hundreds of £s - as they are so heavy-duty). Maybe someone else on here has used a food processor or summat for grating the soap and could say what happened? I would just be scared of burning the motor out myself - but then I've had some very "flimsy" little liquidizers that barely coped with anything and burnt their motors out very quickly.

personally - I used my usual box grater - on the largest holes.

ceridwen

IF ONLY IT WAS EASIER

I just realized you were reading the thread and belted back to add an "edit" to my post on gloop.

So...if you want to head back and read that edit .....;)

EDIT: Just peeked at the link you were going on IOIWE - crikey - thats one heck of a high proportion of soap she quoted - yikes....

I think she might have made a typing error there or something??? I know one always has to read food recipes first in case they have said "Tablespoon" of some spice or other - when they actually meant "teaspoon". Its also pretty common to find there is a missing ingredient in the list of ingredients at the start of a recipe (and you're there thinking "add x at this stage of the recipe - where did THAT come from? - it was never mentioned in the list of ingredients...").