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

homegrown_life

good evening all

I've had a rough few days lately, some worries with OH's job and it's taken its toll. If I'm down I hardly want to cook stuff, I get fed up and we end up in MrS looking for tea. Not Good. Anyway it happened, but I knew I would need to count it all in and so I was restrained. We had a chippy the other night, but with fish portions from the freezer, so actually not too expensive and then last night we had bacon and egg sarnies, but needed rolls so had to go and get them and some treats to cheer me up. I know

Anyway, I've been working on getting my mojo back today. I can get into such a rut sometimes. I can be so good at cooking well and providing good stuff but then I can also go entirely the other way. Good job my kids don't like oven chips and nuggets eh?? So I made some broccoli soup for lunch tomorrow, kids both had a taste and liked it :T Slow cooker veggie chilli for tea with some quinoa that has been in the cupboard ages and I was too scared to try It was actually fine, I probably wouldn't choose it over rice everytime but a nice change. Now I have 2 loaves of bread in the oven, just waiting for them to finish.

So a good day, I haven't spent any money and I'm feeling more positive. Just need to tot up the spends and put them in

ceridwen

rozeepozee wrote: »

Ceridwen, I'm with you on the Miele products. When we replaced our dishwasher we bought a Miele and it was painful but it seemed impossible to buy them secondhand/reconditioned as they just don't seem to break down.

Thanks for that... making me feel not quite so bad about the thought of just how much this is going to cost me.....£1,000 or so....:eek::eek::eek:. Still - if I'm going to get my "moneys worth" and avoid any problems with it then I'll tell myself 'twill be worth it...

I DO love quality...and I also love "peace and quiet" and the model I have got my beady eye on says its particularly silent..

SuzyWuzy_2

Hi Everyone,

For anyone thats interested.. Mr L's is selling 2 year old potted fruit trees from the 25th Feb. Pear, Cherry, Plum and Apple £5.99 each or 2 for £10

Grow bags - Does anyones know anywhere thats selling them cheaply or anywhere I can get a good cheap soil for growing my vegetables? Is there any particular type that I should go for for a successful crop ? I want to pot them all as we want to move house in the near future. I'm going to grow onions, peppers, leeks , toms, carrots and little gems if that's any help. Any advice appreciated.

Frugaldom - I know your a keen and successful grower. Can I ask where do you get all your soil from being in the middle of nowhere?? ..plus any advice you could also give me Queen of Fru's would be brill !

CW - I'm actuallly excited about your date (thats not a date) and I can't wait for you to go!

Jayne - I have milk envy over the price of your find. What a bargain!

Homegrown - Sorry youve felt so down. Hope you get it sorted soon. It does helps to keep busy and making and preparing meals will take your mind off it and you'll all feel better for eating something tasty and saving money. This weather doesnt help either! Sometimes its hard to make an effort

Take care all

Suzanne

x

aeb_2

top_drawer wrote: »

hey everyone!
Thank you for the suggestions on the telephone table - I am going to sleep on it and make a final desision tommorrow.
TD

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

That cheered me up!

It rained and it rained so we stayed in and made bread and cakes.

Frugaldom

Hi guys and gals

JayneC - I have extra seeds ordered that are going into a 'spring flower hamper' style pressie for Mothers Day. I have been doing hamper-style pressies for most people over the past year or so. I've already got my boxes set aside for 2010 Chrissie pressies so I can just add the bits & pieces as I make them

Candygirl, I got the email about free listing but it excludes business listings, just thought I'd better mention that in case anyone makes or buys & sells stuff, as it's classed as business.

RozeePozee, DS has now agreed to start paying money into his ISA - we'll see what transpires.

Top_drawer, sorry to hear about your grandad. Hope you get a good night's sleep to help you feel a little better

Homegrown_life, you just reminded me that I have a bag of broccoli bits and stalks in the freezer, I'll try to remember to use it in the next pot of stock I make.

SuzyWuzy, Ald! have their fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry, plum) at £3.99 each in tomorrow's offer - that's why we're heading into town. They also have some fairly cheap bags of compost, from what I remember. I've never bought soil before and I'm hoping that we'll have enough homemade compost from this year onwards to make do. Failing that, we need to buy it in town from hardware store or garden centres, wherever has the best offer.

Just placed an order with Bargainf00ds using a 10% discount code (I've listed it on my homepage & blog, feel free to pass it on as it expires on the 24th Feb) but they have He!nz Spaghetti H00ps at £1 for 5 of the big tins, amongst other things. I've placed a small order to include a load of muesli for baking biscuits/cereal bars. The price says 40p per 375g pack but if you buy more than 3, they go through checkout at 33p per pack before the discount reduces them further. £4.99 for delivery here makes it cheaper than making the trip into town. Even DS is happy about the order - 5 Sn!ckers for 90p is a great bargain for him and they aren't the small bars.

Just stuck a chicken into the slow cooker for DS, set timer to cook it through the night, then it'll be prepared into 10 lots for DS meals over the weekend. I'll make sure I get a meal of some description out of it for us, even if it's just a chicken & veg pie.

Forgot to mention, I used scoop of my chicken fat in today's breadmaking, so this could be another small saving as I'll not need to add any oil for as long as I have chicken fat.

OK, I need to go and deduct my unscheduled £23.31 grocery spend from my spreadsheet and try NOT to spend too much tomorrow when in town.

rozeepozee

I'm off to Aldi tomorrow la la la! :T

grandma247

Just popped in to say hello. I have three gds here till tomorrow then we swap them for the other three till Saturday so busy all week.

I am not knitting anything at the moment but did knit a hat,a cowl/scarf thing and a 1940,s style vest over the last few weeks. I am waiting for a call from my Aussie friend in the next few weeks as she is to be a grandma again about 5th march so will knit some things when we know what baby is.

I spent the afternoon making a shoe pocket thing for the back of the understairs door to hide all the shoes and boots and have somewhere to store my hats,scarfs and gloves. I have to finish it tomorrow and get some brass screws out of the loft so I can hang it up. The fabric is also out of the loft so a bit more of the stash gone.

I tried a recipe for soft oat buns a couple of days ago. I was a bit dubious because the method is a bit unusual and I was afraid it would be a mess but they turned out really good. I am going to experiment with it and see if I can get fruity ones and plain sandwhich ones from it. I will post if it turns out ok.

Still haven't got any further with breakfast bars yet but I might get going on those soon. They will not be cheap because I want to pack as much goodness in them as I can so they will be breakfast on the go not just a snack.

Time for bed soon. Have a good night everyone.

SuzyWuzy_2

Thanks Frugaldom for the Ald1 tip. I'll pop in tomorrow and get a few of those fruit trees - What a good offer.

I was impressed wth the Bargainf00ds site, thanks for the link. I felt that there was more on THAT site than approv3d foods. A good delivery price too. I just wish that there was a little bit more choice and it stocked products I usually buy. The Spaghetti is a bargain and we always buy the sensation crisps but they do lose their taste when they are even near there sell by date.

babyboysmommy

Had a really good day yesterday. We spent the day at a local children's theme park (rides, soft play centre, park, pet corner etc). Cost £1 to get in as we have a winter season ticket for the soft play area so even though the whole park was open we only had to pay £1 to get in Took packed lunch & drinks so a very cheap day out. I'm a big fan of season tickets for those places we attend often, saved us a fortune over the years making taking the children out a lot cheaper & easier to budget for.

The rain is back today so another day of games, crafts & baking.

lynzpower

Hiya all

For anyone buying compost- do take advice particularly if you are growing in pots.

There are some comparisons as I said further backin the thread- not all chepa compost is the same and some wont have the nutrients to grow stuff- so dont set yourself up for failiure! The B&Q multipurpose compost got the best review when WHICH compared them and last weekend it was £1 a bag ( 20l) Its the compost in the purple bag.

:wave: Hope everyone is ok.

Im skint as can be as the cash from egg takes a while to pop through to my current. NBot only that but I also thought I lost my cashcard- so couldnt spend much over the last few days anyway. Found the card safe and sound (!) down the bck of my dressing table, so a blessing in disguise really lol.

With this in mind we are eating out of the store cupboards and trying to run the freezer down as its on its last legs I dont want to buy any more freezer food in case the freezer dies with a haul of nice meat or premade meals inside.

Joy of joys I just checked my freegleing email and someone has offered us a fridge freezer thats in great condition! :j I would have never revisited freegle if it werent for you lot so thanks again. I really really hope we get it.

Bit of batch cooking yesterday, I think I have learned the fine art of halving recipes- having the new scales help. Yesterday I made Coconut & cinnamon macaroons and also cranberry & white choc chip cookies.

The macaroons were lovely and easy and v sparing with ingredients just cinamon, sugar, coconut & an egg white- I didnt tell v impressed OH how easy they were;)

Few days ago I revisted the library. Ive been avoiding it as I have a fine to pay and I never have any cash on me (!!) but I think they must of wiped it off as they didnt ask me about it? Oh well I got a few cookery books and a copy of the titchmarsh kitchen gardener that is fantastic. For all the newbie growers out there this book is worth having! (esp if its free)

Made another batch of laundry gloop this week feeling ever so impressed with this have saved at least a fiver on laundry stuff this year already.

Ill be treating myself this week to my 10er spend and buying a heated propagator from B&Q to start the chillis and peppers off- I think this is OK spend.

Hope everyone is ok , have only skimmed the last few pages, as I don't have a lot of time today.

Big frugal hugs to anyone who wants one