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

knithappens

the_cat wrote: »

I've got the morphy richards one - it's great. Being bigger and an oval shape I find it more useful than the round ones as stuff like leg lamb, large chicken etc are easy to fit in.

think i will wait for the snow to clear then go pick one up

cake21

Optimisticpair wrote: »

There's new boiler help scheme in today's news bbc - £400 towards a new boiler if yours is G rated - if over 15 yrs old boiler may well be, so could be worth a look.

Thanks very much :T:T

rozeepozee wrote: »

do I buy the 6.5L Morphy Richards that's on offer at Argos atm (reduced to £20) but has no timer and might be too big? Or the Crockpot Saute 5.7L SC with timer that you can also "use on the hob, in the microwave, in the oven, in the freezer and refrigerator" and is dishwasher safe? It's £63.59 in Argos but only £41 in Costco.

I looked longingly at the crockpot saute myself, bought a cheapie 4.5L for £10 from Asda in the end, and I love it. Echo the others really, you don't need a timer, more electronics to go wrong, just use a timer on the plug if you need one. On low does no real harm to have a bit longer cooking if you're delayed getting home anyway. I hardly ever want to saute anything first, and when I do the frying pan works just as well and is easy enough to wash up afterwards, still saves loads of time. If you're batch cooking the odds are you won't want to put it in the freezer / microwave / oven anyhoo. There's something cunning you can do with a small container inside if you do want to cook a smaller volume (smaller container inside on upturned plate, water up to about halfway up, but can't remember the details). Plus if you get a cheaper one it won't be such a disaster if you don't like it.

Long waffly way of saying buy the cheaper one :rotfl:

Nessa56

the_cat wrote: »

I've got the morphy richards one - it's great. Being bigger and an oval shape I find it more useful than the round ones as stuff like leg lamb, large chicken etc are easy to fit in.

Asda do a large oval one as well, can't remember how much now but not a lot I know that cos I bought one, it has a timer as well if that helps

v
x

DdraigGoch

I loved my slowcooker and was immensely grateful when we were given a huge one a few years ago. Now we're down to 2 of us, mostly, and have a woodfired range we don't use it, but I'm not getting rid of it - it's still useful in the shoulders of the year. You know, those days when it's not cold enough to put the heating on [light a fire, in our case] but you want a hot meal. Also, it's v handy for keeping food warm, if you run out of space on the hob.

All the slow cooker meals do brilliantly in a woodfired range cooker - just ensure that the lid fits VERY well or it'll dry out [ask me how I know... :rolleyes:]. I use Romertopf cookers and earthenware casseroles where possible as they seem to work better than metal ones, even cast iron ones aren't as good [EVEN the LeCreuset ones:rotfl: - frantically types to confirm that I DID NOT pay for these. 2 were a gift and 2 were picked up for £1 each at the local recycling centre:T]

Still surrounded by frozen snow, lane still v snowy [car scrapes the middle of the lane quite alarmingly] Best of luck everyone.

ps Rozeepozee - re your uninsulated floors, 2 things, firstly there are grants for insulating your home and even though you can't cavity fill the walls you can still get money towards the cost of the fibreglass, if not it's only £5 a roll [LARGE roll] in H/base and it goes a long way; secondly, a good layer of newspaper beneath any carpet helps and if you can obtain 2nd hand [dry] vinyl sheeting put that underneath and it will stop any draughts stone dead.

If anyone has horrid draughts around the window frames and no money for filler, make papier mache and use that. It is cheap/free, easy to make and use, and paints up easily too. If you're going to do this on a window with an exposed front, ie not under/in a large porch PLEASE mix some PVA glue in with the papier mache once you've drained it. Then paint it with the glue a couple of times on the outside and inside if you can, it will help waterproof it. Rozeepozzee, I've filled gaps in floorboards with pm before, also used a mix of pva and wood dust - works a treat.

Hope that helps someone somehow.

flippin36

rozeepozee wrote: »

Okay guys, I need some frugal moral guidance here. Seriously thinking about buying a slow cooker. We eat curries here at least 2 or 3 times a week and I am partial to soup. Plus, I've been known to batch cook in the past. I really like the idea of shoving a load of food in a pot and having a meal waiting for me 8 hours later. I could probably incorporate getting a meal ready first thing most mornings and leaving it to cook while I'm out and about in the day.

However, I know kitchen appliances are one of my gazingus pins (things I like to buy and don't necessarily need and just end up taking up cupboard space - see my post about the need to inventory things above!) so is this a MS buy or a green eyed consumer buy?

If the answer is yes to the former, do I buy the 6.5L Morphy Richards that's on offer at Argos atm (reduced to £20) but has no timer and might be too big? Or the Crockpot Saute 5.7L SC with timer that you can also "use on the hob, in the microwave, in the oven, in the freezer and refrigerator" and is dishwasher safe? It's £63.59 in Argos but only £41 in Costco. We're a family of 3 about to become a family of 5 in April.

Decisions, decisions!

If it was me, size really matters as you could fit a bigger joint or chicken in it, and the price looks good at £20 for a 6.5l.

Pippilongstocking

landregistrylass wrote: »

I only bought 1 thing at full price........ olive oil. Anyone know a good source of this more cheaply than Mr T?

We changed back to sunflower oil last year (much cheaper) - to be honest I havent noticed the difference we did it as a bit of a test and as I filled up my cupboards for 6 months with dried/tinned stuff and I didn't have much of a starter budget I wanted to cut back where I could - Olive oil is expensive - Veg and sunflower oil is so much cheaper - and as I also refill the little olive oil bottle in the cupboard with the sunflower oil no one else has noticed either.

Might be worth a try?

Trying to fathom a budget for us - its not easy is it? I'm currently renting a really (well 650cpm) house which I have lodgers (2) in at the moment but the lease runs out in August - lodgers run out in January and May - can't take anymore due to lease expiring. Our oil/coal and electric are expensive too because of the size of the house.

Would you guys leave these out of the budget as they are really tied up together?

Any advice gladly taken

(thanks for the stripey hello SM!)

Pippilongstocking

rozeepozee wrote: »

I've thought of another reason to buy - we can use it in our campervan which arrives in March :j:j:j

Why do i want the more expensive one despite there being no logic in this....?

We got an asda slow cooker when they were on offer (*thanks MSE*) which I thought at 3.5ltrs would be too small but to be honest its great - think they are £15 now.

Campervan - what kind? We have one called Darwin (VW Type 25 - bargain of the supermarket notice board last Jan) and he's awesome!

rozeepozee

fayjmck wrote: »

Trying to fathom a budget for us - its not easy is it? I'm currently renting a really (well 650cpm) house which I have lodgers (2) in at the moment but the lease runs out in August - lodgers run out in January and May - can't take anymore due to lease expiring. Our oil/coal and electric are expensive too because of the size of the house.

Why can't you take any more lodgers? Surely someone would be interested in a short term let?

rozeepozee

fayjmck wrote: »

We got an asda slow cooker when they were on offer (*thanks MSE*) which I thought at 3.5ltrs would be too small but to be honest its great - think they are £15 now.

Campervan - what kind? We have one called Darwin (VW Type 25 - bargain of the supermarket notice board last Jan) and he's awesome!

We have just blown a big chunk of our savings on a new VW California... A not entirely total luxury buy (I keep trying to tell myself) as we're expecting twins in April and will become a family of 5 so it will be our "people carrier" and also all our holidays for the forseeable.

Hence money saving this year to refill the pot and make sure that we do use it to save money (i.e. cheap days out, cheap holidays, no buying lunches out etc) She'll be called Marmite as she's "Samoan Red" in colour - nothing at all red about it, more like, well, marmite/ I think it''ll be one of those colours you either love or hate - we're hoping we''ll love it as we're going by a sample, it's a new colour and as such there were no vans of that colour to look at beforehand. I am very excited!!! :j:j:j

Pippilongstocking

rozeepozee wrote: »

Why can't you take any more lodgers? Surely someone would be interested in a short term let?

Hiya

I can only take students as I am studying and the house is a band H or G council tax so my council tax is free - so there's not much business for shorter lets here all the local uni courses are a year or so long

My landlord is about to sell this house and therefore doesnt want any more lodgers (even short term) this year - its a bit pants but he's been really good aside that.

I have thought of keeping the rooms ready and set up as they are for 'shorter stays - ie for cheap holiday letting for friends of friends' wanting to come up to the islands in Orkney - but will see. I tend to keep that quiet or it might be slightly dodgy cos of the council tax (?)

We usually trade room space for tesco vouchers when folks want a holiday!