FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 2, April - June.

candygirl

Have had another fabbily frugal day at the boot fair, and got tons of clothes for me, inc a gorg wallis dress, lovely winter coat etc.I bypassed the stalls with clothes thrown on the floor, as it kills my back bending down all the time:o
Am off out for a cheapy night with bezzy mate, who has made it back from Spain thank god:T:T:beer::beer:
Spesh huggles to FISHCAKE , as I know how crap PND is:(:(

Erme

for Enjoy and Nuala

and


for anyone else who needs them
(hope this works!)

Yesterday was mega stress....= dieting = been stressed all week. Lost 5lbs in 2 weeks :eek: Want to lose more. Psych appt coming up. Usually want to be low for that (some weird thing about freaking him out)...

Lack of coffee on the acute ward has sent me emailing again. My facebook contact on JV came in handy (he's into coffee in a big way cos what the clinical director don't know is that if this 'aint sorted lovely (tee hee) Erme has already emailed Panorama about it! (the objection being that no one seems to care if psych patients are morbidly obese and they haven't done for years and now no one seems to care if they don't get enough cups of tea/coffee).

Anyhow all Ma trouble now sorted following a mega row last night (almost cancelled her it was that bad!) - she is coming to mine for 2 nights, then to a B+B for 2 nights up the road (about 15 min walk) and then to mine for the last night. I have paid £10 deposit and will probably give her another £10 towards it cos this is as much about my sanity as hers (room is £30 a night inc breakfast. Has rave reviews but is only 3 star, but good location for us and will help no end. Didn't exactly want her miles away) so should be fine...

Been down my normal saturday haunt of the veg garden (even though I'm not a student) and they gave me a veg plot and some plants . So found the sprouting spud in the cupboard (mega sprouts :eek:) and planted that and planted some salad stuff and some garlic and made a sign. Will learn the ropes (and use their tools!!!) whilst skinny budget and like whilst I'm not working then look into getting 1/2 allotment same place as M's (or some of M's allotment by which time I'm hoping he has a lock on the shed!!!) when I start work (cos obviously saturday's aren't always going to happen ). So no windowsill stuff this year. Will buy pots from supermarket - sprout in cupboard then plant. Sorted :T

Anyhow loving my odour beater air freshner I got from work. Smells so nice and really does get rid of the cig smell (even after barely smoking for a few hours) but the real test is what ma thinks in 2 weeks. It's expensive but what with my crafts right now I think it's worth it.

Also figured out how to sort out my spool pin on my old 'victoria' (lidl/Lervia) sewing machine after making some enquiries..YOU JUST PULL IT UP :P...dang feel like such and idiot! Been battling with straws for weeks!

Anyhow have to go and get tea = mung dahl and basmati and mayo (diet food basically)...

Blessings

E

ceridwen

NUALA

Still thinking re where else I have seen about people using a solar oven. I think (cannae be sure...) that there might be a post about it on another American blog I sometimes read:

http://risashome.blogspot.com/

Come to think of it - dont know why I dont keep up with this blog regularly and you might find it appealing - theres a certain charm to it as well as all the self-sufficiency.

Winchelsea

www.selfsufficientish.com/solaroven.htm

enjoyfinancialchallenges, this looks like a good site for solar ovens. When you start reading it, it says that the method wasn't successful when tried, but the second go worked well. I may try it myself!

Frugaldom

Hi guys, things seem to be ticking along fine without me, been locked out the site for 2 days as the updates appear to have made it incompatible with AOL. I only just thought of trying Explorer after reading the 'technical issues' page. Doh!

Things going quite well in Frugaldom, spending still minimal other than on the blasted electricity because it's been so cold here. Heaven only knows where this supposed heatwave is, we've had cold, windy but sunny spells and a lack of rain makes for good drying but the ground is now parched after all the flooding. Roll on summer! 6 Swallows flying around here now, so it's a start.

Trying to make the most of dry weather to get gardening done but still too frosty to get anything planted outside. Meanwhile, 2 broody hens both down on eggs now, so it should be interesting seeing what, if anything, hatches.

Hope everyone is doing OK. Erme I hope everything goes to plan with your mum visiting and Fishcake, I hope your baby blues pass quickly, perhaps some extra sunshine will help if you're fortunate enough to live in the part of the country that's getting the heatwave.

Catch up with everyone again soon, my laptop doesn't like Explorer very much, so I'll just need to hope that MSE fixes the compatibility problem it seems to have.

NualaBuala

Evening all :hello:

I've had a nice day ... not that I did anything exciting, but it felt like a nice day all the same!

Kiwisaver, it's funny thinking of you putting away your sandals just as I'm digging mine out! Am I right in thinking you're coming back home soon? Can't help you on the ammonia I'm afraid - horrible stinky stuff and I'd rather not use it. I've heard biological washing powder is good for cleaning ovens - the enzymes break down the fat/protein.

EFC, the solar oven is just an idea I got after reading about it on a blog. Apparently they are easy to make (I will know more after reading those links from Ceridwen) but the sunshine may not be so easy to come by! If I find any blogs with instructions for solar powered Zimmers I'll be sure to let you know! :rotfl:Happy to offer supoort - and you have done the same for me, thank you. My memory is rubbish and I often forget things I wanted to say, people I wanted to mention etc when I reply. But it doesn't mean I'm not reading and thinking good thoughts for everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if that happens a lot around here.

Hugs to you Fishcake - depression is a rotten thing, no matter what the cause. I hope all your growing and sowing offers some relief. In any case, mind yourself. BTW, I love bookcrossing too - a fantastic idea although I have yet to release any books into the wild.


Glad things are getting sorted with your Mum Erme - I'm sure the B and B is worth every penny to give you a bit of breathing space. And that sounds like a good price to me. Thanks for the hugs - you always have the cutest hug pics! Hugs back to you too! That's great that you have been give a patch in the student garden, will you show us some pics when you've got it up and running?.

Ta for the link Ceridwen, I meant to say that I really like your blog too and you have a great blogroll. Keeping up with all these blogs could be a full time job! And that's another great link Winchelsea, ta very much.

Hope your technical issues get sorted out soon Frugaldom.

I went over budget on food this month as I spent lots today at the organic food co-op. Hopefully with a bit of juggling and cutting back next month it will all balance out. I really don't mind though - at least this stuff is good for me (and the planet). And if I gave up takeaways and junk food it would be no problem at all budget-wise. I am improving slowly though so am not going to beat myself up over it. I got lots of yummy fruit and veg including rhubarb that will end up in a crumble tomorrow. I really like the co-op, it's nice to be able to talk to the growers, cheesemakers etc and eat all the free samples! And you meet all sorts of interesting people there - it's much more enjoyable than a trip to Mr Ts.

I got given a free packet of turnip seed so they will get sown soon as soon as I find a home for them. Another small frugal success was making the most out of some lemons. I used the rind in a cake, the juice in hummus and used the squeezed out "shells" to clean the sink. And now what's left will go on the compost heap.

Am getting sleepy now so will sign off. Night night all.

Kiwisaver_2

NualaBuala wrote: »

Kiwisaver, it's funny thinking of you putting away your sandals just as I'm digging mine out! Am I right in thinking you're coming back home soon? Can't help you on the ammonia I'm afraid - horrible stinky stuff and I'd rather not use it. I've heard biological washing powder is good for cleaning ovens - the enzymes break down the fat/protein.

Yes, not long to go, just five more weeks until I get to M&S and shopping heaven. I'm more excited at the prospect of some decent shops than anything else. I'm sure that novelty will soon wear off.

I have tried soaking oven shelves in washing powder in the past and not found it very effective. Before I resort to the elbow grease I'm going to have another go with the ammonia using a different method today; they say put the shelves in a dustbin bag with half a cup of ammonia and leave outside for a few hours. So I'll report back on that one.

The ammonia was unbelievably cheap at no more than £1.50 for a litre so I am determined to make it work. :rotfl:

ETA: Some six hours later I just finished 'scrubbing' the oven shelves after having left them on a plastic bag with ammonia for about three hours. Doh! I would say they were marginally easier to clean had I not done the bag thing BUT the dirt hardly 'slipped off' as I was led to believe from the many sources where I have heard this mentioned. Now I have a dripping and extremely stinky plastic bag in the dustbin that will likely knock my head off next time I go to put some rubbish in. Any other uses for ammonia as I don't think I would bother myself to do it again. Maybe I was expecting too much, but hey ho you live and learn. I could happily strangle the guy who designed my oven shelves with so many fiddly curved bits - stupid idiot!!

I potted on my celery and leeks, hacked a few shrubs, swept leaves and now have to get on with the dinner, make a pudding, do some ironing and have a bath. There's no rest for the wicked!

Frugaldom

Good morning from a soggy wet part of the country that certainly isn't digging out summer sandals yet - it's pouring rain here. The grass does look a bit greener but there are another 5 molehills for the chickens to dig into mud!

I'm getting fed up with the cold now, we need some warmth just so I can start switching off the stotage heaters. Having turned them down, they got turned back up again when the temps dropped below zero last week, so the spends on electricity this year so far have been horrendous - £570 to date and absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Food shopping well under control but we need to keep the bulk bought stuff rotating so nothing gets pushed to the back for too long. Spends to date on groceries (including toiletries, cleaning & laundry products) stands at £340.63, which is well over my planned budget, so that's not going well and will probably need reassessing soon. But overall, I am still optimistic that the annual budget of £4,000 can be maintained. DS's 21st birthday in a couple of weeks in next major spend but that's already accounted for and kept in its own account so it didn't get spent.

eBid has a one day specil offering lifetime seller+ (their top package) for only £14.99 today. It's well worth the investment if you intend selling anything online even if it's just to take advantage of the offer now for future use. Lifetime does mean lifetime and if the site suddenly exploded into the marketplace the way eBay did then you'd be in with an established foothold before that happened. Just set yourself a mini challenge to earn back your initial £14.99 layout. It includes all the storefront features and you can have up to 5 individual stores. I got my '10th anniversary' email from them yesterday, so that's 10 years of selling bits and pieces without having to pay any fees - well worth it for me.

Hope everyone has a good Sunday. Technical hitch between MSE and AOL seems to have been resolved, so Im happy.

cw18

I need to update my spreadsheet with all my spends from the last 7-10 days so I'm ready to report month end figures on Friday evening .....

This is the one area that's sadly suffering now I'm trying to fit a social life around everything else, but I've no intention of giving up the social life so just need to get better organised on a daily basis again

Saw OH again last night. Even with his DS at home things are incredibly chilled, so things are looking pretty good (must admit the fact we each have a 'child' at home - mine's almost 19 while his is 31, so hardly children really - was my one concern on how things would work out). Could happily have stayed up all day today, but he had prior commitments and DD wants me to do a tip run for her today.

I should have been at OHs all day yesterday, but DS had forgotten to remind me it was the 'Entrant Day' for his 1st choice of Uni. So OH went out to spend time with friends for most of the day while I was out with DS, and I went up later in the evening. OH seemed to think it funny I'd forgotten about the Uni day, but that's probably 'cos he remembers how badly organised I was when we worked together so realised things haven't changed much in the last 11+ years

Just had some lunch, finishing my brew while catching up on here, then will be off to DDs to get the tip run (which is probably the first of many) out of the way.

The latter part of this afternoon/this evening look like they're going to be spent filling in on-line forms for my DS's university financing. So another day of 'fun' for me - not!

pagangirl

Hi all - hugs to all who need 'em, congratulations, commiserations etc. Sorry can't remember all names ! (old age creeping in)

enjoyfinancialchallenges - glad you are doing ok after the bunion ops - take it easy for a while - I've had 3 bunion ops so far. Left one got done once - now brilliant, right one been done twice, needs doing again ! Pain in the a*** as different op done on right foot, left me with different size feet, which ain't no fun when trying to get shoes to fit.:(

Blairweech - you can claim dentist fees back if you are on income based JSA, but not contribution based - dunno if this helps. (Guess which one I'm on)

Going on frugal coach trip to Skipton market tomorrow, local Community Centre subsidises trips for our Housing Association so only had to pay £5.00 for full day out ! All coming out of leisure budget so will be covered ok.

This month is a 5 week month for me, so will update figures soon.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend