FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE part 3, July - Dec 2010

slowlyfading

Fishcake - ouch, my sympathies are with you, that sounds so painful! sending lots of hugs x

I've survived the first half term :j :j

enjoyfinancialchallenges

I have just reread my previous post and have to say sorry for going on a bit but I do seem to have sorted out how not to loose the message, I just put it onto the forum and then just edit it!!!!!! Ah, what a relief.
Elizabeth.

Kerry_Woman

Sending hugs to slowlyfading and Fishcake. Hope you both feel better soon.

pink_numbers

Mooloo wrote: »

Your very welcome!
If you follow my thread, then you need a medal.
I am about to start another one, but cannot make up my mind when it should be, now at the start of the move, or later when I actually get into the new place? But if this was a new start for mooloo, what shall I call the next one!! mmm.

hmmm I would personally go for after the move. If it was my own thread about my life after the move, I wouldn't want to be reminded everytime I read the thread about how the move went, and any troubles you may (although I hope not!) had during the move. Does that make sense? Afterall, the first page/posts are the one that you & others will view most often.

as for the title...hmmmm 'neo new start'? 'even better start'? 'moving up and up'? 'brilliant new change'?

Savvy_sewing

pink_numbers wrote: »

hmmm I would personally go for after the move. If it was my own thread about my life after the move, I wouldn't want to be reminded everytime I read the thread about how the move went, and any troubles you may (although I hope not!) had during the move. Does that make sense? Afterall, the first page/posts are the one that you & others will view most often.

as for the title...hmmmm 'neo new start'? 'even better start'? 'moving up and up'? 'brilliant new change'?

I never see the first pages. i read them from last page! but i get what you mean. :T

Fishcake_Random

Hey all,
Thanks for all the sympathy. I think I'm starting to feel better now, and I have just eaten 1/2 a tub of Phish food lol.
I'm on a bit of a mission online tonight. I got lots of goodies from Lush for my birthday and looked at their website to order some more bits and was pretty shocked at the prices!! So I was looking up how to make your own bath bombs and it turns out that making them is pretty dear to, so I have moved onto reserching bath salts which are a massive bath time fave of mine and turns out they are simple and cheap to make.
So I'm on a mission to buy Epson salts tomo. They should be in boots or Tescos etc and trying a chocolate bath salts recipe.
Wish me luck

x x x x

pink_numbers

Mooloo wrote: »

I never see the first pages. i read them from last page! but i get what you mean. :T

hmmm now that you mention it, I read thread from the end too. What was I thinking?!?!

cake21

top_drawer wrote: »

hey,

Has anyone got any recommendations for straight forward soups?

Today I have boiled up some broccoli and puree it, now its frozen waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I also have a largish amount of ham I have bought cheap too. I was hoping to use some of it in the ham but then I will still have quite a bit left over...
I want to do something new with it but I'm not sure how much I will end up with and I definitely dont want the salty mess I made last time.... I also have three radishes which I have not a clue to do with.

Can't help you with the ham, and normally just throw whatever vegetables I have into the slow cooker with some stock, but I do like this "recipe" I found in OS many moons ago (can't remember who posted it originally)

Use this formula to make a smooth soup out of any veg:

chopped flavouring veg -onion (at least one), garlic, leek, celery cook gently in butter and/or olive oil

+

other flavourings -spices, chopped bacon, fresh ginger, coconut cream (add this with the stock)

+

chopped main veg (squash, carrot, leek, mushrooms, parsnip, potato, frozen peas, watercress, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, lentils, other beans) cook until beginning to soften

+

Water/vegetable stock/ chicken stock to cover by an inch or so (too little is better than too much as you can easily thin it later). Bring to the boil then simmer until everything is cooked. Allow to cool and then blend with a stick blender or in a food processor. You may want to thin it with more water/stock. If it is too thin add some more potato and cook till soft -blend again.

+

Reheat gently to serve. Add cream/yogurt/ grated cheese if liked

Obviously you don't have to blend the soup, you can leave it chunky. I tend to do this with bean soups. I also add barley or small pasta to this type of soup.

Good combinations are; lentil and spinach,spiced butternut squash and coconut, watercress and potato, leek and potato, curried parsnip, jerusalem artichoke and bacon, carrot and orange, broccoli/cauliflower and cheese, celery and stilton.

JayneC

Hi all,

Just popping on before I toddle off to bed. SF and Fishcake best wishes, hope you feel better soon. DS is also very happy to have got to half term!

Am on leave next week too - whoop whoop! Hoping to get down to my other garden as not been for a couple of weeks. May try and get some craftwork done too - practice! Still have stack of stuff to take to car boot sale - if I don't get there this weekend think it's going on Freegle, it's getting on my nerves. Got half a bed base in living room and other half in my bedroom so house an almighhty tip! The bed base is broken and I was given a new (to me) one so planning to chop up the old bases, and plan to keep wood for when I get my stove,but not managed to get round to doing it yet. getting someone in next week hopefully to give me a price for fitting and advice on whether the stove i've seen will be suitable. I've heard a similar scheme to the feedin tariff is coming in for biomass energy production (inc woodburners) so may wait until that comes in unless it will also apply to those already using biomass fuel. Supposed to be coming in from April?

Been fairly good with spending this month, grocery bill very low. Car insurance is due for renewal so will swop and that will be much lower this time. Cheeky flippin insurers sent a letter to say if I don't tell them within 5 days that I don't want to renew they may charge a fee - What The....? being charged for NOT buying!!! Have tried to ring and they don't flippin answer so e-mailed and they replied that due to data protectio they can't accept an e-mail. If they try an charge me I may not be responsible for actions... As you can tell I am not impressed with partiucular insurance company, they've been absolute pants all year actually! Was chatting to a colleague earlier about all the flippin sneaky scams designed to get you to part with your money for nothing... Large letter stamps, how many times do you get a birthday card that's not got the right stamp on and the PO charge you an extra £1 on top of the 10p to pick it up:mad: and driving licences??? every 10 years you have to update your photo, what a scam:mad:. Feeling the need to have a rant today:p Well better get to bed and calm down:o

See you all soon x

NualaBuala

Crikey between poor Fishcake and Jayne's DD, am thinking I don't want to go near a dentist for a while! Hope both are doing a little better now (like the Phish food idea Fishcake! )

Re the Epsom Salts, you can order in bulk from pharmacies if you can only find small packs in the shops.

Jen, sorry I haven't a clue about the barley - I haven't tried using it yet and I just hope the instructions are on the packet! I know exactly what you mean about eating rubbish when you come in tired. It's so much easier when you have made healthy stuff in advance that you just have to heat up. I am not always that organised though and that's when I resort to takeaways ... they are my major downfall. Thanks for warning about hot water bottles - you poor pet getting burned. I had got one (couldn't resist the furry cover) but I will be extra careful. I have a homemade wheatbag too and that's what I take to bed with me.

Erme wrote: »

I have one afghan to finish off urgently (the mega one I started in january) and one on order for which I'm going to get paid for by a friend so I know socks are not a top priority sadly *sob*

But thanks and hugs Nuala

Well I remember that afghan - it was huge!!! You are some knitter Erme but it sounds like you have plenty to keep you busy! Great that you are getting paid to make one.

pink_numbers wrote: »

NualaBuala - thanks again for encouraging me to come back. I have been reading a few pages back and it is so motivating to see everyone else trying so hard. As we (OH and I) seem to be the only ones making our finance this tight in real life, it is so easy to feel alone. I had forgotten what great support we all have in this thread! So thank you for pointing me back to here
....

How do you handle the 'well I have the money' reasoning when you see something you want/need?

That's tricky isn't it. I think it helps if you start off by thinking about what you REALLY want deep down. Security? Freedom? Or new shoes? I like the idea of owning my own home outright, owing nothing and having a little nest egg - that is my ultimate goal so I put away as much as I can manage to pay off loans and save. Because those are longish term goals, I know I couldn't sustain an extremely severe budget where EVERY spare cent after the absolute essentials went towards those goals. There are other things important to me like being able to go away on Buddhist retreats, having health insurance and eating organic food - so to afford those I deny myself other things - I try to remind myself of that when I'm tempted to splurge. I admit it doesn't always work though!

Hope everyone's ok - am a bit wiped out today so but have sympathised and cheered as I read everyone's posts.