Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Today I went out for one of my frugal bus rides a half hour trip around the villages before a 30 min wait then come back again. I had to go actually because at about 3.30am whilst I was filling in time waiting for the cat to decide whether to go out in the rain or not I thought I might as well put the pressure cooker on and cook some dried peas that I'd soaked for at least 24 hrs. The long and short of it was whilst cooking the valve blew off and decorated my kitchen a delicate shade of pea green. Not nice at all, my first instinct was to leave it till the morning but pea soup was dripping everywhere so I got a bowl of water and started cleaning, the door, the oven, the ceiling, the recipe book I was using, the cup of tea I had just made plus the floor, everything, pea soup was everywhere. I eventually went to bed at 5.30 but woke at 8.30 which was just as well as if I slept my sleep out I would have lost the day. I then caught the bus and bought some new valves for the pressure cooker, job done AND I had pea soup for lunch. What an exciting life I lead? I still have a lot of soup left so fairly frugal really.

cw18

At least you can now cross 'clean the kitchen' off your list of early spring-cleaning jobs :rotfl:

silvasava

Hi everyone.

Trying to have NSD's but not doing too well this week. Was chuffed becuase I managed to get us an NHS Dentist - first check up's today £33.00 for two instead of £90!! But - haircut tomorrow (friend who's not as expensive as a salon) & made appointment to see chiropractor for an ongoing back injury. I think I'll probably need 2/3 appointments & I'm dreading the bill - just hope my HSA will cover most of it!
I seem to be taking 2 steps forward 1 step back at the moment

dizzy_lizzie

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

I always pick up coins from the pavement when I see them but once when I did I couldn't stand up straight until a woman who was passing by helped me, very embarrassing I still do it but bend my knees now and not my back. I don't tell anybody about my secret though as I'm not sure many people would understand, I know you all will though.:)

We positively encourage it
Argh to the pressure cooker! Don't know if I'd have been as calm as you.

Well I have sitting next to me an Amazon parcel. I ordered, was only £5.99 inc postage this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/1844484939/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books I haven't opened it yet, I'm getting my mileage out of the anticipation part
Luv Dizzy x
♥

rainbowcattail

Hi All,

I must catch up on the thread, its really grown. Im not doing well on NSDs but at least those that havent been are LSDs. Im realising the key to a NSD is preparation! Also gonna check out the recipe section at the beginning of the thread for cheap recipies, on the plus side I have decluttered about 10 bags to the charity shop so small positives.
Well done everyone - its inspiring!

xx

23rdspiral

oh dear!

well i had a nice walk in the sun - remembered i've library books to return.... But they were closed so i felt pointless and disheartened so i went into the craft shop... spent 3.25 on things in the sale which would have been over 6.00, But only 1 was on my list of 'needful things' - a small embroidery hoop - but that in itself was half the price i nearly spent on it in hobby craft last week! oh well. at least i avoided the co-op.

i hope everyone had a more successfully bugety day than me.

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
What a great thread - can I tag along please. :j Looks exciting.
Needing to be frugal more so than ever and hopping to pick up tips from everyone.

Hi CW18 is it you I need to ask if I can join. Let me in please..... :rotfl:

richacol

I'm beginning to enjoy this, menu planning going well and sticking to budget. 2nd NSD in a row.
Have managed to cycle to work every day, and the poor car must think I've forgotten its parked on the drive.

slowlyfading

:hello: evening everyone!

My smoothie maker has arrived today so I'm looking forward to making lots of healthy concoctions It does mean that I've got to pop to the shops tomorrow so I can get some more fruit in, but I'm hoping that it'll kick start my weight loss - it's going slow so far.

I've had another NSD too which is good. Tired though, definitely need an early night.

Erme

redglass wrote: »

I'm relieved to see that he uses an oven, not a breadmaker. I sometimes feel I'm the only person left on earth who doesn't have one, but I don't eat enough bread to justify the expense (more a potatoes and pasta girl) and there's only me in this house. I do have a recipe for making bread in a slowcooker but have never dared have a go, has anyone actually done this?

Welcome to all our new Frugalistas!

Jess, sorry to hear about your trouble. You'll get lots of support here.

I had a breadmaker for a while but needed the space for other more necessary equipment (coffee maker ) so got a food processor when not eating properly last year and love it. You can probably pick up a small magimix le mini (last year's model) for about 60-70 on ebay if not less and the only hassle is that it takes two lots of the bowl to make one loaf but otherwise you can have 2 loaves in the pans ready for rising in half an hour and then just a couple of hours in the lounge or somewhere safe for them to rise and VOILA - bread....Dead easy.

I tend to put them in freezer bags when I let them rise...only snag with bread is not being able to get the loaf liners for the pans from poundland so I've invested in silicone pans (they looked the best for the price) from Mr M...bright pink - yeurkkk but do the job...silicone is how most bakeware is going

Alas yet more whoopsies though can't really recall what on.Tried to quit the stinky sticks @ w/e and failed so dived off to get different brand of N yesterday only for that almost to find me reaching for the iron in a non constructive manner. So then phoned D who said go on e-cig but get better equipment (was planning to anyways) and so I got all that early hours of this am :T and it's coming soon

Whoop whoop whoop when the postie behaves...mornings are going to be so exciting

Also finally my magimix part (I call it the spindle - they call it something long winded) is coming soon as well so I can finally put the grating and slicing disk back to use (and believe me that's sharp )

and have been making pancakes out of the cookbook I got last week. The veggie meatloaf would easily serve 6 so it's in the freezer:) and so cheap. I didn't have chick peas ready so used a tin of cheap red kidney beans and it was fine. Only thing I can think being expensive long term is the seeds but when you're not making it that often why worry? (it needs 1/2lb). Also just took 1 hour (just over) from start to finish which is a lot quicker than one's traditional meat loaf and that includes cooking time

Finally re food processor - tis the best thing known to beings for making breadcrumsb - even from frozen bread:)

E