Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

miss_empty_piggy

elly68 wrote: »

hi can i ask whoever painted their kitchen red what paint they used

It was "Roasted Red" from Wilko's about £14 I think. It looks great. ARe you considering doing yours? If you don't like it you can always paint over it. Good luck

I have just read throug the last 4 pages to catch up. Have been really busy so haven't managed to get on much lately. However, I have to confess that this is mainly due to the fact that I haven't been able to put my CS "treat" (50p book) down until I finished it tonight. I bought myself a book for xmas and wrapped it up as my "present to myself", but it's really not doing it for me so found something else. I'm off to bed now with my lekky blanket (freecycle), cup of tea, teddy and the other 50p CS book. The best things in life are free.

Big hugs to all who need one, and all who'd just like one!!!

youngmummy

i forgot to say MIL gave me a slow cooker last week.:money: i also got offered a single bed and mattress from a family friend and blue bed sheets for LO (hes in a toddler bed atm... hes 2 and a half)... it has never been used.:money: and MIL and FIL brought LO a bed guard bless them i asked if they wanted the money and they said they used reward points so never paid anythink for it anyway. :money:if anyone has any ideas or recipies for slow cookers id be very greatful ive never used one, i couldnt belive when i just looked back at my post how much money we will save just from not renting a garage :eek:.. i might just get rid of it even if we dont move £289 in my pocket every year :money:... im trying too fink of even more ways i can save money.
wow im doing well .... got too put thinking cap on x

enjoyfinancialchallenges

twiglet98 wrote: »

Me too, EFC, the family are early to bed, early to rise, but I'm often up until the early hours, though I regret it at work next day. Baking late on a Sunday night isn't a great idea with manic Mondays at work, but I do enjoy it!

I missed the Seville season AGAIN, and was wondering about the Jaffa oranges on offer in Mr T, would they need lemons, limes or grapefruit added? I got a lovely golden "Autumn Marmalade" from the farmer's market, and can't remember what was in it - but I'm the only one in the family who likes marmalade, and I'm not very good at selling home made stuff. Maybe worth heading to the monthly pannier market in the next village if I do make enough that I'm happy with.

twiglet98 now the Seville Season is over until next year I'm doing a three fruit recipe and that uses sweet oranges ,lemons and grapefruit if you are interested I can send you the recipe via a PM. Its a very easy recipe and is very tasty, I've also done a lemon one.
Re selling your produce I've been selling mine at a car boot sale so have a clientèle of regular customers, you just have to build that up by selling stuff of a good quality at a reasonable price. Last year I had a couple of operations so couldn't do one but I'm raring to go again his year. I have only sold scones,biscuits and shortbread up till now but because I was getting itchy to start and its still too cold for me to sit out in the middle of a field I decided to make marmalade and sell it alongside the other stuff, when it gets warmer. I hadn't realized I had a Unique Selling Point until one of my customers said people buy from me because I keep everything clean and covered and apparently its my concentrating on the hygiene aspect which as a retired health professional is what I do instinctively that sells my produce.

Once again its the middle of the night so must sleep soon, just watching Jaws, again!

apple_mint

OK I'm owning up. I bought too cookery books off Amazon yesterday. They were half price and came out of my pocket money, but I had told myself I wasn't going to buy any more.

Confession over. Now I'm looking forward to getting them :j Somehow I'll convince myself that the recipes are saving me money

redglass_2

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

I jokingly told the guy he could have them back if he brought me some jam jars and tonight he bought a bag containing about 20 jars with lids and a great big bunch of roses, wasn't that wonderful and completely unexpected. Well the roses were I thought he would bring a jar or two but 20, well my eyes nearly came out if their sockets. There are some very good kind people in this world.

That's a lovely story, EFC, there are indeed some good kind people in the world and don't forget to include yourself in that, for taking the time and trouble to search for his glasses in the dark! :T And sometimes it's not the people you expect, either. I was once on a train and starving, and the buffet was running out. There was a lad in front of me who looked pretty rough, TBH. He was sitting near me earlier and I'd felt slightly nervous of him. Anyway, he got the last bacon roll. When I got to the front I was told 'No bacon rolls left' and asked if I would have a burger instead, but I don't like burgers. The lad heard this, offered to take the burger and handed me the bacon roll. Really nice of him, and he can't have had ulterior motives because I'm old enough to be his gran. It was humbling.

redglass_2

Me again...!
I've purchased a netbook and need some antiviral for it. There are various free downloads suggested on this site, but can anyone recommend a good one (preferably but not necessarily free) that isn't too memory hungry for a small machine? It came with antiviral already installed but because of a delay in getting connected, that product has expired. I've read that Microsoft Essentials is a good choice but don't know anyone who's actually used it. The operating system is Windows 7.

cw18

redglass wrote: »

I've read that Microsoft Essentials is a good choice but don't know anyone who's actually used it. The operating system is Windows 7.

There was a thread about free packages on another forum I'm a member of last night. Someone on there recommended that one, while a couple of us are Avast users (I've run that for years) and a couple of others recommended AVG. Don't know what any of them are like in terms of memory requirements though

All I can say is that my laptop is now 3.5 years old, and wasn't top spec when I got it - only has an 80Gb hard disk (which my lads find hysterically funny) and 1Gb of memory.

Bitsy_Beans

youngmummy wrote: »

i forgot to say MIL gave me a slow cooker last week.:money: i also got offered a single bed and mattress from a family friend and blue bed sheets for LO (hes in a toddler bed atm... hes 2 and a half)... it has never been used.:money: and MIL and FIL brought LO a bed guard bless them i asked if they wanted the money and they said they used reward points so never paid anythink for it anyway. :money:if anyone has any ideas or recipies for slow cookers id be very greatful ive never used one, i couldnt belive when i just looked back at my post how much money we will save just from not renting a garage :eek:.. i might just get rid of it even if we dont move £289 in my pocket every year :money:... im trying too fink of even more ways i can save money.
wow im doing well .... got too put thinking cap on x

these threads on the OS board might help you

Slow Cooker Quick Questions

The Complete Slow Cooker Collection

enjoyfinancialchallenges

redglass I use AGV which is free and I havn't had any trouble with it, also thank you for your kind words I only did what everybody else would do in the circumstances.

I spent last evening washing and delabeling glass jars last and today asked around on the bus as well as going into one of the CS, I said I would give them a donation if they collected them for me. Just now I've repeated my plea for jars on freecycle, there must be some jars around looking for new homes in Suffolk somewhere.

I'm unsure who put the recipe for veg. and lentil soup with paprika but I made some last week and it was gorgeous, I've got another post simmering at the moment and added a couple of wrinkly carrots and a dead parsnip to it, its smelling good and being as I havn't had lunch yet will have a bowl in a minute.

I'm going to try the burger recipe in a moment the one that uses carrots and soya mince, I don't have any dried stuff but will use the frozen packets of quorn mince instead.

Have a good day everyone and hope all going OK with your DH SS. XX

elly68

miss_empty_piggy wrote: »

It was "Roasted Red" from Wilko's about £14 I think. It looks great. ARe you considering doing yours? If you don't like it you can always paint over it. Good luck

I have just read throug the last 4 pages to catch up. Have been really busy so haven't managed to get on much lately. However, I have to confess that this is mainly due to the fact that I haven't been able to put my CS "treat" (50p book) down until I finished it tonight. I bought myself a book for xmas and wrapped it up as my "present to myself", but it's really not doing it for me so found something else. I'm off to bed now with my lekky blanket (freecycle), cup of tea, teddy and the other 50p CS book. The best things in life are free.

Big hugs to all who need one, and all who'd just like one!!!

thanks very much for that yes kitchen is awful been looking out on freecycle and gumtree but nothing that suits so thought i might paint the tiles and units:rotfl::)