Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 2

rising_from_the_ashes

kittiej wrote: »

When I came home from work I looked at my apple tree and it has absolutely loads of buds on it. I'm going to have a real glut of apples this year so if anyone wants to pass me some ideas then I would be most grateful. Pie, crumble and cider lol.

Kittie, if you don't manage to use them all, cook and then freeze in various portion sizes. Small ones for an apple sauce with pork & turkey etc and larger ones for crumbles & pies etc.

I've managed to go all winter having a blackberry & apple crumble nearly every weekend (yum, still love it) having done this with "left over" apples from DM's tree and berries from the woods (down to my last couple of packs now tho' - roll on this years' crop)!


My peas have grown about a foot this week! It must be all this warm damp weather. Looking promising .......

kittiej

Thanks rfta that's a good idea. We also get loads of blackberries around here esp along the fence of my back garden so I'm thinking of making use of those too.

Anything for free these days as the cost of everything rises.

I saw wind up lanterns in the garage the other day. I wonder how much light they actually give out. They are the camping type ones, does anyone have any experience of these?

My children always seem to leave their lights on and I wondered if I could get them to use something like that instead.

minnie2

JLL wrote: »

A few years ago i got 20 bites in one night on holiday in greece and was told by a pharmacist out there to take hayfever tablets (anti-hystamines) and to cut a lemon in half and rub it on the bites 3 times a day, till they stop itching. By the next day the redness had gone out of them Best advice i've ever had. Trust me It worked wonders. Any cheap hayfever tablets work. I use asda own now 99p

The other thing the pharmacist told me was if i'm prone to bites on holiday start taking anti-hystamines a week before i go on hols so they are already in my system.

i am on very strong anti-histamines daily throughout the year and for life and they had no affect on my bites.I got bitten 68times one night in italy in tuscany and i was in agony all week.got an average 10-15 more each night after that.i tried everything including waking up every hour to re-apply repellant cream and spray thats suppose to last 12 hours!!!! some people are just more seceptable.my hubby only got one!!!!! which faded!! mine were raging all week.I wore no perfume had plenty of garlic etc but i could see them all flying straight at me while i was in the bathroom.very nearly spoilt our honeymoon!

minnie2

I AM STRUGGLING

money is so very tight!!!!!!!!!! i have £8 till thurs. Our petrol is £10 so we are well and truly stuck!!! And we are both working all this weekend and mon - wed. no idea what to do.

things are bad and i am exhausted worrying about it.



oh correction £8.29

LolaLemon

Big hugs minnie2.
I don't have any practical advice as anything I suggest, u are probably already doing.

(Oh, is their anyway u can car share, get a lift to work this week, tell people ur car is broken and can't get fixed till pay day)

kittiej

Hi minnie

Oh dear, I've been through those times too. Have you searched all around the house for odd bits of money - sofas, under the bed is a good place in our house. The only other suggestion is to empty your car of everything you don't need to reduce the weight and drive as gently as you possibly can. Would you be able to park it somewhere safely which is not quite at home? By walking a little bit you might make your petrol last? Otherwise just drive it until it conks would be my very last resort and not to be advised as you might ruin injectors. I've found that just because the petrol gauge says zero doesn't mean that it is zero.

Hope you manage, can you borrow a fiver from anyone?

For the future I would put a months worth of fuel in your car then you won't have this worry.

* I am not advising people to run their cars until they stop or to run a car when the gauge says zero *

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j:j
Hope the interview went well Inspire. Minnie- I believe that there are lift sharing sites available- might be worth seeing if anyone is going your way?

We've now got things sprouting in the garden- parsley, a few shallots although not a brilliant return for what we planted, round carrots, beetroot, only 1 raspberry cane [think the others perished in the cold], courgette plants, beans and the runner bean plants OH planted a couple of weeks ago have also come through. Very much liked the tip about planting the potato skin- shall be trying that one for sure.

After the not so good news about my job OH has got 4 new orders for his micro business so that cheered us up on end. Having another frugal day here at Gnatbottomed Towers- I've checked the weather forecast and got the washing out on the line, leftover lentil curry for tea tonight and have invested the princely sum of £1.95 on wools and buttons from the CS to stock up my craft chest. Reckon I might have more time to make things shortly. Also popped into the library and picked up some books on making presents. Starting postively as I mean to go on:D

Learnt yesterday you can make dandelion marmalade- details on here
http://www.makeitandmendit.com/
Am not affiliated to this site in any way.
Arilx

minnie2

LolaLemon wrote: »

Big hugs minnie2.
I don't have any practical advice as anything I suggest, u are probably already doing.

(Oh, is their anyway u can car share, get a lift to work this week, tell people ur car is broken and can't get fixed till pay day)

kittiej wrote: »

Hi minnie

Oh dear, I've been through those times too. Have you searched all around the house for odd bits of money - sofas, under the bed is a good place in our house. The only other suggestion is to empty your car of everything you don't need to reduce the weight and drive as gently as you possibly can. Would you be able to park it somewhere safely which is not quite at home? By walking a little bit you might make your petrol last? Otherwise just drive it until it conks would be my very last resort and not to be advised as you might ruin injectors. I've found that just because the petrol gauge says zero doesn't mean that it is zero.

Hope you manage, can you borrow a fiver from anyone?

For the future I would put a months worth of fuel in your car then you won't have this worry.

* I am not advising people to run their cars until they stop or to run a car when the gauge says zero *

thank you!!!!! i am just so lost!!

we live out in the sticks and the people that live around us all work at a prison nearby so dont go in to the city plus we work in two different places in two different areas of the city.

we use £300 a month of petrol so cant put it all in at once

car is empty of all things.

i dont know what else to do and theres only enough to last today.

argh!!!!! will have a hunt for some pennies but not sure they will appreciate accepting them for petrol.

i have such a headache.

kittiej

So how many more days do you need petrol for, is it just today or the other days you mentioned as well?

I can see why you have a headache lol.

If you can't put enough petrol in the tank, which clearly you can't, then you have to put the money to one side in an envelope, jar, whatever but you have to forget it's there until you need it for petrol because without work there's no money. I wish there was a frugal petrol substitute unfortunately we're stuck on that front.

Good luck, do you have anything you could sell or as THE last resort pawn for a couple of weeks?

Kiwisaver_2

minnie2 wrote: »

i have such a headache.

Could you call in sick? Not like you are telling lies, you do have a headache.