Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 2

paidinchickens

I don't mind anyone depressing me! I am under strict instruction to stay off my poorly foot as much as possible so pretty much house bound/bored!!!!!!!!!

I did go to ASDA living last night to get a new pair of slippers

Womens white £5 girls pink £4 but went to the boys section and navy were £2.50 all the same just different coulours, so saved £2.50 by buying boys size 5 slippers:j

Then DH wanted to just pop into the dreaded B&Q and spent £20 on sale/must have/really need/they are a real bargain/will save us money in the end/I will put them back if you want, things :mad:

The children have all gone to their other parents this week and this is usually when we pop out for a meal and a bottle of wine or two a couple of times as a treat:o but this week we have done nothing and the only places we have been is visiting friends for a free cup of coffee. So we have probably saved about £50 :A

Electric and Gas bill has turned up online yesterday and they want to put it up to £91 :eek: DH has taken readings (even though it says actual but I know they have not read it as there is a bush in the way and the cupboard never closes properly) and has taken the bill to work with him to ring from their phone;) I would like to know how our bill has gone up when we have had solar panels fitted so I think their actual readings are made up!!! I will have a blow by blow account of the argument when DH gets home I am sure:rotfl:

I have been given three weeks supply of smoking patches by my brother (who failed) so am seriously thinking of giving up at the beginning of the summer holidays as I will only have one child at home;) so even if I went through the docs this will save three prescription charges.

Free listing on ebay this weekend and I can't even stand to take pics:(

So please if anyone is bored, fed up, depressed etc please post as I have NOTHING ELSE TO DO xxxxx

tumptyteapot

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Tumpty

I'm going to be really cheeky here - your website is really attractive and looks great but I wonder if the metadata is correct. I tried a search on G**gle and it didn't come up in the list of results (certainly not in the 1st couple of pages which are the ones most people look at). Might be worth having a look at this as this will be how most people find you.

Oh poo, what did you g**gle? I had to re-do the whole website earlier this year and put it onto a new shopping cart system as the server it was on was dying and the new server couldn't cope with the old cart so I am sure to have missed off heaps! Also, I think 'cos it is a new site the google rankings are lower than they were before.

tumptyteapot

The Telegraph - I'm the woman in the red dress with the small child by the water if anyone sees it :-)
I was too tight to buy the paper so I just scanned it in Smths :-)
I am sure she said the 2nd June - it is an article about living on very little money.

23rdspiral

oh dear paid in chickens, i'm sorry to hear you're bored. i hope you mend soon.

tumpty - if you have the reporters email you could ask for a electronic copy. i did that for evidence of successful projects ect when i was in the local paper quite a bit with a previous job.

~ well i still havent gone to get petrol and now can't be bothered. the desk came and they sent a text before narrowing the time down so i'm happy enough.

i finally dug over the veg bed and planted out lots of my *seedlings* (bit big to call them that now)... i dont know which is which of beetroot or radishes anymore and arent sure of the thing in the black pot! oh well. i put the cucumber under a 2ft high mini polytunnel for warmth, and even planted some chitted potatoe peelings like Lady Leslie suggested... my 87ish neighbour thought that was an excellent idea. will let you know if they do anything.

ceridwen

tumptyteapot wrote: »

The Telegraph - I'm the woman in the red dress with the small child by the water if anyone sees it :-)
I was too tight to buy the paper so I just scanned it in Smths :-)
I am sure she said the 2nd June - it is an article about living on very little money.

Errr...nope...couldnae find it....any clues anyone?

rising_from_the_ashes

tumptyteapot wrote: »

Oh poo, what did you g**gle? I had to re-do the whole website earlier this year and put it onto a new shopping cart system as the server it was on was dying and the new server couldn't cope with the old cart so I am sure to have missed off heaps! Also, I think 'cos it is a new site the google rankings are lower than they were before.

The rankings may be lower if it's a new site unfortunately - I came across this - may have a couple of useful tips:
http://google.about.com/od/searchengineoptimization/qt/improverank.htm

I tried a few things (after looking at text on your homepage - didn't look at other pages so may be others you may want to check):

• gentle parenting
• breastfeeding clothes
• breastfeeding tops
• lactation activist (which brought up a co with the same name as yours but .com at no 1 - would be great if you could get beside it)
• newborn clothes
• clothes toddlers
• nursing mothers
• nursing tops
• nursing t-shirts

I did find it (on page 1) on a couple of searches:

• Mothers' milk marketing b*oard
• promoting breastfeeding
• breastfeeding t-shirts

So it is there ..... but think some extra metadata may help:D
HTH

rising_from_the_ashes

It's kind of like taking something and trying to think of EVERYTHING people may look under (I did the metadata for our website at work) eg: take someone looking for Accommodation, they could look under that and also:

Hotel / Hotels
Bed & Breakfast
B&B
Motel / Motels
Inn / Inns
Guest house / Guest houses
Youth hostels
Hostels
Caravan site / Caravan sites
Tent sites
Pitches
Holiday lets / Holiday home / Holiday cottage
Cottage / Cottages
Where to stay
Places to stay
Self catering accommodation
Full board accommodation
half board accommodation
1/2 board accommodation
etc
etc

inspirespirit

Do many of you make your own bread? I have never made bread before, but getting really fed up with the price of bread. The one we like is now £1.35 per loaf. Wondering whether to try to get a second hand bread maker off auction site or car boot. I'm not much of a one for baking though. Is it difficult?

moo2moo

Nah, bread making is so easy that my 8 year old does it. Admitedly she does prefer the open the 69p pack of bread mix, add jug of water, hit on switch and wander off method but even so she gets perfect results everytime.

Obviously its cheaper and more time consuming to bung in the raw ingredients and a bit more hit and miss but its well worth investing in a machine.

alec_eiffel

inspirespirit wrote: »

Do many of you make your own bread? I have never made bread before, but getting really fed up with the price of bread. The one we like is now £1.35 per loaf. Wondering whether to try to get a second hand bread maker off auction site or car boot. I'm not much of a one for baking though. Is it difficult?

Breadmaking isn't difficult but I wouldn't necessarily recommend a breadmaker. We had one and got rid of it as we just couldn't get the bread right - even when we used a mix. DH makes bread all the time now by hand and we've never had a loaf go wrong, there just seems to be something about doing it yourself that you get the feel for when things are right or not. The River Cottage Bread Book by Daniel Stevens is great for many types of bread. Well worth the money imo.