A Year of Living Frugabulously

Karmacat

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Aaah yes Karma,

& not just a peace of mind advantage, but a " I earned a whole £2.70 interest on that account" advantage too .

Today saw the benefit of having slashed the Uncle Richard Media package; the bill was just £29.27 :j I can't remember the last time it was under £40 so that made me very happy.

As to the groceries ... yep, there's no denying I do like to spend rather more on what I put IN my body than what I put ON it .

My thinking is that wearing ebay clothes won't do me any harm, but eating good quality food will probably do me some good.

I've never scrimped on food; since working within the food industry some years ago, I've been far more aware of the varying quality of stuff & different methods of production & I do believe in quality over quantity. So, it's buying British, organic & local wherever possible & if it's not British & has to come from a long way, then it's Fairtrade wherever possible.

taxi73 wrote: »

Very well said Lula.

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Thanks Taxi,

My new money saving hobby at the moment is making bread. I love bread & as it's a cake & biccie free month we need a treat to make us feel a bit special.

I've recently cleaned out & re-organised all the kitchen food cupboards & in doing so I discovered a bag of strong breadflour left over from when we had snow a couple of years back. Inspie of it being slightly 'vintage' I decided to have a go & it was very easy to make & super yummy to eat.

I really enjoyed making it too, especially as we had it with home-made butternut squash soup & I was almost overcome with old stylee-ness to the extent of buying myself a pinnie :rotfl:.

I said 'almost'.

Believe me, I really admire what you do with your food! And totally agree with the policy behind it, tho there's also some scary stuff in there about what happens when you *don't* buy organically _pale_ I keep meaning to go back to buying organic ground coffee, and then don't because Sainsbo Basics is at least fairtrade ... but I'm going to give it a go again, and try and stick to it this time.

Laughing at the thought of you in an apron! I *do* have an apron - I was forced to make it in my first year at high school, and I can confirm that I've never worn it :rotfl:

RosaBernicia

:eek: What's odd about having a pinny?

I do - a rather fabulous one with butterflies on - but then again I am a messy mare and decided it would be more sensible than spending the evening splotched with whatever I'd been cooking :rotfl: (and more MSE as avoids unnecessary washing )

Lula, will PM you a link you might find interesting re. FairTrade.


Rosa xx

Lula-Hula

Good morning to all,

I'm not quite sure what a breadmaker does exactly ( or looks like ), but I assume you just throw everything in & it does all the mixing, kneading, rising & baking ?

Gotta be honest, I'm not brilliant at using kitchen gadgets ( knows that somewhere lies a chocolate fountain & ice cream maker), I don't even have a mixer, we just use a bowl, a wooden spoon & a bit of energy for making cakes.

I do use my hand held blender lots for soup ( it's the one I bought for about £8 when DD was being weaned :rotfl:) but the bread making is so simple ( bowl, spoon, floured board already in existence & new loaf tin for just £3.49 at TKM) & very satisfying that it just wouldn't occur to me to spend money on something I can do myself.

I admit that I did see a very fabulous mixer at local gallery/museum on Saturday. Apparently Ken Wood had a factory very locally so there was a fab exhibition of his stuff & as well as the very model that my mum used to have ( & I only got rid of a year or so ago) there was also a 60's kitchen set up & this new mixer is very very appealing.

Not sure I can justify spending that much on something just because it looks good though ... :rotfl:

So, back to the bread, I've done some costings & with a bag of flour (enough for 3 decent sized loaves) at 77p & 8 sachets of yeast at just 64p & including the blob of butter & say a smidge of sugar & salt form home stocks, I can make a loaf or 12 rolls ( which DD did yesterday) for just 55p - very blooming frugal I reckon :j.

Ok, that doesn't include the half hour of gas to bake it, but the mixing is free & so is the rising as it goes in the airing cupboard .

I also rather like the idea of looking in the tin & thinking "ooh we're running low on bread, better make some", rather than having to go to the shop & run the risk of buying more unnecessary crap .

Making your own food was a huge part of life for the Moneyless Man guy & it's certainly made me think about how I live so :T to Mark Boyle for that.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with herbs & various other additions to the bread & talking very nicely to my sunflowers at the moment so they provide lots of lovely seeds for the birds & us to share .

We could go to a May Fayre at a nearby village, but DD is a lazy moose & not keen to go out if it involves getting properly dressed & as it's only showering outside today, then I think that it's a day to garden :j.

Been feeling a bit low & lacking in hope & motivation recently, so I'm going to literally DIG my self out of this frame of mind.

Who knows, there may even be a bit of bike riding :eek::rotfl:

Lula-Hula

I am such a donut,

the main reason I came on was to proudly declare that I've added £100 shiny pounds to the E.R.F :j Now have £1,102.60p

... but I completely forgot because I got so carried away with bread & it not raining.

Of course, I went to hang the washing out, remembered about the ERF, came in to make a coffee of fortitude for the digging & to update here ... and now it's raining.

No gardening, no bike riding & doubly wet washing :mad:.

Gah, and Gah again :rotfl:

skint_spice

I love that stripy mixer! Someone gave me a breadmaker but to be honest I think it tastes better when I make it by hand, and it doesn't have the awkward bit at the bottom where the mixer was

Karmacat

Noooooo! Tell me you got out there later on, if only to breathe deep and smell the grass ... I really hope the rest of the day was kind to you, Lula.

xxx

taxi73

Bah to the weather and double wet weather !!!
Well done on the ERF.that's building up very nicely.

Shoe_Gal

Fab news on the ERF fund! :j

Lula-Hula

Well, most of the action is being done by the washing machine actually; 4 loads done & been/being line dried & I'm now brewing up a little something special in the machine right now.

Let's talk money first - paltry amount of home-job earnings this week & as I'm choosing to pay my pocket money out of that I had but £10 to add to the xmas fund, bringing the total to £170.

Maybe I should be putting money in the cash funds rather than mine, but to be honest, I have no gifts to buy until the end of June & money in there anyway, & same goes for the childcare fund.

I've also realised that since becoming DF ( :j) it's important for me to feel that I have achieved something rather substantial & that now I can spend a bit of money on stuff now & then.

Don't be getting all excited & thinking that I'm now dripping with bling :rotfl: I just like to have a wee bit of cash in my purse as a reward for work done & then I don't feel tempted to use the CC & so far, the strategy working.

Today's purchase was a pack of dye ( currently brewing in the machine) i the hopes of refreshing & giving a new lease of life to a faded pair of previously black linen trousers & a dull but otherwise perfect long floaty grey skirt. I'm hoping they'll both come out a shade of blue ... but you never know it could be a blotchy disaster :rotfl:.

I zipped to sainsbugs after work yesterday & spent £8.20 on groceries & £5.39 on household stuff & today was in waitr:)se by 8.40 & left half an hour later having spent £23.05 on groceries & £6.88 on household stuff.

Total Grocery Spends = £71.81p
Total Household Spends = £18.36

Oh dear, only May 11th & another 3 weeks til payday ... but it'll be fine, I have about £12 in my purse & £110 left in the total budget.


The charity shops don't open until 9.30 so I escaped any spending in there but did remember to go to the bank to withdraw the cash for DDs camping trip. Holiday fund now reduced to £474.81.

I was also clever enough to remember to go to the post office & pay the cash in to my current account so I could make the payment & while there I was positively on fire & picked up a passport renewal form for DD.

Scary, right ? :rotfl:

I'm now withing 75p of yougov payout - oooh the anticipation - & the paypal account has about £9 in it now, so that's just waiting for another moment of ebay madness to hit .

Garlic & onions are looking very lush & there are positive carrot growings now & either my weeds are growing in strict formation, or there are definite signs of parsnippy potential.

Blackcurrant bush looking very good & various signs of life within the rasberry enclosure.

Connie & Victoria have blossomed, are in full leaf & being very patient about the daily inspections for signs of fruit .

I'm not going to tempt fate & it's a bit blowy today - but I feel there might well be an excursion of the 2 wheeled variety at some point over the weekend. Although, there are herb & plant offers to be had at garden centre & the sweet peas need to be bought canes to grow up, as do the sunflowers, which also need to be planted & I need to find out what exactly I should be doing with the miraculous pepper plants.

So no promises

taxi73

What a lovely post and all looks good in Lulu land.Here's hoping that you have a fabby weekend and some lovely weather.