On the brassic bench and loving it!

Bitsy_Beans

So a wee bit of background.
Have cut down on work in order to be able to give more focus to my DS who has ASD. This of course has the wonderful knock on effect of bringing about the dreaded "less money coming in" situation each month. As so many have already said you cut your coat according to your cloth. Or something like that Never was very good with these sorts of sayings :rotfl:

However less money needn't mean a life of penury, I fully intend to have a life of champagne tastes with tap water budget (thank you so much JackieG for that and thank you Candygirl who suggested I start a thread in the first place. Steady on this is starting to sound a bit like a night at the Oscars. Only without the tears. or the booze :rotfl:)

So if you have any tips, suggestions or just downright nosey feel free to chip in and I'll even shuffle up a bit on the brassic bench to make room

jackieglasgow

Popping your cherry! (and the champagne cork too )

Bitsy_Beans

Christmas prep plans are underway. in my head at least. And what's the most pressing thing for me? Where to get my Christmas booze from :rotfl: can you tell the fact I have drunk the very last dregs of my booze in the house is playing on my mind :rotfl: in all fairness this was Pimms I'd bought for the weekend of the Royal Wedding in April (yes I AM that sad and yes I DID love every minute of it ) and some vodka from 2 years ago. But it is nearly the festive season and I would like to have a wee tipple. So I will be doing a price comparison between Aldi's booze shelves vs Sainsburys Basics range/Tesco et al.

A friend of mine makes HM wine using all in one kits. But not sure it's really worth all the faff for a drink I can take or leave. Although H might like it to feed his red wine habit. Hmmmm perhaps I have been too hasty in dismissing the home brewery idea. Would require the acquisition of demijohns etc and not sure how readily available these things are on Freecycle. Still if one doesn't ask one doesn't get

jackieglasgow

Making my own booze is a step too far for me, Miss B and as you know, I don't really drink, but I do like to have booze in the house in case the notion takes me. I find the M and S £10 meal deals are great for picking up nice wine at a good price, unfortunately up here the government in their wisdom has decided to ban special multibuy deals on drink, to help with the drinking problems of the few. Usually we buy cider and beer at New Year/Christmas, and it lasts us until the next winter; we have just finished the cider from last year and we only had two boxes I have made my own Baileys, its lovely, so I might try that this year for a wee change, and do special flavoured vodkas for my sister and a friend, and maybe even for the house. There is a make your own booze thread on OS.

jackieglasgow

Another hint for vodka (did I say I don't really drink honest I don't, but I did go to uni once :rotfl: ) The really good stuff is well filtered. The cheap crap isn't. Get yourself a cheap water filter, and put a bottle of crappy vodka through it two or three times and you'll notice a huge difference in flavour.

Bitsy_Beans

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Another hint for vodka (did I say I don't really drink honest I don't, but I did go to uni once :rotfl: ) The really good stuff is well filtered. The cheap crap isn't. Get yourself a cheap water filter, and put a bottle of crappy vodka through it two or three times and you'll notice a huge difference in flavour.

Just be sure to tell H which on is which before he makes himself some squash :rotfl:

Damn why is it I hate Baileys, I'd love to have a go at making some.
Will have to placate myself with Chocolate Rum balls so strong they will blow your head off. I mean some recipes just use like a tsp of rum. C'mon that's so not enough, I want them to take my breath away :rotfl:

candygirl

Wooo Bitsy, you go girl:j:jI've also had to cut my cloth cos of the lack of supply work nwadays, and am trying to be as frugal as poss:DLuckily i'm veggie and OH loves my cooking, and asks for the recipes:pWe went to the Indian supermarket today and got so much stuff or a pittance.eg 2kg of red lentils for £1.99:D:D

CRANKY40

I'll join this one too if I may. I have a job, but I don't have to go to it for another 3 3/4 years due to taking a career break. The main purpose of my career break was to support my small son after the death of his father, and to give myself time to sort my life out and my stupidly big old house after the death of my lovely husband.

I've made my own christmas cake this year, and have been lovingly applying asd@'s cheap brandy to it. We opened the tin before for a sniff of it, and it smells fabulous!

Butterfly_Brain

Any more room on that bench bitsy?

DH and I have lived frugally most of our married lives. In the beginning it was due to having a mortgage and a young family and latterly because I have osteoarthritis in both of my knees and it looks like I have osteo in my hands as well But heyho I do not let it get me down and I still manage to wobble along and get things done albeit slowly
DH is a lower school site agent and as such is on a very low wage, but we manage.
I love making up cheap meals and luckily have a family who will try things out.
Our Children - well young adults now and both at college, are as frugal as we are and have always loved car boot sales and charity shops. We always made our own Christmas decorations and had a baking day once a week. In fact whenever things were really tight and I had to be inventive with meals they loved it.
We grow a lot of our own veg and DH, DD and DS love to go foraging in late summer.
The only thing that I have not tried is making wine - I think that is because I remember my Dad making Elderberry wine one year and the whole lot exploded in the shed :eek:

halight

Thumbs up from me for makeing your on wine:beer::beer:

Now unless yiou make quite a bit of the stuff, you wont save that much money, As tesco,asda and the like do some great deals on wine. But you have made it yourself and its quite a good hobby. Its great for givving away for birthdays, christmas and the like. You can make you own little hapers up wine, Jam and other stuff that you have made yourself.


Aslo Get some chickens.:j:j

Now it can cost quite a bit to get set up with everything you need, But if OH has time he could always build a chicken pen. This would cut down on the bulk of the cost of setting up.
Now not only would you get lovley tasting eggs to eat, but your son would get loads out of it too. Once you have got your chickens hand tame(not as hard as it sounds) you will just be able to go in and pick them up. My twins are only three and a harf but the chickns will just sit there and let them pick them up. They are lovley to pet, and they also are so very very funny:D the things they get upto!
three hens will give upto 20 eggs a week. we are getting about 12ish at the moment as we have one hen thats stoped laying. She has not been very well.

Dont forget that there is also all sorts of craft stuff that you can do, this will make great gifts for people.

Bitsy_Beans

Halight I would love chickens but what with the veggie patch, kids equipment outside there just isn't room. Not to mention my killer cat :eek: she maybe small but that doesn't stop her punching above her weight :eek:

Had a conversation with H about utility bills and I have to say he's definately embracing this MSE lark. He's agreed to a Remoska to save use on the fan oven (ok expensive initial outlay which will hopefully pay for itself in what it saves). Am also training the kids in turning stuff off when they are finished, TV, lights etc.

Have also been inspired by this blog http://www.brandnewvintage.org/ which sadly hasn't been updated since August but I really like how she has refashioned some truly hideous things :rotfl: has made me realise if there is clothing I no longer like or fabrics I see but not the garment then all not lost, then maybe just maybe I could refashion it.

Let's spread the word of make do and mend :T

<shuffles up the bench to make room for everyone> nice to have come company