Living on next to nought - is that the key?

beanielou

Yoiu Gov is good if a bit slow & Nectar ads are great for bumping up your nectar points

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Thank you 7 Week Wonder and Beanielou. I'm not considering surveys and clicks at present, partly because I don't know sufficient about what is entailed, and partly because at present I want to see what can be done along the 'savings' line. please-let-me-be-lucky has also mentioned 'swagbucks', which I need to look into. Thankfully, if I need to ask any questions, then I know who will help me Thank you - you may well yet see me at your pm box in a couple of months time;)

I've been doing this diary for a little over a week now, and whilst a more critical analysis will point to the fact that I have only amassed £3 into the key fund - less than 0.5% of my target , I am very pleased with progress . This is because I know that some fundamental sea changes in thinking have occurred during the past week. This has surprised me, as I'm sure I mentioned that we are already a frugal household. I thought I was doing well. After this week, I realise I can do better too.

So what's different?

Well, I planted seeds and all bar the parsley have germinated and romped away to become teenagers :rotfl:I've had the seed for ages - why did I not sow it before? This diary has brought focus and made me question why I've been buying the majority of our foodstuffs from shops when it is possible to grow something at home.

Yoghurt making. Again, I have not had to buy any special equipment to do this. I have been able to read and follow recipes for a [STRIKE]millennium[/STRIKE] *few years* now. Why have I not tried this before? I've enjoyed the process, I'm sure the warmer weather is helping, but I think using a flask I can probably get this to work even in cooler weather and it's not a particularly onerous or energy intensive process either.

Buying a 'brand down'. I thought I was well versed at this. If you look in my cupboards, your eyes will go fuzzy with all the stripes, bright greens, bright yellows and oranges of all the s'market economy range products, alongside the more tastefully packaged products from Ald* and L*dl :rotfl: But it hadn't occurred to me to apply that process to a TV listings guide, despite the fact that a range of such magazines exist at a corresponding range of prices.

So, whilst 'upping your income' is a key feature of debt-busting - I think for the rest of July and the whole of August (to get a proper 'feel' for a whole month's expenditure) I am going to concentrate on really looking at what I spend, what I spend it on, and why. It won't take long - I've only got £160 to analyse!

So, Today.

DP has been despatched with a list and a £10 note to get a number of items from Ald* - all of which are within budget. This trip is part of an adventurising expedition and will involve pedal power rather than diesel expenditure. I will walk to our nearest retail centre in a little while to pick up a couple of items - which are not in the budget, and will push me close to my (new self-imposed) limit. I think it will be ok though. And we are talking less than £2 in expenditure Edited to add; I spent £1.80 and technically this is from the £5 I had set aside for 'whoopsies'. So maybe not out of budget expenditure after all.

I have got the bread dough out of the fridge to return to room temperature and then I will form it into bread rolls.

I am going to sow some more seeds. I always was useless at progression sowing. I will try to do better.

I have laundry to do

We will be having curry for dinner tonight, I need to start them off with some dhal so that the flavours blend nicely.

So, it is a spend day today, but in getting the money from the household 'pots' I've seen the potential for what can go in the key fund at the end of the month. So it's spurred me on. And I will pop back later to fill you in on how we are remembering to have FUN on this journey.

Speaking of which; 7 Week Wonder your day out yesterday sounded wonderful. Well done you and the OH. Isn't it great when you quickly fall into that holiday 'mode'. A seafood lunch, fresh sea air and icecream - just the ticket, clearly.

Well, I'd better tootle off.

Thank you for reading and engaging. I value it enormously.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Lawks! I did waffle on in my post this morning didn't I? Guess I've scared off all contributors. Note to self Greying - keep it succinct!

Today has been another great day. Less sunny and no less hot, but at least it is summery.

I got what I needed from town and found 10p *roadkill* (2x 5p again - getting a bit of a habit). DP braved the crowds in Ald* to bring home the 'bacon' (as it were) from there. Plus DP remembered to refund the change, so we shall eat another day

I've completed most things on my list, with the exception of sowing more seeds. I'm in the middle of preparing dinner. I've got a dish of afghan aubergines out of the freezer - I followed the Hairy Bikers version, sorry, I can't find any link to their recipe. I've made some dhal and I'm going to make Thelada - beetroot curry. I use Rick Stein's recipe from his Far Eastern Odessy book that someone lent me. A strikingly similar recipe can be found HERE (second recipe down). I might also make a small portion of rice to bring it all together.

I have received the 'over quoted' amount from the locks back. It is now in the key fund.

Now, Tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure it was Upsidedown Bear who reminded us that we need to keep the moneysaving/debt busting journey FUN. To that end, we are having a day trip out :j

We have borrowed a bike rack from our friends, and we are going to cycle a bike trail. There is diesel in the car, so no additional cost there. I have been preparing foods for a picnic. We will have to pay for parking, but I've done my research and we have the '10p pot' that we use for parking fees, so that technically won't cost anything extra. So, for very little spend (2 bottles of water and 2 bags of crisps H*me Barg*ins prices though), we will get to do something that we find very enjoyable and to top it all off, we will be calling in on the gardening and non-gardening parentals on the way there to peg washing out on their line - saving a laundrette bill - yay!

DP has been kept busy all afternoon *tweaking* the bikes, *sigh* so we'll be ready to head out first thing, so you won't find an update from me until tomorrow evening - YAYs all round :rotfl:

Today, I am grateful for these 3 things;

- Family. Especially those that let you peg out your smalls in their garden :rotfl: Just kidding, I wouldn't do that to them

- TMS radio commentary team - kept me company whilst I roasted in the [STRIKE]oven[/STRIKE] kitchen.

- the 'invention' (?) of bunting. You can't look at bunting and not feel happier. It just flutters and dances, nothing technical, but it makes you feel better - particularly in a garden, in the summer

Thank you all for reading.

See y'all later.

Greying

Piquant_2

Darn....I wrote a long and detailed reply and lost it :mad: In short, it said I adore your waffling, long may it continue!

I do have to ask why it makes a difference between gardening and non-gardening parentals for displaying your smalls. Do you prefer to have your smalls hanging in a well tended rose garden as opposed to a naturally wild garden? I suppose a stinging nettle in the wrong place could cause a problem or two :eek:

Long may you continue to waffle - Up the wafflers :T

7_week_wonder

Evening everyone,

Another vote for continued waffling here. I really like your musings/thinking out loud and (I'm slightly embarassed to admit it) they definitely give me something to think about. For instance, today I've been trying to think about what, if anything, I could downshift. And I must admit I'm struggling: we already mostly buy value ranges for food and cleaning stuff. Our weekend treat is the Saturday and Sunday paper, and I don't really want to move away from the one we read, hmmmm.

One tactic I have tried is halfing things. So I've tried using half as much shampoo (works fine); cutting face wipes in half (no problem), using a tea bag twice (noooooooo - definitely a step too far!) and reckon that even if only a few of them work, that's still a way of frugalizing.

I also agree that the key (sorry!) to keeping going is to make sure frugalizing is fun and not all sack cloth and ashes. Actually, I really enjoy shopping at L*dl's, the fact that they have less choice in, say, breakfast cereals, is a positive bonus for me. And I love taking left overs to work for lunch, rather than buying an overpriced sandwich.

Enjoy the bike ride tomorrow, I'm heading out for a run with my running pals first thing, and then it's back home to carry on with reclaiming a very overgrown border in the garden.

Gosh, what a waffle, anyone would think I'd been on the pear cider;)
Have a good evening everyone.

Greying_Pilgrim

Blimes Piq, you do so very much make me laugh.

Now the distinction between the gardening and non-gardening parental is simply one of equality. The gardening parental has recently been quite ill. Still not right and surgery and a spell in hospital beckons, but the [STRIKE]stubborn[/STRIKE] independent dear, is still soldiering on regardless. I mentioned the gardening parental on Pippi's thread and despite the parentals not being hooked up the the information superhighway, I felt honour bound to mention the other parental, who is decidedly, not interested in gardening one iota. However, whilst we were busting a gut keeping the gardening parental's estate looking something like shipshape (the operative word being something), - whilst they were prone in a hospital bed - to be fair, the non-gardening parental plyed us with cups of tea and k*tkats (sometimes orange ones) and let us hang up various bits of laundry whilst we put in a full day at the cliff face. Hence, the distinction. Aren't you glad you queried it :rotfl:

Wadda ya mean there is someone snoring at the back? :rotfl:

Anyway, a tickle in that area is not to be stressed over. A gardener like you will recognise the genus and family name of nettles; Urtica and Urticaceae. At home I tell you, at home

Perhaps I ought to re-name myself 'Wafflin Grey'. Has something of a 'Country' twang to it, d'ya not think???

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Hang on a minute 7 Week Wonder - it is YOU who made me think - remember the bean burger/bean pate??? PLUS, and I forgot to thank you for this, when I was noting down the ingredients of the bean burger recipe that I turn into spread, I was doing it in shorthand. So naturally, red kidney beans became red beans. It then dawned on me that I have a [STRIKE]mountain[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]pallet [/STRIKE] lot of aduki beans that I bought from appr*ved foods. They are red, have a nice taste and at 33p per 500g bag, are cheaper (when cooked up) than a tin of red kidney beans. Hey presto - more money saved :money:Plus I can have 2 slightly different bean spreads in my culinary repertoire

So, this is why I so value folks contributing to this thread - you all make me think and question things. I love that and appreciate it very much.

I hope that the pear cider is scrummy and was a bargain from Ald* or H*me Barg*ins or something. I think I prefer pear to apple cider.

Have a great run tomorrow. Remember those fluids

Greying

beanielou

Many moons ago Forever In Blue Jeans was one of my very favourite songs

boredofbeingathome

Enjoying Yoghurt tales and such. DD has recently turned veggie, so i am always on the hunt for new recipes-I still use Weezl's thread as well. Loving the banter on here so will subscribe. BOB x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Beanielou - it's a classic, never tire of listening to it.

Boredofbeingathome - how lovely to *see* you. Thank you for stopping by. I remember you from Karmacat's diary. Welcome.

Gosh, I'm exhausted. What a great day today has been, but all that fresh air and exercise...............phew! We were lucky in that we arrived at the trail reasonably early (well, for a Sunday anyway) and it was pretty quiet. By the time we were heading back along it, more folk were out and about using the trail - but that's only a good thing, right?

We stopped for our lunch at one of the (many) picnic tables dotted along the trail - Yay. Here's a pic.....




From the left, clockwise we have peanut butter and banana buns; Falafel (using indian spice flavours though), with a minted yoghurt dip; a cup of coffee, crisps and a cheese and tomato sandwich on homemade bread (one bap sliced into 4 slices - 2 sarnies out of 1 bap). Sorry for the darkness of the photo, it was under trees in very welcome shade.

There was a cheese and tomato bap for DP too that didn't make it into the photo coz there was no room!

I think the buns were the biggest hit - they were made from the left over scrapings out of the peanut butter jar, 1 mashed up banana that had morphed into a leopard in the heat and a tablespoonful of cocoa powder (Mr T's value) - using a conventional sponge (4:4:4:2)bun mix. Although I only used 1 egg (rather than 2) because of the banana and only 50g of marg/butter because of the peanut butter. No word of a lie - they were lush. That's not intended as a brag, they were just far tastier than the sum of their parts - plus I bet I'll never be able to replicate the recipe*just so* again :rotfl:

The falafel were ok - a bit crumbly, but the spicing was good and worked well (influence from the Hairy Bikers Curry book, but their version was tooooo complicated and involved too many fancy ingredients - and not enough spices!). The yoghurt dressing was shaken, not stirred. Kept nice and cold with a ice pack, but I'd perhaps not take it on a cycling picnic again :rotfl:

Money saving wise :money:, we saved £4 on car parking from the information off the internet. But if we bike that trail again, we would start from a point a couple of miles further on where you can park for free. The diesel was in the car already, OK, so it cost money to put in, but it wasn't an extra expense. Lunch was 80p in cash (2 x crisps and 2 x water - actually that was consumed on the ride), and then everything else was made from stores. We have 2 bread rolls left over, 4 falafel and 6 buns from my cooking/baking session........ so I'm treating it as any other lunch really.

I found 5p *roadkill*

The only slight dint in the day was my bike started playing up. But DP repaired it on the 'go' several times (unfortunately we didn't have *quite* the right tool to fix it there and then), but other than that, we had FUN, for, I think, very little outlay of cold hard cash :money: Oh, and the weather was marvellous, thank goodness a fair part of the trail is shady woodland, and that our earlyish start meant we were finishing in the midday sun.

The laundry faired well at the parentals, and is dry :j. The weather wasn't sunny with them! Plus we had tea and fruit cake *forced* upon us whilst we sat and nattered. And some more new potatoes and broad beans to take away. Yay!

Right, I hope that's ok as an update. It will certainly prove an important reminder to me that we are able to have FUN along the way. Plus I'm going to love looking back at all the photos I took of our progress along the route. Won't even have to pay to have them developed

The 3 things I am grateful for today are;

- Tools. Plus the able-gifted DP who patiently *tweaked* and kept me mobile, even though we didn't have the right tool for the job in the kit.

- Trail developers and maintainers. Doesn't matter if it's a walking, biking, bridle way or multi-use. Doesn't matter if it's a local council, park authority, forestry commission who owns it or whether the staff who do the maintaining are paid staff or super volunteers. I value using your trail. Thank you.

- Mother nature. We have seen such wonderful scenery today and seen a wide variety of birds and animals. Just wonderful.

Thank you all for continuing to read and contribute. You are appreciated.

See y'all tomorrow morning.

Greying (who may well be doing an impression of J. Wayne esq tomorrow :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:)