2014 Frugal Living Challenge

macwah97

Shortie wrote: »

Evening all

Thanks for the replies about the wool - I'll have a look at the sites ta :beer: I did join Ravelry the other night as it goes as I wanted to have a nose around the crochet patterns. I'll have a look at the forum too to see if any inspiration hits there too..

We don't have elderly family really anymore. The current 'oldest generation' (if you can call them that) are in their early 60's.

I did wonder about making a blanket for my Mum as she really feels the cold, as well as seeing if I can make her some wrist warmers as she has Reynauds, so wondered if it would help help her warmer at home. Buuuuuttt.... that won't help her fingers and I'm not tackling fingered gloves, lol...

Other than that I wondered about a light shawl for summer holidays, or a heavier one for indoors in winter. Maybe a slouchy hat and/or scarf? Once I 'twig' a pattern I'm good to go, but I tend to get blinded with too much choice or thinking things are too old fashioned.

A bit like my garden - too much choice of what veggie seeds to plant where so I sowe and grow and leave Mr Shortie to choose where the stuff goes :rotfl:

Shortie.......forget about fingerless gloves. Measure the width of hand knit a rib then keep knitting essentially a rectangle. When desired length cast off then stitch up, leaving a gap for thumb......you can make this longer to cover part of the fingers.

sorry if this has been posted before.....HTH

Shortie

macwah97, that's awesomely simply - thank you sooo much! Looking at a stitch I saw on a youtube infinity scarf that was stretchy, I recon a stretchy one like you decribed would be amazing so there's less risk it won't fit either

Thank you! :A xxx

Shortie

Okay, so tax return not done but started. My day work was so manic and I was pulled in so many directions that I left late and my brain melted out of my ears. So I think I'm just about capable of listening to a music DVD and crochet with a few chrimbo Hero chocs

Buffythedebtslayer

It's like I have been de-Frugalled!!!


I had to shop yesterday and was ok, £19.40 for the week - bear in mind tho that is just my breakfast/lunch and food for the gps.


Then today, I had to buy a balloon for a special birthday and I got a water bottle for £2......Clarks had a sale, so I bought two pairs of shoes.......one pair to be honest I will probably return as I can't strictly walk in them....... that was £44 pounds (50% sale).


as Mum is going away I bought a meal from Sainsbury's plus desert as a treat, and then they had a pair of Straighteners reduced from 50 to 20 pounds. plus a present for a friend.


£34 pounds later and I am going out to dinner tomorrow AND I am supposed to be buying a new car.................


*need to be locked up*


Please don't throw me off the challenge......will do better next week promise.

catshark88

catshark88 wrote: »

I haven't had the ch on yet as we've got 2 wood burners that keep those rooms really toasty.

It's so wet though that my doors are swelling up, so I think I'm going to have to put it on a bit to dry them out. :-(

I put it on for an hour today. Feel rather guilty. Was lovely though! :rotfl:

NSD for DH and I to make up for it.

mum2one

pm2326 wrote: »

Evening everyone

I've spent money again today as needed to get a prescription from docs, its 2 items and doc will only give me 2 months supply at a time. I know you can get a yearly certificate or something along those lines but dont know where to get the info....can someone give me a clue please

Theres a link for the NHS prepayment - follow the link on there if you want to go ahead with it

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1127.aspx

What I use to do was order a 3 monthly pre-pay - then make sure I had enough in month 3 to last me for the next month, then buy a new one in month 5 to month 7 then again mth 9/12 so I would only buy 3 sets over the year, but that was before the option of buying a year one (you pay direct debit over 10 months).

It is def worth doing as it saved me a fortune, as I was (still am) asthmatic and there not a free item.

Now I'm type 2 diabetic on medication - so as such now all my prescritions are free (which is as the amount I'm on my repeat has 16 items on it). xx

mum2one

Fingerless Gloves - these are so easy to knit.

You will need - 4mm needles (old size no 8) and 50grams double knitting wool

1. Cast on 34 stitches

2. Rows 1 to 12 - Rib each row (k1 p1) (as you have an even number each row starts with a knit stitch)

3. Change to stocking stitch, - row 1 knit, row 2 purl

4. Stocking stitch a total of 28 rows

5. Go back to the rib style (k1 p1) - do 6 rows of this rib,

6. Cast off

To make the thumb section

Just above where the rib ends at the bottom of the glove go about 1in (2cm up) pick up 8 stitches and k1,p1 for 6 rows - do the same on the other side of the glove.

2nd Glove

Repeat as first

To sew up, turn gloves inside out, your sew in 2 parts, from rib (bottom of the glove and then join the sides including the bottom part of the thumb rib, then from the top of the thumb rib to the rib at the top of the gloves.
Cast off


Do the same for the 2nd glove.

---
The pattern is so easy - to adjust.

if you were doing a pair for a man then adjust as following

cast on 40 stitches
then the st st - do 32 rows before the rib.

---

I brought 100 gram ball of double knitting and got 3 pairs of gloves from them, so there was some for Christmas presents xx

pennies_from_Heaven

Judi wrote: »

Anyone got any ideas as to what I can fill my men up with when they go to work/college?

I am cutting down the rubbish/empty calories but I need something to keep them going all day and they do long days too.

At the moment they take 4 sandwiches (ham/cheese/ tuna or pate served with salad).

Now usually they have a pie/pasty of some description and something savoury (a bag of crisps or cheese biscuits is the norm) and something sweet (a chocolate bar, cake bar or something similar).

Ive thought about cutting the chocolate bar/biscuit out and replacing it with a banana (that's the only fruit hubby will eat). I can probably miss out the crisp type thing as hubby is overweight and he wants to lose his belly but what can I substitute the pie with? He doesn't like soup (it wouldn't be filling enough anyway) and he's not that keen on pasta/rice.

I completely know what you mean about filling up 'menfolk'. I must admit to mine previously having a similar diet to yours - albeit without the pie as I put my foot down when the 'occasional' one that turned up in the shopping became a regularity.
It's difficult if your oh is not keen on pasta or rice - how about wraps? I make them with leftover chicken, a bit of salad, and light mayo and it seems to fulfil the 'junk' craving (use wholemeal wraps if you can get away with it. I replace the sweet thing with hm cranberry bran muffins or similar from a low gi book I have - the low gi stuff is great as it keeps you fuller for longer, and is much healthier. I am a big fan of low Gi books by Rick Gallup, I make lots of his recipes and no-one notices , rather they really enjoy the food! The principle is plenty of fresh fruit and veg, oily fish and lean meat, and plenty of wholegrains. simple healthy eating if you ask me . just sneak the new meals/snacks in gradually and say you are trying a new recipe! :rotfl:
hth

skintygerlinky

Ceres3 wrote: »

Well we managed 2 weeks of not buying any food (apart from a loaf of bread, box of cereal and some milk). This used up lots of food we had in the fridge, freezer and larder, all left over from stocking up for the festive season and gifts. I was also feeding between 5 and 7 people every day. I did our first full food shop tonight. For the first time I did a full shop in Aldi instead of my usual Tesco and saved £50 compared to what the same items would have cost me normally! Amazing. That's £50 in the savings bank. Every week I save money on the food shopping now I am transferring straight into my savings account. The transfer is call food savings so I can keep a track of exactly what we are saving when I look at the bank statements

We've also been doing alot of clearing out, de cluttering, from attics, cupboards, outdoor sheds and outside, my partner brought things with him when he moved in last year he no longer wanted. We have been gradually selling everything on ebay, gumtree, etc and have made just over £2000! This has allowed us to pay for fixes and improvements needed around the house with things we no longer want and saved us delving into our monthly budget

What a fab post!! Really inspirational. Keep it up!

skintygerlinky

Well my day started off really well, plus made lovely dinner of pasta putanesca from bits and bobs in the fridge (pasta, tuna, 'lazy' chilli, garlic, sundried toms, olives, capers, tom puree). Made enough to take to uni for lunch tomorrow with rest of salad-y bits.

But!

I texted my workmates to find out when a colleague's 40th birthday was - turned out it was 3 days ago, but we'd all be celebrating in work this evening!! Legged it to local 'Big 4' supermarket to spend £7 on card and pressie. Then in work I nipped out to buy milk for our brews and ended up buying big bar of choc and some biscuits.
Hmph! On the positive side, I remembered to submit a receipt for the goodies I bought for the Xmas party so I'll get that back at some point in the next decade!!
Still got list up on fridge of meals planned for rest of week so shouldn't need to spend anything else. Just need to stay out of shops!!