Living on $12,000 a year

GreenNinja

ceridwen wrote: »

Hi to all

I was amused again today by Hard Up Hesters comment on another thread about lack of time for housework due to looking up blogs, etc I post!! I had the wicked thought of sending her a PM of sites I have favourited on my pc - as some of them wont have been mentioned earlier in this thread! - but then thought I'd put them out on this (with due thanks to those who told me about some of them in the first place).

(NB I dont necessarily agree with all the views expressed in some of them - but find them all interesting in their own way.)

www.downsizer.net
www.selfsufficientish.com/
www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com
www.pathtofreedom.com
www.simplereduce.wordpress.com/
www.transitionculture.org/
www.myflightfromthegrid.blogspot.com/
www.sfcompact.blogspot.com/
www.noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/
www.walkslowlylivewildly.com/
www.freerangeliving.blogspot.com/
www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index.htm
www.musings-of-a-mountain-mama.blogspot.com/
www.homesteadblogger.com/shekinah
www.carlalynne.blogspot.com/

Now - I just know Hester is going to send a hitsquad out after me! Better lock the doors!

Thanks Ceridwen, just been having a nose through these websites! Loved the idea the woman had about putting cream cheese on a cracker topped with her homemade apricot jam. Sounds extremely yummy and I look forward to trying that one out!

:T

moanymoany

Actually, I know a good recipe to make a 'cream' cheese. Are you sitting comfortably, then I'll begin:

Take a tub of natural yoghurt. I use a large tesco's value. The original recipe called for greek, my version works just as well.

Get a clean cloth, I have an old thin, not fluffy tea towel. Put the yog into it and suspend over a container, put it in the fridge overnight. I like to leave it about 15 hours.

Liquid will have drained out of the yog and what is left in the cloth is a lovely cheesy lump. I put a sprinkle of salt in it.

I got this out of a cook book Thriftlady recommended called 'crazy water pickled lemons'.

ceridwen

Hi moany moany

Saw your recipe for cream cheese. Am planning anyway to give it a go to do something similar with kefir once its fully up and running in its new "home". Have got to the stage where I'm getting a reasonable amount to eat daily and have got a spare one stored in the fridge. Couple of weeks time I should start having spare "cultures" - so am thinking I might use some kefir at that point to do "cream cheese".

Now - as for another topic - in duller than normal moments at work today (what do I mean "duller than normal" - my whole job is mindbogglingly dull!!! charitable comment, charitable comment) I have been amusing myself wondering whether you have been going down the road at dead of night in black clothes, torch in hand (drumroll for suitably dramatic music) after that wood in the skip! I hope you have (if not - how about tonight - just imagine me standing there at your elbow egging you on - and try not to burst out laughing). Seriously though - I expect most of us have left out useful stuff we just dont want hoping someone else will give it a good home (quite disappointing if I come home sometimes and see something is still there!) and found stuff we want in a similar way. I am waiting to hear that you have done that... report-back please!

(googled that cookbook "Crazy Water Pickled Lemons" - still drooling!!! Any time you want any recipe tasters........)

Chipps

oooh! I remember making that cream cheese ages ago. It was really nice with a little bit of garlic salt in!

moanymoany

Strangely enough ceridwen, I had thought about wearing all black. We could turn the lights off the car (dark grey) and coast the last few yards. It is in quite a deserted area! As I said to DH - watching all those old war films could come in handy. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

DH wasn't in favour at first. However, he did remember reading about 'dumpster diving' in the Tightwad Gazette - a gleam came into his eye.......

But then I thought...moany - you know men, it may not be dumpster diving he's thinking of! :rolleyes:

ceridwen

moanymoany wrote: »

Strangely enough ceridwen, I had thought about wearing all black. We could turn the lights off the car (dark grey) and coast the last few yards. It is in quite a deserted area! As I said to DH - watching all those old war films could come in handy. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

DH wasn't in favour at first. However, he did remember reading about 'dumpster diving' in the Tightwad Gazette - a gleam came into his eye.......

But then I thought...moany - you know men, it may not be dumpster diving he's thinking of! :rolleyes:

You go girl - faint heart never won fair moneysaving. Have the "courage of your (moneysaving) convictions". Had to laugh at the bit about hubby. Seriously though - break through your initial reservations and there will be no stopping you. Me - I'm getting in in advance of Sundays tv programme "Dumped" - I'm on the lookout already (what do I mean "already" - I have been for some time) for anything thats useful thats being dumped. I'm almost regarding it as a personal challenge. Ooooh - wasting money hurts these days! Its astonishing how much perfectly good stuff gets thrown out - and, honestly, people are expecting/hoping you will "help yourself" if its obviously being got rid of - trust me.

Believe me - there is no shame in doing a bit of "recycling" - someone elses rubbish is your treasure - get in there before its gone - it will only go down the tip and end up exacerbating Britains shortage of landfill sites.

I'm coming round to the viewpoint that its basically quite "criminal" to have a society throwing out all sorts of useful stuff without a thought for the consequences - whoops, straying into politics. Was not happy recently when I spotted a carpet warehouse had thrown out loads of carpet bits - some of them enough for half a small room!!! and various large carpet samples. If I wasnt okay already for all the carpet I need for my house - I would have been in there saving some of it from going to the tip (patchwork carpet - why not in all seriousness? - saw a tip on an American frugal website recently advocating precisely that).

ceridwen

Edited out - sorry

ceridwen

Related to dumpster diving - I have just checked out one of my favourite blogs today and found todays entry is on this:

http://walkslowlylivewildly.com

(the 31 August entry)

Ches

Chap a few doors from me is doing major building work on his house and has a front garden full of lumps of old wood. So one day I knocked and asked if he was throwing it out could I have it instead for my chimnea. He said no as he was going to have both an open fire and a fire pit. Hasty retreat by me feeling very foolish and apologetic. A few days later he has a skip outside his house with lots of bits of wood in it. I did think about stealing up there in the dead of night and pinching it but wondered if I was being tested so didn't dare.

moanymoany

We sneaked up there in the early hours of this morning - well 8.15... We parked the car in the space next to the big industrial sized yellow skip. DH showed commendable concern because it happened to be a disabled space. Since yesterday the whole thing was covered with black bin bags - some come to bring and some to take away. :cool:

I think it is the community centre that is having a refit. Lots of the floorboords were wormy, so we ignored them. We got a lot of decent lengths of new floorboards, and pieces of thick board about 2' x 2'6. There were loads of unused screws as well. We got a back of the car full and went home well satisfied.

Ches, you asked, didn't just dive in and take. It was clearly someone's garden. Don't feel bad, he could just as easily have said yes. From now on, if I see something interesting in a skip I will knock and ask if I can have a rummage. They may think I'm weird, but I am the one stashing away the cash to fund my retirement!!!!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: