Is frugal the new normal?

babyblooz

i enjoy being frugal where I can be so i can enjoy splashing a little cash on the things that give me pleasure.

The husband and I are both early retirees with little money but more time so now our spends tend to be smaller than when in work.

My latest frugal spend with my 'fun money' was a lovely maslin (preserving pan) from a car boot for five quid. Then i bought some wonderful lookey likey 'Kil-ner' jars from 'Ome Bargins' which now sit on my second hand repainted kitchen dresser, full of beautiful and almost free jam from the blackberries growing round our way. I find it therapeutic to store things away, it really makes you aware of the seasons changing throughout the year.

Lots of the jam has been shared with our friends,mostly retired like us, who in turn have given us eggs from their hens (which I usually make cakes with) or donated an apple crumble, because they love baking, cuttings from plants or fruit from their trees.

I've had lots of pleasure from growing green beans this summer raised from six plants bought from a pensioner couple at a car boot for the grand sum of fifty pence. I have about six pounds of green beans sitting in my freezer for throughout the winter and lots have been already eaten! So much from such a teeny tiny outlay and the pleasure of seeing them grow before our very eyes!

My 2 bargain blackcurrant bushes (from Poundland not a posh garden centre) have given me two pounds of berries which I made into blackcurrant syrup which is fab fab fab drizzled over Aldeeez 69p fresh pineapple.

I'm thinking of making elderberry wine or elderberry syrup for the winter and will probably make some rosehip syrup as well. Then we have been promised lots of free apples so i will have to do something with them as well.

I am really enjoying making something out out very little. It's very satisfying and i think that is part of the payback from living more frugally. It kind of sucks you in without you realising it.

But I am also thinking that I may just share some parts of my DNA with squirrels :rotfl:

Jo4

PasturesNew wrote: »

Tin of tuna (drained), cold mashed potato (50/50 by volume).
Maybe an egg to bind. Toss in anything you usually use, like salt/pepper or chopped parsley ....or not if you don't.
Shape them into patties.
Flour them. Egg dip them. Breadcrumb them. Repeat last two steps if the first go wasn't great.
Let them rest in the fridge if you've time ...
Toss into a frying pan and fry both sides on medium/hot heat .... or you can even bake them (hardly worth it if you only made 2!).
Eat.

Thank you for the recipe!

[Deleted User]

BABYBLOOZ might just have come up with the definitive answer to why we each in our different ways decide to be frugal when she says she enjoys making something out of very little because it's VERY satisfying. That sums up nicely the sense behind frugal living!!!

GreyQueen

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

BABYBLOOZ might just have come up with the definitive answer to why we each in our different ways decide to be frugal when she says she enjoys making something out of very little because it's VERY satisfying. That sums up nicely the sense behind frugal living!!!

Yesterday, I achieved a modest ambition; to buy a large red willow shopping basket -used- for under a fiver. I have been on this project for some time, these things go like hotcakes and the last one I saw was in a Hoxfam and they wanted £14.99 for it. Eeek.

My basket is perfect bar one teeny-tiny defect; the willow strand wrapping the end of the handle on one side, where it doubles up after passing through the basket's side, had sprung loose and uncurled. I guess this was why it was £4 and not more expensive.

But, thanks to being widely-read, if not actually a basket maker, I know that you weave willow wet. So home it came, to lie on its side in a bath with some cold water, the loosened willow strand uncurled fully, and then was rewound tightly and lashed up with some (re-purposed) string until it dried. Took about 5 mins to do, or less, because I knew how to do it.

I am a happy bunny today. And, MrsLW, I will be heading allotmentwards this morning to harvest beetroot, to bring home and cook and bottle as per your trusty recipe. And I overbought the jelly and vinegar last autumn, so still have plenty to use now.

Happy days, indeed.

[Deleted User]

Beetroot Rules OK? Go that beetroot!!! actually Go that Grey Queen too!!!

thriftwizard

Copied over from another thread, because it's relevant to this one:

I've just earwigged - as did most people in the store, as a substantial number of decibels were involved - a slightly incredible conversation whilst "grazing" for ideas in Prim&rk with the DDs; middle-aged Mum was relaying a conversation on her phone between what looked like daughter-in-law (complete with obligatory bored toddler sobbing in buggy) and son, somewhere else.

"He says, you're £12,000 in debt, and you've made me ring him at work to ask which boots you should buy. He says, you don't need any more boots, you've got hundreds - he says he's had it with you, that's IT!"

"Tell 'im we're in bl00dy Prim&rk, not Joneses, will ya?"

At first I was just incredulous, but on reflection, realised that the girl had evidently realised she needed to cut back her spending; obviously I have no idea whether she really does have hundreds of pairs of boots or whether that was just her OH's perception of things. It had yet to dawn on her that NOT shopping is cheaper still; they were the very picture of bored shoppers who have no idea what else they could be doing with their time.

In the line of my business, I see quite a lot of people who "live" in the past - re-enactors whose whole homes are a shrine to, say, the 1950s. There's undoubtedly a valid argument that they cherry-pick their alternative reality, that they're living in an idyllic "past" that never really existed; we don't see them trying to replicate the peeling wallpaper & running damp of the inner-city slums, for example, or their kids with nits & chilblains. But when we talk to them, they often say that what they particularly enjoy is the satisfaction of doing things like growing, preserving, and making things for themselves. And their kids are hardly ever bored, with their Meccano and Bako, building radios & knitting, and outdoor pursuits involving imagination, ropes and falling out of trees.

I'm far from thinking that my customers are at the forefront of the New Normal, but they are a happy & contented bunch of people, with polite & well-adjusted kids, that the "bored shoppers" might do well to learn a thing or two from.

greenbee

Kids here are currently playing with some second hand plastic tat that I've had for at least 4 years, and a large cardboard box... Pirates, helicopters and penguins are all being used for some complicated game involving rescuing and shows and parrots which has been going on since before breakfast...

babyblooz

In my experience of working with school age children (over twenty five years) they are intrinsically attracted to open-ended basc materials that naturally lend themselves to imaginative play. A set of plastic storage drawers filled to the brim with cereal packets, a roll of masking tape, coloured card from birthday cards, old catalogues, tin toil, a pair of safety scissors and some pens, a stapler, stickers etc. fill them with a sense of adventure that no purchased game can do.

My grandson absolutely loves to be allowed free rein to stick and glue and create from these kind of materials. He doesn't have to ask 'may i ...' because if its been put in there, its fine for him to use however he sees fit. It keeps him occupied for far longer than any other toy, and believe me, he has lots!

i think play is very important and therapeutic, and not just for children. My play these days involves growing things, experimenting with jams and wine, watching the birds coming to my bird table and reading books i've never had time to read. The satisfaction from these kind of activities is something new to me but I love it! I also crochet now so sourcing patterns and yarns is also something that is taking up my time, as is Pinterest, where I can easily lose a couple of hours every time I log on lol! Plans are also afoot to dust off my old sewing machine too!

BUT i reassure myself with the notion that is keeping the old grey matter in reasonably good condition, and in retirement not everything has to have a defined outcome!

greenbee

They are now playing with playdough (I may regret this) having removed all the thistles from my garden using a weed puller (they think this is a game) and walked 2.5 miles to post a letter and play in the playground and collect conkers.

I'm shattered... they still appear to have plenty of energy!

Lynplatinum

Evening all

Many thanks for your interesting and different views on credit and its availability! As always different things work for different folks but a common thread seemed to be it was shocking how much one can build up! :eek:

The best kids party I ever did was one where the kids got to: each have a large cardboard box to make their own space survival capsule + their own 'alien toppings ' for pizza + to decorate their own biscuits to take home in their goody bag!! I was v skint at the time but even tho the 'kids' are now at least 28 years old when I bump into one of my son's friends its one of the parties that I ve thrown over the years that they mention and remember with fondness! :rotfl:

What is the current fashion in children's parties????
nite all