2023 Frugal Living Challenge

AnimalTribe

I've been reading along but not posting. I just wanted to say that dandelion 'honey' tastes lovely. I haven't made it for a couple of years as I lost the recipe giving the proportions. I'll have to do an internet search to see if I can find it again - it only used water, dandelion, and sugar (not vanilla). I think Hugh Fearnley-whittingstall had a recipe but his recipe left the flower petals in, which I didn't think was as good as my original recipe.

AnimalTribe

 I forgot to say dandelion 'honey' also uses lemon juice

cashlink

Delurking to ask about oils and lavender….could you use organic rape seed oil with mint to make a mint oil for using for helping with digestion issues?

Going to try the lavender oil as I’ve found this a good sleep aid when I spray a little on my pillow.

Glittering_M

Ooh, the dandelion syrup sounds interesting! I'm going to give that a research 

RateTartExtraordinaire

Hi all,
Just doing my month end review.

Frugal things done:

#1 Homemade soya yoghurt 
I'm on batch no.4 now. 125-150ml soya yoghurt to 400ml of soya milk heated and kept warm for about 9 hours. You can do this in the airing cupboard. I just hold back 150ml of yoghurt to make the next batch. I've made it with long life soya milk (which is cheaper) and it comes out fine.

#2 Batch soups with a wider variety of root veg and lentils/ slit peas
I'm challenging my taste buds. I've been experimenting with whatever cheaper veg I can find: swede, parsnips, carrots and adding pulses and lentils. It is really filling and was such a comfort when I came down with a cold this month. I freeze what I don't want to eat. 

#3 Helped my mum renew her home insurance and saved her £50 though comparison website and cashback.

#4 Prepayment HRT certificate
£19.30 for the year instead of £77.20 (4x £19.30)

#5 Energy bill. Second attempt to get my direct debit to a reasonable rate for my usage which I think is about £106 a month down from £120 a month. 


Planned spends:

Car - I spent £260 on getting my car bonnet paintwork redone due to chips that had started to rust. I shopped about and looked at reviews. 

Holiday - My partner had booked a holiday for 5 days jus before the school Easter holidays - so technically March budget. I did the Easyjet hand luggage only challenge. I invested in a small lightweight rucksack (£12) which would pass the 45 x 36 x 20 cm dimensions for under the seat. We stayed in a hotel with breakfast included and used public transport to get around once there. Meals out and a few glasses of local wine/beer were the only spend. Lots of walks and lazing around. Worth every penny.

Clothes - I am now in my third year of being extremely frugal with my clothes and I'm afraid my wardrobe is starting to look quite worn. For around the house this is fine but this month I spent £50 on some new jumpers in the sale and a second hand dress for a friend's wedding next month.

I'm interested in dandelion syrup too. Will look into this.

Happy frugalling all.  

AnimalTribe

RTExtraordinaire looks like you've been very busy. I've never tried making yoghurt with soya milk but next time I have some going spare I will give it a try. Soup saves so much veg from going to waste. I usually just use any veg that doesn't look like it will last long, as long as I put an onion, red lentils, a stock cube and tomatoes/tomato puree in, it always seems to come out fine. I don't measure anything - if it's too thick I add more water, if not thick enough I add more lentils. Lentils are my 'go to' pulse because they cook in about 20 minutes - so the quickest pulse to make soup.
I'm spending my time working my way through my craft stash. My plan is to use what I have and not buy any more. By the end of the year I'll have enough to open a very well stocked Etsy shop.

cw18

**Waves to all**

This year isn't going well for me.   Things at work are such that I'd love to thump my manager - or at least tell her what I think of her - and walk away from the job, but unless I win the lottery that's not going to happen.

And it's not helped by the fact I've now been in pain for 3 years, since my sciatica flared up during the first Covid lockdown.

I think the icing on the cake was testing positive for Covid - and it handing around for 11 days, meaning I missed out on the celebrations for GD2's 18th birthday at the start of the month

It's been impacting my life outside of work, leaving me with absolute no energy or inclination to do anything.   I'm not sleeping well, not eating well, and finding it hard to drag myself out of bed on a day off.    My house is never what anyone would call 'tidy', but for the last 5 or 6 months I don't think I've had a clear-up at all (and in recent months have only been washing pots when I've absolutely run out of anything I can use - which has taken quite a while as I've been relying very heavily on ready meals).  Having been teetotal since November 2008, I even bought a bottle of wine on the way home from work 2 weeks ago (as of yet unopened, but it was mentioning this to my daughter, on top of the rest, that had her insisting I speak to my GP).

Went to the GP on Wednesday.   He thinks the work situation and the pain are working against each other and upsetting my 'mood'.   I'm in the process of completing a form as triage for the Chronic Pain Clinic (that was already en-route), and I'm now on anti-depressants and on a waiting list for councelling (can apparently take up to 2 months for a telephone triage appt!).    I also left under a very distinct impression that if I feel I need time off work I only have to call for a Fit Note after 7 days of self-certified.   Wouldn't go down well at work (and I really don't want to take any more time off, having had a couple of weeks with a throat infection in Feb/March), but at least I know it's an option if I find myself ready to take a swing at her again.....

He said it's likely to take a couple of weeks for the meds to really start kicking in (and they can make things worse for the first 2 weeks!), but I'm already feeling a little brighter.   I'm going to assume that's the fact I've finally admitted there could be something wrong and gone looking for help, but will have to wait and see how I get on next week (this week having been one of my scheduled rest weeks).

RateTartExtraordinaire

@cw18 I hope the antidepressants kick in soon. I know when I was not coping with my dad being ill, I found it hard to keep on top of things. I kept being late for work, because I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Then I got a verbal warning, which did make me get on top of thing. My boss at the time was not supportive. He had pushed out another member of staff when she was going through a bad patch. He bluntly told me he didn't want another 'name of member of staff'.
I did then start getting in on time (just), but it made me realise that I needed to talk to someone. My GP just said it would take a long time to see anyone. In the end I turned to a family member and told them how I wasn't coping emotionally. Just talking to someone helped. It was hard to do though as I had been keeping it from then so they didn't worry about me. I didn't know at the time but there is a charity for the sector I worked in which has a free helpline which provides immediate confidential counselling, advice and coaching. Do you have access to something like this?

Another thing that helped me was exercise. Spinning got out all of my anger and then yoga chilled me out. Is there something you do just for you? An hour when you can just switch off. 

Sending a virtual hug.

cw18

RateTartExtraodinaire said:

@cw18 I hope the antidepressants kick in soon.

Another thing that helped me was exercise. Spinning got out all of my anger and then yoga chilled me out. Is there something you do just for you? An hour when you can just switch off. 

Sending a virtual hug.

Many thanks for sharing

The GP did suggest I could call charities such as Mind.   And there is a workplace thing, but I'd have to dig to find details and I'm not sure I'm ready to get it added to my personnel record just yet!    The changes that are happening at work mean we'd had quite a number of people off with stress in the last year - most of them for several months (one's already over 6 months).

Exercise is something I get at work (on a normal working day I walk a minimum of 12 miles!), but the swimming, walking and running I used to do on top of that are some of the things I've not been able to encourage myself to do for several months.   If / when I get my living room tidy enough I can drag out my exercise bike and my yoga DVDs, but unfortunately my hours at work make booking yoga classes very tricky (I never know when I'm going to finish).   The gym I'm currently a member of doesn't do spin classes, but I can't say I enjoyed it when I used to be a member of one that did.

I've been baking since 5pm today (cakes for my Mum's 80th celebrations tomorrow, which still need the buttercream making and adding).   First time I've baked in years, and I've actually quite enjoyed it.  Based on the one tester I've had they seem to have turned out well enough that I think I might make it a more regular event - but in smaller quantities as there'll only be me here eating them most of the time.    Also means I can experiment with flavours I can't get locally (or not at affordable prices).    Next step is to try baking a single small sponge (I have a couple of 12cm tins I've been using) in my combi oven - I use it an a normal oven on a regular basis, but I've never tried baking in it.   I used my main oven today because of the quantities I was doing, but can't afford to run that on a regular basis.

I'm also working on cataloguing my DVD collection.   I've got to the point I'm starting to accidentally double up, so I need access to a list of what I own while I'm out and about in charity shops.    I've done a few hours at that this week, and find I lose myself in the task (and lose track of time, so when I'm back at work I'll probably need to set an alarm to be sure of getting to bed at a reasonable time)

Debsnewbudget

@cw18
the counselling offered by my employer just needed to check that you were an employee, but nothing was ever recorded on your personnel file.  Check what they do record and then use it if it will help.
take care