2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Gem-gem said:

Hi, not sure if anyone has already posted this but Savers has granulated sugar 1kg for 89p. I have been Informed that other shops are selling it for £1.09

Is Savers a shop or do you mean supermarket own brand savers? That's a great price for sugar nowadays so I'd stock up if I could. (Sorry to hear of the car window incident, hope it wasn't too costly to replace it.)

It's mainly been small gardening jobs here, trying to keep on top of weeding, hoping for late seedlings to appear, pricking out the ones I've overdone by scattering packs of seeds and keeping an eye on blueberry and honeyberry progress so the birds don't get there first. We were gifted some seedlings yesterday - Asturia tree cabbage - a variety I had never heard of, so these will be getting a bed of their own that can be protected from butterflies and the like.

All excess seeds, seedlings, plants, pots, canes, tree spirals and bags of horse manure etc are being sat at the gate for anyone to help themselves. We've had a few donations, which help cover feed costs for the animals. 

Yesterday was another 'frugal ladies who lunch' at the hut so discussions began over hosting seed, plant and crop swaps later this year, which would be great. 

Like others on here, I'm going to pick more rhubarb today and get some stewing done. 

annieb64

Savers is a chain of shops. They mainly sell toiletries and cleaning stuff but usually have a small selection of food and alcohol.

fionaandphil

Thanks for the heads up about sugar @Gem-gem and @peewhyeff I will pop in this week and stock up. Nearly jam season here, the blackcurrants are starting to colour so hopefully by the end of next week I can start picking.  The smell coming from them is gorgeous

kayannie

peewhyeff said:

Gem-gem said:

Hi, not sure if anyone has already posted this but Savers has granulated sugar 1kg for 89p. I have been Informed that other shops are selling it for £1.09

Home Bargains sugar is also 89p.

89p at B&M too.

Gem-gem

@fionaandphil, I have started to pick this year's blackcurrants. I can't believe how early they are and we still have two tubs left from last year. 

I find that I can even smell blackcurrants when I am weeding around the plants and there are no fruit on the bushes. 

Our gooseberries are nearly ready. It also won't be long before they are ready to be picked. 

I have been finishing off one of DM sewing projects. Coin purse making. I have  finished one that she started and made one of my own so far from scratch. 

Gem-gem

How to make the purse. 

1. You will need four sections. See below. 

The width is the width of the purse clasp plus a little more. 

2. The cut out felt the same size. 

You then need to join the fabric and felt together. I sewed around the love hearts with an embroidery thread. 

For the flowers I am sewing inside the flower. 

Gem-gem

Sew the four sections together - Make sure that the similar pieces are opposite each other and not next to each other. 

Next, make the inside lining - see top picture in this section. Same size / shape as the outer panels. Sew together - I did back stitch. 

Gem-gem

Next, pin the two materials together, folding in the material at the top. I sewed the two pieces together using blanket stitch. Very small stitches. 

Gem-gem

After, you add the purse clasp. This is the most tricky bit. It also took a lot of strength. I watched a tube of U video on this. Top tip. See the two ends on first. Then sew the middle up near the clasp. You will need scissors to help push the material into the metal clasp. This I kept doing, to ensure there were no holes or loose parts. I used double thread and went over each stitch twice. 

Gem-gem

Finally, I joined the two fabrics together at the bottom by sewing on a button. This is optional. 

The length that you cut the panels depends on how long you want the purse. It will shrink in size so don't make it too small.  The length of this purse starts out at 13cm. The width is 10cm.

Hopefully I have all the terminology correct. I would suggest that you watch a couple of tutorials. I found them helpful. You will probably find it easier to understand! There are all different shapes that you can start with.