Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Stardust

Hope no one minds me jumping in but can I have a link to the recipe for Oak Leaf wine

Thank you

mumzyof2

£2.50 spent today at carboot

Frugaldom

Stardust wrote: »

Hope no one minds me jumping in but can I have a link to the recipe for Oak Leaf wine

Thank you

Hi, this is just a rough 'guesstimate' for the easy wine.

If you use a gallon bucket then it's one bucket of oak leaves, one bucket of boiling water and one bag of sugar (1kg) along with a sprinkle of yeast to get it started. There are variations on how the wine is made, so I guess it would be trial and error. If it was me, I'd pour the sugar and boiling water over the leaves, give them a stir and leave them to soak for a couple of days, stirring twice daily, before straining them then adding the yeast, but I haven't made oak leaf wine, only tasted it. I know this method certainly works for rhubarb and red clover and I didn't even use yeast last time, it ferments naturally if given time.

sophiesmum_2

Good evening frugallers:D
Oldies all fed and watered and I am now looking forward to a nice relaxing evening, catching up with mse and maybe pottering in the kitchen a bit. I need to turn the left over veggies from tonight into soup for this weeks lunches, think I will add some borlotti beans and chick peas to make it more filling.:rolleyes: i have some already soaked/cooked in the freezer
Also need to soak some more dried prunes to add to porridge, they plump up nicely when soaked in cold tea,and it makes the bag last much longer;) I do the same with sultanas etc when baking as you then need less to make up the weight.
Trying not to do any baking at moment as I am trying to cut down on eating the goodies:o

Still thinking about the winemaking (for frugal pressies )- can you make rose hip wine?? We have tonnes of these in the summer, I have made syrup but the hairs are a bit of a pain.

redglass_2

Sophiesmum, I've never made rosehip wine, but there are lots of recipes for it on Google. I've just made my first ever batch of elderflower syrup. It tastes nice but in its glass jars in the fridge it looks exactly like pee...think I might have some fun kidding my friends that I've become one of those people who drink their own.. .:D

I'm thinking of making the champagne too, but have bad memories of a housemate's exploding bottles and broken glass in the bathroom. Does anyone know if you can brew elderflower booze using a demijohn and an air lock, instead of screw top bottles that blow up?

Janey51

redglass DH says you can but it won't have the keeping qualities of bottled wine. Have to drink it quick then

Frugaldom

Redglass, I would think you should be able to brew just about anything in a demijohn with an airlock as the gas won't be able to build up the way it does if you over tighten the screw caps.

This winemaking caper was getting me impatient to try my mini water dispenser bottle, so I have now chopped a pound of raisins and have them soaking. It'll only make enough for 2 bottles of wine if it works, but better finding out on a small quantity that risks wasting less than £1 (sugar, raisins, yeast) than losing a barrel load with sugar the price it is! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Besides, raisins are cheaper than grapes, and I always have raisins in the cupboard. I haven't even put the sugar in to soak with them yet, as I fully intend straining out the raisins and using them for fruit loafs! :rotfl:

The carrot & coriander soup went down a treat and the rest is now in the freezer. I have wholemeal loaves proving at the moment and will bake them after 11pm on cheap rate. I'll probably end up baking a couple of trays of biscuits as well, one while oven's heating up and one while the oven's cooling down. It's such a waste of heat, otherwise. It does NOT help keep the figure trim, though! I think I need to get back on my exercise bike pretty quickly, as the combination of no cigs, heaps more baking and sitting at the computer for hours on end is taking its toll. Gardening, as a keep fit exercise, just isn't coping.

June is an interesting month. Everything starts growing like mad, we know for sure spring has arrived and summer is well on its way and then, suddenly, on 25th, it's like 6 MONTHS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! :eek: Then on the 30th, it's like 6 MONTHS UNTIL HOGMANAY! :eek: :eek: The homebrew will be well matured by then if it lasts the summer but, at this rate, the soaked raisins would be as well going into Christmas cake! Of course, it also means that we will be half way through this year's 4k challenge and be able to see just how close we are to achieving our goals or how we need to adjust them to ensure we are prepared for next year. Philisophical mode being switched off now, as I need to check my loaves are rising. Haven't tried the Mr T's wholemeal bread flour on its own before, I normally mix it half and half with plain to make it cheaper. Tonight, I am being rash! :rotfl:

mardatha

suddenly, on 25th, it's like 6 MONTHS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! :eek: Then on the 30th, it's like 6 MONTHS UNTIL HOGMANAY! :eek: :eek:

wheeeeehooo!

andromache_2

:wave: hi frugalers!

Hope everyone is well! I'm loving reading about everyone's lives

Had a tiff with OH about my not spending enough time with him so I've blown the budget somewhat this week in favour of spending lots of money on coaches and trains in order to see him. It'll all be fiiine, though; I've just sat and sorted out my budget for the little I have left and this is how it stands:
£6.17 for food (this is no problem; it only needs to cover another week at uni and I have lots left in the storecupboard)
£44.87 for entertainment (this should be ample but I don't want to have to turn down invites to see schoolfriends etc)
£45.95 for travel (this is where I might fall down, but I'm not counting travel for work)
£44.97 for three months of mobile bills @ £14.99 a month
£10.00 for fines (I'm sure I'll do something wrong or forget something before the end of term)
£3.59 for, er, anything else...
Sorry for the uneven numbers to those with financial OCD - it adds up to round numbers overall That needs to cover another two weeks before I go away then the month of September, which I'm (probably) spending at home. I've got all the gifts and things I'll need, don't need any new clothes, and can't think of anything expensive coming up. So, um, as long as nothing unexpected happens it'll be OK...

The one unexpected thing is that I just got an invoice for £150 which I'm *hoping* my college will cover - if not, I'll only have £5.55 left!! I think I'm going to use some accounting sleight of hand and allocate it to the 'travelling' budget rather than the 'challenge' budget since it is technically paying for a week away. Fingers crossed I won't have to pay it though - I've sent a begging letter explaining how worthy it is and why I deserve funding :rotfl:

I haven't been around much recently and will continue to be busy but just wanted to say again how much this challenge has helped me :T as you can see from my signature I've manage to save loads for travelling this summer and had I not been on this thread I'm sure that the £15 from quidco here, £20 from my dad there, £50 for a day's work from somewhere else would all have been absorbed into my general spending and gone on nothing in particular whereas as it is this challenge has given me the discipline to transfer it across to my savings account straightaway so I'll be able to use it all to pay for what will hopefully be an amazing experience this summer so thank you all.

Up early tomorrow! Night night xx

Frugaldom

Yet again, the sun is shining and it is a beautiful warm day. I have skived all morning ended up phoning DD to see if she wanted to err.... GO SHOPPING!! :eek: :rotfl: I fully intended just doing a £10 shop, but took some of the party money with me, just in case. Thank goodness I did! Mr S had a special offer on plastic tableware! It was only a buy 2 get 3rd free but the prices were fairly cheap to begin with, so I got 6 large salad server bowls and 6 large serving plates for a total of £10. I also got my groceries, but spent £15.88 when I saw sugar puffs on BOGOF and the half price fruit.

Next stop was Pound Shop and I'm glad I went in there! I got 5 huge silver platters (for the sandwiches), a pack of 100 wooden kebab skewers, 2 packs of cocktail sticks in reuseable dispensers (I'll use them for dried herbs, probably), an ice lolly making kit and a couple of sets of salad serving tongs for a total of £10. (£1 of this from my gift budget, as the lolly set is for DGD.)

Of course, not letting the frugal side down, I had to pop into both the charity shops and ended up spending a total of £9.50 :eek: Only 50p of this has been deducted from my gifts budget and the rest has been deducted from my 'everything else' fund, but it did include 5 demijohns for winemaking (99p each), a small wooden ornament (50p) and a NEW gypsy skirt, fully lined, that I cannot believe I found in there for £3.99! The similar one I wanted from Monsoon (which I did not buy, obviously) was £75! I know that only adds up to £9.44 but I stuck the 6p in the charity tin.

Now, where is Mr DT, so I can blame the escalating winemaking expenditure on him! :rotfl: