Solstice

We decided to celebrate the solstice with a night in the camper and a walk in the midsummer sunshine.

Although we were near to Avebury, we didn't make it to the stones - too crowded and no parking. But it was a day spent under the sun, in an ancient Wiltshire landscape with all of the trappings of Midsummer:

Blue skies. meadow flowers and sweeping views of cornfields ripening nicely.

 

Broad beans getting there.

Summer hay ready to be stored for winter.

 

Canal-side hedgerows showing signs of fruit forming.

 

Ever wondered what a white horse looks like up close? Bit of an anti-climax!

Sheep fattening up on the lush grass.

 

Giant hogweed (I think?) in all it's glory.

 

We were walking for ten miles in total - utter bliss soaking up the 'midsummeryness'. Total cost was £6.50 for two pints in a canal-side pub - we took a picnic. This could have been avoided by making do with our cold drink - but still not bad for a whole day out, and within our budget.

 

Great day!

Allotment Goodies

It's been a quiet week of content frugality, training for the half marathon and work. Every day that passes is another day I feel that I have under my belt and another day closer to a payday where I have met my debt repayment/saving goals.

I spent a blissful afternoon on the allotment on Sunday and we are still scoffing the results - 1kg of strawberries which we have been eating for breakfast with natural yoghurt. We have also made rhubarb stew mixed with some leftover stewed apples in the freezer, which has been a sweet treat for dessert - the apples were quite sweet anyway and we like the tart flavour, so eat it chilled without anything added.

 

 

The small salad patch at home has kept me in lettuce and radish for work lunches this week. I am keeping a running total of the financial rewards from my allotment, and compared to the price of bagged salad, I recon I am saving quite a lot.

And the patch of poppies that emerged at the allotment, which I left to grow (didn't even sow them) are looking stunning.

So a quiet week as we prepare for a weekend in the camper for the Summer Solstice. A frugal one of course!

Spending Disaster - Pocket Money Update

Oh dear, it's been an expensive few days!

So, my spending money budget was £83. I added £10 to this by not having to pay the dog-sitter on one occasion unexpectedly. This took it to £93. As my food expenditure, even with the fruit and veg top-up, was £50 under budget, happily my 'pocket money' budget rocketed to £153.

Spending until yesterday was just £20.40.

I caved at the college canteen and hoovered up a coffee and a banana at £2.70. How could I have avoided this? I could have taken a flask and my own fruit - it was just bad organisation. I will do next time.

I then was called in to the technicians office as the Hydroponics unit I ordered six weeks ago had arrived, and I needed to pay for it - £45. £45! A local company specialising in home hydroponics came to college ages ago to do a talk. I vaguely remember expressing an interest, but had forgotten all about it.  Needless to say, this is a bit of a disaster for my spending money budget!

Back at work, I had the usual panic about Fathers Day - I am totally eschewing the expensive presents that we seem obliged to buy, but do think a card is required. So, on to Moonpig and £3.61 later, a personalised card is on it's way. Not sure how I could have avoided this - made my own? I don't have any materials, so buying them would have been more expensive than the card I suspect (it included postage).

I consoled myself that I had planned a frugal evening's fitness activity - I met a friend for tennis at the local courts, which are free.

I really enjoyed it - it's been so long since I have played but it all came flooding back - and I am SO sore today, so it must have done me good!

However, I am sorry to say that I then took my friend to the pub for a drink, as I lost - cost £5. How could I have avoided this? We could have gone back to hers for a cup of tea. Or sat in the sunshine with a bottle of squash in the park to cool down. Or won the match so she had to pay! I will do one of these three next time.

So all in all, a catastrophic spending day - of my £150 spending money, I have spent £96.71, and have £53.29 left until the end of the month. I really need to rein it in for a while - I have no plans for the weekend other than jobs in the house/allotment, study and running. It is amazing how quickly the coffees and drinks sneak back under the radar.So I hereby impose a spending BAN until next week, Thursday 19th June.

Does Frugality Make You Fat?

Days since last spend:  0

For a while now, my backside has been getting bigger and bigger. Not helped by all of this frugal food – pastry is cheap, muffins are cheap, pasta is cheap, homemade bread is cheap – but it is all wheat based. I need help! I did consider Slimming World – it has worked for me in the past. £5 a week for meetings is a lot – but I could just about afford it. However, over the cost of a year, that is £260.

 

Once upon a time, I used to run – a lot. I have done four half marathons in my time, and each time I have lost at least half a stone – sometimes more, just by virtue of the training involved. Of course, I could always just run for the fun of it – but this is not as much of an incentive as having a race to train for. Even more of an incentive if that race is in my hometown, and my competitors are the people I went to school with.

So, I decided that the entry fee of £20 would be a good investment, and much cheaper than paying to join Slimming World. As I had the space in my budget, I decided to go for it. And I can feel the motivation working already.

 

 

Last night, I went out for my first run in months, and just managed 3 miles, thundering around the woods like a T-Rex. It was HARD! But, I came back in an excellent mood, skin glowing and happy, if tired. I slept like a log too, for the first time in months.

Best of all though, my run was FREE! I train using the Nike+ App on my iphone which you can download for free. I find it great for running training, the GPS is excellent, as is the ability to upload stats. I need to shave at least a minute off my time to beat my PB, but I have three months to do it, so that's fine.

 

 

I do need to shift some weight too, to speed myself up - a stone and a half should do it. A weight-loss conducive diet (which is basically high-protein, less wheat) is difficult to do frugally, as meat and fish is relatively expensive. However, I have plenty of fish in the freezer, so on no-run days I can jazz up cheap fish like Basa and Coley with herbs and spices (such as thai red curry paste and pesto) and eat it with vegetables.

 

 On run days when I need extra fuel, I can have my sourdough or quinoa porridge for breakfast, a vegetarian risotto or a pasta salad for my lunch. My meal plan allowed for meat or fish every other day, so some days I can eat chops, sausages or minced beef meatballs with some nice sauce and 'vegetable spaghetti' (courgettes julienned).

 

I will keep you posted with the results! But as frugal hobbies go, I think it's a winner.

 

 

Ta Daa...Extremely Frugal Project Reveal

In the last few weeks I have been working on a project. This seems to be the way to go if you want to keep your spending down...just make sure you are so busy you don't have a moment to miss going to the shops!

LB and I are lucky to have a campervan - this beast, a Fiat Ducato:

It is not a sexy split-screen VW, but frankly I would rather have a loo and the extra space. We try to make sure we go away in it at least once a month, and now that I am saving, this will be a cheap way to keep life interesting (if it passes it's MOT - keep your fingers crossed!). Diesel is expensive though - it costs £100 to fill up, so we will only be taking it out locally this year. That's OK though - living in Wiltshire we are surrounded by gorgeous countryside, and any time out of the house in the fresh air is still a great break.

The van formerly had two very narrow single beds, but LB's dad and uncle have recently very kindly converted this to a double for us.

This means we needed new cushions as the formation of the mattress was slightly different to the previous two.. LB's dad treated us to some foam, but it was down to me to make the cushion covers. I know from previous experience that upholstery fabric is expensive, and a cursory eBay search revealed the cost would have been approximately £60. Not frugal!

However, I found two pairs of floor length curtains on Freecycle - red, to match the rest of the interior, and lovely thick corduroy fabric. Perfect! They were faded in a few places, but I made sure I cut the fabric around the faded patches, so you would never know.



Then I spent several evenings and most of a weekend bending the sewing machine. Thank god for BBC iPlayer, even if I am busted for watching EastEnders! I am no expert with the sewing machine, but it really is as simple as cutting out panels the same side as each face of the square foam cushion (plus 2cm seam allowance around the edge), pinning the seams, and sewing them together.

I had to leave a seam unsewn to allow me to stuff the foam into the covers. Leaving them stacked up in the Living room meant I couldn't procrastinate as by this point I was sick of the sight of them.

(Might have stacked them on top of the dogs bed...oops!)

Then started several evenings in front of the TV, of pulling the seam tight, pinning it and slip-stitching the seam shut. I could have gone for zips, but that would have blown the budget. If I really do have to wash these covers, I can always unpick and stitch them up again.

Ta Daaa.... finished:

I know it may look like these are the wrong size from this photo - however, they all fit together like a jigsaw to form a perfect double bed when the wooden slats are pulled out.

 

They aren't perfect - I can see a wonky seam from here, but they will do just fine. They mean we now have use of the campervan back, and all for the princely sum of £1.55. the cost of a reel of black cotton and my time.

 

Now that's what I call frugal.

Sunday Mooching

In one of the rare periods of my life where I have been on a fitness kick, my food and exercise app had a function 'no. of days this stretch' meaning, number of days you had been tracking food and exercise on the app.

 

I think this is a great tool, so from now on I will be tracking 'days since last spend'. Excluding planned expenditure, which I can't control or avoid, such as planned grocery shops and bills. I had the most frugal weekend, and haven't spent a penny since my coffee at Wisley on Wednesday. So...days since last spend...5!

 

So, about the frugal Sunday.

 

 

It started with baking my sourdough loaf, which had been proving overnight - straight out of the oven, with butter, melting slowly it was HEAVEN! If being frugal is enjoying simple pleasures, this was definitely one of them.

 

Then it was down to the allotment to plant out pumpkins, squash, leeks, fennel and some perennial flowers to grow on.

 

 

I also did some weeding. The potatoes are coming on nicely.

 

 

Red cabbage is also growing at a pace.  But best of all...

 

 

Strawberry season! These beauts are the first load and they were amazingly juicy and sweet. They weighted in at 400g (not including the few which didn't make it home!) - which in Morrisons cost £2. I will have them chopped over yoghurt and cereal for breakfast or just as a snack. I have added these to my allotment tracker (see the tab at the top of the page) as this year I will be keeping books to see whether the allotment is cost-effective. I would do it anyway as I love it - but it will be interesting to see whether it is a net gain or net drain.

 

Then, in frugal fashion I dyed my hair myself. I can't claim this saves me massive amounts of money as I have coloured my own hair for as long as I can remember. Once upon a time, when I had credit cards, I spent £70 each time on a cut and colour. But my hair is brown - to be honest there really isn't much point in paying someone to do it when you are putting brown on brown! (Just a better shade of brown you understand). 

 

I squeezed in a little self-learning (more about that another day) and spent the last few hours watching a film - this was a fantastic Scandinavian thriller (I just LOVE Scandinavia, did I mention) which the boyfriend ordered from LoveFilm. This costs £9.99 a month and we watch at least six movies a month, so it works out at £1.66 per film. If it was coming out of my budget, I would probably just watch TV films instead, but LB loves his movies and he pays for it - fine with me.



 

So for a total spend of nothing, I have had a really relaxing, satisfying weekend with plenty to keep me busy. Result!

Not Going Out...But OK With It

This is my first frugal Saturday night in since I turned over my frugal leaf. LB is away this weekend, so I am indulging myself with a weekend doing exactly what I feel like...without spending any money.
 
Some of the best things in life can be frugal...I enjoyed a blissful lie-in this morning, starshaped in a bed all to myself. I am not telling what time I rose from my pit, but it was double figures! Bliss.
 
 

 
Then I treated myself to a blissful frugal fry up. No bacon, but I have vegetarian leanings anyway, so a couple of veggie sausages was perfect for me. This cost me a grand total of £1.15  (Eggs 32p, v. sausages 40p, mushroom 20p, tomato 10p ketchup 3p) and as I didn't have toast it was perfect without filling me up too much.
 
Then, I took myself and the little doggy out for a romp around the woods. I am very lucky to live on the doorstep of the Longleat estate - beautiful pine forests.
 

 

There is a schnauzer in there somewhere.

 

 

 

The sun was shining through the branches, birds were tweeting and there was that lovely forresty smell.

I came back after an hour in a great mood and feeling really blissed out.
 
Did several loads of washing which dried in no time in the sunshine, and got a sourdough loaf on the go. Then got my on-going project out... 
 

 

This is a quilt I started last year  - not very frugal as it uses rather expensive Scandinavian fabric (which I LOVE). However, I bought this years ago, so it won't cost me anything more than time now - making it a good frugal project.

 

 

And with the i-Player and a glass of wine (Lidl - surprisingly fine!), it is actually a really relaxing night in, with something to show for my efforts.

 

 

I really like the 'pinwheel' effect, although it is painstaking stuff as the blocks come out really small. My last quilt took me five years to finish - this may well be the same as I don't get a whole evening to do it very often. That's fine with me though.

 

Now I think I will retire to the living room to watch some gratuitous period-drama while I have the chance! A totally chilled out day and I didn't spend a penny - result.