This week's bread

I've made our bread for the next few days and we eat a loaf between us every day. I pay 65p for a bag of bread flour and 65p for 6 sachets of yeast. My bread costs me 15p and there's no where you can buy a handmade loaf for that. I also went to Trago today to price up wood for our new raised beds and to look around the garden centre. We didn't spend any money but now have a good idea of the amount we need to put aside to do this. We did get deafened by the River Fowey as it thundered past Trago Mills today and even in the depths of winter, it is a lovely sight.

cheap at Trago

If anyone is looking for a cheap wood burner - they have a selection for under £200. Here's one.

Meet the boys.

Meet the 'boys'!

I thought I would introduce you to the dogs. I have two scruffy little white dogs; the larger of the two being a Bichon has pathetically large eyes and always looks at us as if we're about to break his heart. We return home to his desperation, where the poor dog genuinely thought we had died and he would never see us again. He's a rehomed dog and we are his third owners as he was too needy for anyone else. For quite a while a rehomed dog doesn't give you much in return until you win their trust and although we're almost there; Scruffy will still whistle and whine in the car, whine at the door and secure himself to either of our ankles in case we might step out of his sight at any moment. He cost very little, doesn't eat much and Bichons don't require miles and miles of walking and combing his hair is a relaxing as meditation.


Bobby Dazzler, on the other hand, is a sparky, beautiful and minute dictator! No one stays in bed when he wants a walk, no one has any peace if he wants a lap and this dog does not lack confidence. We rehomed him at six months old and Maltese terriers usually find good homes by the time they are 12 weeks old......but not this one. He came from Port Isaac on New year's eve of 2006 and has guarded us with a fierce loyalty ever since. He has also guarded Scruffy, who has Bobby to ride shot gun with him, wherever he goes. Bobby Dazzler is definitely the 'Del Boy' of the two, whilst Scruffy remains the hapless 'Rodney'. Like teenage boys, who can be perfectly behaved for grand parents and visitors, Bobby and Scruff can wreak havoc. Scruff loves to tip over the bin, dig out the cat litter tray, climb into the dishwasher, whilst Bobby refuses to be house trained and will, when you least expect him to, piddle on the kitchen floor!

They are though, wonderfully entertaining and loyal to the point of fixation. I am often home alone in the school holidays, whilst dearly beloved is at work and we're often filling hours of our lives with their company. Inspite of their tiny size, they will both walk over moors and cliff paths and will spend hours in the garden with us and where we go, they go.

But are they frugal? We don't insure them. We take that risk. We clean their teeth to keep them healthy, we groom them so they don't become tangled and they eat very little. They live for years and years and now we have the two; we can't possibly go abroad on holiday so we're saving the cost of the ferry and camping. They are an indulgence but I don' t holiday, buy clothes, don't drink or smoke, don't go any where that costs money and they are the cheapest form of tranquilisers you could ever get.

It doesn't get any better than this!

As it was so cold in this house; I slept in this morning and was woken around 8 am by the boiler man (Craig, Mr Kern's son and also our neighbour) and had the boiler fixed by 10.30! Well there goes our budget!!! Almost £300 including the VAT. February and April is when we have no Council Tax or Water DD, so the money we would have put towards debt repayment has actually gone on repairing the boiler. I think it was on its last legs as it was noisy and now it's silent! It's been on for two hours today and set to 18 degrees and the house is now so very warm.

We then went off to Plymouth to pay a flying visit to my daughter and were delighted to find her well and that the boyfriend (who she's moved in with) is just lovely. I love the journey up and back on the train as we trundle through the Tamar valley, past the water side at St. Germans and over Brunel's Bridge until pulling in to the bustle of Plymouth. We met up with Josie and Adrian, stayed a while and left them to it......young people are nocturnal and it was much too early for her!

Plymouth, like most major cities has the same array of shops as every other shopping centre and the shuffling masses flock there to pay homage to the till! We avoid the main areas and chose to browse and nose around Plymouth Pannier Market. It's a mass of indoor stalls, where food is reasonably cheaper and the service comes with a chat and some real human contact. Since the demise of Woolworths, there is a proliferation of 'Pick and Mix' stalls in the market and we treated ourselves to a bag each. I also treated us to some Naag Champa soap and incense, so now we and our home will smell almost divine, well like a Hindu temple any way and that can't be bad.

Next to the soap is my shower timer and we both allow oursleves 3 minutes each in the shower and I use 5 minutes when I wash my hair so I will smell lovely and save water, electricity and money!

I can hear you wondering what has happened to my frugality? What's with the money spending. Once upon a time; we'de have had coffee and even lunch but no more. We took sandwiches, coffee in a flask and a piece of homemade cake each which we intended eating in a picnic on Plymouth Hoe, but as it was so cold and as we had to wait for our returning train, we ate it on Plymouth Station on the way home. Mike used his usual rail pass, so his journey costed nothing and mine cost £5 for a cheap day return and it would have cost us that to park! before fuel and bridge toll. So it was a frugal day out. Total spend of a lovely day out was under ten pounds and don't any one worry - I will save what I have spent somewhere else this month.

Well the heating came on at five and I'm only wearing a vest, long sleeved jumper and a body warmer which is positively naked compared to the previous few days of dressing like Scott of the Antarctic. The heating's fixed, I spent time with my daughter, I had a lovely train ride, a picnic and the sun has shone! It doesn't get much better than this! I'll now go and put my feet up with my pick and mix.

Sometimes you've just got to splash out!

Every now and then a girl's got to go mad and treat herself. Now I wouldn't normally throw £8 around in Focus but I am doing so to save electricity. Next to my thirteen year old vileda mop bucket is my brand new broom. My old broom is just a clump of tangled nylon that really doesn't sweep at all any more. In spite of looking, all the brooms seem to have short handles and small head; they've been stunted by the economy I think or at the risk of stereotyping made in the far east where people are smaller than Europeans and therefore the broom fits them just fine!

Here you will see, not only how cheap the seeds were but the answer to my earlier post about my coffee envy although I am yet to buy a very small flask. My theory is that I will make my coffee before I leave and pop in my school bag and drink it on the train on the way home. An easy end to my coffee envy! Below are some pots I aim to grow potatoes, carrots and parsnips in whilst encasing them in old net curtains from British Heart Foundation or other good retail outlets of equally charitable status. Mum gave me these so they were free and I've heaps of home made compost all at the ready. The gravelled area is where dearly beloved is going to build himself a greenhouse, although he's not sure from what just yet!
I went mad today and spent £3.70 on ten packets of seeds from Lidl, which averages at 37p a packet. I've bought cheap seeds before and they are not perfect and you don't get 100% success rate, but then you don't with expensive seeds either. My shop today will last for a lot longer than a week and I went primarily to buy the seeds and could have held out for a another week to shop but didn't want to miss the seeds and don't want to go shopping tomorrow or next week if possible. As much as though I love my fellow Cornish people, if they hear there's something cheap to be had, whatever it is, will be gone seconds after it's put on the shelves so I'm glad I got there early this week.

Nothing goes to waste.

I was just thinking about waste food today and how much the average British family wastes. I can hand on heart say we waste nothing. Orange soft with some mould on one side? Eat the one side that's OK. Banana gone brown and almost gooey? Mush up and add to sponge mixture and pour into bun cases and take to work as a snack. I use everything. Then some!

I compost and own three compost bins and every leaf, grass cutting, kitchen waste and even shredded junk mail is composted. It also forms my workout as I periodically tip it over and dig it about and decant the most composted matter into one bin and the least into another so it rots down most effectively. I then use it where needed in the garden. All of my compost bins have been bought at much reduced prices from local council schemes and I've always moved with them. It means that nothing at all goes to waste and what little goes in the bin doesn't smell of rotting peelings, which has got to be better for the guys who collect the rubbish. I also think the bins have character; like friendly Daleks at the bottom of the garden!

No such thing as the wrong weather....

......just the wrong clothes. The boiler man came today, Terry, also a neighbour and we found his number on the side of his van and told us the fan in the boiler was broken and he'd order it tomorrow so we'll have a few days of me looking like this! Which is not a problem as we didn't really turn the heating on until December and then only for a couple of hours a day but it's amazing how it takes the chill off and I'm currently in the chill. It's incredible how we just flick a switch and then we have a massive bill, whilst actually a few more clothes and just the heating we need in one room will actually do.

Mum, whose wisdom I never truly appreciated until much older, always said "Some is plently, enough is too much!" Though an austere view and quite unfashionable now as we've all got so used to enough and never appreciate the some anymore. So I'm sat here in my fleece, with jumper and gilet underneath and my scarf and my hat and have to remember sometimes that I used to sleep in more than that as a child and by the fact that I'm here today: it never killed me. So, I've bounced back, fed myself with my £1 supper and even managed to come home early, to some heating and I'm afraid to say, enough supper to leave me feeling very full, in my toasty office as I have an electric radiator and the smile has come back to my face and all is truly well in the world.

5 days until pay day and I've still not spent anything.

You'll have to excuse me.....not my cheerful self today. I've spent no money and I'm still over drawn. I've also had to drive miles out of my way today to go on a course; the road was closed so there was a even lengthier diversion. I did, however, have a free lunch but no left overs to bring home.

So, over drawn I've arrived home to fuses blown and I can't work out why as the trip switches are OK and the pilot light on the boiler isn't working......so it'll be five days before I can afford some one to look at the boiler and maybe longer until I can have it repaired as I have to save for it.............because I have no credit cards as I cut them up.

Haiti comes to mind and I have some where to live, I have a fire and I have an electric blanket and an electric shower and a kettle and this is the view I saw today on the way to the course. Bethruthen steps, near Newquay, Cornwall. In a few minutes I'll get this into perspective and will feel better!

A warm welcome waiting for me!

It's so cold outside that I was delighted to find the station was still manned/or wommaned! when I got off the train at five thirty to wait for Mike's 5.40 train to arrive from Plymouth. No matter how long our day, how delayed our trains and how cold the walk home; I always enjoy that 20 minute chat on the walk home. The dogs are delighted to see us, but best of all is the delicious smell emanating from the kitchen....bolognaise today and the pasta is bubbling away whilst I write this. The hot pot was a recent purchase and has saved me a fortune as it's big enough to cook two meals at once, one I will freeze for another day and one waiting for me when I got home. Dinner is often veggie soup and reduced price bread rolls from the co-op, sometimes it's a chicken stew made of cheap leg or thigh pieces which just fall apart when lifted out of the pot. What ever it is, it's cheap and a real warm welcome home. Dinner today for two meals, 1/3 of a pack of spaggetti 14p, pack of mince £1.80 onion 5p pepper 30p tin toms 20p tom puree 25p , sprinkle of herbs and garlic granules total £2.79 divided by two - £1.39 for two people for dinner today! and all ready when I got home.

Wondering at the ancient

I've been at home today, revelling in the wonders of a new washing machine and feeding my son and his girl friend, who came home funnily enough, to do their washing. We've had a lovely day, simply chatting whilst I ironed and lolled around with the dogs on our laps, just catching up. The sun has shone on Liskeard today and my Rik and Shelley came back from walking the dogs with red faces looking a lot healthier than usual and, although yesterday and Friday had gloomy news and left me contemplative; I have spent today counting my blessings. I live in such a beautiful place and there are so many places around me which are just stunning. Trethevy Quoit is a ten minute drive from where I live, simply plonked in a field behind a row of cottages. On the day we went to see it, there were local kids climbing all over it and playing hide and seek in and out of it. Sheep or cattle graze around it and there's nothing to stop anyone looking at it. I love the way they are no different from the Breton Dolmens in Brittany, that this ancient archtecture to the dead linked our ancient celtic forefathers as they came here and we went there and Breton and Cornish are almost indistinguishable. I am very, very lucky to live here and although I may not be in the house I want, I can count my blessings.....as they are many. Dha weles x

Frugal luxury

I have recently sold my large American washing machine and matching drier, plus a mobile phone and some handbags on ebay and with the money I bought a new, economical, miserly with water and electricity modern Bosch washing machine with a three year warranty. It's the first new electrical appliance I have bought in over five years and was needed as we want to have a water meter and our old washer used five times the amount of water of a dinky European washer. It arrived, with great fanfare at ten this morning and has been on ever since and consequently my house looks like Widow Twanky's! Frugal dearly beloved has moved my wirly gig today, to a sunnier part of the garden so the washing would be in the sun for longer, although the sunlight did little good and the laundry is now hanging, as usual on three clothes horses in front of the fire. However, we will make massive savings on our water bill as currently, our South West Water bill is £1500 a year!!!! Yes , you heard right.....we have the highest bills in the country because of the disposal of the tonnage of tourist poop!

My clever buys last night meant that we had a luxurious and yet frugal start to the day with a bag of coissants for 15p and a bag of oranges for 30p meant that we had warm coissants and freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast this morning, which were a real treat after the usual toast and jam we have every morning with a cup of tea! This weekend has been tinged with sadness as we have discovered that there is no way we can move as the building society has turned down our mortgage application even though it is half the size of the one we have and the cottage we wanted to move to is a third of the size we live in now. Our debts have rendered a new mortgage 'unaffordable' (even though we pay them) according to the Abbey's calculations as they base the application on our currents bills and finances even though they will be halved when we move. We have been truly saddened by this and felt that we could simplify our lives by moving and are stuck with a four bedroom detached house that we no longer need now the children have moved on. We are also saddled with an inaffordable redemption fee which prohibits us from switching to another mortgage compary, even if they would look at us if they too use the same 'affordability' calculation. We know we will get on with life, enjoy where we live now and keep admiring the view!

This week I haven't spent any money...until today!

I have been so good this week. Tonight I did the weekend's shopping for £6.37 - much reduced fruti and veg from the co-op, carrots, cabbage, several bags of oranges for 30p a bag (I can't wait for the freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast), some dried yeast, margarine, bar of soap and some soap powder.

I'm still eeking out what I have in the cupboards and in the freezer. I have a whole bag of chicken pieces in there yet and have people for lunch on Sunday, so roast chicken it will be and the carrots and cabbage to go with it along with croquette potatoes. I save all the ends of the homemade bread and put them in a bag in the freezer and when I have enough, I bake the pieces of bread until crispy and then blitz them in the food processor. One thing I use them for is fish cakes and croquette potatoes. Both have the same base. Peel, chop, boil and mash potatoes, add fried onion and a some steamed/fried/flaked fish and mix together. Roll into patty shapes and coat with bread crumbs - place on oiled oven proof dish and bake. Brilliant served with Roast chicken carrots and cabbage for Sunday lunch!!

Frugal supper tonight was a fave stand by - Corned beef hash - made from half a tin of corned beef and guess what!!! served with cabbage and carrots!
1. Cook the potatoes in boiling, salted water for 20-25 minutes until tender, then drain and chop. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200°C (400°F, gas mark 6).
2. Lightly oil a large, nonstick frying pan, add the onion and sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until golden. Increase the heat, add the mushrooms and cook, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes, stirring often.
3. Stir in the corned beef, potatoes and Worcestershire sauce. Transfer to an ovenproof dish and bake for about 25 minutes, until browned.

All I wanted was a cup of coffee!

I had serious coffee envy today! You see, I view that one cup of coffee like the sip of wine to an alcoholic......one sip and the wagon disappears over the horizon. Well; I'm like that with money. One coffee, then a twix, then a newspaper, then the same again tomorrow and then five pounds a day will be spent on frippery. Instead of a coffee; I'm going to get a small flask and make a coffee before I leave work and then drink it on the train when I get home. I now take the newspaper home from the school library and read that on the train and in an act of generosity, leave it for others to read as so many have done before me.
So the train took me home and threw me out in torrential rain, which followed me as I walked the mile home from the station. Luckily, dearly beloved had got home before me and had lit the fire, which now has our wet clothes steaming infront of it - with dogs underneath; legs a kimbo toasting their bums! However, I did not have coffee, nor did I have a twix, nor did I read the paper - saving £2.75 and as I work five days a week for 40 weeks of the year and if I did that....as so many people seem to do I would spend £550 a year. Let's add up the savings this week. Train instead of car = save £600 Packed lunch instead of school lunch = save £400 and make myown coffee and read the school paper = save £550 total savings by being frugal = £1550 a year! suddenly that coffee didn't seem that important.

Cheap as chips

In our local chippy a portion of chips is £1.50! Good grief! I buy a bag of spuds for £4 and that lasts us a month and a tray of 18 free range eggs for £2.50 and they like wise, last us nearly a month! They never seem to go off! They are cheap as my local green grocer is a van at the side of the road and as hard times bite, he is busier and busier. Every thing is 50p, a swede, a cauli, a cabbage and these are mega veg, where a cabbage takes up most of a bag for life! And, as today is so cold - today is a chip day! My meals are still under a pound each - we have a pork steak (off the butcher's van at Trago - massive trays of everything - all 2.99 each and yes it's local stuff - farmers are getting cannier and selling their own produce) , some mushrooms, six cherry toms and a big spud each - chipped of course! So after a long day of teaching 150 different students and then going on to two hours private tutoring and then the luxury of a lift home in a CAR! I needed chips and they are such a beautiful sight! So today I saved £3 by making my own chips...I think my own are better anyway!

Save money, save time, save the planet.

Here is my office. It is heated, is cleaned for me every day, has waitress service, has heat and light and it also takes me to work. I plan on the train, then mark books or essays on the way home. I love finding magazines and papers that people have left....I take them home after I've read them to light the fire. I often take toast to eat on the train and feel very posh, munching my breakfast at high speed. I have a tiny 'note pad' lap top, provided by work as I said my big lap top was heavy to carry as I use public transport. They admire my 'greeness' so gave me the big lap top to keep at home and the mini lap top for working on the train. Oh the savings, I have to be frugal, you know me. I save an hour of my life a day. The drive would cost me an hour a day and now I use that to work and don't have to do so much work at home.
Clunk click every trip. My trusty Morrisons' lunch box has recently celebrated its fourth birthday and even goes on day trips and holidays with us. Instead of spending around £2 a day on lunch, I take a packed lunch for pennies - saving me £400 a year and the train saves me £600 a year. Saving time, money and the planet. Another good day in Liskeard.

But I would walk 500 miles...

........and I would walk 500 more....just to save a quid. I tagged my pedometer onto my belt today and discovered that I have walked five and a half miles today. I walk a mile to the station, half a mile at the other end to school and then the reverse, which still leaves the other two miles I did around my classroom. So it's no wonder I get tired and so hungry. It's a good job I was prepared. I'm not shopping this week and using up what we have, so here are some of the oat cookies. Dead simple 4oz oats, 4 oz SR flour, 4 oz marg, 4 oz brown sugar, 4 oz golden syrup. Melt the sugar, marg and syrup in a pan, then add the flour and oats. Form into ping pong ball size balls and then dollop onto a greased baking tray and bake, in the mini oven for 10 mins on 180. As the meerkats would say 'simples'. These are my version of breakfast bars and I eat them on the train

Here's my homemade wholemeal bread and yes I was up, in the dark, at stupid o' clock making sandwiches for us both as we are both on our trains by seven! As ever, the 'Riviera Express' full of sleepy travellers, with the lights still dimmed so not to rouse them, delivered me to St. Austell by 7.20 and I was in my classroom by 7.30. I save £600 a year by travelling by train, not to mention the wear and tear on the car and price of tyres and it feels like a treat when we use it at the weekend. Sometimes, dearly beloved cleans it even when it hasn't been any where! I also save hours of my life, by planning lessons on the way in and marking essays on the way home. It's also a fantastic place to be a freegan - my train find and walk home find today: Cornish Guardian, 20p and a wand - purple, with ribbons and a shiny silver star. What more could I want?

Debt repayment

The auctioneer's hammer fell and I sold: our large American top loading washing machine and matching tumble dryer (both over 10 years old) our mobile phone that they gave us as we have a contract, our steam press and two leather hand bags I had kicking around. We made 420 pounds and we took that and bought a new washing machine for our new house and put the change straight into a credit card over payment.

We've emptied the garage, photographed everything, lots of bags and clothes too. Everything must go and all the funds go to debt repayments.

It feels good.

Frugal food and easy living.

I bake everyday. It takes seconds. This weekend I have made malted fruit loaf, sweet fruit loaf and a white loaf and before the end of the day I will make a loaf ready for our sandwiches at work tomorrow. Bargain this week, was 'Can't believe it's not butter' for 48p in the Co-op so I've stocked up and got four of those, which makes a change from the cheapest stuff I normally buy.
Another thing I make every week is two fruit cakes, I use Delia's Dundee cake recipe and use a very cheap mixture of dried fruit and a spoonful
of almond essence and don't bother with the lemon and orange zest or the

ground almonds and we think it's just as good. I buy the cake tin liners in the local pannier market and a case of them last me a couple of years. I used two with my Christmas cake. These cakes also improve in a few days as the dried fruit release their moisture back into the cake. Quite lovely and about a £1 each to make including cooking time in my mini oven
Frugal roast lunch - number one son back for lunch today so all three of us will have enough lamb, spuds, carrots and parsnips for today's lunch and left overs in sandwiches tomorrow. I use the slow cooker as it uses hardly any electricity.
It's been a fantastic weekend really; very restful and the weather today has been fantastic and as ever, I've rinsed a few bits of washing out by hand, wrung it out and now it's in the sunshine and will be dried and put away before the end of the day. The patio doors are open and the house is getting a well deserved airing - the heating has gone back on its meagre timings and all is well and costing us very little in this end of Cornwall!

Simple pleasures!

Today, I washed the laundry by hand. There's only the two of us and we make sure we wear everything until it needs washing - i.e it smells or has ketchup down it!!! So because I am frugal, I had a bath as I do every Saturday instead of a 5 minute shower and then, when I got out, I threw in a cup of soap powder and all of our clothes - we always buy dark or coloured clothes - so in they went along with me, with nothing on, for a jump up and down on them! And no, there's no picture of that, no matter how funny! So my simple pleasure this week is seeing the rack of drying clothes, that have been out in the wind for some of the day and now are finishing by the radiator, which will go off at eight after coming on at 5.

My other simple pleasure is the daily task, not that it is any effort, of making bread. My dear friend Sally, also a frugal queen, gave me the bread maker after her divorce. Her husband bought it and never used it, so we had it as a gift when she saw me kneeding bread one day. I stick in the ingredients every day and make a loaf a bread a day for 17p and I'm always the envy of the staffroom with my homemade bread, with homemade pickle and homemade cake. "I don't know where you get the time" they say. But those few seconds a day give me massive pleasure. The simple pleasures of a naked workout in second hand bath water and the smell of baking bread in a second hand bread machine. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Frugal Saturday

We're getting ready to move so have been busy downsizing! The big 'family size' top loading American washing machine and dryer have been sold courtesy of ebay and the new small 'just the two of us' washing machine has been bought with the funds from the sale - cost £0! Good price as far as I'm concerned and I bought a washing machine made in the EU/Germany where workers are not exploited and it has a very long guarantee! It's also the first new 'thing' I've bought in over five years so buy well and buy once is my motto.

The one thing I am not going to downsize on though, even though there is only the 'two of us' is our 'holiday home' of our, also courtesy of ebay, Cabanon tent! I bought it, along with all the camping requirements for £80 and come hell or high water, even if it has to be a fixture in the hallway - is coming with us. The picture is of me, giving it an airing, although we didn't use it this year, we still decided to put it up on the drive to check its welfare.

Frugal cooking day - normally I cook for the whole week on a Saturday but there are so many bits and bobs and leftovers in the freezer that I've decided to have a week of if its. I save money by not using a full size cooker and just use my mini-over for our cooking and the main cooker barely gets used at all now.

New Year budgetting - well the spreadsheet's done, the dd's are set up and the train season tickets have been bought. We're getting ready for our house move and have had great fun photo graphing and putting things on ebay. It will be odd moving back into a tiny house but a new challenge in our lives that we're looking forward to. I'm also really looking forward to a new term at school and have missed the students and my colleague over the past two weeks. It's so quiet without them and the buzz is inspirational to say the least.

I'm also looking forward to the next round of tutoring and the hourly rate is brilliant! I should have done this years ago!