Cleaning with bicabonate of soda and other eco products

The kitchen.

In a spray bottle (from poundland) half fill with water then add about half a cup of vinegar - I use Lidl malt vinegar and then a squirt of washing up liquid - spray where you like and wipe off with an old pair of undies, half a t-shirt or old flannel

The cooker - wipe down the worst of the grease and old peas, when the cooker top is still damp - sprinkle sparingly with bicarb, use a scrubby sponge to get any burnt bits off - then use a warm damp sponge to finish off.

Work tops - just wipe down with a wet cloth and wring out in the washing up water before you make it too greasy.

The fridge - wash out once a week with warm water and again a sprinkle of bicarb,, rinse and wipe dry.

The floor - sweep whenever you can - use a bucket and old sponge or cloth and some warm water and dash of wash up liquid and dash of vinegar to soap, wipe over and dry down with a dirtyish towel that's about to go into the wash anyway.



The dining room and living room - sweep the floor and mop/wash the same as kitchen.
Furniture - damp dust and once in a while mix a tiny drop of olive oil and vinegar together and wipe down old wood furniture, buff with dry cloth to make it shiny - usually when your mum is coming or trying to sell the house! and don't worry my house doesn't smell of salad dressing or vinegar as these natural smells pass very quickly.

Windows - wash with soapy water with dash of vinegar and buff dry with newspaper.

Bathroom - scrub out with a brush and sprinkle bicarb around the loo - when you flush clean out the brush so you don't leave any 'residue' and clean the seat down with neat vinegar as it gets rid of any splashed wee that mights have got there - I stick this on a bit of loo paper and have a wipe round.

Sink and bath - splash around to make damp and sprinkle with bicarb and rub around with a scrubby sponge - rinse off with some water and dry with a towel about to go in the wash - clean the floor with warm soapy water and again dry with the towel you dried the bath and sink with.

So no expensive cleaners (although I do buy a bottle of ecover washing up liquid and it lasts a month and it cleans everything including the car!!) just water, a cloth, scrubby sponge, olive oil, half a lemon and a bit of elbow grease - no need to even use electricity and no internal pollution either. I like a clean house and give it a good going over once a fortnight and keep the kitchen and bathroom clean as we use them and I must have saved myself £10 a month in cleaning products that I no longer buy.

Frugal clean

Windows washed with warm water and tiny drop of washing up liquid and then buffed with newspaper. The workout also got that thick fleece off me by the time I had cleaned all the downstairs windows and now I can enjoy the view.
Kitchen sink and bathroom and loo cleaned with bicarbonate of soda, an old sponge and some warm water - this costs 39p and lasts for about a month of cleaning and really is the only cleaning substance that I buy.
The week's washing out to blow in the winter air and even though there is very little sun; it's nearly dry and will finish off in the lounge window. I used to have a cleaner at the cost of about £25 a week and used to have a tumble drier a few years ago and cost the planet and my pocket. I'm more aware of the need to exercise and as I'll never be seen in a gym; rigorous housework is a good substitute and I'm very warm after a couple of hours of it. Saving money and looking after the planet does take a few minutes more and a bit of organisation but I have money left at the end of the month and I use a lot less carbon than I used to........which has got to be a positive. House is nice and clean as well and without any chemicals.

The smell of the sea

Platters in Plymouth, which has its own takeaway next door and also owns Rocky's diner on the historic Barbican in Plymouth. It's a really romantic place for myself and dearly beloved and he used to take me there when we were 'going out'. We used to love to amble around the Hoe and the Barbican and take the kids for a walk to see the ships and buy them an ice cream or let them skate board of roller blade on the Hoe (ssshhhh....it is forbidden!) It really is an atmospheric place.

Myself and the two children, moved in with Mike nearly fourteen years ago and we had next to nothing between us. I was at college and he worked in a hi-fi shop and we barely put shoes on the kids! When we got a little more money together I can remember going to Platter's Restaurant and eating mussels and some times calamari and they sell the best fish, I've ever eaten in the country. Fish and chips there is £8.95 now. But if you are ever in Plymouth, then try it and know that fourteen years ago we fell in love with the tiny restaurant and we will get back there for some mussels one day in the future. Tonight I made fish and chips for under £2 for the pair of us. Haddock was reduced at the end of the day and battered by me, the spuds and peas were pennies and I can't do my top button up now!

I'll have 84 hours please!!!!!

Today I submitted my over time claim form as I've been banking it for 10 weeks as I had asked for it at the end of the financial year. I've banked 84 hours of 1-1 tutoring!!! No wonder I'm tired.

I could have taken the money each month but I might have spent some of it. I haven't spent or taken any. So at the end of March, after tax, I will bank the payment on one day and payout to HBOS the next day.

Next week I start the next cohort of tutoring and five more students will raise their grades and I will squirrel away money and not take it until June and then pay off another chunk of debts. I used to see debts as the amount I paid each month to 'service' them and now I see them as a mass of money, that I've spent, that actually belongs to someone else that I need to pay back. However, on the last day of March, I will owe a considerable amount less in debt. Sometimes the simple life seems a long way off and the road to freedom seems extremely long, up hill and stoney at times but I have the map and I know that I will get there. It's amazing that HBOS themselves are not really bothered about the people that lent them the money to stay afloat: they really are shameless. (p.s enjoy Show of Hands)

Wow! Do I really live here?

From door to view................15 minutes! This is Minions, get out of the car and walk towards the legendary 'hurlers'. I have to pinch myself sometime and the parking is free and the moors are an expanse of freedom that can't have a value put on it.....and I go there whenever I like just to give the dogs a run.

The hurlers by Seth Lakeman so you can learn the story! And if you look into the distance you can see the the cheesewring and there's Frugal Queen striding into the distance in her pink wellies!
I am so lucky to live here and there is so much to do and so many places to go that cost nothing at all, weekends are for getting in the car and within 30 minutes I can tread on some of the most beautiful places on earth. I am blessed and so much costs so little.

three falls, a submission and a knockout!

Well, I've done battle with myself and given myself a good talking to! I looked through some photos this morning and came across a photo of myself at the Eden project, which is just around the corner from where I work and 'locals' with the production of a utility bill or ID can pay once and come back when ever they like for a year, which we have done. Often, we just go there for a walk. I 'play' all the 'interactive' games (all made of wood and old tyres from what I have seen), check out how the plants are faring and love the sculpture. I have so much to be thankful for and only have to look around a house that: I can afford to heat, furnish and the garden around my house. I live simply and to put it simply life is good. Here's something else that reminds me too......enjoy listening to Martha Tilston xxx

Being frugal is rubbish today!!!!!

Today I am fed up of being skint, fed up of having to make do and fed up of being frugal. It's the end of the month and I'm trying to make everything last two weeks so tonight there are leeks and potatoes in a cheese sauce with a gammon steak each - 2 for £1 in Lidl, leeks 39p, potatoes about 5p and sauce about 20p total for both of each of us is 85p each. We need to fill up as we won't eat again until tomorrow and dearly beloved would eat deep fried earthworms if they came with gravy and I know he'll enjoy it. But - I just wanted anyone who's having to cut back, who has to make the ends stretch before they will meet, that none of us like the constant cut backs and some days it is rubbish!!!! Debt count down? 31 months to go before I am debt free and I'm nearly ending one of those months. Grrrr!

Deerpark Forest, Herodsfoot, South East Cornwall

Yesterday, as snow fell on many parts of the UK, we were bathed in sunshine and we took ourselves off to Deerpark Forest. We often pass the sign when we head for Looe and have wanted to go here for quite a while. We took dearly beloved's camera but I can't resize the pictures we took; to allow me to load them on here so you'll have to do with photos I've found on Google. As you can see, it's a short way from the A38 and only 15 minutes drive from my home in Liskeard.

......and it's well sign posted all the way.


The land is owned and well maintained by the Forestry Commision and a well laid out path meanders through the forest, crosses streams and rives and takes you into the bottom of a sharp sided valley. The walk was muddy in places and we really must get walking boots as our walking shoes are just not up to the job and we got merrily wet, but we didn't mind. It's a circular walk and we ended up back at the carpark to sit on one of the picnic tables and enjoy the coffee we brought with us in brilliant sunshine and got our breath back after the walk back out of the valley.

We must have spent a good couple of hours out in the sunshine and had such a lovely time. The village itself it delightful and as is usual for Cornwall, out of the reach of mortals as a 1 bedroom cottage without parking or garden is for sale at one hundred and thirty five thousand, so that'll be for someone who doesn't earn Cornish wages. Nonetheless, we can dream and good luck to those who live in such an idylic place and I look forward to the next time we walk there - cost of our day out? nothing more than the litre of fuel to get there, parking is free and the coffee came from home.

Frugal Gourmet - Salmon in garlic bread crumbs for £2.80 for two

Saturday nights for year was the night we went out, found somewhere classy to eat and worried about how we would pay for it later. We loved the restaurants on the Barbican and kept quite a few people in work for many years. Now I feel I can beat them at their own game and for pennies. First of all take some old bread out of the freezer, home made or shop bought it doesn't matter. Wizz for a few seconds in the food processor along with garlic powder, Italian mixed herbs, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Use defrosted Aldi wild salmon steaks, dipped in a beaten egg and then rolled liberally in the garlic and herbed bread crumbs.

Bake in the mini-oven as it takes very little energy and the salmon cooks in 20 minutes and the breadcrumbs are crispy as I drizzled some oil over the pan before putting them on it and over the fish too.
Serve with a huge pile of steamed veggies any will do - my broccoli was starting to go a bit yellow as it's been in the fridge all week, as have the carrots but they really were good to go.
We buy lemon juice in bottles from the 'Chinese' super market in Plymouth, where everything comes in litre size bottles and lasts for ages and so sprinkle with lemon juice and tuck in - gourmet dinner for two for £2.80. It was delicious and I would have been thrilled if I had been served that in a restaurant and from start to finish this took under 30 minutes.

Pizza express on offer for £1.35 for two people.

We used to get in from work on a Friday and peruse the list of takeaways by the phone. Sometimes we had a Chinese takeaway and used to walk to the end of the road, order our supper and go for a drink in the 'Millbridge' (legend of a pub in Plymouth - rough as rats but 'our local') and then come home with almost £20 of take away in plastic bags. Or, we used to get on the phone and wait for Dominoes to deliver our pizza, dips, coke etc and sit round with the kids and eat and would again cost us around £20. For £1.35 of ingredients we make our own pizza now.
3 cups of bread flour, 1 sachet of dried yeast, 1 cup of warm water, 1 teaspoon on salt, 4 pieces of sun dried tomatoes - finely chopped and put into bread machine to do the kneeding and rising and take out 15 minutes later when that is complete. (Still quicker than the take away ). whilst everything is kneeding away in the bread machine, I chop, grate and prepare and wash up so there is little left to do. we got a total bargain from Morrisons last night of Parma ham reduced from £5.50 to 99p! and we used half of it tonight on the pizza, along with two large mushrooms, half an onion, 100g of grated cheddar and two tomatoes.

After kneeding, roll out of floured board, use a few spoons of pasta sauce (we had some left from a previous meal in the fridge) and place in a hot oven for 20 minutes and serve. I will only use half the cheese next time as it was too thick and too cheesy but dearly beloved adores pizza and knows he will get some thing 'bad for him' every Friday night and we certainly save lots of money making our own 'take away'.

Sorted!

I've been saving money again today. I've discovered I wasn't on the cheapest electricity tariff so now I am. I am a very low gas user so couldn't gain from a cheaper tarrif as the standing charge was high so stayed where I am. I needed to renew the boiler insurance and used go compare to find the cheapest, then rang round and saved myself lots of money by doing so. Have worn a couple of extra jumpers today so haven't needed to put the heating on and ate the leftovers from last night's dinner so had no extra food costs.

In all, by being proactive this week I have saved money on water; now have a meter (saved £900 per year) electricity gone from standard tariff to sing online 17 and will pay half (saved £500 per year) of what I did per unit, renewed the boiler insurance and have paid half of what I did last time; Homeserve - half the price of British Gas (saved £90) Total saving which will go towards debt repayment £1490 per year. I'm kicking myself that I didn't do this sooner. If I had always lived a frugal life, then I would have a much higher standard of living now.

Making it look easy!

My mum has always been able to make something out of nothing, as has my dad. Mum and Dad have bought every item of furniture, every plate, every glass and saucepan and most of their clothing from car boots sales, auctions, the newspaper and jumble sales. Their lovely bungalow is a bit crowded for me but full of Mum's treasures. As you can see, she loves blue and white china and nothing on these shelves has cost more a than three pounds and I'm sure she's bagged a few bargains over the years. Lovely second hand arm chairs are draped with real wool throws and nothing has been bought new in a shop, even the Chinese rug on the floor came via a house clearance auction. I suppose I've learnt that it isn't money that make a home.
One of the things I love about spring are lambs and I stopped to watch these possessive ewes bossing these little guys around. I parked the car in a lay by and walked back just to stand and stare and laugh at them. It was chilly today so I was glad to get back to the car. I know people think that teachers have too many holidays but I was delighted to have time to just watch the world go by today.

Here's my finished 'refurb' and no, the flowers are not real. I have a whole load of artificial flowers and I take them out, move them around and re-arrange them periodically to make what I have look 'new' and now we have somewhere to put our shoes when we come in.
Dinner tonight was extremely fuss free and I finely chopped: half a savoy cabbage, 1 onion, three carrots, 6 mushrooms, 1 yellow pepper and 200g of chicken breast.
Threw it in a sizzling hot wok and added an 80p jar of sweet and sour sauce and had it with some instant microwave rice, which was much reduced on my last trip to Asda.
Dinner was served for pennies, within minutes and of course, the spare was tucked up in a container for lunch tomorrow. I've never bothered with ready meals but I see no problem with a helping hand, especially when it's cheap, quick and tasty.

Frugal domestic eco girl's at it again!

Until recently, four adults lived in my house, all washing clothes and having showers, flushing the toilets and consuming masses of water. Not now, now Mr Frugal and I are left to our own devices we have had a water meter fitted and it came today! We waste lots of water in this country and this will ensure that we don't and we'll save money. Any one, who has South West Water as a provider knows that we have the highest water bills in the country and this will ensure that our bill will be less than half of what it used to be.
I was pleased that they cleaned up all the mess and left the meter with a tidy cover that's easy to lift up and check on our own consumption (p.s I haven't flushed the loo yet today!!) ADDED AT 8PM - JUST HAD A SHOWER AND BECAUSE I'M CURIOUS - I MEASURED HOW MUCH WATER I USED AND IN MY FIVE MINUTE SHOWER - I USED 18 LITRES - COST? 0.86 FOR 1000 LITRES = 0.015 (SAME COST AGAIN FOR DISPOSAL) = 3P (BEFORE VAT) FOR A SHOWER! I LOVE SAVING MONEY! - STILL HAVEN'T FLUSHED THE LOO YET
This side table has been in our possession since we moved in together over 13 years ago and we've just made do with it. It was in our first 'home' along with other furniture and useful items such as a washing machine, which had been abandoned by the previous owners and their frivilous ways have meant we've had bits and bobs of their 'free' furniture which have been put to good use for years, but as you can see.....it's starting to look shabby.
However, when this is dry; it will be shabby chic! There's a lovely shop in Liskeard that sells all thing French: beds, quilts, kitchen units and I found a paint that is very popular with those painted pieces of furniture. My bedside cabinets, which I brought with me when I left mum's home in 1982 and I've put to good use ever since, are also painted in this colour and I'm using what's spare. I'll give it another coat tonight and by tomorrow morning I'll have a 'brand new' side table.
Speaking of drying. As we have no tumble drier, I've mastered turning washing around on a 24 hour cycle. It's not as convenient as a tumble drier but here's how I do it. Firstly, I watch the weather reports and wash when I'm going to have a dry few hours. I wash my heavy clothes first as they take longest to dry and whilst they are drying; I keep my lounge shut up so it gets as warm as possible from the sun hitting the patio doors. The lounge is stiflingly warm as the house is south facing and the lounge and dining room never need heat in the day time, even in the winter. Now the room is warm and will stay warm until later; I will be able to dry the washing without putting the heating on. So a truely frugal day where I've saved the planet, my money and resued a tatty piece of furniture that will live to see another day.

Frugal beauty.

Some of the 'beauty bargains' are gleaned for me by dearly beloved, who works opposite Poundland!!! I know, some people have all the luck! I often ask him to buy something for me/us as he works in the heart of Plymouth and can 'pick things up' in his lunch break. The St Ive's beauty products are great but much much too expensive for frugal me, unless you can get two packs for a pound in Poundland! To keep my skin from drying out, I don't use soap on my face, just a clean wet flannel and skin wipes to remove makeup and instead of any astringents.
So here is Frugal Queen, scrubbed, cleaned, showered and bare faced, not seen by many as I go to work and 'out' in make up - I have no need of make up as a mask, nor as you can see, have anything to hide, but I'm a pale faced English girl and I like to add a little colour to my skin.
I swear by this moisturiser and it's won loads of beauty awards as it does as well as products that are ten times the price. A pot lasts me for a couple of months and costs £1.99 from Aldi. It has a delicate fragrance that disappears moments after applying it. I don't buy eye creams or neck creams - I just use this all over and I don't expect it to get rid of wrinkles as only surgery or a time machine can do that and I really don' t mind looking 44 as I am 44!
I used to buy all my make up from Clinique and it was one of the first things that went when I embarked on my frugal journey. There are loads of top quality make up products that cost under £3 and I can recommend the budget range from Marks and Spencers but I feel the best quality you can buy is Lacura, which is again from Aldi. The 'touche eclat' click and cover for eye areas, dark circles etc is about £3 and the product when 'blind tested' by several beauty magazines was thought to be as good at Yves St Laurent's original which costs more than £20!!! To my shame, I have to admit that I used to buy Lancome's version of this for around £20 and I must say the Lacura product from Aldi is better!
I sometimes pick up complete bargains from TK Max and the 'competence anti-age' was £1.99 and is one of the best exfoliators I've ever bought again; I used to buy the full three step Clinique system and swore by their exfoliator and again, I must say that the TK Max bargain is much better. The end result? Soft skin with less wrinkles.

I'm off out to lunch today as dearly beloved has taken the day off to take me out to Table, Table...........it is a lovely place and two lunches cost £10, which is way over our usual budget for food but we are both going to be working for the rest of the week, dearly beloved as usual 'at the council' and me? Ever the frugal have lined up 10 hours of private tutoring this week, which means that debt counter can be reduced by another £300 this week! so I think we can manage lunch.

Stamping on debts one month at a time

Frugal elegance

For those of you who don't know, I'm an English teacher....so have to dress formally and smartly and the Head of English so have to meet parents at the drop of a hat and need to be 'presentable' at a moment's notice. In my current state of finances that means I have to be a bit creative. My 'new' suit cost me nothing and here's how it's done. Clear out under the stairs, photograph a load of stuff you no longer have use for. Place photos on ebay and create photographs. Sell things and use 'paypal' as another account which you use to buy clothing or things you can't go without. My new suit 'bnwt' which means brand new with tags, has never been worn and including postage cost £13.50.....which we had in our paypal account from selling things on ebay. Next time I have a conference or meeting with some government official; I'll pull this suit out of my repetoire of equally elegant suits from charity shops and ebay and dress to impress!! I'm off to change out of this now into my jeans and get the next load of washing onto the line and enjoy a potter in the garden whilst it's dry and sunny.

10' away from the Poet Laureate

I went to a poetry convention today. Sat in the front row and less than 10' from Carol Ann Duffy and loved her interpretation of Shakespeare's only bequeath after his death to his wife of his 'second best bed' . For years people thought that it was an indication that Shakespeare didn't love his wife and this was a snub, which it could have well been. Duffy saw it as a romantic gesture and that Ann Hathaway would have known the secrets of the marriage bed that no one else was party to, hence the gift of their bed. What ever the secret was between William and Ann - I love Carol's poem and today it felt as if she just read it to me.

Anne Hathaway
by Carol Ann Duffy from The World's Wife

'Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed ...'
(from Shakespeare's will)

The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.

Reflecting on the challenge.

I've earnt an extra £350 this month, after tax and that will clear my overdraft that I ran up paying for the boiler to be repaired. The lodger is fine and seems cosy wrapped up in a big jumper and when I asked him is he was warm enough, told me he hasn't used the heating at all since he moved from Yorkshire. My challenge tomorrow is a day at a poetry convention in Plymouth and I have to pay for the train, lunch and coffee! The train is in the opposite direction that I usually travel so I have to pay, lunch I can take so I need only buy coffee and I know of all the cheap places in Plymouth. My next challenge is a half term break without any money and keeping myself amused. I may buy a new sewing machine needle tomorrow and start my scrap store patch work project and get that done in the holiday. Although I am teaching my 'private' students over the week and will have some spare money to pay off extra debts. I am on the count down to being debt free by the London Olympics - by August; I won't owe the Halifax any money and by October I won't owe the Abbey any money and by the Olympics I won't owe LLoyds any money and then I can start to make a hole in my mortgage capital. At first it seems a mountain and now I see it as a simple task of a few steps a month. I'm not cold, I'm not hungry and I am resolutely determined to make it to my 50th birthday with no personal debt in the household at all. I've started to really look after things. I keep the car cleaner and worry about scratches as it's the last car I'm going to buy. the new washing machine is left with the door and soap dispenser door left open so it never goes mouldy and my 'new' coat is brushed down and hung up carefully as that too will have to last. I clean my shoes and keep them in good order and dry them carefully so they too will get good wear. I hang towels that I would have previously washed up to dry and use the same one all week and wear the same work trousers all week with just a clean shirt each day to make myself 'look' professional. It's almost a year since I cut up my credit card and this April I will celebrate a year of living within my means. Had I have always lived like this, then I'd be mortgage free with money in the bank!

Starbucks without the buck!

I've spent very little money in months. It's becoming almost a game and I'm determined to keep the wages in the bank and then at the end of the month use that to pay off any debts. It may not seem much but I never buy food 'out' and know every little bun, coffee and sandwich can add up to a whole lot of money a year. I see people on the train every morning who buy a coffee at the station and carry it to work where as I never do that, nor do I ever buy lunch but make it every day and take it to work along with my snack of toast that I eat on the train going in each morning and feel a real sense of luxury now I have my new flask to go with it. It's so posh and I'm really proud of it. I then made another flask full throughout the day, whilst others go to the frothy coffee machine or get a flapjack from the canteen. I on the other had spend nothing, pay off my debts and this month put money aside for compost and some second hand scaffold planks for my new raised beds.