ZERO!

Just checked my bank balance. My payment has been made to Halifax. I now owe Halifax NOTHING! That's my first debt gone! I have lots of others, but the feeling that one has gone is amazing! I then checked the standing order section of my online banking, cancelled the standing order and then doubled the payment to my other credit card! Enjoy the music xxxxx

Wild Food.

Although we may well get the 'June drop' - every where I look the fruit trees are laden. I've also mapped where I saw blossom earlier in the year too. I have walks...........don't mind if I don't disclose do you? and I know where the Damson trees are heavily laden with young fruit. My apple tree and Victoria plum tree are equally laden. I've noticed the Hazel trees are covered in tiny nuts. Raspberries seems to have gone wild here too and pop out of hedges where there are blackberries and Sloes. I love Sloe gin, raspberry jam, damson wine and damson jelly and keeping hazel nuts to sit and crack and nibble on right through the winter. This might be a bumper year.

Sunday Fish and chicken ding.

I love Bank Holiday weekends. It's half term for me so I get to plan and prepare for the next term and to save fuel, I will do this in the comfort of home. I will teach on Tuesday as a last revision session for my students and then go off to see my daughter in the afternoon. I'm really concious of the cost and impact of using my oven so we often have, soup ding, or chicken ding or even lasagne ding. I've cooked it before and I 'ready meal' it in the microwave.
I popped a tin (19p) of potatoes in on top of the chicken and added a large cup full of frozen mixed veg and cooked them on high for 14 minutes. I then take the meat and veg out and add some water to the cooking stock and bring to the boil and add gravy granule. Voila! Chicken Ding! Gordon Ramsay would not be impressed but all the food groups are covered for a few pennies.

In my attempts to stay away from the shops I ran out of dog food and cat litter! I made it to Morrisons within an hour of it closing. I now have no shame at all. I follow the price reducing people around to see what's cheap. I bagged a real bargain today. I bought £11.38 of fresh fish for £1.96. I have frozen it. We don't often have fish as it's so expensive and I'm really looking forward to the meals I can make from this.

Menu planning and bulk cooking.

I don't do what I do just to save money but also out of genuine concerns for the environment. The average family uses1.29 tonnes of CO2 on cooking alone. I try to use my big main oven as little as possible and bulk cook when I switch it on. I then re-heat with the microwave or in my mini oven.
My menu this week. Saturday - Bacon, cream cheese and mushroom cannelloni with salad. Sunday - Bacon wrapped chicken, boiled potatoes and veg. Mon - Cottage pie and veg. Tuesday toad in the hole, onion gravy and veg. Wednesday - Chicken casserole, cous cous and veg. Thursday - Sausages, onion gravy and veg. Friday Cottage pie and veg.
It also means that I don't need to shop this week, again saving tonnes of CO2 as I don't need to take the car out. I got to defrost the freezer today as I emptied it. It will be more economical and environmentally efficient when I use it now. I also save time in the week and a lot of electricity as this was all cooked at the same time in the same oven.
The cannelloni could have done with some more tomato sauce but I was trying to use up a half opened jar that the lodger had left. (I even watered it down to go further.)
So the bulk of the meals are prepared for the week and I've done my bit.

Spend day?

I keep reading about people who have 'No Spend days'. I have one spend day a month and then I have nothing left to spend. Today I bought two tops, for £2.50 each from BHF shop, six grow bags and two chilli plants. I almost bought a dress in one of the charity shops but they wanted £5 for it, which is really too much. My total spend came to £10.48 and I don't have any money to buy anything else for the month! Today I have emptied my freezer, everything is defrosting and I will create meals for 7 days. It's going to be a tough old month and I'm keeping some determination in reserve. I'm having to put a lot of money by this month because I have car tax, a water bill and new work clothes for the Autumn term to save for.

Cheaper than chips

Supper - Roasted: carrots9, onions-9p, parsnips-9p and butternut squash 25p - Total - 55p each - with sausages left over for a sandwich for breakfast. Now that's cheaper than Asda price!

I can see the light at the end of the very long tunnel!

It may well only be a glimmer and a faint spot in the distance but I can see it. This month's payment to one of my two credit cards is the last payment! I then snowball that debt else where. That now means I double the payment on my other credit card.

Since June of last year I have paid back £11,589 in debt repayments to Halifax, Abbey, Fiat finance, Lloyds personal loan and that does not include the £11,330 I paid towards my mortgage! After equating those scary figures, I worked out that the two of us: fed ourselves, clothed ourselves and ran the car on £130 a week, which is less than a retired couple who just live on a state pension! BUT WE DID IT AND CONTINUE TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

Since June last year I haven't run up any more debts and every credit card we own was shredded. We have no spare cash but the fact that one credit card will go makes this all worth while and my other credit card will have a zero balance in two months time. Dave Ramsay, the American financial expert says "When you start knocking off the easier debts, you will start to see results and you will start to win in debt reduction." It's very true. I feel so good that I think I will frame the next zero balance credit card statement and remember the enjoyment I get when I look at it.

As I said, it is a long tunnel but I can now see the light in the distance.

That's even less than Asda price!

We had to do some shopping this evening! I really want to cook something myself but after getting home at six I was just past it.

The shopping had to be done and we had to find the man with the price reducing machine and hound him mercilessly! We loitered and waited at every turn and there was a little Asda green man/woman decreasing the prices and we seemed the only people after the bargains. We've bought bread, some cooked products, some baked goods, meat, fruit and veg and all of our weekly shopping was drastically reduced.

It's a shame I then burnt the pie (originally £2.87 and reduced to 70p) when I heated it!!! We'll eat it anyway.

Tex mex cheesy chops!

We didn't have Sunday lunch due to the hot weather so they chops had to be eaten today. I coated them with herby low fat soft cheese and sprinkled them with Tex Mex spices. They went into the mini oven for 30 minutes and we ate them with salad. The chops were 90p for two and my one chop obviously cost 45p. Supper cost £1.80 so 90p each!

Upside down tomatoes

The heat hit the mid twenties by mid morning in our garden. It's extremely hot inland and I would have been glad of a day on the beach. We had an hour in Looe today (sorry forgot camera) as I needed some short and cooler clothes and there are a couple of good charity shops there. I bought some shorts, a smart t-shirt and a skirt for work. We did have a look at the beach but is was knee deep in families with happy children and I like beaches to be quiet. I'm glad I left the curtains shut as the house is much cooler for just keeping the sunlight out. I noticed, when we rented somewhere in France a few years ago that they have thermal curtains that keep the heat out as all the curtains were closed when we arrived with the windows open for a breeze. I can't imagine the cost of A/C.
I've planted the tomatoes............upside down in hanging baskets. I had toyed with the idea of buying the correct device to do this, but with the help of You Tube found a video of a homemade device. I used a bin liner, cut holes in it, filled with compost and the plants, sealed the top and inserted the top of a drinks bottle so I could water it.
The strawberries are hanging too. These plants love the direct heat and sunshine so long as they are fed and watered every day. The potatoes kept drying out too quickly so I have moved them to the side of the house, where they don't get sun all day. I've also 'clumped' them together so they don't get direct sun to the bags they are in.

The Frugals in Fowey

Ilona loved Fowey. It is an incredible place. At one moment you could be in the South of France, and next a view reminds you of the Italian lakes. You always return to pure Cornwall. It's a crazy place full of people who breeze in and out momentarily buy an Italianatte villa, live in it for a few days a year and breeze out again. Most of the visitors arrive by water in one way or another. Below is the view from Readymoney Cove with the view of the headland of Polruan.
It's an amazing natural deep water harbour where cruise ship can be seen alongside working clay ships who still occasionally berth at Fowey docks. The views are incredible.
Here's Dearly Beloved at the base of the tiny castle (or fort?) built in the time of Henry VIII and the gun emplacements below are from the later Napoleonic wars. We climbed the stairs and had a look inside. It's about the size of one room, enough for a few guards to shelter from the weather and keep munitions ready for cannons below?
Here's me gazing up the river.
Down on the town quay, looking up river to Bodinnick.
Half way up the hill when leaving with the view of Place House the St Fimbarrus' church tower, the roof tops, the river glimpses and my obligatory finger in the way as usual!
Finally back in Liskeard with a parting photo of the Frugal royalty of Frugal Queen and Mean Queen and 'the boys' who took a shine to Ilona and her likewise.

Meanqueen meets frugal queen!

Ilona arrived last night as part of her touring holiday of the West Country. It's always a pleasure to meet a like minded person who has similar views of living simply and having less impact on the planet. We're off to Fowey today (where I come from) and I'll show her the castle, some walks the old buildings and then we'll have a picnic lunch. I'm on school holidays soon and wonder if there are any other takers for visits to Cornwall............I'm taking 'bookings' ! Come back later for the Fowey 'day out photos'

How deep is your bath?

Saturday is bath day in my house! I've rearranged this auspicious event as Meanqueen, alias Ilona, is coming to visit and we're off to the land of my father........FOWEY!! for the day so I'll get ahead of schedule and perform the weekly ablutions today.

I used to bath once a day in my wasteful past but I got over that and now wash in the sink, have a mid-week shower and a bath on Saturday. Not that we waste the water. Firstly, I have a bath and wash my hair.........which is a Herculean effort with my long hair, I get out and Dearly beloved has a bath, he gets out and then the dogs go in. They are white so they need a bath a week to stop them changing colour! But we don't stop there! We then use the water for the next 24 hours or so to flush the loo.

As the loo uses six litres of pure drinkable water for every flush; I make the most of every opportunity to use 'grey' water. It's an incredible waste. But.....my weekly bath may be an ecologically disastrous luxury but we don't let the water go to waste.

Making a planetary difference!

I do what I do to save money and to do my bit for the planet. I now save all my jam jars, pasta sauce jars, mushroom pots, tin foil dishes and reuse them on a regular basis. When there is an Autumn glut, then I make apple sauce and chutney and use it through out the year. I use the mushroom pots as seed trays and of course the tin foil dishes are used over and over for freezing food.

I also do what I can to reduce my energy consumption. Everything is switched off, turned down or just not used. In the last year we have used £864 less gas and electricity than we used in the previous year. Selling the big American washer and dryer saves gallons of water and hundreds of units of electricity. Every bill I get is considerably less than last time. It all might be slight but I know it makes a difference.

Looking for new horizons

I'm going to be candid as you never know who reads this. On my route to a simpler life; there comes a time (2012 to be precise) when I will move to a smaller house. I also want to simplify and de-stress my life work wise. I'm always on the look out for alternatives and today....I applied for a different kind of job. Today is a 'blue sky thinking day' where I imagine living in a two up, two down tiny cottage, with a wood burner, hardly any bills, a little garden full of veg and trips away camping instead of just struggling to keep a roof over my head. So...sshh! and this message will disappear in a day or so.........

100 thanks to 100 people

Thanks so much to all the followers who read my blog. This has given me a wonderful opportunity to connect with such lovely people. Sometimes, enforced frugality has left me feeling isolated and I know I am not alone. Thank you all. Jane xxxxxxxxx

Menu planning - packed lunches for five days.

We get bored of sandwiches everyday so I try to vary our lunches once in a while

We had homemade pizza for lunch today and we'll have a slice each for lunch tomorrow. We'll both take half a banana for our lunch each day and we both re-use water bottles to take squash with us, along with coffee and dried milk that we both keep in our desk drawers. We never buy lunch or coffee when we are at work. I once worked out that if I bought a coffee a day and a lunch a day - £5 and I work for 40 weeks of the year that I could spend £1000 a day just on lunch.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will have a piece of cheese, onion and tomato quiche each.

On Thursday and Friday we shall have pasty pie each............thr frugal version, made with corned beef and not diced steak. My pastry would not hold up to pasties today so hence the pie instead. The lunches have worked out at 65p a portion incuding the banana, we always have toast for breakfast with jam (tea, spread jam, teas and coffees - 35p a day) so our food has cost us £2 per person per day.

One day up, one day down.

Every day has it something new, some more shiny than others. It's a grey day at Frugal towers today. I want to go out, go somewhere and I can't afford the diesel, bus or train fare so I'm feeling the cabin fever today and feel stagnant. Being frugal by choice means having a few quid somewhere to go for a drive and get out if you want to, even if it's with a flask and packed lunch. If I go anywhere by car today, there won't be any diesel in the tank if I need to go somewhere if called, such as to parents or children. There must be millions of people around the world who never have the choice.........water and firewood has to be fetched and food has to be found for hungry mouths. As ever, I will come up the other side of the roller coaster ride and remember that life goes up and down.........just today, we're down.

Sunshine Tour of Liskeard

I really love living in Liskeard and it contributes to my sense of well being and makes me so happy just to be there. Here's our dog walking tour today. We exited out cul de sac and walked out onto the estate where we live.

Past our neighbour's garden which is full of azaleas.

Down the lane at the back of our estate and into Liskeard itself. We live right in the centre of the town.

Onto and through the 'Parade'.

We always stop and admire the local version of 'Arkwrights' - if he doesn't sell it then it hasn't been invented. He seems to be very busy selling pots, bean poles and netting today.
We stopped and had a nose in 'Stuart House' which has a garden through the secret door at the back. The building dates from the 1600s and belongs to the community and was being used by a local church today to raise money by selling tea, coffee and cakes. We had the dogs, so we couldn't go in.
We walked through Pike street.
We passed 'Pipe Well'.
Past the industrial estate.
Up and along station road.
Through the grounds of the registry office. A lovely bride and her party went in just as we passed, she was wearing the most beautiful green dress and looked wonderful.
Into the public gardens attached to the council offices.
Below is the view from the offices.
Here is the view towards the offices.
Back through the passage way under the offices and then back onto the road that leads to our estate.
We went back out after we had walked the dogs and spent a huge amount (£6) in the local charity shops and at a jumble sale. More storage for food for the freezer, some un opened toiletries, some unopened notelets, a table cloth, six CDs and a book. All for good cause, all useful. that concludes our tour of Liskeard, we hope you enjoyed the trip.