When life give you lemons....

I've had lovely comments on my blog recently, with praise about my organisation. Necessity is the mother of invention!  I have obstacles to overcome so I've found ways of getting round them. Diesel costs are escalating with diesel costing £1.25 a litre in and around where I can get it, so I use the train for £96 a month, which saves me £15 a week (diesel would cost £40 a week) and therefore £600 a year. That's one problem solved!

Food prices are sky high! Today I made 400g of beef mince into three cottage pies, one was shared between four of us and two have gone into the freezer for another day. Tomorrow, I will cook the chicken I have and that will make three meals for the pair of us, so that's our food sorted for the week. I've sorted enough food for our lunches and snacks for the rest of the week. That's another problem solved.

I've bought new clothes and I need to earn some extra money to compensate for what I've spent. I've photographed all of my old clothes ready to list them on eBay which seems like a lot of work for little return but every penny counts, even if I make £30, it's all positive in our direction. £30 is a week's commuting costs for me or a week's groceries so a little work is always worth it.That's another problem on the way to being solved.

The things I do to save money all seem so natural to me. When commuting, I take my flask on the train so I can have a coffee on the way home. I take a couple of biscuits to eat as a snack. I don't carry money so I'm never seduced by the coffee trolley. I cook once or twice a week and plan all of my meals. I plan what I will wear so I have outfits ready and they are varied so I always look professional and I never look frugal. Can you see a problem? I can't; only solutions.

It does take a little effort but it is my normality. I leave home every day at 6.30 am to walk to the station and by the time we walk home from the train every night, it's 6.30 pm................but we have jobs!!!!! I make, mend, scrimp and save because I have to, but I will see the rewards one day. Again, I don't see problems; just ways of dealing with what I have.

I never forget how lucky I am. I have some disposable income due to having a lodger and I can afford to make little gifts to give people for Christmas. The house is warm enough, we earn enough, we eat enough and all the bills are paid on time every month. I have lived frugally for quite a while now and I've never been happier because treats are so special when I get them. I have brand new, one owner only clothes in my wardrobe (primark and matalan) and I have a new coat from Trago Mills (waterproof walking coat for under £15) and I feel, excuse the pun, like a queen.

I don't feel 'organised' and my life is what it is. Anyone can do what I do; anyone can give up spending money and live within their means. I'm different from some people and I'm proud of that; I've been called subversive and a maverick and I'm proud of that too. I have a glorious end to my debts in sight and I will get there, in the mean time, I will just continue dealing with what I have, by making lemonade.

Making a frugal wardrobe work

 Today, I put all my summer clothes away. I have put them all in a big drawer in the bottom of the wardrobe and I judiciously went through my wardrobe and recycled, put aside to eBay and bagged up clothes for the charity shop. It may look as if I have hardly any clothes as the clothes in the picture below are actually my entire working wardrobe.

 I have two suits. One new and one from the charity shop. They are tonal and I brighten them up with a coloured tops or a black/white top along with a coloured scarf. Look out for the street vendors who sell 'pashminas' (not real one I hasten to add! the acrylic but nice and soft ones) - I bought four last year for £10 and will be wardrobe staples for years to come. I've been asked how to wear one - I wrap it round my neck and tie a knot!

 All my work skirts are of a similar style and are tonal and will go with any of my suit jackets, any of my coloured tops or any of my cardigans. I can vary what I wear to have a different outfit every day for almost a month.

 It may look as if we are getting rid of more than we are keeping but I think it's really important to look at your clothes and recycle them if they don't fit, you don't like them or you've worn them to death. I have six suits and jackets that are going to be sold on eBay because I've put on all the weight I lost. I may have liked being a size 12, but I didn't enjoy the discipline or the starvation required to stay that weight when my body wants to eat and be a size 16.

I have a chest of drawers for my weekend wardrobe which contains: three pairs of jeans, 1 pair of jogging bottoms, 2 cardigans, 1 fleece, 1 polo neck, 1 crew neck, several coloured t shirts, all of my socks and underwear. It may seem like a very small collection of clothes, but they all fit, I like them all and they are all a size 16.

A frugal wardrobe has very little in it; it will all fit you; you will like everything in it and you will wear it all on a regular basis. Go on, have a good sort out, check what goes with what and recycle what you don't want, need or doesn't fit.

I saved a fortune today

 We went to see DB's mum in Bristol today. Everyone else had the same idea. A38 was nose to bumper, so the was the M5, M4 and M32! We had to stop at those dreadful service stations, you know, the places that want £3.50 for an expresso. Today, I saved a fortune!

 We make left at a reasonable time and made sure we had a good breakfast. We took a snack to eat on the way, a flask of coffee and a packed lunch of a homemade pasty.

We did stop at the services to use the loos. I am amazed at the stupidity of people who use them!Whole families buying burgers, sweets, drinks and being totally ripped off. I cheer when I see the 'tupperware' families eating their packed lunches and pouring drinks from their flasks! Good on them!

Let's work out what we saved! We didn't buy a Burger King lunch each. Saving! £10. We didn't have a cost a lot of money coffee each for £3.50, there and back. Total saving? £24!?

It is so easy to let money drip out of our fingers. Take sandwiches, a pack of cheapy biscuits, a flask of tea a bottle of diluted squash for the kids, a bag of supermarket own brand mixed sweets for the kids and you will save your selves so much money.

We had lunch of the homemade pasties with mum in law in Bristol and I knitted there and back whilst chatting to Dearly Beloved. I got to spend all day as close to him as possible and he has a new scarf and I have also knitted half a blanket. A lovely day out, we'd saved money for the diesel there and back and of course, it's always lovely to see mum. 

9p? Yes it's 9p! Shopping for bargains.

 I'm totally exhausted today! Mum came and we went to Tavistock for the day.  I took her home and after returning, I went to Morrisons. I think everything was 9p! The salad was 9p. So Dearly Beloved and #1 son had salad and they had a pizza each for 80p! I had stir fry veggies, also 9p, which came with a coconut and lime sauce and a small pack of prawns which were 29p! Supper was £2.10 for the three of us.

 We don't often have 'shop' food. Today has taken its toll on me and all I could manage was a reheat!

Buy Nothing Day Saturday 27th November

Ask yourself these simple questions:

Do I need it?
How many do I already have?
How much will I use it?
How long will it last?
Could I borrow it from a friend or family member?
Am I able to clean and/or maintain it myself?
Will I be able to repair it?
Am I willing to?
Have I researched it to get the best quality for the best price?
How will I dispose of it when I'm done using it?
Are the resources that went into it renewable or nonrenewable?
Is it made from recycled materials, and is it recyclable?

Enjoy No Spend day! Spread the word! Here's the link to the website 

It's a month away but I'm promoting it every day on my Facebook page as my friends and family need something to think about. A lot of them will get back of their 'cheap' holiday this half term. I would like some people I know to have one Saturday off 'going to town'. Stay out of the Mall at Cribbs Causeway.....you know who you are!

Stay at home, bake cakes, visit friends in the homes, make something.......just have one day when you don't go near a shop, coffee house or 'bought entertainment'.

How are you going to spread the word about Buy Nothing Day?

Better late than never.

 I never have any time for hobbies in term time and I'm catching up on lost time. I'm breaking all of the quilting rules that tell you to start sewing in the middle and work out. I'm starting on the right and working across. It's my first quilt and if it's rubbish, it can go in the spare room! I've already managed to sew a pleat into the back and I'll have to unpick and repin and have a go again tomorrow. It doesn't matter though as the next one will be so much better.

It's hard work just holding onto the quilt. I have to roll it into a tube to fit it through the machine. I feel like I'm wrestling with a snake.....like these guys!

The greenest Granny!

Today's blog is for Doris Stogdale! Here she is with her 58 year old fridge. I think all 'white goods' should be built to last a lifetime; instead of the flimsy one or two years that things last for now! We bought our fridge freezer in 2005 and it's on its last legs. The seals need replacing (not even sure if you can replace fridge freezer door seals) and it certainly won't last ten years. Doris has has the chance to replace her fridge in the past, but as it still worked, she didn't see the need to. I think Doris is a very green granny!

I'm going to have Doris as one of my role models. I no longer want to replace anything with something new, but with something serviceable and functioning. If I can give it a new home, whether that's a piece of furniture or an item of clothing, I will do that instead of buying new. None of us need a 'new sofa by Christmas' or to decorate our home, or replace curtains unless, what ever you are replacing is beyond repair or just totally defunct.

I know there will be people stating in comments that her fridge can not be triple A rated and must use more electricity, however, as most fridges last at most, for five years, by keeping this one; Doris has saved the carbon foot print created by 11 or 12 other fridges if she had renewed and 'upgraded'.If any of you have seen the 'Wee man' at the Eden Project and the skips full of waste electrical goods at the tip, you will know we throw a great deal of electrical goods away, simply to 'upgrade'. Let's all raise our afternoon tea cups to Doris Stogdale and her thrifty, non wasting ways and long may her fridge chill her cheese!

No money means saying "No" to friends and family.

Pay day on Friday, £5.37 in my bank account and £3.78 in my purse and a three quarter of a tank of diesel to take us to mum in law's (Bristol) and back on Friday. It's like this every month. I have just enough. There is plenty of food in the house and everything is paid by direct debit. The lodger pays me on Friday and that will cover my water bill. I reassure myself that it's all OK.

Yesterday with mum has left me feeling 'out of sorts'. I don't usually go in 'normal' shops and therefore don't have many reminders of how some people live. As you all know, I deal with the mess I've made for myself in a positive way and walk on the sunny side of the street. Today though, is not so good.

 What I saw yesterday, in Fowey, were people escaping from their reality. They were away from home, on a break and I know that's what we all need once in a while. My own mum, who doesn't have a car, dropped lots of hints yesterday that it would be nice to go out for the day; to somewhere like Tavistock and go round the shops and go for lunch. I don't have the heart to tell her "Mum, I could afford the diesel to come and see you today and I can afford the Diesel to go and see DB's mum on Friday, but that's it." Our (with Dearly Beloved) days out are lovely. We go somewhere, find somewhere free to park, go for a walk and usually sit in the car with a flask and a bit of homemade cake, we chat and enjoy each other's company. We've no money, but for that moment, in our moneyless world, it doesn't matter.

I look positively at having what is truly necessary and no more. I have food, clothing, enough heat not to be chilly, the library, nice places to walk, a decent home. I also think that a social life, hobbies and life enhancing experiences are also truly necessary; they all make us who we are. Today, I feel like the last miser in the village who can't afford to take my mum out for the day and although I don't feel 'down' about it, it doesn't make me feel good either.

Fowey and the FREE fixed Dyson

I've had a funny old day today. I went to work to run a two hour revision session for the students and then went off to Fowey to see mum. Mum has good days and bad days and oh boy, was today a bad day. It all stems from, I believe to be this. My mum used to make everything when we were small, she had no money and everything was made. Mum associates knitting, cooking, growing veg and any thing frugal with the 'hell' that she describes bringing up three kids without any money. I have no recollection of anything being wrong and what we had or didn't have was normal to us. Mum associates spending money and going shopping with being better off and therefore happy. Who am I to disagree with my mother, so I just shut up.

I took mum for a walk around Fowey and to be honest I would rather walk around a that Chilean mine than Fowey on a school holiday. It's wall to wall muppets to be honest, who try to drive huge cars around a historic fishing port trying to find somewhere to park the Range Rover and no one can control their Boden clad children as they've come on down the holiday cottage without nanny! Give me flippin' strength! Any way, I needed to get mum out so I walked her round Fowey. I wanted to go to the beach and paddle but guess what? Yep, she wanted to go to the shops. It's the kind of place that sells Dolce and Gabbana shower gel! I am not joking! Any way, I played along and went from one shop to another (Fat Face, Sea Salt and other high price emporiums) with mum stroking cardi's with remarks of 'why don't you get one?'. I didn't give any reply as she just doesn't get it. I didn't tell her that I can't shop in Fowey as there are no charity shops!!!

The good news of the day is that I've repaired the upright Dyson!  I danced around upstairs with it! It is fantastic and it cost me nothing!!! Cleaning is so much easier with a cleaner that works!!

I'm not alone, there are plenty of people like me.

I have been looking, as I often do, at Frugal Websites. I do this when I feel as if I'm doing what I do when no one elses bothers. I feel a bit isolated at the moment because, in a management meeting at school, they were discussing rewards for students and mentioned a chain of restaurants,where the reward was a family voucher, so the winning student could take their family for supper. I had never heard of it. It was then I realised how far out of the social loop I am, as I haven't eaten out since 2008, when I went cold turkey and stopped spending money.

Every now and then, I miss money. Once, if I needed clothes, I went to a shop and bought them. Now, I have to scour eBay and charity shops and keep a constant eye open. I can't buy what I need when I need it, but have to pre-empt that if I see something in my size. If I see a pair of long legged size 16 jeans, I buy them! If I see something smart for work. I buy it. If something comes up on Freecycle that I could need, then I ask for it and sometimes get it. I now have a £20 a month budget for shoes and all clothing...........and I stick to it.

Today, I was reading various posts and articles on the Economides family website, that you can visit by clicking here . I do a lot of the things they do:

I stock take at home every week - I don't buy what I already have
.
I  stock up if something is stupidly cheap and it will keep. Loo rolls, soap powder, shampoo or pet food.

I only buy what's on the list and I only shop with a debit card.

I menu plan and shop for the menu, including packed lunches, snacks and drinks

I take a flask with me when we go out - there is no way  I will pay for a coffee/.

I never carry cash and I leave my debit card at home - I can not impulse buy.

If I go charity shopping, I allow myself £10 and I allow myself to do this once a fortnight.

I bulk cook and freeze meals.

I ration diesel and use of my car to make what fuel I have last a week.

I use freecycle to give things away and sometimes to get things.

I ask the school canteen if I can recycle their plastic containers for plant pots or to use in the home (cat litter, dog biscuits, a bin in each room).

Their website was brilliant and I enjoyed reading it. I am not alone, and I wish I had always lived this way. I soon found out who my friends were when I couldn't any longer take part in activities that cost money as I now don't have any. The real friends are just that and have stuck with me.

Tasty tea time treats and the joy of Freecycle

 We have family staying this weekend and they all seem hungry all of the time. I don't mind as I love to feed them. I made ginger nut biscuits; they are crispy and yet chewy and they burst with ginger. You know me well enough to know that they cost pennies.

Here's the ginger nut recipe.

10oz self raising flour
7 oz sugar, I used soft brown but any will do.
1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda
2 tea spoons of ground ginger
6 oz margarine
1 tablespoon of golden syrup

Set the oven to 180 degrees centigrade - place baking paper or grease proof paper on two baking trays.

Met butter, golden syrup and sugar in a pan, do not allow to boil

Add all of the dry ingredients so it combines into a very thick paste.

Use a spoon to scoop a pebble size amount of mixture and roll into a ball on your hands, it will feel very oily, it supposed to.

Arrange the small balls onto the two trays, press down slightly.

Place in the hot oven for approx 16 - 18 minutes

Lift the paper off the tray with the biscuits attached and leave to cool on the work surface, still attached to the baking paper.

When cool they will be crispy and hard, eat as soon as possible, best served with a cup of tea.

 I also made a Victoria sponge sandwich, filled with my homemade blackberry jelly. Plenty to keep people going over the next few hours, minutes, seconds until they are all gone. Dearly Beloved sees my baking as an affirmation of how much I love him and takes it very personally if anything shop made comes into the house. Not that I would, the prices of shop bought cake never reflect the quality, meaning they cost a lot but don't deliver.

 We've been really lucky this week with freecycle. I've got rid of an old filing cabinet and a hover mower, to people who are glad of them. In return, I snaffled a Dyson, it's partly working and I think there's a blockage some where that Dearly Beloved is convinced he can fix. I now have two partly working Dysons and any minute now (please DB?) they will turn into working Dyson.

 We also now have a beech coffee table. I'm looking forward to people coming round for tea or coffee as I have somewhere to put plates of biscuits and tea pots and other such paraphernalia. It never ceases to amaze me that people just throw such things away, but at least they make sure they go to a new home and get used.

Remember the dead dyson?

Today, we collected the Dyson, with the non- working motor, but perfect in every way else. Tomorrow, Dearly Beloved will take the guts out of our old one and transplant it into our 'new one'. As part of the deal, for £5!!!! We got a Dyson and this little vacuum. It didn't work so good as it was clogged up with dust and fluff. Vacuums need maintenance and, if you look after yours, clean its filters, keep it emptied and clean, it can last you for year. I now have a spare vacuum for my son and his girl friend when the move into their new home. A quick clean out, a wipe round of all the seals and this little vacuum is as good as new! Two vacuums, for £5! I can't believe I ever, ever used to buy new and pay retail! 'Used' is the way to go.

Frugal Christmas cakes

In the shops and online at approx £20!!!! See here for one I found and mine has a much higher proportion of fruit, butter, brandy that the one they have produced and I made mine for £4.07each and by the time I have marzipaned, iced and decorated, and placed in a box, it will still be under £5 each. I have family members wating for their's every year and by the time they get it, it will be oozing with French Brandy and nothing like the dry affair you can buy in shops or online. Here the ingedients (all Tesco prices)

600g of naturally coloured glaces cherries -£3.00
500g of salted butter - £1.96
5 packs of Value mixed dried fruit - 5 X 65p - £3.20
500g of soft dark sugar - 99p
12 Value free range eggs (all small when I opened them so I used them all) £1.50
4 Value lemons, zested and the juice 89p
3 Value oranges - zested and the fruit - 49p
250 ml (third of bottle) of cheapest brandy £3.72
100g of mixed spice - 55p
Total - £14.80 and I made 4 cakes for £4.07each.

(I make the Royal icing and buy the marzipan later)

 Here's what the ingredients look like. Some recipes will ask for raisins, sultanas, mixed peel and I just use the value packs of mixed fruit and I use a lot more than most recipes would put in.

 I also use a lot more glace cherries. I want my cake to be unctuous, buttery, and flavour filled.

 Notice how the cherries are really dark and have no colouring. I prefer my food that way.

You add the mixed fruit, the pack of sliced almonds and the zest of the citrus fruit to a bowl, add the fruit juice from the squeezed fruit.

 You then leave the whole thing overnight to absorb the fruit juice and brandy

 You will need to line the cake tins. I place the circular tins in the middle, cut the surrounding paper into a rough circle and them slice around it so it will fit into the cake tin.

 I then take all the other ingredients and mix them together in a big clean bowl or bucket if you don't have a bowl.

 It is laden with fruit and nuts, brandy and butter and dark sugar. No expense spared as these are for gifts.

 Here is what they all looked like once the ingredients were poured into the lined tins. The little one will be cut into three cubes and decorated as three mini Christmas cakes for the little hampers that I make.

They all go into a warm oven, 150 degrees if you have a fan oven like I do. They take about four to five hours to cook, but I cook by eye and touch, when they are done - take them out.

Coping with Christmas.

 This blog is for 'P'. I have to admit, Christmas can be a dark time for me. As a child, in a house where we had so little, we were often 'wound up' by Christmas with expectations. I would always want the latest 'Cindy' doll and would get the fixed limb, in a cellophane bag alternative from Par market and I knew, that by the 3rd of January, every consumer fixated child in my class would be waving their genuine article under my nose, just to remind me of what I didn't have.

I'll admit, I was a miserable child, who was socially isolated and felt sorry for myself most of the time. I left home at sixteen and spent years balancing a chip on my shoulder that my feeling were my parents' fault. They weren't at all; I was just a mopey child. I grew out of it. I managed to get over the 'I hate Christmas' thing for the sake of my children. I didn't have any money and compensated for that with credit cards and paid for it eventually. I know that isn't right but I didn't want my children to feel the way I did.

You see, the biggest problem about Christmas is caused by the social expectations of the whole thing. As soon as I freed myself from the expectations, I felt a whole lot better. As my children got older, they could see we didn't have much money ourselves and yet they could see that we had so much more than other people. (I made sure I brought my children up in a busy urban area and they were never socially isolated)

I know I don't have fun at Christmas and to be honest, the word 'fun' sends me running to the hills. I don't know anyone to get invited to parties and I don't know anyone to invite the round. There are things I do though, which make me so happy. I make mince pies and then take a plate to Gerald (in his late 80's) next door and we sit and have a glass of sherry with him. We also go and see him on Christmas morning before his relatives come and pick him up for the day (he has a huge and loving Cornish family).

I have created minor Christmas traditions of my own and they make me happy. I make presents, partly because I like making things and partly as I refuse to get on the commercial band wagon. The only cards I will send, have to have an image Jesus on them. I don't over do it. I treat myself to a free range organic chicken from the butcher and go to the trouble of ordering it and collecting it on Christmas eve.

 I play Christmas music and will have Corelli, Berlioz, Bach and of course, Handel playing. In fact, I collect Christmas music and look out for CDs from jumble and car boot sales. I make mulled wine and love the smell of it. I light cinnamon scented candles.

I also enjoy winter far more than I did. I make sure I get out for a walk whenever it is dry enough to do so. Bodmin moor is on my doorstep and I love crunching through the frost in my wellies and seeing my breathe steam in front of me. I enjoy shutting the curtains and the battle to keep warm, I see it as a challenge I can cope with and win. I'm not old yet so I can get through this, but at Christmas, I turn the central heating up to tropical temperatures and it makes the house 'different' at Christmas.

I don't enjoy the mad dash to relatives and try and deliver gifts on boxing day or afterwards. It all calms down between Christmas and New Year and that's when I like to go visiting. I also accept that people are doing things at Christmas and often just want to stay home and not come to lunch if I invite them. Sometimes we go to relatives and sometimes they come to us, sometimes we see our grown children and sometimes we don't Sometimes we have Christmas to ourselves and indulge in long lies in, late lunch and going somewhere for a walk and having the place to ourselves.

I make my dogs Christmas dinner too, it's just another of my traditions that I've created for myself. Dearly Beloved and I always make each other something and we always make each other a card. It's what we do.

I don't spend any extra money at Christmas, I eek a bit out a week between September and December to buy a few cards, a bit of wrapping paper, put money buy to give my grown up kids money and to buy them something they've asked for. I look out for bargains for people who I know wouldn't like a homemade gift and have already bought a few.

When Christmas day actually comes, it's more like a normal Sunday for us. It's about being home. It's about cooking with the radio on, it's about having a something nice to eat with pudding too and a sit down with a glass of wine. I remember that Jesus was born, sometime around then, maybe in the new year but don't get too worried about the date. I remember that we have a culture created around us being a Christian nation and that there is nothing in particular that Jesus would want me to do in the middle of December. In fact, if he came round my house, he would like the homemade gifts, the way I celebrate the event in my own way and that I don't 'do' commercial. He would eat with us, put his feet up and watch the 'Guns of Navarone' and nod off in the warm, just like we do.

Jingle all the way!

 This week is operation "Get everything made, wrapped and ready for Christmas week. All over the country, teachers will make puddings, cakes, mincemeat and buy the presents, as it'll be the only chance before it gets busy.

I have a mountain on things to do:

Make clove studded oranges to give to people as 'smellies' for their houses. People love them and I usually give them to colleagues as a thank you. (BTW - Tesco sell 6 Value oranges for £1 and they are just the right size)

Make eight mini Christmas cakes, eight wee Christmas puddings.

Wrap the soap in grease proof paper and decorate with ribbons.

Find boxes to cover with Christmas paper and decorate - people get them open with smellies (the decorated orange) preserves, sloe gin and a Christmas cake and pudding. I warn people in advance not to buy one (I don't make them for people who make their own, but people who would really enjoy something homemade as a gift) and the homemade soap, which is a new addition for this year.

I'm going to have great fun this weekend as the soap can be wrapped and the boxes decorated. I will also have the most wonderful smells in my house as puddings steam and cakes bake. Christmas is understated in our house, homemade and costs very little but I have masses of fun getting ready for it.

Now we all have to live like the Frugal Queen

 I haven't had THE call yet from George Osborne, but he knows where I am for advice, any time he needs me, and oh boy! He NEEDS me. As a country, we owe £952.8 Billion or 64.6% of GDP. Let me explain that in terms of my personal economics. 66% of our total combined after tax incomes go on debts, including our mortgage, which is of course, a debt. So, the whole country is in the same state that I'm in, up to its neck! (ANOTHER WAY? CLICK HERE!)

 Like me, the country has to pay back the money it owes. I had to make some crippling decisions to work towards being debt free. I had to give up anything that I didn't need to survive on. Not only did I have to give up everything other than the most basic essentials but I couldn't spend any money. If I have peeling paint; it has to peel. The heating can't go on. Clothes can't be bought new. Presents are homegrown and homemade. It is tough and it's going to be tough for a very long time.
This all means, that the biggest percentage of all the taxes raised by the government goes towards paying the national debt, and with all big debts, the interest charges alone cancel out the payments made and the debt just keeps getting bigger. The only way to stop this kind of debt is to take the drastic action of not spending any money and that is what has to happen in the country. The country, like me, is so in debt that it can't afford anything new for years to come. The country, like me, can't leave a single light on in any publicly funded institution after the office/classroom/centre closes at night or for the weekend. Everything I have will have to last, will have to do and that's the same for anything that's publicly funded.

Private businesses have felt the sharp hand of the economy since 2008 and we have all watched pubs, shops and post offices close as money became short. Businesses stopped hiring, staff who retired were not replaced and thousands of people lost their jobs.......rememberWoolworths? People couldn't get mortgages and then people couldn't sell their houses and up and down the country, people suffered.

Now it hits every aspect of public life; there isn't any money. The country is in the same financial state that I'm in. I spend 66% on debts every month, 24% of household expenses such as food, water, light and there's only 10% left for servicing the car, dental bills, clothing, days out, Christmas and birthdays. The country, like me, spends most of its income on 'servicing the debt'.

Give me a call George!!! You need me! The whole country needs to live like Frugal Queen. Nothing can be replaced, nothing can be bought, nothing can be wasted. Put me in charge and I'll have the Royal Parks dug up to grow food! It might seem flippant but, just like in war time, we need to keep every penny we can and help each other to live as frugally as possible. We need a public information service helping people to make do and mend, to not waste food, to share what we have. People need to cope through this incredible storm.

Pulling myself together!

I've not long got in! Parent's evening and although very enjoyable, a long one. I need to get myself together for tomorrow and I am exhausted to the point that I can type any m..............................