Another 50 pence supper.

Slice the back bacon and mushrooms and fry until cooked, add two tablespoons of flour and 12g of grated low fat cheddar.

 I love a challenge! Things are financially tight and I have to focus on saving every penny to pay for the house and car insurance; the only movable budget I have is my food allowance so I'm cutting that back. Tonight I made my own version of carbonara. I used 120g of low fat cheddar (half price in Lidl) 33p, one pack of back bacon 69p, four mushrooms 20p, 2/3 of a litre of skimmed milk (I always buy UHT - it's half the price), two tablespoons of wheat free flour (the sauce never sticks with that) and a third of a bag of Tesco Value Penne. A total of £1.63 and I made five portions, three of which are in freezer tubs and of course, in the freezer. We ate ours with two sliced tomatoes each.

Add the milk and mix together, heat through, stirring all the time until a smooth sauce.

add the cooked penne - I get the pan of boiling water on and it takes as long to cook the penne as the carbonara sauce.

Serve with seasoned sliced tomatoes (family pack from Lidl) and pop the rest in the freezer for days when I don't feel like cooking 47p a portion

Tesco's own ready meal is £3!!!! I've never bought it, but mine just might be tastier and at 33p a portion a tenth of the price.

Spotted Dick and other delicacies

I always make my own spotted dick!

 Someone asked "What is Spotted Dick?". If you've not eaten it, then you didn't go to a British school and you were not brought up by a British mum. Spotted Dick is a sweet suet sponge pudding with lots of dried fruit, including mixed peel. It's plain, but I add a sprinkling of powdered ginger. Suet is the dense hard fat found around the kidneys of an animal, it just needs grating and adding to self raising flour, sugar, milk and an egg to become suet pudding. You can buy a vegetarian variety, but I prefer the real stuff.

I didn't make this and mine has lots of dried fruit, consequently, it's very sweet and I add spice

 At school, the dinners are cheap and filling. Nothing chocolatey or expensive, but hearty and loved by children, especially if the pudding is covered in custard. I occasionally make puddings but know, I am not a growing child and really don't need that many calories, so it's something we only have once a week. I still go weak at the sight of a steaming pudding swimming to the point of drowning in custard. I hope that clears up the 'Spotted Dick' conundrum.

 The other delicacy just has to be homemade beef stew and dumplings. It makes a 400g/14oz pack of stewing beef make six portions of stew. I've portioned this for us to take to work and costs 40p a portion, we also take a 'cuppa soup' as a snack and a piece of fruit, so lunch is around 55p a day. It doesn't look like much but we're both 'cutting back' and it's plenty enough for us. It means we get around 60g of beef with our lunch, which is about the amount of meat a day, that Brits had during the rationing of WW2, which meant that people had the healthiest diet, that was rich in vegetables, low in fat with just the right amount of protein.

75p Sunday Lunch

 Today, we ate the last of the Quorn Casserole I made a couple of weeks ago. I bought Quorn chunks on offer for £1 a bag and made 6 portions out of that. To make Quorn casserole, I use a chopped onion, half a head of celery, 6 carrots, a green pepper and made a casserole. I used veggie gravy mix to thicken and cooked it in the oven. We ate it with rice. So far so good and very healthy. That's where our good intentions ended.

Frugal advice, cook in the microwave, steaming uses too much gas.

 The suet pudding mix that I bought will make pastry, dumplings, jam roly poly, spotted dick, and also, as I made today, Treacle Pudding - it's actually made with golden syrup, I buy half a litre from Tesco for 89p.

Bought from Approved foods for £1.50 and should last us for months and has many uses.

To make Treacle Pudding, mix 250g of dumpling mix with 145 ml of milk, one egg and three tablespoons of sugar. Pour plenty of golden syrup into the bottom of a pudding basin, pour pudding mix over the top and place in the steamer. It will need an hour to steam. I gave up after 30 minutes and was concerned about the cost of the gas, so I microwaved the pudding for 5 minutes. Insert a clean skewer into the pudding at a angle, if it comes out clean, then the pudding is cooked. It's the same way to test sponge cake.

All hail the golden pudding

 The finished results are a thing of beauty. I'm sure suet puddings are unique to Britain and places where Brits settled. Don't even start me on the calories, it has beef suet in it!!!

 We had ours with cream, as Morrisons had loads going at 25p, so I picked some up last night. I don't recommend this to anyone with a weak heart, or high cholesterol or if you don't own elasticated trousers. However, puddings of any sort, make Dearly Beloved go weak at the knees and as he's forgoing meat in the name of frugality, then at least I can do is make the poor bloke a sticky pudding xxx

Beany Burgers for 15 pence each.

I have set myself a £100 challenge to feed us and the pets for a month. Whilst I'm in the 'zone', I'm stocking my freezer. Here's how I make my 15p beany burgers.

I rehydrate a cup of soya mince, with a pack of Tesco Value stuffing - I use a chicken stock cube in  water. I then add, one tin of sweetcorn, and mix well. Don't over season as the stuffing mix is full of garlic, onions and spice.

 I then wizz a two tins of beans in the processor - take your pick, any beans will do.

 I then grate four carrots and add everything together. I then use a burger ring to shape them, onto greased paper and cook them in a hot oven for half an hour. If you store them, just reheat in the mini-oven or fry in shallow oil.

 We had some for lunch with a green salad.

 I make them huge as we're big eaters.

 The others have been wrapped in foil and frozen along with the veggie chilli. We do love the 'Dragonfly' beany burgers when we're feeling 'flush' but they have now reached £2.11 for two in our local healthfood shop and mine are only 15p each.

Spring in my step with money in my pocket

 Hello Readers, you all deserve much better than the misery I've been writing about recently. The smile on my face is because I've got most of the money back by making my 'ex' pay. He was fuming that I had bought a shower even though I explained that the flat had been without hot water since Jo and Rik moved in there last November. He didn't feel that was his problem. Some people are arseholes! Love them anyway.

I'm back on track today. After washing everyone else's washing all week, I got round to doing ours and it's blowing on the line after doing the washing hokey cokey all morning (hang it out, bring it in, hang it out again - showery weather). I also got round to filling up the bread bin. I'll keep baking bread all day for the freezer and it's going to be a day of stove side pottering.

 I've started my batch cooking today with a huge pot of veggie chilli. The dried soya mince costs £1.60 and I can make ten portions from it. It's much cheaper than Quorn, which I only buy when on offer. We still eat meat but only around 4oz at a time. Soya Mince has no taste and needs lots of 'spicing up'. I use chicken stock cubes (10p for 8 in Tesco) but I also use veggie cubes if I'm feeding veggies.

It swells up and has a lovely texture and we really like it. I would obviously prefer to use beef mince, but it's way too expensive at the moment and I am going to have to be very careful with money over the next few weeks as I save up for car and home insurance.

 I added one fifth of a pack of soya mince, 2 chicken stock cubes to 2 large mugs of boiling water, let the mince rehydrate and added that to some fried onion and garlic, a tin of sweetcorn, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of kidney beans and a chilli sauce packet mix. (I always buy sauce mixes when they are on offer - usually 3 for £1 and then stock pile them.)

 I then let it simmer gently for forty minutes and  decanted it into four seperate freezer containers to eat over the next few weeks. I'll probably blog more over the day as I fill up the freezer.

 I thought I'd let you into my bathroom. Our biggest expense is water, we have to ration it. Dearly beloved has 3 minute showers, but as I don't like showering, I wash daily and bath weekly. All of our sinks have washing up bowls, so if we wash, even our hands, we tip the water down the toilet. My mum always thinks I've left the floor washing bowl in the sink. Visitors often ask and people are often surprised to see six full buckets lined up in the bathroom, where I save the bath water for the toilet after my weekly bath. It take two bowl fulls to wash my hair but it does make me feel very eco!

I'm off to bake more bread, more batch cooking for the freezer and sweep (it saves electricity instead of vacuuming) the floors. Until later, Froogs xxxx

Back to life, back to frugality.

This week has thrown my usual financial caution to the wind. I have been backwards and forwards to Plymouth on three separate occasions. I filled the car up with diesel and have got through £50 of diesel in a week of running everywhere I have needed to go. I took mum out for lunch, where I usually would always cook for guests, but this week, I truly couldn't muster up the enthusiasm. Today we went to daughter's flat and guess what? She wasn't there! We found her and got her home so she could let the glazing company in to take measurements and then we waited and waited for the boiler engineer. He turned up, looking completely unbothered, came through the door with out a tool box, took one look at the boiler and said it was very old (not as old as the boiler in my own home!), that it had been leaking and wasn't 'worth his while'. In other words, it was a big job, he just wanted to get in and out, service the boiler, charge £150 and go and not bother with diagnostics, ordering parts, fixing leaks or even getting the tool box out of the van!


I phone 'ex' and told him that it was beyond repair. He has now scheduled the almighty 'British Gas' to come and survey for a new boiler and central heating system, which will then be installed in six to eight weeks. I don't live in 'La-La' land and know my son has been boiling the kettle and washing in a bucket since last November and just went out and bought an electric shower, and my son has organised a plumber/electrician to come tomorrow to get the electrics to the bathroom and I will just leave the money for him to pay they guy. As I said, frugality has gone out of the window.

The flat did not have any curtains or blinds. I went to the charity shop for curtains but had to buy the curtain poles and hooks from B&Q and also a water resistant roller blind for the bathroom. Dearly Beloved also gave up a day's pay to come to the flat today and put up curtains and blinds. It has been a very expensive week.

I feel victorious tonight though. I actually got round to cooking something, what we call a 'mini-roast' as it has a minuscule amount of meat and comes out of the mini-oven. Four pork loin steaks are £2.29 in Lidl and I split the pack and wrap the chops in pairs. I have portions of apple puree in the freezer, that I just leave to defrost, which means tonight's supper was back to being under £1.

 I also took the time to cancel the renewal of my 'central heating boiler' insurance. The trusty old 'ideal classic' is almost twenty years old and was fixed last year and I then took out 'Homeserve' insurance for a year, at a reasonable £95.90 a year. I didn't make a claim and expected the fee to reduce this year. It didn't. The policy increased to £144. So I phoned and cancelled. I tried negotiating and said I would be happy to stay with the company if they kept the premiums the same, they couldn't so I went else where.

After using all of the price comparison websites, I found 'OmniAssist'. I then did my usual thing of trawling the net looking for information about them. They use local independent 'Gas Safe' engineers to provide the cover for them. Instead of £144 a year, they charge £66 a year. There is an excess charge of £50, but my last boiler repair, when I didn't have insurance, cost over £300, so I consider that to be worth it.
This has been a very expensive week and I will have to be exceedingly careful over the next few weeks to make sure I save as much money as I can. It really is time to get back to frugality.

Until tomorrow,
Froogs xxx

When the bell rings, come out fighting

Like all fighters, I had to have a rest day, and today has been a total collapse day. Mum came up to visit today and we went out for a buy one, get one free lunch at a local hostelry and it was nice to have some one to off load to. It's hard to talk to mum about 'problems'; she's been in the ring so many times that she's punch drunk and hardened and she shrugs and knows, we'll all survive, as she said "You have to, who else will do it?" She's my 'Mickey' and never handed out tea and sympathy, just another instruction that you have to get on with it. In her own words, she always told me "You're gonna eat lightenin' and you're gonna crap thunder!"

Tomorrow is a fight day, when I strap my knuckles and get greased up. I go back to Devonport, back to the flat and do what I can to make it Jo and Rik's home. I have arranged another gas engineer to come round. The boiler may be in good working order and I'll just pay him. It may not and he may condemn it. If that happens, after a being slapped to the canvas, the bell will ring and I'll just get up again. I'll move into plan B and wizz off to buy an electric shower and go home and find an electrician to go round and fit it.

Along with the central heating engineer, I have also arranged for a double glazing sales man (I know him, I bought windows from him before and he has one price and he's not duplicitous) to measure up for new doors and windows. As the windows are falling out of their casements, my son, has nailed them shut and has sealed them with mastic for good measure. If there is a fire, they won't be able to get out and they will die! Secondly, deepest darkest Devonport is crack ridden and everyone is robbing everyone else for the next fix (I was broken into twice whilst I lived in Plymouth and once,there were builders working in the house and some drugged crazy broke in!) so the flat needs to be secure. It has to have new doors and windows.

After both of those bouts, I then take on my Ivan Drago and get ex-twat- to pay for all of this. He's lives in a different financial world, I will have to send him an invoice and his accountant will pay me at the end of the month. In the mean time, I'll be queueing up for soup but that's the way he does business.

However, just like Rocky, when all the odds are stacked up against me, I may still win. I may well be writing about the warm flat, with hot running water and windows that open and close and a door that can't simply be pushed open. My Mickey mum, toughened me up well and taught me a lesson, long before Rocky every uttered it to his son.

"But it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep movin forward. How much you can take and keep movin forward. That's how winning is done!"

I'll be back tomorrow when Froogs rides out again.

Froogs xxxx

Dear Super Mario

I'm calling you 'Super Mario' as I can't call you what I want to call you as decent people read this blog, if they didn't I would call you a time wasting snivelling git! You and I spoke on Monday and made an arrangement to be at my daughter's flat at mid day today. We spoke again last night to confirm that you would be there. Guess what readers.......Super Mario and his heating and engineering services didn't turn up and then he had his mobile phone on answer phone all day. I'm delighted that you are a millionaire and don't need to fix boilers any more and can give work away; I, on the other hand , am not a millionaire and went back and forwards to Plymouth using diesel I can ill afford. Even though you had my home number, and mobile number, you still didn't call and say you couldn't make the appointment and then wouldn't answer the phone or answer machine messages.


I had to take my daughter, whose nerves jangle when ever she has to do anything new or taxing, and today, she had to sort all her room out, in a flat she's too scared to live in and did so, even though she was scared as she thought she was imminently going to get hot water and heating. After an hour of waiting, she lost the plot and disappeared off to 'stay with friends', which translates to 'waking up in a squat in a scene reminiscent of 'Trainspotting' '. So thank you very much Mario (not actually called Mario, in case there is a perfectly good central heating engineer called Mario in Plymouth) after coaxing my daughter back to feeling strong enough to let me into her 'room' where the boiler is housed, and waiting and calling................you didn't turn up.
 
By the way Mario, if you ever think the most dangerous place on earth is with these guys, on foot patrol, in Helmand province.....
 
 

well think again..................the most dangerous place on earth is between a mother and her child!

When the challenge becomes exciting.

 Many, many thanks to everyone who left such encouraging words yesterday. This blog reminds me every day what a wonderful world I live in as it is filled with so much compassion, common sense and good humour. Yesterday had challenges and today has had rewards. My daughter truly is a 'mini-froogs'. Sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Very well meaning ex-husband bought son and daughter a flat in deepest darkest Devonport, in Plymouth. It was cheap and it's affordable for my son. However, very well meaning ex-husband has never bought a property (everything inherited) and literally bought the flat off a 'man down the pub'. It's worth what he paid for it but it's tatty and needs work. Lovely son of mine is a builder but on very short hours and is just paying the rent/mortgage and there's nothing left. Consequently, he hasn't been able to get the gas tested, the boiler serviced and there is no heat and no hot water. Tomorrow (not going to be a frugal day!) there will be. He has lived independently for years and it used to roughing it as a contractor, who sleeps where ever he lays his head. It was meant to be a home for our daughter too, but because of her inner turmoil; she took one look at a grimy damp flat and turned and never went back. Tomorrow, it will look a lot better and will be the start of becoming home for her, when she is ready to live there.

As I was saying, daughter is 'mini-froogs' and was delighted with our charity shop today. I took her shop to shop showing her what was cheap. Bedding, towels, tea-towels, crockery, saucepans, curtains and pennies and no where in comparison with new prices. She chose and I bought the following for her today.  A double quilt for £2, retro double sheets for £1 each, double duvet cover and pillow cases for £2, a shirt for 50p and one bath towel, two hand towels and a bath mat for £3. The loveliest thing she found was a set of curtains for £7.50 and I couldn't buy the material and make them for that. She was excited by the cheapness of everything and acknowledged that living independently was within her means, even if she has to temporarily claims benefits until she is well enough to work.

I've known plenty of teenagers in my career and very few embrace the second hand items that can make a place a home. She spent ages looking a crockery, cutlery and saucepans and was really friendly and chatty to the ladies in Salvation Army shop (my favourite, also one of my favourite charities and I always try to spend money in there).

She fully understood when I became excited to find a preserving pan for £5, also in the Sally Army shop as the pan I use at home (the cleaned out chip pan) isn't quite big enough and I'm always afraid that it will boil over. Depression comes and goes for her and today, although it was a strain to get  out, was an adventure for her and she had great fun.

Many thanks again for the kind words.

Until tomorrow, Froogs xxxx

Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.

Today, my job as a mum, was much like the metaphor I've chosen to explain it............like jumping through hoops of fire. My daughter, through many complex reasons, has been homeless for almost a year(even though she could live with me, her dad, her grand parents and a whole host of other people) and has been living any where from squats to sofa surfing. On Saturday, when she reached the lowest point I had ever seen her in, she called me. Thirty minutes later, she was in my car and on the way home with me. She's asked for help and told me everything. All I could do was listen.

Today, the ring master doused the hoop in petrol and held a lit match to it, and I jumped through it over and over again. I'm a bit singed but I've lived to tell the tale. First of all, we had to get through to Directgov. After 40 minutes of answering the same question we completed an application of Employment support Allowance(not that she'll definitely get it!) We then had to open a bank account for her. Now bear in mind that DD has twelve pieces of metal in her face, a mowhawk and dreds and the bank looked us up and down as if she were crap and I were the crap peddler and did everything to get us out of the bank as soon as possible. They fumed when we had all the right ID and they still managed to spend ages on the phone to passport office whilst they verified who she was. Reluctantly, they gave her the paperwork to sign and now she 'exists' and has a bank account.

Hoop number three awaited us at the doctor's surgery. Now bear in mind (there's a lot of bearing in this email) that she has been treated for clinical depression for three years and is chemically dependent on stuff that would give Amy Winehouse a headache and; they offered counselling and a repeat prescription. They also treated her in a manner that surprised me, she was a nuisance and they didn't hide it. I asked, at what point would there be a referral to a clinical psychologist and they told me when they referred it and not before. So, go and see a counsellor, let that fail and still drink three litres of white lightening a day along with anything else you can get,and when you're pissing yourself in a police cell, then and only then, after you've gone on the game to get the ketamine, we might give you some support with your mental health problems! The next time you see an alcoholic, urine stained wino slumped outside Marks and Spencer's, then she may have well have asked for help and may have been packed on her way with a repeat prescription of anti-depressants and a cheery 'We'll see you in a fortnight!"

Any way, enough of the slight irritation! After she sobbed to the doctor's surgery and home again (she did warn me that they always treat her with indifference and seeing it for myself almost reduced me to tears!). The rest of the day improved. She cooked dinner with me, we talked and she helped me fold laundry.

I'm hoping she'll stay at home for much longer than usual, that she'll take the counselling and turn up for it, that she'll get the benefits she's legally entitled to and we'll find her somewhere permanent to live. I was thinking today, of the lovely readers who left me comments about their partners not being frugal, of their partner's waste of money and the struggles they have to convince other family members that the frugal route will save them all in the long run. I'm sorry folks, you won't be able to change them. You can do what you can, where you are, with what you have. You can't influence the outcomes of the lives of others, even if they are family, even if you lead them the right way or even if you have any influence. It doesn't stop you from jumping through hoops, even if it feels futile, you do what you have to do. People are hard work; love them any way!

Until tomorrow, Froogs xxxx

Dear Reader, here's a message from Froogs to you.

Yes you. You read and log on to see how I'm getting on, the money I've saved, how I eke out every little bit. Today, I am talking straight to you. You see, you're the one who is standing on the edge and you dare not go any further. Maybe, it's because people will think you are 'no fun any more' or maybe you think that people like me should 'get a life'. For what ever reason, you have not trodden the frugal footpath yet. You're still consuming and you have plenty of excuses to do so. Let's think about those reasons: you have to be smart for work, you've already booked the holiday and you will lose the deposit if you don't go, you've worked hard and it's your money and you'll do what you like with it, you're in a mess but you've looked into debt management, you're in a mess and debt management is tough so you're considering bankruptcy.......and I could go on.

I'm still talking to you and I hope you're still with me. Take a look at Froogs in the photo above. Faded old wellies, charity shop fleecy top, £1.99 Primarni top, and Ebay second hand jeans, home dyed hair and the only evidence of a day out, is a walk on the moors. Well, you know what............you want to live my life but don't dare; well I am daring you. Come with me, walk the frugal line. Cut up every credit card because you are never going to borrow money ever again. Write a budget, and this time, stick to it. Go around the house right now and turn off every light, of every room where no one is in it. Get online and apply for a water meter. Go to any of the comparison sites and check that you are paying the least for your utilities and say to yourself that if you don't need it you can't buy it and if you can't afford it, even if you need it, you still can't buy it.

Now look back at the face in the photo above and this time, don't see meanness, don't see a woman who needs to 'get a life' but take a close look. That is the look of peace and contentment. It comes from living a simpler greener life. A life which is about being and not consuming. If you've been reading, just looking at another life that you would really like to try but don't dare, well gather up your fortitude because my life is tough but deeply satisfying and this time, take the first step and come with me.

Admiration of enterprise

Our daughter is still at home but much better today. Her lifestyle choices have left her very run down but she is picking up and eating anything and everything I cook for her. I left her with Dearly Beloved and went to Lidl as I'm running low on everything. As I'm on a water meter, I daren't get the Karcher out of the garage and usually pay to get my car cleaned once in a while as it's no cheaper to run the water myself at home. I really admire the boys who clean the car next to the Lidl car park in Saltash. They are always there and a team of them clean the car to showroom condition in minutes. (The photo above is not the aforementioned car wash service, but I didn't have my camera with me).

The youngs guys who clean  the cars are teenagers or in their very early twenties, and any one of them could double up as a young Omar Sharif (not that I noticed, of course!) and scrub wheel trims with toothbrushes whilst on their hands and knees in puddles. Their enterprise and industry really impresses me. I'm sure they are economic migrants and as there was no car wash service in the town before they started up, no one's losing out. It does make me wonder how many young, local unemployed young men just wouldn't do that work. They are there seven days a week and for ten hours a day and they charge £5 a car, including waxing it so they must have to wash a lot of cars to make any money. They are pleasant, happy, polite, speak impeccable English and my car was gleaming and waiting for me when I finished the shopping. It makes me wonder why so many young people would rather claim benefits than do something enterprising and it must be possible if two young men, from a far away land can come here and make a successful living with a bucket, soap, toothbrushes and a pressure washer.

A soft place to fall

Dear Josie,


"When your down and troubled

And you need a helping hand

And nothing, whoa nothing is going right.

Close your eyes and think of me

And soon I will be there

To brighten up even your darkest nights.

You just call out my name,

And you know where ever I am

I'll come running"

No blog today, I rocked my troubled baby to sleep and I'm sat quietly knitting. I'm just there.

Froogs Mum x

People are vile................love them anyway.

Today has been a day I would rather forget and I'm certainly not going into any detail about. To the person who needs all the forgiveness they can get. I pray this.

"O Lord,
remember not only the men and women of
good will
but those of evil will.
But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted  upon us;
remember the fruits we have borne
thanks to this suffering -
our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility,
our courage, our generosity,
the greatness of heart
which has grown out of all of this;
and when they come to the judgement,
let all the fruits that we have borne
be their forgiveness."

We are 24 hours from collapse!

I bet you thought I was being metaphorical about the economy again. No, I'm talking about myself and the teachers I work with. We are utterly exhausted. The students look fresh faced and unbothered as ever but the staff, like headless chickens, are running themselves ragged trying to save their backsides by making sure the requisite amount of students a) get out of bed and get to school b) actually do any school work when they get there and c) pass the governmental targeted amount of exams.

I'm targetted to bits to be honest with you. I have a minor reprieve next week as it's half term, which means, I can go to work and prepare in the peace and quiet. But tomorrow, when I leave at five o'clock...............I'm going to allow myself a few hours of collapsed relief that I've made it through another half term.

Inflation to rise by 5%

 Dear Merv!

I can tell by the look on your face (both sides of it!!!) that you are a worried man. The economy continues to shrink, the national debt increases, jobs are disappearing and prices of commodities just keep increasing. According the BBC, the rising costs of hotels, restaurants, furniture, transport, fuel and alcohol  are adding to the rate of inflation. Which is why, and sorry to rub your nose in it as I can see you're in the sticky stuff and you're up to your armpits, I have not felt the increase in VAT or general price increases.     

I'm just making matters worse for you all round. I don't feel your pain because I've given up shopping. I ration water and energy, I walk or cycle and only use the car when I can't possibly get there by any other means. I use old knickers as dusters and I'm sitting here in three layers so I don't have to put the heating on. I go without anything I can't get from Freecycle and I can spread 'Flora' thinner than anyone else who has ever tried to get into the Guiness book of records.


I'm just not helping am I Merv? You and the rest of the bean counters in the Bank of England and your mates in the treasury, will just have to hold your nerve. But then, sorry to point this out, but you are in your older years and we've been here before...............many times. We had mortgage rates of 15% and could only get a mortgage at three times our income with a reference from our employers, six months bank statements and pay slips and a 25% deposit. Credit card limits were equivilant of three months wages. People forget how tough it was to get a job and some where to live at the end of the 70's and beginning of the 80's.

Well, we're back here again and like you, I will see this pattern repeat itself. Well you and the rest of the city boys can continue this all you like, but I, and the rest of the frugal army will not be fighting on the side of consumerism and 'growth' ever again. We will do little to contribute the debt, we will do nothing to add to the up turn or down turn, in fact we will sustain from as much economic activity as possible. In future, there will be more and more of us who will say no to credit, no to shopping, no to new gadgets and yes to bird watching, yes to star gazing, yes to quilting and yes to rambling. I'm sorry I can't help you with the economy but I'm abstaining from involvement. From now on, if I'm fed, if I'm wearing a clean pair of knickers and the roof over my head doesn't leak; then I'm done.

Yours truly,

Froogsxxx

Shop local, save fuel and time

The shadowy photograph is of our local butchers. I buy just what I need. On Saturday morning, I walked down and bought: four rashers of bacon, four pork sausages, half a black pudding, half a hog's pudding, half a pound of kidneys and a pound of stewing steak. I may not have saved money, but I am doing what I can to save a local shop, wastage and my time. I was home again in five minutes. There is something so amazing about a local butcher's shop, where they still saw up joints on a wooden block and will wrap meat in greaseproof paper, no matter how small the order. If you are ever in Liskead, visit Ough's. It has never changed and I hope it never will.

In response to someone who asked - what's Hog's pudding. It's white pork meat sausage, with rusk, it's peppery and spicy. You slice it and grill or fry it. It's sold cooked and you re-cook it. Black pudding is blood, rusk and pork fat and spices and although it sound disgusting, it's much loved.

P.S I Love You.

I cooked Dearly Beloved his favourite lunch today and duly photographed it, and  it was not for the faint hearted, as we eat our steak very rare, and mop up the blood with our chips (clip its horns, wipe its arse and walk it round the grill) so I didn't include the photo, so not to offend. I've never enjoyed the tacky money making side of St. Valentine's Day but we did use the date as an excuse for a treat.  After being careful with calories as well as cost, it was good to have a blow out today. Two large potatoes, peeled and chipped, an onion and button mushrooms lightly fried, grilled tomatoes and of course.....half a bullock each.

We're not unromantic, in fact, we're the opposite. We met when we were in our early twenties, knew each other as friends and finally got together when we were twenty nine. We're as in love and passionate with each other as we've always been. We don't need a saint, cheap flowers or expensive chocolates. Our love has survived some very tough times and there has never been a day when either of us have ever felt there could ever be any where better to be, than with each other.

(I looked back through my blog, and reminded myself that I often blog about Dearly Beloved, such as HERE
 and ALSO HERE and HOW COULD I FORGET HERE TOO. )

With all the trimmings

I sometimes forget to label the 'ready meals' I make and put in the freezer. Today, we had 'some sort of pie' for lunch. It had pink bits, green bits, white bits, gravy, stuffing. It was in fact, the last of the pies made from the Christmas turkey. It was more veg than turkey and needed some extra gravy to revive it. Everything had gone into that pie, the sprounts, parsnips, a chopped up sausage with bacon, some spuds and a few scraps of turkey. It was an interesting combination, but nothing goes to waste in this house and we fearlessly eat it all. Even if it it is an odd concoction!