Monthly Archives: February 2010

Cleaning with bicabonate of soda and other eco products

Eco issues

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

Eco issues

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

frugal food

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!!!!!

Saving money

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?

Days out

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!

Days out

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!!!!!

frugal food

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

Days out

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

frugal food

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.

frugal food

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’.