Monthly Archives: October 2011

Ready, steady, Bake

frugal food

Hello Readers; those returning and those who may be reading for the first time,

Ages ago, I bought some baking mixes from Approved Foods. To be honest, they’re not great but they were really cheap and we often learn what not to buy after we’ve bought it! I won’t waste it!

The ginger cake mix leaves a lot to be desired. I added half a jar of home made lemon marmalade. It makes it sticky and heavier but you can taste the lemon alongside the ginger and it gives it some extra stickiness. I’ve cut it into portions, wrapped and froze them. We’ll eat them warmed with custard.

The plain vanilla sponge mix is a much better. Simply add an egg and water and whisk for three minutes, pour into cake tins and bake. I sprinkled the top with caster sugar and filled it with some home made hedgerow jam.
The final cake I made was a boiled fruit cake. No boiling involved. Take a budget cheap as you can get pack of mixed dried fruit, place in a microwavable bowl and pour the cold tea that’s left in the tea pot over it. Zap in the microwave for two minutes. Pour into a mixing bowl with 300g of sugar and 300g of self raising flour, one egg and a teaspoon of mixed spice. Mix together and baked in a lined tin on 180 degrees for about an hour.
Well, the ginger and marmalade cake may not look great but it tasted fine! I just can’t throw anything away, I have to make do. Have you made anything recently that wasn’t great but you made do and ate it anyway? I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

Saving 11.4 years and £42,759

Budgeting

Hello Dear Reader and welcome to all new followers and readers xxxxxx

Times are hard. No one need to worry about not having any money as no one has any! If you have any, you could save it and get sod all in return! Once you’ve paid off any debts, if you have any, the next step is the mortgage. We’ve been paying back nothing more than the minimum repayment of the capital, in our case nothing more than asked, for the past two years. Now, we’re going to take every penny we previously snowballed into debts and add that to a monthly payment.

I don’t make a regular payment, I actually go into Santander and pay them a cheque each month. Some months, I pay more and some times less. I can pay up to 10% of the balance a year and not incur extra financial penalties. Can you believe those blood suckers actually get away with charging you more for paying off your mortgage at more than 10% a year! Well I’m fixed into that stupid deal until 9/9/2012, when I will be telling them in no uncertain terms where to get off! I’ll tart my payments from bank to bank in the future without being tied in, whilst looking for the best deal as it arises.

By overpaying my mortgage to the point at which I was paying debts each month, means we will be left with exactly what we had to live on when we were in debt. Life won’t change. We’ll still use second hand water, won’t turn the heating on, will still use the shower timer, will still grow food to supplement our diet, still have a small food budget and still not go out to eat. It won’t kill us. It will though reduce our mortgage by 11.4 years and save us £42,759 in interest payments. That will rid me of the shackles I have to the bank.

Whilst I’m on the stinky high interest rate and stuck into a deal with penalties, we only pay off 10% a year but there are mortgage deals out there that don’t have penalty charges and I will keep my eyes open for one.

I’m off now to read my meters and record what I’ve used or not used. We’ve also had great success with solar re-chargables and will look into some more for the house. There’s no way I’m going to commit to PV whilst I don’t own my own home, but I can have stand alone and re-chargable lighting for snuggly winter evenings where a warm glow will do. I can always throw a switch if I need ‘day light’. I know some people who read this are literally on your financial arse and my thoughts and prayers are with you. I know some of you, through prudence and being careful have worked your way to debt freedom. If that’s the case, then why not have a look at how much you could save if you over paid your mortgage.

I may live a simple life but it’s worth it to pay off my mortgage in 8 years and 6 months! (So, stuff that you bankers!)

Love Froogs xxxxx

Frugal, frugalish, not so frugal and free! P.S I’ve given up, giving up swearing!

mortgage repayment
Some how, I don’t think the paint is going to make it onto the wall of its own accord! However, I’m only heating my house with prepaid wood and not buying gas!

Hi everyone,

Many, many thanks for the messages of support. There are things I can say on this blog and things I can’t say, and I can’t say why. It does feel as if I have the thought police breathing down my neck and it irks me to the point of the utter fucking depths of misery, but I live in a complicated world and I’m not actually allowed to say or do as I please. Enough of that and I’ll move on. And no, I don’t have a book deal…………but there’s an idea!

Dearly Beloved and I went on a shortened and slightly later than planned anniversary trip. It was eventful. We went over to France in a force 8 gale (or as the Shipping Forecast said……..cyclonic). I medicated myself with some Jack Daniels and strapped myself (I mean fucking literally!!!!) to my bunk and got there on time and in one piece! The weather instantly improved when we got there and we had the most lovely forty eight hours in Morlaix, St Pol de Leon and Roscoff. We had a frugalish ‘menu formule’ in of all places, a local supermarket restaurant for 12 euros for a three course lunch, with wine and coffee. We had coffee and croissants sat in market squares and had the loveliest of times. We also did what we rarely do in the UK: we shopped. We stayed in a thirty nine euros a night hotel which was warm, friendly, did a good breakfast and had lots of deep hot baths!!!!

I am no wine specialist. I’ve been on wine tasting evenings and after the third bottle, it all tastes the same to me. We’ve bought five litre boxes and many many bottles. Mostly for around 1.09 a bottle, which in UK pounds is a pound a bottle. Here, the cheapest paint stripping plonk you can buy is about £3.99 a bottle. I now have a year’s supply, plus gifts for family and friends for the next year. We will go back within a year…………but it’s better to be safe than sober sorry! So, there’s the frugalish - wine with a 75% discount.

We don’t have a Netto store near us. Oh the very joy of the place! I noticed there were no Brit cars in the car park but kept hearing familiar accents. So, I found where the Brits abroad go shopping. We did the usual thing of buying the local cheese, wine and onions (they are pink and so fragrant and delicious) and I added a couple of new plastic bowls to my ‘chariot’ at a euro each. After washing our hands, in cold water of course, we use the water to flush the loo. I think it’s a sin to flush the lav in pure drinking water, so we continue, even in our debt free state, to use second hand water in the toilet. (Oh, that’s the frugal bit)

Finally and most importantly, a massive thanks fort Ali for sending me some Lacura eye creme and serum. She bought them for herself and didn’t suit her and she very thoughtfully sent them on to me. I am so very grateful and even though life it a deep crevice of shite at the moment, I am astride it without wrinkles! (That’s the free bit and it has really cheered me xxxxxxxx All my love to Ali!!!!)

Frugalish, I was sent another discount code for shoes! If you go to the Clarks website, with the discount code of BERRY, you can get 20% off and free postage. Everyone needs shoes at some time. On a deeply frugal note! I haven’t used any gas for a month! I also made a payment off my mortgage capital and will be on target to pay off 10% of the balance this year and hopefully, will do so again next year.

p.s - I don’t like odd numbers so if six of you, who are not already followers, could become so, it would tidy up the numbers xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Again, thanks everyone. I’m dragging myself out of this and I couldn’t have done it without you xxxxxxxxx

All my love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tomorrow’s chip wrappers.

Saving money

Hello Dear Reader,

Dearly Beloved has been a train Womble today and has brought home bundles of newspapers. He must have looked a sight with bundles of them inside his coat as he cycled back from the station! He walks from one end of the train to the other and came home with out usual evening reading material (we haven’t bought a paper in years!) and we now accumulate these to light our stove with.

Have you ‘wombled’ anything recently?

See you tomorrow,

Love a nice and toasty Froogs xxx

Utter luxury!

eco home, money saving

Hello dear reader,

It’s so cold, I’ve worked late and come home to a lit fire. Being careful with money and putting every penny into the mortgage capital repayments leaves little money for looking or smelling nice. Every so often, I splash out on good toiletries. Then, I make them last. I race my way though a tin of lovely talc in at least six months! I keep soap dry and a bar can last for weeks and if I get hold of some shower gel, I know I can make it last for a very long time. Each day begins and ends with a top to toe wash in one bowl of hot water, which I then flush the loo with. About mid week, I wash my hair and have a five minute shower…………..it’s total luxury!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxx

Cold Icy Blast

eco home

Good evening dear reader,

Picture this! Lovely warm lounge, one end of Frugal towers is quite warm………….the other end has a chilly blast whistling in from the Urals! The home made quilt is on the bed, hot water bottles are in the bed warming it to gas mark 6. There is no heating other than the wood stove and the rest of the house is cold. Every cup of tea in the kitchen, or trip to the loo, requires a trip into the chill zone. Night time is like the above pictures. No details needed, just imagine it yourself..

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Rising costs of energy!

Eco issues, money saving
Nationwide disgrace and total numpty!

Dear Huhne the goon!

Here we go again some snotty posh Tory (Liberal in disguise!) telling us how to cope with rising prices - it takes the biscuit - it really does! I bet he’s not wrapped up in a blanket with one bar of his gas fire on for one hour a day because it’s all he can afford! I bet he doesn’t sniff his clothes before he decides to wash them (or get his Polish cleaner to wash them!) I bet he doesn’t have a shower timer or always have pee swishing around in his toilet! Why is it that some wally like this slimy toad thinks it’s OK to give us advice. Chris! You should be wringing your hands with shame!

Gas and electricity costs more than the average family can afford. Families on low incomes, pensioners, ill people on disability benefits, young mothers on small part time incomes, sick people on statutory sick pay recovering from surgery are going to have a cold, cold winter. According to Huhney’s advice, all we have to do is find the lowest tariff, get your walls insulated and put a sweater on! Well here’s a message for you Huhney! A saving of £100 a year on average bills of £1400 for a family would hardly be noticeable when you’re bringing three children up on minimum wage!

“We want people to check their tariffs, we want people to switch to cheaper tariffs and we want people to take advantage of the free offers that there are to insulate their homes so they can protect themselves from rising bills this winter,”

I want us all to go a stage further. I want to see consumers do a lot more to say ‘get stuffed’ to the energy companies. Get a thermostat and set if to 17 degrees, get a lot of jumpers, use wind up torches and lanterns, go to bed early with a hot water bottle and have more cuddles. Just boycott the flamin’ energy companies as much as you can! I’ve not used the gas for anything but the gas hob for two weeks and I’m going to keep going. If I have to grope around in fluffy slippers with a battery lamp charged by the sun then I flamin’ well will!

OK, so I’m a bit extreme but the prices are a national shame and I am not going to give them my money! I would appeal to all of you to find any affordable alternatives you possibly can. Stuff them! Don’t give them your money!

Huhne! You can take your hollow advice and stuff it in your ministerial brief case!

Until tomorrow,

Froogs (blowing raspberries at said twonk on Channel 4 news)

Keeping down the costs

frugal food

Hello dear reader,

I’m really beginning to worry about the constant rise in prices; even sausages are expensive. I’m now buying my meat from a local butchers close to here who specialised in bulk amounts for customers. So, I buy 3 kilos of bacon pieces at a time and divide it and freeze it myself, I also buy pork loins, chicken pieces and sausages as well as beef of all descriptions but in larger portions. Even if you save money that way, it’s still expensive. The answer is obviously meatless days (which we have plenty of) and smaller amounts of meat when we do eat it.

Our supper tonight consisted of one and a half sausages each, with some bacon chunks, all fried together with onions and mushrooms and a sauce made of tinned tomatoes, water and some gravy thickening. Plenty of peas and carrots and a desert spoon of mashed spuds each. It’s certainly a big meal to have on a Sunday evening, but DB has built another shed today (it’s beginning to look at bit like the little house on the prairie out there!) so I thought I’d rustle up something hot. I made sure I cooked the veg on one gas ring with the steamer and nothing took too long to cook. To save on energy, I’ve cooked tomorrow’s supper (play it again Sam) and it’s in the fridge ready to be dinged tomorrow night.

It’s a constant struggle to stick to a budget and eat relatively healthily. Not exactly the lean chicken breast and salad that I would prefer but it’s hearty, honest and nutritious. When any of us think of the struggles our grannies had to feed our mums and dads on rations and a nationwide lack of food, I really shouldn’t grumble about prices.

Photo above is who Froogs will turn into if she does any more scrimping! Or may be she’s already there?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

Answer to reader questions.

eco home
Shoes from Cotton Traders - originally £22, but I used a 20% off and free delivery code to get them for £17.60

Hello Dear Readers,

One of you asked yesterday why it took two of us to lift one log onto the log splitter, well, the answer is in the close up photo above of one log! It’s freshly cut Beech and is from a forty year old tree that blocked most of our view and all of our light after 10 am in the morning. It had to go and now we’re chopping it into logs to store to burn next year.

Here’s the finished results and a mere fraction of the entire wood pile we worked our way through yesterday. Working with your own wood involved short journeys from one pile to another. This current pile, left exposed to the sun light and wind, will lose a lot of moisture in just a few week. We cover it in tarpaulines when it rains and then uncover when it’s dry. We’ll need to build another wood shed near to the house to store it in but as the garden is on a slope, we’ll have to carry the wood up, one basket at a time. It can stay where it is for a while. Dearly Beloved, who I can honestly say seems very happy to chop all of this wood, is also making sure I have enough kindling to light the fire for the week as I always try to get home before he does so I can get his supper ready.

Our solar battery charger is from Amazon (about £15…we’ve had it a while but only recently started using it) and we bought it with gift vouchers from my brief survey stint (not enough reward for the time as far as I’m concerned) and the re-chargeable batteries can be bought anywhere.

We have a battery powered lantern from a car boot sale, I suppose it was originally bought for camping and we paid a few pounds for it. We mainly use it in the shed. We’ve brought it in recently and used it in the house as we’ve run it on batteries charged by the sun. We are doing everything we can to give as little money to the N Power as we possibly can. It seems to work and we have no complaints.

I’ll finish with my wood powered ‘tumble drier’ - three racks of washing drying around the wood burner. It was outside until mid day, the sun hadn’t shown up and there’s little breeze, so I’ve lit the fire and ranged the clothes around it to dry. Again, sticking it to N Power!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xx

a message for N power

eco home

Here’s an open message to N Power, my utility provider!

You along with the other robbing country folk have now increased our energy prices by 20% this year. I’m being so very very careful. I have not used gas for the last 10 days. I’ve not heated any water, or used the hob or had any radiators on. I’m loving the warmer weather as I can dry washing outside and I’m heating the house with wood.

Tonight, I moved lots of wood, stacked it and sorted it, chopped some and brought the weekend’s wood indoors and placed it in baskets. I gardened, put hanging baskets and the last of the tomato plants in the compost heap. I didn’t light the fire for a while because I was so warm from the jobs I had to do. I washed clothes and they are drying in front of the wood stove. None of this has involved much bought energy. Again, I’m lighting the room with one eco bulb and this blog is being typed from the light of a solar charged lamp. I’ve had micro mini showers, I’ve flushed the loo with shower water caught into a huge blue plastic box. To all the energy companies…………………..you can take your price increases and stuff them! I’ve no spare money for lights and gas so bog off……I’m not paying and I’m doing without!