Monthly Archives: March 2013

Bank Holiday Quilting Give Away!!!!!!!!!

give aways, giveaway

Hello Dear Reader,

 So far, I’ve kept every off cut and surplus piece of fabric over 3″ square! I had bags of bits and pieces and notions, extra equipment and resources!Now, I’ve had a really good tidy up and sort out in the sewing room and I have a box full of fabric and notions to giveaway.

I’m off the South West Quilting Festival on Friday 5th April and need to make room! If you’ve been, then you will know what I’m talking about.

I’ve now filled a box, weighing in at 5KG of fabric, thread, notions, patterns, templates, binding and even scissors to be given away. It’s all usable quilting fabric (with some Christmas fabric) and there’s easily enough to make a kingsize scrappy quilt. It’s a massive give away and I’ve decided to run it until 8am Tuesday 2nd April.

T&Cs

You will need to be a follower - CLICK ONTO ‘JOIN THIS SITE (when I click on your name - Frugal Queen - should show up as a blog you follow) and leave a message here or on yesterday’s blog post and I can only post this to a UK address due to the weight and the cost.


Here is the box and it’s only half full at this stage! Some recycled fabric and some left overs from fat quarters and other bought or donated fabric.


There’s even donations that lovely readers have sent to me that I haven’t managed to use and I hope someone has good use for. Please follow my blog if you don’t already and leave a message here. Check my blog on Tuesday to see if you have won and if you have, send me an email with your name and address.


Happy Easter and Good Luck to everyone who enters!

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxx

Free days out in Cornwall

cornwall, Days out, frugal days out

Hello Dear Reader,

Mercifully, there has been a break in the weather today and we went out for a walk on Bodmin Moor which is a ten minute drive from our house. We headed first to the Hurlers (ancient monument 1500BC) and then on to the Cheesewring. From Minions car park to the Cheesewring is a slow 25 minute walk but we pounded the trail in 15 minutes. We’ve both got long legs.

Standard shot of Froogs on one of the Hurlers.

It’s an easy walk and the moor is bone dry and easy to cross at the moment. It’s like a sponge and can hide ankle sucking bogs.

Froogs on top of the stones taking in a view as far as the eye can see.

Ever the poseur.

Open moorland is common land and anyone can walk on it.

Don’t let the sunshine deceive you, it was seven degrees in the wind out there. We kept moving to keep warm.

Descending the stones and looking up. The shape is just from wind erosion that has exposed the stones and then sculpted them with weather.

The moor was a working quarry until the first world war (my dad’s grandad worked there) and all around are decaying ruins of building that were once industrial.

The tracks across the moors are routes and the only access to isolated farms. I would love to live out here.

We crossed the moor from the Cheesewring (the rocky outcrop in the distance) to the quarry on the other side.

Rods of irons can still be found poking out of rocks where man power was used to break the granite apart.

Almost back again and I opted for a moment of ‘sunbathing’. The circular walk, starting from Minions car park (free), to the Cheesewring, over to the Quarry and back again took us a very leisurely 90 minutes. Anyone can make it to the top of either. Lots of elderly people do it, babies in back packs and toddlers clambering with fierce independence make it up there. If you are in Cornwall, shun the expensive tourist attractions, get as map and get walking. There are plenty of days out without a gift shop in sight. Here’s a great link to some more walks in my area.

If you’re my way, just email me before you come down and there will always be a cup of tea for you at my place.


Finally…………..this will test if people read to the end! I’ve cleared out and tidied my sewing room. I have a box of off cuts that any one can have. There’s more than enough here to make a completely random scrappy quilt. Keep sewing random shapes together and then use a 10″ template to cut into squares and then sew together. I’ve included practise blocks where I’ve learn a new block, orphan blocks that were surplus to requirement and a few odds and ends. I don’t want this to go to landfill so if you want it all and you’re in the UK (sorry peeps - it’s heavy) then leave a message and I’ll enter you in a draw and pull a name out of something hattish on Monday night. Oh……and if you’re not a follower then you’ll need to be to be in the draw. I’ll keep filling the box right to the top too! Good Luck!



Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxx

Is it always going to be like this?

money saving

Hello Dear Reader,

I’m not always a cheerful soul! Today, I’m fed up of the weather, the cost of living and the lack of options for people without any spare dosh!

There………..that’s out of my system!

I went out of the house for a brief minute and the biting temperature drove me indoors. I could choose to not pay the excess on my mortgage and go on holiday but then I would still have a mortgage when I’m 68! If I carry on with doing without and going without, I will be mortgage free in eight years time!

Like many people, I’m amazed when ever I go to the shops or supermarket to find the prices of every day foods such as fruit and vegetables soaring into the stratosphere. It’s getting harder for everyone to shop within a budget. It would be easy to find some excuse and give in and lose the faith that we can do this. Also, has everyone noticed that the reductions, yellow stickers and offers seem to have disappeared?


I’m also struggling with weight loss and know I need to really step us the amount of exercise I must do (at the moment doing one hour every week day in the gym) and instead of sitting here writing this, I should be squatting, crunching, planking and pressing up. So, come join me with this moaning if you like. Who else has hit a financial wall, weight loss wall or exercise wall? I need to find some more interesting recipes that fit within a calorie count and motivate myself to get my exercise routine up to two hours a day and add in exercise at the weekend too. My ambition is to be a runner. I want energy enough to run for miles! Everyone is entitled to a dream.

Feel free to verbally kick me up the bum as it might raise me out of this gloomy winter malaise! On the positive side, I will be mortgage free in 2021. So, here’s the word I’m going to have with myself. I’m going to get up and ignore the cold weather, fit two hours of exercise into my day and be a lot more grateful that I have a home!

Over to you…………feel free to tell me to buckle up, or feel free to moan about the cost of living, or feel free to remind all of us that frugal living is a journey that will get us to our destination a lot sooner than spending!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxx

Keep warm and watch the pennies.

keeping warm

Hello Dear Reader,

This year, I had to make the choice between heating my house or having a holiday. I chose pain free warmth. I still have to watch the budget. As gas and electricity prices increased, I had to make larger monthly direct debit payments all year to put money aside for the cold winter months. This might seem like a big expense but my previously painful winters have taught me that I need to be warm.

I budget by having savings so I can afford to buy two tonnes of logs each winter. The logs and the winter gas bill would pay for my ferry to France but I can no longer cope with the joint pain that winter brings me so I’ll forsake a holiday for the sake of being pain free throughout the winter. Now, all that being said there are plenty of ways that I keep the house warm. To start, we made the most of virtually free home insulation and had the loft insulated and the cavity walls insulated which saves us a mass of money. Next, I use thermal linings in my curtains which create a triple glazing effect when they are closed.

Our wood burner chimney is central and internal so it actually heats four rooms of an eight room house. When we are about to go to bed, we fill the stove up with logs and put our clothes racks into the lounge (away from the fire for safety) and make the most of the cost of the logs. On weekdays, we don’t get home until six pm and have the fire lit until nine pm so we make the logs we have last. We also save on the heating bill by only having the central heating on from 5.50-6.30 so the house is just warm but not heated. At the weekends, we have the fire lit by four in the evening so we don’t run the central heating at all then.

On cold days, it’s certainly warming to come home to a hot meal and I make really good use of my slow cooker to ensure we always have something ready when we get in. Some times, I cook four meals and we have the same again on the following day which saves on energy costs. Some times, I’ll only have a small piece of meat and I’ll add that to soup the next day.

A staple here, all throughout the winter is soup. I love all kinds of smooth vegetable soup and chunky minestrone too. I’ll make a big pot to last us a few days and we’ll take some to work for lunch too.


I’m a big fan of scrappy quilting and every bed here has an extra layer of a home made quilt on it. Some, like this one are random and use the bits and bobs of fabric that I’m given. Those warm quilts mean we have no heat through out the night and none in the morning either. We get by.


We also use my home made quilts on the backs of chairs and the sofa so we have the insulation around us when we’re sat watching TV or reading. If just gives us another layer and keeps any draughts away from our backs.

Finally, and the obvious is that we wrap up really warmly in our house. I’m wearing two pairs of socks, and two jumpers and I always have on a base layer of a tee shirt or two under my clothes. I’m in my office and sitting in just the residual warmth and I’m not cold and if I get cold, I’ll go for a warm up in front of the fire.

I truly feel for anyone reading this who is feeling the cold in what seems like the longest winter I can remember! Share your ideas on heating? Would you freeze for a holiday? Are you cold just so you can pay the rent or mortgage? Who else is rationing the gas and electricity? Go on, let it out and have a good moan. I feel much better for having mine.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxx

Frugal Homemaking

frugal home

Frugal Homemaking
Hello Dear Reader,
I love it when you write in, as it always gives me ideas for a blog post. I was asked how I would choose home furnishings to last, and not something that goes out of fashion. The dear reader wanted to know if I had any advice I could give on what they should buy new, and what they should buy second hand or from charity shops. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I would normally say go for second hand but as the owner of a fifteen year old sofa, I know it’s not fit for much more use. Also, my mum had a great saying of ‘buy cheap and buy twice’. So, I would always look out for a few good quality piece s that will last you as long as my sofa.


Now, I’m a great fan of simple living but I still want to be stylish. I want to find pieces for my own home that I can use in different rooms and move them to change the look of the house. I like to have an arm chair in the bedroom that can be moved into the lounge when I need it and because I run a thrifty home, it’s essential to me to have durablefurniture . So Dear Reader, one of my first suggestions would be a simple arm chair.

A good quality, well made arm chair with a neutral colour will be useful for years to come. It will fill an empty corner and with an accent cushion would enhance the room in a very simple way. I would also suggest good quality wooden furniture pieces that can be used for years to come. Side tables can be used for lamps, as a coffee stand or can be used as a focal point with a vase or a plant. It’s the few better quality pieces of furniture that are worth every penny you paid for them as they can be used in a variety of rooms and for a multitude of purposes.


Something else I would suggest to always be better to buy the best quality you can, are beautifulvenetian blinds. You might wonder why I would suggest them instead of curtains and I’ll explain why. Wooden venetian blinds are fantastic money savers as they will keep the heat in and out depending on the time of year. They are also far more durable than curtains. As the dear reader in question wanted to avoid net curtains and wanted some privacy, I suggested wooden venetian blinds, not only because they are stylish and economical but the tilted blind will enable the home owner to see out and the light to still come in, yet passers-by will be unable to see in.


The dear reader in question asked me if I’d ever been to a branch of The Range and I told her that we had one nearby and I knew it well. In fact, I live near the one of the early branches of the store and have used it for years. In our first years together, when we didn’t have a great deal of money and couldn’t travel far as we didn’t have a car, we bought our beds from there. They turned out to be a great investment as we’re still sleeping in them sixteen years later. So, to answer the question, shop around but make sure that key pieces of good quality furniture are on your list because if you buy well, it will last you for years to come.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs

Do we need a SHTF fund?

Saving money
Hello Dear Reader,

I remember a time not so long ago, that if anything broke down, needed maintenance or replacing then I would seriously dread the cost.

This March has reminded me that we need to have savings as we don’t know what is around the corner. Firstly, a damp patch appeared in the down stairs bathroom started dripping. Now that’s quite minor but as our pipes are buried in the walls and the wall was obviously saturated from a leak deep within the wall, then we had to call the plumber. A minor repair has been done but the wall will need digging out as will the floor. If we don’t remedy this, we will damage the structure of the house.


Next, the spring around the shock absorber sheared off and a bit of it was on our drive with the car listing to one side. It was tow trucked away. We live in a nation of speed bumps and they are slowly but surely damaging the suspension of our cars and parts and bearings don’t last as long as they used to. We were left car less for three days and had to pay for two return train fares a day and then the final repair on our car. (Two new springs and bearings on the steering)


Finally, the wood burner needed repairing. (Call Robbie the wonder blacksmith in the fix it) In one month, we had two major and one minor bill that we had to pay for. This could happen to anyone and is a reminder to all of us that we need to have savings. Not savings for days out, holidays and new clothes but major savings for the doodah that hits the fan every now and then. If you’re plumbing needed work, if your car broke down, if any structural work needed remedying, would you have the savings?

Savings come in two forms as far as I’m concerned, big piles of doodah and usual piles of doodah. Usual piles are new items that need replacing such as a washing machine or fridge freezer whilst big piles of doodah will arrive without warning and sometimes all come in one month! Thanks to the plumbing, car and wood stove for reminding me that I’m doing the right thing by continuing to live frugally whilst I put money aside in case I need it as well as putting money aside every month to pay off my mortgage in eight years.

Over to you Dear Reader, do you save? We save 15% of our joint income every month and top up our instant access savings account. When it reaches a level which we are happy with, anything over that amount gets moved to long term savings; does anyone else have a system for saving?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

Cornish Saffron Cake

frugal food

Hello Dear Reader,

There is one day left if you still haven’t voted for ‘Frugal Queen’ to be best Food Blog and/or Best Thrifty Blog. Please click on the link on the right and follow the instructions given by the MAD awards. Thanks to everyone who has voted.

Now………….Saffron Cake. When I made this before, everyone wanted the recipe. Get ready with the elasticated waist band and let it out a bit as this has got to be the most caloric treat I cook. I sniff it and feed the rest to Dearly Beloved!

I make mine in the bread machine and the recipe is adapted for my machine. This makes a 2lb loaf, so if your machine can handle that, then go ahead and try this recipe. I’ve never made it by hand as it has a wet buttery dough not dis-similar to Brioche dough so it would be very difficult and buttery to handle. You will need to add the ingredients in the order as I’ve listed them. You all asked about Saffron; it’s less expensive than you think. It’s sold in boxes the size of a small match box (£2) and it’s sold here in health food shops, or shops that specialise in herbs and spices. Our local Arabic and Asian shops sell it too……..well they do in Plymouth. Take a really good pinch of saffron and soak it in 4 tablespoons of boiling water and leave over night. The scented water will be bright red in the morning and will turn your cake a golden colour.

Ingredients:

4 medium eggs,
3/4 of a cup of melted butter,
1/2 cup of milk
Strain the saffron water and add the scented water to the bread machine.
4 cups of Strong Bread Flour,
1 tsp of salt
3 tablespoons of sugar,
1 1/2 tsp of dried fast action yeast.
1 1/2 cups of mixed dried fruit (Sultanas, raisins and mixed peel)

Set your machine to a medium crust, large loaf and use the ‘Sweet’ setting. The last time I made this, I used the bread setting and the texture was airy and almost holey and the sweet setting gives the cake more of a buttery denser texture and flavour. My machine takes around 2.5 hours to make this. It’s worth the wait.


Slice thickly, serve warm with butter. Then go to the gym for an hour on a spinning bike and you’ll be fine!

I hope everyone North of me is OK and have coped with the snow. It’s cold here again and I’m glad of the wood fire keeping us warm. Does any one have any Saffron Cake or Saffron bun tales? Has anyone ever eaten any in Cornwall? You can buy these but they will skimp on the ingredients and still make you pay around £4 for a saffron cake. If you have any oranges, then the freshly grated zest makes this even more indulgent.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxx

Scrappy Quilt progress

frugal quilting


Hello Dear Reader,

Blogger is misbehaving today! I’ve tried to blog earlier today and the post kept disappearing so I gave up and went and did some sewing.

 I’m 28 blocks away from completing the top. I love the chaos of this quilt. It has lots of donated fabric, some jumble sale vintage pillow cases and some recycled shirts and pyjamas from charity shops. Of all the quilts I have made, I like this the best as it epitomises the spirit of make do and mend quilting. The squares are not all perfect but they all seem to line up on the diagonal even if they don’t on the vertical and horizontal.

If anyone reading this is interested in learning to quilt and wants to come along and try any Saturday or a weekday in the school holidays, then send me an email and I will arrange more workshops. Talking of workshops, the Frugal Dinner party workshop and Sewing for Beginners workshops are full and there is one place left for the Scrappy Quilting around the World workshop. If you grab that last place then you’ll learn how to make a quilt like the one above. If you are anywhere in Devon or Cornwall, or even Somerset and you’re prepared to pay for my transport and you can get a group of three together then I will happily bring my workshop and sewing machines to you.

I’m now going to shamelessly plug our local chimney sweep and blacksmith who came to our rescue this weekend. Robbie, our local sweep is also a blacksmith and qualified hetas engineer who installs and maintains wood burners. The baffle plate fell into the fire, fortunately we’d just lit the fire and it wasn’t as hot as it could be and we called Robbie to come and take a look. Some bolts had burnt through and he took it away to fix it. We called him late on Saturday afternoon and he returned the mended plate and installed it just after lunch today. Thanks Robbie for doing this on a Sunday as you knew it was getting colder and we rely on our stove as our predominant form of heating. If you need a sweep in South East Cornwall, or a stove installing or a stove repairing then here’s his details.


Over to you Dear Reader. Has anyone had a wood stove mishaps whilst it was alight?(Smoky and Scary!) Is anyone else staying indoors to quilt, knit or sew to keep warm? Is anyone down under indoors cooling off by the air con and sewing to stay cool?

Finally, does anyone fancy meeting up at the South West Spring Quilt Festival at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter on Friday 5th April? I will be there and looking for ideas and bargains and to see if I can try an Accuquilt. Who fancies are girly day out? We can meet for coffee, a chat and a wander round together. Email me and we can meet there.

I’m off now to clean up the thread bomb in my sewing room.

Until tomorrow,

Keep warm and lots of love,

Froogsxxxxxx

Thrifty Recycled Fabric for £2 a metre?

charity shop bargains, frugal quilting

Hello Dear Reader,

I’m a thrifty quilter. I use new fabric when it’s donated but mostly I use recycled fabric and sheets or duvet covers for quilt backs. I bought a king size cotton quilt cover this morning for £3 and it will back two quilts. I’ll use it until I need it and then take it apart for quilts. I know some of you have charity shops that have out priced themselves in your area but ours, here in Liskeard, are still reasonably priced. I’m just going to have a little gloat. Liskeard came 12th in Britain’s best places to live, according The Sunday Times. It’s due to affordable housing, schools, public transport, hospitals and dental services, library and leisure facilities. I knew it was good here and now the Sunday Times agrees.

I bought two cotton pillow cases for 25p each.

I bought the man’s shirt of the right. Which I washed, dried in front of the fire and cut down. I measured it against a fat quarter and there’s easily more than a metre/yard of fabric in a man’s shirt. I pay £2 for men’s shirt, usually from the Woodside Animal Shelter Charity Shop or the Salvation Army charity shop. If you’re ever in Cornwall on holiday please support our local charities by buying goods from our charity shops.

The fabulous black, grey and white shirt above was also £2 and I think the design will be a great contrast against pale colours.

Also, one of the best buys for recycling are men’s pyjamas. The shop was selling night wear for £2 and these red and patterned cotton pyjamas had loads of fabric and came to almost a metre and a half.


I cut them down into 2.5″ strips or squares to use in my quilting. This shirt in particular is going to be a welcome addition to my Scrappy Round the World quilt, which is coming along slowly but I have some time off coming up so I’ll be able to get it finished.

Over to you Dear Reader. Are you a thrifty quilter? Do you use recycled fabric? Does anyone else make their own charm packs or jelly rolls? Feel free to have a good moan about charity shops in your area. Did anyone feel their town should have made the final cut in the Sunday Times Best Places to live?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxx

Salmon, Mushroom and Spinach Tart with rocket

Budget recipes, Froog's Finest


Hello Dear Reader,

Most of my meals cost under £1 a head; sometimes I allow that budget to go over, knowing that some days we eat a veggie stew and the whole budget balances out of the week. You’ve heard of Tesco Finest, well I’m introducing some recipes that are Froogs’ Finest. I’ll start with Salmon, Mushroom and Spinach Tart.

You will need:
Shortcrust pastry - mine’s from Aldi
A pack of spinach - well washed with the stalks pulled off,
Half a punnet of mushrooms, wiped clean and chopped into chunks.
A small knob of butter,
6 eggs - well beaten and seasoned
2 Salmon fillets - steamed in the microwave for three minutes.
100g of grated cheddar - I used half fat

1. Blind bake the pastry case - it’s better without the soggy bottom.
2. Steam a fillet of salmon, leave to cool and flake.


3. Fry the mushrooms.
4. Add the spinach and cook lightly until just wilted.
5. Assemble into the pastry case.

6. Pour beaten eggs onto the spinach and salmon.
7. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
8.Bake in a moderate oven until the egg has set and the cheese has melted.
9. Serve with rocket - or anything you want - it’s Friday night so we treated ourselves to a 90p bag of rocket from Aldi - the rest is left for our lunch tomorrow.


Next, is the same ingredients again but with only one beaten egg. I rolled out some puff pastry, again ready made and from Aldi and spread the mixture over it.


I next rolled the whole thing into a tube.



I cut them into pin wheels, as if I was making sausage rolls. I placed them on a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper and baked them in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes. You could glaze them with beaten egg but that seemed a waste to me.


Here’s the final result. They are very filling and one with some salad will suffice for lunch. You could make a refined smaller version of these and serve them at a buffet or bigger and send them off with the children for lunch. I used half a bag frozen Alaskan Salmon from Aldi which cost £2 to make a tart for six and ten salmon and spinach pinwheels. This is a more expensive Friday night treat but we’d been working up to a nice treat all week.


Ready for the close up? I think they’re good enough for a party.


Over to you Dear Reader. Does any one have any quick ideas for puff pastry to make either a picnic item or packed lunch morsel? It’s calorific so does anyone avoid it? I’m a great believer in a tasty treat a week, does anyone else share that point of view? Also, the voting for the MAD blog awards ends soon so if you could cast your vote my way, then I would be extremely grateful. Finally, I have a new ‘hotmail’ and I can’t work it just yet so if you’ve left a message that you’re coming to one of my workshops- can you leave me a comment with your email address - which I will not publish - so I can confirm the upcoming workshops.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please vote by clicking the link and following the instructions to Best Food Blog and Best Thrifty Blog - thanks for your support xxxx