Monthly Archives: May 2014

Vegan burgers

staycation

Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve had a lovely day with Dearly Beloved. We went for a walk in the woods, pottered in the garden and walked into town and did some charity shop browsing. I bought a skirt which has already been upcycled into a bag.

Whilst I was in Totnes, I called into some of the local shops, one being Green Life. I bought some vegan burgers as you’ve got to try everything once. They are not cheap, but I suppose not expensive either……..though I think everything is expensive. I also bought some Tofu, which we love and we’ll eat that another day. The burgers were delicious and if you ever see them for sale near you then give them a try.


I’ve splashed mine with Sweet Chilli Sauce. I’m going to try to make my own but I don’t think I will go down the vegan option as I will use egg to bind them.

Some days I remember that I am frugal so every now and then I can buy something ready made, kick back and get supper wrapped up in ten minutes.

Over to you Dear Reader, can we be so frugal that we forget to take it easy once in a while? I’ve had the most laid back week and feel completely relaxed after my staycation. It’s not over yet but I’ve just had the best time.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

Happiness is……….

staycation



…………..curling up on the sofa with Dearly Beloved when he got home from work. Veggie tray bake with chopped up and roasted Bratwurst. Simple supper and simple pleasures.


That just about sums up our simple and thrifty life.

Today was dog grooming day where all three dogs were ferried to the groomers for their three monthly clip. I had a friend come over for coffee, a catch up and a bit of lunch.

There is nothing glamorous, exciting or particularly busy about my life. I go to work and in the holidays I staycate.

I wouldn’t change it as I love it just as it is.

Dearly Beloved is home now for three days and we’ve booked time for us. We won’t go far and we won’t do much but we will do it together.

Over to you Dear Reader, how do you simplify your life?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxx

Foodie day and reviews

staycation

Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve just had the best time today! I had the opportunity to take a friend out as we really only get to see each other in the school holidays. Today, it was my turn to treat her and we headed for Totnes.

If you’ve visited Devon then you must have visited this beautiful little town. It is a foodie paradise without being snobby, expensive or pretentious. It’s the sort of place where you can have an affordable lunch in relaxed surroundings without feeling you have to be on your best behaviour. Totnes is also a great place to buy local food. It has lots of specialist shops where I go every few months to top up with gluten free products that I would need to buy from the internet. It’s also a great place to buy natural toiletries, chemical free food and we saw lots of fair trade, organic and local produce. It’s also full of charity shops, great bookshops and you can just wander and mooch about at a very relaxed pace.



Our first stop was for lunch. We visited Fat Lemons Cafe in Ticklemore street. www.fatlemons-totnes.co.uk It was a first visit and it was relaxed and although small, it certainly wasn’t cramped. My friend had the sweet potato and lentil soup, I had the Spanakopita, hummus, salad and pitta. My lunch was £7.50 and although delicious, it was a small portion and Dearly Beloved would have needed two. The spanakopita was a couple of tablespoons of spinach and feta wrapped in a sheet of filo, more like a samosa than the layers of filo pastry and healthy sized portion of spinach and feta I would have liked for over seven quid. The salad was very delicious, as may I add, was the mouthful of Spanakopita, although the hummus was too liquid and quite bland. My friend’s soup and bread for a fiver was really substantial and I would recommend that. I would recommend the Spanakopita too but you might want to have something else with it as it certainly was more of a sample than a substantial Devonian lunch for a substantial Cornish woman. The cafe sells the most amazing selection of teas, all served as loose tea and it tea pots. It’s worth a visit for those alone. The only down size was the ‘I’m going for a pee pee’ spoon, with a key you have to ask for, if you want to use the loo. I felt as if I was asking the teacher for a hall pass and walking through the cafe with the key attached to the spoon shouted ‘Customer just about to have a wee!’ Maybe I’m fussy here but if you have to lock the loo and customers have to ask then it might put people off.

Overall experience, I would recommend it. We looked at other menus whilst looking around Totnes and the Fat Lemons cafe was relatively cheap compared to many of them. There were others with similar menus with higher prices so if you want a light lunch and you’re in Totnes, then have a look.


We stayed in Totnes all day. We just pottered and chatted and caught up on lots of news. It was great to have a charity shop companion with me. We tried on clothes, looked at books and household items and had such a great time. As I bought the lunch, I was treated to a cup of tea on our way back to the car park. We called into The vintage tearooms www.vintageteatotnes.co.uk They specialise in afternoon tea. You get the full treatment here, bone china, crisp table clothes, beautiful surrounding, and the most delicious selections of tea. It is relatively expensive but again, so much cheaper than lots of places that specialise in the full service with cake stand, tiny sandwiches, delicious desserts and vintage china. It felt like a welcome haven after a damp afternoon of shopping and browsing around Totnes.



The quality of the tea for less than £2.50 a pot was fantastic. I had de-caff, sorry to be a bore, but I can’t appreciate tea that gives me a head ache. They had every type of tea and none of it was expensive even though it was loose tea and some of the finest products you could buy. A pot of tea was the same price no matter which blend. In these times of squeezing every penny out of the customer, that was very reasonable.



The surrounding were absolutely charming. This would be a wonderful place for a date (if you’re reading this Dearly Beloved, the answer is yes, I would love to go) and it all felt very relaxed and genteel without being in any way stuffy. I don’t like formal or stuffy and I felt it was the perfect place for a relax and a cuppa before our journey home to Cornwall.



If you get the chance to go to Totnes, then call into either of these establishments, relax and enjoy yourselves. The vintage tea rooms was by far the loveliest place I’ve ever sat and relaxed in with a pot of tea and I can’t wait to go back there again one day. We had a scone and jam each too. The scones were light and buttery, not at all dry and full of fruit. I would have preferred a thicker jam that didn’t run away when I tried to eat it but that’s a personal preference to have a more set preserve. The clotted cream was just lovely (I know, the scones was full of gluten and I will suffer most of the night and probably tomorrow) A cream tea cost £6.95 per person which is a pot of tea, two scones, clotted cream and jam. We shared one of those and it’s more than enough as the scones are just huge.


Customer photo from Trip Advisor - we didn’t eat the afternoon tea but we saw this being served. It looked lovely.


I do remember that I’m mainly a food blogger who writes about thrifty and affordable food. As such, affordable is subjective and plenty of people seemed to be eating everything in sight in Totnes. I think the places we visited were good value in comparison to a lot of eateries all of which charged a lot more. Totnes is known as a foodie hub of really good, local, organic and seasonal food and it’s a great place for a very chilled out day out.

Totnes………..I will be back!

After all the scone, cream and jam…………..a big run is planned for tomorrow.

Over to you Dear Reader, where do you recommend for a place to eat affordably? Where can you go that’s not stuffy, where mums can bring prams, or walkers can turn up in walking boots, or people can sit outside with their dogs and relax and eat without breaking the bank?

We paid for all our food, the proprietors didn’t know I was coming and my opinions are my own. I would recommend both establishments.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxx

How do you budget for major purchases?

frugal home

Hello Dear Reader,

Today, the last phase of double glazing was installed. In all, it’s been a major expense and we have other major expenses to cope with this year and next. I tackle major purchases in the way I tackled debt; in manageable chunks. Some people would have taken a slower approach but if I have to do something I don’t want to do, and let’s face it, no one wants to be without any spare money for months on end……….then I like to get it over and done with. It’s why I don’t borrow money anymore, I can afford to fix up our home but I won’t be able to afford anything else whilst I do it. It was like that when we were paying off debt, we could afford to pay off our debt but we certainly couldn’t afford to pay off anything else.

Dearly Beloved and I have been together since 1996 and we have been without money more often than we have had any more that just to survive. We had to save to buy the children’s clothes, we had to save and go without to pay for their school trips and certainly had to save and go without to buy they Christmas and birthday presents. Going without for periods of our life is just what we are used to.

It didn’t kill us then and it isn’t going to kill us now.

We decided to replace the rattling and warmth leaking single glazed original window and replace with double glazing. I know, not to everyone’s taste but they keep noise out and the warmth in. As you can see, our new neighbours are really close, we’re also a mid-terraced cottage so we have noise all around us. They have cost thousands and so we could spread the cost, we had some fitted in February, some in April and the last fitted today. That has meant that we could not spend a penny on anything else over the last few months which included not over paying the mortgage. Whilst the interest rates are at an all time low, it’s been a nuisance not to have the money to do that but we will catch up over the next three months and bring the mortgage balance down.


Finances will continue to be a challenge and we’ll have to watch every bill, every menu plan and every journey by car will have to come out of a very tight budget. So, how do we afford to budget for the major purchases? We go without to sacrifice to afford it. We are currently saving for a new boiler, new chimney and new wood burner so we’ll be sacrificing for another year and one thing is for sure, it won’t kill us.

Over to you, what’s your philosophy on budgeting for the major purchases? How do you save?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

Making do and thrifting

Frugal Christmas, upcycling, Yoosta-Bee

Hello Dear Reader,

I have a sewing machine and bags of vintage fabric. I have several bag patterns and time on my hands. I intend to use this week off work productively. It’s also six months until Christmas!

I have a very low key festive period but I’m happy to make gifts for others to give to people.

I don’t charge much for my bags and they soon sell out.

I’ll be taking them to table top sales and fund raisers where you can rent a stall for a reasonable amount over the end of November and beginning of December.

I’ll spend the next few months making stock to sell.

All of it will be made by me and everything will be 100% homemade and recycled. It will be good to know that bags, cushions, bunting and lap quilts will be given to people as Christmas gifts and that I will have recycled and upcycled no end of fabric that Yoosta-Bee something else.

This bag is made from odds and ends of Laura Ashley fabric from my mum’s curtain making stage. She was adept at furniture covering and curtain making and also did it to supplement her income. I now sew to supplement mine. I make quilts from old clothes so I can sell them at a reasonable price.


There is no time to lose so I must get back to my sewing machine.

Even the label and ribbon are up-cycled. I make bags for the goodies to go away in from old magazines, I don’t buy them but fish them out of the recycling bin in the supermarket car park…………..I read them first and then use them for wrapping paper and to make carrier bags.


Over to you Dear Reader, who else is going to pull themselves out of the financial depths by doing some extra work? Who else is already making either for themselves and their family, charity or to make some money over the festive period. It’s not long so you’d better get going soon.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

Staycation - Day #1

product review, staycation

Hello Dear Reader,

Here I am in my ‘holiday cottage’ in Cornwall, on my staycation! Ha! I always live in a holiday cottage in Cornwall so instead of feeling bad about the cold and rainy weather, I can feel great that I’m here on my holiday and I’m going to make the most of it.

I am to take part in craft workshops, fine dining, moorland and cliff side walks, out door exercise, relaxing and lazy lie ins in the most laid back part of the UK. I will therefore be sewing and quilting, bag making, cooking, getting out and about for walks and catching up with some great friends.

What better way to start my day than to cook up a full English for Dearly Beloved and myself. I was sent a new ceramic coated frying pan from Delimano who have really good quality cookware from Italy. As an avid cook, I wasn’t going to say no. It’s a light weight pan so I wouldn’t advise you to get it smoking hot for steaks but it’s going to be a stalwart for weekend breakfast here at Thrift Cottage. However, as some one with arthritic hands that just can’t lift heavy cookware, this is a great alternative. It also really easy to clean and I just wiped it over with a damp cloth and it was ready to put away.


Come back and see me over the next week and I will be blogging away and sharing my week with you. Over to you, who is home with children this week or looking after grand children? What are you getting up to this week? It’s a British bank holiday on Monday, the schools are on holiday for the week and families make the most of this time to get out and about and entertain themselves locally. So, what will you be up to this week?

See you later, oh yes, I will be keeping you up to date.

Love Froogs xxxx

Disclaimer - Delimano sent me the pan to review and the opinions are my own.

Keeping on top of the small things

frugal home

Hello Dear Reader,

Time is precious for everyone and the less time spent doing any sort of housework is best for all of us. We get by with a lot less clothes than some because we keep on top of the laundry. The weather has been good so laundry has dried outside. I then get the ironing done daily and keep the turn over regular and into small manageable loads.

Like most Brits, I don’t have a laundry room and have to sort the laundry in the living room after I’ve got it dry. I have a clear system so I get the job done really quickly.

I sort into, tea towels and kitchen rags, towels, underwear and then my clothes and DB’s clothes. I’m then ready to get to work.

I get the towels folded and take them upstairs straight away and put into the linen cupboard. I keep that sorted into dog towels, hand towels, bath towels and flannels. I then know where everything is and where everything goes.

I then iron all my tea towels and fold the kitchen rags and immediately take them to the kitchen and get them in the drawer. The laundry pile is disappearing in just a few minutes.

I then fold all the underwear and straight away, take it upstairs and put it into our respective drawers so it’s where it should be. There is nothing worse than an empty knicker drawer!!

All I’m left with then is our clothes and I can iron those in a few minutes and again, we put them straight away either hung in a wardrobe or into a drawer. Simply and in a few minutes, the job is done.

The iron lives on a shelf in the downstairs loo as does the ironing board. Everything is put away immediately.


I can then straighten the sofa, run a dust pan and brush over the floor to collect any fluff or lint and the living room is back to normal. I like to get as much housework done on a weekday evening so we can have the weekends to ourselves.

If you are in Cornwall, don’t hang out the washing before you go to work in the morning………..a huge band of rain will sweep the county although it will clear by mid to late afternoon. Put the clothes horse in the window and dry the washing there……it’s the best we can do this weekend! Mine will be hung in the back porch.

Over to you Dear Reader, it would be great if you could share your tips on minimising housework or at least simplifying it. All of your hints and tips would be really great.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

What a load of rubbish!

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post



Hello Dear Reader,

Today, in Twittersphere, the argument has raged on whether you can feed yourself and your family on £80 a week. As usual, an out of touch politician had no idea how much groceries cost and thought his family (with a joint income of £350,000) spent around £80 and then back pedaled to say that’s what they spent on fruit and veg.

Rose Prince, in the Daily Mail, thought said politician was out of touch and you would almost have to eat supermarket own brands and have nothing worth eating for £80 a week! You can read the article (if you need a laugh) HERE

There are elections tomorrow, and I shall vote but really they are a rum lot and none of them worth the wages they are paid!

Out of touch? I should blinkin’ well say so.

Well get this politicians, which ever denomination you ‘stand’ for! You haven’t a clue!

People are struggling to get by! Spiralling living costs, rising house prices which obviously have a knock on effect on the price of renting too, and families with the burden of debt mean the only area where families can cut back and that’s because they HAVE to, is the food budget!

Get real you snuffle nose wally! If you want people to vote for you, then know the reality that the voters are living in. I must add, I make no distinction between a snuffle nose wally and a plummy public school boy……if you don’t know how real people live, their issues, their concerns and the biting reality of having to do with less, then don’t expect us to put a tick by your name!

Don’t think you can pop down to the Deli as if you are ‘street’ for not sending your housekeeper and buy your artisan bread and think you are one of us and that we are all in it together.

As for the Rose Prince article, I know families who just dream of having £80 a week. No surprise that the tabloids are condescending to the ordinary folk of the UK, and equally no surprise that the leaders of the major political parties haven’t a clue either.

If issues of debt are biting into your family and you are struggling to pay the bills and feed your family then take action and take advice from Step Change or Christians Against Poverty. If you are working and managing to pay and want to get on top of your debts then come back at the weekend when I will upload my first How to get debt free webinar, which is free to view and you will be able to come back to when ever you would like.

Over to you Dear Reader, please feel free to use the comments to blast at aforementioned politicians without a clue!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs,

Dog tired!

Uncategorized

Hello Dear Reader,

I’ve exercised myself into a heap tonight. Sometimes, I don’t sleep very well so I purposefully wear myself out by running a few more kilometres. I’ve succeeded and now I’m too shattered to write.

I will sleep well tonight.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Let me help you out of debt

debt free, Debt reduction
//player.vimeo.com/video/95676653


Hello Dear Reader

I was approached a few months ago by a webinar company who thought I could help others get out of debt by hosting online tutorials.

I gave it some thought as I always promote ways of making extra money. The problem was, it would make money out of people who really couldn’t afford it. It didn’t sit comfortably with me.

I decided to run a series of tutorials to help people get out of debt.

This is just an introduction. Come back to my blog and I will let you know when the webinars will be loaded and the time that I will be available for live direct feedback via twitter. As always, I don’t say I have the answer or suggest that you do things my way, however, if you want advice or to know how I manage to stay debt free then I am more than happy to help.

I hope you enjoy the vlog as I give you a taster of what’s to come.

I really hate to think of families struggling in these difficult financial times and really hope I can give some reassurance and even guidance to anyone I can.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx