Monthly Archives: November 2015

How can we afford to be charitable at Christmas?

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Hello Dear Reader,

You sent me a lovely email and you know I love to hear from you, explaining that it’s difficult to give at Christmas when money’s tight. You said you feel under pressure. You wanted some different ideas on how to be charitable even if you’ve not got much money.
Here’s some ideas.
Have a clear out. Every charity shop is always on the look out for donations, books, toys, clothing and household items. Go round the house and fill a couple of bags and take it to a charity shop if your choice.
Pop into the British Heart Foundation. Well, pop into any charity shop, whether it’s for a new to you cardi, or on the look out for pressies for someone else. Our local ‘dog’ shop otherwise known as Woodside, has some lots of toys, books and donated gifts. They also have a Christmas raffle and people have donated some lovely prizes. Every pound spent is vital to their work in rescuing animals.
Christmas cards. Even though I buy my Christmas cards in January when they are cheap, I still buy them from Oxfam. Any profit made goes to overseas aid. You can choose any charity and someone will benefit.
School Christmas Fayre - you can donate tinned or jarred goods for the tombola, you can make a plateful of fairy cakes, find a gift you’ve never used and donate it to the raffle. Donations don’t have to be grand, every donation helps.
Stand behind a stall. Every PTA, fund raising organisation, the kids’ scout group, football club are fund raising at this time of year and your time is really valuable to them. Fold the raffle tickets, pour the tea, put the tables out as helpers are often in short supply so donate your time.
Donate some food. The Trussel Trust needs every item of food and are having food drives all year but are really in need at this time of year. Not just food but toiletries. Look out for shower gels or anti perspirant for a quid and pop one into the collection box by the tills.
Now over to you dear Reader, I know you’ll have lots of ideas of how to be charitable at Christmas when you’re on a tight budget. Here’s my final thought, don’t feel guilty, if you’ve got nothing to give but time and you give your time, you’ve been immensely generous because you’ve given all you’ve got.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

Do it your way?

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Hello Dear Reader,
Quick hello tonight and hopefully a provocation of a lively debate. I’m a social media nosey parker and I’m being bombarded with Christmas. I’ve decided against it totally and as I advise ‘do it your way’ my way, when I’m happiest is to not do it. I get people love it, some and sticking my neck out, for all the wrong reasons. After all the centre of it is a Christian festival.
Here’s my concern, why are the decorations up so early? Not just around towns but in domestic homes? What happened to Christmas being celebrated at, well……Christmas? Twelve days of Christmas? Remember that one?
I’d got to the stage of putting up decorations on Christmas Eve and taking them down a week later. Now, I’m so sick of the commercial hype, that I’m rejecting the commercialism altogether.
I feel more connected to the festival without tinsel.
Over to you, what’s with the decorations up for over a month?
Love Froogs xxxx

Bleak Friday!

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Hello Dear Reader,
There are many American things that I love that we never had without the offering from their land. Sweet corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and pumpkins. Fantastic, every one of them. It’s a beautiful country with so many features that make it truly wonderful. Having visited America, it’s greatest assets are its people, welcoming, hospitable and extremely polite.
Today, may all you welcoming, hospitable, polite lovely Americans enjoy your national celebration of Thanksgiving . I know those of you who drop by and read here are the least likely to be part of the shopping orgy that’ll take place tomorrow. As for the UK following, like drugged sheep into the spew that is Black Friday, well, what a nonsense!

There is of course the antithesis which we can all take part in.
Buy nothing!
Not so much as a coffee or sandwich.
It’s your way of saying, I don’t want anything to do with this bullshit.
Over to you, who else will buy nothing?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

Sharing good news

debt free

Hello Dear Reader,

I received this joyous email and asked if I could share it with you. Knowing people are working their way out of debt and towards saving literally has me doing a happy dance.

Here’s what this Dear Reader told me

Hi Jane , loved your blog on takeaway/ wine and entitlement to treats .

This week , despite being in debt, I treated myself several times ! .
Firstly I treated myself to paying my annual car insurance with money from the ” car savings pot” without having to put in on a credit card for the first time in years .

I then spent a lovely chunk of money making the final payment on my final credit card … a couple of months earlier than planned ( I have had a credit card since I was 18), and also splashed out on a mortgage overpayment meaning I have just under a year left to pay till mortgage free .
Next month I plan to treat myself to a shopping day when I buy the ( much reduced) Christmas shopping/ gifts for immediate family only… all from the “Christmas pot” without a plastic card in sight “.

Unfortunately my extravagant treats have meant I will give our works Christmas meal a miss, buy no new outfit for the festive period and limit additional food costs to the one day when all the family are with us for the day…paid for with some eBay sales .
Strangely I don’t feel too deprived !

As promised, no names but isn’t that just such a wonderful email to get and I’m sure you’ll join with me in wishing this Dear Reader all the best for Christmas and a debt free future.

I love it!!!

Flippin’ fantastic news and all the very best to a different way of debt free living xxxxxx

Love Froogs xxxx




How can you eat well for less?

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Hello Dear Reader,
When I left home, I had a few cookery skills. I could peel and prep veggies, I could grill meat, make basic cakes but I’m wasn’t and I’m not a gourmet. I worked in catering as a waitress, a cook, washed up, and even ran a pub. I learned along the way to cost food, break down through basic arithmetic and then applied that simple skills to running a home on a budget. No one taught me, I didn’t wake up with those skills and I still don’t consider myself anything more than a basic home cook.
So, what if you find budgeting, planning, food preparation and general cookery difficult, where do you start? I’m going to remind myself of what that was like because I had to muddle my way through the best I could.
The most basic place to start is to work out how much money you have to spend.
Look at this
Household income - after tax what do you have. That’s your starting figure.
Deduct your outgoings in the following order
1. Mortgage or rent.
2. Gas, electricity, water, home insurance,
3. Any debt repayments
4. Food budget
5. Anything else.
Our grocery budget is £60 a week, that includes toiletries, cleaning products, pet food and all food. That feeds three of us and three dogs. That’ll be high for some families and not enough for others. You’ll have to do your own sums to work out what you have. I know that’s not as easy for everyone but it’s always worth trying.
Once you’ve got your figure, start with very basic menu planning. Here’s some simple ideas, bolognaise and pasta, beef casserole, cottage pie, chicken stew, soup and crusty bread, fish pie, roast lunch, carbonara, pasta salad, sausages, mash, veggies and gravy. All very simple, none need any great skills and any of those recipes can be found just by googling or looking up BBC recipes.
The main meals are the most expensive but there’s still breakfast and lunch. You’ll need to try and get some variety to alleviate boredom so you don’t reach for the takeaway. You don’t need to cook everything and all of us buy ready made pasta, jars of sauce from pasta sauce to curry sauce. I’m happy to use value brands as that fits my budget and I’d encourage you to try them too whether porridge or curry sauce.
You can also find and use some cookery ‘hacks’ or cheats. I buy frozen veg, such as stew pack vegetables, packs of sliced frozen leeks that you can add to casseroles. I buy tinned chickpeas, canelini beans and kidney beans and I add these to veggie stews, curries and casseroles as it bulks out meals with cheap and healthy protein. I also buy casserole sachets that make quick and easy meals such a coq au vin and you just follow the instructions on the back of the pack. Don’t be afraid to use instant mash potatoes, frozen fish, boil in the bag rice, ready made pastry, just add boiling water.custard or cheese sauce. Even if you just have a few hacks or cheats to make your life easier every now and then.
Work day lunches can eat into a budget so here’s a few hints and tips. Look out in poundland and budget stores for durable lunch boxes and containers, I have a cupboard of these but I didn’t buy them all at once. Also, keep a stock of plastic bags, cling film and foil for wrapping and keeping lunches. Every day suppers make great lunches that can be reheated in a microwave such as pasta, stews and mash or soups. There’s the obvious sandwiches and my advice is to get your lunch ready the night before and leave it in the fridge ready to take. When I went to work by train, I would take a small flask of coffee and toast wrapped in foil in my back pack and feel like the other commuters although they’d paid too much for a take out breakfast.
Children’s dsnacks can be planned for too even though it’s not good to encourage anyone to eat between meals. Shop bought snacks are often worryingly high in sugar, fat and salt and there are plenty of alternatives. A pot of chopped carrots, some raisins or chopped fruit are not expensive. Homemade muffins, cheese scones or flapjacks are cheap and easy to make a batch that can be eaten throughout the week. We stick to apples as snacks as both of us eat two a day, mid morning and mid afternoon.
I’ll try and sum it all up. Set a budget. Get together a repertoire of basic recipes. Use hacks and cheats. Create a menu plan of seven main meals per week. Plan breakfasts and snacks. Use leftovers reheated for lunch, make sandwiches the night before, keep some fruit for snacks and take a small flask in your backpack for the commute.
Weekly, stock take your food supplies and don’t buy what you don’t need. Never shop without a list and don’t buy what’s not on the list. Don’t be seduced by offers or stock piling for the sake of it. If there’s any leftovers eat them for lunch the next day or freeze them for ready meals.
Here’s my plan for the week
Turkey chilli and rice - some for next day lunch.
Roast shoulder of pork, roast pork, veggies and gravy - main meals for two days, plus small lunches.
Beef stew, cabbage and carrots
Fish cakes and mixed frozen veg - homemade
Meatballs (frozen from supermarket) with homemade tomato sauce with pasta
Chicken kievs (frozen from supermarket) with mash and veggies.
Breakfast - yoghurt, toast, cereals, fruit.
Lunches - leftovers, sandwiches, soup
Snacks - apples, carrots and sultanas
Have a go, I didn’t get it right the first time and you’ll take time to build up a few skills whether cooking, budgeting or planning but you will get better the more you do it.
Best of luck and let me know how you get on.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxx

Winter on a budget

frugal home
Hello Dear Reader,
Winter is expensive but we keep on top of the bills by being well prepared. Those scruffy old rubble sacks next to the corner of the photo have plenty of kindling. Every piece of paper and cardboard is tightly wound into twists for fire lighting. The curtains have their extra winter linings clipped in place and every curtain is closed as soon as it’s dark.
This tiny cottage is well insulated with double glazed windows and doors with two foot thick solid walls

So it doesn’t need a great deal of heating. We heat the lounge and leave all the internal doors open and heat travels around the house. There’s no need for any other heating other than the log stove. A full wood shed costs us £80 and lasts three months. Two log sheds full last us for all of the cold weather we get here. But, what if you don’t live in a tiny cottage in the mildest part of the UK, what then?

Heat yourself. Keep yourself and family members wrapped up. My summer tee shirts and tanks become thermal base layers and I’ll often wear a tank, tee shirt, long sleeved top and a jumper. I wear leggings under trousers or under trackies at home to keep warm. I’ll even wear socks and slippers so I don’t lose heat through my feet. It means I don’t light the fire until it’s dark even on cool days.
Keep moving. If I’m busy, I’m warm. I’ll go on errands, shop on foot, walk the dogs, get the housework done and keep as mobile as possible. Unlike some people, it’s not the time of year to sit in my sewing room for too long as sitting still means I get cold. I also try to get out in the daylight and get some garden tidying done.
Warm on the inside. It’s soup season. I add lentils to everything. Veggies with stock and lentils. Leek and potato and chicken stock with winter veggies. Cook up cheap veggie stews in the slow cooker and make sure we get a substantial hot meal inside us everyday which really helps with winter warming.
Keep the heat in. All my curtains are lined but what if yours are not and you can’t sew? Check out charity shops or bargain shops such as Primark for duvet covers, fleece blankets or brushed cotton sheets. Next, you’ll need some safety pins and to take your curtains down. Pin the duvet cover or blanket to the top of the back of the curtain and you’ve got another insulating layer. I’ve seen door curtain rods in poundland and you can use double sided sticky foam which you can stick to the top of a door without doing any damage to secure the curtain pole. Again, look out for a single curtain or even a fleece blanket and make holes in the top so you can use the curtain rod to secure another layer to an u insulated door.
Those are just a few from me and now over to you Lovely readers. If someone’s renting, on a low income or a heat leaking house, how can they keep warm on a tight budget?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

I fancied a takeaway and a bottle of wine!

Recipe
Hello Dear Reader,
It’s Friday night, the weather has turned cold and wet and we drove home in the pouring rain. When we’re tired and we’ve done a week’s work it’s easy to think we deserve some treat. Well, I haven’t done back to back twelve hour shifts in the hospital and by the way, all hail to our NHS staff who do just that! I haven’t spent ten days straight, fours hours on, four off on a trawler. I haven’t worked days shifts, night shifts, back shifts for our emergency services. I’ve done an everyday job and I’m far from needing a treat. I drove past Morrisons and didn’t bother with the wine, passed the Chinese and just went home.
I dug around the fridge and found, leftover squash and sweet potato from supper last night, the last of the eggs, some dried up mushrooms, spring onions that need their outer leaves removing and a chunk of cooking bacon.
The cooking bacon cuts down into great lardons and are a useful addition to almost everything. As DB says, everything is better with bacon, even a bacon sandwich is better with more bacon.
It all got chopped up and cooked in a pan. When cooked, I added the end of a jar of sun dried tomatoes.
Even the oil won’t go to waste. Add wine vinegar, a spoon of Dijon mustard, shake and we’ve got some salad dressing. It’ll keep in the fridge until we need it.
Add the rest of the ingredients, a couple of beaten eggs and it went into a hot oven for fifteen minutes.
Served with a tin of beans and a dollop of garlic mayo, both leftovers from our last French trip.
Now, here’s my theory on what’s a treat. A treat is something you have on a special occasion and not each pay day, or after a week’s work as that’s a regular occurrence and to us, not a treat. I’ll save a takeaway for a birthday or anniversary and you know me, I’ll save the money too!
Leftovers used up, money in the bank and we made do with a glass of orange squash.
Feet up, watching catch up TV - Last Kingdom and an early night.
Over to you, has the ‘entitlement culture’ led people into thinking that the slightest thing deserves a treat or that everyone deserves a treat whether they’ve done something to deserve it or not?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxx

Get that slow cooker going!

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Hello Dear Reader,
I totally rely on my slow cooker at this time of year. We have a twenty mile journey home along twisty country roads, in the wet and dark and somewhere along the line, I usually get stuck behind a tractor. By the time I get home, I’m famished and will reach for the wrong food if I don’t have something to eat quickly. I prep the veg and casserole before I leave at 6.45 in the morning. I’m quite standard, beef or lamb with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, parsley, courgettes and tinned tomatoes.
It saves me loads of money too as it uses a fraction of the energy of an oven. It’s not just for the winter too, in the summer it saves unwanted heat as that kitchen just doesn’t need any more heat.
On Sunday, it’ll easily take a whole chicken and side veg to cook gently and keeps everything moist. I even put the spuds in and take them out, place them in a dish and mash them with a fork with the addition of the meat stock.
Rice pudding is great in a slow cooker too. Add a cup of pudding rice, three cups of milk and four tablespoons of sugar, stir and set the slow cooker for three hours. Just lovely.
I’m just thankful for a pot of lamb casserole on a cold wet night.
Over to you, what’s bubbling in your slow cooker?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxx

Hips don’t lie!

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Hello Dear Reader,
Oh heck! Weighed myself…..2lbs off target! It can and does easily slip back on. Carbs just stick to my arse! I’ve been so good for so long and then a spud here, some rice there then toast for breakfast!
So, if you see me going anywhere near a bread bin, throw the lid at me!
Back to low carb, loads of veggies, grilled meat as I sigh sadly at the butter dish!
However, lots of chilli and lime on my chicken, black pepper and lemon on my spinach and plenty of coriander on my salad.
Other than wiring my jaws shut, any suggestions to keep me motivated and in skimpy knickers not winter bloomers!
P.s Alan Pasty, don’t let me have any peanuts!
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx