Poppy Seed Plait

This week's loaf is a bit fancier than the previous ones and could come in handy over Easter or at the weekend.

1lb white flour

2tsps sugar

1tsp dried yeast

8fl oz warm milk

2oz margarine

1 egg

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Put a little of  the warm milk in a cup and add the sugar and yeast, leave to one side to get bubbly. Rub the margarine into the flour and add the rest of the milk and the egg, mix to make a dough and add the yeast mixture as soon as it is ready. Turn out onto a board to knead and add a little more flour if it is too sticky. Knead for 10 minutes. Place in a bowl and cover, leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Knock down the dough and divide in to three pieces. Roll each piece into a long strip and then plait them together. Place the plait on an oiled tin and brush the top with milk, sprinkle over the poppy seeds.

Bake at 190C for 40-45 minutes until the plait sounds hollow when knocked on the bottom. Leave to cool on a cooling rack before slicing and enjoying !

Kitchen Garden Magazine

The April 2018 edition of 'Kitchen Garden' magazine dropped through the letter box yesterday and with it came two free packets of seeds. One was for Rainbow Chard and the other for Yellow Delight Tomatoes. I'm not sure whether we will grow either of these this year as with 45 tomato plants still on the window sill we might be alright for tomatoes for this year ! We had also decided not to grow Chard this year as only MrShoestring really likes it. However, the multi-coloured stalks are very pretty so if we have some space I can imagine putting a few seeds in. Chard is also very reliable and with this very cold end to the winter it might take a bit of time for the soil to warm up, so it could be a good crop to sow later on.

The feature about rhubarb reminded me that I still have lots in the freezer from last year. I appear to have been saving it for a special occasion ! But if we don't hurry up and use it then the next crop will be needing picked ! There are a couple of good recipes in the magazine, one for rhubarb jam to fill a Victoria sandwich cake and one for an apple and rhubarb cake. Since we also have lots of apple in the freezer, this could be a good way of using up some of both kinds of fruit.

The other article which caught my eye was one about slug control. We have had terrible trouble with slugs eating the later sown lettuce and have been very annoyed about it. All the usual things like beer traps and picking them up by torch light do not appear to put a dent in the population. So I was delighted to read about a product which deters them and encourages your crops to grow. It is called 'Slug Gone' and these are wool pellets which expand around the plants so the slugs can't slide up to them. It is completely safe for children and pets and helps to hold nutrients in the soil. I'm going to look out for some the next time we are at the garden centre !

So this month's free edition of the magazine has given me lots to think about and 2 free packets of seeds. So far the subscription seems like a great way to spend the Tesco vouchers !

February Challenges 4

I'm back to sowing mustard and cress for MrShoestring's sandwiches today as we've used up all the growth from last week. The final grocery amount including household cleaning stuff and school lunches for MasterShoestring was £138.25, so just under £35 a week. However, the bottom of the freezer is now visible and only contains things like homemade pumpkin puree and a lot of courgettes, so I think the total for March will be much closer to the £170 normal budget.

Still no clothes buying, which is good and although I had the chance to go to a jumble sale on Saturday it was quite far away and decided that as we didn't actually need anything I would be better off with the money in my purse ! I went to the library instead and got my book 'fix' that way. I also 'hemmed' and 'hawed' all week about buying a copy of 'Home Economics' by Jane Ashley, but it costs £14.99 at the bookshop and just under £10 online. I had a detailed look at the meal plans and decided that we would not want to eat chicken 3 times in one week, which is what is suggested in the first plan and lots of the others we don't need e.g.) low-carb. So I decided not to get it and use my copy of Bernadine Lawrence's book " How To Feed Your Family for £5 a day" to plan menus for March. If I can get a copy for free through Swagbucks or a giveaway I'll be happy but I'm not spending money on it !

We did spend a bit of the gift budget on a Year 11 Yearbook and Hoodie for MasterShoestring's birthday in July but it is still looking very healthy and I also have £16 in Love2Shop vouchers from the Royal Mail survey so that's great. 

Now to think of some challenges for March !

Definite signs of Spring !

I was tempted out for a walk yesterday by the blue sky and shining sun. It was lovely to feel the sun on my face as I walked facing it, but oh the chilly wind as I walked back ! However, there are definite signs of Spring all around the neighbourhood now, not just in our garden.

Snowdrops out in the woods.

Crocuses in the grass by the pavement.

Celandines in a crack in a wall.

Hazel catkins all over the woods.

Tiny little 'Tete a Tete' daffodils in somebody's garden.

I shall remember all these pretty sights if it continues to get colder this week !

Frugal Chocolate Eggs !

Yes, it does seem a little early to be talking about Easter eggs ! But I wanted to let you know that this week Tesco have a very good offer on Cadbury's medium size chocolate eggs.

The offer is Buy 2, Get 2 free !

Each egg costs £1.50, so buying 4 would normally cost £6, this way it only costs £3. This effectively makes each egg half price at only 75p each. This is a bargain which cannot be beaten by any of the discount supermarkets.

So yesterday I bought 4 chocolate eggs, 2 Dairy Milk and 2 Mini egg ones. We don't need 4 chocolate eggs, only 3, but at that price I don't mind breaking up the spare egg and sharing it round !

Frugal Friday

The last full week of February and it seems that I will not be able to plant out those seedlings anytime soon, brrr, it's cold ! But the frugal living goes on !

This week there was plenty of wholesome home cooking to feed out tummies and generate some much needed extra heating at the same time ! We made leek and potato soup, red lentil and tomato soup, hummus, tortillas, refried beans, chips, salsa, stuffing, pasta bake, bubble and squeak, blackberry and apple crumble, lemon cake, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, pancakes, granola, vegetable curry, chapattis and yoghurt !

I washed out plastic bags and containers for re-use, planted some more cress and re-used foil. I got 2 free magazines and a free newspaper at the supermarket and downloaded a free ebook. I read some library magazines online and took my own lunch and flask of tea to a course to save buying anything. I also made lunches for MeShoestring all week.

Other than that I have been trying to formulate a menu plan and shopping plan for March and also to plan a Mother's Day card and present that will cost very little but look great !

I hope that you had a great, frugal week and are staying warm !

Getting Ready for Spring

You can tell that it is getting near to the end of winter at our house when every spare window sill has seedlings in pots on it. This year I was much more careful with the tomato seedlings and every time they got too leggy I re-potted them. So now we have over 40 little tomato plants. I'm not sure what we will do with all of them, but MrShoestring says that he will think of something !

I also planted lettuce seedlings every two weeks and although these have also got quite leggy I think they will be alright planted out into the cold frame around the beginning of March.

I haven't tried radish seedlings before but they appear to be growing strongly and might lead to some early crops.

In the meantime our weekly crop of cress is being mixed in with the egg sandwich fill in for MrShoestring's lunches and is stopping him missing home-grown lettuce too much !

Has anyone else started seeds ?

Wheatmeal Loaf

This is the loaf we make most frequently, with white bread reserved for special occasions. MrShoestring often makes a 100% wholemeal loaf but I think a bit of wholemeal and white makes the lightest loaf and the inclusion of some white flour adds some calcium for those in the family who can't eat dairy. I'll be making this loaf today and now use ordinary plain white and wholemeal chapatti flour as the difference in protein content between them and strong bread making flours is actually very small and the price difference is large. The smaller amount of gluten in the flours means that you don't get such large, airy holes in the dough but with no salt the bread still seems to rise just as much.

275g chapatti flour

275g white plain flour

1 tsp dried yeast

2 tsps sugar

300ml water

25g oil

Put 50ml warm water in a cup and stir in the yeast and the sugar. Put to one side to bubble up. Put the flours and the oil in a bowl and stir together. Add the yeast mixture and the water to the flours and oil and stir to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for 10 minutes. Leave to rise for an hour. Punch down and place in a greased 2lb loaf tin. Leave to rise somewhere warm, (we use the airing cupboard) until the bread has just reached the top of the loaf tin. This should take 30-40 minutes. Bake for 40 minutes at 200C. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

If you leave the bread to cool then it will slice much more easily. When I'm in a hurry I sometimes just make rolls from the dough as soon as it is mixed and just let them rise for 20 minutes before baking in the oven at 200C for 20 minutes.

Enjoy !

Handy Clippers !

I cut MrShoestring's hair on Sunday afternoon using a pair of clippers very like these ones which we bought from Boots on our return from the USA, about nine and a half years ago. MrShoestring goes to the barber about twice a year and the rest of the time I keep it tidied up. However, the last time he went to the barber they charged him £15 ! I think they knew that it was poor value for money as they offered him a free eyebrow trim as well. MrShoestring thinks that he can trim his own eyebrows and was curious as to whether the clippers had been a good buy and if so, why weren't we using them all the time ?

So I did a bit of research. I think we paid £9.99 for the clippers and a similar pair today with scissors, different combs for the clippers and some oil to keep them working cost £12, so not much different there. At that rate they are very much a worthwhile frugal purchase as with even one home haircut you will have saved the purchase price. There are lots of instructional videos on YouTube about how to clip hair and I have yet to nick any flesh, so it seems quite safe !

Now haircuts were cheaper ten years ago but even so, with an average of 6 cuts a year we have saved MrShoestring over 50 trips to the barber and several hundred pounds. A real frugal win ! Maybe it really is time to stick with all home haircuts !

February Challenges 3

The grocery challenge is still going well with a spend of £9.36 this week keeping the overall total to still under £120 for the month. This will go a bit higher with a couple more school lunch payments but all that home bread baking is saving a lot of money ! However, I do have to remember to plan ahead as sometimes MasterShoestring's late night snacks mean that there is no bread left in the morning !

The gift budget was eaten into slightly with MrShoestring spending £15 on Valentine's Day. This is quite modest and since he doesn't spend any money the rest of the time and I was the beneficiary I can't complain ! This means that the gift budget is down a bit as I also bought a cushion pad for the cushion I made for MissShoestring, I did have a look at the great stash of craft materials but there wasn't quite enough padding for a whole cushion so buying one was the only option and it was under £5.

Clothes challenge is still going well too with no money spent so far this month. However, with a jumble sale on Saturday I'll have to remember to avoid any bargains ! I would quite like some blue fluffy wool to knit some socks for USAShoestring for next Christmas so I'll keep an eye out in case there is something that could be unravelled and used, but that can be paid for from the gift budget !

I hope that all of your challenges are going well too !

Ten Things we can learn from the Olympics

We have been enjoying the Olympic coverage all week, although sometimes that has meant slightly odd bedtimes. We like the sport action but are less keen on all the studio discussion. However, it has led to some interesting discussions at home and we came up with the following list of things that we noticed about the event which have applications in wider life :-

1) Even tiny things can make a difference;

2) There is always another chance;

3) You can always improve over time;

4) It's great to have support from family and friends;

5) Sometimes you have to sacrifice to get where you want to go;

6) The youngest have something to teach the oldest;

7) There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes;

8) You are always in with a chance;

9) Having a go is the important thing;

10) Always get back up after you fall down !

Great observations fro a frugal life as well as a sporting one ! I hope you have a peaceful Sunday !

Home Economics

This lovely lady is called Jane Ashley and she has a good blog called "Eat not Spend". I sometimes have a look on the blog for recipe ideas and then dismiss them as being too expensive, but then I heard that she had published a book called " Home Economics. How to eat like a king on a budget." I ordered it from the library as it said it contained recipes that meant you could feed your family of 4 for £35 a week. That figure would just about fit into my monthly budget with a bit of tweaking to allow for school lunches, so I thought that it was worth a look.

The book is arranged very well with lots of basic information at the front like essential store cupboard supplies and kitchen equipment. Then it has basic recipes such as bread, including gluten-free and homemade pasta. I'm never sure whether it is worth making your own pasta or if it would be cheaper to buy your own, but apparently the taste makes it worth it and the homemade ravioli does look great !

There is just a small section about breakfasts and lunches at home, which was a bit disappointing but there are whole pages on making your own stock, jointing a chicken, making soup etc. so I suspect there are plenty of ideas for those things throughout the book.

Then the main part of the book is devoted to weekly meal plans of different types such as vegan, low carbohydrate, gluten free etc. The meal plans do include lunch ideas and have simple suggestions for breakfasts such as porridge and toast and jam. The meal plans are costed showing a week's shopping at the start of the section and they all add up to less than £35. However, a few of the prices are already out of date, I can't buy butter for £1.09 anymore for instance, but I expect that you can knock a few pence off somewhere else to make up for it.

Since we follow a few special diet plans some of the meal plans would need adapting for us, but reading the menu plans gave me lots of ideas for new recipes and a growing realisation that buying 'luxury' ingredients, such as limes, might not break the bank !

For comparison, I looked at the budget recipe book " A Girl called Jack" which I got when it came out. I think the recipes in "Home Economics" are more family-friendly and it would be an interesting challenge in March to see if I can tweak some of the menu plans so that they will fit our dietary requirements and budget !

It's certainly worth getting from the library and I'm going to try a menu plan week from the book to see if it would be worth buying !

Frugal Friday

It has been half term all week and Shrove Tuesday and Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year so a busy, happy week with plenty of celebrating without too much expense !

We enjoyed a trip to the cinema for free using the vouchers from the Nielsen shopping survey. The film was sold out the first time we went so I learned how to book online and will do this in future to save wasting petrol. However, whilst we were in the town we discovered that petrol was 3p a litre cheaper than close to home so I filled up the car !

I also enjoyed reading my free copy of " The Countryman" magazine, a free local paper from the supermarket and some free ebooks after I read all the library ones over the weekend and had to wait for the library to re-open on Tuesday to get some new ones !

We have mostly been taking it easy at home as it has been so cold outside, good job there are plenty of free exercise programmes on YouTube and MrShoestring was able to do some training for work online instead of having to travel to a centre in London, saving money on travel and food and saving a lot of his time !

With everyone at home all week the detailed menu plan was very helpful and we even ate leftovers quite a few times so I've got plenty of spare ingredients to carry over into next week. This week we made yoghurt, chapattis, tortillas, blackberry and apple crumble, pumpkin soup, leek and potato soup, vegetable curry, pancakes, jam tart, bread and biscuits. We re-used foil and washed out some plastic bags and decided not to buy a new sandwich toaster as everyone seems to prefer grilled cheese anyway!

With an eye on the arrival of Spring I planted some more lettuce, radishes and strawberries and re-potted the tomatoes which are growing like mad. I also ordered some more seeds and got a bargain with 11 packets costing £8.71 and getting free delivery, so under 80p a packet. We made each other homemade Valentine's cards and made a lovely meal at home to enjoy. We also got the Tesco vouchers in the post this week and I ordered a mindfulness magazine which I can't get via the library and which will come in handy for the counselling course I am doing. Any resources I can get for free are great as the course and the extras that go with it, like books, are quite expensive !

A pretty good week and no unexpected expenses, oh and we really enjoyed the 6 Nations rugby as well as the Olympics !

Fasting ?

Traditionally, at this time of Lent people got ready for Easter by fasting, not eating so many rich foods and trying to eat a bit less. I suspect that this was also quite convenient as the late Winter/ early Spring period is often known as the 'hungry gap' when all the preserves from Winter are nearly gone and there is little fresh food around to take its place ! MrShoestring is already trying to eat a bit less to lose some weight and MasterShoestring and I don't need to eat less, if anything we have to make sure that MasterShoestring eats enough, so traditional fasting is not for us !

Some years I've used the money saved from the grocery budget by eating less expensive meals to send a donation to Mary's Meals and I hope to do that this year as well. However, I realised that it is not the asme challenge that it used to be so when I saw these words I thought that this might be the sort of fasting that would prove a challenge for the Lent period !

• Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
• Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
• Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
• Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
• Fast from worries and trust in God.
• Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
• Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
• Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
• Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
• Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
• Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

It is a quote from Pope Francis and they would be good words to live by at anytime of year!

The Complete Bread Book

I have a very old copy of this book on bread making published by Hamlyn. It has a complete history of bread making around the world, starting 8000 years ago, as well as lots of recipes. I keep it because I use a few of the recipes, like the ones for tortillas and chapattis, every week, but there are also lots that I have never tried. So I thought that it might be fun in this season of Lent and plainer food, to try a new bread recipe once a week. The first one is for a simple white loaf which is ideal for beginners and I adapted it a bit as we don't eat much salt and not at all in bread. No salt means that the yeast will raise the dough quickly so you have to keep an eye on it, also I used oil in place of lard as it is a bit healthier and gives a softer loaf.

2 tsps dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

400ml warm water

675g white bread flour

15g oil

Blend the sugar and yeast into a little of the warm water and leave on one side to get frothy. Once it is frothy put all the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast mixture. Mix to form a firm dough, add a bit extra flour if it is too sticky. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Shape the dough into a bowl and put back into the mixing bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Knock the dough down and shape into 2 loaves or 12 rolls. Place on a greased baking tray and leave to double in size covered with a cloth. Then bake at 200C for about 30-35 minutes for loaves, 15-20 minutes for rolls.

Enjoy that delicious smell of fresh baked bread throughout the house !

Off to the Cinema

Over the past week I have become quite interested in Winston Churchill after hearing the story of how he destroyed his 80th birthday portrait painted by Graham Sutherland. So when we had the chance to see this film for free last night I jumped at it.

The story concerns the time in Churchill's life just after he had become Prime Minister in World War II and must decide what to do. Should he try and negotiate for peace or fight on alone ? I don't think I had ever realised that there were lots of people who thought Britain should sue for peace with the Nazis, so that was quite surprising !

The film was very well-acted and had Kristin Scott Thomas playing Clementine Churchill and she was very good. There were also beautiful sets, lots of political intrigue and some great camera work. However, a few of the scenes were quite unbelievable, like I don't think Churchill ever rode the Underground to find out what the people thought about the war !

We really enjoyed the film and it gave us lots of ideas about what to visit next, the War Cabinet Rooms,  Chartwell etc., so if you do get the chance to see it I thoroughly recommend it !

February Challenges 2

I am so happy to have finished the cushion cover shown above. The central panel is in cross-stitch and was started by MasterShoestring aged 10 but never finished ! So this past month I have been stitching away in spare moments and got it finished off, then I added the red fabric to make the cover which MissShoestring can take with her when she buys a flat, We thought that it would make a great present for her birthday in May and it cost nothing except time, as I had all the material and notions in stock already. I've also made a tiny matching pincushion to go in her sewing basket !

Now that project is finished I've started the first pair of socks for Christmas 2018 ! They are in fluffy purple wool and are also for MissShoestring. I also got a £5 Love2Shop voucher from doing the Royal Mail Correctly Delivered survey so that has  been added to the gift account too. We seem to be on target so far ! Just as well, because I worked out the cost of some of the excursions we would like to do in Norway, when we go in July and can see that we will have to save extra on top of what I had planned !

The grocery challenge is going well too, with only £9.15 spent this week and with half term I shan't have to top up the school lunch account so that should save a bit as MasterShoestring will be home for lunch all week, MrShoestring is also home this week and with Pancake Day and Valentine's Day as well, I've worked out a detailed menu plan to include lunches and breakfasts. I know from past experience that if I don't do that people help themselves to food I already had plans for !

Clothing challenge also going fine as I have yet to shrink any jumpers this week ! With an eye to the future and keeping the grocery bill low I have ordered a few seeds for the garden. A bit too early to sow most of them but I got a 20% discount and free postage so wanted to take advantage of that.

I hope that your week is off to a great start !

Make Do and Mend

Quite a few of the blogs I read have been referring to the thrifty ways of people who lived through World War II and I also have a little collection of books about that time which I have found to be full of frugal tips. One of them is shown above, but just for fun I thought I would go and count them all. I was very surprised to discover that I have over 20 !

All of the books are useful and are not just kept sitting on the shelf but used regularly.

For instance, the "Dig for Victory" books by Mr. Middleton are out just now as we plan the garden for this year !

This cookbook is my favourite of the wartime ones as it contains recipes that were cooked towards the end of and just after the war, when rationing went on but a few things were a bit more readily available. This means the family are more likely to enjoy the recipes whereas I've never had any repeat requests for 'Mock Banana' sandwiches made from parsnips, which feature in one of the other books I have !

Do you have any books from the 40s and 50s which are still in use regularly ?

A Nice Freebie

A free magazine, the size of a paperback book dropped through the letterbox yesterday. It was a free copy of The Countryman magazine that I had ordered a couple of weeks back. There was a great picture of a Scottish wildcat on the front cover which reminded me of the time we saw them wild up in the Grampians. These wildcats are very shy so we were especially lucky to see them !

As well as the article about wildcats there was also one celebrating different folklore traditions which I found interesting because although it was all about the tar barrel festival in Allendale it reminded me of the one that is held in Stonehaven Aberdeenshire, close to where we lived. In addition to that one, there are 13 other well-written articles about the countryside in the magazine and almost no adverts, only a few at the start and the end.

The photographs are great and there was even a good recipe for Homity Pie which I shall try out next week when everyone is home for half term.

The magazine is normally £3.99 an issue so I was glad that I got it for free ! Keep a look out for it as I've often seen copies in libraries and at jumble sales and it is well worth a read !

Frugal Friday

It has been so cold this week, with a smattering of snow some days that there has been little incentive to go out, even to do needed shopping, so we have been making do !

I made some homemade curry powder and used it in a slow cooker recipe for vegetable curry, delicious with chapattis and as leftovers throughout the week. We also made banana cake,granola, jam tart, chicken pot pie, baked potatoes and soup. Also made some breadcrumbs, two loaves of bread and some yoghurt.

I got cash back on the car breakdown insurance and a free newspaper and magazine at the supermarket. I earned a £5 Amazon voucher from Swagbucks and used it to get a course book for free.

I cleaned all the black sticky stuff off the iron using baking powder and a free scourer we already had and washed out some plastic bags for re-use and froze homemade chicken and vegetable stock in them.

I mended a jumper for MrShoestring, finished a present for MissShoestring's birthday and got a £5 Love2Shop voucher from the Royal Mail survey, so that will be put away for sales shopping at the end of the year.

We are still using chopped up pallets and dead tree wood from the garden in the wood stove and it's great to know that keeping warm is costing so little !

We' re looking forward to a whole weekend of Olympic winter sports !

Back in Time for Tea

There is a new series on BBC2 on Tuesday nights at 8pm called "Back in Time for Tea", It looks at what ordinary people ate for tea over the decades from 1918 onwards.

I found it really interesting, especially as I recognised some of the foods from parts of my own childhood spent in Lancashire rather than Yorkshire, so did MrShoestring ! We could certainly recognise some of the living conditions from visiting our grandparents, outside lavatories, anyone else remember those ? Or tripe ? Or dripping ?

I also thought that it was good that it showed that women were working a full shift outside the home and running the household. Even when there was no work available or there was a strike on, it was the women who took on extra work, like doing other people's washing, to make ends meet. My grandparents went away to work as domestic servants during the Great Depression, just like the two daughters in the programmes are shown doing.

It made me realise that although people can have a hard time cooking up frugal meals for their families now, I still think we are a lot better off ! I'm not going to be serving tripe any time soon or wiping slices of bread with a single slice of bacon so everyone gets a taste !

Homemade Curry Powder

On Friday I needed to make some more curry powder to use with my slow cooker vegetable curry powder. It's so quick to do as long as you have all the ingredients in.

4 1/2 tsps ground coriander

2 tsps turmeric

1 1/2 tsps cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cardamon

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

Grind all the ingredients together in a mortar and pestle or use ready ground versions of each spice and simply mix with a spoon.

Very easy, very quick and no salt which is what we need ! This makes quite a mild powder, good for those who don't like things too hot.

If you want a hotter powder just add more chili powder and a sprinkling of chill flakes.

Removing Candle Wax

With the darker time of year we find that we use quite a few candles, which does make the place feel homey and they are pretty to watch, however they also drip wax !

Over the last few days I've been removing candle wax from the floor, from candle holders and from some seasonal cloths which I'm changing over for Spring ones !

With floor/carpet the best thing to do is to scrape away as much wax as possible with a knife and then make a few passes over the mark with some newspaper and a hot iron. You keep the newspaper pressed over the wax mark and iron over the paper. You have to be careful to keep the iron moving or you might leave a scorch mark, but this works quite well.

It is a similar process with wax left on cloths, place some newspaper on top and under the waxy mark, having first scraped off as much as possible, placing the cloth in the freezer for a few minutes helps to make the wax brittle so it's easier to scrape off, then iron over the newspaper. Having newspaper under and over the mark stops the wax melting further into the cloth, instead the newspaper absorbs it. Then you can use the newspaper to light the fire !

Finally, candle holders need to be laid on some newspaper on a tray in a low oven and left there until the wax has just started to melt. You should use that trusty old knife to scrape away as much as possible before you put them in, as the newspaper won't absorb a lot of wax. Also, don't have the oven on any higher than 100C as you might set fire to the wax ! Handle with care as you remove the candle holders as they will be hot !

Now everything looks much better and the cloths and the holders have been out away for next year !

February Challenges

So, the grocery budget is staying pretty low and so far I have spent £69.41 on a bulk shop for the month, £10 on school lunches for MasterShoestring and £11.48 on top-up groceries for this week, things like bananas and milk. This makes a grand total of £90.89, so I don't think the spend will be as low as last month's but I still think that we will come in under the £170 budget.

Finally, we did manage to get MasterShoestring some new school shoes, he has gone up a whole size and is now in a Men's size 8. The old ones were a 7 and have lasted the best part of a year so I guess on a cost per wear basis the value for money was not too bad but handing over the £75 for a new pair was painful ! It is budgeted for as we get £82 a month Child Benefit, but I am hoping that if he gets into the 6th Form in September the school no longer insists on black lace up leather shoes !

Spending so much on new shoes and with paying for new trainers still to come, the clothes challenge for MrShoestring and I is even more important. I knew that MrShoestring was really needing a wardrobe clear out, as he had lots of jumpers he never wore. So very reluctantly he agreed to look at every single piece of clothing as I brought them through to the sitting room, where he was nursing a cold in front of the fire !

The end result, 3 bags of clothes for the charity shop, a jumper mended and loads more room in the wardrobe, every shirt and pair of trousers now has its own hanger. Definitely no new clothes needed, just a more efficient use of the old ones !

The gift account got a boost this week as well, as we received an interest payment of £7 and a feed-in tariff payment from the solar panels of £37. The grand total now is just over £90. A few more pounds and we should have enough for the rest of the year !

Enjoying a Cold, Wet, Weekend

Yesterday, it rained all day here and was very cold as well so we turned to our list of 10 ways to enjoy a weekend without spending money, here it is :-

1) Go for a walk

2) Call a friend

3) Organise some photographs

4) Watch a film

5) Go to the library

6) Watch a sporting event

7) Do a bit of tidying

8) Work in the garden

9) Read a book

10) Play some music

It was too wet and cold to go for a walk outside so I did a Leslie Sansone walking video online and MrShoestring rode the stationary bike.

MrShoestring called his Mum and got caught up on all the news North of the Border. We deleted some more photos from the computer and MrShoestring's camera. We started watching 'Fargo' on Netflix using MissShoestring's subscription which she kindly shares with us.

I went to the library and checked out five new books and I finished another one which I had borrowed last week.

We enjoyed watching the start of the Six Nations Rugby tournament and enjoyed the Winter Olympics previews as well.

I tidied up the kitchen and washed the water filter jugs and removed a whole lot of black stuff from the soleplate of the iron.

It was too cold and wet to work in the garden but I did take some lettuce seeds out of the airing cupboard and put them on a sunny window sill as they had germinated.

I played sone cheery music whilst I tidied and did the ironing.

It felt good to be tucked up inside, cosy and warm and still saving money !

I hope you are enjoying a cosy weekend too !

Finding Cheap Breakdown Cover

I had put a note in the diary to look for cheap breakdown insurance for the cars as soon as February arrived so that we would have renewed it before the existing policy expires on 5th February.

We have a big main car and then a tiny red one which I drive when I'm working and they are both close to being 10 years old so the chance of a breakdown is getting higher ! We did use the policy this year when MrShoestring accidentally put petrol in the main diesel car, it was far cheaper to have the insurance than to pay to have the car towed to the garage. So, breakdown cover is worth having as far as we are concerned, but we want basic cover at the cheapest price.

First stop, the moneysaving expert website to see what their recommendations were. Next stop the comparison websites to see if they could beat the prices at moneysaving expert. Then off to check TopCashBack to see if I could claim any money off any of the vendors. Finally, checked the renewal notice to see how much I could save !

We always shop around and over the years have had cover from AA, RAC, GreenFlag, AutoAid and various obscure insurance companies, we have always had the help we needed at a good price so I don't think any one firm is better than the others. With AutoAid you used to have to pay the cost of the help yourself and then claim it back again from them but they have done away with that requirement and now the service works just like all the rest. AutoAid was the cheapest quote at £43.31 and then £5.46 cash back at TopCashBack bringing the price down to £37.85 for MrShoestring and I in any car.

This was a good price and the added bonus that if we are travelling in someone else's car and it breaks down we can summon help for them. Last year's cover cost £37.31 so I think I did very well to keep the cost so close to what we paid then, especially as we were quoted double that to renew it !

Shopping around definitely works !

Frugal Friday

So, a tight, penny-pinching week to make sure we hit February with money in the bank ! With our eyes on the garden for this year I sprouted tomato and lettuce seeds. The tomatoes are a bit leggy but I'll re-pot them and they will be fine ! We also sprouted and ate some cress and I've got a new lot on the window sill, which I started yesterday.

We made tortillas, refried beans, salsa, chips, roast potatoes, roast vegetables, baked potatoes, pasta bake, mashed potatoes, bread, quiche, pumpkin soup and a plum cake as well as pancakes and granola for breakfast. I made vegetable stock from peelings and took up a pair of trousers which MrShoestring got for his birthday but were too long.

We got several free papers from the train commute MrShoestring does into London and downloaded lots of free magazines and a free ebook. We reused foil, plastic bags and margarine containers and changed MasterShoestring's mobile phone plan to one with more data and which costs £18 less a year.

I did the February bulk shopping at Tesco and used the 10p a litre off fuel voucher which I got at a different Tesco, which I pass when I am working, to buy the petrol, as it was 3p a litre cheaper than our nearest one, so effectively 13p off a litre !

I sent another lot of books off to Ziffit and think this will be the last parcel until I package up MasterShoestring's GCSE revision guides in the Summer. Everything else we want to keep ! I earned over £27 pounds from musicMagpie, which was a quick service, but we don't have anything else to send at the moment. So quite a bit to add to the gift account as well as sticking to the overall spending budget for January.

Now to order vacuum cleaner bags, printer cartridges and all the other little things we decided we could manage without last month !

February Challenges

It is lovely to see a few snowdrops around and other signs of Spring, such as willow catkins and witch hazel in bloom. We have even seen daffodils in very sheltered spots and MrShoestring has spotted primroses and crocuses under the trees at the back of the garden.

We are going to continue with trying to keep the grocery spending very low this month as there is still plenty of produce to use up in the freezer. We are also continuing with the "no clothes" spending challenge this year, with an exception for MasterShoestring who needs new shoes for school again !

I did quite well with the no clothes buying challenge last month as by accident I shrank 2 of MrShoestring's nice cashmere jumpers , I didn't notice that the spin cycle was still turned on for the washing machine when I put them in on 'Delicate' ! However, they now fit me, so there is always a silver lining !

The other challenge we'll continue with is funding the 'gift' account from other sources. We did well in January so I'm hopeful that we can continue this month.

Are you running any challenges this month ?