Pause for Reflection

This week I was reading Matthew Chapter 15 and there are a few verses in there which really made me think. They are the ones when a woman who would not have been considered Jewish asks for healing for her daughter and is initially denied but she does not give up and asks just for a little help (the crumbs from the master's table) and then is richly rewarded with the healing of her daughter.

I was really struck by the fact that so often we are only willing to help people like ourselves. We don't mind helping out a friend as they will often help us in return, but someone we do not know or perhaps are not very keen on ? Well, those people we often try to avoid and certainly would not go out of our way to help. But perhaps we should ? Perhaps helping 'the hard to help' is exactly what is meant by loving our neighbour rather than ourselves.

Lent starts this week after all the fun of Chinese New Year on Monday and Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day on Tuesday. As a family we often try and cut down on our spending to give more generously during this time or try to work on a personal bad habit. I often try to take up something extra, such as reading a chapter of a spiritual book (I often re-read the Purpose Driven Life as it has very convenient chapters for Lent !) or practising something I know I need to work on. But perhaps this year we will all work on recognising those around us who need our help but whom we would never normally recognise. Who is standing outside the church waiting for an invitation to go on in ?  Which Mum at the bus stop could do with some help to get her buggy on the bus ? Which homeless person might appreciate a meal ? I'm going to watch out for them, will you too ?

Weekend Table Tennis Fun

Master Shoestring plays table tennis at home but also at a club on Wednesday evenings and some weekends. There are also classes in some of the school holidays. This weekend there is a tournament in a town close by, about half an hour away, which he will be going to. The tournament lasts all day from 9am to 4pm and he has to take food with him as the venue has no cafe (very frugal!). The nice thing is that there is no charge for spectating so we can go along and watch for a bit at the start or all day or just for a bit at the end.

Some of the juniors are really good and it is nice to think that we might be watching some Olympic champions in the making. With tickets for professional sporting events in the tens if not hundreds of pounds we get a lot of weekend fun out of supporting Master Shoestring and his friends in amateur sporting matches.

Do you have free to attend sporting matches near you ?

Getting a water meter

Our water meter is buried down a pipe just to the left of the front door. When the meter reader comes once a year to look at it we always have terrible trouble finding the little manhole which covers it as the grass grows right over the top. However, the trouble of looking for it once a year is more than worth it because of all the money it saves.

With the water meter we only pay for the water we actually use, it also counts all the water we waste by not fixing a dripping tap in the bathroom ! Knowing that we will actually be charged extra for that water dripping away makes a fine incentive to go and fix the tap ! The house has its own septic tank so we do not pay the part of the water charge dealing with disposal either so that also saves quite a bit of money.

Our water bill is just over 200 pounds a year which is around half what it would be if we were still on water rates. There is no open market in water supply yet, unlike electricity and gas, but all the big suppliers will fit a meter on request but once you have one you cannot ask for it to be removed. The big suppliers have calculators for water use which should help you work out whether it would be a saving for you. As a small family now, it is definitely worth it for us !

Do you have a water meter ? How is water charged for at your house ?

How to grow your own basil

This is our little basil plant flourishing in the Dining Room during the Winter. It is directly off the Kitchen so very handy for a quick pick whilst cooking. Growing your own herbs is much cheaper than buying and ensures that you always have a fresh supply.

Basil can be difficult to germinate in the UK as it likes nice, warm temperatures, such as those found during Italian Summers, rather than English ones. However, I found that this can be mimicked by placing a plastic bag secured by an elastic band over the pot whilst it germinates. It also helps to put the pot by a radiator ! Once fooled into starting to grow the plant is easy to look after with watering and a quick feed once in a while.

Just behind the basil you might also be able to see the coriander which I keep for salsa making, too much salt in shop-bought versions ! Coriander also likes nice warm conditions but we have grown this outside with great success and packed away a lot in the freezer, the little plant at the back is just for the occasional fresh bit.

Do you grow herbs ? Which ones are most successful ?

Felafel from gram flour

We quite like a few felafel on a Friday night as it makes a quick and easy supper whilst we start on the clean up for the weekend after work. The usual recipe calls for with opening tins of chickpeas or soaking and cooking them for later. This can add to the clean up time and I was wondering if there was a quicker method whilst at the same time thinking about the 6kg of chickpea or gram flour I have in the pantry. I had ordered the flour for making pancakes without eggs but they were a disaster, stuck to the pan on every single occasion and I had to soak 4 frying pane and scrub them by the time that experiment was over ! So the search for a felafel recipe from chickpea flour began and the one below works, I've just cooked a batch !!

Felafel from Chickpea/Gram Flour

1 cup chickpea flour

1/3 cup fresh chopped parsley or a bit less dried

1/4 tsp raising agent e.g.) bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsps of lemon juice ( we use apple as Mr Shoestring can't have citrus)

1/3 cup water to mix

Mix all the ingredients together and place tablespoons in an oiled pan to fry on both sides for 4-5 minutes. Frying makes the kitchen smoky, so today I baked them in an oiled pan in the oven, 10 minutes on each side and they have turned out great. So glad that I can began to run down that stockpile of gram flour !

What's your favourite recipe for a hard to shift ingredient ?

Living More with Less

This book was written by Doris Janzen Longacre who is better known for her More with Less cookbook. I used to have a copy of the cookbook but in the end gave it to someone whose family did not have as many complicated diets as we had as the recipes were heavily dairy orientated and that did not work so well for us. But this book, the one she struggled to finish before she died, is full of ideas for living on less and giving more which I find very inspiring.

Part one of the book contains five short chapters about why it is important to live on less so others can have more. That idea that in the Western world we have diseases from the excess we live on whereas in other parts of the world people have diseases from the lack of the essentials is very convicting. Similar ideas have appeared in other books since 1980 when this one appeared but no there book seems to go into so much detail or give so many examples of how life will be improved by giving to others.

Part two of the book then goes into details about using less in every area of life from Transport to Celebrations and contains ten chapters each of which give lots of ideas from real people about how they 'live more with less'. With Lent starting next week I particularly enjoyed the reminder that you could keep one meal a week as your 'poverty meal' and save the difference to give to a charity which makes a lasting difference in the lives of the poor. We have done this in the past and got involved with an organisation called 'Mary's Meals' which allows primary school children in the developing world to have a nutritious meal at school cooked by people who otherwise would not have a job, win-win for all involved as the children learn better by being better fed. I also really liked the sec ion on making tin can toys and games to play whilst on a long journey.

The book is just full of real-life ideas, all sent in by people who give you just a glimpse into their everyday lives and that I really enjoy as well. I love dipping into this book and am so full of gratitude to everyone who contributed and Doris who collected it all, may her legacy live on !

What is your favourite tip for living more with less ?

The Reckoning

Total Spending 2016		JANUARY
FOOD		70.72
PETROL		121.34
RATES		228
GAS AND ELECTRI		83
WATER		21
TV		0
HOUSE INS		0
CAR INS +tax		0
CAR BREAKDOWN COVER		42
CHARITY		166
SAVINGS		650
POST OFFICE		0
HOLIDAYS		0
LIFE INS		31.43
MEDICAL		64.2
DENTAL		18.5
GIFTS		8.08
HOUSEHOLD		23.58
MISCELLANEOUS		10
ACTIVITIES		0
BOOKS		5.94
ENTERTAINMENT		3.55
CAR REPAIRS AND SERVICE		0
CLOTHES		0
TRANSPORT		0
POCKET MONEY		12.5
EXTRA CURRIC		295.5
SCHOOL FEES		0
TRAVEL INS		0
TEL+INTERNET		14.08
SEPTIC		0
GARDEN		5
HAIRCUTS		10.5
WOOD		0
BOILER INS		0
UNION		0
TRAINING		0

 

The above is an extract from our budgeting spreadsheet and shows the total spend in some categories for January. Once I had set up the spreadsheet it is easy to keep track of the numbers in a notebook and then update them once a week. Until this year I did this all on paper using a big notebook and pencil but realised that if I spent the time setting up the spreadsheet then  eventually using the computer would be quicker and more accurate ! So it has proved, I have all our spending for January in one place and was able to calculate that we saved 64% of our income. This is very high and more than we are aiming for, but I don't think we will be able to do this every month. January is very light on annual expenses such as insurance and car tax and the only really big spends were on paying for extra curricular activities for Master Shoestring. Now these have been paid right up to Easter so they won't appear again for a few months.

Food was also a very low spending category as I did a big shop costing 90 pounds right at the end of December when I had time and so we lived off what we had in stock. Now the stock is gone and I will have to go shopping today to replace all sorts of basics like cheese and eggs of which we now have none ! The savings listed there are the ones which we do automatically for a pension and then everything else this month went into topping up the emergency fund which we had used to help ShoestringUSA earlier in 2015.

I was particularly pleased that the spending on books and entertainment was so low as this was an area I promised I would cut down on and so far it looks like that resolution is working.

How was your January spending ?