Frugal Friday

Once again, it's time for the frugal round up and welcome to the couple of new followers who have joined us this week ! A big thank you too to all the people who commented on the gooseberry jam post.

Well, this week'e frugal goings-on have mainly concentrated on the garden as we have had a lot of produce appear, this is great as my shopping list has been very small ! We had the first marrow, which was used in a pot of vegetable soup; some courgettes, delicious fried with garlic; loads of blackcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries- some for jam making and others frozen for the winter months; new potatoes which were delicious in a salad and our first cucumber which together with the second crop of lettuce kept us in salad all week. This has been our most successful garden yet and I even pulled up some onions which have been added to the store. The menu plan has changed quite a bit to make the most of the bounty !

I did some mending and we got the split in the car bumper mended at home, which saved quite a bit. I also found 6 bottles of grape juice for 25p each and these have been put away for the winter holidays. I checked the present cupboard and discovered that I have quite a few things for next year as well as being almost complete for this one. I just need to make a couple of food gifts for my Dad and then we are done. So no need to go sales shopping at all ! I sorted out all the second-hand school uniform so that I know exactly what is needed for next year and won't be tempted to buy more by the special offers.

We made yoghurt, tortillas, bread, breadcrumbs, cake, cheesecake, jam, cream cheese and soup this week and re-used foil to keep our homemade pancakes warm. I finally got a refund for some pension contributions which were too small to produce a pension and had the confirmation that we will qualify for tax credits, starting this month. So a thoroughly good week, I hope you had one too !

Everyday Adventures

Tammy over at Rowdy Kittens has a suggestion list of 31 tiny adventures to take in the month of July and since I got her journal as a birthday gift I thought that I would join in and keep a record of what I did in the journal. All my adventures so far have cost nothing and although I have taken a picture for each one, as she suggests, I have also gone a bit further to help them seem more like adventures !

The first thing I did was vary my morning routine and have my tea out of a cup rather than a mug, I also experimented with different breakfasts, very handy if you have just been making jam and have lots of half filled jars of jam to finish up.

Gathering all the tools for these little adventures, such as my pocket camera and the journal made me realise that I should do some more de-cluttering, so that has become an everyday adventure in itself and so far I have taken two bags of books to the charity shop.

Unplugging from the computer is easy at this time of year as there is so much to do in the garden, but this little prompt did make me go and pick the gooseberries, a job I had been putting off for several days as I hate the thorns. I was well rewarded with nearly 5lbs of fruit and a lessening of that guilty feeling that I was allowing things to go to waste !

Looking around for vibrant colours was easy and we have really been enjoying our two new wildflower areas with their bright poppies and cornflowers. Then today's suggestion is to play something, so I am going to make further progress with my new year's resolution to practise the piano and violin regularly. I really enjoy playing, but so often put music making to the bottom of the list, so I'm looking forward to getting some favourite music out later in the day !

All of these tiny adventures are helping me to realise that I already have so much and that is priceless !

Living on a Shoestring - Holidays

We have had lots of experience over the years of holidaying on a shoestring, preferably for nothing. When we were first married we used to volunteer at the community where we had met and counted on those few weeks away to pay off the overdraft in savings on gas and electricity. We did have to do some work but in exchange stayed in a lovely place with lovely people and the only cost was the train fare to get there. You can do something similar now by joining the WWOOF network, willing workers on organic farms.

The other alternatives which cost almost nothing are staying with friends and family and having a stay cation. Over the years we have found that staying with friends and family works well for a couple of nights but any longer and you are in danger of out-staying your welcome. Staycations are good if you really treat them like a holiday and do not use the time to do jobs around the house. Exploring your area and visiting all the attractions nearby can be great fun and you get to sleep in your own bed at night. If you want to make it really exciting you can even camp out in the garden or the sitting room for one night !

Something similar to a stay cation is to do a house swap and we have done several of these over the years with mixed results. They have always been in beautiful parts of the world but sometimes we did come home with fleas and on one memorable occasion our house got infested because the swappers had brought along their dog !

Camping and youth hostels were very popular with us when the children were smaller but the prices have crept up and now I'm not so sure if that is all that cheap if you have a reasonable sized family, for instance a family room in a youth hostel can now cost over £70 which is more expensive than a Premier Inn. You can go free wild camping in Scotland and on Dartmoor but with a family the lack of facilities for more than a few days can be a bit restricting.

Our new favourite way to travel is to use AirBnB, we have always been lucky so far and can often get a flat for around £30 a night which for 3 of us is a very good price and cheaper than many campsites. A full kitchen makes self-catering easy and you do not have to set up the camp when you arrive !

If you can travel out of season you can also find a bargain, for instance I saw 7 nights with Eurocamp in France in the first week of September for £210. There are holidays for frugal budgets out there, so start saving for next year !

Gooseberry Jam

It is all go around here with so many things ripening up in the garden ! I have been ignoring the gooseberries as they are so hard to pick without getting pricked by the thorns ! However, at the weekend I noticed that some of them were now past their best, going all squashy on the bush and that seemed so wasteful so yesterday we got out there and picked and picked. Yes, we did get scratched pretty badly at times but came away with albs of fruit which I think is a record for our gooseberry bushes. Then I spent all evening making jam. so the recipe below is for a large quantity of fruit. You can easily adapt it for just a pound of fruit by dividing all the quantities by 4. The jam will set really easily as gooseberries contain lots of pectin and don't worry if it goes pink when you cook it as that is normal for some varieties of gooseberry !

4lbs gooseberries

4lbs sugar

2 pints water

8 -10 one pound jars with lids

Top and tail the fruit and place in a very large pan with the water. Heat very slowly so that the skins on the berries soften. Add the sugar and again heat very slowly to allow all the sugar to dissolve. Bring to a rolling boil and boil until mixture reaches setting point at 220F or after 5 -10 minutes boiling time trty the 'wrinkle' test with a saucer you placed in the freezer.

I made 10lbs of jam with a bowl and half a jar left over to have on this morning's toast. It was delicious, worth all those scratches and at a cost of just over 30p a jar including sugar and fuel, a bargain !

Another Car Repair !

The bumper and mud guard on the car were damaged on Friday and we were determined not to take it to the dealer to get it repaired ! Our local, friendly garage does not do bodywork repairs and the plastic bumper had a split in it. We knew from previous experience that the dealer would want to replace the whole bumper at a cost of several hundred pounds and since the split was quite small MrShoestring thought that he would have a go himself ! If it did not work we could still go to the dealer and get a new bumper !

Well he set to work with flexible gorilla glue, some clamps and fir tree fixings, pushed out the dent and filled the split with glue. Some patience, sandpaper and spray paint, left over from fixing the wing mirror earlier in the year and it was done ! Total cost of just over £25 ! Much cheaper than a new bumper, still safe and it looks OK ! The car is over 8 years old now so I guess it's alright to have  few bumps and scrapes on it !

Doing the repair so easily made us realise that if the car is mechanically sound there is no reason to change it in. So fingers crossed that this one keeps going until electric self-drive vehicles are the norm !

Planning for the Holidays

Now is the time to finish planning for the holidays ! Not the Summer ones but the ones in the Winter ! This might seem like a strange thing to say but now is the time to look at the calendar for birthdays and festivities in the second half of the year and make sure that you are prepared.

The sales are on, pick-your-own farms are open and car boot sales abound ! Now is the time to look in your gift cupboard and see where the gaps are. Are you adding a few jars of jam and pickles to it ? Did you find an unopened gift set or a cashmere sweater at 70% off ? Do you need to check how much you have in a special spending account for holiday events or travel ?

Yesterday I picked up 6 bottle of top quality grape juice reduced from £2.50 a bottle to 25p, since we don't drink alcohol that's the Christmas tipple taken care of. If you like homemade wine now is the time to gather some fruit or late elderflowers to make a delicious glass or two to toast the New Year ! Similarly, lots of Summer items such as shorts and swimsuits are in the sales, if you have children buy the next size up for next year. The only thing I don't recommend buying in the seasonal sales is children's clothing which fits now, by the end of the Summer they will have outgrown it so save your money !

Now, I'm off to check on the Christmas puddings !

June Reckoning

So there were a few big spends this month, like boots for MasterShoestring and a new strimmer for the garden but otherwise we did pretty well as the Summer does mean more coming in from the garden and a smaller spend on electricity and gas.

All told we spent £1052 and some spare change which meant that I could put over £447 in savings, this is very good for us and amounts to 30% of our income. I also had my most profitable month with the small business I run, which is good as it should take care of next year's fees for my course.

The other piece of good news was that it looks like we will qualify for tax credits, that would make over £200 a month difference. So far, no confirmation of that but I'm hopeful ! Also, MissShoestring starts her new well-paid job next month so that should make a difference too as she will be out of the house every day for lunch !

It is great to be half way through the year and still on track for living on a shoestring this year and even being able to save !