Free Cheesecake

Last Friday MissShoesstring went out with a friend to a nice restaurant in London called Blacklock. It specialises in tasty meat dishes but also has tasty puddings. MissShoestring has a sweet tooth and loves cheesecake. She has tasted cheesecake all over the world, including New York, which is supposed to make the best in the world. After one bite, she declared the one that night at Blacklock to be the best she has ever tasted.

On the way out, whilst paying the bill she asked if she could buy a piece of the cheesecake to take home for her Dad. MrShoestring has not been very well this week and she wanted to cheer him up. The restaurant staff explained that they did not normally do that and she explained that it was for her Dad and why.

The fantastic staff went into the kitchen and fetched a plastic tub and placed a piece of cheesecake in it so she could carry it home safely. Then they got a paper carrier bag and wrote on it in lovely writing " To Dad from Blacklock". Then they told MissShoestring that there was no charge and that they hoped her Dad got better soon.

There are lots of lovely reviews about that restaurant praising the great, friendly staff but I think they surpassed themselves last Friday. MrShoestring enjoyed his piece of cheesecake and it did cheer him up  . I think it is a wonderful example of the sort of kindness we have been seeing in London recently, long may it continue !

Mending the Lawnmower

Nearly every Summer we have something go wrong with the lawnmower. One Summer thieves tried to run off with it, one summer servicing it cost £169 and one summer we had to buy a new one, so we always keep extra savings in case something has to be done with it. However, over the years we have got more used to what might go wrong with it and so can plan ahead to take preventative action.

Now, we buy a servicing kit and MrShoestring does the servicing himself and we always add fuel stabiliser, so if it is stored away for any length of time then the fuel lines do not get clogged. We have a lot of rough lawn to mow here so a big, high-powered petrol mower is essential.

Well, yesterday it stopped working ! We tried everything, so resigned ourselves to taking it in for repair and facing a more than £100 bill. MrShoestring was all set to load it into the car when MasterShoestring suggested he have one more try to get it started. Well, it did start ! Then it stopped again ! This suggested that a faulty spark plug might be the cause. So we bought a new one at a cost of £2.99 and fitted it.

Now the engine worked but the blades would not turn. A quick look at Youtube and some tightening of the blades and it was working properly ! We were ever so happy that the repair cost £2.99 rather than the £169 servicing charge we would probably have had to pay at the lawnmower centre !

Fixing things yourself is a great skill to have ! What a blessing all those people who post on Youtube are !

Boiler Update !

So, we arranged for an independent boiler engineer to come and look at the boiler, yesterday at 9am. He did not arrive ! I called, he was busy on another job but promised to come at some point during the day. He finally turned up at 2.15p.m. I was not best pleased that he was so late but he was very polite and had his twin sons with him, who were also very polite.

They checked over the entire system, even climbing in to the loft and turning the central heating and hot water on multiple times, they checked the boiler again ! Eventually, they declared there was nothing wrong but a little valve must have got knocked during the previous service. I checked that the hot water was really working and sure enough it was !

All of this took about 45 minutes and when I asked how much they would charge they said £40 plus VAT if I would agree to have the boiler serviced by them next year. Of course, I agreed ! So, the £40 from HomeServe as compensation, paid for the visit and I paid the VAT. Making the sum cost of fixing the boiler, £8 rather than the £95 HomeServe wanted to charge. Also, it was clearly their fault rather than being a new breakdown.

I'm so glad that I shan't have to go through all of that next year, fingers crossed !

Frugal Friday

Another Friday and a week of small savings but good ones ! I planned out all the meals for this month and the shopping. I split it into two sections, one for whilst we are home and then a menu plan and a shopping list for when we are away. I did most of the shopping in Aldi and a bit in Tesco. I'll go to Aldi again before we go away, whereas I normally only go once a month. We're planning on taking most of our food with us as that should ensure that we stick to the budget, I've allowed just a bit for ice creams and fresh stuff and hope that it will be enough. So far I've only spent £72.71 ! A big saving was £10 for 10 litres of sunflower oil in Tesco and I also picked up a copy of their free magazine. The only slightly disappointing thing about not shopping much in Tesco now is that my vouchers were only for £4.50 this quarter.

The garden is still producing well but not quite so copiously in the wet weather . We managed to harvest courgettes, a cucumber, blackberries and potatoes. We planted more lettuce and I made bread, tortillas, stuffing and cake.

I gave MrShoestring a home haircut and downloaded some free Kindle books, including one on how to live for free. The book is by the founder of the website LatestFreeStuff and although I don't find the website so good, the book contained details of a few swapping sites, including one for garden vegetables which I might try.

I got a £5 Amazon voucher from Swagbucks so used it to get a copy of Marlene Stevens new book on Homemade Gifts. It is really good and has lots of good ideas I could definitely try out, a great buy ! I used a comparison website to see if I could find a cheaper home insurance price and then when I found it was with the same company we were with already I called them and asked if they could match the online price. They were very polite and even managed to knock off 2p more. So now we have home insurance at £11 cheaper than last year.

The final frugal thing is not a saving but an earning, the feed-in tariff payment for the solar panels was calculated and that worked out at just over £211. When it comes in I'm going to use it to buy second-hand copies of the books I need for next year's course. If I buy now the prices tend to be lower as last year's students get rid of their books. If I wait until I need them, the prices are often higher.

I hope you had a frugal week too !

Blueberry Loaf

I made this yesterday and before it had finished cooling MasterShoestring had pinched a bit !

2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup blueberries

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup milk or non-dairy substitute

Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a greased loaf tin. Bake for 1 hour at 350F, check after 45 minutes if you have got a quick oven or a large loaf tin as then the mixture will cook quicker.

Turn out and leave to cool before slicing to enjoy ! If you are feeling extravagant it is tasty with butter or jam or with a bit of icing drizzled over the top !

Outfitting Baby

Just out of curiosity I thought that I would tot up how much it would cost to equip a new baby with all the stuff you would need to start out with. I was shocked to discover that including a cot and a highchair would take the amount to just under £300 !

I can remember that when we were having USAShoestring we looked in Mothercare and then went home and made a crib ourselves, as it was far cheaper. The important thing to remember is that the baby grows so fast that most stuff will not be used very long, especially clothes and nappies. So, there are bargains to be had second-hand.

I found all the clothes for the first year in charity shops and did not pay more than 50p an item. You could do even better at a jumble sale and a quick wash and it's like it always belonged to you. We borrowed a cot and got the pram out of the paper. We also saved big items and lent them to other people and then re-used them ourselves. National Childbirth Trust sales were really good too.

Wait and see what your baby is like before investing lots of money in real nappy systems. It was fine with MissShoestring but MasterShoestring had colitis and disposables met his needs better. I ended up selling the real nappies I'd saved !

Also be aware that babies are born in lots of different sizes and they may be too big or too small for newborn sizes ! Have a few items larger and smaller just in case you need them !

My best item was a good sling so I could leap on and off buses, we had no need of a car seat with the first two, so pick items that fit your lifestyle !

What would you recommend to new parents ?

A Wee Trip Out

Off to a conference yesterday and as it was such a fine day we used all our free time in-between presentations to have a look around. This is the war memorial.

A lovely footpath !

The conference venue, a lovely old house with a super garden.

I love it when we can enjoy the countryside at the same time as visiting somewhere for a conference or training. Feels like a mini-holiday !