The Joy of Volunteering !

I have two different ways I volunteer, one for a counselling agency and one by being a trustee for a charity. This week my aunt sent me a lovely newspaper write up of her work as a justice of the peace and the chair of the local NHS trust, all volunteer work as well. It got me thinking how many great institutions we have in this country staffed by volunteers. I have done lots of volunteering in the past too and it got me thinking of all the benefits that it offers.

First of all, I meet people that I otherwise wouldn't see, they are not friends but we become close, bonded by a common cause.

It is good to feel that you are doing something for others and stops you dwelling on your own problems.

You have the chance to learn new skills and try out new roles to see if they are a good fit.

I couldn't think of any down sides, so why not give it a go ? Even an hour is often welcome to some local concerns, I really enjoy it !

The Pleasures of October

We are just one week into the month but it really feels like the season has turned now. I spent most of September wishing that Summer could go on a little longer, especially as we were still on holiday at the start of it !

However, yesterday I realised that Autumn has its pleasures as well. Here are 10 I noticed so far :-

1. The colours of the leaves

2. The smell of smoke in the air

3. The dewdrops on spiders' webs first thing in the morning

4. The sun can still be warm in the afternoon

5. The flowers are still blooming

6. Late crops can be gathered

7. Spring gardening plans can be made and bulbs planted

8. Woolly blankets for sofas

9. Warm breakfasts

10. Festivities are just around the corner.

I'm going to do my best to enjoy all of these this weekend !

Frugal Friday

A whole week of October gone and I am pleased to report it has been very quiet on the spending front ! But not that busy on the saving front either ! Here's what we did get up to !

Stewed apples - I think I did this every day in the slow cookers and there are still some in the washing basket. I'm hoping to finish those off over the weekend and then pick the rest off the tree before the wind blows them all down.

I sold a book on Amazon and posted it using recycled packaging and stamps from the Royal Mail Survey. I enjoyed free books and magazines from the library and must make sure that I return them on time to avoid a fine. I al;so read the free paper and free local magazine, which always has a map for a great local walk in it.

I did the rest of the month's shopping and used a combination of Aldi and a £4 voucher off a £30 spend at Tesco to keep the costs down.

We made tortillas, quiche, soup, refireid beans, meatloaf, salsa, lemon drizzle cake, lentil curry, chapattis and chocolate brownies from scratch. I made baked potatoes in the slow cooker to save putting the oven on and picked and froze some more raspberries.

A big surprise was finding more beetroot in the garden when I was clearing away some swiss chard which had bolted. I was thrilled and we enjoyed eating them for tea yesterday. I earned another £5 gift voucher from Swagbucks and downloaded 3 free ebooks from Bookbub.

It was a busy but enjoyable week !

Ten Things to do in Stoptober !

Yesterday I made a list of 10 things I could do to help with 'stopping spending ' in October. I was hankering after a new sweater, as I only have 3 and they were all in the wash. I looked through all the spare clothing bags, went through the cupboards and the craft stash and reminded myself about the whole year voluntary 'not buying new clothes' promise, which I already broke to get some underwear earlier in the year. In the end I decided that I could wait for the sweaters to dry !! In case it helps someone else, here is what I came up with :-

1) Stocktake your pantry and look for new recipes to use up those spare ingredients that you find at the back.

2) Go through the freezer and fridge, organise them so you can see what you have.

3) Go through your junk drawer and put everything back in its proper place.

4) Go through your wardrobe and clean and repair items which need it.

5) Get everybody else to go through their wardrobe and do the same same cleaning and repair work.

6) Think about whether you are going to be celebrating Halloween and if so how can you do it with 'no spending' !

7) Go through any craft stash or magazine stash and use what you have on hand, once you have sorted it out !.

8) Go through the attic, basement or storage cupboard and discover new treasures and get rid of old trash.

9) Have a look at your schedule - are there things on there which you could drop and not miss ?

10) Have a look at the bank statements and credit card statements, are there any charges you don't remember or direct debits you no longer use ?

There are definitely a few on here that I need to work on, looks like October will be busy !

Cinnamon Rolls

All that talk abut cinnamon rolls made me want to bake some ! This is my adapted recipe so that it fitted all our food restrictions !

550g white flour

1tsp of dried yeast plus 2 tsps sugar and 50ml of warm water

25g oil

330ml dairy free milk

100g dairy free spread

50g sugar

4tsps cinnamon

Mix the yeast and 2 tsps sugar with the warm water and leave in a warm place to activate the yeast. Mix  the oil and dairy free milk into the flour together with the yeast once it is frothy. Knead the dough for 5 minutes and leave in a warm place to prove for 1 hour.

Take out and knock down the dough then roll out on well-floured surface to the size of a 9in by 13in pan. Oil the pan or line with baking parchment. Spread the dairy free spread and 50g of sugar over the dough then scatter the 4tsps of cinnamon. Carefully roll up the dough from the long side first and cut into 12 equal pieces. Place each of the pieces, swirl side up into the baking pan. Leave to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place covered with a cloth so the buns don't get dirty !

Bake for 20 minutes at 200C. Leave to cool before taking out or sprinkle with more sugar and cinnamon or ice with a simple water icing !!

Mmm !

Lagom !

I borrowed this nice, little book from the library on Saturday and have been enjoying dipping into it every day since. Lagom is a Swedish word meaning ' work - life balance' and there are quite a few ideas which I think could come in handy to make Stoptober a bit more fun.

The first idea is Fredagsmys which is all about making Friday night very relaxing, at home with your family. The idea is to put on comfy clothes and eat and drink something nice together and then enjoy a cosy time. Since our Friday evening is often occupied with shopping and housework this sounds like a lovely alternative !

The second idea is Fika which means a proper coffee break where you walk away from your work, whatever that is, whether at home or in a workplace and take 10-15 minutes to do something else and savour a coffee and a cinnamon bun. Today's tea break for me was spent rushing around getting other things done, so this seems another great idea, especially as I love making cinnamon buns !

The third idea I picked up is Allemansratten which means everyone's right to nature. My interpretation is that you are going to feel better if you spend some time outdoors every day regardless of the weather. So I'm looking out my wellingtons and raincoat to make sure I get out every day in October !

Three great ideas and I'm only a third of the way through the book, can't wait to see what other great ideas the Swedes have !

The Reckoning

I have reckoned up the accounts for September and discovered that we overspent by £492.79. This is better than August, when we overspent by £781.53 but not so bad at all when you realise that it was all due to budgeted expenses which only come round once a year and have already been saved up for !

We are trying to live on £1500 a month and that includes a lot of fixed expenses, such as the community charge on the house. If I disregard the annual expenses we actually spent far less than the £1500 a month and so far this year have spent an average of £1444 a month. Some months, such as February when there are no annual expenses due, we spend far less than that, closer to £900 a month.

I spent quite a bit less on food this month, only £120, which is the lowest it has been all year. On the other hand, doing the big grocery shop for October yesterday I was horrified to see that butter is close to £1.50 per half pound and that is for the unbranded stuff. In the end I decided not to do a whole month's shop at once, as the meat where I was was too expensive. Instead, I bought what was on special offer and used a coupon to bring the price down even further. I've got quite a few coupons for 10% off this month so will save them up and use them when I'm close to the supermarket anyway.

I also checked that we are still in credit for the gas and electricity and we have yet to switch on the central heating, just using the wood burner sometimes.

We also went to a jumble sale this weekend, they are getting so rare. We paid the entry but in the end came away without buying anything. The prices were too high and the quality too low. I've started to wonder about visiting a car boot sale instead, but in this part of the world the prices do tend to be high.

I think I already mentioned that I'd been thinking of making October Stoptober month and trying to stop all spending on 'wants'. Well, the over-priced jumble sale and the expensive butter have definitely made me think we should go ahead with it. So starting tomorrow I'll be reporting our progress on 'stopping spending' every Monday on the blog. Anyone else got plans for October ?