Things to do Instead of Watching the Football

Now I expect that certain parts of the country, such as the M25 motorway, are going to be very quiet this afternoon as most of the nation stops to watch the World Cup Quarter Final between England and Sweden.

However, if you don't like football, this afternoon would be an excellent chance to do any of the following :-

1) Go for a walk

2) Trawl round the charity shops

3) Get a haircut

4) Look for reduced food in the supermarkets

5) Pick fruit

6) Freeze fruit

7) Make jam

8) Bake a cake

9) Prepare an afternoon tea

10) Sit in the garden !

You can almost guarantee you will not be disturbed !

Frugal Friday

Still really hot around here which means that we have been doing less, but still a few frugal things have been going on.

Firstly, I have picked most of the blackcurrants and used them to make blackcurrant cordial. We also picked redcurrants and used them to make redcurrant jelly for Christmas time. I know it seems too soon to mention the 'C' word but planning ahead saves money !

We picked gooseberries, raspberries and the last of the strawberries and made stewed fruit. I also used some of the blackcurrants to top a cheesecake I made using home made curd cheese. The curd cheese was made from milk which had turned in the fridge as the warm air got in as we opened and closed the door to get at the jug of cold water I've put in there. Having a jug of cold water at the ready means that people don't drink as many canned drinks in this hot weather and water is better for our budget as well as our health.

Apart from that, we have shopped ahead a bit to get a few tins and things for our holiday in a few weeks time, as this allowed us to use a £4 off a £30 spend at Tesco voucher. MasterShoestring as been in the USA all week so MrShoestring and I have been eating leftovers and salad all week, so the food budget has hardly been touched. However, we have spent some money on petrol and a boiler service, so the account is now quite thin even though we are only 1 week into July. I'm going to have to do some careful planning to make things last.

How has your week been on the frugal front ?

Doing a Counselling Course

So today is the last day of the first year of my 2 year counselling diploma at Level 4. I already spent last year doing Level 2 & 3. By the end of next year I will be fully qualified and able to practise independently, whereas now I can only work in an agency. However, there are actually no rules governing counselling training so in theory I could hang up my shingle now !

I thought it would be worthwhile reflecting on whether doing this training is worthwhile and what I would like to have been told last year but wasn't !

I would like to have been told how difficult it was to get a placement, how expensive therapy and supervision are and what placements to go after so that you can complete 100 hours of face to face counselling in an agency in order to qualify. Although I did plenty of research and asked people already on the course I was not told any of this. As a result I've had to earn quite a bit of extra money that I hadn't budgeted for. Fortunately I am able to do this and can mostly choose when I work. However, I have also done a great deal of unpaid voluntary work in order to try and be offered some counselling work to build up my hours and that I think is a bit exploitative.

I don't know how it works in other countries but in this one, all counsellors even qualified ones, must also pay for at least 90 minutes supervision a month. Over the past three months I've had to pay for a lot more than this as I attempted to build up my face to face hours.

The upshot of all this is that I do have just over 50 hours counselling work from this year and am hopeful that now I have more experience it will be easier to find opportunities which can be fitted around working more often. My best placement has been in a school and my worst, well I don't like to say ! But I have also discovered that I do quite like being in charge rather than being told what to do, so I can see private practice beckoning when I finish next year rather than working for somebody else !

One thing is for sure, I have a better handle on the budget needed for training than I did last year !!

Clotted Cream

I was very lucky yesterday and just as I was going home from volunteering another chap who works there asked someone to take home 250g of clotted cream before it went off, of course I volunteered ! There are so many things you can do with clotted cream besides putting it on scones, so when I got home I thought of these 10 here and then ate some !

1) Make a banana split

2) Make butter

3) Make ice cream

4) Make fudge

5) Make caramel sauce

6) Make millionaire shortbread

7) Eat with strawberries

8) Eat with other fresh fruit

9) Have on pancakes

10) Have on waffles !

Somehow I think those 250g are going to disappear very quickly and what a lovely, unexpected, free treat!

Getting Fit and Healthy

MrShoestring still has 11lbs to lose to reach target weight after putting on quite a bit at the start of the year. I got this book out of the library to help him and we liked it so much that I've ordered a copy to keep.

The book is all about what this GP noticed in his surgery when he started giving lifestyle advice rather than handing out prescriptions, he reckons 75% of the problems he sees are caused by lifestyle rather than actual illness. A great deal of what he says seems to make sense, so for the next few weeks MrShoestring will be cutting out sugar, eating more vegetables, relaxing and moving more ! With a bit of luck those last few pounds will come off and then we can start encouraging others to try a bit more healthful living !

Making Cream Cheese

With the weather having been so warm even milk kept in the fridge is going off faster. Rather than throwing the sour milk away, you can use it to make cream cheese.

Put the sour milk in a bowl and cover the bowl. leave the covered bowl in a warm , shady place for a few hours until you see that the curds and whey have separated. Pour the mixture through a muslin cloth or a pillow case, catch the whey in a bowl underneath. You can use the whey to make various things, including scones. You have now caught the curd cheese in the cloth, this can be scraped off and used as you would normally. I made cheesecake with mine, but you can also flavour it with salt, pepper and herbs and spread it on bread or crackers.

A delicious treat from something you might otherwise have thrown away !

Making Blackcurrant Cordial

The blackcurrants are ripe and we already have plenty of jam and lots in the freezer from last year. I didn't want to waste them and needed to use them for something fast, as the hot weather means that they are spoiling very quickly.

So out came the steam juicer and a couple of pints of blackcurrant cordial were made very easily.

First extract the juice from all the blackcurrants by simply steaming them in your juicer. Once all the juice has been extracted then measure off 1 pint of blackcurrant juice and dissolve 1 pound of sugar into it over a low heat. As soon as the sugar is dissolved your cordial is ready to be bottled. Pour into sterilised bottles right to the top and screw on the top. As the cordial cools a vacuum seal will be created. Then enjoy now or save for the winter !