Martin Lewis Money Show

This was shown on ITV on Tuesday night and is still available on catch-up at the ITV hub. The main theme was saving for Christmas. Hannukah etc. and the show is well worth watching if you have resolved not to over spend !

I learned a few new things, including you are not automatically entitled to refunds on damaged gifts, only the purchaser is ! However, the most moving thing was in the middle of the show where Martin Lewis just sat in a chair and spoke directly to the camera about the harm that overspending does to people and how unhelpful the feeling of having to reciprocate is ! I have certainly struggled with this in the past. Then they showed a couple of small segments where families in Northern Ireland had chosen to do things differently, it was great ! 

It might seem too early to be talking about the holidays but as the show said, it's only 90 days away and even fewer working days ! Most of my stash is already put away and I'm not going to feel bad closer to the time that the gifts, even for family are only small. The most important thing is the love that comes with them !

Free Cookbook

Amazon currently has this book free to download for the Kindle. It is very worthwhile and I would recommend getting it if you want a few new ideas about how to curb the grocery spend.

It contains lots of family recipes with interesting history behind them, for instance the Macaroni Salad is from Aunt Eva and the recipe starts with some memories about visiting her on her farm and helping with storing vegetables for the winter.

All the recipes are straight forward and use cheap ingredients, but it is fairly traditional fare, so you won't find much for vegans here.

The recipes are divided into sections such as: Breakfast; Mains and Sides and there is even a section called Extra Tight Budget with six recipes for when you really need to keep costs down. The recipes are all easy to make and my family would eat them, so I'm glad to have a copy of this and am looking forward to trying a few new things, like Cabbage Rolls and Slow Cooker Bean Burritos.

There are only three pudding recipes in the book, so I guess it would be quite good for weight loss as well !

Competition !

Moneywise October's  magazine has a competition to win a copy of this helpful book. Now in its second edition it is written by Andy Bell who is the chief executive of an investment platform. It aims to show you how to build a long term investment strategy using low cost, tax efficient strategies. We certainly need this sort of advice when savings rates are so low.

If you fancy a copy of the book Moneywise have 10 to give away and I have won a competition with them before so it's worth a go.

Simply go to  

moneywise.co.uk/competitions 

enter your name and address and keep your fingers crossed ! BUT don't do it until October arrives as the competition is in the October magazine which I just got through the post. If you go right now though you can still enter September's competition to win some nights in Edinburgh and also register for a free book about an investment trust. ( I think the above is more useful, so I'll be making a note on the calendar to enter on 1st October !)

A Windy Outing

A windy outing to the Whipsnade Downs yesterday and we saw this extraordinary sculpture. Do you know what it is ?

No, I didn't either but it is the intake pipe for the ventilation system in the visitor centre. Apparently the wind bows through the gaps in the sculpture and is funnelled underground to blow into the centre to keep it cool. I thought it was very ingenious !

We had a lovely walk from the Tree Cathedral to the Chiltern Gateway Centre and I can thoroughly recommend a visit up there. We saw lots of kite flying and a glider coming into land, very exciting !

Lighting the Woodstove

So we lit the wood stove, ideal for feeling more cheery on a cold, wet weekend ! It got me thinking about the other pleasures which Autumn brings !

1) Stomping through crisp leaves on the ground.

2) Picking apples.

3) Picking and eating sweetcorn.

4) Picking and eating tomatoes.

5) Sowing bulbs for next Spring.

6) Baking bread for harvest festivals.

7) Going to Harvest Festivals.

8) Making soups and stews to eat.

9) Cuddling up with a good book.

10) Getting into a warm bed.

What do you enjoy about this time of year ?

Corn on the Cob

The wind over the past few days knocked over all but one of the corn plants so we went out to salvage what we could.

I ended up with far more sweetcorn than we have ever had before, normally it's just 1 cob each, so I was quite excited to cook some !

Cooking a whole cob is easy.

Find your largest lidded pan and fill it with salted water. Bring to the boil and once it's boiling add the corn cobs. Put on the lid, turn off the heat and wait for 10 minutes. Then eat the perfectly cooked corn without burning your fingers !

Ours without delicious and we actually preferred it without butter ! The hot summer clearly suited the plants !

Frugal Friday

Lots of frugal living happening this week, firstly in the garden. I cleared two beds of their old produce and planted lettuce and spinach seeds. I put a cold frame over them and so far have remembered to water them every day and the little seeds are showing through now, very exciting and with a bit of luck should keep us in salad for a few months more. We also picked more tomatoes and apples and as the sweetcorn got blown down in the wind we'll be eating some of that over the weekend. I made more apple juice as well but it was a bit sour to begin with, so I added a tablespoon of sugar and then it was fine !

In the kitchen I made bread, tortillas, chapattis, pizza, roast chicken and roast potatoes, vegetable curry, slow cooker bolognaise, butternut squash soup using squash from the garden and homemade chicken stock and an apple crumble. I also made some homemade curry powder and some mixed herbs. Next week I'm planning an 'eat it up' challenge with what we already have in the garden and freezer, so that I don't have too much leftover from September's groceries.

I was delighted to see that the supermarket had 5 litres of sunflower oil and 10kg of wholemeal chapatti flour on special offer. So I bought 1 of each, bringing the price of the oil down to 70p a litre and the price of a kilogram of flour down to 35p. That should make bread making pretty cheap for some time to come. I also got a free supermarket magazine with some good recipes in it. It has been interesting to see that my closest supermarket now rarely has 'yellow-stickered' bargains and if they do, you really have to search for them or they turn out not to be a bargain because an own brand would be cheaper anyway.

Over the weekend we enjoyed two free outings and a free Sunday paper. All this week we have been enjoying our books from the library and I also sold some books to Ziffit and a violin on Gumtree. Just as well to have a little extra, as my course fees are due next week and it looks as though I'll have to pay full price for the residential, whereas last year I got a 50% discount.

Another bonus this week was getting a £50 payout from Yougov surveys and another £5 Love2Shop voucher from the postal survey. The Yougov payout went towards the textbook fund and the Love2Shop voucher has been added to the rest for spending in the January sales to get presents for Christmas 2019. Planning ahead helps to keep the cost down !!

Hope you had a great frugal week too !