Make Do and Mend in May

Make Do and Mend in May

Having attended the Home Renovation Show in Glasgow’s SSEC at the weekend, I returned to Frugaldom filled with ideas and impatient to get back to doing something constructive inside the house. The kitchen cannot be done until the bathroom (shower room) is in reasonable shape but impatience has got the better of me… I’m going to make do and mend what I can in the bathroom so I can plough on with the kitchen!

I have set myself a budget of just £30 to give the bathroom a quick makeover, making do with whatever I can find lying about the house and mending anything that can be salvaged as useable. Making the wall panelling by recycling old wooden window blinds was a plan I had been toying with for several weeks, so… read more here

Day 4 of Extremely Frugal February - Homemade Soup & a Teapot Warmer

Just Another Frugal Day in Penny Paradise

Apologies for a belated post but the day escaped from my grasp while I went off in search of some more furniture and attempted to catch up with all the frugal news.

Spending was at an all-time low after the normal porridge breakfast, a pasta lunch and then just soup and pudding for dinner tonight. At most, I reckon the food total amounted to under £1 including cooking it and I didn't light the fire, just kept the log burner going all day. I'll call it £4 in total so it covers the tea and coffee.

Today's Homemade Soup

I have made about 3.5 litres of the stuff and I'm calling it spicy ham and lentil with pasta bits. I started off with about 4 litres of stock made from stock cubes I'd bought on offer at only 10p per pack! They were past BBE date but that matters not a jot to me, it's cheap stock at twice the price. Added to that was about 300g of red lentils (30p-ish?) and 2 sachets of something called Spicy Tomato and Basil Orzo. When made up as per directions on the pack, it tastes a bit like mini pasta with a spicy sauce... I didn't make it up as directed, I poured the dried contents of both packs in with the lentils and stock and let it slow cook for a couple of hours. The Orzo cost, I think, 5 packs for £1 from Approved Food at some point and this box was found lurking at the back of my cupboard. (Orzo is tiny pasta shaped like grains of rice.) The soup tastes lovely, it's spicy hot and it's very filling. However, if you are anything like me, you'll have a stock of 10 packs for £1 strawberry whip, so soup and pudding is always an option.

We caved and had supper tonight - Herby naan bread lightly toasted with a sprinkle of cheese - which would be sheer, unadulterated luxury if I had paid full price for the Naans and cheese - but, of course, I didn't. It was, however, still a good 50p for the two of us and it wasn't strictly necessary. Now I need to eat double portions of veggies for the next few days to make up for today's wacky meals.

Hints and tips for use during power cuts

Does anyone know what this is?

Look closely and have a guess, if you haven't already read about it elsewhere on my blog, forums or other web pages.

Yes, you are correct! That is a light shining through the holes and it throws some pretty patterns on dark walls during power cuts.

Here comes the next clue...

This contraption is made from two of the parts that make up my three-tier steamer and I burn tea light candles inside it so I have some place to warm plates or keep the tea pot warm while the kettle is on the stove. I simply invert the top tier to give it a flat surface for the teapot or can leave it the correct way round for sitting plates over to keep them and their contents warm rather than switch on the mini oven. (Last time I included this in a post was when demonstrating how uneconomical it was to attempt to warm a room using candles in the wake of the resurgence of the 'candle heater' post on Facebook.)

And now the main reason for my belated post this evening - I have found myself an absolutely fabulous bargain sofa for the living room and have arranged for some help to collect it. (Neighbours are helping tomorrow night.) My only niggling worry is that there's yet another storm howling around us at the moment, bringing more torrential rain and hail, but the sofa will have to be moved over 20 miles in an open top trailer... I suspect we may need to reschedule if this awful weather continues unabated. I have until Saturday to collect my fantastic sofa that I've only seen in photos - it looks stunning to me! The current owner is giving this away and I feel so lucky at finding such a treasure in the free ads that it is ridiculously exciting! :)

Right now, I am like a kid awaiting Santa, desperate to see my new piece of furniture! It will provide a place to sit other than the futon bed settee that has served as a couch for the past 11 years and travelled around 5 houses with me. (That deserves a bit of rest and recuperation.) The 'new' sofa also has storage underneath it - oh the joys! Even more storage for my crafting goodies, magazines, books and whatever; I really cannot wait to see this! If it needs a cover throwing over it, I'll use one of my big knitted blankets.

Tomorrow also sees the expected delivery of my bargain carpet. If 'Lady Luck' smiles on me, there may be a 'proper' living room beginning to take shape in time for my next blog update.

Frugal Footstools and Crafty Storage Space

Upcycling, Recycling and Making Creative Storage Furniture

Get the kettle on, pour a cuppa and get comfy. I'll apologise now for doing two posts today (second one to follow) but this is, after all, extremely frugal February and blogging is free.

We are making some progress with the eco-renovations, albeit very slowly. The 'new' living room has now been painted using up what we had available to us: needless to say, it's magnolia walls, white ceiling and white woodwork. I have a few bits and pieces that can be reused, like a curtain rail, curtains, book shelves and a chair rescued before it found its way to the tip, plus I have the £4 mirror I bought from a charity shop last year and a little coffee table that got diverted here rather than being binned.

Ideally, I want a warm comfy room with plenty of storage space so I can sit by the fireside with my feet up, relaxing and reading, knitting, crocheting or rug making. A storage foot stool was definitely on the list of wants, even if it wasn't an absolute necessity.

I now have a storage footstool and I love it!

A few years ago, I invested in several large plastic storage containers. These have been used for dry goods in the kitchen pantry, breakables during house moves and paperwork that now no longer needs to be kept, so I am clearing them out. This afternoon, I managed to empty the first of three. Most of the contents were recycled into fuel for the fire, but I did find a few handy bits and pieces for future use.

The cat found a use for almost everything!

First box emptied and a rummage through my fabric and crafting stash soon netted me enough to complete the project that I have had in mind for some time.

About to tackle the lid

Hot glue guns are fabulous - I've had mine for several years now and still manage to either burn my fingers or stick stuff to my nails but I wouldn't be without it. So, hot glue gun at the ready, along with an old pillow, part of old fleece blanket and some velour/velvety fabric I inherited from my late aunt, who had obviously been curtain making at some point.

The box lid will become the top of my storage foot stool

First, I glues the pillow at each corner and attached it to the lid of my plastic storage container. The overall dimensions of the container are approximately 70cm x 40cm x 40cm, so these are by no means small. The padded lid was then covered in the fleece and glued around the inside rim to hold it all in place.

The only bit of sewing was for the main cover

Next, I measured and cut my brown fabric to fit all the way around the container and then machine stitched it together for quickness. I could easily have hand sewn it but the novelty of having access to my inherited sewing machine hasn't worn off me yet. :)

Adding a decorative finishing touch

After covering the container in the velour, I secured it underneath and inside using glue. Among my stash, I found some braid and stuck that across the top of the lid. I'd have liked it to have gone all the way around the lid, but didn't have enough of it. (Aunt must have made lampshades, as there is a box filled with off cuts of this sort of stuff - it was like a real treasure trove to me when cousin gave me it!)

My crafty storage footstool

The entire project took me less than 3 hours to complete, even allowing time to rummage for fabric, sew the cover and let the glue set before packing all my current crafting projects inside for easy access while sitting with my feet up in front of the fire. There is enough fabric left to make a second one almost identical to this one, barring having to use slightly different braid.

Extremely frugal February is already throwing up some fun activities to help protect the finances.

Making a Thermal Blind for my Velux Window

PART 1

How to Make Thermal Velux Type Blinds on a Budget

Embarking on a voyage of discovery to see what we can create by way of a thermal blind for a Velux window without having to buy anything new. This is a recycling and upcycling project that should have a colourful outcome.

 

Yesterday, I finally got around to making a start on my blind after the arrival of my Approved Food order reminded me! I can imagine you are wondering how a food delivery, which included 5kg of coffee beans for less than £7.50, I might add, inspired me to set off on my quest to discover how to make a cheap Velux blind, so here's how it happened. Read more

NYK/Frugaldom

40 Tips for September, the Month of Zero Waste.

Don't Slip up on the Road to Frugaldom

As you know, we launched our 'Septimus Frugalus Challenge' on the 1st September and we are having a full month of waste not, want not in an effort to encourage a few others to join us in our quest for a frugal lifestyle. It's not just about zero waste on food, it's about zero waste on money.

So far, we have had over 50 willing volunteers opt-in to take part in reducing their household budgets and minimising their waste in an attempt to save. (It's not too late to join us.)

Here are a few of the more basic hints, tips and suggestions shared in the frugal forums:

1. Cooking and baking from scratch helps avoid waste packaging.
   
2. Take your own bags when shopping.
3. Keep meals simple to use up what's in stock and make meals from leftovers.
4. Get creative - make meals from garden produce, no matter what the combination.
5. Preserve whatever fruit and veg you can, be it jam making, pickling, drying or freezing.
6. Make a list, like a food inventory, for meal planning and shopping.
7. Make a stew with whatever is lurking in your fridge, add some dumplings to bulk it out into a family meal if you need to make it stretch further.
   
8. Compost whatever can be composted if it can't be eaten or fed to livestock.
9. Portion control, measuring ingredients to ensure there's no waste.
10. Trade your surplus among friends and neighbours - this can be anything from food to furniture to save it from being binned.
11. Hair can be composted, if you are saving money by doing the haircuts at home, compost the clippings.
12. Use a wire brush or re-useable steel wool instead of buying sandpaper for sanding old woodwork.
13. Use a cloth for mopping up spills, rather than disposable wipes or kitchen roll.
14. Avoid the use of disposable anything if it's practical, for that matter.
15. Save old clothing, sheets, towels etc. for turning into other things - many frugalers enjoy quilting, dressmaking and crafting. If you aren't one of them, donate the clothing to charity, the recycle collection points or someone you know who can use the fabric in some way, shape or form.
16. Leftover bread can be toasted or made into bread and butter pudding or crumbed and frozen for dressing things like fish cakes, scotch eggs, potato croquettes etc.
    
17. Leftover cake (never in this house) can be crumbed for using as a topping over fruit crumbles or else sliced and used as the bottom layer of a trifle.
18. Chipped, bashed or bruised fruit can be stewed, brewed, made into jam or used in fruit puddings.
19. Many vegetables can be baked into cakes. Surplus at this time of year may be courgettes or root veg such as carrots or beetroot. Our courgette cake ideas are here.
20. Get creative with broken 'stuff', even if it means posting a picture online to ask fellow frugalers for ideas about how to recycle or upcycle the item. A thin plank and a length of wood can soon become a shelf, a few broken tiles can become a mosaic, some laddered tights or holey leggings can become onion hangers or draught excluders, a couple of empty tubs can become storage containers, an odd assortment of paints can create a whole new colour etc.
21. A freezer rummage can often find forgotten meat or fish products lurking at the bottom - so long as these were fresh when frozen and don't look or smell bad, why not cook up your own pet food and then refreeze in tin-sized portions? I bulk mine out using rice and vegetables - notes regarding how I make this can be found here.
22. Nile Mince - batch cook mince to stretch into several meals to help use up leftovers and get more meals for your money
23. Stretching chicken - some call it rubber chicken, as one bird can feed a family for a full week or longer if you freeze the resulting meals and make stock for soup.
24. Soup for every day of the year - it is one of the easiest things to make and can be made from
    
    almost anything savoury. You can even boil up your scrubbed veg peelings and peapods to make a vegetable stock. If they are no good for stock, boil them and feed them to your garden livestock.
25. Recycle all your envelopes and packaging, even when sending to official addresses. I simply cover over the label with a scrap of paper and add a new stamp. (Inland Revenue offices have never complained, so why would anyone else?)
26. If you need to buy them, recycle your plastic drinks & milk bottles into mini-cloches, plant pots, tubs, funnels, pencil holders, storage containers, bird feeders, even greenhouses! The milk cartons can be cut to make great measuring scoops.
27. Plastic trays can be used for many things, including seed trays, freezer trays, bird baths etc.
    
28. Greetings cards, calendars, wrapping paper etc. that can't be reused can be turned into postcards, gift tags, book marks, card embellishments, labels, decoupage or artwork of many other descriptions. My pictures hanging on my sitting room wall are made from the end off my wall paper - how much more colour co-ordinated than that can you get?
29. Old woollen wear can be unravelled and reknitted or crocheted. It can be turned into blankets, used in crafting or, at worst, used as stuffing for all those draught excluders you're making this winter.
30. Polystyrene packaging peanuts are great insulators as well as great for protecting breakables through the post. Save them for making bean bags or for making your very own hot pot, slow cooker or cool box.
31. Cut open tubes of toothpaste or cream etc. to get at the last of it and be amazed by how much you still have to use. Worse, be shocked at how much you almost threw away in the first place.
32. Make yourself up a 'crafty kit' for saving useful things like buttons, hooks, elastic and anything else that can be salvaged from what would otherwise have gone in the bin. I tend to throw all these sorts of things into a drawer then sort them out into margarine tubs.
33. Fleece! We all love the stuff - whether it's an old blanket, dressing gown or old fleece top. Whatever it is, it's great for making into curtain liners or thermal blinds for windows during winter months.
34. Toilet roll and kitchen roll inner tubes can be turned into seed pots or stuffed to make kindling for the fire or stove, if you have one. They also make great inners for homemade Christmas crackers, can be turned into 3-D artwork or saved for building into any manner of game, if you have the space. Did anyone else used to add one to their hamster cage as a tunnel?
    
35. Seeds from tomatoes and peppers etc. can be kept, dried and sown to grow into more tomatoes and peppers. It doesn't always work but I've had some good successes in the past.
36. Don't bin that old quilt! Cut it open, remove the filling and give it a freshen up to keep as stuffing. If you can't use it, give it to someone who can. If you want to wash it first, tie it inside a pillow slip and pop it into a cool cycle of the washing machine.
37. Burning candles? Save all the ends to melt down into firelighters for anyone you know who can use them, or else use for new candles. Likewise with the ends of soap - save these and make them into new bars of soap or for grating and storing as an ingredient for your homemade laundry cleaner.
38. Eggshells can be washed and dried, baked in the bottom of the oven while it's cooling after cooking dinner, then the shells can be crushed and used in the garden around plants to help deter slugs and snails.
39. Be a bin raider - raid your own bins to make sure everything in there really needs to be there or if you can get creative and use it for something else.
40. The most obvious choice for most people - make full use of local recycling opportunities - many supermarkets collect old batteries, companies pay for old mobile phones or electrical components, broken down white goods may contain working parts that can be reused or carry some scrap value... think before you bin anything, no matter how insignificant the item may seem to you. A penny saved is a penny earned, so the less waste, the better.

This list is by no means exhaustive, it is just a few of the more obvious practices you can employ around your home. Teaching children not to drop litter is probably one of the top tips I can recommend, but it dismays me to see how adults think nothing of flicking rubbish out car windows or dumping full bags of rubbish that may well be worth something to someone in need.

We are fast approaching the time of year where many parents tackle the annual clear out of 'stuff' no longer perceived as being needed or wanted simply in preparation for the next big invasion of Christmas gifts... no offence meant, but I can see nothing Christian-like in such actions and sincerely hope that all the frugaldom readers will think twice about how they can rehome any surplus or better still, teaching kids that toys don't expire after a year no matter what others might say.

Mantra for frugalers:

'Just because I don't need/want/use it doesn't mean someone else won't need/want/use it.'

 

A Frugal Concoction of a Day

Chairs, Cucumbers and Fruit Fizz

Today has been a mixed sort of a day - web work, some research and updating on a long-standing challenge I once set myself to make a huge piggy bank and fill it... but that tale will keep for a bit longer.

 

This morning, I had a surprise awaiting me in the shape of another three new chairs! Did I show you the two I got yesterday?

 

Here they are - an old pair of deck chairs that a neighbour would otherwise have taken to the tip. A bit of a scrub and a coat of metal paint should see these as good as new and ideal for entertaining on the patio. Normally, I need to borrow extra seating from next door when visitors arrive for barbecues etc.

 

This morning, I found myself the proud owner of a further three chairs from another neighbour who is scaling down on surplus furniture.

 

This lovely pair of dining chairs will be incorporated into the sitting room come guest room in place of the huge office chair I have in there at the moment. After my cousin arrived for a few days' holiday last week, absolutely weighed down with more offcuts of fabric, sewing materials and an electric sewing machine, making some seat and cushion covers can now be added to my 'to do' list. There's some lovely red and cream material that should do just the job!

 

Finally, on the seating front, there is this handy, comfy, space-saving, sturdy little folding office chair that, once recovered, should make a fantastic addition to my bedroom. Having been spurred into further action during the Home Improvement Hero challenge, I continued into the next room - my bedroom - to give it a budget makeover. Again, I'll save this for another blog post, as it's a total makeover on a tiny budget.

 

So that's the tale of the chairs, now what's all this about cucumbers and fruit fizz?

 

I had meant to bottle the champagne-style fizz yesterday, but somehow time slipped away from me and I ended up doing other things. Today became bottling day, so I rinsed and scalded everything in preparation. (See post here for how to make this for pennies per bottle.)

 

 

The liquid got strained through a sieve and returned to the bucket before ladling it out with a jug and pouring it, via a funnel, through a coffee filter. So far, I have done 5 bottles, but there's enough left for a sixth if I can find a suitable bottle soon enough to use it. The photo of the bottled fizz doesn't reflect the true colour, as this is a real rosy pink and has already started fizzing and fermenting.

 

And now for the cucumbers...

 

I know I said we were going to have a good crop of courgettes this year, but the cucumbers are also growing at an alarming rate. I popped out to water them while waiting for the fruit fizz to filter and the closer I looked, the more cucumbers I saw. We've already picked and eaten a couple and I gave cousin one away with her for her sandwiches, as she's going off on a frugal campervan expedition this week, but I think I'm going to be looking for ideas of what to do with surplus cucumbers very soon. Some will get traded with neighbours, some will get pickled and as many as possible will get eaten - they are so good - but if they all grow to an edible size, I may need some help!

So that was today's adventure in Frugaldom - 'bottling the fruit fizz' got scored off my 'to do' list, several new items got added and I didn't manage to get out cycling or walking. I priced up the spare parts to get my old bread maker back into full service and compared the price with buying another second-hand one via eBay. The second-hand one for spare parts looks like the money-saving option, so that's also been added to my list.

Until tomorrow,
Frugaldom.