Is there really a recession?

Dear reader,

Welcome to a new follower, Cheap Chick-great name!

I want to know if there really is a recession? Are people hard up? We hear a lot about small companies struggling, the loss of our high streets, self employed people losing their houses.
I'm sure this is the case but listen to this.

Big man and I bought our home last February. It needed a lot of work as it hadn't really been touched since the sixties and we had the stone clad fireplace to prove it!

Some of the work Big Man did but some needed specialists.
We wanted to use local tradesmen or try to and we like to support small companies and self employed people earning a living. I'm sure we all do the same with shops and the like.

Below is a list of the jobs that we wanted doing and the responses we got.

Plans for upstairs to be extended. I rang a local guy, he came round, took photos, gave us price just for the drawing which we agreed. That was last May-never heard from him since.

We wanted a log burner installing. We got a man round, he only lives up the road. He gave us a quote, something like £2,000-we agreed the work-never heard from him since. That was last September.

We needed the whole downstairs plastering-price agreed, did one days work, said he would ring me.
That was last September-still waiting.

We asked a local firm to draw up plans and quote for a new porch. They had already fitted our new windows so they knew us and that we paid immediately. Yep, you guessed it, still waiting. Err last summer some time.
Window fitters were the worst, one forgot to turn up, one was going to be over this way as he had family here but then his plans changed and one cancelled as his wife had got tickets for a pantomime and he had to babysit the smaller child. All very lovely but ain't gonna get the money coming in is it.

We've asked for fencers, decorators. All totally blasé,

I want a grille or shutter on the back door. I am always worried about being burgled. I rang one company. The conversation went like this.
"Hi, I'd like to get a price for a grille on the back door, can you come round?"
"Well it's not just as simple as that, I need measurements and if you think about it, having a grille on the back door, it's not really going to work it is?"
Call terminated.

I rang another firm, didn't answer the phone
Another went to voicemail

In the end I rang a large company, I would rather use local but guess what? The phone answered
immediately and their brochure arrived first thing this morning.

So want I want to know is, are all the people making so much money they can afford to turn business away? I know if I had my own company I would be striving to get every bit of business I could.
I wouldn't mind but some of these workmen were recommended and I was told they were quiet and needed the work!

In the words of Jim Royale.....Recession, my arse.

How is it where you live?

FIB. X

A dark dark day.

Dear reader,

I wasn't going to blog tonight, (well it's 1am now) but I had to.

I am laying in bed, I can't sleep, I feel sick to the very core of me. I'm dreadfully worried and feel a terrible darkness over our country.

The events of the afternoon in Woolwich have shocked me so deeply.

I can't even begin to imagine the pain of the family and friends of this young man.

RIP.

Money troubles

Dear reader,

Just so you know, I don't have a comment checker thing. You know, where you have to put the funny two words in after you leave a comment. I don't know about you but I can hardly make out what the words says half the time. Then sometimes I don't think it has accepted it so I send you about 5 of the same comment. They do my head in.

This, unfortunately means I get quite a lot of Anonymous comments. I ones get must be computer generated as they are absolute, (excuse the language) SHITE!

It's as if some fool has just sent a load of random words. They seem to love my chick pea curry post too. They always go like this, "Wow, you exactly must embrace the enormous rise and your blog is awesome, please check out my website on penile enlargement"

Are they computer generated? They must be.

That's my rant of the day. I do love a rant sometimes don't you?

I had a spend day today but it wasn't too bad, (or so I thought) £2.80 on bread and milk. We use a lot of milk as big man has porridge and some protein shake things. I can't cope with the breadmaker. It takes ages and if I'm lucky I get a small block that could double as a doorstop. So, I still buy bread at about £1.30 a loaf.

Sadly, I had a dentist appointment and he charged me £160 for 4 fillings. I have to go private as no NHS patients there. Always something every month, I'm gutted.

We just can't afford these nasty surprises every month and just don't seem to be able to save up to cover them over the year. We are just about coping on what we get in each month. I have worked out that after all the household bills we have £406 left to pay for food and fuel for 2 cars doing 34 miles and 40 miles each per day. It just doesn't add up. I'm not sure how we will cope, it's depressing.

FIB. X

Stretching the food.

Dear reader,

Instead of trying to do a £50 shop each week I have done a big £120 shop for the month allowing for top ups. The reason for this is that I work all week with no chance of shopping on those days, not properly anyway. We were running low and I was popping in for one or two items and finding myself spending £20 in the convenience store nearby. (Which I don't like ever since I bought some plastic ham and when I opened it it stunk)

Therefore I have bought all the meat we will have for the month, the veg (frozen) pasta, rice and hopefully I shall just need bread, milk, eggs and fruit.

I buy onions and potatoes by the sack in Lidl and they last for ages. I had about quarter of a sack of onions left and decided there would be nothing better on a Saturday afternoon then to peel them, dice them and freeze them to save time and effort later. Yes, what a wild life I lead.

I made loads and loads of packs of chopped onion which I keep in the freezer. I just grab it out frozen when I need it and chuck it in whatever I'm making. I seem to use onion in almost everything from omlettes, fagotts, pasta sauce, stir fry, curry, bolognaise and shepherds pie so it saves me loads of time and the onions don't go off. I put enough for one recipe in a sandwich bag, flatten it and freeze it flat to save space. 

Another food I change to make it stretch is cheese. I don't buy it grated but get the cheapest block of cheddar I can find. This takes a lot of checking the price per kg at the supermarket, usually getting down near the floor to see the tiny prices. I love the way they show you a special offer but when you check the price per kg it's much more expensive than the others!
Anyway the cheapest block was £5.41 per kg. I put it thought the food processor and got two tubs full. We use so much less this way than slicing it up.

I saw some of the items I get from Approved Food in the supermarket and I did laugh. I get lovely BBQ marinades and a smoked red chilli and honey blossom one for 13p each. I buy 50 at a time and we just stash them in the larder cupboard. They were 78p each. I also saw the Maggi so juicy bags and Maggi so crunchy toppings all for about a £1 each. I get 10 of these for that. 

It does take a lot of stashing and storing but it's great.

I was reading my Kath Kelly book, " How I lived a year on just a pound a day" which I get out for inspiration once in a while. There is an interesting chapter on food waste. In the British food chain, 17 million tonnes of waste is produced each year, a quarter still edible. Lettuce is top of the list, 61% of households throw one out each week.

She also mentions sell by dates. I think these are the biggest scam going. They prey on scaring people  into throwing away and re purchasing food. Best before, what's that all about?

I'll tell you, they are a bogus marketing strategy to keep us buying and wasting.

I've got friends that are obsessed with throwing out food that is NEAR, yes near the best before date.

If I am at their houses, I take it home with me. 

I am doing some cooking today for the week. A chicken curry made with a load of drumsticks that I will pad out with lentils, veg and hopefully get a few meals from that I can freeze and a meat sauce that I will add some porridge oats and vegetables to and this will go over pasta and maybe make a lasagne too. I will let you know how it goes later.

Have a peaceful Sunday.

Much love

FIB. X

Can you be too frugal?

Dear reader,

I have been checking out money saving websites and frugal food ideas.
There are good, bad and downright ugly.

The one that most troubles me was the reusing of dental floss. Eeeuuuggghh. Yuk yukity yuk.
Not for me. That actually made me feel a little queasy. How about you dear reader, could you?
I'm assuming they use their own and it's not a family using one strand between them?
Is this frugalling too far?

I have been really good not spending anything at all this week. I had to visit the supermarket tonight and as I entered I was asked to help guide dogs for the blind. It was quite a strong ask and I felt a bit pressurised. I did my shopping and being in a really good  Friday feeling mood I scraped around in my purse for my small change, about £1.50 and went over to the man. Oh no, he said, "We don't take cash." They only want a signed direct debit sponsorship. The money went back in the purse and will go into my sealed pot instead. Oh well, I tried.

I copied one of you, I think Karen at CC and bought a lot of frozen veg this time including sliced frozen peppers and mushrooms. As we are at work every day I find it difficult to keep fresh stuff and don't really get a chance for a midweek shop except milk and bread.

Big man likes red wine, the cheaper and nastier the better. He would drink vinegar I think. I found some albeit low alcohol at 8% for £2.50. That's his treat.
I did faggots tonight that I took out of the freezer this morning. Heated up in an onion gravy and had with mash and green beans. They were frozen but were very good.

It's still cold here, the house was 14.5 when I got in so we put the log burner on tonight. Upstairs gets really warm so we only need to heat the lounge for the evenings.

Still driving slowly, it makes such a difference. I have a thing that tells you how many miles per gallon you are getting. A slight release of the foot and it does loads more. That's the extent of my car knowledge. Oh, I can do tyre pressure and check the oil with the dipstick, top up the water and obviously put in fuel. Can't change a tyre or anything else.

I had a frozen chicken carcass in the freezer but with all the veg there wasn't enough room. We put it on the back lawn for the Red Kites. They swoop right down and pick it up. Although a cheeky magpie got the last bit.

We are only showering in the week now and baths are reserved for weekends. Big man loves a bath and a read when he's in there. Hoping that the gas bill will go down a bit more. They started charging us £75 a month when we first moved in. We got a new combi boiler and have not had the heating on much except when it was freezing. I think we got down to 9 in our bedroom. It's become a bit of a challenge. They now want £44  a month so that's better.

I am interested what other people pay a month for gas. Could you let me know please so I can compare?

Here's to a great weekend, wherever you are.

FIB. X

Digging deep for frugal dinners

Dear reader,

Wow we are really digging into the back of the cupboards, fridge and freezer at the moment.
We are down to our last £35 until we get paid next week and I am serving up some inventive meals.

Last night we had chicken curry that I had made in the slow cooker, just thighs, onion, garlic, spices and tinned tomatoes.
Big man had the rest of it today for lunch and I had the last of the sausage casserole minus the sausages (I called it vegetable chilli) with one of the many cous cous packets I have from Approved Food.

Tonight I did grilled chicken in the George Foreman with Hickory BBQ sauce, also AF with the last of an old bit of blue cheese I had frozen. We had this with baked beans and sweet potato chips, roasted in the oven with a knob of butter as we are out of oil. A bit of a mish mash but tasty and filling.

We have no bread but we have naans. We have potatoes, tins of beans, spaghetti hoops, tomatoes and mushy peas.
There are some frozen chicken portions, legs and thighs and a couple more breasts.
We have eggs and milk. There are some lasagne sheets, pasta n sauce packets, rice and porridge.
Oh, I have just found a whole frozen chicken as well.

That's quite a lot now I have written it out. The only thing we don't have much of is vegetables.
I'm thinking roast chicken, potatoes, mushy peas and yorkies. I could do chicken lasagne as well and maybe a chicken and rice dish. Lots of chicken.......

I will have to do a small shop over the weekend for just a few staples.
What's on your meal plan this weekend?

There is a breakfast promotion on Graze which is worth checking out. I believe you get two free boxes when you first sign up and you can just cancel afterwards. Worth a look.

A special hello to Compostwoman, in case you didnt get my comment I hope you are feeling ok and I think you are a very kind lady.

Much love
FIB. X

Back to frugal business.

Dear reader,

Have have some great, positive and motivational comments from you-thanks, I needed it.

I have had a good blog reading catch up and scoured some of the forums on money saving expert.
There are a lot of people doing loads of different challenges such as, no spend days, 20p saving pots, £2 saving pots, mortgage free wannabes and I like to read their ideas and achievements.

I get a bit stuck sometimes with how I can save money, I try really hard with the food planning, the heating and electricity and I grovel along in the car to save fuel. We haven't had a holiday in the last couple of years and have given up smoking. We don't often eat out, maybe once every couple of months when we visit my parents.

I have decided to have a really good month and throw everything at my debts. The overdraft is still nil. There are no savings and I have a credit card and a loan to get rid of.

I started with some cooking. We had an awful lot of excess mash potato, I had used up the last of the sack of spuds and just cooked them all.
First, I had some reduced puff pastry in the freezer, so defrosted and made some cheese and onion pasties.
I combined some of the mash with grated cheddar and finely chopped (in the food processor) onion. I also had a couple of veggie sausages which I cooked, chopped and added to baked beans and made some breakfast pasties with a squirt of brown sauce in them. They are great for Big Man to grab when he doesn't have time for porridge.

Still having a bowl of mash left, I added two tins of drained tuna and formed into little fish cakes. I dipped them in egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fried. Served with onion chutney-they were yummy.

I had a small portion of beef stew in the freezer, I bulked this out with loads of veg and a Yorkshire pudding each. We didn't seem to notice there wasn't much actual beef in it.

I had defrosted a portion of homemade vegetable soup but hadn't eaten it. I put this in the slow cooker with some reduced price sausages, tomato purée, a smidgen of chilli and a tin of baked beans along with a handful of red lentils to thicken it. I will be taking the leftovers to work today.
Spicy sausage and bean casserole served with mini roast potatoes and roast carrots.

Tonight the trusty slow cooker will be transforming some chicken thighs into a curry. I always make my own and the secret of a good curry from scratch is the starting masala. This is what I do.

Chop two onions
Chop two garlic cloves (I have this in individual portions in the freezer)
Grate an inch square of fresh garlic
Chopped fresh green chilli or a half a teaspoon hot chilli powder. Adjust to your own taste.
I fry all the above until it turns brown. Then and only then, I add my curry powder, turmeric, garam masala and any other Indian spices I have. Cook for a while to release the spices.
A tin of tomatoes
Chicken on the bone. Tastes so much better than breast. No comparison.
Cook long and slow. Chicken will fall off the bone.
I like to drizzle a bit of natural yogurt mixed with mint sauce on mine.

Do you slow cook a lot? I find mine a great help when I have been at work.

All the best. A very windy Wednesday here in Bucks at 0400 am.

FIB. X