“Stop And Smell The Roses”

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Recently, someone at my allotment site died, due to cancer.  I walked past his plot today and it made me think of him.

“Stop and smell the roses“

This is a phrase that we are all familiar with.  It simply means that we should take time to appreciate something we have, or to pay attention to the good things that happen right under our noses.

If we are all honest, how often can we say, that we do actually ‘sit back and smell the roses’ ourselves.  I would put money on it, that it’s not that often.

Life is so so busy now for everyone.  Time goes so quickly and we are all trying to get ‘this and that’ finished, before we go on to the next ‘this and that’.

Today I did sit back and smell the roses:

Remember my wild flowers?  You can read about my wild flower patch here.

My wildflower patch today

They are still flowering beautifully and there are so many insects still flying around.  So much activity is going on, it takes my breath away to just stand still and watch it.

I feel very privileged to be able to just ‘stop and stare’, especially on such a beautiful sunny morning.

We chose for me to give up work, when our first daughter was born.  This was very scary at the time, as money was a big issue.  But looking back, I am very proud of how we managed.  We have two beautiful daughters and a nice home.  It doesn’t have posh furniture or the latest gadgets, but it is a ‘home’, where we have shared so many happy memories together.

What we didn’t realise when I gave up working and our so called ‘luxuries’, was how much happiness it would bring.

In fact, looking back at our old life, ‘keeping up with the Jones’ gave us a ‘carousel’ life, that just went round and round:

‘We worked hard to pay for new gadgets and expensive holidays and worked more hours to pay for the gadgets and expensive holidays, we brought more things, worked more hours, became more in debt, so we worked more hours and took a bank loan to pay off the credit cards and then had another expensive holiday, bought more gadgets etc. etc.’

  All the time we thought the holidays and new gadgets etc would make us happy, but if they made us so happy, then why did we keep on spending money on more and more things?  The carousel would never have stopped if we hadn’t made that life changing decision, for me to give up my job and we would never have known about the surprising benefits.

Do I have any regrets?…  NO.  If we had the chance to go back in time, with the same circumstances and the same money coming in, we would live exactly the same.

When I reach those pearly gates, my only regret is that I didn’t meet my husband earlier and lived this life with him sooner.

My blog was a little bit different today.   I hope you still enjoyed reading it.

Sowing Grass Seed and a Tuna Pasta Bake Recipe

Over the weekend, I have been preparing the area between my two rows of summer raspberries.

When I took the plot over in January, this area was covered in couch grass and the roots kept growing around the raspberries and it’s very hard to remove it.

In January I covered the area with weed suppressant and left it until now.  You can see in the picture below that the couch grass is all dead:

I forked over the soil and raked it flat and then trod all the area over and then raked it again.  I then sowed the grass seed ready for next year.  It will certainly look nicer than the weed suppressant next year.

How it looked after I first forked the area over

Looking around my plot today, I became very excited when I found some butternut squashes.  As it has been a rotten summer I really didn’t think I would have any, but I have:

Butternut Squash

I also thought I’d show you my daughter’s pumpkin that she has grown from seed.  The biggest one I have grown on my plot was eight years ago and it weighed 76lbs.  I’m hoping this will beat it.  I am being very careful to watch the weather forecast for frost.

My daughter’s pumpkin

I’m already looking forward to my pumpkin soup and pumpkin cake.

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On Friday my daughter’s friends came for tea.  As a treat, I made them a big bowl of blackberry cordial, with lots of home-grown fruit in it

Blackberry Cordial

The recipe is here on Fridays post.

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My daughter asked me to make a ‘Tuna Pasta Bake’, which is another cheap and easy meal to make.

I have only managed to find Tuna Pasta Bake meals for one person, in all of the ‘big four’ supermarkets.  The price for one meal ranges from £1 for a frozen ready meal to £2.20 for a ‘fresh’ ready meal.

I worked out that my recipe, which serves four people, costs just £2.54 to make, as I use all the cheapest ingredients.

That is an amazing 64p per person.

It was all eaten, except a tiny bit, so that is enough proof for me that it tastes really good.

Here is the recipe:

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Tuna Pasta Bake – (Serves 4)

400 grams ‘Penne’ Pasta

50 grams margarine

50 grams of plain flour

600 ml milk

200 grams grated cheese

1 tin tuna flakes drained

1 can of sweetcorn

A Handful chopped parsley (or 2 teaspoons of dried parsley)

Preheat your oven gas mark 4 / 176C / 350F

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Cook the pasta until it is nearly cooked. 

Meanwhile make the sauce:

Melt the margarine in a milk pan.

Take the melted margarine off the heat and add the flour.  Mix in until no flour is visable.

Add a little bit of milk and beat it in, until it is totally combined.

Keep adding a little bit of milk and mixing it in, until all the milk is combined.  There should be no lumps.

Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring all the time.

When it has boiled mix in the parsley and simmer for two minutes.

 In a separate bowl mix together the pasta, tuna, sweetcorn and three quarters of the cheese.  Then mix in the sauce so that all the ingredients are covered in it.

Transfer it into an oven proof dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese over it.

Cook for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is golden and starting to brown.

 I served it with a homegrown salad and some homemade garlic bread and it went down a treat!

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog today.

Saturday Is ‘Bump The Blog’ Day

Today is ‘Bump the Blog’ day.

I pick a different blog each week, that I particularly enjoy reading.  I will then post a link for you to check it out, to see if it interests you too.

There are so many wonderful blogs out there, talking about subjects of all kinds.  Each person spends time and energy updating their blogs and it is lovely getting views and comments in return.

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Todays blog  is called ‘Allotment Adventures With Jean’

Jean says “I live in Brisbane, Australia and have 16 square metres of allotment at Beelarong Community Farm.  Within that space I attempt to keep myself in vegetables. I was a complete novice when I took on this allotment in 2010 as I had only gardened in the UK, years earlier. I didn’t even recognise many of the vegetables that other allotment holders were growing.  I had to learn not only their names, and how to grow them, but what to do with them once harvested. So this is my allotment ‘adventure’. I love it”

Her enthusiasm shines through her blog and you can’t help but enjoy reading it.

You can read it here.

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Thank you for reading my blog this week.

I will be back again on Monday, at approximately 7.30pm.

I hope to see you then.

Blackberry Cordial & General Allotment Jobs

Today at the allotment I weeded around my brussels sprouts and my spring broccoli.  I removed any yellowing leaves and then tied them to the supports that I had put in to the ground.  This will help to stop them from rocking around in the wind over the winter.

I also examined my ‘Cape Gooseberry’ plant that was growing outside.  You can see in the picture below that it is only small and I doubt I’ll get any fruit off it, before the first frosts come.

In my polytunnel I have two ‘Cape Gooseberry’ plants that I also put in the ground at the same time.  In the photograph below you can really see the difference the extra protection of the polytunnel gives.  They both have loads of fruit on them.

After this I cleared away the cornflowers that self-seeded around my pond.  They gave a wonderful display earlier in the year, but now it was time to tidy them away.

I had almost forgotten that I had grown some ‘Aubretia’ plants around the pond.  I think they will look pretty in the spring.

Today also I pulled back the ‘environmesh’ that covered my cauliflower plants and was pleasantly surprised to find the cauliflowers, which were ready to be picked.  You can see the cauliflowers I picked in the picture below.  I weeded and cleared the area where the cauliflowers were too.

When I got home I chopped the cauliflowers up and washed them in salt water.  I then blanched them for 2 minutes and put them on trays (as this stops them from sticking together) and froze them.  Tomorrow I will bag them up.

Following on from my post last Friday regarding child poverty, (which you can read here), I have another cheap and easy recipe.

At the moment there are loads of blackberries around.  So I thought I’d use some to make a homemade Blackberry Cordial.

Because the blackberries were from my allotment, I worked out that this cordial only cost me 16p to make and it has no chemicals or preservatives in at all and tastes really nice.

Blackberry Cordial

2 cups of cold water

2 cups of granulated sugar

300g blackberries (fresh or frozen)

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

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Make the sugar syrup by putting the water and sugar in a saucepan and heat on a low flame, stirring all the time until the sugar has dissolved and you can see no sugar crystals on the back of your spoon.

Add the blackberries and lemon juice and then turn the heat up and bring the mixture to a boil.

Simmer for 5 minutes.

Put the whole lot through a sieve and then cool the juice.

Dilute the cordial to your taste.

Serve cold with ice

This cordial lasts approximately 3 days in the fridge.

My daughters friends came for tea tonight, so I served the cordial with lots of ice and different fruit in a bowl and it looked very special for them.  I left them a ladle so they could help themselves.  Most of the fruit was homegrown.

Thank you for reading my blog today.

Parsley Sauce And Taming A Monster

Today at my allotment, I tamed my monster!….My Shark Fin Melon is now so big, it had sprawled all over the netting that covers my purple sprouting broccolli and it had actually broke the cane holding the netting up, as it was too heavy.

I moved it and chopped some of the leaves off.  It actually climbs over an arch I have too, but I didn’t quite realise how big it grows and the arch has been unearthed on one side!

You can read about the shark fin melon on my blog here.

Also at the allotment today I covered my compost heap, as it was full and I now have the new compost bins that I made last week. This is the compost bin that I filled with all my perennial weeds.

I have weighed the weed suppressant down with bricks and to make sure it doesn’t come off in the wind, I have put my two trusty old wheelbarrows on top.

I just need to wait four or five years for the wonderful compost it will make.

I finally found some cucumbers ready for picking today.  I really thought I wouldn’t get any this year, so I am very pleased.  I have put some glass around them as it’s turning cold at night now, in the hope I may get some more.

I finished by finally putting away the plastic bottles that I used back in May.  The half bottles gave my small plants a bit of protection from the cold and slugs.  The act like mini-cloches.

You can see in the picture below how I store them on top of each other on canes.  In the spring I will wash them and use them again.

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Following on from my post on Friday regarding child poverty, (which you can read here), I have another cheap and easy family recipe.

I think a lot of people will know how to make this meal anyway, so apologies to you, but if I can help just one person who doesn’t usually cook, to feed their family more cheaply, then I will have achieved my aim.

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Today I am writing about Fish in Parsley Sauce.

I buy skinless, boneless frozen fish fillets for convenience and I cook them separately in a foil parcel with a few splashes of lemon juice, for 25 minutes, Gas Mark 4 / 350F / 176C.

I find this way the fish keeps lovely and moist during cooking.

While the fish is cooking I make the Parsley Sauce:

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Parsley Sauce

50 grams margarine

50 grams of plain flour

600 ml milk

2 heaped tablespoons of fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons of dried parsley

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Melt the margarine in a milk pan.

Take the melted margarine off the heat and add the flour.  Mix in until no flour is visable.

Add a little bit of milk and beat it in, until it is totally combined.

 Keep doing this until all the milk is mixed in.  There should be no lumps.

Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring all the time.

When it has boiled mix in the parsley and simmer for two minutes.

Pour over your cooked fish.

I have worked out that the Fish in Parsley Sauce that I made today cost me less than £2.00 for a family of four.  I managed to find a readymeal of Fish in Parsley Sauce and it costs £3.99 .  I would put money on it, that it doesn’t taste as nice.

I served mine with homegrown vegetables.

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Thank you for reading my blog today.

Pasta Sauce, Cheap Seeds and Planting Spring Cabbage

This morning at my allotment I planted some cabbages ready for spring.

The cabbage I picked yesterday

Two weeks ago I prepared the ground, by hoeing the weeds away and put a sprinkling of ‘Blood, fish and bone’ organic fertiliser down.

This area had my broad beans in previously.  When I removed the old bean plants, I left the roots in the ground.  The root nodules of the broad beans fix nitrogen into the ground, which is good for green leafy growth, which I knew would benefit my cabbages.

I gave it another hoe this morning and then planted the spring cabbages fairly deeply, 30cm apart.  As brassica’s like very firm ground, I always tread firmly around my cabbages with my boot.

I then gave them a quick water just to settle the soil around the roots.

The pigeons love brassica’s at my allotment (they actually seem to like anything at the moment), so I needed to net the cabbages.

You can buy those round balls with holes in, that support your canes, but I think they are expensive.  I choose to make mine out of old drinks bottles or hand wash bottles, as they are free and can be used several times before the plastic goes brittle.  You can see below how the canes fit into the bottles:

The netting I bought ages ago and I have reused it loads. The holes in the netting are small enough to keep cabbage white butterflies out and the netting is thick enough to stop the netting from ripping or becoming so tangled you can’t use it.  It was a good investment.

This is my finished cage:

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This morning I also pulled up some carrots from one of my two raised beds.

I have never been able to grow carrots outside in my soil before, so this year I was even more determined to do this.  I used a mixture in my two raised beds of homemade compost, leaf mould and horticultural sand and have grown them under environmesh, to stop the carrot root fly.

Finally, I am glad to say…. I HAVE CARROTS!  I am very pleased.

I know that I went to a great big effort to grow these carrots, especially as carrots are so cheap to buy, but home-grown carrots do taste wonderful compared to shop brought carrots.

We will be having them for tea tonight.

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I had a tip off today, that Wyevale Garden Centres were selling their seeds cheaply, if you are a gardening club member.  I joined Wyevale Garden Club as it was free to join and they have good offers every so often.

Today I found all the seed packets had been reduced to 50p, so I stocked up ready for next year, as every one of the packets were ok to be used in 2013.

50p Seed Packets

I bought the 21 packets of seeds, that you can see in the picture above.  They would normally cost £50.75 to buy, but I paid just £10.50 .  That’s an incredible saving of £40.25!

I love a good bargain.

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Following on from my post on Friday regarding child poverty, (which you can read here), I have another cheap and easy family recipe.

I think a lot of people will make this simple meal anyway, so apologies to you, but if I help just one person who doesn’t usually cook, to feed their family more cheaply, then I will have achieved my aim.

Today I am writing about a basic Pasta Sauce.  A good quality jar can cost you anything up to £2.45 to buy and yet it is such an easy thing to make.

I cooked this sauce on Radio Leicester back in March, to demonstrate how you can make a simple cheap meal.  Back then I worked out that this sauce cost me just 80p to make when I bought all the ingredients, but as I grow most of the ingredients myself,  it only cost me 20p to make!

The recipe also doubles up as a Pizza sauce too and my pizza’s taste very similar to the pizza’s you eat at the large chain of pizza restaurants that you see on the high street (with far less salt though).  It certainly does NOT taste like the cheap pizza’s that you buy from the supermarkets.

My Olympic Pizza

When I cook this recipe I usually make a great big batch of it.  We have some of it for tea and I freeze a portion for another day.  After it has defrosted, it only takes ten minutes to heat up in the microwave, so it’s a really quick meal.

I also freeze some of it in little pots, to use on pizza’s another day.

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Pasta Sauce

A drop of olive oil

1 onion chopped

1 garlic clove

500 grams Passata

(or a 400g can of tinned tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of tomato puree instead of passata)

190mls of vegetable stock

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon oregano

Fry the onion in the olive oil for a few minutes.

Add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes more.

Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes

I toss some spaghetti into the sauce and I serve it with a nice homegrown salad and some homemade garlic bread.

A sprinkling of cheese on the pasta makes it even more delicious.

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The recipe above is the basic pasta sauce,  but I always add vegetables to my sauce, e.g. broad beans, runner beans, courgettes etc.  My daughter doesn’t like vegetables in her sauce, so I puree the sauce before I serve it and she doesn’t know she is eating them and it’s full of vitamins.

If you like a sweet and sour sauce, you can add some pineapple pieces and leave out the herbs.  Also add a drop of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

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It’s such a cheap and easy meal to cook.

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Calendula grown to attact bees

Thank you for reading my blog today.

Shark Fin Melon and Toad In The Hole

The cabbage I picked today

I was very pleased with a cabbage that I picked today.  It has taken a long time to grow.  In May I had nearly given up with most of my cabbages, as the flea beetle had virtually distroyed them.

This week I have been concentrating on an overgrown patch on my allotment plot number two, which is next to my ‘leaf mould’ area.

It was overgrown with brambles and weeds and I had already cut it back in the spring, with the intention of sorting it out a few weeks later.  This unfortunately never happened and this was the result.

That will teach me to do half a job!

After a morning of working hard, I managed to clear the brambles and weeds and I put a covering of weed suppressant, to stop them from growing back.

I was very pleased with the result.  The plan for this area is that eventually it will have another poly-tunnel on it, that’s when we finally manage to save up for one.

I re-used the weed suppressant that I already had around my large plum tree, on my fourth allotment plot.  It was used to kill all the couch grass around the tree by leaving it in place, since the spring.  It has done it’s job brilliantly.

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This year I have been growing one or two unusual things.  One of the things is a ‘Shark Fin Melon’.

The ‘Garden Organic Team’ from Ryton visited Eco house in May and told us about some exotic plants to try and grow and even gave us some free seeds.

I planted the Shark Fin Melon seed in May, underneath a half cut plastic bottle and hoped for the best.  Though I have had loads of foliage growing (it’s quite a monster), I have only just found the fruit growing on it, probably due to the rotten summer we have had.  However, if I keep my fingers crossed, we may have a good autumn, (or am I wishing too much there) and it may still have time to grow.

There are details about the Shark Fin Melon here.

Shark Fin Melon

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Following on from my post on Friday regarding child poverty, (which you can read here), I have decided to post some more cheap and easy family recipes.

I think a lot of people will make these simple meals anyway, so I apologise to you, but if I help just one person who doesn’t cook, to feed their family more cheaply, then I will have achieved my aim.

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Toad in the Hole

(to feed a family of four, with good sized portions)

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100 Grams Plain Flour

2 Eggs

300ml Of Milk

8 Sausages

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

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Preheat your oven Gas Mark 7 / 220C / 425F

Grill the sausages until nearly cooked.

While the sausages are cooking, pour the oil into a large shallow tin and put in the oven for at least 10 minutes, so the oil is piping hot (this is the secret to a good Yorkshire pudding)

Put the milk, flour and eggs into a bowl and whisk with a hand blender until thoroughly mixed together.

When the sausages are nearly cooked, put into the hot oil and immediately pour the batter over them.

Cook for approximately 25 -30 minutes.

Toad In The Hole

I’ve worked out that the Toad in the Hole cost me just £1.16 to make.  So it’s another very cheap meal for a family of four.

Tonight I served it with home-grown vegetables and gravy, but it is equally nice with mashed potatoes and a tin of baked beans.

Today’s Harvest

Thank you for reading my blog today.

A Busy Weekend and Crab Apple Jelly

This weekend has been so busy.

I started by changing the covers on our three piece suite.  The weather forecast said that this week will probably be unsettled so I decided to change the covers while the weather was good.

When we bought the suite I particularly wanted removeable covers, so I could wash them.  We bought two sets of covers, a cream set and a brown set.  Because of this, it’s like having a new suite every six months when I change the covers.

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This weekend I picked my first sweetcorn and cooked it under the grill.  It was definately worth waiting for, as it was absolutely delicious, with lashings of butter and lemon juice.  Such a treat!

Our first sweetcorn this year

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This is the time of year that I am preserving and freezing my allotment produce, ready for the winter.

I also did a lot of batch baking on Saturday.  I started by making twenty bread rolls, which I sliced and froze ready for lunches during the week.

Then I made some fruit scones, ready for packed lunches.  I sliced and buttered them and then I froze them too.  I take one out each day and pop it straight into the lunch boxes and it is defrosted by lunch time.

Fruit Scones

I made a big pan full of Patty Pan soup for lunch on Saturday and I froze some of it in portions, ready for my daughters, when they come home from school really hungry.  I figure that a mug of soup is much better for them than a ‘sweet’ snack in between meals.  You can find the recipe for the soup here.

Patty Pans

I also cooked a big pan full of pasta sauce for tea.

Pasta / pizza sauce

I managed to freeze a portion for another day and I froze various small portions which I use as pizza sauce.

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I also made some more strawberry jam, using the strawberries from the freezer.

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On Saturday I attended a ‘Seed Saving Workshop’ which was run by ‘Ryton Organic Gradens’.  It was a really interesting afternoon.

Ryton Organic Gardens run various courses throughout the year and there is loads of interesting information on their website, which you can find here.

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In May this year, one of my friends invited me to go on a ‘Dummy run’ for a Foragers Course they were going to be running from our local ‘Eco House’.  It was absolutely fascinating.  They took me around my local park and introduced me to loads of things that I didn’t know you could eat.

You can see the Eco House website here.

I decided to go foraging for Crab Apples and I wasn’t disappointed.  I managed to find a whole bag full, so I could make Crab Apple Jelly.  Unfortunately, I sort of made the recipe up and forgot to weigh the apples, but this is how I did it.

Crab Apple Jelly

Ingredients:

Crab Apple (I used a carrier bag full)

Granulated Sugar

2 tablespoons of Lemon juice

Muslin or tea towel

 

Method:

First wash and top and tail the apples.

Put them into a large pan with just enough water to cover the apples and add the lemon juice.

Boil for approximately 25 minutes until the apples are soft.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and put your muslin or tea towel in it and boil for 3 minutes.  Take it out of the water and wring it out and then leave to cool.

Tip the fruit into the muslin and let it drip overnight or for approximately 8 hours.  I find it easier to put the muslin over a colander that is already over a bowl, as it’s easier to pour the fruit into it.

The next day put some side plates or saucers in the freezer to check the setting point of your jelly.

Measure the juice. For every 1 pint of juice, measure 1lb of sugar.  Put the juice and sugar back into a large pan and bring it to the boil slowly, over a low heat, until the sugar has dissolved.

When you can see no sugar crystals on the back of your wooden spoon, turn the heat up and boil hard until the setting point has been reached. The apples are high in pectin so this will not take long.

To check the setting point, put a small amount of jelly on a saucer from the freezer and wait for a few moments, push the jelly with your finger and if it wrinkles then the setting point has been reached, if not, just continue boiling for a further five minutes and then check again.

When the setting point has been reached, take the pan off the heat and leave it for fifteen minutes while you sterilise your jars.

If there is scum on your jelly, you can skim it off, but I just stir in a small knob of butter which does the same job.

Sterilise some jam jars (gas mark 4 for 5 minutes)

Pour the jelly into the jars and seal with lids.

I use the jars that have sealable lids (i.e. the jars that jam is sold in at the supermarket). This way you don’t need to worry about wax discs to create a seal. As the jam cools, the lids ‘pop down’ and make you jump.

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I worked out that because I used apples that I foraged, my Apple Jelly was just 27p per jar to make.  The cheapest jelly I have managed to find in the supermarket is Bramble Jelly which is 80p a jar.  The supermarkets don’t seem to stock ‘Apple Jelly’ so I think you would need to buy it from specialist shops too.

It is really easy to make and tastes lovely.  You can serve it with meat, or on top of a slice of homemade bread.

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We finished the weekend with a lovely family picnic at Bosworth Country Park.

We played cricket, tennis and fed the ducks and we had lovely family time together.

We then went for a long walk.  It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Thank you for reading my blog today.

 

 

 

 

Saturday Is ‘Bump The Blog’ Day

Today is ‘Bump the Blog’ day.

I pick a different blog each week, that I particularly enjoy reading.  I will then post a link for you to check it out, to see if it interests you too.

There are so many wonderful blogs out there, talking about subjects of all kinds.  Each person spends time and energy updating their blogs and it is lovely getting views and comments in return.

Todays blog  is called ‘ A Gardener’s Table’

Linda Ziedrich says ” This blog is meant to cultivate an appreciation for fruits and vegetables as they come from the Earth–and for the land, breeding, and labor that make them good to eat–and to share advice from an old-fashioned cook and gardener about the best ways to use and preserve the produce of our gardens, fields, and orchards”.

The link to the blog is here

Homemade Jams, Pickles, Chutney etc

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Thank you for reading my blog this week.

I will be back again on Monday, at approximately 7.30pm.

I hope to see you then.

Child Poverty In The UK and Small Ways To Save Money

I thought I’d talk about something a little bit different and more serious today.

This week the BBC news reported on a survey that the ‘Save the Children’ charity had carried out.  The BBC said:

“Researchers for Save the Children surveyed more than 1,500 children aged eight to 16 and more than 5,000 parents, focusing on the lowest income groups.

The study draws on Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) figures which estimate that there are 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK and predict a steep rise in the numbers in coming years”

You can read the whole report here.

Homemade bread is cheap to make

I think it is incredible that in 2012, child poverty is still happening in the UK.

It said in the report that an income of less than £17,000 was classed as living in poverty, but I wanted to find out what size family this was based on.  I found another report that you can read here, that was written in October 2011.  This report gives the following details of what is the poverty line:

WHAT IS THE POVERTY LINE?

Single adult, no children: £165 per week

Couple, no children: £248 per week

Lone parent, 1 child: £215 per week

Lone parent, 2 children: £264 per week

Lone parent, 3 children: £314 per week

Couple, 1 child: £297 per week

Couple, 2 children: £347 per week

Couple, 3 children: £396 per week

This came as quite a shock for me, as for a long time our income was less than this, with two children and a mortgage to pay.  We have never classed ourselves as living in poverty and our children have never gone without food or clothes. We chose for me to stay at home to look after our children but we never realised this put us under the so called ‘poverty line’.

Homemade Tomato Soup

We don’t smoke and hardly ever have a drink or takeaways, but we chose for me to be at home for the children and to us, this was a small sacrifice.

This report highlights that a lot of families are really struggling on low incomes now and I’m not sure what the answer actually is.  What I do know, is there are definitely ways that can help people to save money by living a more frugal, thrifty life.

I think as a country, people now take it for granted that they should have designer clothes, immaculate houses with luxury items and two cars, but this is really not the case.  These material things cost such a lot of money and if your income cannot sustain a lifestyle like this, then you will become more and more in debt.

It has also been proven time and time again that material things just don’t make you happy.  It is hard to stop thinking that they do.  It has taken me years to accept this, but still every so often I have a ‘down’ day, but I give myself a good talking to and think of all the lovely things I have in my life which money just cannot buy.

Valentine Biscuits I made for my husband

When you first start to reduce your spending it is hard, especially when you have to say “no” when you have been invited out to a social event or for a meal with family and friends.  People aren’t always so understanding and they sometimes look at you as though you have two heads as it’s not ‘normal’.  People do get used to it though after a while and your real friends will always be around for you. We also found it hard at first when people around us were buying the latest luxury items, but now I tend to think how ridiculous it is to spend that much on an item that will probably be hardly used anyway.

I know now that if we came into a large sum of money, we would probably buy some nice things, but we certainly wouldn’t waste the money.  In fact I think a lot of things would stay the same for us as I like my life.  This is because after years of craving the ‘material world’, I have finally learnt that my world now, gives me far more riches than money can buy.

I started this blog in the hope that it would help people to learn how to live more frugally, as unfortunately this information is just not passed on from generation to generation anymore.

Little changes all add up and they are things that can be easily done.  If you start small and perhaps change one thing at a time that you do, then after a while it will become second nature.

I’ve been trying to think of some of the things that we do in our family that we take for granted and do without thinking:

We don’t waste food anymore and always use up leftovers

I always, always hang my washing out when it’s not going to rain. Even in winter I hang it out so it at least dries a little bit.  If I see it is going to rain, I leave my washing until the next day.

I always use my washing machine, dishwasher, bread maker, mobile phone chargers and anything else we use on ‘economy 7’ (cheaper priced) electricity.  This means I get up early to switch them on, but you can use time switches.

I meal plan and always do a shopping list.  See how I do this here.

I cook from scratch whenever possible, as it’s much cheaper and it really does taste better.  The things I make are really not hard to do (or I wouldn’t do them) and I will continue writing cheap, tasty, recipes on my blog, in the hope it will help someone. I now have a reputation with my daughters friends, for being a good cook, but the recipes I make really are simple and easy to make.

We regularly look at bills and see if we can switch providers, to reduce them.  You’ll be amazed at how much you can save by shopping around.  We have found that we save so much by not just renewing insurance for house, contents, car, etc.  We have found that even when a renewal notice has been sent to you with a quote, if you ring them up they will nearly always give you a better quote over the phone. 

My little kitchen

I use old fashioned cleaners as they save you pounds and are far better for the environment.  You can find some details on my blog here.

We hardly ever have a takeaway now, but we do have treat nights.  My favourite is a nice homemade pizza with potato wedges and salad, all homemade and the salad and potatoes are usually home-grown.  So it is a really cheap meal that feels really special.

We plan and budget for Christmas.  We start in January.  I know exactly how much we have to spend on each present and I look for bargains through the year so I can get more for my money.  I also make homemade hampers for my family and they seem to love them.  Even something like an advent calendar can be made more cheaply.   For years we have used the same homemade advent calendar with pockets and every year I hide a tin of sweets, (bought cheaply beforehand) and put a ‘clue’ in each pocket.  My daughters have to find the tin using the clues (obviously as they get older the clues get harder).  We have a lovely time doing this and it’s far better than the ready made chocolate advent calendars you can buy at Christmas.

My Christmas Pumpkin

When my girls were smaller I bought quite a few of their toys and jigsaws from charity shops.  It’s amazing what you can find in them. Once I had given them a good clean, they were as good as new.  We have had many a night in, playing a board game that I’ve picked up for £1 or £2 from a charity shop.  You can also get some bargain clothes from there too.

I always use vouchers if I spot them but I only buy items if I will use them.  Remember it’s only a bargain if you wanted it in the first place.

Me and my daughters all love reading and books are expensive.  I really can’t see the point of buying a full price book if I can get it from the library or buy it second hand (eBay and amazon are good for this).

I always decide if I just ‘want’ or ‘need’ something before I buy it and I never impulse buy.

My daughters homemade birthday cake
(She asked for this colour)

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Thank you for reading my blog today