Coping With Stress.

I mentioned yesterday that work is very stressful at the moment as I cover for the Director who is in sunnier climates.

I am being pulled in many different directions with the office and trying to do two persons work without the assistance of comic book superpowers is proving somewhat trying.

I got in yesterday evening and as motioned decided to de-stress by baking.

I do not know about you but I find that doing a task involving my hands rather than my brain allows me to slowly calm down after the rigours of the numpties I was dealing with in my "9-5".

I had noticed I was running low on bread at the weekend, so decided to make another couple of loaves to fill up the freezer again.

As I opened the the pantry door, I noticed this little bag looking wistfully at me in a corner.

It had been a freebie from my mum some months ago.

Being a free spirit, open to new possibilities kinda gal. I thought what the hell and grabbed it to have a go.

Possibly the easiest loaf in the world to make. Add 300ml of water then knead for 5 mins, leave for 5mins and then shape and place in baking tin to prove for about an hour. Bake for 35 minute and Bobs your Uncle, a perfect loaf.

In the end I brought it into work with me and shared it with others. All agreed it was delicious especially for being granary which I have not made before.

I think this is a good idea for people just starting out with bread making as it gives you a guaranteed loaf quickly, however at about £1 a bag for one loaf, it is certainly not a frugal option going forward.

However the time it gave me to wind down after a very busy day was priceless.

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

One Goal Down.

I have a new follower – Rachel. Good day to you! Thank you so much for visiting! X

Whoo Hoo! 15 followers, am I almost a cult?? :o)

Hand on heart, all yesterday I was planning on posting today about the wrap dress. Then I started thinking about May Goals and that got me started on bread, which got me reading my new Hairy Bikers Bakeation Book. Ooooo I love it so. Such a shame the series has now finished.

So yesterday I decided I was going to make their Rosemary Focaccia Bread.

Mentally, running through my store cupboard ingredients I realised – no rosemary and living in a flat – no garden to pick it from. Hmmmm will have to pop to the shop to grab some then.

A couple of hours later and I am in the car driving home from another horrid day. “To heck with this!” I thought “I am not spending more damn cash!”.

One of my favourite things about having made bread for a couple of months, is you feel a bit more confident about making substitutions in a recipe.

After reading Home Joys’ blog and her 6 part post on sugar I have for the last few weeks been substituting refined white sugar for maple syrup which is a natural sugar and better for you. 2 teaspoons of sugar called for? Put in 1 tablespoon of maple syrup instead.

So I did the same with the Hairy Bikers recipe. Once you have made bread a couple of times you can feel when a dough has been kneaded enough and apart from alterations to a bread basic recipe e.g. less flour and more olive oil, it was very straight forward.

(disclaimer – I am not a bread expert and have only been baking my own since February.)

After the second proving, is when I should have added rosemary. Hmmm, a quick review of the fridge revealed the opened Dutch Goats Cheese I bought two weeks ago when I was in Amsterdam. That will do!  Grated about a quarter of a very small wheel and sprinkled it over the bread after dribbling the bread with more olive oil and salt / pepper.

Came out looking like this, and tasted absolutely delicious!

"G” at the office this morning was raving about it when I took in half as an office treat. Her favourite of everything I bake is “my” Nigella Lemon Loaf. So G measures everything against that.

We might have a new favourite on our hands. It was perfect at 9.30am with our second cup of tea of the day.

Another May Goal down!

And,  a No Spend Day today, and aiming for 2 in a row.

And finally, thanks so much for the ebay information Mrs No Spend. All very useful. Will get set up on PayPal over the next couple of days and then start the selling! Excited but nervous.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

3 Months and Still At It.

Tomorrow it is 3 months since I made my first blog entry. It has been such fun, and I am really enjoying it. Blogging focuses the frugal mind.

In that time I have paid off £752.00 off my £1990 debt, learnt new skills and discovered a whole new world.

I thought then today would be a good time to give you an update on past posts.

Back in February, I set myself the challenge of making all my own bread until the end of March.
I achieved it, and made everything from scratch, bar a packet of pitta pockets reduced in Tesco to 5p. I am really pleased with my new skill and for the time being am planning to continue. I am also hoping to add some more breads to my current limited repertoire.

You also may remember back in January I had a go at growing my own mushrooms from a free kit I got off Freecycle. I had been warned the kit was over 12m old, and I know spores have a certain shelf life. So no, no mushrooms, just some mould. :o(

In January, I also discussed the rainy day jar I have here I am still putting change into it every week, but not as much as usual as I am still trying to stop unnecessary trips to the cashpoint. So change gets used up. I am still hoping though for £100 by Christmas.

Life is going pretty well here at W Towers, but there is no doubt still a long way to go to be debt free by the end of 2012.

Plus this month has been expensive and I also need to start rebuilding my savings.

Seems like a 3 month plan is hatched. Save £600 by July.

Thank you everyone for all your support, I cannot tell you how much comments mean. I squeal when I get a new one from someone near by or half way around the world.

Easter beckons now, and I have been looking forward to the long break, The Chap and I have nothing planned except decorating his house and a dinner out courtesy of the £10 Frankie and Bennys voucher.

Happy Easter
Frugally yours
Abigail
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Wrap Dress Part 1 and Other Stuff. x

Hello and welcome to my new follower - Lena. Thanks so much for visiting! x

Been a weekend full of simple pleasures. Saw The Chap, did a bit of shopping and sorted out my home.

Not rock n roll, but it made me happy. I got some of those chores done, I wanted to do last week after work.

First I had to but some extras, and went to Iceland first to stock up on freezer fast food. I do this about once a quarter and spend circa £15, today was £12. It is food with little vitamins etc, but it does provide something to eat of those evening when you want to take a shower and get out to something hot.

I then went to Lidl and spent £13

I did get some bargains there, the cola was 39p per bottle, and as Tesco have seen fit to 'retire' my caffeine free own brand I will have to try and this. The shaving foam at the back was 89p  and 160 tea bags cost me £1.99.

I also bought some garlic powder for 59p. I have never used this before, but when you live alone you end up throwing away garlic, which is a waste, plus nowadays it is pretty tricky to buy only 1 bulb at a time. Perhaps this might be a good alternative.

March's Shopping £101.09. Going a bit over budget.. oops

I have also managed this weekend to make more thyme and honey rolls.

I did not have any wheatgerm, so used cornmeal, and vegetable oil in stead of sunflower oil. They tasted fine to me.

And finally I started on another wrap dress. Getting started is always the hardest part for me. First I laid out my material making sure it was evenly folded.

(Having a bit of floor space helps). I then laid out the pieces from the pattern and pinned it in place ensuring all the paper templates were right side up and even to the grain of the material.

Cut out, it looks like this.

That's enough for now, I will start putting it together this week.

It has gone quickly this weekend, and I am not ready to go back to work, still cannot shift this headache. Oh well perhaps a Baileys nightcap will help.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x





Monthly March Budget and More Bread!

It is (hopefully) Pay Day tomorrow, I always get so excited at the thought of Pay Day.

I can pay back more debt! Yippee!

I have been setting out my budget for March. It is a little unusual this month as it is a 5 week sales period for me so I will have to ensure that I allow a little more.

I always put aside my bills money on the first of the month which covers mortgage, insurance, tv license etc.

Petrol - £230. I allowed £200 last month, which turned out to be just over what I needed for 4 weeks.

Food - £100. I need to restock, plus I have 2 sets of guests visiting in March.

Savings - £200. A little bit more than last month, but I am prepared to take out £50 if needed at the end of the month if necessary.

This hopefully allows me a weekly budget of £25 to cover any extra costs.

I also have to buy 5 tickets this month to various events and exhibitions I am attending. Total cost £76.50 though £47.50 will be reimbursed by others who I am buying the tickets for.

March is going to be another tight month. But that means debt is getting paid off. Most definitely a good thing.

I have started the ramping up ready for my visitors on Friday. The 2yo will not give two hoots about the state of my flat, but I really want his Mum to feel it is clean and welcoming. Let the cleaning commence!

So this evening I started the necessary preparations.

Here is my shopping, which I have done a day early so tomorrow is not a race when I get home from work.

 Spent £35.15
I will be buying some vegetables / fruit and meat too, but getting that from my local market on Friday where it is cheaper and I can buy smaller quantities to suit my needs.

I also started on the bread that I need for the weekend, making a loaf and these gorgeous thyme and honey rolls. The recipe came from this book, I have been very kindly lent by a friend at my evening class.

 I think they look pretty tasty.

I am becoming cheeky in my old age and asking people if I can borrow items rather than buying them. If I like a few of the recipes then I will copy them out and return the book. I asked if I could have it for 2 weeks. My friend said I could keep it longer, but 2 weeks to me seems a reasonable length of time.

Speak to you tomorrow.

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

Library Visits and Bread Again!

Well Hello again! How are you?
I am brilliant thanks! Had a great weekend and pretty low spend too.
The Chap and I ate at his on Friday night and he took me out for dinner on Sunday, yum - though I did get the drinks before that we shared with some good friends of mine.

To be fair we normally take it in turns to pay for dinner but it had been a while since we had been out just the two of us. Oh, it was lovely!

Saturday I took myself off to my nearest town. Normally, I avoid town centres on a Saturday. Having no money to spend puts me off. Plus, I might spy something I really want, so removing myself from such situations is best.
But, this Saturday I had my expenses cheque to pay in. Well, if that is not a reason to run to your nearest bank I do not know what is!
So I took the opportunity to go the library too and look at what I got out.

Your local library is such a great resource it never ceases to amaze me that I am the only person I know who goes. What a waste to just keep buying books. If I do use my library cookery book in the kitchen, well I just put it inside a clear plastic bag to keep it clean or cover it in cling film...simples!

Unfortunately talking books are £1.50 each for 3 weeks, but I do love having something other than the radio playing in the car so it is a nice treat.

The book is to get some ideas on other breads to try baking. I made some more loaves on Sunday, so still no supermarket bread brought since I decided to give up mass produced loaves until the end of March. So far so good. Plus my costing suggests each loaf I bake comes in at 35p /loaf. And, no horrid additives.

Whilst the oven was on I decided to use up 2 old bananas I had left over from work last week and made 2 loaves of banana bread too. Thrifty as all the ingredients were in the cupboard plus I bunged everything in together thus saving on electricity too.

I thought if honest the banana bread was a little over cooked, but obviously my work colleagues did not agree as 1 loaf got hoovered up by 2pm and there was only 3 in the office today! :o)

They look okay don't they?

I am getting excited currently as it is pay day later this week and I have been organising my budget and what I can pay off - more on that later this week.

The new door is in hand too though I did find out that even though I own my flat the Housing Association who I pay my service charge to insist I have to ask permission before commencing the work. Oh and they charge a fee for that...... £60!!!!!!!!!!!!! I currently have a complaint about the fee outstanding and am digging out a copy of my leasehold to check if they can do this. Even Robin Hood wore a mask! So cross on Friday when I found out.

I have a friend and her 2 yo son down this weekend so currently getting ready for them coming. Entertaining on a budget should be fun. So I am writing a shopping list ready for pay day and planning the meals in advance. I have £4ish left on Feb's budget but really can probably get away with buying nothing else until - Thurs / Friday. But the food budget will have to be extended I am thinking £80 - 100 for the month with a large proportion being spent to restock this week, then only perishables going forward until the end of March.

It has been another week of no food waste which pleases me no end.

Tomorrow - Dentist £30, Evening Course - £15 and Avon Order £5.50. But the afternoon off work... Priceless!

This month is right down the wire financially, after paying for all this lot there is well I think the correct term in "Bugger All" left in the current account so Wednesday is going to have to be .No Spend Day. Lets hope the salary does not arrive a day late again.

Have a great week folks, and remember we may not be rich, but at least we CAN sleep at night.

Frugally Yours.
Abigail
x

I Faced An Old Enemy and Won, hahahaha!

Hello to my two new followers - Sandra and Becky Bee I am so glad to meet you. Also thank you so much Becky Bee, Scarlet and Lizzie for such kind comments, they really keep me going!

I have been a little bit lax in the last few days blogging, but I have been so busy that it is 20.09 now and I have only just got to sit down.
Saturday, I was up early and by 9.30AM, the car had been vacuumed /washed and filled with petrol ready for a day out with my nephew- we went to Thomas Land http://www.thomaslanduk.co.uk / . He loved it so much he could barely talk for the first 2 hrs. He was so good and never ran off once, a good achievement since he is only 3.
ThomasLand in Staffordshire at Drayton Manor is not a thrifty day out at all. Tickets booked in advanced, plus parking came in at £29.50 for 1 adult and 1 child. No deals could be found anywhere since it was half term. However, since everyone else checked the weather reports it was sooo quiet, the only downside was it poured mid morning. We both got soaked.
But, look at this picture and tell me it was not worth it. We spent nearly an hour
in this shed watching the toy trains.

Food, in these places was expensive too - 2 sausage rolls, a fruit shoot, hot chocolate and a milky way (yes all major food groups covered) came in at about £10!. Lesson learnt for next time I think - will be taking a packed lunch.

Got home, had about an hour then round to see The Chap for dinner. Got back early this morning and have been cleaning, washing, baking and tidying ever since.

Thanks to Frugal In Norfolk for her bread tutorial - I had it open and faced my nemesis again. http://frugalinnorfolk.blogspot.com/2012/02/making-bread-my-way.htmlLook at these results..

So whilst I had the oven on it seemed wise to use up the space, so I also made CornBread which I have been dying to try for ages. I think i bought the cornmeal back in December.
I had never had it before, but knew it is very popular in the USA with a lot of savoury and sweet alternatives. I have started with a savoury basic version from the BBC website. I have frozen it into portion sizes for future use, I would love to try a sweet version next

I also made a beef and mushroom casserole. Plus I used up the chicken stock from during the week's chicken and made a chicken/leek/potato soup.

The beef came from the freezer and was some reduced stewing steak and I put it in a pot with the defrosted New Covent Garden Soup mushroom soup and paprika / onion. Made a delicious yet thrifty tea with some veg and a couple of pieces of the cornbread. 

(please note my food is a bit like me, it photographs really badly! :o) )
I had to go shopping again on Friday after work, here's the pic

It came in at £9.63, so £5.84 left to spend until pay day in about a week and a half. I will need to grab some more milk and maybe a couple of potatoes, but it should be fine. We will see!

See the toothpaste at the front that was FREE!! Hurray, I often fill in forms online to get free stuff sent through and this little baby as waiting for me on the mat when I got home. Thank you kindly!

No food waste this weekend, so delighted at 2 weeks running.

And apart from taking The Nephew out for the day, and paying for petrol I have not spent another penny. So still in funds for this month without raiding the savings.

Currently on the search for a bread making book not using a machine, saw one on Friday in charity shop but for a pamphlet type book with only about 20 pages they wanted £1.50. I put it back on the shelf and walked out nose in the air. I would not have paid £1.50 for it new with so few pages. So still looking.

Conclusion - would go back to Thomas Land again The Nephew so enjoyed it, the bread has been a huge success and I am still in funds, life could be worse.

So any ideas what kind of bread to try next?

Frugally Yours
Abigail x

Menu Plan and a 6 Week Challenge

I would love the world to believe I am one of life's natural Chefs / Bakers with a bottle of white truffe oil in my staples cupboard. I would be able to whisk up a culinary delight consisting of pine nuts, lemon grass and organic venison aged for 30 days in wood chips.

This is far from the truth.

I can cook but it takes effort and concentration, I do not glide along in the kitchen with a dainty laugh and an artistic flour smudge on my cheek. I hump stuff around searching for counter space and have to throw every 4 th leek medallion into the bin as it has richocheted off the knife before spinning to a stop in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Comedy aside, I am not a disaster however neither am I the natural of my Mother.

So a challenge I believe is in order. For the next 6 weeks until the end of March I will not purchase any bread but make it / bake it all myself. Bit nervous about this, however lets face it, my bread making skills need to improve and unless forced I will carry on keeping Hovis in 1940s style bikes the foreseeable future.

Menu Plan
Breakfasts will be cereal this week and I have tomatoes and toast for lunch.
Monday - Left over cottage pie from the freezer with frozen peas
Tuesday - Spending the evening with The Chap so TBC
Wednesday - Last box of frozen Faggotts with Cabbage and mash
Thursday - Left Overs from Wednesday
Friday - something quick with eggs
Saturday - The Chap's turn to cook at his.
Sunday - Beef in Mushroom sauce slow cooked this should last a few days after being made.

So the freezer is slowly getting eaten up. Just shows how much food I have bought.

Another No Spend Day today. I went yesterday and filled up the car with petrol £50, then made sure I had £5 to last me until Friday for a bit of pocket money. Did not go out at lunchtime from work. So quite pleased today.

The Bank balance is looking a little low, but I am hoping that I can make it last until 1st when I next get paid.

The only concern I have is running out of The Chaps' favourite tipple before then.

I am dreading tonight. Monday is my weekly no heating evening, and I hate it!!

So does anyone have any good bread recipes? As currently just using flour yeast, water and salt. I seem to recall my Grandfather used to put butter in his loaves.

Frugally Yours
Abigail
x

A Big Thank You and Mrs Miller

First of all a very Big Thank You to "Frugal In Norfolk" for her post about my blog. I  am so touched at the kindness and generosity of strangers.  The www is a wonderful thing.So if you are visiting me for the first time, I bid you welcome, enjoy and thank you for reading. Hello, to my new followers  - Scarlet, Hilde and Miss Thrifty herself. I am so thrilled at actually having followers! x

This weekend started off not so good and has got better and better.

I did manage not to spend over my £5 this week which always please me, so I celebrated with a bit of food shopping. On Friday after work I took myself off to M&S.

Hmm. Yup I know what you thinking "M&S Abigail!!" but the truth is I mentioned earlier this week about how I wanted to buy a present for someone I care about. Well it was for The Chap and it would have cost £45.00 (after much googling of prices) and I just decided it was too much. I mean you can really go mad with this Valentine's Day thing can't you? I decided that really the only time to buy a present is Birthdays and Christmas. But, I did want a treat for us both to enjoy so I bought the  £20 meal deal. Not frugal, nope not at all. But delicious!

Unfortunately, The Chap ended up working late on Friday and did not get back until very late so we scratched meeting up that evening. What I did not realise it that M&S Millionaire's Shortbread actually sings to you from the fridge like a grocery Siren of the Cold. Result, I ate one by myself on the sofa watching rubbish and dressed in my baggiest velour tracksuit. Yes, I can do a very good impression of Waynetta Slob when I can.

So Saturday morning, off to Tesco I pop and spend £11.85 on this little lot

The Pizzas were reduced by the way to £1 and I think they could be useful to keep in the freezer.

So £19.92 left to play with this month in the food budget. I took the £20 for our meal out of my personal weekend spending allowance.

We ate it last night and it was delicious. M&S food - a treat that will not be seen again for the foreseeable future.

Today we met up with some of The Chaps's friends for a birthday do. Very good company.

Getting home this afternoon, I realised that I only had three quarters of a loaf left in the freezer (reduced obviously) and perhaps it was time to face my nemesis again...dum dum dum bread making. So I became Mrs Miller the Baker.
Actually, I am very good at bread making, if you wish spread butter on the grain equivalent of a sliced housebrick.
Here, they are pre baking.

And post.

They turned out better than hoped and I got the recipe from the great british bake off, but next time I think I am not going to use wholemeal flour but a mixture of wholemeal and white. For a lighter loaf.

Any bread making tips gratefully received, though "buy a loaf" is still looking very good.

Menu plan - sorry no time this weekend to review fridge, but I will post on this tomorrow.

Have a great week folks!
Frugally yours
Abigail
x