Back on My Feet

What a horrible couple of days.
I went to bad with backache the night before last and since waking up on Thursday morning have been hardly able to move. Luckily it seems to have gone and I can move around again.
As I was feeling better I decided to sort out a few things with British gas, the tax man and motor insurance. The tax man was very nice and is sending me some money. British Gas was very nice and are giving me a further discount. The insurance company was not very nice and I am about to get into a battle with them. I will not sit idly by and stand for their diatribe in an attempt to rip me off.
Okay that's off my chest :D

I was unable to go sealed pot hunting so am still without, but I have plenty of time before the start date of 4th December.
Things I have discovered in the past two days....

• Daytime TV is terrible
• The dogs are not happy and are a constant pest when you can't take them for a walk
• My sofa is not as comfy as I thought it was
• My ironing needs doing. In future I will hide it somewhere that I can't see it.
• Lying on the sofa during the day allows me to see dust building up on surfaces at eye level. Couple that fact with looking at the ironing pile and a bad back is the least of my worries
• Trying to dust and do ironing when you have a bad back is not a good idea and only worsens the problem, causing you to lie down and look at the ironing pile and dust once again
• Being badly is good for frugality but soup becomes boring

Anyway, now that I back amongst able bodied society I went to the Coop and got a jar of Kahari cook in sauce for 39p. I don't have any lamb so its chicken kahari for tea tonight. After a few days of soup, it will be like a feast.

Food spend for the week, erm, 39p

Just A quick one

Not much of interest happening over here today so I have posted on Tips & Tricks instead with a few of my herbal remedies and Baking Soda tips.I hope you find them useful.
Tomorrow I will be heading into town so it's a perfect chance to, did I say chance, I meant excuse, to go around the charity shops, because I need to find a suitable 'thing' to use for Sft's Sealed Pot Challenge

I was pondering over my Bucket List this morning and thought that the objective of listing things that I want to do before I expire is a bit silly. I want to do them all next year. So I added a few more based on my currents needs and hopes and will tick off as many as possible before the end of next year.
Whilst I am still debating which wellies to buy for myself I came across this one which I was going to fetch home and plant something in it, but dare'nt pick it up because there were things crawling all around it.

Joke for the day:

Why do frugal Women insist that their menfolk be circumcised?

Because we won't touch anything that's not at least 20% off

All Quiet On The Barnsley Front

Had one of those days where you seem to get nothing done until you look back. The best part of today has been spent working on line and talking on the phone.
I sold another two items on Amazon and the total was a 300% increase on yesterdays sales. See, I told you I would be a millionaire this time next year. With that type of exponential growth I will be looking to buy a farm rather than rent an allotment, although I am becoming less hopeful that the allotment will come my way. It has been a couple of weeks now and I haven't even had so much as acknowledgement that my application was received.

Even when the day is not very interesting, there can be something that brightens it up. This is one of the most sought after mushrooms in the UK and is positive gold dust to a forager. Unfortunately I wasn't the one who found it, it was given to me by my friend next door. Not that I really care because I have it now and I am going to chop it up, freeze it and save it for one of those special occasions where you crave a dream on your taste buds.

Locally, I have everything I need on my doorstep, free food, village stores, country walks, entertainment, friends, family, everything. Apart from sea food that is. My favourite all time food is a minimum of 80 miles away. I have to find a realistic way of getting to the coast on a regular basis throughout the year and stock up on various wild food stuff. Sea Buckthorn is another one of the things that I would really like to try, along with sea weeds. I don't scuba dive any longer so an underwater forage is pretty much out of the question these days.

Lying in my garden is a Kayak. Next door in Jules garden is another one. We got them in the summer of this year so that we could explore the rivers to see what was available. I can't make my mind up whether to sell them or not. We didn't really use them much and didn't find anything worth the effort each time we went paddling and now I just see them as something else that is taking up space.

October was a great month for me. I had a lot of time to myself, I was cooking, crafting, walking, exploring, building, shopping and generally relaxing every day, but lately I can't seem to find the time to do any of the above. But when I think about it I have done quite a bit. The past few weeks have been about planning and preparation for next year. I have found another 180 square feet of growing room for my veg in various family members gardens, which should be really good because I may be able to get them to see the benefits and pleasure of growing your own. If that were to happen we could have a little family Co-op thing going on.

My plans to create a regular web based income source also seem to be going according to plan at the moment. If I can get that working in conjunction with eBay, eBid and amazon, it should provide a steady trickle of income throughout the year. Usually, I don't plan too far ahead, I like my life in disarray and love to take it as it comes. But the deeper I dig myself into the frugal lifestyle and the more I enjoy it, the deeper I want to go and that takes a bit more planning than usual.
Now here's a thing. I usually buy milk at £1.65. If I am going past the garage in the next village, I get it for £1.30. Today, the blinkers fell away from my eyes and I realised that I can buy it from Asda for £1. How have I missed that for so long

Uncle Ben versus Auntie Christine

UNCLE BEN	AUNTIE CHRISTINE	RESULT
Boil in the bag rice from supermarket £1.68	Boil in the pan rice from storage jar £0.05	I win on cost
Fill pan with water	Put 1 cup of water in pan	I win, less water used
Bring to boil and boil for 10 minutes	Bring to boil and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes	I win, Less energy used
Tip water down sink	No water to tip down sink	I win, less waste
3rd degree burn opening bag	Spoon rice straight onto plate	I win, no medical attention required and less time used

Medicine. It's that time of year when I check my medicine cabinet and see what herbal remedies and potions I have in stock, what needs throwing out and what natural resources I need to find, in order to get my pans a boiling and restock.


Did you get it Mum? 

Monday

Today's post is a little bit of all sorts as I wind my way through Monday, by way of the written word and high quality photographs for the entertainment of my followers and anyone else who happens to trip over their feet and land at my door step.

Welcome to Anne over at Azza's Blather and thank you for deeming me worthy of your attention. I now have 7 followers. I'm jealous of your cottage by the way but if that photo on your blog header is not really your cottage, don't tell me. Let me stew and live in blissful ignorance.

I think about it and it happens - but not always the way I expect or want it to. Last night I was measuring 200 fluid ounces of milk and thought to myself
"I really must buy a measuring jug in fluid ounces rather than having to convert all the time"
Later on, I was drying one of my Pyrex jugs, dropped it on the floor and smashed it. Now if that isn't fate decluttering, I don't know what is. It's like I'm not allowed to have another measuring jug unless I really need one.
I also broke my pedal bin. It's now a 'Lift the lid by hand bin'. Not quite sure how that event fits in with 'think it and it happens' though because I didn't want a new pedal bin, I was quite happy with the one I have. WAS, being the operative word.
I now have a plastic jug showing millilitre's for 30p

Woohoo I made my first two sales on Amazon and netted a grand total after deductions, of........ £1.18p
This time next year Rodders.
I celebrated this success by visiting the charity shops after collecting my new specs and picked up a couple of nice items. I found another little trinket bowl and 4 little casserole dishes which I am going to use as salt and pepper bins.

Town was great today. I helped a lady out by completing a survey and was given a free pen and there were four guys stood in the precinct playing music. They were quite good actually so I grabbed a coffee and sat and watched them for an hour as they played some lovely music ranging from "I did it my way" right through to Salsa tunes. When I started to get a bit cool, I dropped £5 into their collection bin and thanked them for entertaining me and letting me video them. Yeah I know "FIVE POUNDS WOMAN. Are you mad?"

Amazon profit £1.18
Charity shopping £3.25
Entertainment Fee £5.00
Deficit £7.07 (Frugal Fail)

I haven't quite got the hang of this frugal lifestyle have I? Lets just put it down to a very happy mood and me feeling benevolent. Anyway without further ado please welcome to the stage, The Cheapside Quartet. There were 4 of them honest, I just didn't get them all in shot.

When I went to Maplins to get a new bulb for my torch the guy had to check to see if they actually sold that type of bulb. Whilst he was looking through his book, I popped my shopping bag on the counter and instantly I was threatened with being shot for entering an exclusion zone by a two foot tall robot with flashing eyes and a rather menacing attitude.

Mops - the floor mop that I have is one of those bog standard tiny things, that scrapes the floor where the mop head joins the handle and sheds its string each time that I use it and the flipping thing is destroying my will to live. I want one of those industrial size mops that cleans half the room on each sweep of the head. That's a mop.

Can I ask the folks who are following this drivel if they tick the box for follow up comments on posts, or check back to see if I answered? I noticed that a lot of people answer comments within their next posts and if that's the preferred method, I will start doing it so that no one thinks that I'm ignoring them.

After my sparkling success as an Amazon seller I decided I should go the whole hog and become a shop owner at eBid as well, so I was up until the wee hours of the morning (again) making accounts over at eBid and then at PPPay, as that is their preferred payment method. I have more flipping online payment accounts than I do current accounts, savings accounts and ISA's added together. What's the world coming to?

And finally, I have the okay from one of my neighbours about me keeping a couple of chickens. Now I just need to have a word with the other one.

Food Spend £1 for half a dozen oranges, 4 lemons and 2 limes to make candied peel for Christmas cake and presents.

Recycling Challenge Day 12 - End

Last year all the family gathered at Mum's for Christmas dinner and the celebrations went on until 2am boxing day. Even Mum saw it through to the end despite usually being in bed at 9pm. I just had a call from her saying that my niece has requested that we do it again on the proviso that I do the cooking. Now that's a very nice compliment and I'm happy to do it because I have been trying to get the family to come together at Christmas just like it used to happen when I was growing up, but I have my reservations that last year was a spur of the moment thing and that's why it worked so well.  Then again, these things work not due to my cooking or entertaining skills but due to the attitude of the guests.
Anyway, I said yes because for the past week or two I have been considering just spending Christmas day on my own. I did it a few years ago when my son and daughter were away for Christmas and it was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable days that I have ever had. Just me and the dogs tucked up in the house, watching TV, listening to music and reading.

Here we are look

Dogs with social skills. Even when their bowls moved against one another and eventually switched places, they didn't argue, they just carried on eating and remained at the table when finished. I think that was more to do with waiting for more food than waiting for me to give permission for them to leave the table. I don't think they were too keen on the hats and scarfs though.
I was going to delete this section of the post but decided that it's just general chat. This is the last time I will mention Christmas until it gets nearer to the time, because I'm quite traditional in that sense. I hate Christmas starting in November.

The freezer that was on freecycle was taken by someone else so I'm still watching for another one. The Blackcurrant bush that was advertised was also taken before I got in there (damn, I really wanted that) and no one is listing a wood burning stove. I have seen quite a few old French wood burners on eBay for as little as a pound, but they are mostly in need of repair by welding or require parts that are unavailable I presume. Why else would they let them go for a pound when burners are in fashion and selling for hundreds of pounds? Anyhoo, I will keep looking and eventually I will find one. along with a freezer and a blackcurrant bush.
I also decided last night to fill in the hole in my garden, not bother with the decking and create more growing space. If I get the allotment I can deck over my garden at that point. So now I also need to keep my eye out for enough earth to fill a huge hole and have a word with the neighbours to see if they mind if get a couple of Chickens

I have just got cleaned up after a very muddy couple of hours in the garden. The rest of the slabs that were in the 'Hole' have now been used to make my path a bit wider in places. All the flower pots have been emptied into the hole and the dead flowers chucked in the recycle bin with the weeds, ready for the final collection of the year. The gravel and purple slate has been relocated to the path between the slabs and the floor of my house is black bright because the dog managed to open the door whilst I was busy and has been running in and out with sticks, weeds and dirty toys. Oh Joy! I left them be until I came back from our walk though.

 Usually I walk straight past this thing but today decided to go and have a proper look at it. As you can see it's an old meeting place / farmers market.
There are lots of these little stones around the area an I am going in search of them.
Doing a little bit of research on this one should be fun and maybe turn up a few surprises that lead me to other things.

A quick search on Google suggests that there are Buttercross stones all over the UK, all serving the same purpose, a meeting place for selling wares. In one instance the Buttercross was used at the time of the Black Death to leave food for the villagers after it had been quarantined.

Winter preparations have started and I could do with a really sunny or windy day this coming week so that I can get all my cushion covers in the wash and dried off for the winter, which means I have to keep an eye on the weather forecast and plan it because it takes me a few hours to wrestle all the cushions out of the covers. Putting them back in is another story altogether.

Recycling Challenge -  I have knocked this one on the head because I don't really see what I am trying to achieve by doing it. I like the fact that my life is without stress, has no purpose other than enjoyment leading to personal fulfilment and a warm fuzzy glow and here I am worrying about doing one thing every day to recycle things. I don't need to, I recycle constantly anyway, sometimes it happens to be one a day and the next day it could be a dozen things. So I'm done with it.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Take care.

Food spend today - Nil
Total for the week - £11.27
I will do it again next week without the wine.