Monday 4 January 2010

Who's On Board For A Thrifty 2010?

Well! that's it then, out with the Old in with the New, and all that.
A brand spanking new year! Here's wishing you all whatever you would wish for yourselves!
I'm not making any New Year's Resolutions - I can never keep them. Lets say I hope to do better in all areas - more crafting, better thrifting, better money management, healthier living - all the usual really.
I do hope you all had a good Christmas/New Year break - it makes a change doesn't it - a bit of feasting, spending time with family, general jolliness. We did.
We even got our little bit of snow - some of it is still hanging about.
We just had a couple of inches, nothing much really, but once it had frozen, thawed a little and frozen again, conditions underfoot were treacherous!



So much so that I went to the local supermarket and bought some bags of rock salt to scatter on the paths. I really don't want to be falling down - I have a good track record in that department ( Hubby P is convinced i do it as an attention seeking ploy - well last time I had two hulking ambulance men come to my aid! ).

I must say, I was very pleased with the service I got at the supermarket - when I went for the salt. There was a young man there who loaded my trolley for me, he assured me the bags were very heavy and I really should have help (strange really, I am beginning to feel that bit older - did this young man see me as an 'older lady' ?- I suppose he did! I did have a granny hat on! ). Anyway, I sent a message to his manager, I think it is so important to give a positive response, to say you appreciate good service. So often we are so quick to complain about shoddy service.

Just before the snow, I set up this little indoor garden,. The little cloche/glass house was a Christmas present from the family - how well they know me!
We had looked in the Garden Centre for a very small fern, or something similar, but there was nothing suitable, so I pinched a little one from my hedgerow (there were lots, I took only a little). The fern is still a little too big, but it looks pretty, and can you see - peeping out, some little 'pennies' of navel wort amongst the moss.
Its nice to have a little bit of fresh green to look at, lets hope Spring is not too far away!
Thrifty Snippets
This year I am really going to try hard to make my pennies stretch. It shocks me sometimes - how costly it is, just to live!
So I am looking at all and every way to save money and not waste anything. I thought I would blog my foray into Thriftyness, then perhaps we can share ideas and experiences, I think reading lot of your blogs, a lot of people are of a similar mind. It would be nice if you could either leave a comment on you thrifty ideas or slip it in your own blog ( I know a lot of you are anyway) What we need is a community of Thrifty Seekers - all there to help and inspire one another!

So today's Thrifty Snippet - Lidl was selling Brussels sprouts at 36p a big bag, I bought two, peeled them, saved the outer leaves for the rabbits and chickens (its so hard to find green stuff for them at this time of year) and put the prepared Brussels in the freezer.

As you can see, I had them a few days before I got around to dealing with them, and they were getting past their best - note to self - get on and deal with the fresh veg!

Whilst at the animal feed place getting my rabbit feed, I bought a big sack of Pony carrots - huge sack for £1.99. and really fresh, clean, tasty carrots.


I emptied the veg basket, and all the odd bits and bobs left from the Christmas week - half a butternut squash, half a Swede, some slightly withered onions a few parsnips etc, I chopped them all up, with plenty of the carrots and bagged them up as soup mix, and put them in the freezer.
Nothing is to be wasted, the animals eat all the peelings, and the carrots are cheap enough to feed to the rabbits - and they do love a fresh carrot!
Whilst on a thrifty mission to 'deal' with the veg, I emptied the fruit bowl too. I peeled and chopped all the slightly wrinkled apples and pears, added a few blackberries from the freezer, and made a Thrifty crumble.


Yummy with a tin of custard found at the back of the cupboard!
I know really what I am doing is just common sense, and what our Grandmothers did
without even thinking about it. But i think we just get so lazy, food is so readily available, and relatively cheap in comparison to other things, so we take it for granted, a lot is wasted, shocking really. As my Grandmother use to say - just think of all those little Children in Africa! Starving they are - what they wouldn't give for your crusts!
I don't know if that is very PC, but its still as true today - and what Grandmother's say always has a ring of truth about it.
xxx Take care for now xxx







13 comments:

  1. Nice snowy pics, we have had loads up here and it's still pretty deep, will be fun walking to school tomorrow !!!I'm super thrifty and we have fruit bowl crumble every week with whatever is left!!! we also make soup out of leftover veg. My big tip is moneysavingexpert.com, I spend far too much time on there especially on the Christmas thread and money saving old style !! I saved so much money buying Christmas pressies after spotting bargains on there. I'm not even getting a percentage.
    Twiggy x

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  2. Brilliant tip about the soup mix….I shall definitely try this.
    I have just discovered – rather late in life the joys of a bacon joint….they are such good value and easy to cook (boil or roast) and once cooked can be used in so many ways.

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  3. Great tips! I've bought pork belly recently and was really pleased with the results once cooked. Just goes to show that cheaper cuts of meat can be worthwhile!
    x

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  4. Happy new Yaer! IO'm right behind you on the thrify tips. I've invested in a new lipbrush so that I can get the lst bits out of all my old lippies ...

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  5. Definitely!!! Bought 2 packets of reduced tomatoes to make home made pasta sauce with last week!! Cheap, and tastes lovely!!
    THRIFTY 2010 Here we go!!!

    SHARON XX

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  6. Hiya Vicky, Happy New Year !! I love thrifty, my tip is to find one of the smaller supermarkets and go in quite late, they quite often have things reduced by 75% and the bargains don't get snapped up quite as quickly as in the big stores such as Tesco's.In one such store I got 2 carrot cakes @ 52p each and two fish and chip chilled ready meals @ 25p each. I'm not a great fan of ready meals as a rule, but at that price I'm not going to turn them down. xxx

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  7. For the four weeks leading up to christmas, I was broke, couldn't go shopping or stock up. So it was down to using all the things in the cupboard. My middle son (22) who still lives at home complained like mad, but in the end even he was making meals out of 'theres nothing in the cupboard and fridge'. I swear they were some of the best meals we have had. I'm always on the look out for new ideas on saving my near non-existant dollars.
    THanks vicky, keep warm (and upright)


    janjan

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  8. ps my sister runs the PRESTATYN flower show!!!

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  9. great money saving tips.

    My mother and my nana used to say the same thing about all the starving people in the world..

    Gill in Canada

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  10. Happy new Year Vicky!!

    I'm all for saving the pennies, 2 kids at Uni doesn't come cheap! Perhaps if I cut the food bill down my weight will go down too!!

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  11. Lots of lovely useful comments folks - I know i for one am going to bed musing on them - ummm what can i do with a bacon joint? i have Martin Lewis on favorites ( we are becoming intimate friends!)- and Yes Jo i know what you mean we have had 3 sons through Uni - I bear the scars!! Not to sure about the weight loss bit - i think it will take a miricle to shift my weight! lol1
    keep them comming!

    vicky

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  12. How have I missed these posts! I see you've got snow at last. I am enjoying your Thrifty snippets. Some excellent ideas.

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