Hello there ...
Yes indeed a cold .. windy.. wet.. and dark sort of day to welcome in 2014.
A day to sit by the fire and start seriously thinking of the 'ways and means' of making it through this year.
More .. Make Do and Mending ... Thrifty Snippity Ways ..
Use It Up....Wear It Out ...
We will all have to help one another ... share our experiences and useful thrifty tips.
One of my most useful tips .... I asked Hubby P to put rails over the wood burner .. I then use wooden coat hangers to hang my washing to dry.
Not the prettiest thing to look at but it saves a fortune .. I use to have a tumble dryer when the children were young .. cost a bomb to run.
We are lucky and have an inglenook (in which our wood burner sits).. but just say one or two hooks in the ceiling could hold hangers .. that would catch the rising heat and dry some clothes (especially school shirts and the like ... I never seemed to have enough to keep up).
Our Grandparents did this with racks on pulley's that they could stack with wet washing and pull up to the ceiling out of the way ... nothing is ever a new way.
Of course it all looks very cottage-y .. very cosy ...
with all the pretty logs stacked ... but to be honest ..
those pretty logs are pretty expensive!
You see the rough cut random stuff at the front .. that is what we mostly try to burn ... free wood ... old furniture Hubby P has cut up in between the showers.
And today's Use it Up ...
well of course it had to be Duck soup.
All the left overs from yesterdays dinner piled into the soup pan and 'souped'.
And very nice it was too on this cold wet day.....
very Duck-yyyy!
So .. have you anything to share? ... where will you make your savings? ... do share...
xxx
Leek and potato soup here, with leeks from the garden & left over cream bought to go with mince pies.
ReplyDeleteOoo . and I was wondering what to do with the cream in my fridge! I've still leeks in the garden.
DeleteThank you.
Nothing beats soup and a fire on a cold day...
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how many people in the US dry EVERYTHING in a dryrr and think you are old fashioned and kind of odd if you don't..some places will not allow you to hang wash outside, either on a drying rack or a line....
I love your large , sunny windows where the daffodils are....
I think they would certainly think me odd in the US!
DeleteNo daffs quite yet (thats an old pic) ... but hoping soon....
x
I made some stock in the slow cooker from a lamb bone, and today made a casserole of some lamb shoulder chops that we paid 50p for 2 (reduced of course). I added two leeks and some stock plus gravy granules, then later some tinned carrots. We had it with mixed veg mash; spud, swede and parsnip.
ReplyDeleteI have some lamb stock left and am thinking leeks, carrots, celery and lentils and barley for soup tomorrow.
Oh we love lamb here ... but it can be expensive .. well done with the reduced lamb.
DeleteI do agree .. its real soup weather.
x
I slow cooked a small gammon joint today for a roast dinner. I have plated us each another dinner for tomorrow night so I can have a lazy day :)
ReplyDeleteThere is enough of the gammon left to make a small ham and veg pie and a pot of soup with onions, lentils etc.
We have the pulley ceiling airers and they are great for drying clothes with the heat from the stove. I gave our dryer to a LETS buddy a few years ago and haven't missed it. We have a wood basket full of random bits like yours and burn any packaging/cardboard too. Between the stove and the compost there isn't much ends in the bin.
,
that wood pile and woodstove, looks just like our house did for 30 years, I miss it, you have a great life and a yummy soup, Happy New Year,
ReplyDeleteI had some cheese for Christmas with cranberry , i was not too keen so today i mixed it with ordinary cheddar made a tomato sauce out of all the tomatoes i have left and made Delia smiths scone based pizza , with wholemeal flour , i have lots of this flour spare , will be blogging about it in the next few days xxx
ReplyDeleteI've never had a tumble dryer so my washing hangs like yours from hangers from the kitchen and lounge doorways when we go to bed at night (it's usually dry by the morning so we can take it down again!) I'm always saying the house resembles a Chinese laundry !
ReplyDeleteThe whole drying by fire setup saved us hundreds too in the Australian winter.Nice move.
ReplyDeleteI hate having damp washing about but, I'm going to have to get used to it as I can't afford to run the tumble drier.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes open the curtains a little and hang the coat hangers from that over night in the small bedroom as it gets quite warm when the sun shines. Also have a fold out 4 tier drier frame which I put in front of the radiator in the hallway either when the heating is on or overnight.
Re- soup, yesterday i realised a had a fairly large bag of carrots in the fridge, so I peeled them, sliced them and put about 2thirds in a freer bag and froze them and the rest I made a carrot and orange soup with a little cumin,cardamon and a tiny pinch of chilli powder. delish!
xxx
While you are freezing, we are boiling lol. We are in the midst of a heatwave here at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI love how you hang the clothes around the fire. Reminds me of good old fashioned living, when people didn't have all the modern conveniences, and they made do with what they had. Mmm that soup looks delicious!
We have an Inglenook and a Hergom oil stove in it in our kitchen, and use two Betty Maids (old ones, got for a couple of pounds apiece at car boot sales) to dry our clothes. Dampest clothes go on the one nearest the Hergom, and drier ones on the back one, nearer the kitchen door. Wouldn't be without them.
ReplyDeleteI got a brand new Le Creuset kettle from a car boot sale last year for £3 (imagine the huge grin here when I found THAT!) and keep it topped up with water to put in the electric kettle for the last quick blast to boiling.
We burn all the cardboard, newspaper, odds and sods of wood left over from my OH's projects. The woodburner gets started each day with a thick pile of newspaper and this forms a bed which takes hours to burn right through (surprisingly, when you think of the fire burning away on top of it).
We are having Leftovers Pie today, I freeze all my leftovers, labelled, and today the filling is Carrot, swede, leek, ham and chicken. I will make a white sauce and stir the last bit of soft cheese with garlic and herbs into it. The topping is pastry left over from sausage rolls, I rolled it out to fit the pie dish and froze it flat, it saves messing up the pastry board when I want to use it. I dry my washing overnight on airers, tumble driers knock all the texture out of fabric.
ReplyDeleteThat soup looks soo good, the perfect meal on a cold wet day! I had to buy a tumble dryer last year, with four children l just wasn't getting it dry quick enough and had wet clothes drying everywhere in the house. Trying to keep it to a minimum though. We are very lucky to have a lot of free wood, a lot of work but enjoyable work and very satisfying. Food is where l am aiming to tighten the ropes this year. A gluten allergic in the family means a whole new approach to the matter. Feel positive about it and believe more food made from scratch and absolutely no more pre-fabricated meals will do us all good, and my purse too. More mending and making do is also a big focus in 2014. Had to smile when my youngest got a big hole in his boxers. I was going to throw them away, but he seized my hand and said sereously: " mummy, you don't need to throw them away, l am sure you can mend them!" he's got the idea, bless him :-). Pam xx
ReplyDeleteI have Sheila Maid (drying rack) at the top of the stairs ... while all the heat rushes up and out of the roof it may as well dry the clothes on its way! I'm off to make a pan of soup with all the remnants in my veg basket and fridge now .. have a lovely day!
ReplyDeleteLove Claire xxx
I am going to try out one of the slow cookers. Cheaper to run than the cooker apparently. And although we are no longer working so can cook whenever, I hope that the cheaper cuts will come out yummy.
ReplyDeleteOur woodburner has been a godsend, tho it says its a big NO to burning cardboard?
We had Pea and Ham soup this eve!...three tins of value mushy peas(15p each),left over smoked ham from Christmas,onion, celery topped up with chick stock...yummy!
ReplyDeleteWe had Pea and Ham soup this eve!...three tins of value mushy peas(15p each),left over smoked ham from Christmas,onion, celery topped up with chick stock...yummy!
ReplyDeleteWe had our Christmas leftovers as bubble and squeek on Boxing Day, then the carcass (we only had turkey crown and gave the leftover meat to my daughter) was boiled up for a lovely rich turkey stew the following day. We have been away for new year, but cannot wait to get back to 'normality', even though that does mean a return to me after two weeks off! We are severely restricted for space, but I always try to get the washing blown on the outside line, but even if we are tumbling clothes, the underwear is hung over the heater and dries very quickly, also some larger things are hung around the room overnight to benefit. Whilst we have been away I have been wearing some old ankle boots to (finally) wear them out so I can throw them away; they still have a bit of life left in them (I have actually got around 2 years extra out of them). Also sat here putting stitches in a few items of clothing - so we are all 'make do and mending' etc. Your window box photo looks lovely, let's hope spring will not be too far away. X
ReplyDeleteI could just pull a chair up to your fire and enjoy a lovely warming bowl of that soup, it all looks so inviting. It's all a bit make o and mend here too, although I have just treated myself to a new padded coat with some birthday money. I had seen it online then when we went to the store to get it they had a flash 1 day sale with 50% off..win..win...
ReplyDeleteLove the daffs photo, we have primulas flowering in the garden! Roll on spring x
I absolutely love the look of your wood burning stove. I'd love one but don't have a proper chimney. I thought long and hard about a way of drying washing, as I am not one to suffer and be a martyr pegging washing out in freezing cold, nor am I one to waste money using a tumble drier. I used to hang my clothes over an airer in the conservatory all day and at night bring it into the house.
ReplyDeleteI toyed with the idea of a rack that pulled up and down but had nowhere to put it. Then realised I lived in a house with a galleried landing and on the landing was the bathroom wall and an exposed brick wall, holding up the stairs. I remembered having some telescopic curtain rails for nets. Brilliant idea. I found one I forgot I had. Sent away to Amazon for another, then found yet another one at home.
Providing the stuff is not too heavy and you don't tug too hard, it's fine. It only dries at night when I've got the heating on, but if it's not too cold, the clothes don't take too long to dry. Thrilled with my little self.
A belated Happy New Year to you and your family. Love the look of your soup. Our woodburner is on 24/7 at the moment as its bitter cold here in Canada.
ReplyDelete