OK well at Sainsburys they are 41p but Lidl and Aldi both sell my favourite snack for 31p. Don’t turn your nose up, I didn’t like them at first, and they do take a bit of getting used to but now I can’t get enough. My daughter says I am part sardine and I am a typical water loving pisces so I think she’s right! What I tend to do is completely mash them into a paste and put them on toasted rye bread (Aldi do a loaf which comes in at 12p a slice) with a topping of sriracha sauce. It’s a snack or a light lunch that provides around 25g of protein, is high fibre, low calories and all for under 50p. I just can’t believe that cans are not flying off the shelves but then all the more for me!
What could be more festive than getting into debt and buying things you don’t need?
Unbelievably this is the strap-line I heard when momentarily switching on the box for the news to be molested by an advert. Yes, it’s only November but the pressure is on folks to not only spend the money you do have but also that which you don’t. Otherwise you will never achieve matching pyjama utopia in front of an avalanche of boxed dwindling earthly resources. Oh, and indecently in sourcing my photo I find another hidden gem ‘An Insta-worthy holiday’. Yeah, don’t forget to publish to others on social media how stupid you’ve been with your hard earned cash….
How do you do Christmas if you want to rebel from all of this?
For a start guard against any T.V. advertising which is a favourite of mine anyway. All those huge corporate retailers that pretend they have the power to make your family come together and feel the rosy glow of consuming all washed down with a poignant, sentimental, message- YUK! This is what it ALL stems from in my view. Feeding us messages that if we REALLY love them we will search high and low for something they don’t already have in order that there is that ‘special’ moment where they look at us in disbelief. How did we find something that they didn’t even know existed, let alone that they wanted? Buying stuff that people actually need is SO old hat because, guess what? they’ve bought all that ten times over! Secondly, if you really want to be a rebel- don’t buy presents.
How do you manage your children’s expectations when they believe that more is more?
I know my girls are getting excited that Christmas is coming and just like all other children it’s ALL about the gifts. I would be a hypocrite if I pretended I was any different when I was their age. In fact only the other day I remembered how I had sprained my ankle one Christmas Eve due being so over excited and jumping around!
Alright, I admit I just cannot get away with no presents for the girls. I do have too much inherent guilt to fully have done with providing gifts. Instead I’ve tried to go for items that they can make things with and that will inspire them but I feel anxious that they will turn their noses up as they are traditional rather than exciting by today’s standards. I’ve heard them reciting just how many computer games that Blah, Blah from school will be getting and how much a console is and I’m afraid they just won’t be furnished with that.
My youngest still believes wholeheartedly and thinks that Father Christmas can bring back our old dog, Georgie, from the grave. I shed a tear, not just for our loss (which is still quite raw) but also for her innocence and naivety of wanting something that truly is special. Love, life and companionship.
What does being festive actually mean?
Preparation, suspense, surprise, warmth, comfort, feasting, merriment, relaxation, coming together, hopefulness, are just a few words that spring to mind. I think feel the most festive preparing my time honoured ‘seasonal’ cake. All the bounty of ingredients that goes into it, the patience of allowing the fruit to soak in whiskey and the suspense of the hours in the oven, and the hopefulness that the taste of the first slice in weeks to come will be delicious.
I enjoy bracing the elements and coming back to hearty warm food in the knowledge I have the pleasure of being able to sleep for hours in a warm cosy bed. I love making cards to send to love ones. The time spent colouring, drawing and chatting that brings us together in thinking of the recipients who will open up our creations in surprise.
I even enjoy the fact that my daughter still believes in elves and the mischief that they create around the home. Generally I can’t find much that inspires me from U.S. but this is actually an idea that doesn’t cost anything but time and imagination. Although I’m pretty sure I may think differently on this one when I’m still hankering for antics for Dudley and Sugar Plum in late December!
Oh, and P.S. we all know Christmas is actually a pagan festival which is why I will be lighting the fire, getting cosy with a blanket or too, eating simple food, and toasting the long nights with wine. Shared with the ones I love this is true happiness to me.
So why not indulge your senses and feast on the true pleasures of the season. Be more festive, buy less, have more….
Not for me I hasten to add. A new pair of handmade boots for my daughter. Yes you heard me right handmade in Totnes Devon!
The story started when I was researching having my own boots resoled. I’ve had them for 7 years and the tops are fine but the soles are worn. Does anyone fix shoes anymore? No it seems not, and why is that? Because you just buy a new pair don’t you?! In fact the manufacturing process of many shoes these days doesn’t even allow them to be fixed.
Anyway, I then started looking at whether there were any shoe makers left in the country. Well very few but too my surprise there is one near my home town of Paignton. Conker shoes in Totnes!
It’s proper elves and the shoemaker territory with the workshop at the back of the shop. They maybe £78 but they include a free stretching and resole to prolong their life. Also it’s helping keep this industry alive and it’s sustainable. I mean if I get my next pair there I reckon I can keep them going with resoling for life. Now there’s a challenge!
In contrast the elves that most of the corporate shoemakers employ are children. The shoes produced are cheap so we can afford lots of them. They fall apart before the wear out and you cant repair them which is all adding to landfill. In fact I had an arguement with Brooks lately as my fell running shoes didn’t last past a year. They thought that was reasonable longevity! I thought they would be one of the better manufacturers but alas sustainability is nothing but a tick box.
So my half term motto treat yourself (and your children) to something that lasts. Sometimes spending more costs you (and the earth) less in the longterm.
The last time we went shopping was fruitless. Not the ALDI food shop I hasten to add but the impromptu look around town for items we can’t get in ALDI. Items required were a pad of thin plain paper, tennis balls, risotto rice and a second-hand Kilner jar. Not much to ask for is it…..
The stationary shop did just about every desk accessory going but no plain paper pad for us. Out of stock so that’s a negative on the first item. Next to compliment the free tennis rackets sourced from free-cycle we went in search of tennis balls. Now where do you find them? The first sports shop is closed and the second one has been replaced by a jewellers. That’s a negative on the second item then. OK. risotto rice? A trip to the health food shop for this treat and it’s £3.80 for 500g! I swiftly walk out and decide I don’t like risotto that much. Onto a few second-hand shops where there are no Kilner resembling vessels and a pair of old pumps are priced at £10! Disgusted and semi comatose by overpriced granny knick-knacks and have to get out admitting defeat.
On the way back to the car we remember that there is a new shop called Another Weigh that is doing without plastic and sells dry goods. It’s a bit like Weigh and Save I remember as a kid only it specialises in trendy pulses rather than broken biscuits (hence out to attract the Guardian reader rather than the blue rince brigade). We would like to support this kind of thing but when you are confronted at porridge oats £2.30 per kg (ALDI it’s 75p per kg) how can you justify it! Swiftly we get out of that one feeling sufficiently smug that we have bought enough oats in ALDI to keep a small pony.
We do really need risotto rice and it actually seems quite rare now so I decide we must source it. On the way out of town we decide to ‘pop’ into Morrisons. This is a big shop and it feels like the isles are closing in on me. We were on a mission- dry goods- rice- risotto rice. Ah found it! Oh bloody hell it’s £2 per 500g. I start getting desperate. I was surprised at myself for almost giving in due to my state of panic. I want risotto, I need risotto, my parents are coming and they must eat risotto. Hang on a minute, they won’t care if it’s savoury rice instead- what the hell am I doing! And also what a first world problem my risotto crisis is! Annoyed at the hour wasted we get back in the car and promise to ourselves that from now on it’s ALDI and Ebay.
See, as soon as you loose your rational, considered, approach to buying goods you haemorrhage dosh. I think sometimes when we have decided we need something we end up on a mission to achieve buying it at whatever cost (I know I do). What happened to the risotto? We bought a huge bag of pudding rice from our favourite Asian supermarket after finding out that any short grain, sticky rice, makes a decent risotto at a fraction of the cost of Arborio.
So have the courage to admit defeat, go home and research what you are buying before you part with your hard earned cash. Who knows you might not even need it!
During my research for becoming free and wild I came across the adventurer Miriam Lancewood. Whilst due to my circumstances I cannot emulate her exactly she has inspired me on my quest to live a life less ordinary and take the opportunity wherever I can to be more wild! If you haven’t heard of her you need to.
I’ve always been intrigued by what you can eat for free and so have always collected blackberries and chestnuts at the right time of year. I’ve also lost count of the number of times I have tried to identify mushrooms in the hope of achieving culinary feast but chickened out last minute due to the thought of poisoning myself.
Miriam put the idea in my head that when we forage (or hunt) for food we connect with nature. Having previously dismissed these little berries we saw in the woods for being too small and rather bland I thought: Would my foraging ancestors have given them a miss? Why should I leave perfectly good fruit and buy it instead? Oh, and how about those Gooseberries I spotted by the roadside?
Armed with a few containers and my mountain bike I scoured the hedgerow and picked a whole tub of the Gooseberries from the spot I had previously clocked. I felt somehow victorious in claiming my free rosy red fruit! Next it was off to the woods where I started to pick these little berries…..
Sat squatted down, gently picking these tiny blue fruits I began to relax. What was most extraordinary was that in the beginning I could hardly see any of them but then I tuned in and they were all around me. I could hear the trees creaking, the odd cone falling, thud, to the ground and the gentle bird song. My mind started dreaming and almost in a meditative state I spent more than an hour collecting them. I loaded my haul into my rucksack and cycled home.
I found out that we have many names for these little bursts of nature. Bilberry, Blaeberry, Whortleberry, Whinberry, Windberry, and Myrtle Berry! Apparently they are very healthy too being packed with vitamins. Getting there under my own steam and picking them also provided me with exercise so no wonder I felt so chipper when I returned home.
Miriam also hunts which is not so easy for me. I would definitely like to fish for mackerel when next in Devon and I am seriously considering what to do next time I see fresh roadkill. Honest, I am not joking, especially with the level of willing pheasants participants round here. Really I think we should only eat what we are prepared to kill but sadly I still don’t practice what I preach here. I suppose there is not much killing required for our staple of kidney bean curry so I’m O.K.
The next thing Miriam advises is giving up your job or working as little as possible if that isn’t possible. Excitingly working a minimal amount is possible if you are prepared to be frugal and I am! We do have dependants so there is a certain amount of providing to be done but hopefully the girls will appreciate our time in years to come.
Another thing that Miriam is concerned about is the lack of sleep we get and advocates sleeping up to 14 hours a night in winter. Well, I am looking forward to my hibernation once it gets cold but until then I will continue to enjoy my early mornings- Perhaps soon with my bow and arrow!
It’s 6am in the morning and I haven’t checked my phone. It’s not the first thing I reach for, instead I jot my ideas down for this post and wake up my laptop. It takes effort to only open word rather than check something on the net but for me this time in the morning is not to be disturbed by the onslaught of social media (or my inability not to engage with it). In fact before I got this laptop I took great solace in writing my diary on paper, totally oblivious of the world, and without the hunger to share my words with anyone.
Yesterday I reluctantly bought a new mobile phone and spent at least 4 hours setting my life up on it. I can’t deny it, they are incredibly useful, but this humble servant can soon become a cruel master if you let it. Yep this is the era of the phone junky, young or old, it can get you. Tuned in to every beep and swoosh, FOMO if you haven’t checked it in the last 5 minutes and before you know it you’ve let it reach a higher status than the actual people around you. What are you doing! Is it time for webaholics anonymous?
So, I’m in too minds about it. I even considered how liberating it would be if I just got rid of having one all together. Start a new revolution for those not wanting to engage in this merry go round. Oh, wait, how would I connect with all my fellow non phone revolutionaries? How would anyone know how I’m feeling on Day 1, Day 2 of abstinence?
Ahh they will be the ones that without ‘text neck’ can look around freely and engage with reality. Perhaps they will be doing something radical like making eye contact on the train and talking to someone they don’t know. Or even just looking awkward (even panicked!) at a social gathering where they are unable to whip out their digital crutch in the face of idle time.
Call it the drug of self validation and I am definitely not immune to it. I can’t live without it but I want to limit my reliance on it as I know the more time I spend on it the more vacuous my existence becomes. If I see a pretty view, is it any less real if I don’t post it to Instagram? If I ride hard on my bike, and give it my all, is it any less of an achievement if it’s not recorded on Strava? If I enjoy a brilliant day with the family, is it any less of a memory by not being documented on Facebook? Is writing my blog just another narcissistic temptation made possible by the web?!
Given that I now live over 6 hours drive from family and friends there is no way I can really do without my mobile. I am thankful that modern technology allows me to feel close to those I love at the touch of a button. Perhaps that is the crux, and the moderator, of how I should limit my time online. If it only serves as a brag to others I hardly know, what is the point? What am I trying to achieve? A small pat on the back and a little bit of praise for my sensitive ego?!
I’ve decided I am going to use my servant twice a day for 30 minutes. That includes catching up with friends, posting on my blog (I’m allowed to write offline), as well as checking my bank balance, looking up pointless facts I have forgotten (or never knew), checking the price of spelt flour, peanut butter (and other foodstuffs I’m obsessed with), seeing if it might be sunny tomorrow etc. etc.
For me writing my blog is therapy and although there is an element of self promotion somehow I’m hoping that my ideas will encourage others to need less and have more time. However having more time is only good when we use it wisely and for me the use of social media (including my own) is having a negative impact on society. Now the question is how best can I engage with the world to share my views? Which social media platform is most effective? #irony!
So I encourage you to join me in being the master of your devices before you get sucked into the vortex of lost souls. Be frugal with your time online and enjoy the screen of life!
I’ve made the choice to live my life frugally however the very fact I have the choice puts me in the new age frugaller category. My mother grew up knowing the true meaning of having very little and it’s only now through rediscovering myself that I have a greater appreciation of how difficult it must have been. I also understand why she is so resourceful and practical which are the benefits of being frugal.
So this is an ode to my dear mother and all those who have honed their skills through necessity. I would be very happy if I could do half these things and intend to ask her for more tips when I see her next….
Mum can knit for England. This one has clearly passed me by but I am very glad to be the benefactor of the fruits of her labour (especially living in the freezing north). I have beautiful, unique, and very warm hats, socks and leg warmers (jumpers are usually the reserve of the grandchildren as they require less wool). If we could all knit there would be so many more quality garments out there lasting the test of time (for a start the effort it takes would make you think twice about making/needing a new one each time). I would say that it avoids sweat shops but my mum works like a trouper, relentlessly, to create these things!
Mum can make dresses, curtains, and duvets. She told me that when she was younger she used to go into shops to view the latest trends, measure them using her hand span, and copy them at home. She was so good that I remember all the countless clubbing outfits she also made me to flaunt myself in the 90s (fortunately I don’t have the photos). I can just about take up a hemline and make slight alterations but otherwise I am useless. I do have a sewing machine (second-hand) which I need to discover more!
Mum taught me how to grab a bargain at a car boot-sale. My first pair of Levi jeans came from one. It was like striking gold knowing I could finally be part of the cool jeans club. Up until then I was a sceptic thinking that I was too good for boot-sales. I viewed them as a kind of unfortunate persons shindig and perish the thought that I might see someone I knew. What would they think if they found out I had to buy second hand clothes! I have always loved boot-sales and charity shops but until the confidence of my 30s I still viewed this pleasure as a dirty secret. I feel that with the ethical fashion movement the nation has really turned a corner with this one. Far more people are talking about charity shop finds so I owe being one of original thrift shoppers (before it became slightly cool) to my mum.
Mum lived mainly on bread and marg (well whenever she was hungry that’s mainly what there was). I’m not going to emulate this one but it has made me into a food waste warrior. Cheap, nutritious food is not out of anyone’s reach in this country and I don’t waste a scrap of it.
My mum gave me the story that makes me grateful. My mum grew up without her dad and with no social security. The lack of money meant that the children never had anything new but for a special occasion my nanny (mum’s mum) decided that she wanted to show that she had bought something new from a shop. She asked the owner of the shop whether she could put a doll in the window that she had dressed in knitted clothes that she had made herself. The owner agreed and my mum was taken to the shop so that she could see the ‘new’ doll in the window. My nan then ‘bought’ the doll and gave it to my mum to make her feel special. Even writing this now brings tears to my eyes as it humbles me every time I think about how many toys I had (and my daughters now have).
Thinking about those that truly have nothing puts your life into perspective. Everything is relative and I want to be grateful (and continue to be grateful) for all of the wonderful things that I have in my life, especially my mum.
So be grateful for what you have, equip yourself with the skills to make do and mend (work in progress for me) and remember that it’s time with those we love that makes us rich not our possessions.
Advertising and consumerism are evil twins. You can’t have one without the other, and the former is bloody good at sitting like a devil on your shoulder. You need it, you want it, you deserve it. Just look how beautiful/slim/happy/adventurous/ it will make you…..
If I had checked my email this morning on yahoo I know that I would have been faced with a strip of adds down the side supposedly targeted at my many insecurities:
‘Find out how this woman destroyed belly fat’. Not through will power and exercise as that requires effort and would be free! No, it’s a secret juice that only supermodels have drank up until now but is currently available to us mere mortals at the touch of a button (and a few quid out of the bank). Want more, have more and be as skinny as a supermodel eventually (promise!). Just don’t even think about buying real food that would do exactly the same job if you ate the right quantities. Anyway you won’t have the cash to enter a supermarket soon as you will have spent it all on Insecurajuice.
‘Your summer wardrobe starts here’. Where does it end? Oh, it doesn’t because I need these seasonal trends right now?! What’s wrong with all the clothes that I already have? Oh, of course it would be free if I stuck to that wardrobe. What? You think I need to part with my cash so I can support more substandard, throw away, fashion? Ah yes, I totally forgot that people will be up in arms when they see my slightly untrendy look because that’s much worse than supporting sweatshop swag.
‘Banish wrinkles overnight’. Oh, you think my wrinkles are ugly? Oh right, and that cream will erase them for only £20 a pot. Hundreds of women can’t be wrong?! I’d better plaster it on without delay as I’m hiding a much more youthful, happier version of myself…. Shut up! If you have them they are here to stay unless you want to pay for someone to cut your face open and pull it tight again. Are womankind really insecure enough to buy this every month? If so that is really letting the side down in my opinion. Scientifically proven? None of them are more scientifically proven than wearing sun cream or staying in the shade, which incidentally is free!
This 4X4 will have you driving over mountains whilst smiling at your model of a wife and gloriously engaged children. This lifestyle is only available at Mitsubishi Outlander (or other equivalently expensive 4X4 dealers).Other lifestyles are available butyou just cannot achieve this level of utopia in a normal car that you have kept running for years. It doesn’t matter that you are stuck in the office for 60 plus hours a week as on the off chance that you do have any free time this vehicle is ready and waiting for an adventure. Unfortunately this actually entails loading your overworked self (complete with corporate entertainment paunch) into your pristine gas guzzler to head to the nearest Waitrose. I’m afraid that the old trusty car actually out on the moors is far more likely to contain that happy, carefree man with a six pack who is not tied to making £100K a year.
Lastly, kids and adverts. It’s a whole chapter in itself as advertisers see them as consumer gold. I can’t even start to write what is wrong as it’s wrong on so many levels. I asked my daughter what her favourite advert was and her eyes lit up. It’s not her fault that she doesn’t recognise the consumer wolves hungry for her attention. She only sees the bright lights and happy faces that buying things brings. However, she did surprise me as she couldn’t think of one in particular -Yippee! possibly a few more years before she is insecure enough to be truly captured!
So free yourself from being told you aren’t enough or don’t have enough. Trust me you do. Don’t let the evil twins have you as their slave making you work to an early grave.
Most mornings I wake up around 5:30am and if I don’t I feel cheated. When I walk into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea I feel like I’ve won. As I gaze out of the window there is no one about, everyone is still asleep, and the world is mine. That silence, that calm, gives me the time I need to think, write and reflect. The day is fresh and full of promise yet to be punctuated by a to do list.
I’m not sure what this has to do with being frugal but it is a free activity that I partake in most days. I can sit at my desk and write, paint rocks (my guilty pleasure), do some yoga, walk the dog in the village or even cycle to my favourite place for breakfast. It’s extra free time, that’s what it is! and the whole point of being frugal is having more time to do what you love.
At the moment I’m not working so in theory I could spend a lot more time in bed but the fact that I am free makes me want to seize the day even more. It’s something about the mental clarity I feel I have at this time and the beautiful silence around me. If it’s spring and I can hear the birdsong I can just open the patio door and drink in the dawn chorus knowing all is well in the world.
Even when I was working I used the early hours to extend my day. It’s like making the proportion of time at work less by creating free time. Time to enjoy breakfast, time to make a good coffee, time to go for a run, take the dog for a walk or just sit and gaze out of the window.
One thing that I never do is listen to the news in the morning. In fact I have given up listening to the news or weather full stop and it’s very liberating. If you want to know what the weather is doing how about opening your front door? Chances are you will be pleasantly surprised. Want to know what’s going on in the world? Chat to your neighbours when you walk round the village. If you want to change the bigger issues it’s got to start somewhere and surely that should be in our own communities.
The down shot of all of this activity is that as soon as the sun sets I’m out for the count. Then it’s time for those night owls to catch their prey. I’ll never know what it’s like to burn the midnight oil but I’ll finish by saying:
However you do it make more time in your day to enjoy the world
I’m not sure which to discuss first as they are both equally important to me. I’ve always been into keeping fit but these are the activities that have endured the many stages of my life so far.
Perhaps I’ll start with cycling since I’ve done it since I was a child (my parents weren’t hippy enough for kid yoga). Like most 1980’s girls I started off on a Raleigh Princess which was bought for my 5th birthday and most pictures of me learning to ride it are of me bawling my eyes out. I then progressed onto a Raleigh shopper for my cycling proficiency (zero street cred but character building). Anyway after much pleading (and passing the test) I was bought the Emmelle Cougar mountain bike…..
Those lovely polished steel rims came in really handy in the pissing rain downhill! Yep in the August 1997 I lost my breaks and had a serious accident which ended up with me in plaster for the whole summer. It’s left me with a great war wound and an appreciation of my legs (prior to this most of my teenage thoughts centred around how I could get my muscly legs to look more waiflike a la Kate Moss).
I didn’t let this minor blip spoil my love of cycling and promptly got back in the saddle. During my younger adult years cycling was mainly casual forays with friends, or transport to work. I didn’t realise back then that it was already providing calm for my soul.
In 2014 I decided to partake in the cycle to work scheme and got myself my first road bike, the Scott Speedster. That was it, I fell in love with the solace and peace it gave me before and after my stressful job. Since then I’ve clocked up countless miles including several 100 milers and it’s become my trusty steed.
I know I had to buy the thing in the first place but after the initial outlay it has provided me with countless hours of pleasure for free. It’s like a moving meditation (as long as you don’t get a punishment pass) and I like to think I get my best ideas whilst out on it.
So onto yoga, my second love…..
It’s a no less worthy cause as without it I dread to think what a stiff, stress head I’d be. It all started in my 20s (28 to be precise) when I realised that all the exercise I had been doing meant I couldn’t get anywhere near touching my toes and I had back ache. Yes, I know there is more to yoga than touching your toes but at this point all it was all about stretching for me. The first class I remember laughing in disbelief as to what we were supposed to be able to do. Down-dog felt like torture but torture that old grannies in the class could master with ease!
Time passed and I progressed by practising the main moves everyday at home as well as attending weekly classes to remind me of how stiff and pathetic I was. It worked though and a few years later I was hooked. Not physically but mentally. I’m not going to say something contrived like every time I roll out my mat it’s like having a conversation with myself but it is definitely free therapy.
So what is my point? Am I just a smug fitness fan revelling in my toned body? No, I’m selling you the benefits of having hobbies and enduring passions that will get you out of life’s difficult situations. I can’t always ride off on my bike or unfurl my yoga mat in the face of danger but the fact that they are there for me is hugely comforting. They have become my life constants. Free, sociable or solitary (mood dependant) and green.
So today’s mantra is:
Be frugal be freed and spend time doing the things that you love.
Frugalfruitloop 