Shopping in your own cupboards/closets

Many of us in more affluent countries speak of de-cluttering and having too much stuff. The trick of course is to not buy it in the first place and put the money in a savings account instead.

That is how you build up an emergency fund (3-12 months living expenses) then have a fund for luxuries and extras and finally a 'retire early' fund.

We have decided to trim our spending again. It crept up when we had a larger income, as it does. That is the main reason it is how much you spend/don't spend that will get you ahead of the game, not how much you earn. Once you earn £15,000 per person that is. Below that more income does tend to make a difference.

I decided that I would rather do something I loved and earn less.  So now I teach spinning and weaving and write books.  I have let go of my other income stream.

I looked at a recent book written by someone who spent on nothing but essentials for a year. She still paid her basic essentials which came to £1800.00 a month. That is more than we live on anyway - and I suspect more than a lot of you do too.

So I have been shopping in the cupboards.  In other words, when I think I need to buy something I consider what we have that might do.

Our duvet was too small.  I was going to buy another but remembered there was an old smaller one insulating the hot water tank. So I cut a strip off and sewed it to ours.

I needed a watch but then hubby remembered he had an old one and now it is mine.

I have been using up food that has been in the cupboard for a while. The dried fava bean soup is utterly delicious and i am going to make hummus from them too.

I had been buying frozen berries to put on porridge.  The home grown ones ran out months ago. Then I remembered all that rhubarb in the freezer and am eating that instead.

We will have different snacks instead of crisps etc.  Rhubarb and custard. Fried potatoes or home made oven chips.  Crackers and cheese.  Soup. All far more nutritious of course...

 The goal is to spend no more than £10 a week on groceries.  We can feed ourselves very well on very little money and have lots in the cupboards.   Below is the fava bean soup.

Here's what we are eating

There is kale, parsley and garlic in the garden and some winter salad leaves and spinach in the polytunnel. Lee's new Facebook group, Practical Simple Living is helping us to re-focus.  It was easy to stay focused whilst paying off the mortgage but has been way harder since then. Tomorrow we will review our bills and see what we can save. This is always worth doing, especially if you have not done it for a while.

And we will re-focus on the food bill, too. That means I need to actually pick the garlic, salad, spinach and kale for starters.  Tonight it is quorn meatballs and spaghetti on the menu and Lee made potato soup with the wonderful box of veggies a friend gave us at New Year.  Total money spent zero and we will give them a 'swap' of something

Yesterday we ate trout caught by a neighbour with the potatoes and carrots from said veg box. So that was  another frugal and tasty meal as the only financial cost was the broccoli (48p/50c).

How to make vinegar and mustard

How to make vinegar and mustard

I am someone who needs to get my feet in grass once a day.  If not, life begins to go wrong.  Get outside and my mind switches off.  I cut wood, garden and generally potter about without a care in the world.   A big sign I am working too hard is when things feel ‘wrong’ and there doesn't seem to be time to get outside, or to make good food. 

So instead of merely doing sums about whether it is worth growing a bit of veg, add this into the equation:

·        money saved on counselling (!)

·        arguments avoided with one’s spouse or significant others

·        money saved on going to the gym

·        eating one’s own home grown spuds can replace going out for dinner - because they feel really special you therefore don’t feel the need to go out.  It is not the equivalent of simply buying spuds.

Similarly, bought mustard will sit in the cupboard for many a year and not get eaten.  But if a friend gives me their home made mustard, it is yummy and special.  A friend did give me home made mustard and it got eaten in a couple of weeks.  She also inspired me to make my own.  When I found out that you can make mustard from kale seeds, the abandoned kale plants in the garden got a new lease of life.  They had gone to seed because I left the flowers for pollinating insects and now there was a use for all the seeds too.  Kale flowers are excellent for insects as are all brassicas  (cabbage family), onions and leeks.

 The kale seeds are now harvested and drying out for mustard making.  About half of the seeds used to make the mustard can be kale, the rest need to be regular mustard seeds.  I am stripping the kale seed pods from the stems and storing them in paper bags made from newspaper, until the pods ripen and the seeds pop out.  It is a bit of a fiddle but doing some every time I pass the kitchen table means they soon get done.

Kale seeds drying

Here is the mustard recipe – with thanks to my friends Gail and Gil and to www.downsizer.net

 Kale mustard

This is mild but tasty and the mustard seeds break down whereas the kale seeds stay whole, giving a nice texture. 

2 tablespoons of yellow mustard seeds

2 tablespoons of kale seeds (or use black mustard seeds)

100ml white wine, cider or other vinegar

Half teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon any kind of sugar

Put the mustard & kale seeds and liquids in a jar to soak for 3 days.  Put in a cupboard not the fridge.

After the three days put it in a blender and add the sugar and salt.  Then blend until it has the desired texture. 

NB the vinegar is important as it is a preservative so do not be tempted to skimp on the quantity.

Vinegar is another satisfying thing to make.

Vinegar

There are several ways to make vinegar.  The simplest is to use water in a jug, add a tablespoon of vinegar as a starter, a tablespoon of sugar or honey and some chopped up fruit.  Leave in an open jug for about 3 weeks  and stir every couple of days and it will turn into vinegar.  it will have a white film on it which is the vinegar 'must' and nothing to worry about.  Strain and bottle.  If you grow your own fruit this is great.

 Another way is to use the ends of bottles of wine.  Put some vinegar in an open jar or jug and leave it until it develops a white film on the top.  This is the vinegar starter.  Add the wine and leave to ferment for three weeks. 

Jamie Oliver suggests making vinegar from just wine as follows:

Wrap a half full bottle of wine (with the lid on) in a towel, enclose it in a plastic bag and tie securely with string.  Leave it in the boot of the car so it can roll about for three weeks.  The rolling about will aerate the wine and help it to turn into vinegar.

 By the way, we were given a huge marrow – people often have trouble giving these away, and they are great.  We  are grateful for them as they do not grow outside where we live so we usually have only one plant in the polytunnel.  We often freeze them and use the pulp later – and get lots of free meals.  This one was stuffed with leftover rice and beans with some seasoning and tamari (wheat free soy sauce) and baked in the oven.  We got a dinner and two lunches out of it.  Today I had the remains of another free marrow as soup.  Soup is a great way to use them up and the soup freezes well.  Add some curry powder for a great flavour.  So that’s a free dinner for two and several free lunches this week.