20 days of changes!

It's been 20 days since I started this blog and what have I changed?

Well for starters I put myself on a reduced grocery budget (£150 for the month) and lived out of the cupboards and freezers. We had some interesting meals this way but at the end of the month we had enough money for me to make a bulk order (£47) on some organic beans and pulses and some oats and soya mince (all regular standbys apart from the chickpeas - have to get used to using these!) I should have enough to last a few months anyway. With the residue of what I would normally have spent I bought a Remoska which should save me 80% electricity over using the electric oven. I cooked up a (happy meat) roast chicken in it last night and it was lovely and moist, will definately do that again.

We have also added another vegetable bed and planted up some runner beans, courgettes and spinach. The digging goes on though as more beds are planned. The greenhouse is full of tomato plants with a promising amount of fruit already and Mr C has planted up some pepper plants. We are very much beginners in this field though and have much to learn.

We are using the library more and the only books I have bought were the bargain bags from the church fete which included one treasure - a 1964 edition of Good Housekeeping Look and Cook which includes the GH childrens cook book that Mum used to teach me to cook! Mainly rock cakes, flapjacks and jammy buns! Ah good memories are priceless!

I have started to knit again, easy stuff so far - dishcloths using cotton yarn from our market and charity shops, so useful and cheap. I have yet to dust off the sewing machine, that is next on the list.

Entertainment is now a 50p or less film on video (they are so cheap now) from the charity shops or boot sales, there are so many films out there that I haven't seen so this will keep us going for a while and much cheaper than renting dvd's. Barbecues in the back garden with family and friends are top of our list at this time of year and hopefully we will soon be able to provide home grown salads.

The main thing I have learned is to stay away from the shops as much as possible and to avoid shopping as a sport/hobby, I now look at what I have and make do!

Boot Sale Bargains (or some folks rubbish is definately other folks treasure!)

I finally got to my first car boot sale this year, I do try to go as often as I can but hadn't got around to it until now. So glad I did this time as the first stall I came to had the lovely Johnson Bros Rose dawn platter and sugar bowl for only £1.50. I already have some green dawn plates so I guess I am collecting them now!

Other bargains were the much needed sewing basket for £1 so I can now "make do and mend" and the videos were only 10p each! Much cheaper than hiring a dvd! I have always wanted to see Fried GreenTomatoes with Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy.

Best of all was on our way back to the car someone had just dumped a pile of stuff saying help yourself and a few folk were, I had a quick look and in a box on the top of the pile I found some vintage pyrex! The first piece was a meatloaf dish in the 1982 "poppy" pattern and the other was a real delight as I have been hankering after some of the 1961 lobster pattern pyrex after seeing some on Elizabeths Making Good Use blog so I was thrilled to now have a piece for free! What a lovely day!