Heres a little list of the irritating things I forgot and the strange things ive had to adapt .
Wash powder , why have i never stockpiled washing powder ? But nobody noticed that i spent 2 months using dozens of odds and ends of bath foam , posh weird shampoos and even washing up liquid to do the laundry . I can vouch that Matey makes your towels lovely and fluffy !! and cheap washing up liquid cleans soiled sheets far better than any posh powder . I now have a huge box of Easy the £5 for a huge box from Iceland courtesy of daughter , she only noticed when there was more room on the shelf in the bathroom and her bedding smelt of her disgarded nettle shampoo ...ooops.
Why is a bar of soap so cheap these days? it works out a fraction of the price of shower gel , I have a huge selection of unopened soaps gleaned from auction lots , unopened xmas gifts we find in them and big bags of the little hotel soaps. I could probably go years without shower gel...lol
On the sewing front , white thread and white quilting thread ..AARRGGHH when your miles from a shop and youve got not a penny thats the really irritating one . Had a blinding idea the other week at the jumble , mattress covers , you know the varying thickness ones that nobody ever buys . I got a dustbin bag full for 30p , you guessed it theyre now all unpicked and i have tons of wadding sheets for quilting , far less messy than the time i decided to undo a duvet in the garden for wadding ...lol
On the never putting the greenhouse saga , Mr Bah Humbug has finally after 4 years admitted hes no longer having anything to do with it...HOORAY ..the boys and i will create something that resembles a greenhouse with the greenhouse frame and the rubble we started to liberate from the airfield a local dumping ground and resource for those needing breeze blocks and rubble . First batch of breeze blocks and bricks currently hiding in my boot at the moment . We also did a few minor storm repairs to the sheds and noticed a few more me and the boys can tackle , one shed window broke and we have plans to replace it with some toughened blue glass shelves from a wall unit i salvaged and hid years ago. Roof repairs to leaky shed will be tackled once the munchkin returns from his holiday and i can ram him on the roof . I have some multicoloured bits of wagon tarpaulin , just need to get some felting nails which im sure i can turn up at the car boot and the shed will have a pretty patchwork roof , it will irritate Mr BH no end and the neighbours will doubtless report us yet again...Ho Hum
So go on confess , whats the strangest think youve done while poor or just in a bid to recycle ?
a little pyrex love just because im in that kind of mood and i just washed it up and put it away
I use bar soap instead of hand soap as it lasts longer, I never use conditioner. I often wash clothes without any powder.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago when we were really skint a visitor bought a KFC takeaway as my poor food offering wasn't deemed good enough. I used the bones, skin and leftover fries to make chicken soup, I added some left over porridge from breakfast and a handful of lentils, it was very tasty.
im proud of you , i have numerous bags in the freezer of stuff that will be recycled into soup over the winter , they have no idea what goes into my cauldron ...he he he
DeleteWhen Tom was out of work we used to jumble a lot and come home with bin bags full of stuff. I used to dismantle the clothes for zips, buttons etc and use the fabric for patchwork. I only wish I'd kept some of the stuff I got then as it would go for a bomb on Ebay now. lol
ReplyDeleteI know its hard but I look back on those times now and only remember them as good, we laughed a lot, rode bikes everywhere and somehow managed. The kids though, remember it as somewhat different, they couldn't have the stuff their friends had and I feel bad about that now. Keep going Kate, nothing last forever.
Briony
x
just setting off for a local jumble now...what horrors will i find?
DeleteErm confession time!.
ReplyDeleteLast Thursday of the month our pay day for the last 2 years I have made a huge curry and rice and taken it in to work, very popular .In giant slo cookers, cooked previously at home.
Prob around 50 portions .
Lamb the favourite!. My local butcher gives me lamb heads free, no one wants them, So boil them add onion , BM stores has fab curry mix just add water £1 box lasts 2 months.
Now lamb heads boiling is not pretty, but loads of meat, flavour. Makes fab curry. Chuck in a few chick peas, some mint , garnish with bay leaves and mint I have in garden. Rice Tesco cheap 89p for slo cooker full.. Serve with mint dip aka 1 pot natural yogurt mint blitzed up lots of. Chuck any herbs from garden on top.
Now if anyone knew they were eating lamb head no chance!. But just call it my lamb special recipie. Eaten by everyone docs, nurses, physios, domestic staff, pharmacists, even our health board boss makes his way. No cost free but donations accepted. Have a piggy bank shape of a lambs head for donations😂Little do they know!. Often around £150 to £200 left as donations.
Costs me about £5.00 , factoring in cooking at home and Tesco cheap nan bread I posh up with herbs n garlic
I,m not bad as a hearty home made meal, do not charge.
Deleteexactly , some of the best foods cost pennies . I havent seen a sheeps head in years but we often used to have goat curry as kids because we had a lot of west indian neighbours , I also admit to buying Halal mutton on yellow label , not many muslims in Lincolnshire but the big supermarkets still stock it, bonus
DeleteKatie if you have a local butcher approach them!. They pay to get rid of so much that can be eaten!. May have to hide the lamb heads from family tho😂
DeleteI so agree about the cost of thread especially quilting stuff - £4.95!! When local hardware store was clearing out shelf of odd colours at 40p a reel I grabbed a few light pink and blue which "blend" in with all sorts of fabric. Good idea with the mattress covers! I have used the Indian technique of layering up thin fabrics to quilt.
ReplyDeleteI have spare white thread, I'm happy to pop some in my he post to you.
ReplyDeletehe he ...guess what i got from the Jumble Sale ? A carrier bag full of sewing rubbish as the lady called it 50p . Tons of lace and at the bottom 3 reels of unused white Gutterman thread .
DeleteKatie I think you should go down the foodbank route for now to give you breathing space.
ReplyDeleteThat's astonishing but what we don't know won't do us any harm.
DeleteYou're an inspiration hun!
ReplyDeleteI've been a bar soap convert for a few months now, it seems really out of fashion at the moment so I can pick up posh name ones for 20p in my favourite chazza. Including jo Malone and L'Occitaine!
May I recommend googling Conker washing liquid. If you can collect conkers you can make your own free laundry soap! Every little helps.
X
never heard of Conker Washing up liquid , I will explore . Once tried doing the dying sheets method with conkers , gorgeous colour achieved but couldnt get it to colour evenly
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI've washed clothes with soap bars and a scrubbing brush in the bath because we couldn't afford a machine. Hubby used to help me wring everything by hand. I've had 20p in my purse and bought one potato and one carrot to stretch leftovers. Beefburgers have been cut in half rolled in balls and a Tom sauce added then served on spaghetti. The family thought they were getting more.
ReplyDeleteIts strange when we look back at the stuff weve done when times are hard , we can look back and laugh but at the time it wasnt funny .
DeleteI always use bar soap, as someone commented above, very inexpensive in CS, also you do not have plastic container to recycle, so environmentally friendly as well. One of our local CS does as much as you can get in a bag for a pound as the seasons change, you are working wonders.
ReplyDeleteDont you think the biggest waste is those endless tiny bottles of posh shampoo they put in hotel rooms , you cant get anything out of the wretched things
DeleteI once made a huge pie out of 2oz of mince from the freezer, loads of veg from the garden and lots of bits of leftover pastry again from the freezer. It was delicious and nobody guessed its origin. I also use bar soap now as so much cheaper than liquid.
ReplyDeletei always bag odds and ends of pastry till i get enough to make pie , pie can hide a lot of things
DeleteWe are very low income and have mostly been like that, I was able to work for about 15 years so that helped a lot. A family member for a while grew pigs and I'd get one for my birthday, it would last a year until my next birthday with the fat I would render and make soap and that would be everyone's Xmas and birthday gifts; Iv still got a few bars left and it's been at least 5 years since I had a whole pig as a birthday gift, best gift I've ever received. Jenny
ReplyDeletemy gran when we was growing up had an annual pig killed , she used to render the fat and use it for baking
DeleteI once had nothing but a large potato in my cupboard... and I really mean nothing. Pay day wasn't until the next day so I cut it as finely as I could and made a huge bowl of home made crisps. The kids thought it was a treat. I have eaten porridge for tea as I had nothing else in...... and I wonder why I weighed six and a half stone. Thankfully those days are a dim and distant memory but I always have a vast stash of dried pulses and jars of beef stock in my cupboard... just in case.
ReplyDeleteI used to get funny looks as they opened the cupboard and got crushed by bags of soup mix from approved food , theyre not moaning now !!
ReplyDeleteI shred every little donated, picked up bar soap and add some hot water until it melts, I add a scoop of this liquid to my laundry and dishes and even pour some into the pump hand soap. I have not bought soap in years and my family doesn't know. Good luck with the green house. Our growing season is over but I am growing sprouts and adding them to salads, soups and stir fry, I even have onion heads sprouting in a window box of soil, I cut off the greens and add it to everything. Last winter I had great luck growing baby spinach in the window boxes. The struggle is real and you make the best of it. Impressive.
ReplyDelete