Making Good Use

Not So Simples!!

Just a very brief post today as I've spent most of the afternoon wrestling with a king-size duvet cover, a very small table and the sewing machine.  I really thought it would be the most simples little job to convert this sold-to-me-as-a-double-but-turned-out-to-be-king-size duvet cover which I shockingly bought last June.  Turns out it's a real swine to try and manoeuvre such a huge amount of fabric through a sewing machine which is placed on a rather small table.  Anyways, the job is now done - although it's a bit of a botched job (but, then, my sewing attempts usually are) - and the duvet does go rather splendiferously with my new £5 M&S fitted sheet.  If we get anything resembling daylight tomorrow, I'll take a photo of the finished article plus sheet to show you.

O.U.T.

Yay, I've finally got out of the house.  The expected heavy snowfall didn't materialise here over the weekend, in fact a definite sign of thawing could be seen.  Saturday evening the patio was thick in snow and the drainpipe was frozen solid, Sunday morning the patio had miraculously reappeared and the drainpipe was dripping away nicely.  Not sure how the Met Office got it so wrong (AGAIN!! - this is supposed to be a 'mild' winter!) but I'm very glad that this time their dire weather warnings didn't come true.

So, after being snowed-in for the past six days, I set off very gingerly towards the High Street this morning.  Fortuitously, I'd also sold quite a profitable book on Amazon last night so I would have had to go to the post office anyway.  Once I'd slithered and slipped my way down our side road and made it in one piece out onto the main road it was quite easy going underfoot.  I couldn't swear to it but I think the pavements on the main road may even have been gritted at some point (something I've never known any local authority do in the UK - no matter how bad the ice on the pavement gets.)  By the time I reached the High Street itself the roads and the pavements were all totally clear.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find the 'Coffee and Jumble' in full swing, and doing quite a brisk trade too.  Even the 92-year-old who (wo)mans the clothing table was there as usual - no doubt that's due to the 'Dunkirk spirit' that older people seem to have in abundance but which is sadly lacking in anyone under the age of 60 or so (I blame Maggie Thatcher, but that's another story!!)  Sadly, I came away empty handed and only managed to find some tissue paper in one of the charity shops (8 sheets for 25p - I bought all four packs they had).  Pickings do seem to be very lean at the moment - maybe it's the time of year, maybe the weather, maybe the recession, who knows - I'm keeping my paws crossed that things will get a tad more interesting in the charity shops soon.

Final port of call was Somerfield where I got in another load of supplies which will, hopefully, see us through until next weekend.  I took advantage of Somerfield's free home delivery service which is very reliable (even in this snowy weather) and all my groceries were delivered to my door about an hour after I got home.  I shall start getting lazy if this cold snap continues, I haven't dragged my shopping trolley around for nearly a month!!

Like Piccadilly Circus

I took this photo of our back garden first thing this morning - it seems it was like Piccadilly Circus out there at some point during the night.  I suspect the paw prints were made by Mr Foxy Loxy and he was after the bits of mouldy cheese I threw out (for the birds) yesterday evening.

For some reason he also circled the rotary washing line whilst he was there - that's a bit odd as there were no food bits thrown in that direction at all.

The tuna pasta bake was quite tasty for tea yesterday.  We were both quite hungry by the time we ate so it all got snaffled up pretty quickly.  It lacked a certain 'je ne sais quoi' tastewise but that may have been to do with the fairly mild cheese sauce made with Red Leicester.  If I make it again I think I'll add more mustard to the sauce and some Parmesan to tickle it up.

The cold weather seems to have sent me into a cooking frenzy as this morning I made veggie soup from the leftover carrot, cabbage and potatoes from Wednesday evenings tea.  Then cooked up mushrooms, carrots, pepper, garlic, onion and rice as the stuffing for tomorrow night's evening meal - stuffed cabbage leaves - and now I've got a large pan of sausage and cider casserole bubbling away on the hob ready for tonight's meal.  I've jotted down a few recipe ideas for the coming days and I'm fairly sure we're good until next weekend with what we've already got in the house.  We may not overly enjoy all the meals but we sure as heck won't starve.  

Also, thank heavens for the Christmas treats that were leftover - they're serving us very well as dessert each evening, and for the huge tin of M&S biscuits given to me by my nephew - they really hit the spot with a cup of tea or coffee.

Snowbound Frugalness

It's amazing how being snowbound with no end in sight can focus your mind on not being wasteful with food.  Although at the moment we should be good with food until the middle of next week, this weather is really making me think hard about what to use, what to eke out for another meal and what to use up creatively.

Tonight for tea I'm cooking a new recipe - Tuna Pasta Bake.  It was a recipe I found on a Channel 4 website before Christmas but as both P and I were unwell then I didn't get round to cooking it.  I dug out several lots of suspicious looking foil-wrapped bits of cheese from the fridge to make the cheese sauce with.  One of them was so mouldy it was beyond saving but the other two only had little bits of mould on them so I chopped those bits off (and threw them out for the poor birds in the garden) and grated up the rest.  I wouldn't have chosen to make the cheese sauce mainly with Red Leicester cheese - it's ended up a bit 'orange' for my liking - but I sure as heck wasn't going to waste it.

The rest of the ingredients were store-cupboard items - tinned tuna (natch), half a tin of sweetcorn (the other half was used yesterday to make sweet potato and sweetcorn soup) and dried pasta.   I had bought some spring onions on Tuesday so I used those as the recipe suggested, although I'm sure a small ordinary onion would have sufficed.  It all looks quite tasty in the dish but the proof of the pudding etc etc.  If it is OK then I've got enough ingredients to make another lot next week - which will put off having to venture out into the snowy wilderness for another day.   If it's totally rank we'll still have to eat it up as I don't like wasting food at the best of times and this is definitely not the best of times weather- and grocery shopping-wise.

What's Hot, What's Not

I've been seeing a lot of 'What's Hot, What's Not' around in the blogosphere lately so thought I'd give it a go today.

What's Hot -

Finding my extremely ancient jumper still fits, and is wonderfully warm and snuggly.  I've had the jumper for 15 years plus and my Mum knitted it for my sister before that, so goodness knows how old it is.  I've no idea what the yarn is either - could be wool, could be manmade, could be a wool / manmade mix.  It's no great thing of beauty and I wouldn't wear it outside the house (especially as it has gone into hole under the arms!!) but I sure am enjoying it's all-enveloping warmth at the moment.

Likewise, digging out a hat my Mum knitted for herself, didn't like, partially unpicked, gave to me to reuse the wool, and then finding that I have just enough yarn to sew up the unpicked bits and that the hat fits great, is fantastically warm, and has ear flaps.  I know what I'll be wearing next time I venture out.

The snow.  Here in Essex we've had a lot less than other places, although it is really coming down strongly now.  I don't really like bitterly cold weather but there is always something quite exciting about snow - I think it's the way the light is so different to normal - sort of ethereal and glowing.

Knowing I've got enough food in the house to last us for a week.  If this weather keeps up - and the forecasters can see no end in sight - at least we're good for the next seven days.  After that we probably wouldn't starve but there may be some very odd combinations of food occuring.

What's Not -

Weather forecasters and news presenters talking about the depth of snow in centimetres.  Why do they do that?  As far as I know the EU decided that the UK could keep it's imperial measurements - thank goodness we still travel in miles and not kilometres and in the greengrocers and the butchers you can still ask for a pound of this or half a pound of that (just as well as I'd have no idea what 250g or 500g really looked like!), so why do the BBC have to keep wittering on about 30cm of lying snow and a further 10cm expected etc etc.  I have to keep trying to work it out to know what on earth they're talking about.  There was a classic case of metric / imperial confusion on Breakfast News this morning when the presenter confidently predicted 15 inches of snow were due and the weather girl had to reassure viewers it would be 15cm instead.  That would be quite some difference in snowfall.

My poor Mum who is stuck with only one pint of fresh milk in the house as the milkman was unable to make his delivery this morning and she is unable to get out.  Luckily, she has quite a lot of milk powder in the house but that stuff is really no substitute for fresh milk.  She's keeping everything crossed that Sainsbury's will be delivering her internet order tomorrow but it's not looking too promising at the moment.

The snow.  It's really chucking it down here now and I'm a bit worried about how P will fare getting home from work this evening.

Predicted minus 8 overnight temperatures - brrr!!!

Hamster Kaufen*

With dire 'extreme weather event' snow forecast and not much food in the house - the result of being away from home for two weeks and being ill the week before that - I'm sorry to say that this morning I succumbed to a little panic buying / stock piling / hamster kaufen. 

I called in at the butchers and the health food shop but my main shop was in Aldi where I had a trolley-ful of vegetables (the really heavy devils like potatoes, carrots, swede and onions), fresh fruit, tinned and packet goods that will be very useful at some point it the future (my stocks of tinned goods had gone right down and that's not good when you don't have a freezer), milk, cheese, eggs, bacon, shower gel (for P, not me, I'm still working my way through the summer car boot sale haul of toiletries), loo roll (fairly essential if we get the foot or so of snow that's forecast) yada, yada, yada - I'm sure you get the picture.  That little lot came to £54.00, which is a lot for me to spend in one go but was not bad considering just how much food was in the trolley. 

I knew I'd never be able to get it all home in the faithful shopping trolley so I splashed out and had a taxi. It only cost £3.00 and as I had six really heavy shopping bags I consider that bloomin' good value.  I wouldn't make a habit of it but it was so nice to be able to buy whatever was needed and not have to worry about how I was going to lug it all home.  Now I'm just waiting for the predicted snow to arrive.

*Hamster Kaufen (Hamster Shopping) is what P - a native German speaker - calls stockpiling / panic buying.  If you've ever had a hamster as a pet you'll understand how that expression came about.

And So, Of Course, Money Was Spent

Mum and I went to a new out-of-town shopping place which has sprung up near where she lives.  Neither of us had ever been there before and we both wanted to see exactly what was there.  We weren't disappointed as along with a large Marks and Spencer there was a Next, a New Look, a huge Boots, an Evans and various other large high street retailers. 

I well remember when the whole area - mega 24-hour Asda, massive housing estate, ring road et al - were just fields and lanes, and on spring evenings, when we used to come back on the bus from visiting my grandparents, we'd see rabbits gamboling in those fields.  Oh well, times change and I am nearly half a century old now!!!!

Anyway, I digress, we had a lovely time spending a bit of money and we both got some good bargains in the sales.  I got a summer top in New Look for £3.00 (cheaper than many charity shops) which had originally been £14.00, and a supima cotton fitted double sheet in M&S for £5.00 (reduced from £19.50.)  Mum bought herself some lovely casual trousers reduced to £10.00, a really warm  hooded fleece jacket for my nephew which was £9.00 reduced from £22.00 and, also for the nephew, a pair of pyjamas reduced from £14.00 to £3.00.

It was great to get out and about on such a lovely sunny, if chilly, morning - and to grab some bargains as well - although, secretly, I still wish that area was just fields and lanes like I remember.

Roadkill and Other Monies

Thank you so much for all your kind New Year wishes, I've 'met' some lovely people via this blog and hope you all have a truly wonderful 2010 too.

I thought I'd give a quick update on the roadkill money total for 2009.  It really didn't amount to much over the past 12 months - 14p to be exact - and most of that (10p) was picked up in the last couple of months.  I'll still keep picking up any dropped money I find (naturellement) but somehow don't think I'll ever reach the dizzy heights of Kath Kelly in her brilliant book 'How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day'  and pick up £120 or so from roadkill money in twelve months.

If the roadkill money didn't amount to much, I did make a fair bit by doing online surveys on Valued Opinions.  I think my overall total for the year amounted to about £50, most of which I took in Amazon vouchers in the run-up to Christmas so that I could buy Christmas presents with them.  I really enjoyed doing most of the surverys, they didn't really take up much time at all, and the overall payment really helped keep the cost of Christmas down.  I'll certainly be doing more this year too.

Also quite a nice little earner - if a bit slower to pay out - is completing government surveys via You Gov.  I do enjoy giving my opinion on the state of the economy, or what my thoughts on Gordon Brown, David Cameron et al are - very cathartic - and the £23.50 I've already amassed in my account is not bad either.  Sadly, they only pay out (via cheque) once your account reaches £50.  I'm hoping these surveys will be coming thick and fast in the run-up to the next general election.   Not that I'll be looking forward to the no-doubt resultant change in government but, hey, can they really make a bigger hash of it than this lot have?