Simplify It 2013 - the Final Stretch

Well I have rather taken my eye off the ball with this one, haven't I. Rest assured that behind the scenes the decluttering has been continuing apace - I'm pretty much there with my "365 Items OUT" challenge now, and the toiletries challenge is still going strong as well.

I've decided that for the final stretch of the year I'll concentrate on streamlining our food cupboards - using up those oddments of "stuff" from larder, cupboards and freezer that have probably been lurking around rather too long, and creating additional storage space for the large quantity of preserves etc we've made from foraged items this Autumn.

An Autumnal carpet in Harlow

Meal planning will play a big part in this - and I'm declaring the next week "Freezer week" to see what I can use up. (This post is being written on Friday afternoon so the meal-plan starts from then) Items marked * are coming from the freezer:

Friday: Square sausage*, egg & chips
Saturday : Lunch - soup & roll, Tea: Cheese & crackers
Sunday: Lunch (out) Rolls, crisps, flapjacks, Tea: Tartiflette
Monday: Ham* & mushroom pasta (cheats carbonara)
Tuesday: Pork* stir fry & Noodles
Wednesday : Lamb chops*, roasted squash & Red cabbage & apple*
Thursday: Sausages*, crushed tatties & sweetcorn* fritters
Friday: A decadent friday fry-up: Square sausage*, Stornoway black, white & fruit puddings*, egg, bacon, mushrooms, beans

The immediate aim is to clear enough space that freezer 2 can be switched off for defrosting - which it very much needs!

I've already been through both freezers - amalgamating the ends of a couple of bags of frozen veg, and working out exactly what we have that needs using. The larder will be the next to get this treatment with the focus firmly on the ends of bags of dried fruit, etc. I need to remember to incorporate stir fries into our menu regularly for a while too as we have lots of sachets of stir-fry sauce that were bought cheaply through our local "Approved Foods" style market stall.

This challenge will run through November and December and I will do a couple of updates on progress as it goes along, too. Hopefully some time around the end of November I'll be able to report defrosting happening!

I've also been asked for a recipe for my flapjacks - like a lot of my cooking they are a bit "make it up as you go along" but this rough recipe & method should see you right.

6 oz flour
6 oz porridge oats
3 oz Sugar - I use half soft brown and half demerera
6 oz fat - I use half stork & half butter
2 tbsp honey or golden syrup
The it gets random - couple of big handfuls of mixed dried fruit or sultanas (currants go too hard in the baking)
Big handful of mixed seeds - sunflower & linseed work well, and pumpkin seeds are excellent
Handful of chopped nuts - I used hazels and flaked almonds this time

Pop the fats & honey/syrup into a pan and set to melt together over a low-ish heat, mix the rest of the dry ingredients together in a bowl, pour the melted stuff into the dry and mix well until there are no floury bits left. Then press it all into a baking pan (lined with baking parchment - that's a lesson you learn after the first time!) - I use a square pan probably 8/10" in diameter - it needs pressing down quite firmly. Bake at about gas 5/6 (no idea what that is in electric!) for roughly 40 minutes - turning every 15 (unless you've got a posh fan oven of course ) - they should be lightly golden on top and smell gorgeous when they're done. Leave them to cool in the pan but divide them into squares as soon as they're out of the oven - that is ALSO a lesson you learn after the first time.... I cut mine into 12 usually.

Robyn

Simplify It 2013...

Well April's challenge for this "Attack the Unexpected Places" fell a bit flat - and instead our focus has largely  been on decluttering the freezers ready for our upcoming purchase of a whole lamb. We've done remarkably well on that front - at the time of writing Freezer 2 has been emptied and defrosted, and freezer 1 has been run down to about half full - the lamb arrives imminently! We started by working through the freezers and picking out things which needed using up sooner rather than later - the bag of leaf spinach which had been in there for ages - the texture's not great as a straight vegetable, frankly, so it had got left. A last piece of the fish bought yellow stickered a while back - abandoned due to not having enough other stuff to go with it to make a fish pie. A third of a bag of frozen prawns, and a very cheap pack of Pitta breads were among the finds. The spinach has been dealt with simply by adding it to other meals - so a beef curry - throw in some spinach. The fish pie that I did eventually cook to use up the fish and the prawns - yep, that had some spinach thrown in and a couple of hard boiled eggs quartered up too, to bulk it out still further. I made the sauce for that using a fish stock-pot stirred in as I added the milk too - to give a more fishy flavour allowing for the shortage of marine-dweller actually contained in it! The Pittas got used up for lunches - saving us money on making bread or rolls. Working to a meal plan has really helped as it's meant we've targetted the things that needed using first.

So, the question is, what next? Do I revisit clearing out places like the airing cupboard, storecupboard etc for my May challenge? Well, no - with our holiday rapidly looming, I'm going to make May's challenge mainly centred around that. So I will:

Toiletries - sort out as many sachets, samples and mini-bottles as I can to take and use up while we're away.
Clothes/packing - get everything which I intend to take with me sorted out and separated from the rest of my clothes to avoid those last minute "It's not clean!" panics
Memory cards - Clear down 2 memory cards of shots well in advance - I use my cards as backup so "good" shots remain on there, as well as being downloaded to the computer and (eventually) backed up to external drives.
Repair - anything that needs it - my Camera Bag could do with a couple of stitches - thanks to British Airways, and my older waterproof coat also needs a bit of velcro reattached and a pocket sewn up...I bet MrEH has socks that need darning, too!
Finances - Check through our holiday budget and ensure that enough money is available to cover what's needed
- Arrange to get our bagged change paid in to the building society then transferred to the Holiday account
- Avoid spending anything unnecessary between May 1st, and when we go (We've already started this one!)
Prepare - once I have got my Broadband Dongle back from the friend who borrowed it, I'll get credit loaded onto it ready to use while we're away for updating this 'ere blog
- work on one room at a time around EH Towers to get the place marvellously clean and tidy ready for both the cat-sitter (Well you don't think HRH roughs it in the cattery, do you now?!) AND for it to be a pleasure to come back to at the end of the holiday.

Frugal Friday

Frugal Living is becoming more and more popular as either belts have to be tightened to make ends meet as costs rise and pay stagnates, or as people see the advantages of cutting back on money spent unnecessarily to fund a better life further on. There's no need to feel deprived either - there are masses of blogs out there detailing different people's  takes on cutting down, and cutting back, and their reasons for doing so. One of my current favourites is Saving For Travel which details doing exactly what it says in the title. A refreshing take on the subject - this frugality is to feed a definite wanderlust, and it's great to see all the adventures they've got planned!

Trees...2007

An alternative take on "Frugal Living" is "Simple Living" - the same sort of idea, but with a definite "less is more" slant to it as well. Thinking about what you need, as opposed to what you want, is a great starting point. I try to at the very least acknowledge when something is a "want" rather than a "need", and it does make you look at your life differently.

There are all sorts of ways you can frugalise, or simplify your life:

- Cut down on consumption of electricity, gas, water. This can be as simple as turning lights off in rooms you are not in, or hunting down items which are on "standby" and turning them right off. it's cheaper to just put a mobile phone on to charge until the battery is full, and then take it off again, than to leave it on all night, for example. If using the oven put several things in at once. If just reheating something I usually use the Microwave/mini-oven on combination or convection rather than heating the big one. Turn the tap off when cleaning your teeth and if you have to run the water though to heat for face-washing anyway, use that run-through to rinse the brush. If you are on a water meter, and run a dehumidifier, then the water from that can be used for toilet flushing.

A good example of something best bought seasonally...

- When grocery shopping plan in advance what you are going to cook, and only buy what you need. Check the fridge before writing the meal plan and work out what you need to use up - then work those items in to the plan. It's often better to buy a smaller amount of better quality meat - maybe not organic unless you feel strongly on such things, but look for British, as this gives a higher quality of welfare as standard than meat imported from abroad. The red tractor mark is a good indicator. It's not all about the animals either - the meat will taste better (Yes, it does, really!) and there are stringent guidelines over here on such things as the use of antibiotics, too. The same with eggs - free range aren't that much more expensive now and you get a much nicer egg! You can also Bulk-Buy meat - buying a whole lamb, or half a pig, for example if you have the freezer space to do it - can really drive the cost per-kilo down.

- Frugal Fun - Something Saving For Travel has mentioned is choosing a town or village in your region that you've never been to before and simply going and exploring. Find out what exhibitions or museums there are, many of these have free admission, as do cathedrals and churches. Others simply ask for "A Donation" so you can choose for yourself what you can afford and think it was worth. How about walking a coastal or county path? We fancy The London LOOP and may well make a start on that this year. If you take with you a flask and packed lunch, then it can be done simply for the cost of the fuel to get to your starting point, and, if not doing an "out and back", the cost of travel back to the car. If you have membership to English Heritage, The National Trust or the RSPB, then make the most of them.

- Downshift - if shopping, buy Shops own brand instead of branded or premium, or "economy labels" instead of own brand, and see where you notice the difference. (We hold fast on branded coffee & loo rolls, but are quite happy to buy value fruit and veg, for example). Booking a weekend away? How about a B&B instead of a hotel, or camping rather than a B&B? Primark rather that M&S? Superdrug rather than Clinique? You get the idea....

'Tis the time of year for tulips...

- Clothing - Go through your wardrobe and clear out anything you don't like any more, or that REALLY doesn't fit. In a charity shop out there somewhere there is someone who will love your cast-offs and will really appreciate the opportunity to get a brand new (to them) outfit! If there are garments that you no longer wear currently, but aren't sure whether you may do in the future, fold them tidily and pop them into a box, seal it with tape and write the date on the lid. Write a reminder on your calendar for 3 months hence. If in that three months you've not thought or, or looked for, any of those garments, send the whole lot to the charity shop without even opening the box.

- Make small changes - if you buy a coffee every day on the way to work try making it just a friday treat instead. Likewise turn the weekly friday-night takeaway into a payday only treat, or knock them on the head altogether and perhaps go out for a meal once in a while instead - £15 per week on takeaways translates to £180 a quarter, or more than £700 per year - had you realised that? You can Downshift there, too - Chinese usually works out cheaper than Indian, and near us, good quality Fish & chips can be had for even less!

Who can resist colours like that?

- when booking travel, planning ahead is usually cheaper than doing things on the spur of the moment. Booking our train tickets ahead of travelling and then collecting from the station might only make a tiny saving each time, but I'd sooner that money was in my pocket than someone elses! Likewise if you're travelling any distance by train, it's worth working out when the really cheap advance tickets are released and trying to book then - we got MrEH from London to Doncaster for £9.35 last year like this, and then of course there was our sleeper tickets for our Orkney trip which was travel AND accommodation for a night, all in one, and cost us just £38 each...the full price standard tickets would have been over £100 each! Don't forget the bargain travel sites too, although for booking advance tickets well ahead the operators own sites often beat RedSpottedHanky. It's worth checking what fees they charge though - RSH charge none, and so can still be cheaper. If you're using the car, then plan to combine journeys where possible, or better still, think about whether you need to use it at all or whether in fact walking or cycling would be better for you, the environment AND your pocket! When buying petrol or diesel give thought not only to where is cheapest, but also to whether there is any particular supplier's fuel that your vehicle runs better on, than another. MrEH's car for example does less miles per gallon when using BP, than on Shell, or better still, Morrisons fuel. If you can combine cheap fuel (use www.petrolprices.com) with loyalty schemes to save you money on groceries of fuel further down the line then so much the better.

My "Simplify It" challenge is very much about making my life more streamlined and simple, and to that end I'm dividing it into sections to attach one at a time. Clothes, books, email inboxes, kitchen items, and even the food cupboards - nothing is going to be safe this year! I've already started looking at everything with a mental question-mark - do I need it? Do I use it? Do I have more than one item doing the same job? if the answer to these questions suggests that the thing in question is surplus to requirements then it's leaving my home, and my life! I've realised how much I like having spare space on bookshelves, in fact on ANY shelves! Books that I have had hanging around because I feel I "ought" to read them will be winging their way to the charity shop, and the sort of clutter good for nothing much more than gathering dust will be a thing of the past!

Robyn

Simplify It 2013 - Wardrobe overhaul...

As the weather forecast for Friday was mostly cold, damp and miserable, I decided it would be an ideal day to attack the next challenge on my Simplify It project - to start sorting out my wardrobe, drawers etc. Logic said that the drawers would be the simplest and easiest place to start, but logic and I are sometimes strangers, so I decided to start with the wardrobe itself, and the obvious starting point was to take everything out of it...

...It was at about this point that the whole idea started feeling utterly ludicrous, however, as it appeared that I had already reached a definite point of no-return, I soldiered on. The first job was to give the wardrobe itself a thorough clean out. We do sometimes have a problem with damp and mildew, and my hope is that by giving the whole thing a good swab out with a strong detergent/white vinegar solution, this might keep the nasties at bay for a while.  While I waited for it to dry I started sorting through things...found several pairs of pretty shoes/matching bags which have been to various people's weddings over the years, and a pair of pretty shoes and a tiara which went to our wedding, on the bride! I've kept my wedding dress, veil and all the other bits - those are sentimental items that I figure it IS OK to hang on to. The veil was also the "Something borrowed" for a friend a few years later, so lots of memories there. Those bits were all moved up to the storage at the top of the wardrobe, alongside the box that contains odd photos, the notes from various people's speeches, and all manner of other keepsakes from the day. As I found things that I felt I genuinely wouldn't wear, or use, again, they were put into bags for the Charity Shop, and where things were so well worn as to be no good even for that, piled into a black rubbish sack.

Years ago I bought the clear plastic shoe storage boxes you see above from Lakeland Limited, and they have been so useful! Aside from shoes I use them for all sorts of other oddments - smaller bags, evening bags, and hats, even. This time around I have also piled a load of scarves into one of them - handy to stop them falling all over the wardrobe and getting in a tangle. 

Because of the issues with the damp one aim was to try to make sure that things didn't get pushed right to the back of the shelves - and by using the extra space created in the top to hang things like jeans, and walking trousers (which have always previously been folded) this meant that the nightwear above is now just taking up space at the very front of those shelving sections. Some thermal "base layer" tops - for walking in cold weather - have also gone into another of the spare plastic boxes - I can see at a glance where they are and they should stay dry and fresh.

The bottom section of shelving is now completely empty, although my plan is that this will give me extra space for shoes as and when required.  there is also spare space available on the hanging rail should I need it - and the clothes that are hanging there currently are hanging freely, not squashed and getting crushed together. My one and only "posh frock" is also now hanging completely straight, rather than with the bottom folded over as it was before.

Everything remaining in the wardrobe gets worn - the things that were too small, not comfortable, not flattering etc were tried on to reassure myself the fact that this was the case, and have gone either straight to the Charity bags, or have been put out for washing ready to head that way later. Things are where I can find them, which was one of the main aims - far simpler to be able to go straight to my chosen shoes/bag/scarf than having to scrabble through the wardrobe for ten minutes first!

The next task will be - one by one - my drawers. Then it's on to replacements for items, some of which I have already noted as needed today:
Black work trousers
Boots - low heeled but smart, suitable to wear with jeans OR workwear
Shirts for Spring/Autumn workwear (will probably look at Charity Shops for these)
More items will be added to that list as I go along.

Robyn.

Simplify It 2013...

The next Challenge....Wardrobe overhauling!

I'm not massively interested in clothes, if I'm honest. Now I can imagine several fab stylish ladies of my acquaintance falling over backwards at that one, and I should point out that what I'm about to write is NOT directed at anybody in particular (in exactly the same way as the lovely Singlegirl wrote about Cleaning recently), but is something that I've been debating about writing for a while, based on my experiences as a whole...

I don't like the way that clothes are often used to define people - the way that so often people are judged by what they are wearing first and foremost, and that if you're not wearing the right thing then you'll never be one of the cool kids. Back at school in the 1980's the sportswear labels of Fila, Lacoste etc were all the rage, and if you didn't have something with one of those logos on you were effectively dismissed as a second class citizen. When you add to that the fact that I quite often wore hand-me-downs from a girl along the road - a girl who was extremely quick to loudly point out whenever I was wearing anything of "hers" - usually in words along the line of "Oh look, there's that skirt I threw out as it was past it!" - it's no massive surprise that I rapidly learned to see clothes as something to be used to make people miserable - a few years of bullying saw to that.

Don't get me wrong, if I see someone walking down the street looking a complete sight, (even I know that calf length skirts and ankle socks don't go!) and they don't have their entire life's possessions in carrier bags and a dog on a string, then (uncharitably, I know) I'll have a titter with the rest of them, but mostly I simply don't notice what people are wearing. If I have any distance to walk, you'll find me in walking boots or trainers, and if I have heavy stuff to carry then I'll have the lot in a rucksack, as it's just easier. My jeans and fitted tee-shirts (ALWAYS either a V or deep-scoop neck though - I did take some notice of what Trinny & Susannah told us!) are comfortable and suit my lifestyle, so for everyday I'm quite happy to wear them, and workwear is trousers with a smarter version of the same tops, or a shirt - I don't work in an environment where being dressed very fashionably or glamourously would be particularly appropriate - a lot of the people I see on a day-to-day basis have just suffered a bereavement or split with a spouse, so understated is the way to go. I'm as pleased as the next girl to find a fab pair of jeans but have never, in spite of years of searching, ever found a pair of heeled shoes or boots that I can walk any distance at all in. I have no idea what I'm "supposed" to wear a lot of the time.  I find people endlessly fascinating, but for the most part I'm more interested in what they have to offer conversationally, what we have in common, and whether we get on, than what shoes they are wearing or whether they could grace the cover of Vogue. It just doesn't bother me - if someone is dirty, or smelly, then I'll let them spend time with other people, thank you very much, but if they're wearing trainers, or last season's jacket, or the same top they had on last time I saw them, they're welcome to share tea & cake any day! I know from conversations with other girlfriends that I'm far from the only person who feels like this, so why are the pressures out there to conform with a certain way of dressing that is deemed to be what we should be aiming for, so great, leaving so many of us feeling as though we're "letting the side down" by dressing in a way we find comfortable, and that suits us?

Now as a result of all this, (and finally coming to the point!)  my wardrobe does seem to be cluttered with a mix of failed attempts at walkable footwear, garments bought in a wild effort at being "stylish" (because that's what we're all supposed to aspire to, isn't it?) and that are deeply uncomfortable as a result, and items that I don't actually fit into, but have kept because "I might one day". (I won't, obviously!). Oh, and scarves. I do love scarves, and gloves in fact, and I have an AWFUL LOT of both. If I say so myself I do have an eye for a lovely scarf. Maybe that is destined to my my only area of successful foraying into style?! Anyway, THAT is my next target for the "Simplify It" challenge - no, not to give myself a personality transplant and become one of those "Chic, Stylish, Glamourous" women (I wouldn't know where to start!), but more to sort out the clothes I do have, throw out or charitise anything that genuinely shouldn't be there either because it is past it, or because it doesn't fit, or that I hate wearing because it makes me self-conscious or uncomfortable. To overhaul my knicker drawer and replace anything that is showing its age, to lose socks with holes or those with no friends left in this life, and to replace items where needed. I even have plans for a remake on a dress that I rarely wear which may hopefully mean it will see the light of day more often! I also want to use the process to overhaul my own issues - to remind myself that if people want to look at my clothing and find me lacking then that's their problem, not mine. When I have done all this, then I hope to be left with a set of clothes that I feel comfortable in without (hopefully) looking like I need a dog on a string of my own. And you know what, once I've done it, if you're the person walking down the street behind me sniggering at my 'lack of style' - well I DON'T CARE - it suits me, and in any case, what makes you so certain that behind you, someone else isn't doing the same?

Robyn.

Frugal February....week 3

Firstly I'll say how lovely it's been over the past week to get all the extra visitors popping by from Rhonda's Blog Down To Earth - hopefully a few of you will decide to pull up a chair and stay!

This week's been quite interesting, not least beginning to really learn the value of quiet times in our own home, and how just small job like tidying a shelf that has been annoying us can make our enjoyment of that home all the greater. We had some more snow at the weekend, and also a meeting one evening with a group of neighbours who we intend to form a group with to fight against something occurring locally to us - I may well write more on that in the future but not quite yet. In several cases these were people who we live really close to and yet we've never had a conversation with before. It's nice to build some more local links.

Our Grocery shopping this week has cost me the cash total of £3.87 thanks to that £5 Morrisons voucher. I did change plans slightly - the milk was bought from Tesco as they are cheaper for the 4pt bottle I wanted. Mushrooms likewise came from Tesco - I needed them for cooking on Sunday and didn't shop until Monday - their Value ones are currently British so I was happy to buy them. I dropped the bread flour from the list as it's currently more expensive than I am willing to pay in Morrisons - I'll get it at Lidl (Thanks Scarlet for the suggestion) or failing that, Sainsburys. I added eggs to my list of purchases as they were on special offer and I will need them next week in any case, also a large pack of cream crackers - we're trying Morrisons own brand for a change - and a pack of dried stew & soup mix - the type that can just be thrown by the handful into dishes that are being slow-cooked. I also had a little nose around the various basic-brand items that Morrisons do with a view to buying those in the future. I already know that their "Savers" toasting teacakes are some of the nicest we've tried as I got a load yellow stickered the other week so we'll be buying those again - happy to pay the full price of 50p a pack, but if we can get them at 9p again then so much the better!

Personal spending is still low - Since the challenge has begun from the £60 I have withdrawn from the bank I have put aside £20 for Clarinet lessons, and just £8.55 has been spent elsewhere.  I currently have £22 in my purse - the other loose change has gone into savings as usual. We had a night in the pub with a pal on Friday - I bought a round of drinks but as we were all drinking beer it's far more pocket-friendly than wine, or spirits, and we elected to walk home rather than getting the bus. It was a fine dry night, if cold, and we felt that the walk would do us good. The just under four miles took us a little under an hour. In with the change I have received when I have spent I've been given 4 x £2 coins which have gone into my "Don't Know What For" Savings pot. A group of good friends and I have all elected to save our £2 coins through the year to see how many we end up with - after a shaky start when the country's entire supply of the wretched things seemed to be hiding out in Sheffield, they must have escaped and be making their way south again now I think! It'll be interesting to see how many we each end up with, although as someone who doesn't spend actual "cash" very much (a lot of our spending is done either via the Clubcard Plus, or on the Cashback card) I'm certainly not going to be counting out a fortune in December!

We've started to think along the lines of perhaps utilising the grocery money we are saving this month, and the freezer space we're gaining, by purchasing a whole lamb again. You might remember we did that once before, I blogged about it then. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, from stripping every scrap of meat that we could, from the bones, to choosing which bits to mince and which to dice, and then working out what recipes would best suit each cut...we kept a note of each meal we got from it, and astonished ourselves at the end how cheap the "per meal" price ended up. So far, after two weekly shops, we have spent just £17 of our £150 per month Clubcard Plus money, so it may well be that we decide to dedicate some of the savings to some Devon-reared happy meat freezer filling goodness!

Total spends to date are all on the "Simplify It 2013" page, and I am pleased to say I can declare a run of 5 consecutive "No Spend Days" from Sunday to yesterday, inclusive! Impressive, eh?! Shopping this week is Sainsburys, and I aim to get the best value I can possibly squeeze out of those £12.50 worth of Nectar points! And here's the shopping list...



Robyn

Frugal Friday

Growing up, one of my favourite TV shows was The Wombles - who were, as we now know, the earliest real exponents of the "Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle" Principles. "Making good use of the things that we find" is of course an excellent plan, but more important still is surely "Making good use of the things that we have".

Casting an eye around the flat, and with Frugal February being planned, I started thinking about the wealth of things that we have that we can indeed make excellent use of, in order to avoid needing to spend money on more.

Entertainment: I have a large pile of unread books. Some I got as presents at Christmas, others have been passed on to me after Mum has finished with them and still others have come from the windowsill in the common area outside our flats, where we all leave books we have finished with for others to take. Either way I have, I reckon, the best part of a years reading, if not more. No need to be buying more at the charity shop, then! We also have a reasonable number of DVD's of films we both enjoy and will be happy to watch again. We also have active RSPB & National Trust Memberships, giving us access to literaly hundreds of places across the country to spend an afternoon, a day,l or just a few hours, at minimal or no cost. We also have CD's, TV, the radio, and lots of board games.

Food: Our freezers, larder & storecupboard are well stocked with provisions and there should be no need to buy other than fresh food (Fruit, Veg & Dairy) through February. The Approved Food couscous mountain is still apparent, and there is rice & pasta aplenty. Bread flour too - this was bought in bulk on a "3 for 2" offer before Christmas, and enabling us to cut the cost of our home made bread even further the yeast was bought directly from the supplier, butter was made from that reduced price cream the other week, and other ingredients are also in stock. HRH The Cat will be in no danger of starving either - we spotted that the local pet superstore had a special offer on her food recently so she now has her own little stockpile!

Toiletries: An essential item this, at least in so far as the basics are concerned, and in practise most of us prefer that little bit extra. I'll confess happily enough that nice smellies are definitely a luxury I enjoy, although I use very few "top end" products these days, and those that I do are asked for as Christmas or birthday presents. I utilise Boots "Christmas Shopping evenings" to stock up on most of what I require for the year, meaning I buy what I would buy anyway, but get given additional reward card points as well just for spending on that specific day. This, combined with items received as gifts, means I am currently plentifully supplied with all the lotions, potions and more personal requirements I shall need for quite some time. In fact, I have committed already on my "Simplify It 2013" challenge that for the next year I will only buy toiletry items when I have actually run out of an item and have no more in stock.

 The National Trust's Oxburgh Hall

Clothing & Footwear: I try to maintain a list of items that I could ideally do with buying if I see them at the right price. For main items of clothing I buy from Charity shops where I can - with a bit of careful searching it's possible to find almost unworn t-shirts for example, and I often manage to add to my vast and varied collection of scarves. Footwear and underwear I usually buy at sale times, or from outlet shops. For nightwear it's hard to beat good old Primark - I'd far rather buy cheap and replace when they get grotty! I'm also not afraid of a bit of repair work when required - I darn woollen socks which would be expensive to replace for example - usually using remnants of wool from other people's knitting projects - which means I have some surprisingly colourful socks! A while ago a friend was astonished to hear me mention repairing a pair of trousers that had gone through in the gusset - her reaction was surely I would just buy a new pair? To me this seems mad if the required repair is just a simple one! Later on in "Simplify It 2013" I'll be concentrating on sorting out my wardrobe.

Cars: MrEH's car "Bessie" is serviced annually, when she has her MoT test in March. This way we can be reasonably certain that things are in order before she goes through the test, and also keeping her servicing fairly close to the recommended mileage for her make & model. My Clio "Gracie" requires servicing at 12,000 mile intervals - and this means that her annual overhaul could get slightly later each year although in practise it is usually done just before we head off for our holiday as she does over 2,500 miles in a fortnight then so it's reassuring to know before setting off that everything has been given a clean bill of health. They are both diesels, and so should be capable of extremely high mileages - in fact Bess has already gone past 160k miles. Thanks to them being diesels we get quite high miles per gallon out of them too - Gracie averages close to 60 miles to the gallon, and Bessie just a little less. Most importantly is the fact that, even allowing for the running costs and diesel, having the cars actually saves us money as without them out annual commuting costs to and from work would be in the region of £7000!

Ourselves! : Legs to walk with, rather than using the car, and to walk for fun as well. Hands to cook from scratch rather than buying processed, pre-prepared rubbish. The skills to make meals from all sorts of oddments from the freezers, larder, fridge and storecupboards, in a sort of mad "Ready Steady Cook" inspired way. The ability to be content with having quiet time, as well as going out and "doing things". A Blog to rant on when things prove a bit tricky, or, the alternative, to sing and shout on when things go swimmingly well!

The next "Frugal Friday" post will be the first of "Frugal February" so I'll be summarising how we intend doing things for week one.

Robyn.

Simplify It...2013 - January

You might well have noticed the new page which has appeared on here - this relates to my year long "Simplify It!" challenge - to work on the simple-living ethos all the more and generally improve our lives.

Challenge 1 is to "Streamline the Stuff" and part of this has been "Project spare room" - living in a two bedroom flat, with only myself, MrEH, and HRH The Cat, the spare room is not only a guest-room, but also office, storage space, and all too often, general dumping ground for all manner of things which we aren't quite sure what to do with. Increasingly I was finding that just walking into the room was making me feel a bit sad - we only decorated it about 18 months ago and when it was first done walking in there made my heart lift - compared to how it looked before it was a joy to see the lovely fresh paint, pretty bedding etc. When it's cluttered though, I don't get that feeling, and I wanted it back.

The first task was to tackle the large cupboard built in to one side of the room - this gets used for kitchen equipment (the perils of having a tiny kitchen with barely any cupboard space), camping gear, and DIY equipment mainly. We decided that at the moment, the DIY stuff should be left alone, but everything else was fair game! I cleared the shelves one at a time and with each item we assessed when it was last used, and if that was not regularly, what the value was in keeping it. If we decided that the item was better got rid of, then it went either into a charity shop bag, or to the rubbish, and if we wanted to keep it, we considered whether there was anywhere better to store it than in the cupboard. This was then repeated with the bits stored on the floor of the cupboard too, before finally putting everything back.  The same procedure was followed with the 4 large open shelves, and then the drawers under the bed - and at each step we decided how the space was best used, and adjusted/moved things around accordingly. Empty boxes from electrical items such as cameras etc - which we like to keep as if you come to sell an item on, having the box both increases the value and makes it simpler to package for posting - are ideally suited to the under-bed drawers as they are usually light in weight, but can be quite bulky to store, so it makes sense to put them somewhere with a fair amount of space, but which won't take anything heavy. Similarly kitchen equipment which might get used fairly regularly is best left out on the open shelves as it's easier to access them from there. The "loft" was the next step - yes, we do live in a flat, and a ground floor one at that, but there is a large, deep, high cupboard in the spare room which is cavernous enough to qualify for the title! By using the same process as before, enough space was cleared in there to leave us scratching our heads and wondering how on earth we were going to fill it up again! We managed, of course, but someone please remind me that among other things up there is a large pack of toilet rolls, when I'm scratching my head in a few months and wondering how on earth we went through THAT many rolls of it, so fast! Finally "attacked" were the two low bookcases which line one wall - on the fact of it just a small area but their flat tops attract all manner of odds and ends - and consequently this clutter means they rarely get cleared for dusting!  Books are important to both of us, too, and so going through them always takes time - to discuss, to decide whether we can actually bear to part with, or whether the fact that we haven't read something in ages means that it would be better released to a move attentive home.

Tidy Bookcase

As each area has been cleared, then it has been wiped down with a damp cloth to remove any dust and then dried. We have also vacuumed regularly as we have been going along as this level of reorganisation stirs up so much dust! We have taken 4 black bin sacks full of rubbish outside to the bins, plus further items which weren't suitable for being bagged up - boxes of old magazines, the broken printer etc, and 6 large carrier bags/storage bags have gone to the charity shop. We have also rehomed things to other people, via FreeCycle, and even to the office I work in! The shelves and bookcases are now organised, tidy, and we can easily lay hands on what we are searching for on them, and concussion is less likely when opening the doors to the cupboard or the loft! Above all though the room has regained its sense of space, and seems larger, and lighter, again. It is simpler to move around, to use the room as it suits us to use it, and above all to accommodate someone staying with us!

All looking organised...

A tidy desk...

No, I don't iron bedding...

Challenge 2 will be "Frugal February", which will be an attack on our finances, more than anything - as we will be seeking to spend as little as possible, make use of the resources that we have for meals, entertainment etc, and to end the month with fuller bank accounts and emptier freezers! See this week's Frugal Friday post in due course for further information on this one.

Robyn.