August Frugaleers Part II

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

Thought I would start a new one since the old one is full!

Where has the summer gone?
We've managed to avoid the rain so far in East Anglia but it's decidedly gloomy today.

Hello all! Been reading along for far too long now without posting thought it was time..I am in awe of you all. I'm married and we have two young DC. I am an old hat to frugality and tightwad ways thanks to being raised by clever frugal parents. Anyway at the min we don't need to be frugal as such but I certainly want to be more sensible with money in order to achieve some different saving goals.

Today should be a low spend day- wi be going to the shop for bread and a bit of fruit. All the fruit I bought at lidl this week went mouldy within a couple of days- not impressed.

Yes it's been miserable weather here too. I don't really mind too much myself though as I hate it when it's really hot.

Welcome catlass :)

Has anyone had experience of insulating window film? I've been looking at it on Amazon but there are a lot of negative as well as a lot of positive reviews.

Also we have windows with loads of panes like the picture - would we cut millions of tiny pieces of film or apply the film over the top?

Yes we've used it and it did reduce our heating bill. It wasn't kind to the inside of our window frames though - they were wooden so it peeled the paint etc when we took them off. Other disadvantages being that we couldn't open the windows at all (I guess that depends how you apply it though, which would itself depend on where the catches were?) and that obviously it looks rather unsightly.

BUT it did certainly help in the couple of winters before our LLs replaced the windows with decent double glazing. So worth considering definitely, as it's a small price to pay for possibly big savings.

Hi Catlass. Same for us, we have a good income, but a lot of outgoings too. Not that I am saying that's not our choice, it is, but being frugal helps things stretch

Hi Catless, welcome . This thread is great, you'll get loads of frugality tips.

Does anyone have an easy bread making recipe ? I have a bread maker but my loaves never turn out right. Am thinking if I can manually make a loaf with a foolproof recipe I'll have more success.

Welcome catlass.
Peppa what sort of bread machine do you have? I just stuck a ciabatta in mine on the Italian setting:
1 tsp dried yeast
500g white bread flour
Tsp each salt and sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
310 mls water.

It will be the wrong shape for ciabatta but makes the best toast ever!
Feeling very proud of myself this morning as some clever combining of vouchers and offers meant I spent £33 for over £50 worth of stuff in Waitrose.
Also started my frugal/eco cleaning yesterday - I did the hob with hot soapy water and it looks amazing!

It's a Kenwood Pointless that can make a reasonably large loaf. Lots of different settings but tbh I only use it for standard white. It just never seems to rise properly and is always a bit damp no matter how I tweak the ingredients

Morning all, aiming for a NSD today. Not going out so that should help!

Got some friends coming over in a bit so going to make a cake to feed them

What happened to the August heatwave?? Tis grey and cloudy here today.

We've got torrential rain and thunder. BUT after spending over £250 (most has been refunded!) and driving 50 miles today we finally have school shoes! £42 school shoes £12 tesco (my sister and bil are coming over for pizza tomorrow).

peppa do you take it out of the machine as soon as it's done? If you leave it in the condensation can make it like that. Also how old is your yeast? It does lose it's effectiveness. We buy the sachets and make 2-3 loaves per week so we use it when it's pretty fresh but I think if you don't make bread very often it might not work as well.

I'm secretly hoping the power goes out later so I don't have to cook but that's not very frugal!

I'm smack bang in the middle of the two points that say 'South Downs national park' and 'Surrey hills area of outstanding natural beauty' I'm thinking it's just going to go past us?

Oooh big storm?? How exciting ??

Pointless, do you have a recipe for a white loaf in bread machine?

collie, I have a small rechargeable GTech Hoover, it's great. I think it was £40 or so.

If anyone would like to negotiate changing Christmas present expectations with relatives or friends, it's probably the time of year to do it - one of my relatives did this last year (presents for children only at Christmas), and it's saved everyone some £ / time / stress.

I also like asking for presents that I'll definitely use and appreciate, which contributes to frugaleering overall.

peppa for a normal white loaf I would use 1tsp yeast, 450g flour, tsp each salt and sugar, 25g butter and about 320-340 mls water. The amount of water needed (or kneaded - ha!) in bread varies a bit depending on the quality of the flour. If in doubt I'd err on the side of slightly too much. Wholemeal flour needs quite a bit more water.
If your machine has a quick setting you need to increase the yeast and sugar by about a quarter of a teaspoon each.
Those quantities are for a medium loaf in our Panasonic machine.
There's an excellent book called the bread machine bible, I don't have it but I borrow it from the library every so often.

Wet and already dark here too :-(
I also have a Panasonic breadmaker but I usually only use it on dough settings and then transfer the dough into the tin, let it rise again and bake in the oven, since I don't like the hole from the paddle. Lately I have only been making tear and share bread by hand to go with pasta meals for kids because dh is on sw diet and can't have bread. I have tried the yeast from Aldi and it works just as well as the Allisons one or Howis one.
Frozen curtains are done, now I just need to make the other pair for older dd. Found 2 boxes full of curtains in the loft and they are all too small. Probably going to sell some and keep some for the material.

itsall I would LOVE to stop exchanging presents with my siblings and DH siblings - it's such a stress and I always end up with stuff I don't like or want and feeling so guilty for not loving it and secretly putting it in the charity shop. I might suggest it to them but j suspect an outcry especially from SIL who is very into presents and spends weeks planning things.

Aaargh, keep losing posts I've typed.

Basically I also find Xmas excruciating when buying presents for family. Some years ago all BiLs and SiLs agreed we do presents for each others DCs only (no presents for adults).

Both BiLs seem to have forgotten this and whilst I don't want to
Appear ungrateful it can be excruciatingly embarrassing when we have no present to return