Less than 12 things in 11 clothing challenge update

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 2 March 2011 in anti-consumerism, less than 12 clothes challenge | 5 comments

Since we’re through two months of 2011 now, I thought it would be a good time to have a quick update on how everyone is doing in the “buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011” challenge. Seems like everyone I’ve heard from is doing pretty well!

• Taphophile has blogged about her progress – she bought two things in January but nothing in February – and is gearing up to sewing stuff in March.
• LynS has also blogged about her progress – she’s bought nothing this month after one thing in January.
• Digitigrade says “[I’m doing] Very well! Haven’t bought a single thing :) Can’t bloody afford to anyway!!”
• AuntyRubbish is on target too: “[I’ve been] really good! Bought one thing a month, after lots of thinking first.”
• Jan is on target too – she bought two jackets to layer to replace an old barbour jacket – and found some bargain underwear too (the latter is on our exceptions list).
• SBlove_crafts is on the “bought nothing yet” bandwagon – well, not quite bought nothing: “Have bought patterns and fabric to make my own instead :)”
• Maria hasn’t bought anything “other than a pack of underwear” and two shirts at Goodwill – the latter for an unusual reason — a pirate themed fancy dress party!
• bookstorebabe wasn’t necessarily sticking to the “12 in 11” rule but vowed to be more conscious of her buying and after a big clearout, she knows what she’s got in her wardrobe so “at least I’ll be just buying only what I need. And being mindful of what I buy. I have fewer clothes, but have nicer things to wear-really, I don’t have to keep every worn out thing to ‘wear around the house’. More room in the closet. A less daunting pile of laundry, hurray!”
• Su, who is doing a World War 2-style coupon challenge instead of 12 items, says she’s spent “£10 & 10 coupons” this month on yarn to make a cardigan/shrug and slippers.
• And finally me – as I said in my end of Feb review, I’ve not bought anything so far this year – either from my quota or from my exceptions list – so it’s going well but I think I can feel the “I’m bored with my stuff” cravings setting in so March might not be quite as thrifty…
• UPDATE: Oops, I read Colleen’s update then forgot to include it: she’s in the bought-nothing-yet club too – even though an evil gremlin is destroying her t-shirt collection…

If you’re also doing the challenge, how is it going for you? And any late entrants to join in the fun?

Second hand kitchenalia

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 1 March 2011 in charity shopping, frugal | 7 comments

Piper, who writes about The Frugal Life on MSN, has asked: Would you fit your kitchen out in second hand items or do you insist on brand new?. I started to reply on Twitter but quickly ran out of characters!

We joke that our house is “the house that eBay” built after my numerous purchases on the auction site in the months after we bought our new house – and the kitchen was one of the main recipients of that. We replaced the very dated, dark green hob & plastic sink with eBay specials – less than £20 each for a very good quality stainless steel Smeg hob (and collected from less than a mile away!), and a white ceramic farmhouse sink with taps & waste — they really transformed the kitchen, making it a lot brighter & easier to use/clean. I’m currently looking out for a new oven (since ours is old and playing up) – and that’ll be a used but in good condition one from eBay too.

The kitchen itself was installed by the house’s previous owners in the early-mid 1990s – it’s a bit dated/not our style and also the cupboards in the small extension don’t match the rest – but it’s fine. We might replace the cupboard doors at some point – but I imagine that’ll only happen if a perfect set comes up on eBay/Freecycle or is heavily, heavily reduced at a shop (such as ex-display). The previous owners also left their fridge, freezer, microwave & dishwasher – we’re going to swap out the separate fridge & freezer with our old stacked one when our coal hole is finally turned into a utility room, but that old one was also secondhand — a freebie from a relative upgrading their kitchen.

Most of our crockery is a retro set my mum & dad used when I was little – we got what remained of a dinner & coffee set off them a couple of years ago and have been adding to it from charity shop finds ever since. The best charity shop find was a complete dinner set in the same design but a different base colour (cream instead of mustard yellow) – for £3. Other random plates & bowls were charity shop finds including the most chintzy plate I’ve ever seen, which John hates but I think is perfect for cakes.

Our most commonly used pans were a cheap set my brother bought to take to university in 1995 – he returned from uni with them and I took them when I moved out of home in 1998 and have been using them ever since. Similarly, we’ve got a small casserole dish that was given to my mum and dad as a wedding present when they married in 1974 (retro chic a go go!).

We have two sets of scales – both from charity shops. Our pots for wooden spoons etc are old school lidless crock pots – 40? 50 years old?. Our two small teapots are a hand-me-down and a charity shop find respectively. Our cereal bowls are little Chinese soup bowls from someone emptying out a store at a restaurant. Our blender & pasta maker & blender were both unwanted re-gifts. Our fruit bowl came from a charity shop. Our former egg storage chicken was a charity shop purchase too – but she’s just too small for our egg collection these days!

So would I fit out our kitchen out in second hand items? umm, yes!

February – end of month review

Posted by louisa on Monday 28 February 2011 in chickens, frugal, goals, growing, less than 12 clothes challenge, making, meta | 9 comments

February seems to have flown by and has been a lot of fun — a good balance between work, household/growing/making productivity, crafting, and future planning.

Goals in 2011 progress

I’ve started making progress on some of the more long term goals – started sowing seeds which will hopefully turn into homegrown veg and again, I’ve made things with wood which will help with my “make a piece of furniture” goal. I haven’t baked each week but I’ve tried a few new recipes – including some lovely cinnamon biscotti – so at least I’m doing bits. (We’ve not been baking much bread recently because it’s still a bit too cold for yeast to rise properly.)

From my secondary list, I’ve also tried making soap, although I’m not sure it’s been a success yet (the soap in the moulds is still very soft). I also made a notebook (above) from scrap paper and a curtain sample, which wasn’t on my list but I had so much fun doing it that I think “learn different book binding techniques” should be on there now! Finally, we’ve been working to reduce our food waste (and save money/our sanity) by preparing meal plans – we’re not sticking to them 100% but they’re working well in general.

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

In my no more than 12 items of clothes in 2011 challenge, my tally is still zero — I’ve not bought anything this month either. I have though started looking at stuff rather than just shutting myself off from the possibilities – partly because I need to develop willpower rather than just avoiding temptation and partly because I feel like it’s time I had something new to wear (I’ve not bought any clothes since November – and that was only replacement jeans). It’s when I’m getting ready to go to drama – the classes I teach or rehearsals etc – because my suitable clothes are such a subset of my wardrobe — they not only have to be neat enough to wear outside the house, they can’t be too cleavage-y (which is a problem with a lot of my clothes because my body is too cleavage-y!) and they have to be suitable for wearing as a supposedly-responsible adult in front of teenagers. I have plenty of plain t-shirts to wear but a limited amount of warm clothes so I’ve been getting a bit bored – and as we’re preparing for a production at the start of April, I’ll be there a lot more regularly which will mean cycling through them more. So long story short, I might break into my quota in March.

Growing stuff & the chickens

This week’s meal plan – it’s a curry-centric one! ;)

Posted by louisa on Sunday 27 February 2011 in cooking, frugal, weekly meal plans | 5 comments

We didn’t do great with our meal plan last week – I think the novelty of having one has started to wane but we’re keen to turn it into a habit so we’re going to keep trying with it. Actually, looking at it again, we did have most of the meals we’d planned, just not in the right order. And the one meal we didn’t have – Spanish omelette – didn’t result in anything being wasted – we had to go to the supermarket to buy potatoes and ended up getting something else instead. Anyway, onward and upward:

Sunday night – meal out – curry, woo! (we’re leaving very soon so double woo! ;) )

Monday lunch – soup & bread
Monday dinner – chicken & red pepper risotto with salad

Tuesday lunch – curried egg mayo sandwiches
Tuesday dinner – jacket potato & tuna with salad

Wednesday lunch – falafel in pitta with salad & raita
Wednesday dinner – keema & channa achar (a lamb mince & chickpea curry)

Thursday lunch – pitta with meat/cheese
Thursday dinner – smoked mackerel kedgeree

Friday lunch – bread & meat/cheese
Friday dinner – frittata

Ten things to do while waiting forever for soap to trace

Posted by louisa on Friday 25 February 2011 in frugal, making, soap | 6 comments

1. Stare blankly out of the window (I did this a lot).

2. Gyrate your hips at the same speed/direction as the whisk for a lower back workout. (Warning: if you do this for a few minutes, it feels really weird when you stop .)

3. Wonder if that itch on your cheek is just an itch or a splash of caustic soap which will burn your entire face off. Itch or disfiguring splash? ITCH OR DISFIGURING FACE BURNING SPLASH?!! Oh, itch.

4. Look up “mixture not tracing” in the troubleshooting section of your soap making book and in a spate of paranoia, decide it’s all those problems together, even the ones that directly contradict each other and also worry that even though the itch on your cheek has stopped, perhaps it’s slowly melting YOUR ENTIRE SKULL.

5. Grow concerned for your mental state.

6. Have a cup of tea to calm down.

7. Think it’s finally tracing because it’s getting harder to stir, then realise no, it’s not tracing, it’s just your arm is getting really, really tired.

8. Wonder if it’ll ever trace. Ever, ever, ever.

9. Decide this is boring and a ballache and should never be attempted again.

10. Decide that once it’s reached trace and is poured into molds to take the dog for a walk and while you’re out go to Netto to buy more oil so you can started another batch this afternoon (I like grinding new skills – ie trying them multiple times in quick succession).

It’s been a long day.