The Really Good Life | Growing, Making & Doing in the UK

The financial pros and cons for building up a food store/pantry

Writing about my “I’ll keep a store cupboard in case zombies attack!” paranoia yesterday (ahem) reminded me that I wrote something for a personal finance website last year but for some reason, didn’t get around to sending it over. I’ve re-edited it to make it suitable for here/now but have kept it purely about the financial side of things. I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Over the last few years, we seem to be experiencing more and more cases of extreme weather and natural disasters. This year in the UK, we’ve had an unusually wet summer, leading to flooding, and elsewhere around the northern hemisphere, it’s been too hot, which has caused fires. There have also been unseasonal hurricanes/tornados, and while we’ve been comparatively lucky so far this year, 2011 was horrendous for other natural disasters such as the earthquakes in New Zealand and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. There’s no question that having a small supply for food and water is essential if bad weather is predicted and it’s important to maintain emergency supplies in case an unforeseen disaster strikes. But I’ve recently been considering the financial pros and cons of keeping a larger store pantry. Why it makes financial sense to keep a large food store at home Aside from the security of having emergency supplies when needed, the largest day-to-day benefits of maintaining a large store at home are the financial ones. Many people with large food stores grow and/or preserve a lot of their own food when it’s in season so have put-up supplies that are a lot cheaper than it would cost to buy them ready-made in the shops/out of season. Certain items (such as sacks of wheat berries, dried pulses or rice) can be bulk bought, resulting in a cheaper cost-per-serving, and in many places can also be bought direct from the producer or through a not-for-profit co-op, cutting the price even further. Having a well-stocked store and list of “store-cupboard recipes” should also reduce the amount of times/frequency with which you visit your local supermarket. When you shop your own pantry, you’re not going to get persuaded to part with a few pounds on unnecessary temptations and treats. Depending on how far you are from your local shops, that may also save a considerable amount of money in fuel/public transport costs too, as well as time. As well as saving money directly and indirectly in the first place, a large pantry is also essentially a saving scheme. In the UK interest rates on savings accounts are considerably lower than the rate of inflation so our bank savings are actually shrinking in real terms while food prices are rising. Items bulk-bought...

How I lead a green and frugal life by Lily-dog

It’s two years to the day since we brought Lily-dog home so I asked her to put some words together about how she leads a simple, green & frugal life with us. Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Sorry, got a bit overexcited there, I do like meeting new people. Would you like me to bring you a shoe? Because I can go and get one if you like? Here! Here’s a shoe. I hope you like it. It’s my shoe. Don’t try to take my shoe! I like shoes! Ok, ok, I’ll put the shoe down and start telling you what you want to hear. I’m not quite sure what the female feedy-huggy one has asked of me because I am a dog but I’ll try my best and will try very hard not to randomly woof. Although I am told I enunciate my woof splendidly, with a proper “wuh” at the beginning and everything. Wuh-oof. So, yes, I have lived here for two years now and I think I lead a pretty green & frugal life. Well, a white-and-brown frugal life. I grow my own fur so I don’t need clothes – 12 items in ’11? Pff! I had less that 12 items of clothing in 11 years! – and my fur can be composted when I don’t need it any more. I am also more than happy to snuggle underneath a duvet or a blanket too for extra warmth, no need for gas-guzzling central heating. I do not – NOT!NOT!NOT! – like going in the car because they are expensive and noisy and sometimes involve journeys to the vets which are expensive, noisy and sometimes involve injections. If I had my way the tail-less ones would get rid of the car and we’d just walk everywhere we needed to go. Because the only place we need to go is the woods, right? Definitely NOT the vets, just the woods. I like the woods. They are at the bottom of my garden. Walking in the woods is my favourite hobby and it makes me happy that we go there every day. If I wasn’t such a scaredy dog, I’d probably run around the woods on my own all day, making sure I’m instantly aware of any changes in smells and to check that those squirrels aren’t up to anything. Those squirrels are always up to something. That’s why they need barking at. “What are you up to, squirrels?” I say with one single well-enunciated woof. They know I’m onto them, that’s why they run. I like eating things I find in the woods. Once I found a tuna sandwich. That was a good day. I carried it for...

Washing in winter: ideas for reducing laundry?

Hi guys, sorry for the radio silence for the last few days – I went on a drama training course on Tuesday and have only just recovered ;) It was a lot of fun and very useful but I’m farrrrr too lazy for what was essentially a five hour exercise class. My neck is sore and I’ve a huge bruise on my knee from stage combat training but on the other hand, pretending to beat up a new colleague for 2.5hrs is a really good bonding experience :) ANYWAY, back to reality now. Lazy, lazy reality. I do like being lazy in winter because it can actually be an efficient/frugal way to do things: yesterday, John was out of the house all day so me & my aching body worked from bed until I had to go to out myself – no need for heating. And as I’ve said before when talking about linedrying laundry in winter, some things just get left until spring: throws/blankets get taken out of service, occasional wear that I won’t need for another few months can stay in the washing basket, and bedding etc gets left in the washing basket too until a nice drying-outside day, even if that’s another month (or longer) away. Lazy is good. But I wondered what other strategies people use for reducing the amount of laundry they have to get through in winter. Aside from burst washing machine pipe incidents, the washing isn’t the hard part but the line drying is, particularly if you’re tight on space at home. I remember looking into the issue of laundry a year or so ago and being shocked how much people wash clothes – a whole outfit in the wash every day – some people wash bedsheets & tumble dry every day. I mean, gosh! Around here, underwear gets changed every day, t-shirts every other day, jeans & jumpers not so much. They get washed when they’re dirty, which isn’t after one day for us desk jockeys. I also have different sets of clothes for different jobs – for example, my scruffs (for gardening/chicken coop cleaning/DIY) have a much higher dirtiness threshold than the nicer clothes I wear when I’m teaching. How about you? Do you try to minimise the amount of washing you do in the winter (or all year around)? If so, what tactics do you use? If you don’t – how do you keep on top of it all in the cold days of...

Book Review: Stitch Step by Step by Maggi Gordon and Ellie Vance

It was a moment of serendipity when I spotted this book, Stitch Step by Step by Maggi Gordon and Ellie Vance, on the “new additions” shelf at the library back in September – I didn’t know it but I was about to get poorly sick — not ill enough to just collapse in a heap but not well enough to, you know, move. I suddenly found myself with a lot of sewing playtime! The design of the book grabbed me from the outset: the pretty blue/dotty cover; the clear, well laid out tutorial pages; and the stitch galleries, oh my, the stitch galleries. I think it’s worth noting that I’m quite new to embroidery. I’ve cross-stitched for a few years now but I’ve not spent a lot of time looking into the different stitches available when you break away from the cross (or fractions of it) and backstitches. The stitch galleries in this book really opened my eyes to the different possibilities – I could suddenly see the appeal of making samplers! As this is nearly all counted-thread work, it didn’t seem a million miles from my cross-stitching and it gave me the confident to jump straight into some stitching myself. I’ll admit, I followed a handful of the tutorials because it was clear to see what to do from the stitch gallery pictures but those that I did follow were clear step-by-step guides as the title of the book suggests :) The pictures were crisp, with good fabric/thread contrast so it was easy to see what was going on. (The one I “chose” to take bad pictures of to illustrate this point is probably the least contrasting one but you can see the layout.) In addition to the colourful thread work, there were also sections on whitework – which was a new concept to me (the idea of using the stitches to open up holes in the fabric I mean, not just the white-on-white stitching), using beads & sequins and on designing as well as stitching Florentine/Bargello work. Purr. Me like! As with all tutorial books, they covered the basics as well – how to use embroidery hoops, useful tools, finishing and whatnot – which again, was useful for a newbie like me. Overall, I didn’t read this book cover-to-cover or feel like I wanted to try every different stitch/tutorial – but it’s not for that: it’s for providing inspiration and reference, and I think it does those things very well. I did have two minor problems with it though – both design issues. Firstly, I had the hardback version from the library. Apparently there is a paperback version available too — I think the hardback would be...

My ten favourite simple living/growing/cooking/making books

(Inspired by book-aholic buying behaviour this month, I’ve decided to have a bit of a book-themed week both here and on my recycling site, Recycle This.) Despite living on the internet & using it/blogs for most of my day-to-day info, I’ve got quite a few simple living related books and as you might expect, some are better than others. Some were chosen after careful research, others randomly picks from charity shops & the like – but as is often the case, there is little correlation between that and which are the better books! Here, in no particular order, are some of my favourites: The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour – this is a great overview book of so many different things. It’s admittedly more aspiration than practical for me at the moment – and because it covers so many different areas, it doesn’t feel like the most practical book anyway (it doesn’t have space to go into detailed how-tos/trouble-shooting on each different topic) but it’s still very useful. If I was fleeing to escape the zombie hordes*, this is probably the non-fiction book I’d grab. Growing The Vegetable & Herb Expert by DG Hessayon – my first veg growing book and the one I keep going back to over & over again. Not hugely detailed on each type & some bizarre comments about only eating chillis if they’re part of “your heritage”, but very clear, with lots of pictures (very useful when troubleshooting pests/diseases) and packed with useful info. Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom – this book is almost the opposite of the Hessayon – lots of detail but not anywhere near as easy to dip into and few illustrations. I like them together but would struggle with the Larkcom on its own. The Edible Container Garden: Fresh Food from Tiny Spaces by Michael Guerra – I was a little disappointed when I got this as it includes a lot of whitespace, big pretty rather than purposeful pictures and a lot of general overview text — but the 30 pages on “what shall I grow?” made the book worth it – very useful reference information about varieties, pot depths etc. I would recommend it to anyone who grows more than just the basic herbs in containers – but try to find a secondhand one so you don’t resent paying for the padding. Foraging Mushrooms by Roger Philips – not a field guide but a very comprehensive, very clear reference book for all sorts of fungi found in the British isles and thereabouts. No “if it’s got this shape cap, it’s this” identification charts but lots of very clear pictures once you have an idea...

The purse of faffiness

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 9 August 2011 in making | 1 comment

One of my August mini goals was to make myself a new purse. My old purse has been gradually falling to bits and been on my “replace imminently” list for at least a year – the fabric on the other one was see-through it was so threadbare.

I wouldn’t usually blog about such a simple make but I feel like I’ve sweated blood for this one so need to record its completion for posterity ;)

I don’t know why but it just wouldn’t come together. I tried handsewing it at the weekend using a pretty feature of original garment (a pyjama top) but that ended up super wonky so I decided to machine sew another attempt this afternoon – only to find that my replacement for the dog-chewed spool pin had gone missing. I turned the house upside down looking for that (and got somewhat distracted tidying/decluttering) then ordered a replacement for the replacement before realising the machine worked just about ok with the cotton on the bobbin-filling nub. So I cut out my fabric for the second attempt at the purse, only for it to be too small when sown together (I didn’t measure twice, cut once, tut tut tut). Then I couldn’t find the wonky one I made at the weekend (I needed the zip from that for the new one) so turned the house upside down a second time before pilfering one from something else instead. All in all, I’ve put a ridiculous amount of time/effort into making such a simple thing!

But it’s together now and I like it. Plus, it’s almost entirely made from recycled/reclaimed materials – the only new bit is the cotton thread. Now to catch-up on all the stuff I was supposed to be doing while I was faffing around with this…!

Alphabet in August – E to H

Posted by louisa on Monday 8 August 2011 in meta | 2 comments

This is a month-long creative exercise led by Chiot’s Run: descriptive words and pictures about me/my life starting with each letter of the alphabet. Most people are doing a letter a day but I’m doing it in groups instead ;)

Alphabet in August – A to D

(Natch.)

E is for …

Eclectic: I like (and do) a whole load of different stuff.
Elephant-memory: Although I usually don’t say I have “good memory” but a good retrieval system (I say my brain is like Google; John, who can’t ever remember anything, is like Lycos circa 1996. Both of us have the results but I can find them more efficiently.)
Envious: Not of diamonds and wealth, but of soil, growing conditions, seed selections… I can’t read growing or making blogs without wanting to do it myself too.
Euphemistic: My favourite Twitter hashtag is #notaeuphemism
Emoticon: I’m not a fan of fancy ones or multiple ones used in rapid succession (which my dad does, all the frickin’ time) but I use the basic smiley one a LOT – including every time I sign my name (electronically or on paper). It makes me smile whenever I type it. :)

(Food and [marrow flower] fritters – double whammy!)

F is for …

Fig and fennel seed soda bread recipe

Posted by louisa on Friday 5 August 2011 in cooking, Featured, recipes | 3 comments

A few weeks ago, I wanted a sweet treat but didn’t have enough butter in the house to make something cake-ish. After a bit of Googling around for inspiration, I came up with this sweet bread instead – and because it doesn’t use yeast and doesn’t need kneading, it’s ready to eat in next to no time.

It’s a little different to my usual soda bread – I’ve made it a few times now to tweak the flavourings but my expert focus groups contradicted each other with their opinions on less or more fennel seeds (same loaf, wildly different opinions), so I’ve made it how I like it, sod them ;) If you like the liquorice taste of fennel seeds, you might want to up it to 5tsp of seeds; if you prefer it to be subtler (but still there in the background), drop it down to 3tsp. And don’t feed it to any of my contrary friends ;)

It can be baked on a flat cookie sheet (dusted with flour or semolina) or in a lidded cast iron casserole dish (like the slow rise bread). The latter traps moisture and reduces the cooking time – but make sure it’s super hot before adding the dough or it’ll stick.

Fig and fennel seed soda bread recipe

Ingredients:

To make soured/acidified milk
300ml of milk
1tbsp of lemon juice

For the bread
450g/1lb of flour: about 200g plain white flour and 250g of rye flour
1tsp of caster sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
2tsp of bicarbonate of soda
2tsp of cream of tartar
4tsp of fennel seeds
175g (ish) of dried figs
A little extra flour/semolina for dusting

The latest beauty treatment

Posted by louisa on Friday 5 August 2011 in chickens | 1 comment

Have you heard about fish pedicures, the “beauty” “treatment” of the moment, where hundreds of little carp suck away the dead skin from your feet?

I have a homegrown alternative:

The chickens’ new rocket ship, um, I mean drinker

Posted by louisa on Friday 5 August 2011 in chickens | 3 comments

Earlier this week, the chickens had a new feature installed in their run – a 30litre (6.5gallons) drinker.

It’s a somewhat excessive for six chickens really (they get through about 3-4 litres a day between them) but I’m sick of buying small drinkers and then wishing I’d bought a bigger one (that’s happened twice now), and this one was about the same price as one about half the size so I thought it’s easier to half fill this one than double-fill a smaller one, if you know what I mean ;). Given there is a plan to expand the team slightly next year, and at some point (although probably not imminently) expand into having chickens-for-meat too, I’ll consider this too-big purchase an act of futureproofing.

And it’s not just about future benefits: their feeders hold about four days worth of food and this drinker will easily hold that much water too, even if I only half fill it — I’m not planning on neglecting them by any means, but it’ll lessen the burden on anyone looking after them if we want to go away for a long weekend (the chicken-sitter will only have to check on them and collect eggs). Now, to start planning a weekend away somewhere…! :)

Alphabet in August – A to D

Posted by louisa on Thursday 4 August 2011 in meta | 2 comments

Susy from Chiot’s Run is running a themed creative exercise this month: words or ideas to describe ourselves, using a different letter of the alphabet each day, often accompanied by a letter-focused photo.

A good number of people are taking part, doing their letter each day like they’re supposed to, but as you will read when I get down to “R”, I’m rather rebellious and not good at following rules, so I’m going do them in batch form instead, picking no more than five words for each letter. My photos will be things in my life which start with (or evoke) that letter too, rather than the actual letters themselves.

Here’s my first few letters – A-D:

(I’m rather over-excited about the achocha growing in our garden at the moment.)

A is for…

Animal-lover: I prefer them to (most) humans.
Addictive-personality: Thankfully my worst addictions are video games, not noxious substances.
Animated: When I get into a conversation, I REALLY get into it.
Argumentative: See “Animated”. Rarely productive or beneficial to the situation.
Atheist: Something I often get animated and argumentative about. ;)

August 2011 mini goals

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 3 August 2011 in goals | 2 comments

I didn’t set myself any mini goals last month as I had nothing particularly pressing. This month though…

Personal finance

1. Actually switch my cash ISA as I had planned to (but didn’t) in May.

2. Sit down with John and redivide the bills (they’ve been a bit of a jumble for a while)

3. After my spendy-spendy last couple of weeks, spend no more than the £100 in my “save as you spend” categories (eating out, books, clothing, crafts, entertainment, “frivolous”, and gifts).

House stuff

John’s been giving away a lot of big things recently – I feel I need to do some micro to his macro!

4. Clear out the kitchen cupboard opposite the cooker, and the cat cupboard and the dog cupboard – lots of junk in there

5. Clear out the porch cupboards

6. Fit the skirting board & flooring in the utility room

Growing, making, cooking

7. Make another giant bean bag for the office (since the old office one is now in the living room)

8. Make a new purse

9. Handmill some of my vegetable oil soaps to make some scented ones

10. Make 2 meals worth of ravioli

Have you got any mini-goals or big things on your to-do list for this month?

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

The financial pros and cons for building up a food store/pantry

How I lead a green and frugal life by Lily-dog

Washing in winter: ideas for reducing laundry?

Book Review: Stitch Step by Step by Maggi Gordon and Ellie Vance

My ten favourite simple living/growing/cooking/making books

The purse of faffiness

Alphabet in August – E to H

Fig and fennel seed soda bread recipe

Fig and fennel seed soda bread recipe

The latest beauty treatment

The chickens’ new rocket ship, um, I mean drinker

Alphabet in August – A to D

August 2011 mini goals

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