Oops

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 2 August 2011 in growing | 3 comments

Or in other words: why I should have picked this courgette last week or not grown it next to railings in the first place.

July 2011 – end of month review

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 2 August 2011 in goals, less than 12 clothes challenge, low spend 11, meta | 2 comments

So here we are again, at the end of another month (or rather the beginning of the next one because I’m a bit behind). I can’t even remember the start of July – I was busy with drama stuff on the second weekend but even those shows feel a lifetime ago now. The month hasn’t dragged really, or been super busy (apart from that drama stuff) so I don’t know why it’s felt so long … at least I got my money’s worth out of it I guess!

Goals in 2011 progress

We’ve had quite a bit of food from the garden this month – LOTS of courgettes, some potatoes and other bits & pieces. I’ve not done the “whole meal” but we’ve had a number of courgette & eggy things so that’s part way there ;)

Aside from that and just about hitting my at-least-once-a-week baking target, I’ve not really done anything else goal-y. I didn’t have any mini-goals in July as I didn’t have anything pressing, so I can’t even say I was busy doing those. Since June was equally unmotivated/lazy, naughty Louisa, naughty!

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

I’ve actually bought something! I bought my first item of clothing in 2011 – a charcoal lambswool/angora woolly hoodie from a charity shop. It is exactly the sort of thing I like and was only £3, and I suspect I will very, very much welcome it next winter. I didn’t buy any new woollies at all last winter and was struggling a bit by the end of the season. If I don’t shrink it the first time I wash it, I think I’ll probably live in it from November-March ;)

That purchase seemingly opened a mental “I want to buy clothes!” flood gate. Mid-month, I spent *ages* looking for stuff online and started looking more closely at clothes rails in charity shops … but couldn’t find anything I liked enough to warrant buying. However last weekend, I bought a pair of jeans on eBay (the same size/brand/style I always wear, so they should fit fine) and nearly bought a top too but got outbid. The jeans aren’t desperately needed as I already have four pairs but they were a bargain and I wear them all the frickin’ time, so they’ll be very useful all the same.

I also bought a couple of things from my exceptions list: I bought a five-pack of cute but basic knickers, and two everyday bras. These were replacements as I cleaned out my underwear drawer the day before and had “retired” two bras and 29 pairs of knickers – it was looking a little empty after that!

So my “12 in 11” total is now at a grand 2!

Growing & Chickens

Yorkshire Day – five reasons why I love living in West Yorkshire

Posted by louisa on Monday 1 August 2011 in meta | 4 comments

Today is Yorkshire Day, the totally made-up day of celebration in my adopted shire. Like most people, we don’t celebrate it in the slightest but I thought it was a fitting day to post some Yorkshire-centric thoughts I’ve been musing for the last few weeks.

I moved to West Yorkshire in 2000 – my then-boyfriend had a place on a teacher-training course in Leeds and since I had nothing keeping me in Liverpool (or driving me anywhere else), we moved to Leeds about a nanosecond after handing in our last essays at uni. We rented a house in Armley — the house that I went onto buy and finally sold last Friday — but I wasn’t particularly expecting to stay there or around here in general. Now though, I reckon I’ll probably stay – we might cross the border into North Yorkshire but unless we emigrate, I can’t see us leaving the land of the white rose. (I’m deeply sorry my 300+ years of Lancasterian ancestors but that’s the way it is ;) )

1. There’s lots of green space

For a metropolitan county with a population of over 2 million, West Yorkshire is bloomin’ green. And I’m not just talking about the rolling hills of farmland and moorland in the more rural bits: there are parks galore (including Roundhay Park, one of the biggest city parks in Europe) and acres of woodland mingled throughout the cities. We’ve always got fun places to walk the dog, forage or just enjoy the hills & dales.

(The photo below is John in Roundhay Park. For some reason, it is the only photo I have of Roundhay Park and doesn’t really show anything of the park but I think it’s funny so thought I’d use it anyway ;) )

2. Everywhere is close enough together than it can be treated like one big city

I know some people in Bradford, Huddersfield and Wakefield consider it an expedition to go to Leeds, and people in Leeds NEVER visit Bradford, Wakey or Hudd but to me, it’s just all one big blur of a conurbation. Bradford city centre is better for some things than Leeds; Otley, Hebden Bridge or Halifax better for other things than the cities. It’s easy to mix and match.

3. It’s well connected

One of the reasons I can treat it as one big city is because it’s so well connected. The public transport is much better than most people credit – sure, the trains and buses are as busy and expensive as anywhere, but the chaos in Leeds after the train station’s electrical failure last week shows how well it usually works! From the two main roads near our old house, we could get direct buses to just about every town & city in the west of the county, and we nearly always fly from Leeds-Bradford airport – so great to be just 10 minutes in a taxi from home at the end of a holiday.

Away from public transport, there are plenty of easily accessible motorways nearby to get us across or up and down the country – or if we aren’t in a hurry, A-roads for prettier, winding drives through the countryside.

4. There are loads of lovely buildings & places to visit

We used to live about a mile and a half away from Kirkstall Abbey – the ruins of a 12th century abbey, in the middle of Leeds (picture above is our shadows in the old nave); now we live a few miles from Saltaire, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Harewood House and Temple Newsam are just on the other side of Leeds, and further south in the county, Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a lovely place to visit on a sunny day (the picture at the very top is YSP on a lovely sunny day!).

On a less grand/showy scale, all around there are lots of pretty Yorkshire stone cottages and Victorian homes from the days of the textile boom. A lot of people complain about the lack of good architecture around here, and all I can say to those people is look up. For example, we were sat in the Wastefield urban “garden” in Bradford city centre last weekend and (admittedly because that whole city-killing misadventure knocked down some awful 1960s concrete monstrosities) we were awed by the buildings of Little Germany and thereabouts.

5. It’s deliciously diverse

Some people make a big deal about the ethnic make-up of the area, and while I do very much like the various different cultural influences on the area, that’s only half the delight of the area’s diversity.

The city centres and small market towns. The brand-spanking-new towerblocks and the lovely old cottages & mills. The remaining heavy industry and the moorlands. The ever-fluctuating super cool areas and the ones that haven’t changed for years. The progressive hippy enclaves and the old school uber-conservative villages.

I’m not saying West Yorkshire is unique in any of these ways or that it’s objectively the best place in the world ™ – just why I like it around here. And I had to limit this list to just West Yorkshire, and not South, East and especially not North Yorkshire because if I included all the things I like about those places too, I’d never finish. Basically, the long and the short of it, I heart Yorkshire ;)

Fellow Yorkshire dwellers, what are your favourite bits?

Impromptu long weekend

Posted by louisa on Monday 1 August 2011 in meta | 1 comment

We had a bit of an impromptu long weekend here – and it’s been a good one.

On Friday, we FINALLY completed on the sale of our old house in Leeds. I’ll write more about it in detail at some point soon but basically **does the happy dance**. We’ve been trying to sell it since we moved here in September 2009, although for one reason or another it only went on the market a year ago – a year ago to the day pretty much. We’d had a few offers but it took until now for one to go anywhere. Anyway, on Friday morning, we had to clear the very last things out of the house (mostly stuff we’d offered to leave but they said no) and handed over the keys, then spent all afternoon hitting “reload” on my online banking to watch the money appear in my account … just kidding ;)

Actually, what happened in the afternoon an invasion of sorts – John’s uncle & aunt who live in Hong Kong visited with their two kids, and then John’s sister & her two kids, and his mum arrived. The kids from Hong Kong met our chickens on their last visit to the UK last summer and apparently have frequently spoken of them since then, so they were keen to have some hen time on this visit. We spent a lot of time hand feeding the birds, and they enjoyed learning how to hold the hens too – I think the chickens quite enjoyed it as well, they happily sat in the kids’ arms for ages. I was reminded about the lovely comments people left when our other nephew met the chickens – about how we’re giving them childhood chickeny memories :)

“Value” or “Taste the Difference”?

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 27 July 2011 in Featured, frugal | 13 comments

This month’s Which magazine* includes a section about supermarket food prices (apparently 57% of people are looking for reduced price food more now than they were a year ago, and 60% are using offers more – but 43% think most supermarket promotions are on unhealthy food) and an article about whether we should pick the value version, the standard one or the premium brand of various food products.

The Which people compared the prices and made relevant ingredient comparisons (eg, the amount of meat in a lasagne ready meal) between each of the different levels, and also did taste tests.

I obviously won’t type out the whole article here but they did recommend the budget option for: butter, natural (not fruit) yogurt, frozen peas, spaghetti and for use when cooking stews etc, carrots, frozen fish, cheddar cheese, kidney beans and tinned tomatoes.

And they suggested the following premium products were worth splashing out on: bacon (less water), beef mince (less fat), sausages (less bulking agents), ham (less water/additives) and ready-meal quiche. They added that you should go premium or at least standard on teabags, fruit yogurts, cornflakes and ready meals like lasagne.

Funnily enough, this roughly matches where we spend our money – John has a thing about expensive bacon & sausages but we’re happy with cheap yoghurt and butter, and use budget carrots and cheese for cooking.

One thing I’d possibly disagree on is the tomatoes: I find the cheapest ones tend to include a lot of “stalk” ends (not a problem in a curry, more of a problem in a quick sauce) and more citric acid & other acidic preservatives (John has an intolerance to lots of acids like that), so we tend to go for standard or premium ones if they’re on offer so as cheap as standard.

Aside from the things they looked at, I often buy value plain flour for basic baking (especially for dusting) and in the non-food sphere, the cleaning products I buy (including washing powder) tend to be the basic range too. Back in the day, when we used to buy them frequently, I also used to rate value oven chips over branded ones. We also buy a lot of super cheap brand stuff – the cost equivalent of value brands, just not from the major supermarkets – like rice, vegetable oil and pickled vegetables or chutneys (mostly from shops specialising in Asian or Mediterranean food stuffs).

Having said that, a peek into our cupboards to “research” this post showed me that by far the most common label is Morrisons standard own brand. I know from experience that most things were bought on offer so they’d have been cheaper or about equal to the budget brands – but bearing in mind Which’s findings, I think we could swap to budget in a few more areas.

What do you think? Do you always go for one product class or mix and match for different things? Do you actually prefer the value option of anything? And is there anything you always pick premium for?

I would love to hear people’s value product recommendations – and ones where the extra money really is worth it for premium!

* I don’t buy Which magazine, or any magazines, regularly but signed up for a subscription in June when we were buying a few things for the house. I don’t swear by Which but lacking any other up-to-date information sources, we thought it was worth at least checking out. I like that Which is about buying quality items that will last; I dislike that it promotes consumption, often in the form of gadgets – whenever John & I read it, we both feel “well, maybe I do need a new camera…” pangs. Baaaaaaaad.

I might love my neighbours and broccoli but I hate squishy seed potatoes

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 26 July 2011 in growing | 8 comments

You know how seed potatoes go squishy and brown by the time you harvest your new potatoes?

Is it just me or is putting your hand into that BALL OF VILENESS, the vegetable equivalent of Satan’s diseased gonad, enough to put you off growing potatoes for life?

…

Just me?

I heart my neighbours – and broccoli

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 26 July 2011 in growing | 6 comments

My attempts to grow broccoli this year were one big flop – they all went to seed during the hot spell in April.

My attempts to grow broccoli-substitute rapini were also a big flop – they went to seed too (although since they only need about 45 days to grow, I might be able to squeak out another try of those this year).

Then yesterday, I bumped into one of our dog-walking buddies while out with Lily-dog. We’ve been walking the round hound in the evening recently so haven’t seen him for a good few weeks, perhaps a couple of months. We chatted growing successes and failures this year, and he mentioned he had some spare broccoli – already in pots and starting to bud – and would I like some?

I said I would – expecting a few little seedlings. He dropped four of these bad boys off yesterday afternoon.

You know that empty bed I mentioned the other week? Empty no more!

I don’t really have any plants to share at this point but I think a pack of eggs, some freshly made lemon curd and whatever else I can conjure up will be heading his way soon.

Thanks neighbour!