In Praise of Blue and Yellow!

I'm not one for 'getting on Band Waggons' ~ in-fact I have a healthy distrust of many ~ but in early January I joined the discount shopping brigade.  I'd just got to a point where I felt that our household bills were way too expensive and we had to take some kind of radical action. We have a 'Blue and Yellow' store about two miles up the road from here.  There's a large car park (free) and it's just off the bypass in our local town.  If we get off the motorway one junction earlier, we can pop in on our way home.  It's not only cheap, it's convenient.


It was easy to see that we were going to save money, but I decided to monitor exactly how much.  For the last three months I've logged our savings against a calculated average weekly spend from the Autumn.  I've filled pages of my accounts book with everything we've spent (OCD!!!).  I've included house-hold items from the 'W' store, "top up shops" from anywhere and the occasional trip to our original food store to pick up special items.


I think our diet has improved in the last few months, largely because fruit and fresh veg were really expensive at our previous store.  It is a different type of shopping experience.... but it's funny how quickly I've got used to things costing less!


Anyway, the rolling savings total is already looking extremely healthy.  Once I'd added the lower winter fuel bills resulting from our mild winter, the total is bordering on the embarrassing!  Why did I continue to pay so much to these other stores for so long......  Mark (who is a great believer in 'designated savings funds') suggested at the beginning of the experiment that we should put the money into a pot for our 50th Birthday celebrations.  We are 48 later this year so that's going to be MONTHS of savings.  I'm not sure he realises quite how much money that might represent!  Oh well..!! 


The funny thing is that I can't persuade my family to try out the store.  My sister is completely loyal to 'T****' and my parents can't be separated from 'S*********'.  In the meanwhile, I'm a complete convert!!!


What are your top food-shopping tips?
Jx

Free.. and Really Interesting!

While we were on holiday near Crickhowell the other week we popped over the hills to visit the Blaenavon World Heritage Site.  We spent ages exploring the Ironworks.  The photo at the top shows the remains of the huge lift that moved trucks from the works to the tramway that crossed the moors.  The photo below shows Mark by the mouth of one of the huge furnaces.

My favourite part of the ironworks were the old workers cottages.  Some of them had been gutted and housed a display about the ironworks and the town.  The majority were intact and furnished as they would have been at various times since 1789.

There was mock up of the shop for the workers and a very interesting explanation of the 'truck system'.  (I'd learnt about this system of exploiting the workers when I studied O Level History but I'd completely forgotten about it since then!)

Some of the cottages had a 1930s theme.  The green doors are the 'privies'.  I started to tell Mark stories of visiting my Great-Aunt when I was a little girl.  She lived in a cramped cottage just like these in a small mill town near Mancester. 

I was just on the point of explaining about her 'kitchenette' when we walked into the next cottage and there was one right in front of us!  I just had to take a photo.  I remember that my Great-Aunt's had a small foldaway table and masses of useful storage.  It was perfect for her tiny kitchen. 

It took us about an hour and a half to read our way through the displays, listen to all the information posts around the site and walk through the cottages.   I was surprised that such a great site was completely free. 

We then walked the short distance down the hill to the World Heritage Visitor Centre. The old buildings on the right house further displays and an Art Gallery. The glass extension is a really lovely cafe.

This was the view across the valley from the cafe. The low buildings on the right are part of The Big Pit - the National Mining Museum. We spent quite a bit of time chatting to a few local people. They explained that visitors tend to come to The Big Pit but they don't tend to come down the hill and visit the rest of the site. We really enjoyed a fascinating morning.

Other news from 'Stand and Stare land'... My Lovely Pregnant Colleague had her baby at 1.30 this morning.  She's had a little boy.  Another colleague within the Arts Faculty had a baby girl last night as well - in the same hospital.  Apparently they were in next door beds!  They had joked about this happening before the event and it was amusing to hear that it actually happened.

I've got a performance with my Year 9 Btec class this evening so it's been rehearsals and keeping them all calm since lunchtime.  To be honest I feel really tired at the moment and could just curl up into a ball and sleep! I'm sure that this lack of energy comes from our ridiculous weather.  Never mind - almost the Bank Holiday weekend!

Weekend "Stuff"

On Saturday night I found myself driving a 'retired' London taxi belonging to one of Mark's petrol head friends.  He randomly offered us the chance to try driving it and, since Mark declined, I said "Yes".  After all, I wasn't certain that this is the sort of opportunity that would come up again in my life!  It's probably one of the most 'sedate' cars I've driven but it had an amazing turning circle...

On Sunday I made the mistake of going to my local Hobbycraft.  Somehow I'd forgotten how over-priced the stuff is there.  I walked up and down in shock.  The little local stores have better quality items for a similar price.  I left with six buttons... and felt like I'd been robbed! 

Last weekend I paid £3.00 for six buttons from the Cath Kidston store in Bristol.  At the time I thought they might be a bit pricey but it was a little 'treat' from our weekend away.  Now I think they were a bargain.  I paid £4.50 for the buttons in Hobbycraft - same number, same size, just wood rather than plastic.  Incredible!

However every retail cloud has a silver lining....  In the main garden centre I found some Heathcote and Ivory Christmas gifts reduced by 75%.  I quickly snaffled some more items for the 'Christmas 2012 Present Cupboard'.   As a result I didn't feel that I'd been quite so 'ripped off' as I walked back to the car!

Welcome to Scarlet and Patricia.  I really enjoy reading your blogs!

Next Christmas...

One of our local garden centres has 50% off some really nice-quality products so I'm buying ahead for 2012.  So far I've got Royal Horticultural Society melamine sandwich tray for £3.50; some Clover coasters with a musical design for £2.50; and some Heathcote and Ivory 'festive flavour' hand cream for £3.50.  I'll store them away in the 'present cupboard' as they'll make great gifts for next year without 'breaking the bank'.

On the whole I felt that the cost of the festive season didn't spiral too far out of control this year.  One of my most successful presents for my husband was a 'cut glass style' champagne flute from one of the local charity shops filled with three Thornton's heart-shaped champagne truffles.  Total cost - £3.00!  Admittedly, the sparkling wine that found it's way into the glass later on was a bit more expensive but... it was Christmas!!!

I allowed myself one morning of sales shopping and a fixed budget of £100.00.  This worked brilliantly.  I got a gorgeous cream and blue cardigan from Monsoon; a navy blue straight skirt and black/red/russet dress from House of Frazer; a blue top from M+S and a really pretty blue cardigan from TKMax.  All these items will 'give a lift' to stuff that I've already got in my wardrobe.  I'm almost looking forward to going back to work so that I can start dressing up again!

Playing in the Kitchen..

I've prepared the house for Christmas today.  It's been such lovely mild weather that I could throw open all the windows while I dusted, hoovered and moved furniture around for this evening.  The house smells less 'stuffy' now and I feel very virtuous!

I also had time to have a little play in the kitchen at lunchtime.  I decided to make a few rather tired-looking cauliflower florets into a Cauliflower Cheese soup.  I was really quite pleased with the final result....

It was rich and very filling.  I couldn't resist the thin piece of raw cauliflower as a garnish!!

My next task this afternoon is to start sorting Husband's Christmas presents.  We have a tradition of giving each other a stocking first thing on the 25th.  The rule is that these stocking presents must be useful but as cheap as possible - 2nd hand books; jams; a special sauce that's difficult to get etc.  We collect things when we see them through the year then 'squirrel them away' to surprise each other on Christmas morning.  It's great fun. 

I think my "best" present for Husband's stocking this year is a book of Sausage and Mash recipies that I picked up for £1.50.  Sausage, mash and gravy is his all time favourite meal - so I can't wait to see his face when he opens the parcel.

Frugal living

Since I started my blog I've been reading lots of blogs on frugal living and people's motivations for keeping control of their spending.  I was lucky enough to be brought up in a frugal - but amazingly happy - home and I think it's given me good spending habits that have lasted all my life.  I still joke with my mother about 'the great Rivita scam'... 

Basically Mum was fantastic at making simple things into 'events'.. a picnic of squash and a biscuit in the park on the way home from school;  cheap favourite foods that rarely appeared on the table so acquired cult status; and Rivitas and jam in Debenhams in Oxford!  This was Mum's skill - we rarely went shopping in the city so eating in Debenham's first floor cafeteria was way more exciting than buying clothes or the trip to the dentist.  I know now that the double pack of Rivitas and the single portion of jam was probably the only thing she could really afford, but we loved them!

The funny thing is that me and my sister still love Rivitas.  To everyone else in the world they are a boring, dry old cereal biscuit associated with diets.  To us, they are the delicious base to a world of toppings beyond jam!  You probably can't imagine our delight when they broadened the range beyond 'original' and 'wholemeal' in the 1990s!!!!

As I'm writing this I'm pondering the point that I'm really trying to make here.  I always seem to end up feeling more nostalgic than festive at this time of year. That's not necessarily a bad thing.. I guess I'm lucky enough to have fabulous memories to get nostalgic about!