Making do with what we have #fivefrugalthings

Even on lock down, the weeks seem to fly by. I am always busy, which I am grateful for, as I know others are bored witless. (If you are, check out my post Free things to do on lock down.) I am focusing on living simply and making do with what I have – pretty much business as usual!!

Because of the lock down, I have been on my own a lot this week. Mr S comes round when he drops his mum at dialysis but we go in the garden and keep our distance. One of the practical reasons he does this (apart from to see me and Archie) is because otherwise he has to drive an extra 10 miles from the hospital back to his mum’s house and then back to collect her when she is done.  A waste of time and fuel!

Archie is always pleased to see him as well. It’s strange how upside down our lives have become in the past few weeks, but it will be worth it if we all come out the other side of this pandemic safe and well.

Eating for one

Because I am mainly feeding myself this week, I didn’t bother with a meal plan. Instead I focused on eating what needed using in the fridge, along with some cans and bits from the freezer. I have had some weird and wonderful dishes!

One of my favourites was a kind of sausage ragu with pasta. I had peppers, spinach and mushrooms that needed up so I got a couple of sausages out of the freezer and added those, along with some tinned tomatoes and herbs. It was delicious!

I could survive on the food I have in stores and not go shopping for weeks. However, my elderly parents need some bits so I will go for them in the next few days and get one or two items for us at the same time. As advised (and also because I don’t want to put myself at risk if I don’t have to), I am going out for food as little as possible.

It’s easy when there is just the one person to feed. If I still had all the family at home, it would be a different story.

A virtual meet up

It was my sister’s 60th birthday on Monday. The big family gathering we had planned obviously couldn’t go ahead, nor any of the other celebrations she had planned. 

She is pretty stoic, though, and has just put everything on hold until we are out of the woods. In the meantime, we all got the Zoom app and had a family breakfast meet up. It worked brilliantly. 

We all talked at once, of course, but that’s no different to any other family gathering!! Zoom is a good app as you can have so many people involved. Mr S’s mum has her weekly church meeting using it now.

Making bread

As I ran out of bread in the week and didn’t want to go to the shop just for that, I decided to use a bread kit I bought ages ago. So – a cheat’s loaf was prepared!

It was an oat and linseed loaf and was surprisingly delicious. My bread maker gave up the ghost a couple of years ago and, because I don’t eat much bread, I have never bothered replacing it. So I kneaded it by hand, which wasn’t difficult to do.

I should have glazed it to brown it more, so although it looked a little pale that didn’t affect the flavour.

As I have strong flour and yeast in my stores I have decided to use those and make more bread by hand before I buy another loaf. 

Once we are back to normal, I intend to revert to eating the keto diet. There is no doubt that my system is better without carbs! For the moment, I will continue making do with what we have in the larder. I don’t want anything to go to waste.

Sowing the seeds

I am very pleased that so many of the seeds I have planted over the past weeks have started to pop their little heads through the soil in the various trays scattered on the window sills and in the greenhouse.

One of the trays of courgettes used seed that was a couple of years out of date, but they are coming up too. This is great as we didn’t have many courgette plants last year. Long story, but I got them mixed up with the pumpkins and gave loads away!!

Hopefully, we will have lots of fresh, organic vegetables to eat in a few months, along with some redcurrants, eraspberries, plums and the odd apply from our tiny tree.

Puppy training

We had planned to get Archie enrolled in some puppy classes, but obviously that isn’t happening right now. This is a shame as part of the reason for going was to get him used to socialising with other dogs.

We can’t do much about the lack of socialisation, but we can still get some training done. Fortunately, Archie is a greedy boy and very motivated by food, which helps. Unfortunately, this also makes his main aim in life to hassle both me and the cats when we are eating! I am working on that one.

I have been watching some of Cesar Millan’s videos on You Tube – also known as the ‘Dog Whisperer’. Archie will already sit when you tell him to and come when you call him from the garden (but only if he thinks you have a treat!).

The next things I want to teach him are not to pull on the lead and to wait. Both are quite tricky as he is an excitable little thing.

At least we are saving money on the puppy classes … and I am still delighted to have him – what a lovely boy he is and such good company!

Another week gone

So that’s another week in lock down gone by. I hope and pray that this passes soon, without too much more loss of life. It’s heart breaking to read about families losing loved ones and not even able to visit them in hospital.

I have massive appreciation for all of our NHS workers, putting themselves in danger every day. Thank you NHS. We are so lucky to have such a great medical service in the UK.

Wishing you and your nearest and dearest safe. If you are feeling anxious, check out the post I wrote this week about three easy techniques to help anxiety.

I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.