Welcome to this week’s round up of my frugal life. I have been focussing on my parents again since my last post. Sadly, mum is still not allowed visitors, but she seems to be healing quite well. Yesterday she was moved out of the hospital to a rehabilitation unit, which hopefully will be quieter so she can get some sleep! Hospitals are very noisy places and you need sleep to get better.
Dad is also managing ok, with lots of visits from the family to make sure he doesn’t get lonely. Thanks to everyone for their nice comments wishing them well.
Pantry clear out
I had a real good sort through of our long pantry cupboard yesterday. Things get moved about and jumbled up so quickly. It gets in a mess and it is difficult to see exactly what we have in order to make a meal plan (and meal planning saves so much time and money, as I said in this post!).
I also wanted to go through our bottom shelf. This is where we keep most of the items in our emergency stores, as explained in my post The Joys of a Well-Stocked Larder.
I pulled the whole lot out, cleaned the shelves, and have arranged it all neatly. The bottom shelf does need topping up, I realised. We don’t keep ridiculously huge stockpiles of food, but do like to have a good supply of basics in case we are ill, the shops are short of stock, etc. It was very handy during the pandemic, when people were panicking and clearing the supermarket shelves!
So, I have added several things to my shopping list for next week, such as pasta, tins of fruit and some canned veg. I also made a list of what is there and stuck it to the cupboard door so that I can keep on top of it in future.
Resisting temptation
I mention in last week’s vlog on my YouTube channel that we had an evening out at a Joni Mitchell tribute evening with a local soprano singer. She was brilliant and really did justice to Joni’s Blue album* (my favourite album ever, by anyone!).
I have been a huge Joni Mitchell fan for as long as I can remember. However, I had most of her albums on vinyl or cassette and never replaced them all with CDs. Now, of course, everyone is going back to vinyl, but we don’t have space for a record player at the moment. Much of my vinyl collection is in the attic and not easy to access.
Anyway, going to the concert really made me want to revisit all of Joni’s music from her first album onwards. I did consider finding them all on eBay second hand, but then realised I could listen to the whole lot via Alexa and our Echo Dot*! I signed up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Music Unlimited* and now I am listening to her whole back catalogue for free!
It has been a joy to have a constant stream of Joni on in the background as I am working. What a genius she is.
Charity shop finds & clothing bargains
I have been keeping out of the charity shops on the whole, but I did pop into one I like near where my parents live. Because mum is in hospital and I have been keeping a close eye on dad, I thought I might as well make good use of my latest journey there.
As I say, I am being restrained so didn’t go mad. But I did find a very cute baby toy costing £1 for an imminent arrival and a Phase Eight top for myself for £4. Because I have seen some great finds at the M&S sale on my Facebook group, I also popped in there and found a lovely winter midi skirt reduced from £35 to £3.49. This is the first new item of clothing I have bought in over a year!
Free food for a frugal life
We don’t have a community pantry in my town, but where my parents live they have a small one. Whilst I was there I thought I would have a look to see if there was anything worth picking up. There was nothing except bread, but it was quality stuff from M&S, so I collected a couple of sour dough loaves for the freezer. They were just out of date, but will be perfect toasted, which is how we like sour dough.
I must try to remember to look again next time I am passing. Every little helps with food prices on the increase and free food will certainly help my frugal life.
Using my slow cooker
I have been making good use of my slow cooker this week. Firstly I made some more bone broth, this time using a chicken carcass from the freezer as I haven’t had time to get more bones from the butcher this week. (Like this stock recipe, but add a little cider vinegar and leave all day.)
Secondly, when I cleared the pantry out I found a bag of pudding rice that is out of date and needs using up. So I thought I would try rice pudding in the slow cooker. It was perfectly nice, but I have to admit that I prefer it made in the oven. I think it gets creamier in the heat, plus it gets browned on top.
Still, I think I need to make it weekly until the bag is used up. I love rice pudding – so warm and comforting!
So, that’s another snippet of frugal life for the past week. How has yours been?
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