Grass Skirts and Flower Garlands

Our older girls were recently invited to a Hawaiian party which was great fun for them! Actually it was great for me too, as I already had a box of grass skirts and flower garlands in the attic from a previous party several years ago now. They had been put away neatly and stored well, they came out looking like new. The girls had a lot of fun too playing with the limbo game which also came out of the attic, plus the hoop. At the party Daughter aged 11 managed to win the limbo as she had practised at home, is light and she seems to be quite double jointed! There were a lot of young people there so it was quite an honour for her, she got a prize for this. A family sized bag of sweets to share!

- Cheese + Chicken = Chocolate Dessert

Usually for lunch we have cheese sandwiches. As there are several in our family we can easily munch our way through half a pack of mature cheddar in one lunch time, that costs about £2.50 for 250g. Today we had sliced chicken which I managed to get 30 slices of for just 69p. They were small round slices so the children had one slice and my Husband had two slices but that still leaves enough for tomorrow's lunch too and more besides. We had sliced baps with them today to make them more special which cost £1, so rolls and meat together cost about £1.25 instead of the usual £2.50 for cheese plus the cost of bread - 40p, so instead of £2.90 it was £1.25 saving about £1.65 on usual cost. (Tomorrow we will just have it in our normal bread so save the £1 on the rolls - that will save another £2.25!!). We still had other sandwiches and cake as usual but it is savings like these which help the weekly budget. Actually today's and tomorrows savings, £3.90 combined, will go directly toward and actually completely pay for all of us to enjoy the special Cadbury's Chocolate dessert we are having after dinner tonight which admittedly was reduced a little bit, enough to make a difference but not nearly as much as I would like :-D

You can't price a friend...they're priceless!

Our postie brought a nice surprise this morning, a Hallmark card addressed to me. At first I was puzzled, it's not my birthday I thought. When I opened it I found it was from my friend who said she had seen the card and thought of me, how sweet! This friend is so special, always on the end of an email and so encouraging to me. The card was from the Forever Friend range and the bear was holding a large golden heart. The words said, "Friendship is like a big hug around your heart". I was rather touched and kept looking at it throughout the rest of the day. You so can't put a value or a price on friends and friendship, it's priceless.

Frugal Food Gifts

Looking through bargains at the supermarket can lead you to share your finds with friends and family. Recently my Husband and I were shopping together and found a couple of wholemeal fresh tin loaves that his Mother likes for just 5p each, so we bought them and gave them to her. She was really pleased to get an unexpected gift and it cost just 10p! Another day I went shopping alone and found a single solitary fresh jammy and sugary doughnut for 5p, no good for our large family (about one bite each perhaps) but perfect as a surprise supper for my Husband! I took it to him with a cup of hot coffee and he was pleased, I didn't tell him it was only 5p though...secrets out now if he ever reads this post!! Oh well, he'll probably be pleased that I didn't pay too much and anyway it's the thought that counts.

Frugal Food Prices

I love looking through the bargain shelf at our local supermarket. There is always something reduced in there, sometimes lots of the same product. Not always greatly reduced but if you were going to buy that product at full price anyway it is a saving off the bill or if you can replace a more expensive meal with it then it is a saving too. Sometimes you can get silly prices, I have had a few of these lately. One thing I regularly find reduced is bread even if its only 10p off per loaf it still helps. I have started to take note of the cheapest price I have got it for. My cheapest price for a loaf of bread is just 3p!! I just couldn't believe it! For milk my cheapest price was just 11p per pint and it was local too! That's two ticks in the box, frugal and local.

A few weeks ago on May Bank Holiday it was a sunny day so we suddenly decided to go out for a family picnic. As we weren't prepared in advance and it takes a while to pack lunch for a large family we decided to pop into the nearest supermarket on the way. I picked up the things I wanted for the picnic but couldn't resist peeking in the bargain shelf just in case...There were loads of boxes of Mr Kipling Jammy Sponge Finger Cakes for just 10p! There were 6 in a box which works out less than 2p each so I picked up a few boxes. While I was at the till unloading my trolley onto the conveyor my brain was ticking away as to what I could use these cakes for if I bought some more? Then I got it, trifle sponges!! I quickly grabbed a box, checked to see if they could be frozen, they could - so I asked the assistant if I could go get some more and came back with an armful. We had never tried these particular cakes before but have always liked Mr Kipling cakes before and you couldn't go far wrong for 10p a box. Later we tried them in trifle, they were gorgeous - much nicer than the usual sponges which are much more expensive and actually can be a little dry. The jam made the difference, it was sweeter too.

Since then I have bought packs of 6 pitta bread for 6p just 1p each. Custard doughnuts in a pack of 5 for 17p which is roughly 3p each and chocolate chip brioche rolls which should cost £1 for 5 but I got them for 25p just 5p each. All yummy bargains especially as they replaced the cake we would have eaten anyway.

Frugality has different meanings

Being frugal means different things to different people depending on their unique circumstances. For someone like me who has a lot of demands on their time due to the combination of managing a large family and paid work, frugal can't just be about saving money. For instance, I have to take into consideration the time involved in order to save the money. Time is just as precious to me as money so I have to weigh it all up first before committing to milking a family cow everyday or raising chickens etc. (By the way I decided against both those options, cow and chickens, just in case you were wondering!). So sometimes I save time and sometimes I save money. The ultimate is when I manage to do both in one swoop!

After all, everytime you manage to get something that you were going to buy for more money then you have saved yourself the extra hours of time working to earn the money for the purchase! Too many people don't factor in the cost of earning the money for the item they want to buy. If we learnt to look at our money in terms of how long it took to earn it rather than just pounds then things would be in context a lot more. How many hours work will it take to buy that item?

Another important thing that I factor in when tempted to buy expensive items is how long is this item expected to last? Nine years ago I was on a shopping trip with my family at what is known as the English Riveria, the seaside town ofTorquay. I spotted 'IT!' A light caramel coloured leather jacket. To me it was just perfect for those British Summer days when it was meant to be warm but wasn't, it may even be raining as well as cold! It would also go well with deeper coloured outfits as it would contrast. The jacket was in a fancy boutique and it was almost £100! I had never spent so much money on a jacket in my life but I knew my Husband's leather jacket had lasted years and I believed this one would too. I swallowed hard and bought it. Now that sounds like a crazy purchase but it was love at first sight, I had been wanting one anyway and once purchased it would be very practical I believed. That jacket is one of my most treasured items in my wardrobe still today. I even love the gold lining. Next year I will have owned it and worn it regularly for ten years!! If you divide the cost of that quality jacket over 10 years that is just £10 a year. Considering how much I have worn it and the great condition it is still in I still consider it a good buy for me. The other thing I purchased at the same time was a matching leather handbag, this is still going strong. It used to be for best only but now I take it everywhere and it is still my best bag too!

Another thing I ask myself before purchasing an expensive item, "is it a need considering my circumstances rather than just a want or a whim?" For instance, having a large family doesn't lend itself very well to doing all the family's laundry by hand so I consider my washing machine to be a need rather than a want! I could do it by hand but I would spend several hours of my life doing this which could be used in paid work or other productive ways. We have to be sensible here or we just become a slave to frugality!

I will attempt to record some of the savings I have made of money or time here in my blog as they will encourage me when I look back over it in future months and hopefully it will inspire you as a reader in your own attempts to live a simple life or have frugal fun.

Working and Learning from Home

My Husband and I are very privileged to work from our home. We can enjoy the benefits of living in the country on a daily basis but still work hard to earn the money we need to live comfortably. My Husband and I have an online business, he also farms part-time while I manage the home and children. We have several children whom we love dearly and home school them all, so our family are all at home together. This suits us well as we have quite a large home and plenty of space outdoors.

Modern Simple Living

The ultimate in modern simple living is to home produce, home bake and make as much as possible. Few of us have the time, resources or skills to do this on a large scale however. All is not lost, the next best is to look to support those people around us who do have the goods we require. There are many goods which can be purchased locally if you live in the country, especially food and flowers. If you don't, even the high street and supermarkets offer British goods just look for the trademarks. Usually they cost around the same price as their competition too but it is much better to support our country and keep our people in employment, better for the environment too as it doesn't need to be shipped over just driven a few miles down the motorway.

Here in Devon we have many opportunities to buy Devon produce as we are famous for our milk, cream and bakery products as well as producing eggs and honey etc. I have welcomed the clear marking of local or british products and much prefer to buy them. I have never been comfortable about buying foreign meat and have mainly used the local town butcher for my joints. I am happier to purchase chicken and larger joints from supermarkets now that it is clear where they are from. British farmers have to abide by much stricter rules than foreign farmers and I believe that the quality of the animals welfare while alive should be recognised when we decide which joint to buy, the meat should be more nutritious and tastier too if the animal was fed well.

I went shopping in the city of Exeter today and saw a sign beside the bunches of flowers on display outside 'Trugs' flower shop which said 'Devon Grown Flowers'. Beside them were bunches marked as being Cornish produce. The customer wants to know more of the history behind what they are buying and are more likely to purchase if it is from their own locality, especially if they can get a couple of extra days out of their flowers because they are so much fresher than those that travelled many miles while in bud to get to the shop in time before they died!

Home Grown Flowers

As a child, I remember our garden being full up with many varieties of flowers. Mum and Dad both shared a love for flower gardening, they worked hard at it and did it well. I suppose that it was inevitable that they called their only Daughter after a flower! There were flower borders all around the lawns, both sides of the paving stones Dad laid and along the fences and garden wall. There were roses trained on trellises up the walls of the house. Bushes planted in the lawn, some shrubs but mainly those producing flowers. I remember the smell of lavender from the lavender bushes. We even had flowers in with the vegetables as Dad liked to grow sweet peas which he trained to grow on a stick frame like the beans and peas, they were all different colours and made a picture when in bloom. Mum liked to cut these and bring them in the house as well as blessing our Grandparents and elderly neighbours with bunches of them. Their smell was gorgeous. At the bottom of the garden was my favourite tree, it was a cherry tree which produced beautiful pale pink blossom. I loved the cherry tree in blossom, when it all fell off the tree and scattered the lawn beneath that looked pretty too.

Eating Local Produce

Having been brought up in the Country by members of the farming community both my Husband and I were fed lots of local produce, it was a way of life passed down by the generations. My Father and Grandfather were excellent gardeners and kept us supplied with large quantities of homegrown fruit and veg which not only fed us in season but were prepared for the freezer to eat during the Winter months. One of my favourite garden related jobs was picking and shelling peas from the pod, I loved them popping out! Also runner beans were put in the industrial handle shredder, I loved to turn the handle while all the slices fell into the bowl. It was clamped onto the side of the table so it never fell off, (unlike the modern plastic one I purchased a few years ago with a suction base that 'let go' when you tried to do any serious work with it!). My Father also brought home bulk buys of local meat that was butchered in our own village with meat from local farmers, we never needed to buy meat from supermarkets.
My Father is now a Grandad to my children and still grows food, our favourite is his homegrown strawberries! My Father has grown what seems like a field full of strawberries for many years now but as always there is a story behind it! It all started with my visit to our local agricultural show, the Devon County Show. I was a school girl with a little bit of pocket money looking for a gift to take home. There were strawberries for sale everywhere, strawberries and cream prepared to eat (very expensive for one small meal), punnets of strawberries which I was tempted to buy one to take home for my family then I noticed the third option of purchasing a strawberry plant which I decided was the best option as this would produce more every year! I took this plant carefully home to my parents and gave it to my Father, he laughed, "one plant, that won't go very far!". He went out and bought some more and they produced so well that the next year he planted a whole patch and now it is a firmly established family tradition thanks to moi.
Here are some of this years produce grown, picked and delivered to the door by Grandad.

Frugal Fun while Shopping

It may be hard to imagine having frugal fun while shopping but I love it! I especially love shopping at second hand, 50/50, pound shops and charity shops. Sometimes there are bargains to be had also at antique shops but sadly I usually find that these places are extremely overpriced. Online I sometimes shop from Oxfam Online and ebay stores.

Exploring the Great Outdoors

One of my favourite hobbies is exploring the great outdoors. Sometimes we walk as a family, or I walk with my Husband, but usually I walk with my youngest children or alone. I obviously walk for exercise and fresh air but I also enjoy the views. I sometimes stop to record the view or unusual flowers by taking photographs, another of my hobbies. The other reason I walk is to clear my head from never ending to-do lists, relax and be spiritually refreshed.

My place in the Country

My place in the Country resembles the typical 'chocolate box' cottage picture, only it is larger as it is a farmhouse. Built to last it is literally hundreds of years old, constructed of cob and thatch. The cob walls and thatched roof keep us warm in Winter and cool in Summer. There is an Aga range cooker in the kitchen and a woodburning stove in the family room. The views from the windows are mainly of green fields, trees and sheep and bullocks grazing. Golden corn and stacks of straw bales can be seen at harvest time in the Summer. The family horse in the paddock at the front of the house is sadly no longer with us but the memories remain...

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog which focuses on having frugal fun while living a simple life in the Country. Having been born and bred in the beautiful Devon countryside, living simply has been a way of life for my family and myself long before the recent crisis known as the credit crunch. 'Simple living' has a unique interpretation for each individual but basically entails focusing on the essentials of life. Having 'frugal fun' may sound like an oxymoron but I truly enjoy treasure hunting for bargains which meet needs for myself or family without costing the earth. There was a time when I had to be frugal in order to make the monthly wage reach to the next payment (during that time I soon learnt that a month was a very long time...). Nowadays, I guess that I am voluntarily frugal now as we do have spare cash set aside for those unexpected large bills or necessary purchases. However, managing a large family necessitates wisdom in stretching the cash and if I wasn't frugal then we could soon be feeling sorry for ourselves. Living simply and being frugal doesn't mean that my house is totally empty or that I never buy anything! For me, it is about being wise with what I have been given and not cluttering my life and home with what isn't necessary. Although simplicity is my goal, in a large family it is a continuous and ongoing process of decluttering when items are no longer required as needs change over time especially if you have children.