Whensa Your Dolmio Day?

Today I have been mostly making homemade Italian tomato sauce. The "young people" scoffed the last batch the other week after the Blackout!, so I ordered a crate of tomatoes from the food co-op last week and after school today Meg and I embarked upon a marathon sauce making session and the results are marvelous, if we do say so ourselves.

There has been much thriftiness, creativeness and gardening-ness since I've been away.

Ms. Brooks cordially invited my good self and a couple of mutual friends around for a lentil-fest on Friday night. I'd not been out for a while so was rather looking forward to some tasty home cooking and good company, I just needed something new to wear.

(Cue a pair of Steve's old jeans and a big gorgeous wrap my Nana gave me)

I un-stitched the inside legs of the jeans, shortened, and made a lovely grey denim skirt. Then I stitched the end of the wrap to the side at the other end and made a gorgeous grey fluffy knitted poncho that everyone admired. It's incredibly warm too and a great use of the wrap as it was a bit big to be a scarf, and I don't really use wraps, so now, it's a lovely jumper type thing. Hey presto, a whole new outfit for nowt.

Thanks to Ms. Fleming, the growing is going good too. I've now potted up my apple seeds that are growing beautifully and the leeks, onions and tomatoes are all sprouting. I've gratefully accepted the gift of a whole load of gardening stuff, along with enough jars to make my Syn free sauce. I've had to transfer them to another window sill too as I ran out of space on the other one.

So the "Mumatron" has promised me two lovely emails of hints and tips in keeping with my frugality/anti-consumerism. One of them is about different uses for Bounce tumble drier sheets. I'm looking forward to that one, I must be honest.

The crochet is coming along beautifully and I've found some lovely inspirational thought for the day type words that fit in nicely with the theme of the blog. Stand by for inspiration.

Money Saving Tips?

This here washing powder is probably one of the best buys you can make. It's from Aldi, less than £3 and so concentrated you only need two scoops - I use the scoops that come in the Vanish stain remover pots so what's that about 50ml? It's a 2.5kg bag! How many washes is that, boffins? It's good for the planet, good for your purse and it's actually really effective - even smells nice.

So let's talk about saving money. "Frugality" some like to call it, my Brother in law calls it "careful" it but I prefer to call it "tighter than a duck's bum".

I'm interested to know what we already know between us. I know one lady, mentioning no names (Jade), who has more tips that you could shake a stick at!

What's the best money saving tip you know?