Leaving London and downshifting to become a full-time parent and rural homemaker
My lovely green and thrifty friend Emma has always used a hanky for her nose as Father Christmas has thoughtfully given her a new one each year she now has over thirty in her collection. Yesterday I noticed our other inspriationally green and thrifty friend, Janet, also uses a hanky to dab at any sniffle [...]
I know that generally the simpler lifestyle is one that is naturally thrifty and also kinder to our environment but ever since finishing the wonderful book ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ by Barabara Kingsolver I’ve been more aware than I was before about the potentially harmful chemicals used during food production (chemical pesticides and fertilisers on fruit [...]
My poor little head is too full of too many things to do (an exciting dot com project with my beloved, administrative work for our small internet business, a small babe and two little kids on summer holidays to look after, a house to keep in order, tummies to feed, this blog to write AND [...]
I’m cheating writing this post tonight as am soooooo tired I can barely even keep my eyes open (and we have 20+ people coming to stay for an all-weekend mini-festival at our house tomorrow yikes better get some kip soon) but my dear friend Rach just sent me this via email so am doing nothing [...]
It must be human nature to want to acquire things. I used to love shopping and spending. These days I’m always trying to think of more ways to keep spending to a minimum.
A number of beautiful looking catalogues regularly come through the post addressed to me. I usually open them, flick through and then throw [...]
Here’s a fantastic list of easy ways to save money from The Times Online. Some really good ideas.
http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2008/02/the-thrifty-fif.html
I’m already doing some of them (cooking in bulk, using leftovers, magazine swapping with a friend each month, using a piggy bank for all my loose little bits of change, reusing pots and bread bags for storing sandwiches [...]
Its a new long term project that has just emerged for this family but since Bealers has been Head of Veg Gardening and really enjoying it (having never planted or grown anything before he’s now growing chillis, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, peas, pumpkins, all manner of herbs and salad items, raspberries, strawberries and LOADS of potatoes!), [...]
As we were fortunate enough to be given LOADS of second hand washable nappies I am really enjoying not having to use disposable nappies which I’m glad about as disposables cost a fortune (about £10 for a week’s worth of botty changes) and they also are super stinky in the household refuse bin (even when [...]
I was fed up of watching steel ‘TP’ climbing frames go for more than I wanted to pay on eBay. I’d decided a while ago that a climbing frame would be a great investment in my kids health and had some money given to them for Christmas by their Aunty and Grandma in the giant [...]
Mmm-mm. Whilst sorting out my cupboard I found 3 full bags of red lentils which is a lot for someone who only knows one recipe calling for red lentils. As we are keen to use up store cupboard supplies in light of my recent thoughts on food prices increasing but me being determined not to [...]