Because today in twenty minutes a “common sense written right through her like Blackpool through rock” Physiotherapist helped me do something I have been struggling to do since my operation eight weeks ago.

With a cheery prod and a wee poke she has helped me identify the set of muscles that I need to be able to get mobile again after all these years to build the strength in my core.  I honestly had no idea how to isolate these muscles to begin to re-use them again …………… well I do now!!

And she explained – in no fancy high-faluting medico speak how my feeling of being less than flexible in my lumber region is because my muscles have formed a “corset” around my body to protect me from potential pain.

It all makes sense when someone just spells it out for you!!

How does she know – because she has been through this – she has spent her life helping people with this problem.  She has the practical solutions that helped me make a breakthrough in a “don’t tell me – show me!!!” kind of way.

Twenty minutes of her undivided attention and I feel like I can tackle my flexibility and mobility safely …………. in short, I now have a plan.

Where are you going with this Elaine??   I’m getting there – honest!!

But first I just had to give a big high-five for the people who have chosen our NHS as a vocation ……………. of course I am eternally grateful that our service is also “Free at the Point of Delivery”………….. I am secure that although there are waiting lists, although there is “rationing” (well face it there is!) that our NHS strives to do the very best for us in a crisis …………. and unlike my friends in the US an emergency surgery needn’t be swiftly followed by a declaration of bankruptcy.

I like people who have experienced a problem sharing their solutions – of course I am a grown-up I can use or not use her advice, but there is something that feels much more “honest” about creating a plan with someone who has experienced what you have gone through and who has successfully come through the other side.

So today when I got an email from a lady working with a local debt charity in England saying:

“You are not allowed to give financial advice – only IFA’s and trained Debt Advisors are qualified to do this …………. be very careful that you are not overstepping the mark”

My immediate reaction was ……………. WTF????  My second was to put a call out to ten local IFA’s and ask them a simple question

“What would you charge to work with someone who has hit a financial crisis to create a plan to help them turn that around?”

…………and you know what???

Not one of them would take the gig.  You know why?  Well one totally honest geezer told me “I am in the business of selling financial products – if someone is that far in the @@@@, I am not going to make any money from them am I?”

Fair do’s!!!  Actually Bravo Mr!!! There is a bag of tablet being dropped off at your office for being so darn up front about it.

So who can you ask?

Well – the usual suspects……….Citizens advice (pretty long waiting list up here and only one person “qualified”) and the usual Debt Charities  -because I don’t believe its a good idea to go to one of those that charges you to do what they will help you do for free.

So then I called a pal who is married to a guy who was one of the “head heid yins” at the FSA (don’t shoot me OK!!! He is an decent kind of bloke).  I asked him – am I allowed to talk about “getting out of debt”

He pointed out that what I do is not say – ” do this, do that, put your money here” – but instead we share the “How to do it tips” of elevating frugality into an art form.  I talk about paying down debt – sure I do, its important …………. but in his eyes that doesn’t constitute “Financial Advice”, its about sharing what has worked for me…………. and if you fancy it might just work for you.

Which is a relief because I really don’t fancy the training to become an IFA 

He did however ask me if I fancied keynoting at a conference he is organising later in the year …………….. talking about GETTING OUT OF DEBT!!!! Why? because I have done it and his IFA’s have just read about it – the irony!!

So long story short …………..we are all adults here (mostly LOL) – you can use your judgement to decide what of my many meanderings you choose to bring into your own financial lives.

You make the decision who you take advice from – and hopefully, like my Physiotherapist you will find someone who has been through it before you and not just read about it on a training course because that honest “been there, done that” life experience is worth its weight in gold.

RANT OVER – normal service will be resumed after gin o’clock LOL

The post God Bless the NHS appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

………. well came about thanks to the EU reclassification of feta cheese.  Like Champagne, Parma Ham and Stornoway Black pudding it would seem that the Feta Cheese has suddenly become a “protected species”. Meaning a standardised, homogenised, plastic wrapped packet is now how you can buy feta in this country.

Now – fair play to the Greeks!!  But if you have ever spent time travelling ( as an uber skint student admittedly) through Greece, Albania, Bulgaria you can find “little fetas” made locally all with subtle variations. In fact you can even get a “feta” from Afghanistan!! who knew??

Often this cheese is served after being fished out of a jar of brine, room temperature and is at once salty, sharp, sour and pungent.  Yes!!! Feta cheese should be slightly smelly ……………. that’s what makes it feta in my mind.

So it was an attempt to replicate these “little fetas” that lead me into researching how this local cheese can be made at home.  After all I may not have the space for a cow ……………. but I can buy RTC milk and pretend to be a dairy maid in my own kitchen.

Turns out that cheese making at home could turn out to be a fairly expensive proposition ………….well it can be if you head online and buy a kit, and all the “instant inoculation powders” and all that gubbins.

But a bet you a penny to a pound of feta that your Greek Granny is not hopping onto Ebay and buying “Feta Kits” – she will be getting on and doing it her OS way – they way her Granny probably did – so I thought there must be a cheaper way of doing this at home.

And it worked!!!!

So – for my basic feta I need 5 litres of milk.  Ordinary supermarket milk is OK – standard pasturised but NOT UHT.  For some reason UHT makes itty bitty curds and its just not so good.

Some of that buttermilk we talked about before.  To make your own go HERE.

Some salt – but don’t buy salt with added iodine (which is what my supermarket of choice now stocks). Ordinary table salt is fine, doesn’t need to be your expensive rock salt ………….. this is a frugal proposition remember??

The teeny bottle in the front – well that is the one thing you do have to buy.  Its called rennet and I do buy it online – but just the smallest bottle at any one time as it goes a LOOOOONGGGG way.  You used to be able to get decent rennet tablets but I haven’t found a supplier or these so for three quid or so I keep a bottle of rennet in my fridge for my cheese making adventures.

My only other purchase this year was a piece of fine cheesecloth – cos I have no idea where the old piece has gone, but at about a quid it wasn’t the most expensive thing to replace.

Simple ingredients – makes just over 800g of decent feta.  My milk cost me £1.60 which is about the cost of a 200g block of feta in a supermarket.  So not ultra cheap but as we love feta in the summer and it is rationed due to our budget its a great way of getting more cheese for less money in our house.

This is my cheese making kit LOL. Are you guys not getting fed up seeing the base of my pressure cooker yet?  I know  I seem to use it for everything but it has a great thick base and it saves me having to put it away in the cupboard 

Jug for measuring with and a “skimmy thing” that came with my stainless steel kitchen set and I don’t know what it’s called but it is very handy for scooping curds out of the pot.

I wash and rinse my utensils welland flush them with lots of boiling water to get them as sterile as possible.  I mean I know we are going to introduce bacteria to milk – but we want that to be the friendly kind, not something that is going to make us ill.

Five litres of milk into the pot then bring up to 32 degree gently – over about 15 minutes or so.  Stir the pot occasionally as you really don’t want the milk to scorch on the bottom of the pan as that will give your cheese a foul taste.

Add 450ml of your buttermilk to the pan and stir well – sorry, forgot to take a picture of the buttermilk before I poured it, so here is a picture of the dribbly jug afterwards LOL

Lift your pan from the heat and set aside for an hour to let the bacteria in the buttermilk begin to do its stuff – this is what will develop the flavour of the cheese.

I have found that my heavy pan with the lid on keeps the mixture at 32 degrees or so for over an hour – but if your pan is lighter you may want to wrap it in a towel to keep it cosy.

Mix 6 drops of rennet in a couple of tablespoons of cooled boiled water.  Just six drops will set up 5 litres of milk so you can see that the 25ml bottle will go a long way.

Yes – you can buy vegetarian rennet too.  It will do the same job, but as you know we are not vegetarian so for us the old fashioned version is just fine.

Give the milk a good stir to make sure the rennet solution is well incorporated through the pan and pop the lid back on (wrap again in a towel if you need to)

After ABOUT 45 minutes the curds will be at the point they call “clean break” – where the point of a knife can go in and cleanly break the curds without it being all “yogurty” all over the knife.

Now this can depend on lots of things – temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure ……………………. so if it hasn’t reached the clean break stage in 45 minutes, just walk away and come back after 15 minutes to try again.

Using a knife that reaches down to the bottom of your pan cut the curds into 1cm strips by cutting horizontally and vertically through the pot.

Use the knife diagonally to turn the strips into roughly 1cm cubes – you don’t need to be too precise.

Wrap up the pan again and leave for about half an hour keeping the temperature at about 32 degrees.

I use a probe thermometer – so that I can take the temperature at the centre of the pot.

After 30 minutes the curds begin to sink away from the surface as they lose their whey content and become more dense.

Cheese making is the complete antithesis of “Fast Food” isn’t it – it is the ultimate “Slow Food” – but like making your own bread most of the time taken is waiting time so you can get on with the rest of your day whilst it does its own thing.

I clean my sink and place my colander in the sink with my cheesecloth inside.

So that I can sterilize the colander and the cheese cloth by pouring a kettle of boiling water all over them before carefully opening out the cheesecloth to drape over the sides.

By now your pot should be a mass of chunks of soft cheese – about the consistency of blancmange.  Definitely separate pieces but also fairly fragile.

Using the “skimmer thingie” or a slotted spoon, gently lift the curds out of the pot and lay gently in the cheesecloth lined colander.

The curds will slowly begin to drain – with the whey running away.

Leaving you after a couple of hours with a mass of curds about half your original volume.

I gather the corners of the cheesecloth up and tie – then hang the cheesecloth up to allow it to drip overnight.  The weight of the cheese inside will help to drain out the rest of the whey.

Yup!! that is a bungy cord you spy – but I told you this was the “make do and mend” version of cheesemaking didn’t it??? No expensive kits here at all.

Leave to drip overnight – and when you unwrap the cheese in the morning you will notice two things.

One ………………. a very distinctive cheesy smell – like you might walk into the kitchen and think – “What on earth is that?” …. but you are making cheese and cheese is sour milk so you’ve got to expect a certain whiff.  Its not unpleasant but it is distinctive.

Two – your cheese will have a head on it that is all jaggy and spiky.  So turn your cheese over so the spiky bits are at the bottom, retie your cheesecloth and hang up again until lunchtime.

When everything will look much smoother.

Now cut your cheese into 6 –  smaller pieces.  See the texture of the cheese in cross section is that distinctive crumbly feta appearance.

Place your feta into a clean plastic container and sprinkle all the cut surfaces well with salt to continue drawing out the moisture.  Turn the cheese 5 – 6 times in the next 24 hours and sprinkle any wet areas with more salt to continue wicking out the whey.

Now place lid of the box loosely on top.

Her is the bit that is going to be completely counterintuitive to you – you need to leave the cheese sitting on the side for at least a week (not refrigerated) to allow it to mature and develop its distinctive tangy flavour tones.

Deep breath and think about it – this is a cheese that has been made for an age in kitchens before they even had fridges.  Cheese is a way of preserving milk without the aid of electricity remember so be brave and let it sit.

Once your week is up you can either cut the feta into 1cm cubes and store covered in olive oil (like those chi-chi and expensive jars you buy in delis) OR create a brine of 200g salt in a litre of water and pour over the feta, snap the lid on and store in the fridge until you need a piece.

Pasta salad with feta is a lunchbox summer staple for the boys in our house – and I could live on Greek salad with feta and olives. With a ready supply of cheap, strong feta we can explore many Mediterranean dishes that we never make in the winter months ……………..

……………………so what is your favourite way of using feta cheese?

The post Homemade Feta Cheese appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

Four and a half kilos of tomato puree courtesy of Approved Foods a while back (99p a tin doncha know …………… and I bought FOUR!!!!)

Into these:

26 jars of tomato, garlic and herb pasta sauce!!!! – a basic staple in our house.  We use this in our lasagnes, pasta bakes, stirred into browned mince and veggies for bolognese, over cooked beans for chilis, poured over stuffed pancakes and diluted in soups………… you get the idea??

At least a jar per week – probably more ………….. and DS1 loves some stirred through hot pasta in his food flask for a lunch.  So “frugalising” this particular pantry staple is always going to pay off big time in this house.

So this morning started with me cleaning my jar stash in hot soapy water and rinsing them well – setting them aside to dry until needed.  I made sure I thoroughly cleaned the lids too and that I had enough lids to match my jars (I have been caught out by that before)

These jars are saved for me by a couple of local families  (FREE JARS!!! just for the asking)- most started life as pasta bake sauces or stir-in sauces anyway.  They ALL have the “poppy” lids – the one with the flexible middle that gets drawn downwards when a good seal is made.

I want to check that my seals are good – so I save these jars for making my own sauces – the ones without the “poppy” lids get used for jams, jellies and pickles.

Once I have cleaned the jars I place them in an oven at about 100 to completely dry them and get them quite hot – I will be ladling in hot sauce so don’t want to pour hot sauce into cold jars ……………….. shattered glass and all that 

Opened my mahoosive tin of puree. I am using my pressure cooker pan to cook the sauce in so needed to do this in three batches as you end up diluting the puree by 1part puree to 2 parts water.

So for my first batch I crushed eight cloves of garlic.

And softened in the merest smidge of oil in my pan.  I seasoned generously with salt and pepper before stirring in one third of the puree.

Three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar adds a nice depth to the sauce – tempered with the same three tablespoons of sugar and of mixed herbs.

I find that tomato puree on its own has a rather “raw” taste so I like to cook it out for a while until the taste is softened.  Takes about 15 minutes or so taking care to stir frequently so that the puree doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

Once you have cooked out the puree add boiling water a little at a time until a thick coating sauce is formed.  I use my big balloon whisk and like to get it to the consistency so that you can see the little whisk trails as you move it through the sauce.

I bring the sauce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes before stirring in one tablespoon of bottled lemon juice per jar of sauce and turning off the heat.

I can then remove the hot jars from the oven and fill the jars up to the necks.  I stir the jars with a chopstick to make sure that there are no air bubbles….

Then I carefully wipe the rims of the jars with a piece of kitchen paper moistened with vinegar – you need to make sure the rims are clean to get a good seal.

Whilst filling the jars I have the lids sitting in a pan of boiling water to warm them up before screwing them finger tight onto the jars.

And I carefully lift the hot jars into my canner (or any large pot that will allow you to place the jars in and submerge them under two inches of boiling water) I am using my canner ………… well because my pressure cooker base was being used to make the next batch of stock.

So cover the jars with at least 2 inches of water and bring to the boil – keep at a rolling boil for forty minutes to finish processing them.Then very carefully (and using a jar lifter) remove the jars from the boiling water and set on a towel for 24 hours.  As the jars cool you will hear a “pinking” sound as the “poppy” lids are drawn down and a good vacuum seal is made.

Any that don’t seal – pop in the fridge and use within a few days…… but all of mine have sealed today!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!! 26 jars of pasta sauce for about £1.50   ………………. so about 6p per jar.  Even better I know exactly what is in my sauce – no sweeteners, no gums, no colourings – you get the idea.  Good food – just cheaply made.

So at its very basic level – one jar of sauce and one packet of 19p pasta would feed four very piggie eaters quite nicely – but we often “pimp” our sauces to make them a little more creative.

So in the morning I shall carry all my jars upstairs when they are completely cold and tuck them safely into my store cupboard for future use – with the best news being that I won’t have to make another pot of tomato sauce again this side of Christmas LOL.

Still it will be nice to have them all lined up there ready to grab when I am in a hurry to put dinner on the table.

Wonder what I can make with the other three tins???

So what pantry staples do you like to have bulk prepared – what do you use that makes it easy to get dinner on the table?

The post “Bottling” Tomato Pasta Sauce appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

Still – at least the laundry got done today – and dried outside which is so lovely.  I didn’t realise that for some of our American Ladies that drying laundry outside was such a contentious issue.  From what I understand some local bye-laws in some states say you are not allowed.

It is one of my frugal pleasures to fold freshly dried laundry ………… and I send blessings to the Goddess of Outside Washing Lines (she is an actual Goddess – my Hindi friend from Bali says so!!!) for every day the washing is whipped out onto the line for an hour or so’s blow about in the wind.

Certainly I prefer this way of drying my clothes to actually (sharp intake of breath) …… “paying” for using a tumble drier.  But then – as we have already established ………….. I’m kind of tight like that.

So Frugal Pleasure Number One!!!

Frugal pleasure Number Two ……………………. FINALLY(hopefully) settling an ongoing dispute with Orange that has only taken twelve, YES TWELVE!!!! months to sort out.  That is after they had passed me over to their DCA – yes I had the “honour” of a BCW letter with breakfast today.

Since I moved provider they have continued to bill me for an iPad plan for an iPad I have never contracted for, they have never supplied me, and obviously I have never used.  Don’t have an iPad – you looking for a girl who loves her gadgets then you need to pop over and see Maria at The Money Principle – cos that girl AINT me!!!

Even worse – every month they send me a ZERO bill.  But on top of this ZERO bill they have seen fit to charge me a “Non Direct Debit Charge” plus VAT because I am not paying the £0.00 bill with a Direct Debit.

I was (I thought) successfully negotiating the labyrinthine internal systems of Oranges “Customer Care” ……………… doing pretty good – only on the phone 2 and a quarter hours, three dropped lines as they were about to pass me over to “someone in billing who can help” and finally got through to someone in Billing ………………….. who hung up on me “Because what you are saying makes no logical sense”

Gggggrrrrrr!!!! I know it makes no sodding sense – that is what I have told you every month for the last 12 months and for the last 12 months you have failed to sort it!!!!

So resorted to emailing the CEO – and “as if by magic” …………………cos I believe in Fairies LOL ………….. they suddenly appear to be able to help me.

I shall await with baited breath the letter to say that my account has been terminated – and shall file it with the one I have from June last year telling me EXACTLY the same thing!!

Just as well I keep every bit of financial paperwork that comes into this house isn’t it??

So – what’s the good and the bad of Finances this week?

Renegotiated my Utility Bills down £12 – after they put my DD up and THEN told me.  I have four years accurate usage on Gas and Electric to refer to – so I know that my overall energy usage has been on the decline.  Their assumption was that I would use 25% MORE power in the next year. NOT ON YOUR NELLY!!!

So much waffle “we can only base our estimates on your last three months usage” – which forgive me, but when you are in a 4 season country is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

For instance – in the bleak midwinter I use about 55 kWh of gas per day – in the summer I use 5 kWh ………………. significant difference (Central Heating is off) – so looking at my last three months usage is NOT going to be able to help you predict what I shall use in December.

Common sense is I fear totally lacking.

But it does go to show that keeping an eagle eye on all your bills can pay dividends.

Sorted out the new lodger for the Big Letting Room – he will be here in September and as he is a student it will not affect my Council Tax either. £80 per week will be very gratefully received.

The Small Letting Room is now advertised on a couple of websites and I have forwarded the details over to the Accommodation Officers of the local college and the University.

New job at the Courier is progressing – which will add £50 per week to our income line – and I am planning that ALL of that will end up in the mortgage account.

Speaking of which – I calculated today that I have only paid £133 over the normal interest payment this month so far – but I have the standard bills money and the £100 for everything else money set aside for July already.

With no more calls on my income the plan is to transfer ALL the rest of my income for the last two weeks in June into the mortgage account – I have my eyes on the next thousand mark and I am so nearly there.

With our “Six weeks of Summer Store cupboard Challenge” well under way in the planning stages I am hopeful that we will be able to hold our weekly shopping spend at the £14 – £18 per week that we have had for the last five weeks.  Not too shabby for a family of three.

So what have the Highs and Lows of your Financial Weeks been?  What frustrations have you turned in successes ……………….. and how do you find it best to deal with the bureaucracy of large companies?

Ahhhhh!!! here comes the rain – hopefully there goes my headache!!!

The post Week 24 Financial Scorecard appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

DS1 has been a star munching his way through the freezer goodies at lunchtime these past few weeks and tonight over dinner he came up with a pretty snazzy plan – which prompted us to shove the rest of our dinner down fairly sharpish and to scuttle off with pads poised to do a mini stock-take.

His challenge is to build a menu of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks for the whole of the six weeks of summer from what we already have in store – meaning that I will not only be able to fully fund our Big Emergency Fund but to have a little money available to do some much needed maintenance on the house….. all from our normal weekly cashflow.

I love that he is thinking how to make our money go further and not about borrowing money to do the maintenance and decoration that we put off because of time / health constraints.

I think this mindset will serve him well in years to come.

So the next couple of weeks will be focussed on selecting these meals and storing them away ready to make it a really easy summer for me as most of the shopping and prepping will be done.

Things like:

Measuring flour, sugar, salt and dried milk into baggies – for a just add an egg and water pancake mix.  I have everything in my stores except the eggs which I count at 10 p each.  

I can do the same with our Norwegian waffles and make a couple of fruit syrups to serve with them.

And pre-mixed muffins are always a hit ………………

Felafel mixes – from gram flour and some dried herbs.  Just add water and roll into balls to serve inside HM pittas.  Just need to add some salad and sesame dressing and a lunch is sorted.

Beanburgers for dinner – easy enough to make a batch  and freeze for a quick dinner with salsa and chips.

Crespolini –  have frozen 6 portions of ricotta – so a batch of crepes in the freezer will make another “bung it in the oven for 15 minutes dinner”

And enchiladas have made a special mention by both of the boys so I guess we will need to factor those in as well LOL

So we are settling down with some mint tea and biccies to decide on a weekly menu that we will use for the six weeks of summer -

I like the idea that I shall have a very easy summer as I will know exactly how little food I shall need to buy every week to make the recipes work for us ……. and hopefully saving lots of money to freshen up the house (in a totally Moneysaving Make-do-and-Mend kind of way naturally)

In fact this is shaping up to be a pretty organised and downright frugal summer.

So what storecupboard meals could you conjure up for your own “six weeks of summer” mini – challenge?

The post Summer Store Cupboard Challenge appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

Hand on heart I can say our standard of living is better than it has ever been – and the flipside is that in actuality it costs us very little.

So yesterday’s birthday celebrations were simple and just what was needed.

I rarely have flowers in the house ……………. just never got into the habit I suppose, but yesterday my Mum brought in a bunch “just because they will look nice in your kitchen” ……………… and they certainly do!!!

Naturally we made one of these – the Colliar Classic …………… sponge filled with cream and strawberries.

Can I just say that we literally OOhed and AAhed as it came out of the oven – you could have laid a spirit level over the surface it was so perfect…. not a mound or a hollow in sight.  Mary Berry would have wept I tell you – wept!!!!

Even better – after a slice all around for “after school tea” and then one for supper it meant there has been no leftovers to eat today.  Nice when  your Dad pops in after golf just cos he “thought there might be cake” LOL

Loads of cards ………. even some clever handmade cards arrived – and one lovely sent what my Mum has dubbed the “DIY Afternoon Tea Kit” – Coffee, Liquorice Allsorts Earl Gray tea, dried fruits for scones and two precious vanilla pods.

Pods have already been relocated to their new homes – one is in a jar of sugar to make vanilla sugar for some autumnal baking and the other is steeping in cheap vodka to make some vanilla extract to see us through till next summer.

What was even better was the note confessing that she had “raided her stores” – now that is a birthday present with real thought behind it 

My boys (OK the big one not the little one because I am sure I would have ended up with a packet of Pokemon cards!!!) bought me a Les Mis DVD.

I missed the trip to see this at the cinema when my back was sore ……. and it holds some very fine memories for me in my time as a West End Stage Manager ……………….OK mostly trawling the dodgy bars looking for missing actors and the now infamous “two week technical rehearsal” where everything is seemed that could go wrong did go wrong.

But a damn fine score and as I am a sucker for all things musical this is right up my street.

The Oven Cleaner? – well Mum brought that too – but she has made me promise to tell you it was because I asked her to pick one up and it was NOT her birthday present to me LOL.

A productive conversation with my Utility supplier resulted in a £12 per month reduction in the DD – don’t get me started on why they calculated that I was going to use 25% MORE power next year than this …………….. when for the last three years I have been steadily using LESS power annually.

But up to date readings and a few quotes from Martins website resulted in the CORRECT DD amount being levied ………………. but ((SIGH!!!)) they don’t make it easy do they??

My “potential” University lodger is now a “confirmed” University Lodger – and his semester runs from 9th Sept so I will have time to spruce up the house, have a last holiday with my wee boy before he goes off to school and have them all into a routine before he arrives.

Moneysaving wise – well the “Rent a Room” Scheme runs April to April – so looks like there will be no tax to pay on his money either as it is split over two tax years 

Another article for the Courier flew off my fingers this morning – although if I must confess sticking to a mere 350 words is quite a challenge for this “waffler” (the word count on this post is already  640 BTW)  But I am happy if they are happy and we can all be happy together.

And snail count in the garden today was 11 snail and 7 slugs!!!  But the good news is that we harvested our first leaves today and everything is taking such a spurt on.

Lastly – a wee confession!!

A couple of days ago I said I was going to be “21 twice with a year for luck!”

NOPE!!!!

Now I think about it I am 21 twice with TWO years for luck – OMG!!! I am actually 44 NOT 43!!!!  Do you think I am still too young to claim that as a “senior moment?”

I humbly apologise for my mental maths and await the mickey taking that will naturally ensue LOL

Thanks for all you messages on FB and Twitter – it made my day it truly did!!

The post Some Days the Frugal Life just flows appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

I had to submit my first article last week and of course was waiting on tenterhooks    to hear back today that what I had submitted was what they were after……..thankfully it was, but I have had a weekend full of regrets thinking “I should have written this, I shouldn’t have written that!!!!”

Goes with the “perfection paralysis” that we all suffer from time to time  I suppose.

What the Editor wants to do it mention me in some of their other columns – an introduce me to the readership kind of thing  …………….. and have suggested that I submit an article with a photo of my younger self and one of my ………………. “elegantly vintaged” self.

“I can do that” I said………….. but wowsers, what a can of worms has been opened up this afternoon 

What would my advice be to my younger self???

I’ve got my list ………………… but what  piece of advice would you like to give your younger self?

What do you know now that you wish you had known then?

What advice would you give on family, finances, relationships, career, happiness??

If you could have steered your younger self away from one disastrous choice – what would that have been?

I totally get that this is a moment of self reflection prior to my birthday tomorrow – but what would you three pieces of advice be to your younger self???

The post What would your advice be – to You? appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

Always a great excuse for a big sponge with cream and strawberries.

I’m not expecting it to be much of a do – my Mum and Dad paid half my Road Tax on Hermione for my birthday as I was a teeny bit short cashflow wise.  But I have a couple of cards that have arrived and I shall save that for the “special” day.

Only this year it really doesn’t feel very special at all.  

I shall be 43 – two thirds of my way to retirement ……………. but having been wiped out in the Credit Crunch I have pretty much zero put aside for that fateful day, although on the bright side I have proven to myself that I would be able to live on the State Pension if I didn’t have to also service a mortgage (should it still be around when I retire that is)

I did find an old pension that I had when we Equity members operated under Schedule D tax wise ……………………. and although there is £6500 in the fund I’m afraid that the fund is closed and I can’t make any further contributions…. ……… and I am thinking that a “pension” might not be the way to go at this late stage anyway.

My musing today (as I weeded the garden and helped Dad paint the shed) is that I need to build an ISA ladder – to use my ISA allowance every year to save some money for retirement in the most Tax efficient way possible.

But it is one of those things that you keep putting off till later don’t you?

So I came to a decision today – that I would take some action and start setting up some pension provision to run alongside the paying of the mortgage…….. but I kind of knew that a “Vanilla ISA” wasn’t really going to cut it for me.

You see I need to be in higher risk investments for a few years to make up some of the ground that I have lost ……………. lowering the level of risk as I move closer to retirement age. Also with an ISA wrapper the money doesn’t necessarily have to be locked away until retirement – I could access it earlier.

The rule of thumb is “half your age as a percentage of your income” – so on an income of £221 per week I “should” be investing 21.5% of my income for retirement.  Which is £47.51 per week.

My budget is a bit too squeaky for that – but I could probably manage half of that to begin with, maybe a little more on a good week  - and like the mortgage, where the first payment was just £12.50, when you start the process of paying it becomes easier to continue.

Of course I can always increase my “pension provision” as I start earning more money IYSWIM.

So I have found a place where I can manage my own ISA – and manage my own risk.  I’m not going to name any names but they come highly recommended and as I find out more about the details of course I will pass it on (this isn’t a sponsored post BTW – just my ramblings on a Sunday night).

Thing is – it starts with a minimum investment of £1000 to set up the fund so I am pondering a few scenarios – and I’d like your view as to which one I should consider:

As soon as the Emergency Fund is fully funded again (this is the NON NEGOTIABLE PART) – pull back to the basic interest only component of the mortgage for a few months and throw everything over to fund the start up of my fund.  Set up a direct monthly payment of £100 to be reviewed every quarter.

OR

I could bite the bullet and take £1000 from my mortgage account and set up the account now.  Setting up a £100 pcm payment from there on in and then working my sockies off to repay the mortgage capital again.

I’m not sure it makes much difference either way ………….. but the time has come to bite the bullet, be a grown up and start making provision for my own future.

What do you think? How have you guys prepared for retirement?

The post Growing up – or just growing older? appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

So when the sun comes out on a day we can make a family excursion together – its like all my holidays have come at once.

This morning the sun was blazing hot – and it was the day of the “Cupar Highland Games” so we were up at the “crack of sparrows” to make sure all our chores were done before the 12 o’clock opening.

We like to be there to watch the Pipe Ban come marching in – especially as it was the City of St Andrews Pipe Band and the are, well to coin a phrase “fan-dabby-dosie”

All morning we could hear Pipers warming up all over town – and the Big Band collecting at the big car park  before their march to the Games Field.  Now, I love me some pipe music ……………..but I will the first to confess that it is best appreciated at some distance from the Pipers themselves.

In fact if you are sitting on a hill listening to a band – the best place for them to be is on ANOTHER hill ……………….. so pegging out the washing in my garden this morning I was really able to appreciate their mastery of some stirring Battle Tunes ………….. at a considerable distance 

A Highland Gathering is like the most laid back sports day you have ever attended – except for the athletes of course who take it very seriously and follow the games around the country almost every weekend in the season.

There are some “new”sports  ………………….. our “other national sport” being cycling of course LOL.  Running is the major one – after all for centuries our main route of communication was literally sending a runner over the heather to the next clan …………… we may not match the North Africans for speed but we certainly did today for enthusiasm.

Lots of prize giving – and winners win money too!  OK not enough to get me in training for next year but a fiver here a tenner here pays for the chips on the way home I suppose.

This is the other side of the Highland Games – the dancers!!  They compete all day in the blazing sun (today) and the tipping rain (every other year) and they are FIT!!! Seriously – forget your zumba!!! I spit on your marathon running!!! – five verses and chorus of the Highland Fling reduces most people who consider themselves “fit”to gibbering wrecks.

Then they usually run in the kids races to win the inevitable bag of sweeties

Always something interesting to look at LOL.  These guys are called “The Heavies” -cos?  Well ……………….. whadda you think?? These guys are HUGE!!!!

They put the shot, throw hammers, toss weights over a high bar (the equivalent of throwing a five year old over a double decker is the standard weight BTW – just think a  huge sack of potatoes and imagine throwing that 14ft into the air!!!!

You’d think the kids would be terrified of these “Heavies” – but it is a point of honour for every young boy to get the photo of “the day I got held over the head of the big guy at the Highland Games” ……………. it goes along with the shot of you as a baby wrapped in the Shetland Shawl your Great Granny knitted and the one of you naked on your tummy on a sheepskin rug just before you started to crawl …………………………. every Scottish Mama is now nodding their head in recognition I am sure LOL

Now – no chortling at the back do you here??? This here is your  official “Tossing the Caber”  Basically a ruddy big pine tree with the branches chopped off. Its about 17ft long and weighs a ton (some Games even submerge their caber in the local river until it is well and truly waterlogged to make it even heavier)

You pick the caber up and start galloping down the field with it held vertical …….

Then you stop and throw the caber up so that it tumbles end over end ……… imagine a clock face!!  Now when you stop you are standing at 6 o’clock, you throw the caber and when the top of it hits the ground that is the centre of the clock and the angle that it ends up lying down determines your score.

The best score is you at 6pm, the caber lands in the centre of the clock and it falls dead on 12 o’clock.  There you go – now you know!!! Of course if you only have a digital clock then none of that will have made any sense whatsoever LOL.

Although we were there on a “family Ticket” – £10 for us all which is a total bargain for five hours of entertainment in the scorching heat we did pack the “traditional” Colliar Banquet.  Packed lunches all around with a couple of knitted blankets that were made before DS1 was born and are still part of our summer set-up.

Having raced through our chores in the morning – and packed lunches, Dad bought us all (the grown ups not the kids) a bitter shandy from the beer tent.  Just the one hit the spot perfectly, although I am such a cheap date that I could feel myself nodding a little sitting in the heat about halfway through.

Still the whole point of a local day out is that you don’t have to drive home anyway 

So I was sitting sipping on my pint (plastic glass but what can you do?)when two Policemen wander up to us.

“Are you Elaine?”

“Erm???” as I have an OMG moment and tally up every slightly suspect thing I have ever done in my life.  Guilty conscience – Moi????

“You are aren’t you? – you have that Blog!! The one my missus made the Tablet from at Christmas?”

I nod dumbly

“You are famous at our station – they love it when she makes that for piece-time”

and they wandered off …………………………………..

My Mums reaction  - slightly hysterical laughter and a

“Famous at last Hen!!!  Just don’t forget …………………… it was my Bl***y recipe”

You can’t win can you??? LOL

Still and all round fantastic day – made even better by the fact that all the weekend chores were done before we went out to spend the afternoon sitting in the sun, in a field, watching men in kilts go birling past 

Only in Scotland

So how have you lasses been passing this fine Saturday – not working too hard I hope?  I hope you have been having some fun too?

The post Famous -at long last LOL appeared first on Mortgage Free in Three.

So what’s the damage?

Well …………………………… I toddled off to the Big Horse Bank today and got a printout of the balance of my mortgage account. I am not quite back to where I was before my back went but I am pretty close.  Close enough to decide to have a superfrugal June in order to finish the month “Even Stevens”

Mortgage and bills are already paid for this month ………… and weekly food bills are slipping nicely under the £20 mark – todays “weekly shop” was £12.36 and last weeks total came to £18.67 so there is plenty wiggle room in my £100 for everything budget.

Menu for next week is:

Saturday: Griddled chicken with salsa and flatbreads

Sunday: Pressure Cooker Meatloaf with new potatoes and lemon cabbage

Monday: Potato and chick pea curry, Nann breads and raitha

Tuesday: Ricotta stuffed pancakes with Italian Salad

Wednesday: Pasta salad with HM Feta

Thursday: Butterbean and Tuna with garden salad and ciabatta

Friday: Grilled Halloumi with lentil and lemon salad.

Scottish Powers website is still not accepting meter readings – this has been going on quite a while now ……………. and I have got an email from Martin Lewis (well not him personally you understand) to say that Scottish Hydro looks like being a better deal for me anyway by about £25 a month. So on Monday I shall investigate that pronto to check out whether a mid-summer switch might be appropriate.

Last Saturday was the “Cupar Children’s Gala” – both boys were given a crisp fiver to spend as they wanted.

DS2 bought a bow and arrow set, some cakes, a packet of sweeties and came back with some change to go in his piggie.

DS1 enjoyed his picnic, said thank you to Grandma for the 3 tickets for the rides she purchased ……….. and Grandad bought the traditional ice-creams.  Long story short he came back with his fiver intact (That’s My Boy!!!)

Since then we have bought NOTHING that wasn’t food – our extras this week were 2 x 6 pints of milk reduced to 99p each, some cold ham and a french stick for a day that DS2 and I decided to have a French Picnic in the garden.  Ham baguettes and grape juice from proper wine glasses – he felt so grown up!!

I made loads of beef stock – 11 litres canned and sitting in my store for winter – but the bones came free from the butcher so was a nil cost to our budget. The chick pea experiment was a huge success and cost me nothing as the peas came from my store cupboard.

Gardening has been mega frugal this week – 18 more garlic cloves have been planted after the last bulb in the fruitbowl decided to sprout ………

………… oh!! and we planted some pea-shoots to give us another quick addition to our lunchtime salads.  No expensive seeds for us, these were grown from a supermarket packet of dried marrowfat peas – MUCH cheaper than those from a garden centre.

Just soak a handful of peas in some cold water for 24 hours to soften them up and encourage them to germinate faster.

Sprinkle quite thickly over a damp bed of soil and then encourage little boy fingers to poke them underneath.

The follow behind with a few handfuls of soil to cover them up and then water every evening for a week or so until they sprout and then you can start harvesting the shoots when they get to a decent size.

They make great pesto BTW with some parmesan, garlic and olive oil and blitzed in a blender.  They taste of “essence of pea” when tossed in a salad and I quite like them piled in a bowl with minestrone poured over to wilt them.

Cheap as anything but really tasty.

I have now finished funding the “School Uniform” pots – so both DS1 and DS2 can get new uniforms later in the summer. I shall put  off buying the trousers  as late as possible as DS1 is shooting up almost daily at the moment so don’t want to jump the gun – his shirts are also still fine so may not purchase new ones until later in the year…………. the investment in M&S shirts and a packet of Oxy-clean was well worth it.

As for DS2 – well at least I now know the colour of sweatshirt I shall need to buy for him for August don’t I ((wipes brow and says a thankful prayer))Mind you I am complete denial that my wee one is off to school after the summer – in my head you see he still looks like this.

Remember Waaaaaaay back at the Easter Holidays we were going to take the boys to Glasgow for a few days – staying in a Travelodge, going by bus and using the two-day open top bus passes to get around the museums and stuff ……….. and how that all got knocked on the head when my back crumbled?

Well Mum has scored a great deal on the hotel again – £19 per night for a family room ………………. so we are off on our slightly delayed Glasgow adventure on 15th – 18th of July .  Even better I actually feel like haring around the museums with my boys ………….. yes, the old me is returning slowly but surely.

So mission is on to make sure that there is enough in the “Summer Fun” kitty to treat the boys to a few meals, more than a few ice-creams and a whole summer of fun and active things to do.  DS1 wants to do the Fringe again and DS2 wants to have a trip on a narrow-boat.  The first is doable …………… but narrowboats are like rocking horse poo in rural Fife so will have to think on it a little.

And our “golden dream” would be to stretch to a few days in a caravan somewhere – a few days where the boys get to “unplug” and Mum gets to cook in a different kitchen .  Might be a bit tight after losing a couple of months to illness so the only thing to do is keep our eyes on the prize and our hands out of the wallet LOL.

So back into the OS groove – keep munching through our stores and making do and mending with all our hearts.

So over to you m’lovelies …………. name the “little things” that are on your frugal “to-do” list this week.  What do you hope to tackle?

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