Second hand kitchenalia

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 1 March 2011 in charity shopping, frugal | 7 comments

Piper, who writes about The Frugal Life on MSN, has asked: Would you fit your kitchen out in second hand items or do you insist on brand new?. I started to reply on Twitter but quickly ran out of characters!

We joke that our house is “the house that eBay” built after my numerous purchases on the auction site in the months after we bought our new house – and the kitchen was one of the main recipients of that. We replaced the very dated, dark green hob & plastic sink with eBay specials – less than £20 each for a very good quality stainless steel Smeg hob (and collected from less than a mile away!), and a white ceramic farmhouse sink with taps & waste — they really transformed the kitchen, making it a lot brighter & easier to use/clean. I’m currently looking out for a new oven (since ours is old and playing up) – and that’ll be a used but in good condition one from eBay too.

The kitchen itself was installed by the house’s previous owners in the early-mid 1990s – it’s a bit dated/not our style and also the cupboards in the small extension don’t match the rest – but it’s fine. We might replace the cupboard doors at some point – but I imagine that’ll only happen if a perfect set comes up on eBay/Freecycle or is heavily, heavily reduced at a shop (such as ex-display). The previous owners also left their fridge, freezer, microwave & dishwasher – we’re going to swap out the separate fridge & freezer with our old stacked one when our coal hole is finally turned into a utility room, but that old one was also secondhand — a freebie from a relative upgrading their kitchen.

Most of our crockery is a retro set my mum & dad used when I was little – we got what remained of a dinner & coffee set off them a couple of years ago and have been adding to it from charity shop finds ever since. The best charity shop find was a complete dinner set in the same design but a different base colour (cream instead of mustard yellow) – for £3. Other random plates & bowls were charity shop finds including the most chintzy plate I’ve ever seen, which John hates but I think is perfect for cakes.

Our most commonly used pans were a cheap set my brother bought to take to university in 1995 – he returned from uni with them and I took them when I moved out of home in 1998 and have been using them ever since. Similarly, we’ve got a small casserole dish that was given to my mum and dad as a wedding present when they married in 1974 (retro chic a go go!).

We have two sets of scales – both from charity shops. Our pots for wooden spoons etc are old school lidless crock pots – 40? 50 years old?. Our two small teapots are a hand-me-down and a charity shop find respectively. Our cereal bowls are little Chinese soup bowls from someone emptying out a store at a restaurant. Our blender & pasta maker & blender were both unwanted re-gifts. Our fruit bowl came from a charity shop. Our former egg storage chicken was a charity shop purchase too – but she’s just too small for our egg collection these days!

So would I fit out our kitchen out in second hand items? umm, yes!

February – end of month review

Posted by louisa on Monday 28 February 2011 in chickens, frugal, goals, growing, less than 12 clothes challenge, making, meta | 9 comments

February seems to have flown by and has been a lot of fun — a good balance between work, household/growing/making productivity, crafting, and future planning.

Goals in 2011 progress

I’ve started making progress on some of the more long term goals – started sowing seeds which will hopefully turn into homegrown veg and again, I’ve made things with wood which will help with my “make a piece of furniture” goal. I haven’t baked each week but I’ve tried a few new recipes – including some lovely cinnamon biscotti – so at least I’m doing bits. (We’ve not been baking much bread recently because it’s still a bit too cold for yeast to rise properly.)

From my secondary list, I’ve also tried making soap, although I’m not sure it’s been a success yet (the soap in the moulds is still very soft). I also made a notebook (above) from scrap paper and a curtain sample, which wasn’t on my list but I had so much fun doing it that I think “learn different book binding techniques” should be on there now! Finally, we’ve been working to reduce our food waste (and save money/our sanity) by preparing meal plans – we’re not sticking to them 100% but they’re working well in general.

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

In my no more than 12 items of clothes in 2011 challenge, my tally is still zero — I’ve not bought anything this month either. I have though started looking at stuff rather than just shutting myself off from the possibilities – partly because I need to develop willpower rather than just avoiding temptation and partly because I feel like it’s time I had something new to wear (I’ve not bought any clothes since November – and that was only replacement jeans). It’s when I’m getting ready to go to drama – the classes I teach or rehearsals etc – because my suitable clothes are such a subset of my wardrobe — they not only have to be neat enough to wear outside the house, they can’t be too cleavage-y (which is a problem with a lot of my clothes because my body is too cleavage-y!) and they have to be suitable for wearing as a supposedly-responsible adult in front of teenagers. I have plenty of plain t-shirts to wear but a limited amount of warm clothes so I’ve been getting a bit bored – and as we’re preparing for a production at the start of April, I’ll be there a lot more regularly which will mean cycling through them more. So long story short, I might break into my quota in March.

Growing stuff & the chickens

This week’s meal plan – it’s a curry-centric one! ;)

Posted by louisa on Sunday 27 February 2011 in cooking, frugal, weekly meal plans | 5 comments

We didn’t do great with our meal plan last week – I think the novelty of having one has started to wane but we’re keen to turn it into a habit so we’re going to keep trying with it. Actually, looking at it again, we did have most of the meals we’d planned, just not in the right order. And the one meal we didn’t have – Spanish omelette – didn’t result in anything being wasted – we had to go to the supermarket to buy potatoes and ended up getting something else instead. Anyway, onward and upward:

Sunday night – meal out – curry, woo! (we’re leaving very soon so double woo! ;) )

Monday lunch – soup & bread
Monday dinner – chicken & red pepper risotto with salad

Tuesday lunch – curried egg mayo sandwiches
Tuesday dinner – jacket potato & tuna with salad

Wednesday lunch – falafel in pitta with salad & raita
Wednesday dinner – keema & channa achar (a lamb mince & chickpea curry)

Thursday lunch – pitta with meat/cheese
Thursday dinner – smoked mackerel kedgeree

Friday lunch – bread & meat/cheese
Friday dinner – frittata

Ten things to do while waiting forever for soap to trace

Posted by louisa on Friday 25 February 2011 in frugal, making, soap | 6 comments

1. Stare blankly out of the window (I did this a lot).

2. Gyrate your hips at the same speed/direction as the whisk for a lower back workout. (Warning: if you do this for a few minutes, it feels really weird when you stop .)

3. Wonder if that itch on your cheek is just an itch or a splash of caustic soap which will burn your entire face off. Itch or disfiguring splash? ITCH OR DISFIGURING FACE BURNING SPLASH?!! Oh, itch.

4. Look up “mixture not tracing” in the troubleshooting section of your soap making book and in a spate of paranoia, decide it’s all those problems together, even the ones that directly contradict each other and also worry that even though the itch on your cheek has stopped, perhaps it’s slowly melting YOUR ENTIRE SKULL.

5. Grow concerned for your mental state.

6. Have a cup of tea to calm down.

7. Think it’s finally tracing because it’s getting harder to stir, then realise no, it’s not tracing, it’s just your arm is getting really, really tired.

8. Wonder if it’ll ever trace. Ever, ever, ever.

9. Decide this is boring and a ballache and should never be attempted again.

10. Decide that once it’s reached trace and is poured into molds to take the dog for a walk and while you’re out go to Netto to buy more oil so you can started another batch this afternoon (I like grinding new skills – ie trying them multiple times in quick succession).

It’s been a long day.

My chicken keeping spreadsheet

Posted by louisa on Thursday 24 February 2011 in chickens, Featured | 9 comments

I’ve had a number of visitors and a few emails from people asking about my “chicken keeping spreadsheet” which I thought was a bit weird because while I do have one, I haven’t really spoken about it (…have I?). I’m actually quite chuffed with my chicken spreadsheet though so inspired by Jono from RealMenSow‘s market price for homegrown veg spreadsheet, I thought I’d share my chicken one for those people who’re interested in it – and anyone else who may be now they know it exists :)

I’m a bit of a spreadsheet nerd. I like graphs. I like formulas. I like automatically inserted data. And my chicken-ing spreadsheet reflects this. If you like those things too, you can download it from here:

• .xls spreadsheet – for Excel
• .ods spreadsheet – for OpenOffice Calc

I made it in OpenOffice Calc but to “release” it here, I’ve converted the formulas so they’re Excel (and Google Docs) compatible. I *think* they work – although I’m not sure the graphs do. Do please shout if anything doesn’t work for you and I’ll try to fix it ASAP.

Column widths and heights are almost certain to need adjusting.

About my chicken spreadsheet

It’s evolved over the last eight months – it started as a simple one sheet list of expenditure but now it keeps all sorts of data in it – and does a lot of calculations to save my little brain from having to do any work. And also it has a useful summary sheet (seen in print preview above) and graphs in it. Mmm, graphs. It may have grown to be a bit overly complicated for some people’s liking but it works for a spreadsheet nerd like me :)

There is some dummy data in the spreadsheet templates above – based on my girls – just to show what it can do and the formats (for dates etc) needed to make it work. Possibly best to overwrite this (and for more rows, copy existing data then overwrite it) to preserve formulas (where applicable).

It’s focused around egg laying, because that’s what my chickens do. I could easily extend it to include details about meat chickens if we end up going that way – with nice alerts to tell me who is ready for the chop!

It’s designed for domestic chicken keepers – people with backyard hens for eggs & pleasure rather than business/profit. If we get around to selling any eggs at any point (we haven’t yet, we just give them away), then I’ll include a sales sheet. (If you would like that sheet added and can’t make it yourself, let me know and I’ll work it out. If you can make your own sales sheet for use in this overall spreadsheet, do share!)

It’s released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license – ie, you’re free to download it, use it and modify it to your heart’s content but if you want to share it (whether in the original form or with your own additions included) with anyone else, you must share under the same licence and give me a credit.

Below, I’ve given lots of nerdy detail/info for using the spreadsheet including how to change various defaults and about ways I’d like to improve it. In case you’re interested/feeling nosey, my “live” chicken spreadsheet – with all the correct data in it up to today – is available here.

Chocolate Coffee Mousse recipe

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 23 February 2011 in cooking, Featured, recipes | 5 comments

I stumbled upon this recipe a little while ago and it’s become a favourite in the Peach household – not only is it one of the nicest, richest desserts I’ve ever eaten, it both uses up eggs (a good thing!) and is really pretty easy & quick to make as well.

It’s easy because it cheats by starting with ready-made chocolate. I’ve tried making it with both fancy 70% chocolate and cheaper plain stuff (I mean really cheap plain stuff – Netto, two 200g bars for £1.50) – there is a difference, the former was obviously a lot stronger and richer, but you know what? the cheaper stuff did pretty well too. The intense strong chocolate is nice but can be a bit overwhelming – I’d certainly make it again with the cheaper stuff, especially if the people eating it weren’t major dark chocolate fans.

Regarding the coffee, John is a coffee snob so we have very good beans in the house pretty much all the time and he makes it using an Aeropress which apparently removes a lot of the bitterness (I don’t like to drink coffee but I like it as a flavour in cakes & desserts). Since it was being mixed with other things, he didn’t use his super expensive stuff but used a blend of “old” beans (admittedly no more than a few weeks old) to make the espresso. I dare say the fact it was good coffee to start with added to the flavour of the finished dessert.

Aside from that though, eggs is eggs, a little sugar is a little sugar. If the eggs are homegrown (as ours are), the only real cost is the chocolate, with an extra 20p or so for the fancy-smancy coffee. For a super rich dessert for four, I think it’s pretty reasonable.

Playing catch up

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 22 February 2011 in charity shopping, chickens, growing | 3 comments

Apologies for being a little quieter than normal recently – after my busy work weekend, I had lots of exciting plans for yesterday but all of them went by the wayside in favour of sitting. Ahh, sitting.

Anyway, so today has been catch-up day, as well as supposedly being a normal work day and having to go to Leeds ont’ bus to do some stuff regarding our old house (which we’re *still* trying to sell) – busy day! I started clearing out the chicken coop and had lots of fun with Lime, my favourite of our girls. While she was moulting, she was a little more distant than usual but today she was with me the whole time, including climbing out of the nest box’s open flap to sit on my knee while I cleaned in there (and then came for a wander around the garden under my arm when I went to reprimand our barking dog). I think/hope we’re going to be reasonably logical/hard-hearted with the hens in general — they’re food producers not pets — but I think Lime is firmly in pet territory now. The others still might end up as soup or in a curry but she’s going to be around for the long term.

After that, I potted on the honeyberry plantlets that arrived over the weekend. You know last week when I said we were done for fruit for 2011? Well, I was wrong – I’d forgotten about the honeyberries which I’d bought as part of a big order in November — I only remembered when Fiona mentioned getting one herself on Twitter last week. Anyway, now I have three little ones in pots. I’m not sure where they’ll end up – they grow to about 4ft tall but I’ve filled my 4ft+-tall spots with the fruit bushes from a couple of weeks ago. I doubt they’ll grow that big or even big enough to fruit this year though so I’ll have a little while to figure it out. They’re definitely the last of the fruit for the year though. Except for the cherry tree which is due in a few weeks. And anything else that pops up.

Speaking of popping up, my heated propagator stuff is starting to poke through! My cucumbers said “7-21 days” for germination but have started to appear at 5 or 6 – lovely strong shoots. A couple of tomatoes have made it through too. Away from the heated propagator, today seems to have been the day for my cauliflowers to germinate as well. I am perhaps more excited by all these green shoots than I should be ;)

That (and some work) was all this morning and this afternoon I’ve been in Leeds – at our old house, at the bank and picking up misc things from Wilkinsons (including the last of my soap making supplies – woo!) – and I had a little time for a spot of charity shopping too. I actually looked at clothes in one place – I decided I couldn’t hide from temptation forever and I’ve had a number of good things from there in the past – but didn’t buy anything. I did see a top that I might of bought in a more spend-hearty type – it was nothing special, just a basic t-shirt thing, of the type I wear a lot and already have a lot – but now it wasn’t worth wasting a clothing credit on it — it wasn’t that special and I don’t need it. I think I’m experiencing a mental shift when it comes to buying clothes – hurrah!

I did buy one thing from a charity shop though – a cute little lunch box thing for £1:

Apparently “miko cat” is Boots’ Hello Kitty homage/rip-off but whatever, it’s a black cat (the very best type of cat) and it’s cute. When I brought it home, John clasped it to his chest and asked if he could have it for his pencils. I reminded him that he lost my last lunchbox so no, but we could use it for our pencils.

Now I must go as a I have a wonderfully delicious chocolate-coffee mousse to eat. If you just raised your eyebrows at the thought of a “wonderfully delicious chocolate-coffee mousse”, stay tuned – I’m hoping to post the recipe tomorrow :)