Summer season for car boot sales!

There are two very good car boot sales in the Liskeard area in the summer months. Both a run by the local Lions clubs. The Liskeard car boot sale is held from 4 - 7 pm on Friday, at the Cricket Club and we arrived at 4 and it was in full swing. There were all sorts of useful things for sale, from furniture to clothes but I was most impressed at the amount of children's clothes, toys and equipment for sale.
There were a lot of mums there buying useful things for their children and lots of useful things for their homes. We found a stall where some one had lots of bedding. I bought a double blanket for a pound and it's in perfect condition. We put them under the sheets on the beds as it keeps us warmer. This, although it smells freshly laundered, will go in with my next wash ready for us to put on one of our beds. The other carboot sale is held every Saturday at Westwayland Farm, on the way to Looe and Polperro. We've never been to that one as I cleaned caravans every Saturday last year. I hope to get to one or two of them this year. We just had fun ambling around and having a good look. I can certainly recommend the Liskeard car boot sale and if you have anything to sell and live locally then it's buzzing with customers looking for bargains.

Recycled Furniture

My dining room is never normally this tidy! This was taken when we had the house on the market and we 'de-cluttered' the house.

Nothing in this room is new or cost very much. The curtains are homemade. The floor was laid by my son, who is a carpenter. The dining room suite was £80 from a house sale and the shelves were made by my son and I recovered the chairs. I love this room and love polishing the table as it was the first piece of 'grown up' furniture I've ever owned as the table and chairs match the sideboard which also match the corner unit. I love the way the wooden floor shines when the sun hits it and remembering Sunday lunch with the family. It takes so little to make a house a home. Usually the room has racks of drying clothes and the table is covered in school work nonetheless; there's no place like home.

A perfect Friday

I've work late every night this week and have earnt myself an extra £175 after the tax will be taken off and I've worked those extra hours private tutoring since the middle of November as I am determined to pay off my debts within two years and have equated that by the time the Olympics start I will be personally debt free. I have endured privations, I certainly haven't suffered and I'm coming through this frugal journey with not only stoicism but a real sense of pride of taking control over my own destiny. Nonetheless I'm all for a pizze, bottle of wine and a few magazines!!! Don't worry, I've not splashed out. Dearly beloved is the most astute FREEGAN when he wants to be and picked up the Times and the glossy mags on the train coming home. He gets on at one end and walks to the other, picking up papers and magazines off deserted tables and seats and knows I will be delighted when I get some pointless reading to lighten my evening. The wine, all fits into my weekly Lidl budget of £40 for all food, washing products, cat/dog food and toiletries. The pizza, two bases for £1.19 and they are ciabatta bases and we pour on some tomato sauce from the other nights pasta and add the extras. so I'm off to pig out on pizza, with a glass of wine (don't worry - I make the bottle last the weekend between the two of us) - put my feet up and enjoy the fashion and the gossip!

Saved from the bin to save me money.

Our school library has a selection of daily papers, which if left at five o clock when I leave are taken home by me. I just won't buy papers and mostly read the papers online. I even read the gossip pages online, Heat magazine and of course the BBC news pages. It seems such a tiny saving but over the 40 weeks a year that I work, I will haved saved myself £1 a day and £200 a year by just waiting until the end of the day and then having the newspaper to read on the way home from work. Along with re-using the newspaper; I am not adverse to rescuing perfectly good reuasble items from the bin. Today, I found some bubble wrap and know we have items which we have sold on ebay, that will need packing and this will save me money. If I bought a daily paper; I would have to work all week to pay for that treat and to be honest, there's no news that's worth that......so I'll just wait for the paper to read later on in the day.

Wall-e moments

I've always been a bit of a womble, making the most of the things that I find, the things that the every day folk leave behind! The modern version of a womble is a Wall-e. A Pixar films creation about a little robot left on earth to clean up the mess and pollution left behind by inconsiderate humans living on the space ship cross between a cruise ship and Disney world. A Wall-e is a modern day hero, who makes things from things they find or puts them to good use or even just keeps them until they can find a use for it. Well one day, I am determined to find use for: a lifeboat, bumper car, wind up frog, magic wand, rabbit in tutu, prefect badge, a gingham heart and a tiny person barbequing! Of course, Wall-e presides over these treasures on the shelf in my office and each of them was found in an obscure moment, either in a supermarket, on a wall or left on the train and reminds me of the chances of loveliness which often come our way in the most unusual places.

Nothing goes to waste.

I was just thinking about waste food today and how much the average British family wastes. I can hand on heart say we waste nothing. Orange soft with some mould on one side? Eat the one side that's OK. Banana gone brown and almost gooey? Mush up and add to sponge mixture and pour into bun cases and take to work as a snack. I use everything. Then some!

I compost and own three compost bins and every leaf, grass cutting, kitchen waste and even shredded junk mail is composted. It also forms my workout as I periodically tip it over and dig it about and decant the most composted matter into one bin and the least into another so it rots down most effectively. I then use it where needed in the garden. All of my compost bins have been bought at much reduced prices from local council schemes and I've always moved with them. It means that nothing at all goes to waste and what little goes in the bin doesn't smell of rotting peelings, which has got to be better for the guys who collect the rubbish. I also think the bins have character; like friendly Daleks at the bottom of the garden!

Save money, save time, save the planet.

Here is my office. It is heated, is cleaned for me every day, has waitress service, has heat and light and it also takes me to work. I plan on the train, then mark books or essays on the way home. I love finding magazines and papers that people have left....I take them home after I've read them to light the fire. I often take toast to eat on the train and feel very posh, munching my breakfast at high speed. I have a tiny 'note pad' lap top, provided by work as I said my big lap top was heavy to carry as I use public transport. They admire my 'greeness' so gave me the big lap top to keep at home and the mini lap top for working on the train. Oh the savings, I have to be frugal, you know me. I save an hour of my life a day. The drive would cost me an hour a day and now I use that to work and don't have to do so much work at home.
Clunk click every trip. My trusty Morrisons' lunch box has recently celebrated its fourth birthday and even goes on day trips and holidays with us. Instead of spending around £2 a day on lunch, I take a packed lunch for pennies - saving me £400 a year and the train saves me £600 a year. Saving time, money and the planet. Another good day in Liskeard.