Washing at 60C?

So for years we have been encouraged to do our washing at lower temperatures and machines and detergents are all designed to operate at 30C.  But now we are told 60C to kill Covid virus and to clean home made face coverings.

Strangely very little advertising or comment on this sudden turn of direction. 

No adverts (YET) for detergents guaranteeing bio destruction.

No adverts (YET) from clothes brands saying garments will wash and wear well at the higher temps. 

No mention of costs for hard pressed families - apparently it could add up to £5 a month to costs!

No screams from the ECO warriors as we turn up the dial and use extra heat or put on extra loads.

Limited mention of this washing advice by mainstream broadcasters (as far as I have seen/heard).

We will be making an extra load if we do go shopping etc. I am insisting "going out clothes" (as my Mother would have designated out "best" dresses) will go straight on a hot wash along with face covering/masks on entering the house. Along with shoes off at the door and coats hung to air in outer passage. 

I am feeling very old fashioned these days.

When writing this blog I came across this advice - https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-8225325/Should-wash-clothes-60-degrees-help-beat-coronavirus.html

The bit about not leaving the washing in the machine is so true - it does tend to make a particular smell if you do that doesn't it?

Food Bank hero

What a super idea and well done to this artist (Peter McKee) to give away an art work in exchange for food bank contributions.  I like his style!
Full story on today's BBC news site
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44779978

When the donors handed over their tins of food, McKee handed them a tin of his own in return. It was empty, but it had a label he'd designed himself.

It was a nod to Andy Warhol's famous Campbell's soup tin, but McKee's limited edition packaging had one of his trademark cartoon-style pictures - of an old lady supping a bowl of soup on a settee with a tray balanced on her lap, with a dog gazing longingly at her lunch.

The most stupid person of the day..

And my vote goes to the contributor on Money Box live Radio 4 on Wednesday afternoon.  What did she say/do?

I was £12,000 in debt.  I had taken redundancy from a high flying job and it all got out of control.  I took my head out of the sand and tackled my life style and have paid off a lot and have £8,000 debt now.

Good girl I thought.

I was desperate to do something for my 40th birthday so took another zero interest credit card and we all went to Vegas.  So I had increased my overall debt again because the bank let me have the money so easily.

I groaned. 

The next caller's philosophy was to save for what you want and feel "delayed gratification" by paying outright for what you want when you can afford it.

I applauded.  I hope she was listening to that concept. Could she not have waited till her 45th birthday?

The "expert" had a good point after some later phone in from people who were mis-managing their mortgages and loans.  Yes, there was a lot of "managed debt" by people who had jobs or could control it. But there were a lot of people in the UK who are getting into debt just to supply the basics in their lives. Glad to hear there were support agencies and charities still out there helping the desperate.

I went back to the kitchen to make spaghetti  from scratch with yet more mince as that is what left in the freezer till next week besides some fish fingers the grandkids left us.  I am counting on "delayed gratification" for some nice fresh fish when the pension gets paid in.

Just say NO!

Just say NO was a anti drugs slogan way back when. This week I have been screaming it at the TV. There was a report saying people could not handle the Christmas debt and got up to £2000 on credit cards.

For goodness sake people. Say NO. You don't need ALL the trimmings. Be sensible.


If you can't afford presents, explain to that wider circle of relatives and friends that you love them any way and when your "ship comes in" they will be invited on board. Concentrate on the kids.

If you can't afford the office/works lunch out, bake a cake one afternoon or  offer to make coffee when they eventually stagger back.

Debt is not worth the 5 mins pleasure on one day of the year. 

Election surprise

Are you still following all the election guff? My interest waxes and wanes with each day - some days my husband tries to avoid it all so he does not have to put up with me shouting at the TV during news  programmes as some stupid story line is gone over and over by pundits.

Having said that I came across a news story on line that Jack Munroe the food/frugal blogger is going to stand as an MP.  Good on her, at least she will have some idea what real hardship/poverty means in our current society.  I hope people in Southend give her some support.

Food budget

I ran a quick check on our accounts for the year and our food and household items for 11 months totaled £2,800. So as long as Xmas does not get out of hand we should be within the £3,000 budget I had set for this year. This will be less than 15% of our income. On top of that spending we have taken about £800 worth of fruit and veg from our garden.

Its been very frosty here the last few days so we have been late getting up and getting going.  So late we have missed the early morning news and have ended up watching a programme about charities using waste fresh food.  For the first time ever I have realised the use of mobile phone Apps! Apparently there are some UK cities that have organised restaurants and bakeries who put end of the day food on a "Too good to waste" App and people can go locally and pick up a bargain rather than the business putting the food in a bin.  Another one where people put food they are not going to use up before the best by date on a local App and others come round and take it and use it. What really good use of technology!

Really must try to get up and get going tomorrow!

Dentists and wild life

Returned from dentist check up only £19.50 worse off. He put my loose crown back in again (3rd time) and warned again that it needs to be replaced soon.  Eye watering estimate £300 - will need to start a savings account! No relief in charges unless we get our savings down below the £23K benchmark and claim pension credits. Mind you with dental bills like that our savings will soon evaporate.

I wish I was good at wildlife photography.  Late this afternoon just as the sun was setting with a rosy glow below some storm clouds, a helicopter was going home flying low, tractors and trailers were thundering by a beautiful kestrel hovered right outside the front windows. It was determined to hunt and ignored everything happening around and about.

I had just called my husband to see when a much larger bird rose up near by taking us by surprise. We were astounded.  It was a Red Kite.   We saw them all the time when we lived in west Wales but this was the first time in East Anglia! Perhaps it has been blown here by the high winds?



I wish I could have caught a picture like this!

Fuel poverty

Still under the weather.  If only I could stop coughing long enough to sleep.

While sofa surfing yesterday I caught up with the Panorama special on Poverty and Fuel. Hated the production values (perhaps I was not in the mood for the patronising tone) but I learnt three things (new to me).
1. If you buy £10 for a prepaid meter, they take £3 off the value immediately to your debt and the remaining £7 buys fuel at the top unit price.  Can't choose to pay the debt as well as can't choose value. How does that help?
2. If you get in so much trouble with an Energy company they WANT you to have a prepaid meter they can go to court, get a warrant, break into your house, supported by police, and put it in. They do this in batches of a hundred warrants at a time with no real checks on vulnerable or disabled status. Not fair.
3. The committee/working party on Fuel poverty is made up of energy company big wigs, any voluntary consumer representative or academic expert on poverty has been excluded.

Its been many years where fuel poverty stared us in the face that badly (and it has in the past), but I am acutely aware as my children struggle with problems. One of the reasons we got a wood burner and LPS stove was that we could get off the energy grid if things went drastically wrong for us on a state pension.

A truly tragic situation for people in the UK.

My fond memories of Brussels, flying in and out of that airport, using the metro and enjoying the beautiful city and the wonderful friends I made in Belgium.  Sad.

OK. trying to be more cheerful; I am going to try Honey for the cough, make a quick soup and retire back to the sofa to watch "Follow the Money" on BBC 4 where this cheating Energy company boss is likely to get his money grabbing investments exposed.   Husband is gamely keeping out of way (500 yards away) planting parsnip and carrot seeds in the veg garden.

Sunflowers and recycling the tool storage

Did you see those sunflowers Monty Don was planting on Gardeners World this week?  There was a quick 2 second flash on them and by the time I had exclaimed they focused elsewhere!  They looked long and straggly and should have been planted weeks ago as they were terribly pot bound! What were they thinking - not the best gardening I have seen?  No wonder we have started to watch Beachgrove gardening programme!! My sunflowers have been out for weeks and have made good  trunks having survived two major windy storms and thunder and lighting. I certainly wont be putting in 4" tree stakes Monty Don was suggesting!   Some of mine are about 4 ft high and planted against the fence over which I hope they will put there bright shiny heads and brighten the view for our neighbour as she recovers from her latest cancer treatment.

Our boiler has finally given up the ghost and the plumber is preparing a quote. In addition to the inside work he needs to move the  tank and condemned the current one as too rusty!  When we retired here we deliberately kept money in hand for this and we did get the place quite cheaply due to some issues. After a debate and lots of thinking about how far from buildings, fences and access you can be we decided to reuse the concrete base of an existing shed. The shed was grotty anyway and blocks the kitchen light  So we negotiated some space in one of our neighbours garages for temporary storage of some boxes (in exchange for lettuce) and set to today to rearrange the most needed tools into a brick outhouse. When people talk about recycling they always forget to tell you pulling stuff other people have abandoned years ago out of old sheds and barns is dirty work!  Recycling starts with a hose!

Couple of hours later this old piece of furniture, some old shelf brackets and some lengths of wood and  old fencing which became shelves were installed at one end of the outbuilding/shed and tools started to get placed.  Not a penny spent on this project so far - if you discount the cost of the two Magnum ice lollies we rewarded ourselves with at 4pm.

Still a lot of work to do as we are demolishing the shed over the next week. But we are hoping to recycling the old metal corrugated iron to the scrap metal dealers with the oil tank and any wood will be cut up for firewood for next winter. by which time the plumber should have the quote at least!  Cant spend any longer than a week on this as it is the two youngest grandchildren's first birthdays in the following two weeks and we have parties to attend!

Thrifty thinking reaches the Saturday Telegraph!

As a treat this week we brought a Saturday newspaper to do the crossword in front of the fire over the weekend and to have something to light the bonfire not having had any papers for a couple of months!

In the Telegraph magazine there was an article by Rose Prince that starts - "Everyone is talking about little and often - short shopping trips to buy what food is needed rather than car-bootfuls that are not." And she gives some store cupboard recipes - yet again other peoples store cupboards seem to full of posh stuff we never consider! There were two recipes I liked; I was about to do my signature dish of Cumberland sausage casserole and one of hers fitted the bill for some plain sausages tucked away from Xmas and some tinned beans I had picked up on Saturday. Put the cumberlands back for another day!
White beans, pork sausages(or sausage meat) and crispy breadcrumbs
Garlic, carrot, onion, celery base saute lightly;
 add dried rosemary and thyme before adding stock and a tin of chopped toms.
 De-skin pork sausages and fry crumbling the meat. Pour off any fat and add to the sauce.
 Stir in a can of haricot beans. Simmer.
 I added a bit of tomato puree to increase the colouring and popped mine in the oven for 20 mins as I was preparing veg.
The topping was  bread crumbs browned in olive oil and garlic with fresh parsley but as my last garlic clove needs to last all week I just did the bread crumbs in oil and added some chili flakes. I put on top of casserole and left in oven for  a few minutes.
It was very filling and half was enough for our evening meal with a baked potatoes and veg - rest will be for tomorrow.
The other recipe I liked was pea soup with bacon, mint and paprika - I will pop in my scrap book for another time.

I shall need some pound stretching this month as we did the accounts today and after the car tax is paid I only have £130 for groceries maximum this month. Store cupboard meals in will be!!

A lovely first day of 2015

I had a super first day of 2105 sewing, baking and trying out new recipes.
Here is the baking - bread (half brown and half white flour used), Victoria sponge and a mincemeat plate pie. I am not keen on the mincemeat so I put in a diced apple and made the pastry a bit thick - it will be lovely with custard.

My new recipe include a carrot and lemon soup from my Kenwood food mixer book.
1 leek sliced, 12 oz carrots shredded and a crushed garlic saute 5-10 mins  in 2 tbsp veg oil;  add grated rind of a lemon and 1 1/4 pints of veg stock and simmer for 10 mins. Remove from heat and stir in juice of lemon and some fresh parsley. I blended mine a bit as I prefer smooth soup. It was very tasty as the lemon brings out a spicy tang - my husband even said "delicious".

My other experiment was for left over turkey. Finely dice 2 onions, and grate 1 eating apple to saute in 2 tbsp of oil, add 1 tsp of sage and 2 tbsp of plain flour; add 300 ml of stock with 2 tbsp of mustard and 2 tbsp of honey.  Put in 350g of turkey and leftover roast veg and simmer for 15 mins. I did not have any veg so I sliced in some mushrooms. This too was tasty and cheered up the leftover turkey a lot.  I found this on BBCGoodFood site)

Neither of these needed anything difficult - just larder stuff.  Various thrifty advice books and sites have all recommended having a good larder stock. It is something I am working on - but I need more effective cupboard storage. Kitchen is awaiting a make-over which I am planning in a vintage style!

Project Sunlight

Having seen the brief advert about ending hunger here and abroad I found 5 minutes to look at the website. It is a good beginning of bringing together information on poverty and brings together links to some of the existing web sites Change4Life, Love Food Hate Waste, etc. Interesting.

I have been thinking about food poverty a lot following a blog by Frugal Queen and the various news reports.
I am a great believer in making the money stretch by using fresh fruit and veg. What I wold like to know is: Would substantially increasing the access to allotments/gardens big enough to have veg make a difference to food poverty?

I have always regretted the decline of local greengrocers (having once run one!) and think that if there were more - cooking from scratch and making more of food money would increase.  I am amazed and jealous when travelling in some areas of the UK and see several streets with several large and thriving green grocers - Eggbaston high street in Birmingham, Narborough Road in Leicester, - but they are not in small market towns or suburban areas - why is that?

Xmas - my ideal time for final planning of my fruit and veg crop in our new one acre plot!

(meanwhile - I wrote a few weeks ago about portion control and taking down the amount on our plates of meat and potatoes? I am pleased to say 2lbs lost already!)