Cheap ways to to avoid the laundrette

I have not fallen off the face of the planet, although it feels like it this week.  I have been called in for extra work shifts almost every free day this week.  This is fantastic money wise.  It means I can start replacing the items that got destroyed/broke down in the past few weeks (it's been a really bad few weeks luck wise).  But I'm shattered and have no energy to do anything but sleep. (Working from 7am to 8pm has that effect). Today is the first day off in a what feels like a looong time.

One of the items that broke down recently was my twin-tub camping washing machine.  After nearly 18 months of constant use (definitely not what it was designed for!) my twin-tub stopped draining.The annoying part is that the wash tub and spin tub are both still in working order - meaning i can wash and spin dry clothes but can't drain the wash tub of water.  This actually made me a little sad because it has been such a good machine and, it still usable fir the most part.  However once they stop draining getting the water out will take the better part of an hour or two, so it needs to be replaced.

I live in housing which has no proper clothes washing machine or anywhere to hook one up.  I used to use the laundrette down the road.  However, at £3.80 at wash, this was getting very expensive.  Depending on what I needed to wash during the week I was spending between £16-£24 a month on laundry.  This is a lot of money when on a limited income so I was desperate to find a way of cutting down.  Then I came across these twin-tubs on amazon.co.uk.

The twin-tubs are electrical, but they use very little power.  Every function, aside from spin and agitation, is manual.  Water has to be poured in through the top and clothes have to be moved manually from the wash tub to the spin tub.  IT does do a good job at cleaning everyday stains, however I have needed vanish for stronger stains.  It is overall a very practical option.  They are ideal for shower cubicles however mine has been rigged up my desk in my room as my kitchen and bathroom do not provide the appropriate set-up for the twin-tub.  I find it need a level surface or the spin tub will not balance correctly.  The drainage pipe also needs to be horizontal for it to drain correctly.  These factor catered to and it makes for a very good washing machine.  I would recommend it highly for anyone in a situation where they can't have a household washing machine.

Virgin Media, for all your hassle needs

There are days when I'm so glad that I'm only on the most basic broadband contract Virgin Media offer, because days like yesterday would be all the more insulting.  My network signal was out for the entire day and now I'm actually convinced it's due to a fault in the local area network cables because last night at 11pm I was out checking those attached to my house.  I went outside, to the exposed connection point and unscrewed each cable, checked the sockets for damage and screwed them back in (given this was an outdoor connection, not only should that have been in a covered box to prevent this sort of tampering but the cables should have been so tightly screwed that I couldn't get them loose in the first place.)  Despite all this effort I still had no connection.  However my Internet was magically connected again the next morning.

This is not the first time it happened.  In fact it happens so often that I begin to worry about it when it rains.  The worst part is I've given up calling Virgin Media to involve tech support because £10pound worth of credit it mysteriously fixes itself and I have to call them back and cancel the home support team because they are no longer required.

Blogger is not my friend

Sorry, I'm having a little trouble with the blogger publisher.  No matter what i do my post text keeps coming out wrong - like in the last post, half the text was huge and the rest was too small.  And there's that stupid highlighting thing it is doing with my text.  Can't seem to figure out why it's doing this to me.

Basil Pesto; Dairy free

Pesto is a tasty and highly nutritious pasta sauce, but it is always frustrating that commercial brands contain cheese.  Depending on your level of sensitivity to lactose/dairy, the level/kind of cheese contained in pesto can irritate the digestive tract.  If you find this is the case then this recipe can be a nice substitute to classic pesto.  I found this recipe at Vegan Spoonful. Other recipes can also be found on many vegan sites.  If you dislike the taste of the yeast, this item can be left out.  Once you have your pesto simply stir t through some cooked pasta. :)

Ingredients:

Basil; 3 cups

Garlic; 2-3 large cloves

raw pine nuts; 6 tablespoons

salt; 1 teaspoon

olive oil; 6 tablespoons

nutritional yeast; 1/4 cup

Directions:

Place the nuts, basil, garlic and salt in a blender or food processor and blend until finely chopped.  Add the olive oil and blend again.  Finally, add the yeast and blend until the pesto becomes creamy.

Budgeting tips: Reduced items.

On Wednesday I blogged about saving money by shopping around.  This is just one way of saving on your necessities bills.  Today I would like to introduce another way of saving on your grocery bill: buying reduced items.


Supermarkets such as Tesco's, Sainsburys and the Co-operative often reduce stock simply because they have a new shipment coming in or because there are slight cosmetic marks on the product/product packaging.  They also reduce items because they are about to go past the the use-by/display-until date.  This means that quite often reduced items are of high quality.  This is often t he case with items nearing the use-by date.


Use-by and Display-until dates are often inaccurate.  Food and product safety legislation and control tends to veer towards the side of caution.  Most foods will be safe for consumption after the use-by date if they have been correctly packaged and stored.  Generally speaking, it is usually easy to tell when a food product has gone bad and this can happen before the use-by date in rare cases.  This is why it is is always necessary to have common sense when it comes to food.  Buying items when they are reduced can save you so much off your food bill that it is worth chancing the rare this that might go off quicker then you would like.


This week I have been food shopping three times.  Between the three trips I have saved £30+ Pounds on items that had been reduced to clear; £17 pound of that tonight.  There is the argument that I am spending money I otherwise wouldn't of food just because it is reduced.  However I have found this not to be that case - A lot of what I have bought is stuff that I would like to get but normally don't because the original price is to expensive.  So, in essence, I am saving money on food I would like to begin with.