Back to Life

A very busy week has seen me not make great inroads into reorganising/refrugalising my life, but a few baby steps, nonetheless.

For a start, I've managed to make my lunch every day, saving probably around a tenner. Before had seen me getting dropped at the station, grabbing something reduced price from M&S for the next day (because I knew I would be too tired to bother), and hoping I could get through to a mini cab company for the journey home, as black cabs are an arm and a leg.

Good news, this week I am in shoes! My physiotherapist gave me the all clear to ditch the boot -- if I could -- about ten days ago, but I couldn't get into anything for a few days so had to keep the boot on to go to work. My foot is less swollen now, but still a bit bigger, and it's a bit less pronounced now, but my ankle is like the hip on a rose at the end of summer. Lace up pumps are the only shoes I can wear. I don't think I'll be able to war my Mary Janes or my Doc Marten boots for a while.

This week, I have managed to walk to the station on 3 out of 5 days, and get lifts the rest of the time. Trouble with getting lifts though, is I am susceptible to agreeing to not drive home straightaway, and that has seen us drive by a beer garden to appreciate the heatwave and get takeaway on the way home. Uh oh! My peak steps on Saturday were 10.9k, but that was a mistake doing that much as I was in agony after. I am settling down from the usual night pains, but I felt sore after yesterday's home physio session too, and it's making me wary of moving.

Still, every day, more control, but I still can't do everything I want/need to do and it's frustrating. I was worried about my allotment, but my friends have promised to come help in a couple of weeks, which is awesome! I am so happy knowing I'm not going to lose it.

Broken ankles are the enemy of frugalling! I saw 20p on the floor yesterday and I couldn't sodding pick it up!

Okay, enough moaning, here are the fab things from my week:

I went to see my friends' play Madam Bovary: a madcap tragedy at the Playhouse Theatre. It was excellent! Lou Chawner played Charles Bovary and the salesman. He broke his ankle too a few weeks ago (plagiarist!), so had to play with some retro under-elbow crutches, but even though this was a very physical production he was awesome in it. Nice one, Lou! Brilliantly cast as the lead was Julia Langley, who I told "gave good face" -- she does! She was excellent in The Rover too. I think she's a comic natural. My friends did brilliantly with the fantastic bed and mirrors-centred set design, puppets, staging, everything. Even ribbons were used with skill. Lovely, lovely night!

I also met up with my writers group, and got to finish signing copies of my antholgy for future sale and pick up my contributor copies. This is the happy face of a woman who loves practicing her autograph!

Might blog again very soon, about something that's been in the news loads lately. TBC!

On Not Getting Trouted.

I came home on Thursday night after doing a particularly frugaltastic bit of shopping and I felt like this.

Weird, because I'd gone to Morrison's

However, after reviewing my post, seeing some bills that I forgotten all about and not budgeted for, I felt like this.

Yes, I'd put my bags down. They do mask a lot of problem areas.

One of my revenue streams has dried up, and now I have a few extra associated costs - just as we are approaching the most expensive month for us, August, which includes a lot of travel and hotels and temptation.

IwillbuynomorebooksIwillbuynomorebooksIwillbuynomorebooksIwillbuynomorebooksIwillbuynomorebooks

And July isn't a cheap month either.

Oh blimey!

So there's nothing for it, but to try our utmost to cut corners where we can. But there's a catch... we cannot cut corners as far as health is concerned, and our diet must be tip-top to enable me to shed a bit of excess pud, and OH to be event-ready. Him being an athlete and all that.

OH is the fella on the left. When he next sees a finish line, it will be after a much, much, longer race. Eek! Yep, they're holding hands. No, I don't know who the other fella is.

Did you see The World's Best Diet last week? What an eye-opener! As different as the world's healthiest diets were from each other, though, it seemed clear to me where each improved on the typical British diet, including mine. Apparently, the typical British diet consists of three principle ingredients: potatoes, flour and vegetable oil. The three principle ingredients of my diet are flapjacks, cider and any cake going. But that's not better just because flapjacks have super-healthy oats in them, boo.

Will this frugal-ish floozy be able to change her sweet, cheap ways?

Until yesterday, I'd managed to spend mere pennies and got a substantial amount of food in, thanks to some voucher-tastic shopping. As much as I hate the gutter press, as a past-recipient of mucky Murdoch money for my work in publishing, I can't be proud. So it was with just a few qualms that I bought a newspaper that informed me that Jade, 22, has mammary glands, bully for her. I hope they give her some comfort in her dotage, or at least a cranny for secluding her Murray mints. In the newspaper was a voucher for £5 fruit and veg which I happily trundled to Morrison's, along with a couple of other vouchers I wanted to use. I'd heard online about people buying up several copies, being made to leave the shop and come back rather than put through different baskets as different transactions... and it was the first time I'd heard the expression 'trout', a particularly derisive term applied to a checkout assistant - usually female - who hates money-off coupons and tries to find any way they can of not putting it through. Well, my vouchers got queried, but it was no 'trout', just a lovely, polite young girl who wasn't used to vouchers and had been through a bit of a baptism of fire learning the job on a big voucher day. But we were soon able to sort things out with her supervisor and with a spend of just £1.12, I got all this!

mushrooms; YS grapes; multi-grain bread mix; cola; cassava; apples, spuds; turmeric root; peppers; melon; lettuce

We managed to have access to a car yesterday to buy enough cat food and non-food shopping for July and beyond, also, we have in some treats from the Northampton Food Festival. We have spent just under a third of our July budget, so the challenge is on to keep spending as low as possible for the rest of the month.

So, not to dwell on the negatives, here's all the fun stuff I've done this week:

Dawn O'Porter can sod off learn a lot from Vintage Vixen.

Seriously... there is no need to spend so much money on your clothes, lady! Personally, I am always rocking the vintage with clothes that are chazza'd; schwinged or hand-me-upped. As yet another building collapsed last week on top of underpaid garment workers in Chenai, the benefits of buying vintage mean that you can go some way to avoid being complicit in exploitation and corporate manslaughter, as well as avoiding perfectly good clothes ending up in landfill. However, I think it's rather unfortunate that Dawn Porter's programme This Old Thing focuses so much on rich Londonistas who would rather pay £500 for a dress from the 80s than be thought of as cheap. That's not going to sway the opinion of someone who'd happily pay high street prices and buy often, rather than save up and invest in their going out-out outfit. Please can you think of us lesser mortals, Dawn?

Last week, I ended up buying a new outfit from the high street as I needed to avoid wearing black, red, or white for a wedding, I was not confident with what I could mix and match from my current wardrobe, and I'd wavered over some options available in the charity shops. In the end I found this dress in Dotty P, which was entirely made in the EU. Joy! Already in the sale, I haggled it down from £32 to £13 as it was missing the belt and had a small pull. Trying to think like Vix, I accessorised up with DM Dolly shoes in pink and white (£20 from the outlet stall years ago), a silver bolero (£3 in a New Look sale) and my hair slide and clutch from my own wedding. My brooch was made by Lauren of Skulls and Robots for my birthday. My hair started out Goldfrapp-crazy but had calmed down by this point - a mix of ragging on the bottom and pin-curling on top.

Eyes on the Prize

You know those little trader magazines that pop through the door - the ones you probably put straight in the recycling bin? Well, I scanned through the last one and spotted a competition to win 4 tickets to see Horrible Histories at the theatre. I didn't win... but I was next on the list when the winners couldn't take the prize. Yay! I offered the prize to my brother and has family but was able to take the 4th ticket. A great night out - and winning the prize saved us £64. It was an incredibly tight production for the tiny cast of 4, with a few props, and scenery all done as a computer-animated background, which is 3D for the second half. It was so well done, and really, really funny. Age-appropriate, of course. Here is Boudicca with the Romans, who 'beat up' her kids...

Boudicca was awesome - a great singing voice, very expressive and great comic timing

My nephew, who is 5, took off his 3D glasses as there were rather a lot of skulls and bats flying into his face, which he found a bit disconcerting. Great for kids who like spooky and gory. And for not-so-grown-up aunties.

Lovin' Northampton

Yesterday, we were spoilt for choice with good stuff in Northampton. First, OH and I went for a healthy march up to Delapre Abbey where we hoped to learn about the Battle of Northampton.

Medieval people. Sitting about. That's getting medieval on yo' ass!

We went round the exhibition, and an expert was due to lead a walk which we were interested in, but we realized we would miss the battle demo, so we gave it a miss. But with mot much else going on, we decided to head into town to go to the Northampton Food Festival instead in the beautiful Guildhall, totally free entry.

First, we went to a no-cooking cooking demo by Ondine Hartgroves, who despite the venue restrictions, was able to demonstrate how to make ceviche cod, and made us tortilla biscuits to eat that with, and seared beef salad wraps for which she made a gorgeous, fresh and fragrant salsa verde.

We sampled various lovely local ales and ciders.

And we met these lovely people from Beckworth Emporium, happily only  a cycle ride away from us, and an outlet for many local producers, as well as nursery, winter ice-rink, and theatrical venue. They are staging a production of Pride and Prejudice on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd August. Oh, Mr. Darcy!

I have also been doing some baking, which will feature in a follow-up post.

A Trip to the Theatre

Dealer's Choice is on at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton until 14th June, and OH and I were lucky to get free preview tickets. Checking the website for the same seats for another performance, that's saved us £50. Awesome!

Family, friendships and honour are tested In Patrick Marber's (Closer, Notes On A Scandal) brilliantly funny story of male camaraderie and obsession, set in the gritty world of amateur poker.
When first staged at the National Theatre in 1995 the play won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. This new production is directed by Michael Longhurst, who recently directed Constellations in the West End, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and receiving four Olivier nominations.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           View the teaser trailer here.

 Rather unfortunately, we found ourselves seated near an audience member who had paid and was vocally dissatisfied with their choice of evening entertainment from about the third line in, right to the interval, which was a pain (it's a wonder the ushers never had a word, because it was constant!). Admittedly, the scene-setting was a little over-laboured, and the characters  were well established by the time the plot got going, but it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was pretty good overall.

Sweeney is the most interesting character: a chef, who has a kid and some hopes of making a decent go of being a dad, much to the chagrin of his colleagues, as parental duties are threatening to interfere with the game of poker they are planning to play. Mugsy, a waiter, is an imbecile, who is dreaming big and planning to go into business with Carl, son of the boss, Stephen. Frankie, another waiter and Sweeney's flatmate, is a bit of a wide boy, but is seemingly happy to just be cooler than Mugsy. There is some interesting subtext going on between Frankie and Sweeney that is not fully explored, but hints at a greater potential to this story than the simple trap that the characters all find themselves in. Clearly, this is the pond these fishes are swimming in, and they're not going anywhere. They need something to break the surface, and that comes in the form of Carl's mysterious friend, Ash.

The first half is set in a split stage view of the kitchen in which three of the characters work (well, one does, the others just get in his way), and the restaurant, enabling some fast-paced scene switches. The set is a simple baize-green background with a yellow dividing line, and lighting and sound effects used to go from scene to scene, reminiscent of  televised poker. The rough and ready theatre walls are used to great effect in the second half, where we transfer action to the basement for a game of poker. This is a lot pacier, and lighting and soundtrack are used in a very filmic way to show the passage of time and emphasise the emotional highs and lows of gambling. It's cool and stylish and very reminiscent of some of Guy Ritchie's films.

Ultimately, this banter-filled escapade is tragedian in scope. We have a bunch of men who have known each other for years and still can't talk to each other, and who hold each other back. Because the actual game is central to the production, we can't see how the characters' lives work out once they leave the table, which leaves unresolved story threads (in a way, that's goods, because it caused some discussion afterwards with friends as to what might have happened to those characters). This also brings the focus back to just two characters, ensuring their conflict is central to the story.

Despite being overlong in the first half this is a neat production and an interesting vignette of male relationships, with some definite laugh out loud moments, and we had a great time watching it. I believe there are other deals on and some tickets at full price are only £10, so if this sounds like your cup of tea, then enquire with the theatre.

Dancing at Lughnasa

Last night we went to see Brian Friel's 1990 play, Dancing at Lughnasa at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton.

In 1987, Brian Friel was walking in London with fellow playwright Tom Kilroy and they noticed some people sleeping rough. They were speculating about what the lives of the people must have been like before they ended up on the street, and Friel remarked that he had two maiden aunts who had ended up as vagrants in London - Kilroy suggested there would be a story in this. What resulted was Dancing at Lughnasa.

This play is the story of the five Mundy sisters, who live together in rural Donegal. All of them just past the prime of their youth, all unmarried, and their parents dead. There's Kate, a pious school teacher; Maggie, who loves to joke and riddle, and smoke her Woodbines; Agnes, who cooks for everyone and is the fastest knitter in Ballybeg, and who, along with Rose makes 'glove money' by selling what she makes. Rose is a child-woman, seemingly learning disabled, and at risk of licentious behaviour if not kept in check by her sisters... and lastly, there's Christina, who despite being unmarried has a seven-year old boy by a man she still loves, but is too worldy wise to ever trust completely. The story is narrated by the boy, now grown up, and he speaks as he remembers, though the boy he was is invisible on the stage.

The Lughnasa is a pagan festival of late summer, going into the harvest time, and the boy, Michael Evans, remembers that summer of 1936 with bittersweet memories of his aunts laughing and dancing to their radio, but also their sadness. Things turn sour as his uncle, Father Jack, returns from Africa in disgrace for having 'turned native', and this begins a chain of events that turn the sisters' lives upside down.

The Mundy sisters dance like crazy



The plot may seem uncomplicated, but this is a play that focuses on the characters, which are whole and real and you are completely emotionally involved in what happens to them. The style of narration adds layers of depth and understanding; empathy and alienation effects pulling your emotions this way and that. The conflicts between the sisters' characters are beautifully subtle, requiring excellent performances, which the women actors all provide. In particular, I loved Caroline Lennon's Maggie, and Sarah Corbett as Rose - they were great characters. Father Jack didn't seem to share his sisters' Irish accents, which puzzled me, but perhaps that was the effect of spending a few years in Africa?  All in all, though, this was a superb production.

Top Date Night?

Absolutely! And dinner was also very tasty, and we had a lovely drink afterwards too.

How Frugal?

Still in 'could do better' territory. Let's see how we did:

1. Cheap tickets. Pretty good here, tickets were again less than half the cheapest price for us with special preview arrangements. Win!

2. Taking bottled water/pop. Fail... so we bought pre-theatre drinks and interval drinks too.

3. Walking to the venue - and back! Win! No cost here.
4. Choose an awkward mid-run weeknight so not tempted to follow the cast back to the pub for post-gig drinks. Fail - a massive one... OH bumped into an old work colleague at the theatre and hastily arranged a potential meet up in the Wig and Pen after the show. The fella didn't turn up, so we needn't have gone in. But we did, and OH went all goggle-eyed at the sweetie-like selection of whiskies on offer, and ordered one that cost £7.50! (:-0)
5. Either have a slow-cooker meal ready for after the show. Or have just one post-gig drink, maybe. A bit of a fail... we realised we couldn't wait that long to eat, or the rest of the audience would have been shushing our stomachs! So we had our evening meal at The Cordwainer - 2 meals for £6.29. OH had steak and kidney pudding with chips, peas and gravy, and I had chilli con carne with rice, tortilla chips and sour cream. Filling and very nice. With that real ale and cider was £2.15 a pint, so that was a bargain, but other drinks throughout the night came to a lot more!

Meal + a drink + theatre had the potential to cost as little as £21 for the pair of us. We clearly persuade each other to transgress. Looking at the positives, we could have spent more and didn't have to and had a lovely time. However... we can't afford this. Even as a bargain. And I'm learning of other 'can't refuse' social occasions that we also can't afford and I don't know what to do. The answer is to say, sorry we can't go... but I fear it won't be easy. I fear causing upset. But something must be done.

Oh dear...

Do You do Date Night?

OH and I are going to be spending forever together as Mr and Mrs very soon, but like many couples nowadays we're already living together as life partners.

We decided a few months ago that we should do a 'date night' each week: time consciously chosen to be spent in each other's  company. It's amazing how you can spend hours alone with each other but just end up staring at the telly. It's not good for the bum, the brain, the soul - or the heart.

Some date nights of extreme frugaldom will need to be planned in for after the wedding, but we're already applying some mantras: never pay full price if you can help it; dare to try something different.

The Date

Through a friend at work, OH got a great offer for theatre tickets. Some theatres offer great discounts to some associations, or for special preview nights. We were thrilled to be able to go and see a preview of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This was a great production, directed by Gary Sefton (we saw his also brilliant production of A Christmas Carol), with some great comic performances. As you might expect with 500 year old humour, there's also a bit of nuddiness and scatalogy, but it's all fine. ;-P

As an avid theatre-goer, I really wouldn't mind paying full price to see this brilliant production... it was just an extra lovely bonus to get excellent tickets for less than half the cheap seat prices. It's not an opportunity that's going to come along too often - I think our next bit of theatre may be a bit of am dram, but as an am drammer myself, I know these can often be excellent too! (shush).

The Dinner

Of course, we needed to eat too! But why pay full price when, with a little planning, you can get a great deal? There are a few good restaurants near the theatre, and some do pre-theatre early bird offers. I checked to see what vouchers were available online and got one for Pizza Express, Monday-Thursday, 5pm-7.30pm, 25% off main meals (excluding calzones).

Well, on hearing that calzones were excepted, this placed the idea in OH's head that this was what he really wanted to have. No calzones - denied! But he went for a classic Pollo ad Astra pizza instead  - chicken, sweet peppadew peppers, red onions, mozzarella, tomato, cajun spices and garlic oil. I went for the Gorgonzola and Pancetta Leggera - with chilli, rosemary and leeks on a crispy Roman base and a dressed rocket salad middle (under 500 calories - got to think of the dress!). We both agreed that the pizzas we had were utterly gorgeous. And did they taste better for being discounted? Do you know, I think they did.

The Post-Theatre Drinks

A beautiful night should not end too soon, and so we decamped to The Wig and Pen. The Wig and Pen is lush, but a little pricey. It's clean, bright, and comfortable, with a great range of real ales, ciders, spirits, wines, and jolly nice food. Again, though, why pay full price? Not when we have CAMRA* membership! That's 10% off and everything's bright and reasonable again. At the pub we bumped into a friend who'd been to a play rehearsal of his own... so that's one am dram play we have pencilled in for a future date night.

*It's well-worth joining CAMRA if you are a real ale or cider fan. It's not just beer in pubs and supermarkets that gets discounted, as there are lots of member offers.

Savings?

Amazingly, we managed to save just under £45 on our night out... it wasn't exactly a free night out, so has to be considered as a special treat, but it was still practically half-price.

What Would I Do Differently?

Despite what you may infer from the above, I would actually say that to save even more money it's worth resolving to drink less, or not drink at all. Alcohol takes the edge off your inhibitions, weakens the purse strings... and makes you lazily decide to get a taxi home instead of walking. Also, why always do the same thing? Do you really need a half-time ice cream?

So, next time...

1. Going am dram... as a member of the group I can buy  concessionary tickets, so even cheaper.
2. Taking bottled water/pop
3. Walking to the venue - and back!
4. Choose an awkward mid-run weeknight so not tempted to follow the cast back to the pub for post-gig drinks.
5. Either have a slow-cooker meal ready for after the show. Or have just one post-gig drink, maybe.