Thriftiness at the weekend....

Before I start blogging away, I need to comment on the great work, Ken has been doing to create our 'thrifty' visual scrapbook - frankly Ken, it looks bloody great - you've done a great job! Also, following an excitable phone call from Ken, I google searched 'thrifty_six blog' and we are on, in fact we are top of the google search! So some great progress made in three weeks. I suppose the next step is to actually get people to read about our endeavors.....

Here are a couple of mine this weekend where I have tried to channel as much 'thrifty' zen as I could in the lovely city of Sheffield. In celebration of Chinese New Year on Monday, I took a trip down to the Weston Park Museum where I not only enjoyed free entry but also perused their current exhibition, 'China: Journey to the East' where I learnt lots about my people. For instance, apparently, we created the production line.... very efficient. But seriously, there was plenty of things to see such as a lovely shadow puppet display and other historical bits and bobs. I would recomend a little visit if you're feeling a spot of culture and thrift. I think the exhibition is available for the public until the 12th April.

Highlight of the trip - seeing the shadow puppets. They make them from Donkey's skin. My mum was right about the Chinese, 'waste not, want not'

One thing I would also check out is Cafe Rouge where my workmate Helen and I had some good food times at their Ecclesall Road establishment with her 50% discount voucher (a potential thrifty sixer in the making) . I think there's only two days left though but maybe a quick weekend trip, Ken?http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/caferouge.co.uk

I ordered the Confit du Canard

On Sunday afternoon, along with our legend of a friend Jenny, we drove to Burbage.One of my favourite things about Sheffield is the fact, the Peak District feels like it's at our doorstep. I spent an ace (albeit very windy) FREE afternoon scrambling around rocks and hills, getting some fresh air  - and generally feeling very wholesome amongst the heather. At some point, we shall return Ken and reenact Kate Bush 'Wuthering heights'. I think that would be amusing. I think I will spend more of my weekends exploring the Peak District and upload some pictures on here of my adventures because people need to know how great the Peaks are! Unfortunately on Sunday, I thought I was going to be blown off the edge so that overrode any amateur photography.... but please see below because simply, the Peak District is ace.

Before I sign off, I will leave you with one more thing... Kate Bush

Chi x

The Frugalocracy

Whilst not strictly about our saving efforts - I still wanted to have a little blog about this. I stumbled across the term "Frugalocracy" when reading (admittedly my mums) paper on Saturday.  Apparently it refers to high flying, super rich people living thriftily, so it would appear we are in good company Chi! And the poster girl for this movement is the wonderful Zooey Deschanel...who apparently saves "$73,000 of her $93,000 a month earnings". Well done Zooey, I guess it's all relative....!

Ken x

The Humble Piggy Bank....

I got this really rather delightful Chelsea piggy bank for my birthday - the perfect inspiration for more thrifty ways! I am trying to put in £1 whenever I remember - this one's just for the golds! Hopefully this will tot up nicely over the next 6 months. My next aim is to find a suitable pot to start saving the pennies in too....more on this to follow!

Ken x

Food, glorious food...

I'm sure Ken and hopefully likeminded T6ers out there would agree that one of the things we should not compromise on and which definitely makes life good is food. If I reflect back on my expenditure, a big portion of it does go on food. The easy solution would be to revert back to my students days where my diet consisted mainly of pasta and pesto, which don't get me wrong is great but I think the novelty would wear off quickly.

As food makes me proportionally happy to a degree, the lack of good food will compromise on my mental health and we can't have that.I know I'm not starving and yes,I could survive on my former student diet but that would compromise on good food times so I suggest this - we start compiling some ultimate thrifty recipes which cost under a fiver and will ultimately save us some pennies. I'm certain we can still eat like kings! We just need to be clever about it so this was my first atttempt!

Last night, still fired up from the excitement of starting our blog, I decided if I could spend under £5 and took a mini trip to my localsupermarket.Whilst not entirely within the boundaries of the budget, I spent a total of £5.49 and used a few basics which already existed in my cupboard and ended up making in my humble opinion,a pretty tasty chorizo stew. This recipe is from our good friend Rach who adapted from the Rick Stein's mediterranean recipe book.I thought I would post the recipe here for Ken and hopefully it will inspire her for Thursday where she will embark on her own 'Come dine with me' challenge! Oh, one more bonus thing, it's dead easy! See below:

Chorizo stew (serves 2)
Ingrediants
Some olive oil
1 chorizo ring
1 onion (in cupboard)
1 jar of roasted peppers
1 tin of chick peas (in cupboard)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (in cupboard)
Bag of spinach

1. Heat some olive oil in a pan until it is hot. Fry off the chorizo until it is crispy on the outside. Use a slotted spoon and set aside. When frying the chorizo, you should notice that oil is left in the pan. Leave this in the pan as this gives the stew flavour!

2. Fry the onions until soft then roughly chop the roasted peppers and stir in. Add the tomatoes and throw the chorizo back in and bring to a boil. Once it's boiled, simmer for 15mins then add the chickpeas and simmer for another 15 minutes. Just before serving, throw in the spinach and serve with some couscous. DONE.

Now, I would post a picture of the result but the issue is I, er...
ate  it before thinking it would be nice to post thrifty recipes
 on our blog. It would seem I do my best thinking post dinner....

I will, however add a picture next time I end up making a stew which I suspect will be very soon.

Hope this has inspired you Ken for Thursday!
Chi x

Monday January 2nd 2012

A wonderful German fellow took this photo of us outside the Nottingham Contemporary, where we had enjoyed some delightful free art. Chi very much enjoyed the vegetable anatomy sculpture. I enjoyed all the monkeys. And this was the moment where we had the idea for our blog!

The thrifty six chapter begins

T1

Hiya, we're the T6 crew - Chi and Ken (maybe not the biggest crew but there's more than one of us). If you've stumbled across our blog, you might be curious as to what we're all about.  Well here's the thrifty six story...

We're not big spenders but we never seem to have any money and there's only so much we can blame on inflation. We've had enough of this. It stops now, and Thrifty six begins.   The thrifty six concept is as follows:

• Aim is to save as much money as we can within the next six months WITHOUT compromising on the things that make life good.

As well as blogging about our thrifty ways, we want to encourage others in our T6 movement because we believe we're not the only ones in our predicament. So the challenge begins....!

Ken and Chi