Easy yoghurt cake

 

Ok it's not the prettiest cake I've ever made but oh my goodness, it's delicious!  As you can see it's half eaten already!!

I had a lot of Greek yoghurt to use up so I googled 'yoghurt cake' and THIS RECIPE popped up.  It's ridiculously easy to make BUT I only had 1 egg.  I knew you can sub bananas for eggs so I used 2 very ripe bananas and 1 egg instead of the 3 eggs.

And obviously I baked mine in a loaf tin as I don't have a round cake tin.  I quite often make cakes in a loaf tin as they're easy to cut and freeze.

My version of Easy Yoghurt Cake:

• 1 egg
• 2 mashed bananas
• 120ml rapeseed oil
• 125g full fat Greek yoghurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g plain flour
• 180g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

1. Mix the egg, bananas, oil, yoghurt and vanilla in a large bowl.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until well mixed.

3. Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake for 30 mins at 170C fan.

4. Check for doneness by testing the middle with a skewer and it comes out clean.

5.  Cool on a rack before cutting.

Obviously it tastes banana-y but it has a softer texture than banana bread.

I'll definitely be making this again!! 😋

Easy microwave sponge pudding

 

Even though the sun is shining brightly today, I felt the need for a comfort pudding.  And what's better than a sponge pudding made in the microwave in 5 minutes? 

I didn't have any jam so I opened a jar of mincemeat from the storecupboard I got reduced in January to 26p!!

Ingredients:

• 120g unsalted butter or spread
• 120g sugar (caster is best but granulated worked)
• 120g self raising flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• about 150g jam or mincemeat

Method:

Grease a 2 pint/1 litre pudding bowl with some butter.

Put jam/mincemeat in the base.

Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy in mixer.

Keep the mixer running and add beaten eggs and vanilla a bit at time with a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling.

Fold in remaining flour and mix well.

Pour mixture over jam/mincemeat and smooth the top.

Cook in microwave on full power for 5 mins. Leave to stand for 1 minute.  Check sponge is cooked in the middle.

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.  It's that simple and very yummy!!

Vegetable curry and naan for £1.81

 

I made a completely from scratch vegetable curry with spinach, potato and chickpeas for my Foodie Friday vlog to show how I use my curry paste.  I also made some naan/flatbreads from THIS RECIPE and took some of my home made mango chutney from the freezer.  Recipe HERE.

I worked out that if I got a similar takeaway from my favourite local Indian restaurant it would cost me £12.49 for a vegetable curry (£8.99) plain naan (£2.50) and a portion of mango chutney (£1) and that excludes delivery or fuel costs to collect it!

Everything I used was a freezer or storecupboard staple.

My version:

• Curry paste  28p
• Onion (1/3)  10p
• Frozen spinach (180g)  21p
• Chickpeas (1/3 of a can)  18p
• Potatoes (1/2 of a can)  40p
• Coconut cream (1/3 carton)  20p

Vegetable curry: £1.37

(3 naan breads: SR flour  40p + Yoghurt  17p = 57p)

1 naan bread: 19p

Mango chutney:  25p

Total cost:  £1.37 + 19p + 25p = £1.81

You could make it for even less than that depending on prices where you live.  Plus I used organic flour for the naans.

The above portion of curry could easily stretch to 2 people served with rice as well.  And it was just as good as my local takeaway version! 😋

Curry paste recipe - 28p per portion

 

This is a recipe I found on a blog years ago.  The blog no longer exists but the recipe came from a lady called Geetha in London who gave it to her friend Elaine.

Curry paste:

• 1kg onions, sliced
• 25ml oil
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed/grated
• 4cm piece of ginger, chopped/grated
• 3-4 fresh chillies chopped or 2 tsp dried
• 4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 can water
• 50g fresh coriander, chopped

Fry onions in the oil for about 20 mins until really brown

Add the garlic. ginger and fresh chillies and fry gently for 2 mins.

Add the dry spices and salt and fry gently for 2 mins taking great care not to burn them

Add the tomatoes and water and simmer for about 10 to 15 mins until thick and pulpy

Add the chopped coriander and stir for 1 min.  Switch off the heat.

When cooled either blitz until smooth or leave chunky.  Divide into 12 equal portions and freeze.

Use 1 portion per person straight from the freezer when making a curry!

As I explain in the vlog total cost of ingredients was £3.35 making it 28p per portion.

2025 Goals

 Happy New Year!  I wish you all good health and happiness! 

Every year I set myself some goals instead of resolutions.  I've reviewed last year's goals and was happy that I achieved 3 out of 4.  The 4th one didn't work out due to the timing of me moving house but I'm not beating myself up about it.

So, this is a year of using up all the resources I have saved and hoarded for decorating, DIYing and gardening in my new house.  When I need to buy something I'll try thrifting first, then my local recycle centre and even asking family/friends if they have what I'm looking for.  If I need to buy anything new I'll thoroughly research the best deal/prices!

2025 Goals: A year of using what I already have

1.  Create a permaculture garden from scratch

My garden is currently a patch of muddy/soggy grass and a decked area with some pots I brought from my previous house.  I'm aiming to create a space where I can grow food and flowers, where I can encourage beneficial insects and where Luna and I can relax.  I'm bringing as much as I can salvage from my allotment plot including my compost bins.  I have a ramshackle shed I'm hoping I can save and turn into a potting shed.

2.  Make/upcycle/thrift all my clothes (except underwear and footwear)

I've been slowly wearing out all old work clothes (mainly tunics and leggings) so will be needing to replace some items.  I'd like to start sewing clothes again and already have lots of patterns and fabric.  Other items can be thrifted and I know my Lovely Mum is hoping to do a clothes clear out this year so I might be able to upcycle some of her things.  

3.  Decorate my whole house

It's a small house, just 4 rooms plus a fully tiled bathroom (that I'm not touching) and hall/stairs.  I have a ton of white and cream paint, a few rolls of nice wallpaper I got on sale and loads of ideas!  I just need to motivate myself to get cracking!  I know I need to buy some electrical fittings and a curtain pole but I think I already have all I need.  If I can save enough money I might get my armchair professionally re upholstered.

I'm planning to video as much as I can and to keep a careful note of how much it costs.  I really want to see if it can be done!

Hogmanay reflections

 

It's Hogmanay here and time to reflect on the year 2024.  I don't make new year resolutions but set some open ended goals that I try to live by.

I named 2024 'My year of positive changes' and outlined 4 goals.

1.  Live more frugally and simply - ✅yep, I'm definitely doing that.  I no longer have the safety net of savings and now live on my pension of £772 a month and have majorly adjusted my lifestyle to do that.

2.  Downsize my house - ✅yep, sold my big house and bought a small house.

3.  Buy no unnecessary clothes or house items - ✅ I bought 2 dresses (both were reduced in a sale) for a wedding but no other clothes, not even underwear!  But it does mean I'll need new knickers in 2025 at some point!!!  House wise I think I spent wisely to ensure a quick sale of my old house.  And in my new one, I've researched the best deals for my new kitchen appliances.  I haven't bought anything else that wasn't DIY related.  I've reused as many of my furnishings as I could.

4.  Grow as much food as I can - ❌ Sadly this one was a fail as my allotment was basically abandoned due to the timing of the move and the fact that Luna just wasn't safe when we were there.  I have made the decision to give up my plot in 2025 but I do have an alternative plan 😉

〰

An unexpected bonus of 2024 was that I started a YouTube channel.  It become monetised within 3 and a half weeks and I can now call it my part time job.  Money earned will be going into my emergency/savings fund starting in January plus I can regularly donate money to good causes.

All in all I do think 2024 was a year of positive change for me and I hope 2025 continues to be as positive 💕

How to become consciously frugal part 1

 

I was asked recently on my YT channel how can you become frugal, stop overspending and actually save money.  So I gave it some thought and reflected on my past circumstances.  Thanks to the internet there is a ton of good information out there now so my first suggestion would be to identify why you want or need to become frugal.  What is your goal?

Becoming frugal due to an unforeseen event is an entirely different scenario so the following advice applies to being in a position of choice, although it's still a good habit to develop.  You may want to save money to pay off debt (mortgage/car repayments/medical bills/student loans etc) or save for a special event (wedding/holiday) or like me, save for early retirement.

So, this is what I did and what worked for me.  I shared examples in the vlog.

1.  Make a list of your monthly fixed costs.  Some might be annual or one off but still make a note of these (you can either keep an annual list or divide it by 12 to give you a monthly average.)  This should include housing costs (mortgage or rent), car repayments, loan repayments, energy, phone, internet, car tax, insurances, subscriptions and so on.  Basically anything that would result in legal action if you didn't pay!

2.. Once you know your your monthly fixed costs, subtract that from your monthly income.  That's how much you have left to spend on food, clothes, entertainment/socialising, travel, pets etc

3.  For the month of January write down every single penny you spend either in a book, a spreadsheet or a note app on your phone.  

If your circumstances mean you have no choice in becoming more frugal, this can still work as it shows where the money is being spent.

If you are consciously trying to become more frugal, you don't need to go cold turkey.  Scientific evidence has shown that changing a habit takes time and you're more successful if you observe the changes slowly.

As I've said, this is what works for me.  

In part 2, using my examples I'll go over identifying where the money is leaking!

It's my part time job!

 

In today's Money Monday vlog I'm talking about how my YT channel will progress in 2025.  I'm going to treat it like my part time job and I'll pay myself from the ad revenue.  I'll continue to donate to small local charities and sadly, I have to pay tax on it as well!

I hope I've explained it clearly enough (there's bound to be someone who jumps on any mistake I've made 🙄) but this is my plan.  Each month I'll put 20% in an account to pay the tax man.  I'll donate 30% to charities.  And pay myself 50% which will go into my emergency/savings fund.  I'll continue to live on my £772 a month pension.

So for every £100 I earn, £20 goes to tax, £30 goes to donations and £50 goes into my savings.

I'm aiming to continue the 2 vlogs per week plus a few extra to show some of the money saving projects I'm working on 😊

Oatcakes and potted cheese

 

In today's Foodie Friday vlog I'm making oatcakes and potted cheese.  Cheap, delicious and much nicer than shop bought!

Oatcakes:

• 200g porridge oats (100g of the oats blitzed until fine)
• 3tbsp oil
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/4tsp black pepper
• boiling water

Mix oats, oil, salt and pepper then add enough boiling water to make a stiff but rollable dough.

Cut into circles and bake in the oven at 170C for 15 mins.  Then turn them over and bake for another 5 mins.  Cool on a rack.

Cost: 24p for 200g oats and 3 tbsp oil 21p (Tesco prices)

Potted cheese:

• 50g softened butter
• 50g finely grated mature cheddar 
• salt/pepper to taste

Mix well together and chill.

Cost: 37p for butter and 27p for cheese (Lidl prices)

Yum! 😋

Tattie scones

 

I made a vlog on cooking tattie scones.  They can be made from just 2 ingredients and are cheap, filling and delicious.  And they freeze beautifully!

All you need is leftover mashed potatoes and self raising flour.  I add black pepper to mine but that's completely optional.  The ratio is always 4 parts mashed potato to 1 part self raising flour.

I used a hot frying pan but traditionally they would have been made on a girdle like this one HERE.

Ingredients:

• 400g seasoned mashed potatoes (skins on or off)
• 100g SR flour
• black pepper (optional)

Warm the potatoes and mix with the flour to form a dough.  If (like mine) your potatoes have a lot of butter in them then you might need to add extra flour to stop them sticking.

Divide the dough into 3 and roll out to form a circle about 1/2 cm thick then cut into to quarters.

Dry fry them in a pan until golden brown on each side.

Traditional tattie scones are triangular but I've made circular ones in the past too.

I find they're best served warm.  They can be fried, toasted or warmed up in the microwave.  They're extra tasty in a fry up with eggs and bacon 😋

Halfway through my no spend December

 

So far I haven't spent a penny in December as planned.  I have plenty of food in my storecupboard and both my freezers.   Even though I think I'm organised, it was still good to take everything out and have a good look!!  I did find a few things I'd forgotten about!

The above shows lots of veggies, cooked chicken, raw turkey slices, beef stew and minced beef.  I still have a banana loaf and some carrot cake as well as lots of lemons 🍋

My second freezer has plenty of soup and fruit!

There's more than enough food to last me well into January and create lots of healthy balanced meals with what I also have in the storecupboard (rice/pasta/noodles/flour/oats.)

In today's Foodie Friday vlog I mentioned I'd leave the link to the freezer tubs I use HERE.  I've had mine for a few years now so they were worth the investment.

I've not needed to spend money on anything else as I'm organised for Christmas which is always the biggest expense for December anyway.  So I might even be able to SAVE money this month!!!