Breakfast

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? So finding a really good, easy, cheap and nutritious breakfast has to be one of the best ways to live well for less.

One of my favourites has always been oatmeal. Oatmeal reputedly has many health benefits. It can lower blood cholesterol, because of its soluble fibre content. It is high in complex carbohydrates which help to stabilize blood-glucose levels and it contains more B vitamins and calories than most other grains. You can eat it as porridge, granola or muesli, to name just the obvious.

When I make porridge I usually use whole rolled oats. They really don't take all that long to cook. Just use about 2 1/2 - 3 times the amount of boiling water (by volume) as oats, boil for one minute and simmer for about 15.

Another oatmeal breakfast that has become a great favourite in my family is homemade muesli. To make this I usually use quick (not instant!) oats. These are just rolled oats that have been ground up a bit so that they will cook faster. It also makes them a little more digestible when eaten raw.

You can just add milk and any sweetener you choose; honey, maple syrup or brown sugar. Let it sit for a few minutes and then eat. To make it more interesting (and nutritious) you can add fresh seasonal fruit or raisins. This is the most basic recipe, very cheap as oats can usually be purchased for $2-$3 per kilo and there is no added corn syrup, salt or saturated fat

I make a blend that is bit more interesting by mixing about (by weight) 2 parts raw oats to one part each of trail mix and granola. I make this in batches and store in a container with a lid. If you don’t have a scale, bear in mind that the oats are very light compared to the trail-mix, so about 4 cups oats, 2 cups granola, one cup trail mix. Or you can just experiment until you find a ratio that you like. I also usually add some brewers yeast, wheat germ and ground flax seed. This is entirely optional but a good way of getting some extra nutrients into your diet. 

Top it all off with home-made kefir and you have an extremely nutritious and delicious breakfast. It also works out cheaper than any commercial brand of muesli and (if you make your own trail mix and granola) has no added corn syrup, salt or saturated fat.


Granola and trail-mix are both quite easy (and cheap) to make at home too but I will save those for another day. Top it all off with kefir, buttermilk or yoghurt and you have an extremely nutritious and delicious breakfast.

Storm Windows

I live in a very old house. It has the original wooden sash windows and, when we moved in, the 70s era aluminum storm windows were in need of replacement.
Of course everyone expected us to replace the windows with thermopane vinyl. I was very reluctant to do this for a number of reasons.
To start with, the windows are arched at the top, so any replacements would either need to be custom made or alterations would need to be made to the lines of the house, both inside and out, which I felt would be unacceptable. For another, the inside windows are actually in fairly good shape after nearly 150 years and the useful life of vinyl windows is estimated at about 15 years. Lastly, I have been told that, well fitted, old fashioned wooden storms are almost as energy efficient as thermal windows.
All this convinced us to keep our old sashes and get new wooden storms custom made. This we did for around the same cost as replacement windows, although we did glaze them, paint them and install them ourselves.
The only snag is the biannual installation and removal. We don't remove them all, we have a lot of windows and doors and can create a cross-breeze with just a few windows open. But there are three windows upstairs that simply have to come off.
Here I share with you my invention for easy removal of storm windows. It still takes three of us to do it, although I think that one could probably manage it with the right ladder. My problem is that I can't manage the 32 foot ladder on my own and would always need someone to move it for me, if nothing else. anyway, it is easier with two or three people.
I bought good-quality hardware designed for nautical use. I might have been able to get away with cheaper parts but I didn't want to take any chances. I had originally intended to clip the harness directly onto the crossbar of the ladder but couldn't find clips big enough. The rope loops I tied to the bar work OK though, they stay on the ladder all year so only the harness needs to be unclipped.

Storm Window Harness

Harness connected to ladder cross-bar

This is a 32' ladder

Clip onto eyelets attached to storms

On both sides

When lowered to the ground, unclip.

This works just as well for raising the storms in the Fall.

Cheap and easy raised beds

Hi there,
splynch53 just shared an Instagram photo with you:

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"Cheap & easy raised garden beds"

Each bed is made with six 6 foot lengths of 1"x6", one 4 foot length of 2"x4" and 32 deck screws. Two of the boards are cut in half and the 2x4 is cut into four. You can probably figure out the rest from this picture. I filled each with 3 bags of last years leaves, about 8 cubic feet of compost, 2 cubic feet of peat moss and one of manure, in that order. Watered well and left to settle for a couple of days before planting.

Eat Local

I was intending to do a post on buying and eating local food, and I probably still will. In the meantime, someone shared this with me on Facebook. I think it sends the message far more eloquently than I could.

This isn't just about protecting local jobs. It stands to reason that food that is grown locally arrives at your table in a fresher cndition and without burning scarce fossil fuels to get there.
Thanks to www.realfoodmovement.ca for sharing. This is a Canadian video but I think the message is much the same wherever you live.

Day one

Having reached a stage in my life (somewhere between middle-aged and elderly) where I think I might have gained some knowledge worth sharing with the world, this bog will be about food, gardening, and general lifestyle. Sometimes it will be about computers, cars, plumbing, traveling, raising children or just about anything else I think might be worth sharing. Bear with me, it might take me a while to get it right.


A recent victim of the economy I have been forced into early retirement. As I can't actually afford to retire yet, much as I would like to, I will have to find some new ways to make a living. In the meantime I am trying to live as cheaply as possible without compromising too much on the quality of my life.

I have always been keen to do things myself, whether home-improvement, making clothes or building websites. I have to admit this is mostly because I am cheap. Ever since I was a child I have looked at things in the shops and thought "I am sure I could do that", and then started to do the math.

Comments are welcome, so long as they aren't abusive or simply self-promoting. I don't pretend to be an environmental expert or a trained nutritionist. In fact, I am not really an expert in anything, so if someone corrects me in a way that I find convincing, I will update the post accordingly.
I may sometimes quote or post links to articles that I find useful or interesting. When I do so I will always try to give full credit. There is nothing new under the sun and many of the recipes I have, and methods I use, owe something to someone else. I won't always be able to remember who should be credited, but let me know if you think I am plagiarizing and I will give credit where due.