About
A little boy comes home from school and asks his father what “frugal” means.
“Well” says his father “it means to save”.
The next day the little boy comes home from school all excited.
“Dad, we were told such a good story today in class. Once there was a beautiful princess. Her evil father, the king, kept her locked in a tower because he thought no-one was good enough for her and he knew she didn’t. She was very sad and lonely. One day a knight in shining armor rode by the tower on his charger. The beautiful princess leant out of the window and cried “Frugal me! Frugal me!” So he frugalled her and they lived happily ever after”.
We all need a good frugalling now and then.
This blog is about being frugal.
We are frugal because we want to devote our precious resources of time and money to the purposes we find most fulfilling. We are not against spending, but we are for mindfulness when we do spend.
We have a local outlook, so we will talk about New Zealand, and specifically about Wellington.
Our posts will be grounded in personal experience. We will encourage our readers to boast of their own frugal ways, so that we can learn from them.
From time to time this blog will be blokey, frivolous, and inappropriately literary. This blog will abuse the editorial “we” and the impersonal “this blog.” This blog will thunder judgmentally and whimper when chastised. This blog will make mistakes, which we will correct or retract as appropriate. We will be inconsistent. Within our remit of frugality, we will attempt to amuse as well as to inform. This blog exists to please the authors, but we hope that it pleases its readers.
Che Tibby
Stephen
Frugal Me 
This blog looks like fun.
But it would be nice to know if it was the splenetic Stephen or darting Che who wrote the post on tomatoes.
You can’t tell from my limpid prose style? Twas I.
I’ll nag Che about author attribution. I leave the WordPress stuff to him.
it is just a button to press i think
i do love how our little icon pop up and the design is uber cutie
seems that the CSS for this wordpress skin doesn’t allow author name!
might change the skin…
I could tell, actually. But I had to think, and recall where Che lives, and realise that there is no P&S near his place, and that he and Second Chef don’t have a car…. too much trouble! Much easier to have the names, merci beaucoup, gentilhommes.
I’m liking this blog already. My dad ingrained in me (which my nana ingrained in him) the saying “if you have an egg in the fridge you have a meal.” It’s a good mantra to live by – making the most of what you have.
Keep up the good work lads.
Hey lads
I’m planning a story for the Indulgence section of the Dompost (that I write for) on making it yourself – is it really cheaper? I’m in the process of lining up willing making-it-yourselfers to make bread and yogurt, but I’m still after people who make other things, like pasta sauce, muesli, preserves, or anything else wild and exotic that I haven’t thought of yet. Would you lads like to be involved?
Kimberley, the Dompost ..
hmmm… i’m still getting ribbing from that story a couple of years back about the ham sandwich!
that said, i’m sure stephen and i would he happy to bring attention to the blog!!
ok, well, what is there apart from bread and yoghurt that you make yourselves that you could demonstrate to me and my photographer, and that we could break down into costs to make etc. We’ll also have a chat about why make things yourself, is it just an economic thing. When are you guys free? Later this week perhaps?
Reply to me at kimberley.rothwell@dompost.co.nz if you like.
Sure, why not. I roast coffee at home too 😀
Kind of tied up for the next few hours, will get in touch tomorrow AM.
Hi guys
i read great articles you guys appeared in in Indulgence recently. I want to make my own yogurt. Can you tell me where i can get cooking grade muslin from…or even if it matters?
Cheers, Neen
hi neen, think you can use pretty much any muslin.
i rinse it out, put it through the machine and re-use it!
Great. And thanks for the quick reply!
Yeah, I bought half a metre of “cheesecloth” from Arthur Toyes. All I did was run it through a hot wash first.
Doh! My milk didn’t turn to yoghurt. Perhaps i let it get too cool before adding the cultures….?
Can i fix it? Or do i need to start again?
Thanks, Janine
neen, there’s a full description somewhere here on the blog. and another on Object Dart.
basically, heat till 70 degrees C, then cool in the sink till you can put your pinky in without it burning.
then, add the culture, and place in the hot water cupboard.