Time to make do and mend

10:37am Wednesday 16th April 2008

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Feeling the credit crunch? I don't know about you, but the chill wind of austerity has been blowing down my neck for a while now... in fact, ever since we decided to pay off our mortgage in three years, a move which coincided with the top of the housing market last summer.

We knew the increased instalments would leave us pretty much skint; but we reasoned that short-term pain would bring long-term gain, and we decided to go for it.

What we had not paused to consider was that our decision to switch mortgage would also coincide with the expiry date of the ten-year guarantee on Clee Mansions.

Since that moment, the house has been falling to pieces at roughly the same rate as the national economy, and with broadly similar results.

First the bathroom sprang a leak into the living room, then the double glazing developed condensation, then the boiler decided to play up. Then the exterior woodwork started to look decidedly shabby and the drive developed an interesting crater feature.

Time for a new bathroom, an overhaul of the central heating system and a procession of tradesmen through the place, leaving us wondering what else could possibly go wrong.

We didn't have to wonder very long.

Silly billies that we were, we had reckoned without my mother's car getting nicked, leaving her stranded and without the cash to replace it like for like.

So if anyone on the York retail scene is wondering what that drop in footfall was all about this winter, it might not have been the credit crunch. It might just have been me.

If the Other Half's to be believed, I used to be the queen of shopping. Certainly, clothes might spend years in the wardrobe before the tags came off and they actually got their first outing.

But not now. Years of concentrated retail therapy have been ditched for a future of making do and mending. And you know what? I actually quite like it, particularly when it comes to shrinking the monthly food bill.

I remember my mum telling me about a friend of hers who once went on shopping strike until her stingy husband gave her a housekeeping rise. She used practically all the food in the house without a sign of hubby cracking, but a week of peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, dinner and tea finally did the trick. He caved in and she got her rise.

Now, nobody's going to give me any more money because there isn't any more to give. But, at least until the new bathroom's paid off, I'm taking my inspiration from mum's mate, and trying to spend as little as possible while using up the stuff in my cupboards.

So far there have been few complaints. The freezer was packed, anyway, and there were plenty of packets and tins in the kitchen. And in my experience, people don't generally moan about being given home-made cakes and biscuits instead of shop-bought puds.

It is also actually quite good fun to sit down with your cookery books and try to match up a recipe with the stuff you've got left on the shelves. We've had some reasonable meals, and I've found a dirt-cheap bacon and lentil soup recipe that's saved me from buying sandwiches every day for a fortnight.

However, the cupboards are looking a bit bare right now. We're out of pasta and potatoes, and finding a winning combination of kitchen ingredients has become somewhat more challenging.

Swede risotto, anyone?