Friday 3 February 2012

An apple a day......

I found this cute little pink pot on the ground next to a bench while out walking, a partly used pot of bubblegum flavoured lip balm, yuk, how disgusting. It's a wonder it doesn't take the skin off your lips judging by the list of ingredients on the bottom. Anyhow it was the colour which drew my eyes towards it, so I put it in my pocket.

I scooped the remaining gunge out and gave it a thorough wash in hot soapy water. Now I have plastic pot, 3.5cm diameter, with a screw lid. Any ideas what I can do with it?

I had a few places to go in town today, but spent that much time gassing I didn't get round them all. I wanted some cat food, but there are no offers on at the moment in the supermarkets, so the next cheapest place is the market. What a bugger, they have bumped the price up from £2.75 to £3.00. I gave it a miss, I will have to keep looking. I will have to stop feeding the neighbours cats and keep what I have left for mine.

I was rather pleased with this bargain though. Millets are closing down, and as well as everything being reduced, they also had an extra 20% off today. I managed to get myself a £20 sleeping bag for £4. This will come in handy for the summer when I plan to go camping with a shopping trolley and a bus pass. Now I need to find the right shopping trolley, someone told me I should look in the market. I looked today but maybe the stall is only there on a Saturday.

I checked my stash of apples today and I am pleased to report that they are all fine. My neighbour gave me loads at the end of the summer, so I wrapped them in newspaper and put them in plastic trays. You can pick these trays up from outside takeaways or markets. Mushrooms are delivered in them and they are thrown because they are non returnable.


I stew five or six of them at a time, add a spoon of honey, and eat them out of the pan, not all in one go mind you. I keep the pan in the fridge and keep dipping into it, saves on washing up :o) Toodle pip

24 comments:

  1. What a wonderful blog! I'm thankful you have the resources After Money to keep a blog and the camera to take pictures. I love your ideas and your style!

    The bags made from dog food containers are very clever. My father used to keep all his 50# dog food bags, double-walled paper ones, and take them to our mountain cabin. He would put all the trash in them to carry it down and out. My brother doesn't recycle, and just uses big plastic bags, and it saddens me!

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  2. Put some skin cream in the small pot for your travels.

    Much easier than carrying a big tub/bottle and have you seen the price of some of those travel size bottles?

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  3. Hiya,

    Regarding your ex bubble gum tub.

    I carry a couple of similar but slighly smaller screw top containers in my wash kit when backpacking. One tub contains Vaseline (useful, among other things, to grease a hot spot on a foot, to prevent a blister forming). The other contains some anti-chaffing gel. Negligible extra weight, little backpack space taken yet very handy to have in an emergency.

    Brian

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  4. Or, you could keep pins, buttons, stamps, anything small in the little pot. It would make a nice sewing kit. Or, you could put a little first aid kit in it.


    Can you look in the ads sent out from the stores instead of having to visit the stores? Do you have coupons for cat food in UK?

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  5. My idea for your little pot is to decant some sun cream in it for your travels. I remember you wrote in a post that you use it all the time instead of moisturiser. As others have said the weight will be negligable.

    When I was little, I loved staying with my aunty and uncle because under the bed I slept in were boxes and boxes of stored apples. All wrapped in newspaper. The bedroom was usually unoccupied and smelled lovely. They had both cookers and eaters and they lost a few if my sister and I fancied a midnight feast. Your post reminded me of happy childhood days.

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  6. Or a bit of butter to spread on your rolls from the baker on your travels, or jam or whatever.

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  7. A couple of posts ago Thrifty Household had a wonderful recipe for lip balm - only three ingredients. I made some the other day and it was wonderful. I used tangerine essential oil as it was really cheap but you could use any kind or none at all.
    I would make more but I have run out of containers that I found around the house. That little pink pot would be perfect. (It only costs 50c to make the balm !)

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  8. oh thank you for the adventures of Henry the pup, wasn't he lovely even then.

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  9. I can't resist stewed apples and also eat them straight out of the pan.

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  10. The pink pot would be great as a purse pack for pills, especially as you like to travel. Decant some everyday vitamins, RX meds etc.

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  11. stewed apples are a favorite here too..I make huge batches and freeze in small containers...great for stirring in to hot oatmeal too...

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  12. I make my own lip balm using beeswax and coconut oil or shea butter and olive oil. Glad you saved it the pot.

    I have been sorted out my daughters clutter - my mind has been blowing smoke tring to recycle her stuff. So many pots and bags and boxes. Sometimes we have to just let go of it...even though it feels wrong. Keep up the good work Debs x

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  13. I would put pills in it.......

    Gill in Canada

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  14. Ilona, does your local supermarket or butcher sell chicken necks? We feed our cat raw chicken neck (recommended by another cat owner friend, and our vet) for one of her meals each day. It's a good way to keep her teeth clean and healthy, and the chicken necks are usually much cheaper than tin cat food.

    Wonderful blog by the way - you have a talent for writing.

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  15. I agree with the sun lotion idea. The lids on sun lotion bottles seem to pop open so easily and I've had one leak all through my bag when out hiking. Not nice!

    By the way, I see you're in for snow in the UK. How are you getting along with the cold? How many T-shirts do you have on now? Please take some photos if it does snow.

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  16. You could use the little pot for keeping your sewing pins in it, or to store some spare buttons. The pill box idea is another idea I would have thought of, but I guess you wouldn`t need it for that as you are such a healthy individual.

    Don`t listen to the advice of someone on here who suggested to feed the cats with chicken necks. The sharp bones in those necks would soon kill the cats(advice taken from my vet!) Never let them chew on splintering bones. This would be like giving your cats razor blades to eat!!

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  17. Love the little pink pot, I save bits and pieces like that too, I'd put it on my shelf above the computer and wait for a 'lightbulb'
    moment - although there are plenty of suggestions here.

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  18. I beg to differ from Sarina (I am the same poster who advised raw chicken neck). Sarina, if you give your cat cooked chicken neck, then yes, the bone splinter will be harmful. But raw bones will not. We have been giving our cat raw chicken neck (as well as a mixture of cat biscuit, raw chicken liver and the occasional raw mince) since the time we adopted her (mid 2010) and she has been fine.

    For a balanced view of both sides of the argument, I suggest the following reading from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding

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  19. pill bottle? I had a pot of lip stuff that I never used. Ended up smearing the stuff on my heels before putting on socks each day. Made my heels as soft as lips! ;)

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  20. I bought a shopping trolley from a very cheap second hand store, a community shop, it is called. It was £3.00. It looked nearly new. They had one of those expensive square ones in a corner for £5. I don't think that type would be manoevrable for you when walking, although would hold a lot of stuff.

    I wanted mine to put on the back of a bike trailer for shopping, as I was given an old one and the bag was missing. A new bag would cost £80.

    I would also suggest lip balm for your little pot. They are only tiny and wouldn't hold enough sun cream for very long.

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  21. I expect bubblegum flavour kisses would be quite nice! Are you going to watch the TV program about lady truck drivers?

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  22. Hello, how about using your pot to carry a few doggie treats in when you are out and about with various canine chums.

    Jean

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  23. All these suggestions for the pot are so clever! :D Nice find with the sleeping bag! I get camping stuff online sometimes too. You can get it on Amazon.

    I'm amazed by how well your apples are storing too!

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  24. How about using the container to store small bits of food - raisins, nuts, hard candy, whatever you like - to keep in your pocket when you're out? I use mine to stop me from buying snacks when I'm out - a few nuts or a mint can keep hunger at bay until I get home and it stops me from buying some expensive junk food that I don't need.

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