Yay, I survived a night in the wild.
Here is my 5* accommodation, complete with ensuite field.

With all thoughts of glamping, and umbrellas at the ready, it was time to do some serious shopping in the country.

This I could not resist. If you want your raspberries fresh – well how about this gorgeous punnet – handpicked by my own fair hands in a lovely PYO farm. I did pick a lot more but they were scoffed on the way round the raspberry canes. Everyone was at it actually, one of the great PYO perks. And I was totally transported back to long forgotten memories of childhood when we could take plastics boxes (usually old icecream ones) and go bramble picking. With fruit-stained fingers and vampiric mouths we would return home with pound upon pound of blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, loganberries if lucky, and then it would be time to make jam. So this lovely lot is going to end up potted shortly…I can’t wait.

Can you spot the wasp in this picture?
I promise it’s for real – they were everywhere this weekend – probably drawn out by the sweet smell of Summer fruits. It didn’t cost a thing and was kindly thrown in by the camp site.
This gorgeous punnet of organic redcurrants cost £1 at the campsite and they’re like jewels and taste beautifully tart. Oh and of course don’t forget the freshly laid organic eggs for £1.20.

Last but not least, this gorgeous shop in Sissinghurst was a treasure trove and I spotted an antique watering can that I just had to have.

You can see it somewhere in the picture…a bargain at £15.

This surely is frugaletarianism at it’s absolute best, happy reading.

Bin there…
First I bring you The Rubbish Diet , better than a bogof (‘buy one get one free’ for the uninitiated), it has a great round up of eight or so ways to keep your bin empty, your belly full and change in your purse.

Charity Begins at Home

Shoestring Alley is a great take on living for less and putting aside money for the future. So the lucky girl will be having a great holiday and a cushy Christmas in 2009.

I really like Potty Mummy’s new frugal ways – I’ve been taking a few notes, especially on the meal planning side…and you can save yourself a thousand quid or so, not bad eh?

Violet Posy shares her shabby chic style and tells us about her chair make over.

London for Free

The lovely Susanna at A Modern Mother sent me this post which makes me proud to be a Londoner. Our melting pot metropolis is possibly the most expensive city in the world, yet we still manage throw open the doors of our great institutions for free. Find out how you can have a free workshop at The National Gallery.

For Frugal Fashionistas

Bargain hunters will be delighted to discover Recessionista Sister who is up on all the latest high street deals so check out her posts, and keep yourself plush and lush for less.

Buying Designer Clothes has tips on customising your wardrobe and keeping on trend for just a few quid.

Sharon Rose has a fabulous Fashion Thrifting blog and waxes lyrical about her designer bargains.

Effing Had Enough of this Crunchy thang

Writeonmum bucks the trend of hiding behind the sofa when the bailiffs arrive and shares her peace love and crunchiness to solve our financial woes.

From Across the Pond

Mom Most Travelled gives a tutorial on how to make colourful play silks for the kids – just swap food colouring for Kool Aid and it’s a winner.

Almost Frugal has some reading tips – The Tightwad Gazette and Your Money or Your Life for a start – and asks what unlikely reads are helping to shape your journey towards frugality as she shares her own – and there are a few surpises.

Tighten Your Belt is happy to share advice with regular tweets on making every cent count. Sign up to the updates and check out the first top 20 tips here.

Nixdminx

My top tip? It’s a state of mind.   ! I’m getting on a cheap flight and heading to the sunshine for a few days to stay with some very good friends and spend time rather than cash…who knows, I may have a job soon and my lady of leisure lifestyle will be over.

Thanks everyone, please send us your top tips too, I hope you all enjoy new and interesting ways to live more for less!

And let’s not forget

“Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.”

- Dorothy Parker

There’s more to life than Aldi and Lidl, which is why I am hosting the best and most luscious budget blogs here soon…so please join me and make it happen!

Email nixdminx@live.co.uk with Credit Crunchista Carnivale in the title and include the post you’d like to enter, with a link and a brief synopsis of you and your blog.

The deadline is March 16 2009, and I’ll send you more details to post and publicise on your own blogs. C’est tres simple!

TTFN – I’m off to the gym now for a workout and a pamper, with a bag of fabulous freebies….

There are two things I still need in my credit crunch arsenal; a good le Creuset set and a giant pasta saucepan (hopefully for cooking and not pan handling). Otherwise, I’m in the market for nothing; nada, nil, zero, diddly squat.

Do you know what that means to me? I’m not imagining cosy suppers and tipsy nights. My champagne quaffing days are done and dusted and there’s no more eating out – I’ll be at home making pot luck suppers for waifs and strays and why? Because cash is king no more, and I can’t fight off the harbingers of doom any longer. I’m fricking skint.

More Mother of our time than child, I’m the living, breathing embodiment of the credit crunch. Having to shelled out this month’s essential outgoings today, without a penny coming in, I’m shaken up no end.

But it’s not just at home, it’s everywhere you look – it’s sprung from the newspapers and into the real world. I’ve had two trips to town this week (meaning Soho and Covent Garden) and I’ve not ventured into any shops. Probably because most of them are shut! The sight of the massive Nine West on the Piazza was startling – with it’s Spring Collections posters in the windows, I expected a showcase of the latest hot-to-trot heels but instead the lights were off and nobody home. In fact, apart from a crocodile of exchange students all lined up with their backpacks and notebooks, WC2 was tumbleweed central.

And this ghost town is coming too soon. I have to admit to a touch of schadenfreude at seeing Estate Agent offices with a ‘Lease for Sale’ sign outside. And I had envisaged Woolworths would close because of a long history of problems, just like the other old world brand, Blockbuster, in the news today because of problems, but again, that’s another outmoded business model, and it will start closing on March 8 (Shepherds Bush store to shut).

What’s worrying me more is the rate of speed of these closures and the gaping holes that are left in the high street. My fishmonger has closed; my favourite bistro on the high road; Westfield has just announced losses running into billions…

I’m really starting to feel the pinch and while I can’t afford to shop at the warp speed I used to, I’ll be heartbroken if I can’t even window shop anymore…and so will those who lost their jobs even more.

So how come I caught myself looking in a charity shop window the other day?

I was drawn to a natty pair of high heeled hardly worn shoe boots on display, and then I did a double take as I caught my reflection in the rain streaked window.

There was I carrying a huge Argos bag with a new sewing machine so I can ‘make do and mend’.  I just feel transported back to another time and one small step away from buying Butterwick and Vogue dress patterns to make ‘new work suits’.

When I got home, I unpacked my new gadget – sleek, shiny and black to go with my iPod.  I set it up and started sewing and realised with a pang what a dying art this is.  Filling a bobbin, threading the machine, pinning fabric, the chalk markings, the tape measure – it’s complicated but it’s something I want to pass on to Miniminx – what if she never got to do any of this? It scares me…

She was fascinated to watch me perform this alien craft and produce a finished item out of it.

I used to make my own clothes and even tried selling them down Camden Market yonks ago and I was trying to work out when I got the fashion brand bug and dumped my nimble needlework for a credit card.  I can’t quite remember to be honest.

That said,  I walked home from Portobello and spied many a more-fash-than-cash rebranded charity shop.  Oxfam being one of them (see above – shame about the typo huh?).  I’ve tried to get into this whole thing but the shops still smell really musty – and the clothes are very home made looking.

These are such lovely brands – just look at Traid – they’re even doing workshops to help you customise your clothes.  And Fara Notting Hill is totally far out when it comes to vintage designer gear,  I applaud them all – they’re modernising worthiness and bringing a new edge to thrift and frugality.

And there you have it, I’m going to teach my child to sew.