Latest posts from Thrifty Lesley

A Fresh New Look

I am busy updating the blog with a fresh new look. The chaps who host Thrifty Lesley help me with lots of ideas and have come up with this lovely new look, I do hope you like it. It means each post has to be updated and there are 800+ of them! So it's taking a while, someone from Lemoneye is helping. But as I check things and change things, I keep seeing things that make me want to say - hey, remember this? Or to newer readers - this was a really good post

One of those is the one about how supermarkets inveigle us to spend much more than we intend. When I researched it, it was quite an eye-opener. In these times when we are free to go to the supermarket more than we have been, it might be worth bearing in mind as we trail our way around the aisles

Jam Making

I have been busy making jam today. We have a couple of blackcurrant bushes in the garden and they give us lots of fruit each year - although the pigeons have been helping themselves the last couple of years! I'm going to have to find a way to net them!

So I made blackcurrant jam. Next up was loganberry. We have a single plant and it grows like a triffid throwing out great arching branches each year, whilst last years are fruiting. So it's a bit of a beast. But my goodness, the amount of fruit!

The third one today was apricot. I get the fruit cheaply from Lidl or Aldi. It makes a majestic jam and is my husbands favourite.

I've got a tin of marmalade to do too, so I'll do that this week as well

Kindle and Book

Finally today, I wanted to talk to you about books. Every now and again people ask me to do one, or if I've done one already. I've been looking at writing e-books this week and think I've worked out how to do it. So I'm thinking of putting each meal plan in a separate e-book, with colour pictures of the recipes, the shopping list and instructions and all the suggestions and lists that are included in each meal plan. How much do you think that should be sold for on Amazon? I'm not sure at this point how much Amazon charge the author for an e-book, or indeed if there is any other way of selling them

I've looked at the costings for self publishing a proper book (I don't like e-books, at all) and I can't see how it could be done. Amazon charge 1p per black and white page and 4.5p per colour page. So if we assume a 200 page book, half with colour, that's £5.50 for printing costs alone and something for 70p that's a per unit cost.

They pay 45% of the cover price to the author. Assume a £9.99 cost and each book would cost me nearly £2 to sell - I'd make a loss of £2! I don't think much more than £10 is viable for book on eating at £1 a day. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Meanwhile, here's a couple of posts.

Supermarkets

Researching this blog post has been absolutely fascinating. I was aware beforehand that we are constantly being influenced, without being aware of it. And I knew a couple of the ways it was done. I have discovered SO many more!

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