How self sufficient can you get when you don't have a smallholding?

DH runs his car on waste vegetable oil. My kitchen at work is only to pleased for him to take it away as they have to pay to dispose of it. Before they supplied him, our local Indian takeaway and the pub up the road were joint suppliers.

Of course, you wouldn't want to drive behind him as it smells like a chip shop But it is a very self-sufficient way to run the car.

I suppose bees are out of the question? You hear more and more about people keeping bees in town, but generally they seem to be high up, on flat roofs etc. Our bees are on the riverbank at the bottom of our garden, so they don't disturb anyone. It wouldn't really have been feasible for us to have them in our old house as we had hotels on all sides, and there would have been bound to have been complaints...:(

Solar panels are feasible though, and will heat your hot water for you very nicely for eight months of the year. A woodburning stove and back boiler, or a Rayburn (other cast iron stoves are available) in the kitchen would also power radiators elsewhere in the house for you, though I know anything like a Rayburn is hideously expensive these days. Solar ovens (which can be homemade) can be left out in the garden in the summer (if we have one) and combined with a haybox to cook soups etc or used as a dehydrator. Your car can be used as a dehydrator if you park it in a sunny spot - hang things up on the dashboard and they will soon dry out! You can bottle fruit or pie fillings and tomato sauce to keep in your pantry rather than paying electricity to store it in your freezer. You can make and pasteurize your own apple juice (hang on, can't remember if you said you had an apple tree, apologies if not!), make your own cheese, cook and smoke your own ham....

What would you LIKE to do? There's loads of people on here who'll help you do it!

Just a see what other people do to save money be more enviro friendly etc

What do you make instead of buying?
i would like to get more info/knowledge of what people do, i ahve time on my hands now as i am a stay at home mum and my 4 year old likes to help in the garden make bread etc.

I like to try new recipes that model takeaways, so much cheaper and also means I'm happy for the littlies to have some as it has an amont of salt, fat etc that I'm happy with.

I scour for good bargains for Christmas and Birthdays meaning I don't spend a fortune on gifts. I use half price/freebies for cards so I don't spend a fortune on those either.

I've just found some potatoes that have started sprouting so I'm going to stick those in the garden tomorrow.

I'm going to pick up some salad leaves and stick those in a pot in the garden, so technically not saving yet but I will be.

I have started doing lots of stuff with little one such as going on 'nature walks' in reality a free walk through the woods, much cheaper than say soft play or shopping etc. Instead of buying expensive childrens magazines I'll buy a colouring book or a puzzle of the same price that will last SO much longer.

I never throw anything away unless I really have to since I started using things up and having weird concoctions I've saved a lot of money.

Cakes and things are so easy to make and a lot cheaper than the supermarkets plus kids love helping.

Something you could do with your little one is "pick your own" fruit in summer and make things like jam, chutney, 'bottled' fruit, flavoured spirits (damson gin is amazing!) etc. They are great for presents throughout the year, and to use at home. I store jars through the year to re-use at jam time - ones that I can't get the label off properly get used at home or for non-occasion gifts for close friends and family (a plain white stationary label or even masking tape is a good idea so you know what is in the jar!), and I use nice labels from Hobbycraft for gift jars. If you get too much fruit to process in one go, you can freeze to cook with later on.

Growing stuff is easy if you have time and space. Potatoes and 'squash' family such as courgettes, pumpkins, butternut etc are easy to grow. Salad leaves are also easy, but don't plant them all at once otherwise you will have a glut of lettuce and not be able to store it all! Plant a few seeds every week or two through the season and it will be more manageable.