the daydream fund challenge thread

rhiwfield

JayneC wrote: »

Thanks betterlife

I'll take a look at your thread. I'm thinking of trying to go with a recycling/reuse theme. Either buying and selling vintage or reclaimed items or reusing and 'doing up' said items. For example cleaning and applying paint effects to furniture or using fabrics to make household furnishings/accessories. I notice that bunting seeems very popular at the minute. also knitting/crocheting accessories - bags, brooches, etc. i've had a look on folksy which looks a good site for selling crafts and have also found notonthe highstreet but they have very high standards so maybe HM crafts haven't got the proffesional finish they need. Saw a stall selling items made from driftwood which may be a possibility too as I live on the coast... I thought I could do craft fairs/markets and possibly a party plan thing too, I know someone who used to do that to sell her own crafts and take commisions too.

How's everyone doing? Are you making progress with your holes Dave?

RHIWFIELD is the website up and running yet?

Jayne, yes, its up and running, though not fully functional. I've pmd you with the link. Went with Justhost and built using sitereptile (sitebuilder).

Interesting to see your ideas, some of which we are going with. Now that DW is on stream, I have to start with my soft leather goods.

Looked at Folksy and Etsy, and might also try Ebay, while we wait for DW's site to be picked up by the search engines. Unfortunately they seem to have an aging policy so it might be months before we get an appreciable amount of hits

Davesnave

Just a quick note from me to say I haven't forgotten you, but I'm setting up a new computer for DD2 to take to uni, and also doing various social things, so uploading photos etc will be a bit delayed.

Very impressed with the ideas some of you are having and following through on. Don't think I'm cut out for craft work, if the time I took to make nest boxes is anything to go by!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi all

sorry i havent posted in a while, and a huge thank you thinking about me..

Work has taken up most of my time... bit of a roller-coaster to be honest...

but have managed to get myself a spot in an Antique place, its only a small pitch, but its a foot in the door, so hopefully in the future i will have a bigger spot to put my vintage clothes in etc



we have stopped incubating eggs for this year, ( well unless i see eggs on ebay to tempt me..lol..)

got to go now.... got food on the go, will catch up with you all proper tomorrow..

troglodyte

Hi CTC and glad you are still around, we've missed you! Congrats on the pitch, it looks good! Hope it goes well.

Davesnave

troglodyte wrote: »

Hi CTC and glad you are still around, we've missed you! Congrats on the pitch, it looks good! Hope it goes well.

I'll second that! It looks great.

Not sure what I'll get done today on the holding, as I'm still putting together a cage for DD2 to take her remaining ferret, Eric, to uni. It's one of those Chinese ones, as flimsy as their chicken houses, but we've varnished it and I've been beefing-up the bits that look unfit for purpose. Eric himself had an exploratory operation last week, and we know he hasn't long to go, so this is a compromise.

As MSE was down last night, I finally finished updating my photo album, so here's a link to the latest bit.


Lovely morning here. Hope everyone can find time to enjoy the weather, which looks reasonable this week. We are still just about hanging on to the swallows...:)

rhiwfield

Well done CTC, looks good! Are those welsh woollen blankets?

Davesnave, very impressed with your chicken house, be ok for a hidey-hole after you've had an upanddowner with the missus

Trouble with all this crafting is that you need a warm place to do it. I've got used to working outside during the day in autumn/winter and wearing layers, so I can see the heating bill going up

I'm beginning to think that I might be getting a few saleable designs from the leatherwork, might post a piccy in a few days when I've made a bit more.

Winged_one

We managed to get chatting a little over the weekend, DH and I. It looks like we are both coming around to the reality that, we WILL get somewhere eventually (it's in the back of both our minds all the time), but it will be more medium to long term in the planning (probably at least 10 years away - unless DH's career totally stalls in the meantime). And I will stay working at that stage until my pension can support the 2 of us (his pension is doing diddly squat, so we will be relying on mine in reality), and commuting either daily or at weekends.

In the meantime, we are doing our best to learn, and to add to savings, and do things we can for OS/frugal/eco-friendly type lifestyle. We are doing an attic conversion in our current house starting in about 3 weeks time, and adding a solar panel for hot water as part of that, and increasing the levels of insulation also in the house - oh, and adding on a second water butt coming from the back of the main roof. (We did an extension out the back about 3 years ago, which meant a HUGE solar gain, and added insulation meant that even though we have loads of extra glass, it is a LOT warmer in winter now and easier to let air through in summer, and we have a water butt from this small roof too which meant almost no mains water on the garden this summer). And that is also where a lot of the current savings are going right now (doing it almost entirely for cash, but taking a small loan to keep a "rainy day fund" available too).

We are in the throes of trying to decide whether to keep the allotment. I think we will keep it for 2011, but do it differently. Like more coverage of the ground, more potatoes, more pumpkins and squashes, more leeks, and more roots (parsnips and turnips mainly), about the same on onions and garlic. But perhaps trying tomatoes again (plum types for cooking and maybe some regular ones). Peas and beans will be more considered - I want lots more climbing beans for storing dried (borlottis etc - ideas welcome for other types) but fewer french etc to use fresh. I want to have to make fewer trips there next year, as it was taking too much time in terms of getting tehre and back, and stressing about NOT getting there.

But we will ramp up the back garden growing again. The tomatoes work well, we know - both trained against the fence and a hanging basket of cherry ones. A "living fence" of peas also works well, and mange tout really only work at home (get too big on the plot). I want to do more beans (french and broad) in the garden to be able to pick regularly. More salads and radishes, and carrots in tubs (they get root fly on the plot). And a couple of brussels sprouts and/or purple sprouting brocolli for winter consumption.

And I am perfecting a lot of skills too. My sewing is improving and I have been getting lots of ideas for things that would sell well should I need/be able to. I have been preserving and baking a lot more recently, and finding good foraging sites in the past couple of years. And I have just (literally, over teabreak) been told I can get some "garden fresh eggs" from a colleague, so I may do a barter on veggies or jams with her.

The daydream is not dead, but taking a different shape at present, so we'll see how it evolves in the coming years. (And I will be keeping saving for when the opportunity presents itself).

rozeepozee

Hi all! Been mad busy since the twins were born five months ago today. I hardly get the chance to go online and read like I used to, although I do keep up with Dave's photos which are really inspiring.

We have been proactive about moving though, spent a month this summer in the campervan touring round the west wales coast (again) and decided we really like it around cardigan town/st dogmaels. Does anyone know this area?

We are hoping to go back for a week to really check the place out and make a final decision whilst looking for properties but may rent in the first instance before making a final commitment, although I suspect whether we buy will be dictated by whether anything suitable comes on the market. There aren't loads of suitable properties - with land - that come up for sale there.

How much land do you have Dave, out of interest?

Anyway, I'm hoping that as the twins get easier, I'll be able to come back and revisit this thread in detail. Meantime, like some other OPs, we've been practicing with what we've got: growing a small amount of veggies and seeing what works/what we're good at. It's been hard juggling the demands of two newborns in the house and I've been very impressed with what my OH has managed to do in a very restricted timescale.

R x

Davesnave

rozeepozee wrote: »

....spent a month this summer in the campervan touring round the west wales coast (again) and decided we really like it around cardigan town/st dogmaels. Does anyone know this area?

How much land do you have Dave, out of interest?

I know the area pretty well, rozee. From our POV, we'd have preferred to be a few miles inland rather than on the coast, as it's possible to be within striking distance of the beaches and escape the worst of the winds, if you're in a valley. Somewhere like Brongest, maybe. We looked at a property there.

We liked the Cardigan area... and near Newcastle Emlyn... and Lampeter... and Narberth...ooh don't remind me!

I spotted this one had been reduced again today:

http://thesmallholdingcentre.co.uk/Garregwen%205827/Garregwen.html

Not a lot of land, but it would be enough for me, and I wouldn't need to rebuild the house!

...And this has just come on-line. Cilcennin is a nice village, though it's scattered around a bit :
http://thesmallholdingcentre.co.uk/Carnau%20Bach5860/Carnau%20Bach%205860.html

No building work there either!

But I already have a project, or three! :rotfl:

We have 5.5 acres here, but as I keep saying, I'd be richer with just two, which is roughly what we'll be using eventually, but it's good to share the rest with a local farmer, who needs all he can find, besides his own land, in order to compete with the larger land-owners. Some of it is truly 'industrial' near me, especially the raising of pheasants. I will try to snap a photo of their 'farm' some time!

Poosmate

Evening all, I've finally read the last post so am fully up to date.

Wow! What epic journeys some of you have taken or are on. You're all much further along your journeys than me so I'll be running along behind you all - hope you don't mind.

I note that many of you have saving pots (hopefully most will be unopened and un banked at the moment). I have important news for everyone who has stashed cash. There's a little story to it:

I sold my old banger (Satan) for scrap on Saturday so had £110 in my pocket. I went to the bank and banked a cheque but not the cash (scratches head) - Oh well, I won't need to use my debit card. So I went shopping at Mr M's on Sunday and obviously paid for it with cash (what a strange concept I rarely have more than £10 on me in cash). I got the change and in there was a 20 pence coin. Habitually I check any 20p's I get and low and behold, it was one of those 2008 undated ones! Yay! So, I rushed home and checked out Ebay to find one being bid £67 for. Yay! So I'm not sure I want to sell it on Ebay or keep it for a while. So I told a few people today about it and a couple of times I've heard mention about the 2p coin error too. So, I've checked out the Royal Mint site to find out about these errors:

http://www.undated20p.com/register.html

It would appear that the Royal Mint are paying £100 for these coins (one application per household), but site is not dated as to when it was last updated. Check out this one for the 2p mint error:

http://www.undated20p.com/error-coins.html

I was amazed to find a few people who had no idea about the undated 20p coin error so I guess that's how they remain in circulation for so long. Apparently one of the 1983 2p coins fetched £600 at auction last year.

PLEASE, PLEASE, CHECK YOUR 20p AND 2p COINS BEFORE CASHING THEM IN!!! Good luck to you all!!!

Winged One, please reconsider getting your solar thermal water panels and look into having the solar photovoltaic ones instead. The payback on them is so much quicker. There are several threads on this site about them:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2637431 On the Utilities (Gas & Electric sub board) just read the last few pages unless you want to read the whole thread).

Then there's:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2072787 On the Green & Ethical board - this one is older than the one above and is where I cut my teeth on Solar power/Feed In Tariff info gathering.

I notice another one too - must check that one out.

Some people are very anti solar panlels and the cost of the feed in tariffs but I get the impression that it's those who don't have suitable roofs (rooves?) or are paying a lot for their power and they believe that everyone without solar energy will be paying more for everyone who does. Personally I don't think this is true because (I believe) all of the energy companies are duty bound to invest in green and renewable energy production - I'm certain I've read somewhere (I thought it was on my last BG bill) that they have committed £Xmillion (or billion) to renewable energy. If all of the energy companies have already committed this amount to renewable energy it's already being paid for by ALL of us - the only difference is how it's distributed, i.e. some of it is being paid back to it's customers.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post, I'm loving all the photos being shown. My back garden will be my smallholding - it's a jungle ATM. I listed it on Landshare but the 3 people who applied were not suitable as they all lived too far away and didn't have transport. However, one of my neighbours is taking over the garden and we are going to get it up and running together. YAY! I'll try to do a link to what I hope my garden will look like some time next year:

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/shellytoo44/MyGardenDesign.jpg

I hope it doesn't go to a picture cus it makes the thread go all wide - I hate that!

I'll try to upload some more photos when I find my card reader!

Nice meeting you all anyway and I'm so glad I was able to catch up at last it's been a real joy getting to know you all and I hope it won't be long before you all feel you have got to know me too.

Oh, and on a final note, JayneC have you got anything written down (like some kind of contract) regarding the use of this other persons land? I am only worried that you will put in loads of work on it and when it gets to payback time this guy will decide to take it on himself and tell you to "Gerrofff mai laaand!"

I think I've said enough!

Sorry I do bramble on don't I? lol

See you all tomorrow night, take care,

Poo