Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

cw18

the link took me straight to the order form the day it was posted - but I notice it now says "Come back on the 11th to send in your application for the Dig In seed pack.", so I assume they must have had to order some more in

[Deleted User]

Hello all

Just managed to catch up again! Much better here with Daisy, I'm now bottle-feeding her and it is SO much better. She seems alot more contented.....

Time just goes so quickly with a baby I hadnt realised before she was born

Things are looking abit better with DH, we've had leaflets designed and they're going to be printed once the email address has been set up. He's already been to look at one job and then he's got another one to phone up about this evening. Like I said before I'm just SO glad that I started this challenge and was looking at where the money went, and I have a big food stash!!

Hope everyones okay xx

Frugaldom

Good morning to all

It's nice coming on here and seeing some of the 'old faces' (I mean that in the nicest possible way ) reappearing to let us know all is well in their own corners of our frugal land. :j

As usual, I went out at 7am to do the morning rounds of Frugaldom and am delighted to inform you all that Mrs Grey has finished hatching her eggs and has a total of 6 gorgeous, fluffy chicks. That's all the hatching completed for the next couple of weeks until the eggs in incubators, hopefully, begin hatching.

My spending on Frugaldom gardens has been quite high but I'm mentally off-setting it against what I would have spent had I still been buying cigarettes every week so, on that front, the figures do look good.

Since quitting smoking, I have saved just over £625 so far.
On the Frugaldom project, I have spent just under £670 so far.
On the making free money, I have raised just over £570 so far.
I am only £100 short of recouping all my Frugaldom project spends.:j :j The excess in my signature includes paying my monthly savings bond and spends on DD's wedding. I keep everything seperate on my spreadsheet so I can see exactly where every single penny goes. I am really please with progress so far and we are already reaping some benefits from the garden by way of salad leaves.

lingojingo

What a busy lot you've all been!

Congratulations on the new home Mr. DT
Well done on the gardening sophiesmum
So glad you're feeling energetic Bails
Sounds like a brilliant wedding and honeymoon, and great news about the house in the country sft
What lovely chick pics Nyk, well done mrs, grey!

Lots of other well dones, sorry can't remeber who, but you know who you are!

Just got my approved foods order, only placed the order Sun afternoon and it was here at 9.30 this morning! Dan really has sorted deliveries out, hope he does really well now.

redglass_2

Back with another question!

I'm looking for a way to preserve produce without sugar or salt. I know Sophiesmum swears by her dehydrator. They are quite an investment, though, and I was wondering if anyone had tried dehydrating in the oven - I found a site that says you can do it if you leave the door open, but that seems wasteful of fuel. :eek: And if you were drying a lot of your stuff in summer you wouldn't want all that heat in your kitchen (or maybe, if summer is anything like last year, you'd be sitting hugging the oven).

I also wondered if anyone has tried putting fresh produce near a dehumidifier? Maybe the ever-resourceful Nyk has experimented with this?

sophiesmum_2

What sort of things are you thinking of preserving??

I use a mix of the dehydrator, turning into jams,marmalades, chutneys, pickling and the good old freezer - covers most things but I would love a pressure canner - can't find one in uk though and importing one is expensive. Might try canning with a water bath this year though. (By canning I mean bottling in the sealed jars not in tins)

Maybe I should suggest lakeland start selling them

Edited to say - e mailed lakeland about pressure canners so will see if they are interested in selling them. Sure there is a market in the uk for these.

redglass_2

sophiesmum wrote: »

What sort of things are you thinking of preserving??

Well, anything I can get off the allotment, basically! Not very much going on there at the mo, but I'm gradually getting on top of the jobs and with any luck in July and August I'll have more than I can eat. I love the idea of squirreling some of it away, having veg for winter soups, dried fruit for porridge and snacks, etc. Also really interested in the idea of growing beans for drying and storing in jars, since I've always loved frugal bean soups, but I think you can just let those dry on the beanstalk.

I'm sure you're right and there would be a market for pressure canners in the UK, though in my case I think canned goods would take up too much space and drying might be a better choice.

slowlyfading

Evening everyone.

I just can't seem to stop spending!! Have updated my sig yet again, with more stupid unnecessary spending. Here's an example - I really fancied a milkshake at work today so I went to the local milkshake shop and got one made from a Daim bar (really really REALLY yummy, recommend it lol!) but that's £3 gone. Stupid things like that are pushing my budget up and up, and it shouldn't. I'm so annoyed at myself today. hmph.

Hope everyone else is okay I have read everything, just can't remember! Sending (((HUGS))) to those who want/need one.

sf xx

Frugaldom

Hello

Redglass, I haven't tried sitting the dehumidifier anywhere in the kitchen but I have noticed that the oranges dry out very quickly and that's just with the dehumidifier in the hall.

EFC, I'm glad you're feeling well enough to post now, nice to see you back

My electricity has gone down a bit since turning off the storage heaters but instead of them all being switched off, only the one in the livingroom is off - I had to put the bedroom ones back on again as it's been so cold in the mornings! I'm also still kindling the fire, so we're now almost half way through the log pile and will need more before the end of Spring. I topped up the coal bunker this morning, too, so that was another £23 for 2 bags of coal but I thought better now than when price goes up yet again. All spends included in my signature.

Grocery shopping is a stumbling point as it's constantly in demand and now almost impossible to do a top-up shop for £10 no matter how hard I try. There always ends up being something else that's on offer and can be stored! :rolleyes: We get through 5 litres of fresh milk and I cook using powdered milk, so dairy is a major spend. Thankfully, we now have Ald! with their cheap semi-skimmed, so that has helped a bit. Our S0merfield is changing to Sa!nsbury next month, the signs are up in store now. I have never been in one before but they have started advertising locally on TV. What does everybody think of them and are they OK for frugalites like us? They kind of remind me of M&S - somewhere I hate going.

3 more days until we reach the 100 day mark then SURELY the warmer weather will begin and the heating can go off - please? :rolleyes:

sophiesmum_2

Been pottering in my greenhouse after work this afternoon. The first tomato babies are now in their growbags and I have potted my herbs outdoors now. It's lovely to see stuff starting off outside, although indoors there is stuff in varying degrees of development all over the place even my office is full of pepper plants and lettuces:rolleyes:


flat parsley, curly parsley, Tomatoes, chives, oregano,mint,and basil . The thisck chives in the wellies regrew themselves from last year - one day the wellies were empty next they were sprouting lots of lovely chives again