FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 1. (Living on £4,000 a year)

weezl74

just popped on with a quick message for ceridwen, you mentioned inter-dental cleaning brushes setting you back a pretty penny, and I saw this bargain and thought of you...

xxx

Nessa56

fayjmck wrote: »

Nessa what kind veg you like? (I'm a gardener in real life when not a student) - if you can grow tomatoes who are as about as 'high maintenance' as you can get then I am sure you can grow anything.....................what are you thinking of wanting?

Hi Fay, I didn't realise tomatoes were at the top end of high maintenance but I have had great results with them, first year I did them I must have fed half of London with my results, and that was only about 8 plants, I thought they would never stop lol.

I am thinking salad stuff mainly as this gets so expensive in the summer and I do seem to be eating more veggie than meat daily, so, lettuce, radish, celery, etc, trouble is I don't have my own garden at the moment (plan for the future) so in the communal garden I thought I would have a few pots and maybe dig a small part for myself.

Don't know if that helps at all but any assistance would be great as I must admit I love to grow anything (only discovered this 5 years ago)

thanks

v

minjara

30 packets of rice, 3 lrg box of tea, 12 bottles of juice, 5ltrs of squash, 50 packets of soup, 5 jars of jam, 1 mustard, crisps, 4 soup mixes, 2 packets of pasta and a case of cous cous, stardrops, carpet cleaner, and some chocolate, 2 lots of zoflora, bin bags, and 3 boxes of cereal bars later, I'm all unpacked! Phew, now I just need to find room for it all!!

All that for £28.73 which I ordered on 8th January. Dunno what I'm going to do with it all, and I dunno what I'm going to do with all the boxes either. Any ideas?

Well the tribunal have put through an order for OH medical records and want it by the 21st!!! Never going to happen as he has two folders worth of notes that need to be ordered.

Its raining here but thankfully its clearing the snow now. Poor delivery man. Also received my free Graze.com box this morning in the post which was a delicious mix of olives, honeyed pecans, milk chocolate covered apricot and dried pineapple, pecans and raisins. Was lovely brunch and very filling to have. I have a free code to get a free box from them if anyone wants to use it let me know.

Another NSD today as the money for AF was taken on the 8th.

Minjara

babyboysmommy

Nessa56 wrote: »

so, lettuce, radish, celery, etc, trouble is I don't have my own garden at the moment (plan for the future) so in the communal garden I thought I would have a few pots and maybe dig a small part for myself.

I used to live in a flat so all I had was my balcony. I had loads of containers out there & mostly grew carrots, tomatoes, lettuce & radishes. All do really well in pots as long as you remember to water them & check them even when it's been raining as sometimes they still don't get enough water. As long as when you buy seeds you go for varieties that cope well with pots you'll be fine. My carrots were short & fat rather than long & thin but were yummy none the less

Fishcake_Random

I am please to let you all know that I now have batteries and will pop my knitting pics up tonight once I've got home.
Also picked up 2 craft magazines and 4 knitting magazines for £3 from the charity shop so hopefully I'll find plenty of new crafty things to do!!!
x x x x

Nessa56

babyboysmommy wrote: »

I used to live in a flat so all I had was my balcony. I had loads of containers out there & mostly grew carrots, tomatoes, lettuce & radishes. All do really well in pots as long as you remember to water them & check them even when it's been raining as sometimes they still don't get enough water. As long as when you buy seeds you go for varieties that cope well with pots you'll be fine. My carrots were short & fat rather than long & thin but were yummy none the less

I made the mistake of buying a flat without a balcony and on the first floor only as my ex partner talked me out of anything else as I was looking after his garden (stoooopid me) hey ho Onwards and upwards (or downwards if I have my way :rotfl:)

Anyway, that sounds great to me, I will go seed shopping (and pots cos I left them all at his) at the weekend and start growing yeh :j

thank you for that

I will let you know what I buy

v
x

catznine

Just had to add another £20 to my spends! After reading on here somewhere about the M & S deals I had to go investigate. so one dine in for £10 meal deal and 1x3 pieces meat for £10 tucked away in the fridge and freezer.

Now have 1 small chicken (but I rummaged and got the biggest I could 1.336kg), 1 small slow roast pork joint, 24 meatballs ( enough for 2 or 3 meals), 4 beef roulades, 1 apple and blackberry pie (will make 4 portions so 2 meals for us), broccoli & asparagus veg dish and a bottle of shiraz! I reckon I will get 7 to 8 reasonable meals with that meat! With the lentils, tuna, soya mince and beans in the larder, that's us sorted for the month! I didn't see any fish but didn't really have enough energy left to look tbh Hope to get some fish next time.

Lovely to hear about all the coming babies! I am keeping my fingers crossed that one day I will be lucky enough to become a Nana!

lynzpower

Im also planning out my plot.

I have a large flat roof that is highly exposed.

In time, over seasons Im thinking I will do:
Mushrooms ( in the shaded bit)
Potatoes ( in the bin/ tidybox)
Climbing beans
Peas
Pak choi, mixed leaves eg rocket/ tatsoi etc
Looking for mini aubergines () any ideas?)
Babycorn ( minipop)
Mange tout
Possibly courgettes although OH ot keen and some sort of squash there are loads on this site.
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ found this site last night, and as none are hybrids, all seeds can be saved for further sowing later in the year.

Amazingly I noted you can grow your own Quinoa and also Mixed grains!

I dont know why im so surprised but there you are

Wondering ,has anyone ever grown these mixed grain amaranths- is it possible in a pot?!?! Would be v useful for breadmaking

Nessa56

Nice list LYNZPOWER

I would love to grow potatoes but they look a bit difficult ( I love potatoes, must be the irish in me me thinks:rotfl:

I can't wait to see what seeds I can get tomorrow/Sunday

Good luck with your growing

v
x

danielley

Good afternoon and thank goodness it's Friday fellow Frunchkins

Bit of a random one; does anyone else find the freecycle website really slow and sluggish?