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

JayJay14

eco wrote: »

hiya,
The reason for the post is if you've bought early, second early or late seed potatoes, you can plant them all at the same time and the earlies will be ready first then the second earlies, can't remember were I read it but thought how do the plants know when to be ready, but apparantley they do.

Plants have something built into their genetic code which uses day length to measure growing cycles and they also use temperature as a guide.

Still being frugal, well trying to, sent OH to Aldi today to get 3 x packs of fruit bushes. He managed that OK but also bought himself some noodles and instant soup, only a couple of pounds but it was unplanned and we have loads of noodles in the cupboard and if I make my own soup he leaves it to go off in the fridge.

If the weather holds we will be sorting out the last deep bed in the garden, then I can work out what goes where. We also have to prepare the bed against the back fence for the fruit. This will mean moving my big old rosemary bush. It has grown into a really strange shape so we are going to dig it up and I will try to propogate it so I can start again. I have an area under the kitchen window which currently has some sage in so I would like to raise this slightly (has a rather shallow soil and nothing grows very well there) and turn it into a proper herb garden.

If the plans come good I may even try and post some pics later in the year.

babyboysmommy

Just bought milk & bread today

After reading on here about using old tyres as planters I then did a google search on it. DH works at a garage & they get charged for disposing of them. Needless to say he is going to be bringing some home for me Really pleased as I was going to buy some containers for vegtable growing but now I'm getting some for free! On U Tube a man stacked them on top of each other for potatoes.

So if you are happy to use old tyres ask at your local garage as it's very likely they will give them away for free to save themselves the cost of disposing of them

JayneC

Not been on for past week as lots of travelling with work so just flopped into bed most nights!!! Just had a quick skim read so kinda up to date (read every other page!!)

Spent £1029.31 in Jan from Annual budget of 11,800. So not too bad, went wayyy over budget on groceries but have a very nice stock cupboard now so hopefully that will even out, also have bought lots of gifts in the sales so won't have those expenses throughout the year. Have also spent 75% of my clothes budget!!! Only allocated £100 but am still going to try to stay within. In my defence it has been charity shop buys apart from some thermals and a pair of shoes - most of it spent yesterday I have to confess. Arrived early for my appointment so had a wander round the charity shops. Was in Ilkley, Yorkshire, which is a lovely little town - never been before was quite impressed - and lots of very good quality stuff in charity shops, so got a few things that I do actually need (honest!!) like jumpers with long sleeves not stupid 3/4 length. Now well stocked up for winter clothing and already have quite a lot of summer stuff (cos it's prettier!) so shouldn't really need anything throughout rest of the year - we'll see!

also had my first foray into Booths supermarket, also quite impressed, they had quite a lot of stuff reduced but managed to limit myself to 2 large pork pies (£1.20 each) that we had tonight, fed 6 plus a bit left over for supper or lunch tomorrow for me and OH, plus 2 packs of 4xlarge chicken legs (£1.80 each pk). Also found the Mr T manager specials and got quite a lot of stuff -soup, meat paste, jam, ice cream wafers (20p) and can't remember what else but good store cupboard stuff - will hopefully help to balance out my grocery spend for Jan!

Did anyone see my dream farm last night too? made me want to do it! Spent rest of evening looking at farms and small holdings for sale nearby!!

Anyway ranted enough. Hope everyone ok. X

cha97michelle

I just wanted to say that i am not sure it is a good idea to use old tyres for planters for food. I saw a warning about it when i was looking at growing potatoes in a small area (Nyk and shaz were on about it last year and i am sure Nyk posted a link).

Because the tyre travels along the road it traps chemicals in it, which could then transfer to your plants. I think it is worse when it is something that grows under the ground in close proximity to the thing being eaten. Just thought i would mention it, especially for those feeding kids whose bodies readily take up pesticides and chemicals.


A spend day here today. I went to Mr M and spent on stocking up on nappies that were on offer, and other bits that i needed. I bought the kids a magazine each for taking away next week. It will mean less toys needing packed to take. Otherwise they have a paint with water book each aunty bought them for christmas, and some board games, so we will be travelling light.

My sister and nephew visited this afternoon, so i got my mixing bowls out and made a pizza and a chocolate cake to feed us all. Between the 3 kids they demolished almost half a cake in one go. Oh well. They don't eat like that all the time and it was homemade so not too bad. They also had so many strawberries and grapes (my sister brought with her) that they didn't actually have room for any tea.

It was also a cleaning day after my DS2 put a toy tin of food in the oven just before i put the pizza in, and i didn't realise till it had melted from the top shelf down, so 3 shelves and a tray at the bottom to clean. It was a real pain to get off. He has a nasty habit of doing it and i normally check but didn't today. Lucky my sister was here as she could keep an eye on the kids so i could deal with it straight away.

I can see it being a busy weekend but at least DH is here to help me this weekend.

rozeepozee

Mooloo wrote: »

Not been very frugal at the moment. Bought some books on Amazon the other day.

I promised myself I'd stay away from Amazon this year (I'm a bookaholic) but I wanted to buy OH a CD for Valentine's day and when I googled, Amazon was the cheapest. When I got to the page, there was a if you open an Amazon credit card account, you get a £15 credit. So i've bought a book and CD and it cost me nowt. As soon as the credit card arrives, I'll cut it up and send it back with a letter closing the account.

We've got no commitments this weekend - most unusual - so I'm gonna sow some of the veggie seeds I've hoarded from last year in my new propagators. Very excited about this!

JayJay14

Perhaps if the chemicals in the tyres is a worry a bin liner could be used to line them to provide a barrier.

loopychriss

Erme wrote: »

Now an update with regards my home made menstrual stuff

Improvements on my design could be made by making the diamonds more secure with a few stitches but they can be handsewn and not urgent. Online these things cost a fortune for 'eco friendly' ST's. Mine are soooo cheap...might even improve the design and sell on folksy @ some point with a wee bag etc...

When I made some a few years ago, I used a waterproof layer as well (old shower curtain) so that they wouldn't leak through. This could be sewn between the 2 layers of flannel. Just thinking.... aren't face flannels a bit rough? Would a bit of fleece blanket be softer? I did actually buy some from an eco site and they were made from a lovely soft fleece. Luckily I don't need them any more otherwise I'd give them a try again...

Skint_Lynne

Evening everyone,

I've had a cookathon night. I made dinner at my mum's tonight, chinese beef curry for everyone. I bought a lot of meat, and I got it at the butchers, it was £13.:eek:

But: I have costed this out in comparison to buying a beef curry and fried rice from the chinese. The take-away ranges from £5.50 to £6.00, so going for the £6 option, 8 curries and rice would cost £48.00. My version for 8 very big portions would cost £1.875 as I calculated it cost me £15 to make the whole thing.

So, a saving there of £33. When we used to get take aways all the time, it was not unusual for it to cost around £50.:eek: It probably would have been cheaper if I had of used supermarket meat, but it would not be thin enough unless I got minute steak and that might have still been too thick.

Come to think of it, the butcher was most friendly today, he must be missing me spending a fortune in there, I have been getting the bulk of my stuff from c0stco recently, the meat in there is as good as the butchers but much cheaper.

When I came home, I made a chocolate birthday cake for my brother, for his birthday tomorrow. It turned out quite well, will get the verdict tomorrow no doubt.

Mary baker is signing out for the evening. Speak later. xx

rictus123

Well hello folks, hows everyone today? Pouring rain so i am not getting to build today so came home. Will still have a frugal NSD and do a little budget so iv got an aim for the end of this month and the end of next month. How silly was i even thinking of taking on more debt! I think im going to make the gf do with a card and flowers for valentines,she knows the money situation for me and should understand

ceridwen

JayJay14 wrote: »

Perhaps if the chemicals in the tyres is a worry a bin liner could be used to line them to provide a barrier.

I vaguely recall reading somewheres about chemicals in old tyres as well...

The thought crossed my mind of using a binliner - not sure about that, as its still plastic (and therefore with chemicals in of their own...).

The answer as to whether binliners would actually "work" in the first place I imagine could be obtained by filling a binliner with water and seeing if it leaked through to the other side - as that would tell you how permeable that binliner is.