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

gilligansyle

Evening all

really interesting the whole smallholding discussion. As someone said its a huge commitment, just look at how much work nyk puts in, and she ( as far as I can tell) has an ordinary house with a garden which she has turned over to chicks and veg. If you are going to keep anything other than chickens and ducks, definitely the costs start to go up as do the land requirements.

Not sure being the wrong side of fifty is a deterrent, in fact for a lot of people it is only at that time of life they have the money to do it, maybe by selling the family home.

Friends of mine (one 50+and husband 60+) work in Spain in a hotel, and there, it is more normal to be self sufficient. They bought a finca with some land, ready for their retirement and grow enough veg to keep themselves, water is from mountain springs, so plentiful in winter,and is usually stored because it is severely rationed in summer. This is heated by solar panels, which also provides some electricity. When I visit them I am amazed by how their neighbours manage to keep going, but their outgoings are minimal. The equivalent of Council Tax is only £50 per year, and they have few utility bills as not on mains supply.
Their nearest neighbours used to be at Findhorn (?) and keep llamas, and have students come out each year and pay to live in a tent to learn how to grow veg and keep animals.

rozeepozee

gilligansyle wrote: »

Evening all

really interesting the whole smallholding discussion. As someone said its a huge commitment, just look at how much work nyk puts in, and she ( as far as I can tell) has an ordinary house with a garden which she has turned over to chicks and veg. If you are going to keep anything other than chickens and ducks, definitely the costs start to go up as do the land requirements.

Not sure being the wrong side of fifty is a deterrent, in fact for a lot of people it is only at that time of life they have the money to do it, maybe by selling the family home.

Friends of mine (one 50+and husband 60+) work in Spain in a hotel, and there, it is more normal to be self sufficient. They bought a finca with some land, ready for their retirement and grow enough veg to keep themselves, water is from mountain springs, so plentiful in winter,and is usually stored because it is severely rationed in summer. This is heated by solar panels, which also provides some electricity. When I visit them I am amazed by how their neighbours manage to keep going, but their outgoings are minimal. The equivalent of Council Tax is only £50 per year, and they have few utility bills as not on mains supply.
Their nearest neighbours used to be at Findhorn (?) and keep llamas, and have students come out each year and pay to live in a tent to learn how to grow veg and keep animals.

That image of your friends sounds wonderful. Don't even get me started on Spain.... That was our initial intention but by the time we were in a position to take the plunge, properties that were once £100K were £500K as a result of the boom. That has now become a bust, so it's possibly still an option, but, the grandfolks would need to be on board for that one. My parents would be up for it but my celtic in laws are less adapted for the heat...

I'm hoping that once the campervan arrives and the babies are born and we've got used to them, we'll be able to go on our travels and actually properly check out some places home and abroad to see what is realistic or not.

rictus123

Hey everyone hows it going? NSD so far today, £53+ earned Payday in just 9 days. Need a new back wiper for my car so hopefully get that cheap enough soon. Insurance deposit paid for car last night, not cheap but worth it.

JayneC

Hi again,

Seems I have stimulated a debate, lol!!

Thanks Kiwi I was going to say there's a thread over on the gardening board, i've been hanging around there too, since fairly early on. There's a couple of people actually living the dream which is a great inspiration. I'm trying to consider lots of options to try and turn a profit, most likely to work ideas I think are a camping field and opening the farm up to visitors (petting zoo styley!) as well as having a farm shop/meat &veg box scheme. Also growing flowers too - the girls on my dream farm were doing that and seemed likely to make a go of it. I think the more diverse the better. I'm not planning horticultural college but have done a permaculture weekend course and may do more courses, also planing to volunteer with WWOOF to get actual experience and visit country shows/fairs and markets/auctions. A I live in North Yorkshire there's lots of shows,etc around and about to visit. Will be picking as many brains as possible!! I'll probably look at doing a blog if I go for it! Was thinking of journalling my adventures from now really, thin it might be good to look back on.

Anyway had a reasonably frugal day although did stray into poundland (which is newly opened in the old Woolies) for some T bags and ending up spending £10!! It is stuff I will use tho and included some shallot sets. I also bought The Smallholder magazine (which was probably an unneccessary expense, but am considering it research!). Hope everyone is well - I'm off to my drama class in a bit so prob back tomorrow x

Skint_Lynne

Evening all,

I have been away a while due to dodgy internet connection and other stuff that I have been busy with, so I had a skim read tonight.

Cheryl, I was so sad to read your post about the social life situation. You must know that you are valued on this thread, I think you come across as kind and helpful. You do 'speak' your mind, but most of the time, I find that this is an asset for a person to have, as you are coming across as being honest. It's date man's loss as far as I am concerned, there's plenty more fish in the sea/out there/etc.

I know there will be a lot of suggestions to change your situation, the usual stuff is evening classes etc. What about people on here meeting up? I've read about a lot of 'meets', why not look out and see if anyone you are friendly with is nearby, or if any of these meets are coming up. The gardening class was a good idea too, in fact a friend of mine went to a gardening class 'T' who visited nyk with me, in fact. She found it to be very useful, but in your case there might be like minded potential friends there.

What I am trying to say is that if you are the same in real life as you are in virtual life, you would be a good friend to have. xx

I used to go out lots in my younger days, nowadays my social life consists of going places with my much younger sisters and being in bed by 10.30 on a Saturday night. Very occasionally I will go out with a friend for dinner or to the pictures. DH and me tend to stay in as he is away from home a lot and enjoys staying in whilst he is here. My next night out will be on 5th June, a friend of mine is getting married and she is having a hen night, so it should be good. MY dancing shoes are all cobwebs as they have not been used for a long time. A major dusting down is required.:rotfl:

Frugal matters are in hand, I am sticking to the money in the purse rule and this seems to be working for me. Will check in later guys. xx

gilligansyle

rozeepozee wrote: »

That image of your friends sounds wonderful. Don't even get me started on Spain.... That was our initial intention but by the time we were in a position to take the plunge, properties that were once £100K were £500K as a result of the boom. That has now become a bust, so it's possibly still an option, but, the grandfolks would need to be on board for that one. My parents would be up for it but my celtic in laws are less adapted for the heat...

It is the 'bust' that has helped them, and some strange property laws. They paid about 50K in Euros for it, and theres a fair amount of land, although its very hilly. Thats always been my dream. It can still happen I hope.

Blairweech

There is a £5 off a £15 spend voucher at Abel and Cole over at HDUK...

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/630086/5-off-15-spend-voucher-abel-cole

and a £10 off a £25 spend

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/630085/10-off-25-spend-voucher-code-abel-c

Not sure if any of you shop with them, they don't deliver to me unfortunately!

JayJay14

Well I have been very rugal this week. Had a go at OH when I can home from work cos he had the tumble drier on to 'finish off' the towels, pointed out in no uncertain terms that he should just fling them on the clothes airer.

He has an interview for a job this lunchtime, it is for a small local company and we have no idea what the pay is so if he is ofered it I hope it pays enough to cover the outgoings or we will have problems, cos you can't be turning down offers or they stop benefits I think. He has also been put forward for a 1 year temp job in Doncaster, which will cost a bomb in diesel but has quite a high pay level. Still at least there are a few jobs out there.

At least my job is chugging along at the moment and I'm really enjoying it, for the last few months it has been highly stressful but now it has settled down and there is a lot of laughter in the office. It makes life so much easier to cope with when that happens.

We do have to fork out for a van hire on Monday of next week - DD2 is moving back home after her split with BF and her job finishing. She only has a part time nightclub job so can't afford her own place. OH has been helping her with cv's etc to apply for full time jobs but it's very hard for young people. (DS has also been out of work for nearly 2 years)

'nuf moaning, must get ready for work, see you all later.

grandma247

Good morning. I am loving this beautiful sunshine.
Just an update on syrupgate. I went into mr. t and looked at the tins of t&l syrup. They were back to 87p! for pancake day they had them at £1 as a "special" price. It was special alright. The large tins are only £1.19 normal price for twice as much.

rozeepozee

grandma247 wrote: »

Good morning. I am loving this beautiful sunshine.
Just an update on syrupgate. I went into mr. t and looked at the tins of t&l syrup. They were back to 87p! for pancake day they had them at £1 as a "special" price. It was special alright. The large tins are only £1.19 normal price for twice as much.

Things like this used to really annoy me. Now I am more accepting of it. Tesco, despite it's marketing to the contrary, isn't there for our convenience, it's there to make as big a profit as possible. Now I'm a little wiser, I buy my syrup in January - or from Approved Foods or use lemon and sugar!

In fact, pancake day was so popular at our house that we've had pancakes again since. They're a great cheap easy meal and my DS and his little friends can't scoff them fast enough. As I made them with wholemeal flour I could almost convince myself they're healthy too - cheese and spinach and ham and cheese or defrosted frozen fruit and creme fraiche was nice. I used up the buckwheat flour in the cupboard with a best before date of 2008 and noone died :rotfl: