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

grandma247

Fishcake hash browns freeze ok.

Pippilongstocking

Oh yeah sorry meant to say - i've frozen hash browns before (but not fish cake h/b's they sound nice!)

mash freezes well too!

rictus123

Well NSD number 10, hopefully only have another 2 or 3 spend days this month. Hoping to live frugal enough to save £2,000 over April, May and June. That will mean iv got £3k in savings as iv got £1k just now. If i get by July with just £500 then il be able to save £1k in that month as my holiday pay + 2 weeks is about £1450. Bring it on

rozeepozee

rictus, just wanted to say how your posts make me smile - you always sound so cheerful

rictus123

Whats the point in being sad Just know what i want now and im going to go out there and do what i have got to do to get it!

pink_numbers

Frugaldom wrote: »

Has anyone made a start on their square foot garden for this year? Mine's all turned and raked, ready for planting, but I still haven't actually marked out the squares, let alone sown any seeds into it. If the winds would drop a bit, I'd go and get some potatoes into one side of it but I need to clip the second wing of one particularly determined bantam who keeps flying over the fence into that corner of the garden. I guess if I went and DID those things instead of sitting here thinking about them, I'd make far more progress in a day.

I have, but it's still way too cold for anything to peek out (except for the broad beans I sowed last December, but they are in containers). I've got fleece tunnel over them, which is keeping the frost off, but still way too cold!

How are you marking out the squares? I've put lots of eyelet hook/screw things into the wood so that all I have to do is thread some string through them. Thought that would be easier when I have to take string off and restring again.

cha97michelle

Square gardening - we put in nails and wrapped string around too, and it worked well last year. We also put up a wire fence to knee height to stop our kitties and the many neighbours kitties that invade our garden using it as a litter tray.

So far i have 6 squares that have some onions in. They were planted in october i think. There is one square with some puny carrots, one or 2 with leeks from ages ago, and a lonely beetroot. I think i need to dig up everything but the onions and start the new season to be honest.


Lessons learned:

• carrots, parsnips and leeks are lovely but take up too much room in my little raised bed for the time it takes to grow them
• courgettes grow like wildfire and need some canes to support them this year to stop them dwarfing everything else.
• Don't grow tomatoes or lettuces underneath said courgettes. (Tomatoes were really late and puny, and the lettuces grew up rather than into a lettuce ball, so we ended up with xmas tree shaped lettuces with weird broccoli type bits instead of leaves.)
• Buttrflies will not leave my cabbages alone so watch out for them and sort that out early.

So far this year i have started off tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, lettuces, peppers and carrots indoors. The only thing that hasn't germinated so far is the pepper seeds. I've done the carrots in a black flower bucket and will see how they go.

I have some potatoes chitting, so some of them need to go in the raised bed next weekend i think.

Lovely blowy but cold day here, so i got some stuff almost line dried until some muppet up the road lit a bonfire blowing downhill over everyones washing. Grrr.

I paid to send away some old scrap gold into cash today, but hopefully £5 outlay for secure postage will lead to a profit. That money can then go to the mortgage i think.

Other than that, plodding along as usual here. Not a lot to report really other than the kids made me lovely homemade mothers day cards with my DH, and we didn't bother with a present but i did get a takeaway. 1st since New Years Eve though so not feeling too guilty.

Hopefully the nicer days and my garden will keep me a bit busier and not thinking about spending money.

chika

Hi everyone, just having a little check in. Hope everyone is well? Congratulations to Lynda I hope you had an amazing day.

XSpender Try Mr A for your DH's glasses, they are doing a complete pair of designer ones with the thinnest lenses for £50 or you can get two pairs for £90. Also I think Mr T are doing free eye tests.

ceridwen

pink_numbers wrote: »

How are you marking out the squares? I've put lots of eyelet hook/screw things into the wood so that all I have to do is thread some string through them. Thought that would be easier when I have to take string off and restring again.

Thats a good idea for wooden "square foot beds".

Errrr....however....mine are recycled plastic...

Has anyone got an equivalent idea for dividing these up please?

Pippilongstocking

Bamboo canes layed out as the dividers or just use pebbles or sand as dividers?