2020 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

@willow_loulou can you post photo of your assortment of recycled items as planters? I'd love to see them.  I have been collecing old welly boots and this year I am going to transplant a leek into each one and call them leeky boots. I'll get photo once I've transplanted the leeks

willow_loulou

Leeky boots 😂 love it! Yes I’ll take pictures tomorrow, then try and figure out how to post. 

Edit: just found you on Facebook 😁 your place it amazing! 

FrankieM

Hi All

I'm still here @Frugaldom Just quiet and in the back ground.

Mum and I have found a house, it ticks all the boxes and also has a lovely large garden. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with that in the future!

willow_loulou

Here is my ‘nursery rack’ with some of my recycled containers. They don’t all live on there some are on my kitchen windowsill but I put them together for photo for you @Frugaldom
I’ve used: pie trays, a jug, a cut cola bottle, 2 chipped tea cups, a dog treat container the lid broke on and a soup container. 

willow_loulou

@Frugaldom This is my tree from Apple pip. Do you think it needs potting on? 

mumtoomany

Hi all. Still here, just very busy! Sheep all sheared, wormed and treated to prevent fly strike. Lots of veg plants growing. Cherries, raspberries and blackcurrants  ready. 
On a frugal front. Three pairs of wellies fixed, patched and glued, patched made from a piece of ribbon found in the drawer. Dishwasher mended. Needed a new waste pipe, six pounds. This dishwasher was second hand 18 years ago. The knob falls of each time it's opened and we've "hot wired" it, so it doesn't stop if opened mid cycle. Good but at £40. New handles ordered for a saucepan, the plastic bit on one broke, but the pan is sound, so worth fixing. 
Mega shop at the weekend. DD2 was shopping at same time as me. She has staff discount at Tesco. Bought loads of pasta, oats, tins, etc. Better savings rate than in the bank!
 Welcome to all the new people on here. Hope you enjoy your frugal adventures.
Speak soon, mumtoomany.

Pixiehouse55

Feeling fed up, because we had to claim on Buildings and Contents insurance last October because of a burst pipe, our insurance went up by £220!! As the works not finished yet we have no figure on how much it all cost so had to stay with same people for another year. We always pay it straight off. You try your best and it goes against you. Excess on water escaping/flooding now £1000!!..  Hope we don't have another burst pipe. Still waiting for Laminated flooring to be sorted what we chose and the company fitted is not sitting right. They say it's a manufacturer fault. 3 weeks later still waiting for them to sort it out. We have 2 service users that scuffle along and I'm prone to tripping up/falling over as my balance is shot away from my back operations. Apart from that everything is fine😁🙈🙈

Frugaldom

Glad you found a house, @FrankieM
@willow_loulou thank you for sharing photos, all looks great.
If the roots are showing through base of apple tree pot then repot it, otherwise, you can leave it a while longer.

Shopaholic_no_more

Hi All
I wrote put a lengthy report on here the other day only for it all too disappear!! 🤦‍♀️

I don’t know what I did but I was most disheartened and couldn’t bring myself to write it all out again so I thought I’d wait a while! 😂
So, here goes..
We finally got round to finish painting the fence and we didn’t need to buy anymore thankfully 👍🏻

Ended up buying a compost bin from my local garden centre but it was an offer so not a bad price at all in the end...just 20 quid. It is all up and running and I’m well chuffed!
Put my runner beans in about 2 weeks ago and they are climbing those sticks at a rate of knots! Clearly loving this hot weather but drinking massive amounts of water 😳. At one time, if I had any water left in my drinking water bottle it would have gone straight down the sink (I know, shameful🤷‍♀️) but now it goes in to feed any plants that need it 😊. 

 Also found a lonely tomato plant at my local nursery so I rescued it and now have 6 flowers on it!! Never grown tomatoes before so if these succeed I will deffo be doing this again next year. 

I’m reading a worrying report today that says micro plastics are being found in root vegetables like carrots and potatoes because of the sheer scale of our plastic problem in the world 😢. This makes me more determined than ever to grow my own.
I am still slowly working through my debt but I’m also trying to be as sustainable and waste free as possible and sometimes...these things do not come cheap initially...so my conscience is fighting the debt/environmental issues constantly at the moment. 

I guess I need to find a happy medium....although I think the debt issue will win as I so don’t want to still be clearing it in, say, 10 years time ( including my mortgage I hasten to say). Work/life balance issues have really come to the fore during this lockdown period. At the same time, it has also greatly highlighted how fragile this planet really is.
Anyway, have a lovely weekend everyone...off to check my bank balance and feed my hungry runner beans 😊🌱

MazzieD

Hello All 

Road tax due next week then whatever my electricity bill is in mid July.  After that I'll see where I am financially and see if I can get on with the car repairs.  

Making a few changes to spending habits.  One of the unexpected things to come out of lockdown is I don't need to get my hair cut so regularly!.  It is quite short and I've always had it cut every 6-8 weeks.  It is now week 14 since my last haircut, haven't even needed to trim the fringe and don't resemble an old English Sheepdog yet    So already saved 2 wash and cuts at £12 each. With no TV licence saving £13.20 a month I have covered the cost of the recycled plastic water butt with stand included that I wanted to buy.  Out of stock at the moment.  Just had my water bill, it's gone up due to watering the garden over last couple of months, more than the cost of water butt  so would pay for itself anyway. Win, win.

I should be able to work out my estimated annual/monthly budget over the weekend with the aid of my spreadsheet, all my yearly bills are now in apart from house/car insurance and electricity,  I can estimate those based on last year.