2020 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

On the topic of books, I wish I had time to read some of mine. Nowadays, all my reading time seems to go on forums, social media and websites.   Tonight, I'm attempting to make the fruit pulp strained from the juice being used to make the blackcurrant jelly, into fruit leathers. I followed instructions to try a microwave tip but can strongly advise against that as mine went up in smoke after about 2 minutes when the instructions suggested cooking it for 5! Reverting to an overnight in the dehydrator to see if that works. Wish me luck. Olio rescues tonight were bread, potatoes, vegetarian curry and pastrami and I'm making more blackcurrant cordial. Surplus eggs rehomed via Olio.

FrankieM

@Bluegreen143 I'm similar with lifestyle, habits, healthy eating, frugal books and as you say a lot of it is the same information and there's often been a blog from the author with all the information, but I still feel the need to buy the book!

Morning All
I saw a friend yesterday so a bit of spending and the same is happening today.
I also realised that there are still 3 grocery shopping days til the end of the month, I thought there were less.
Thankfully I've got quite a lot of food about and I'm back at work on Monday so will be having my main meal there, hopefully that'll mean not too much more spending cause I'll be sweeping the unspent money to my everyday saving account to start off the next year and I'm hoping for a decent sized start.
Other than that, I have some chicken that I was going to have in a sweet chilli sauce that I probably won't be around to eat but I'm going to make the meal anyway, portion it up and freeze.
Batch cooking still seems to be the main stay of my frugal ways

patentgirl

Another good blog is Down to Earth Rhonda Hetzel been following for years.

willow_loulou

My fareshare food today was 2 packs of peas, 2 of mint ( in water see if it roots) 1 huge beefsteak tomato and 2 iceberg lettuce. One of which I’ll pass to my neighbour.  The fresh peas, can I freeze them? I’ll use 1 pack easily but wondering If I should pass on the other.  

willow_loulou

Was just tidying stuff under my bed, found £50 I’d saved for emergencies and forgot about last year! Wow! 

joedenise

willow_loulou said:

My fareshare food today was 2 packs of peas, 2 of mint ( in water see if it roots) 1 huge beefsteak tomato and 2 iceberg lettuce. One of which I’ll pass to my neighbour.  The fresh peas, can I freeze them? I’ll use 1 pack easily but wondering If I should pass on the other.  

Definitely you can try freezing the  peas,  Absolutely love freezon peas.

Frugaldom

Lucky find, @willow_loulou! I know you saved it yourself but managing to forget about it and then find it must feel like a win.

Blackcurrant processing continues - I now have 5 litres of concentrate and one more pan of berries to strain and sweeten then it will be ready for turning into jelly whenever I have the time. My Olio weekend continued with another loaf, some tomatoes and some beansprouts. I'll not eat all the beansprouts but the ponies will enjoy a handful of them. Better used there than binned. 

Now, I'm searching for sheep fleeces to try out path-making across boggy areas of Frugaldom after reading about the process used in repairing the Pennine Way. Recycling rejected sheep fleece seems like a brilliant idea to me, especially as some farmers are having to burn or bury them as there is no longer a viable market for them.

Viking_mfw

I finally tackled the bags of carp under the stairs yesterday in the Christmas tidy weekend frenzy. Found a collection of 1400 stamps I'd had for years, put em on gtree for £15 ) last night, and had sold them by 10am this morning. I am counting this as 1400 items of decluttering since I had to count them to list them for sale!! Since I'd also sorted 3 pairs of curtains I went to book a slot for dropping off at the Oxfam shop... mid January is the soonest!

The main frugal win is that having finally acknowledged the death of my peg bag (inherited from the late owner of the house I bought in 2012... and clearly many years old then) my mum pointed out I could make my own replacement rather than buying one, so have got the fabric and the coathanger sorted for a post tidy sew. 

MazzieD

I'm not sure how much this affects frugal living but I think location is also a consideration.  Anyone living in a town or city will have different choices available to them. 

Here it's about having everything on 'the doorstep'  I could literally shop 'til I drop (any type of shopping).  My choice is not to do that.  I took some time off the forum to consider what is important to me and which threads to come back to -  as well as a new and very demanding job.  I come from a very frugal family and have never lived any other lifestyle. I accept that I wouldn't want to live rurally or remotely and don't have the land to grow lots of veg but am planning to start growing what I can  and love reading about all your chickens etc.  It is possible to live a frugal life anywhere so I would encourage anyone in the same situation as me to join in on this challenge now or in 2021.

To anyone joining Olio, don't make the mistake I did!.  I didn't verify my mobile number and could only see very limited listings.  Having sorted that out I'm being swamped with posts from several local food heroes and lots of bread.  Veg is limited but I'm doing ok!. 

willow_loulou

@Frugaldom it’s just a reflection of how disorganised I have been, and a good reminder to be better and keep on the frugal life. 

As it’s money spent already I’ve decided  to put it on the electric meter and get some logs. Something we need anyway and having plenty makes me mentally comfortable after having to chose between heat and food a few years ago. Wish I’d been on this thread then! X