2020 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

nat21luv said:

The final straw was the news that I wouldn’t be seeing my partner for the next 5 weeks as he’s a key worker and required to have close contact with people, so he’s opted to stay away to protect me and my children.

That says to me that he cares for all of you very much.   And I'm sure you'll want him to be able to keep his mind on his job, rather than getting distracted by the thought he might be carrying it home to you?

My partner isn't currently working, so could have come and crashed at mine for the duration.   However he lives near several members of his family, including his mother who is in the 70+ bracket but is refusing to stay in or let him help with her shopping!   He did, however, convince her to let him deal with a repeat prescription for her early this week.   So he really needs to stay near to her (we're a half hour drive apart in light traffic, but he's only about a 5 minute drive from her) and also do as much as he can to remain virus free so that's he available to help her and the rest of his family (the other family down there have young children at home - he's the only singleton).    As I'm classed as a key worker (postie) I'm likely to be out for much of each day, and I'm at higher risk of picking up the virus than the general population is due to all the surfaces I have to touch.      Up until this started I think we'd only had 6 or so weekends where we've not seen each other in the 8 and a bit year we've been together, and some of those have been replaced by a mid-week visit instead.    But we text every evening, exchanged silly cartoons on FB, and have a phone call at least once a week.   We can have a lock-down weekend to ourselves (with all phones turned off) once this it over

Frugaldom

Wow! CW - is that really over 8 years since you and OH got together? Where has all the time gone? I remember when we were discussing your possible move up here, around same time Shaz was thinking along similar lines and 'Dreamer' actually did move. so many names, so much water under the frugaldom bridge.  All power to our posties, you guys are doing a fabulous job, especiallly with the increased dstribution of heavier packages. (A friend's hubby is also a postie)

Frugal living seems to have taken on a whole new meaning for many people, especially those who have never previously heard of it, nor have they ever had to consider how much their lifestyles depended on wants, rather than simple needs. Even in jest, the posts about basic beauty treatments are becoming more and more prevalent, especially for those with dyed hair etc. My solution to this is as follows:

Grey is trendy and achievable naturally, depending on your age. We call it platinum blonde
Pink / purple rinse - this is achievab;e using beetroot juice - I have tried it - wear gloves and don't get it on your face, Best cooking fresh beetroot to make your own as you can then eat the beetroot, otherwise, vinegar can work as a great rinse for greasy hair
Brown - you mean like cold tea colour?
Blonde - Lemon juice helps lighten fair hair.
For everything else, there's BIC, tweezers and something like almond, grape seed or coconut oil as a base for soft skin products. Don't take my word for any of this - do your own research and always patch test before going full tilt into becoming a rainbow of colour during lockdown. Then again...  who will see you if you are self-isolating?

Frugaldom

I should have added that for darker hair colours ranging to almost black, powdered henna is available in sachets by post.

Frugaldom

A photo for the day to cheer anyone up who needs it - some of our free ranging egg producers dust bathing in one of the raised beds. That's it nicely cleared for sowing seeds, we just need to work out how to keep it securely covered once said seeds have been sown. 

I have been taking many calls from people looking for garden hens but for those who have never had them, please remember they are a longterm commitment, need looking after every day of the year and they do not lay eggs all year round, nor do they lay eggs forever.

Always consider how you will manage hens after they pass their laying stage. Our oldest home hatched hens are now fast approaching 10 years old and haven't laid in quite some time. Hens are not longterm cost effective but they are fun to keep and very entertaining to watch.

Don't forget to check house title deeds and/or with your landlord; some locations do not allow the keeping of garden / back yard poultry.

Siebrie

The only hair-related problem that I have is that dds are half-African, with half-African/full-African hair. We had the hair professionally braided just before Christmas, and the braids should really come out and be redone by now, but we can't visit our hairdresser's! For dd2 it won't be much of a problem, as her hair is relatively easy to wash, brush and braid (it will only take me 2 hours), but dd1's is really tightly curled, very difficult to wash (the water and shampoo just won't penetrate beyond the top layer of hair; it hardly ever reaches the scalp), and reallyreallyreally hard to untangle (after 4 hours I've done half...). We were sooo happy we had found a painfree hairdresser! We are leaving the old braids in for now, and will fly back to our hairdresser the moment we are allowed to!

Frugaldom

Wow! Siebrie, it is things like this that never cross my mind.  In my ignorance, I had never even considered different types of hair so you have taught me something new today. Good luck with hair washing and braiding. I hope you can make it as pain free as possible for your DDs. It will save you a fortune if you can master that at home. (Or are you stuck elsewhere waiting for a flight?)
I'm on day 3 of my Nile mince challenge... First day was 200g slow cooked with heaps of veg and I made doughballs / dumplings. I will get 8 meals in total as day 2 I added tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic & herbs for spag bol. There is enough left to thicken with gravy  and use as a pie filling, or I could add kidney beans and chilli then have it with rice.  Hmm... Chilli sounds note tempting for tonight than making pie pastry.

Hope everyone is staying safe and staying sane. Frugal biosecurity is a prime concern right now so be extra vigilant and extra inventive to keep minds and bodies healthy.

Frugaldom

Good morning frugal folks, how are you all doing today? It is scarily quiet in here so I hope it is because everyone is too busy making, baking, sowing and growing to post.

Busy here preparing herb cuttings for kitchen garden and sorting out seeds. The first of the salad leaves seeds and peas have already germinated and I'm planting a new fedge. The gooseberry, blackcurrant and blueberry bushes have their first buds and the crab apple trees are now awake.   we are also doing OK for eggs from our hens and ducks.
Hope you are all staying safe, managing to budget and spending some time planning ahead. Being prepared has never been so important.



 

Siebrie

We're still doing well, although the retirement home in our village is on lockdown now that 8 of the 140 inhabitants have contracted the virus. Apparently, only four were showing symptoms.
DD1's teacher came by yesterday for a window chat and to give dd1 her report book. It was nice to chat, but the report book is currently outside on the veranda, decontaminating for two or three days.
I have enlisted husband's help in digging over bits of our garden for veg production. I have a weak spot in my back and can only do so much. Besides, with my new job comes a new hospitalisation insurance (Belgium), and they have expressly excluded cover for any treatment due to the weak spot in my back.
Today, I will sow courgette seeds, some salad seeds, maybe mangetouts (a different type from the one I already sowed), and let's see if I can squeeze in some flower seeds. The strawberry bed also needs clearing up, as there's lots of old material in there.

FrugalTrenchesBlog

@Frugaldom - those chickens made me smile! Thanks for sharing! 
Always good to read people's good news. I find this thread encouraging, just need to remember to read it more! 
I was feeling very low about covid-19's impact on finances, and wrote a post that was shared on https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/covid-19-poverty-single-mom_ca_5e8501f3c5b692780506e7db 

Feeling a bit brighter now that I was able to get more work hours. Today the whole family pitched in for some spring cleaning and the weather is brighter - finally no more snow. 

Frugaldom

Hello, frugalers, how is everyone doing?  

Siebrie, sounds like you are keeping busy. I hope you managed to get your DD's hair done.

Keeping busy here as animal care continues as normal and we try to get as much done as possible in the garden, herbery and orchard. I've had foals going in and out the herb paddock all winter and just moved them this week so what's left of the grass got raked over today and it will be lef for a month before planting anything new into it. The first of my peas, salad leaves and pepper seeds have germinated and I have more peas, chilli pepper and globe artichoke seeds to sow. I've started saving sme toilet roll tubes to use as collars for leeks and a quick look at the garlic bed shows it's all growing well. I need to try and turn over a patch for a few cabbages. It;s mostly fruit and herbs I concentrate on as we have so many slugs, mice, rabbits and deer about the place. I've heard curry plant deters the deer but I'd also heard rabbits don't eat daffodils... they ate some of mine! 
I raked out a 3.5kg of brown bread flour that's past it's BBE date so I've put it into the freezer to sterilise it and will be making small loaves and pizza bases as and when required. 

While collecting the animal feed from agri merchant, I stopped in at the village store; managed to get a few potatoes, onions, milk, 3 bananas, 2 tomatoes and half a turnip.  A neighbour left some spinach so we had that in place of lettuce with tomato tonight, along with baked potato. Nile mince challenge is sitting at 5 mince-based meals from 200g and enough left to bulk out into 4 portions of chilli.

H has been concentrating on his art and helping out at Frugaldom while there's no paid work. We each won £25 on the Premium Bonds this month so that's another bale of hay paid for.