2020 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Back to the nitty gritty of reality now, while my unicorn eats her rainbow-scented oats.
Compost has become like gld dust around my area so the wormery has been relocated for convenience and is in the process of being restarted in an effort to speed things up a bit. I have tonnes of horse manure, which anyone can usually source for free, so this is being 'processed' as best possible to use it, rather than have to buy any i and when it becmes avalable. England may be a bit easier as your lockdown eased enough to get garden centres back open but here in Scotland we are still on ull lockdown, barring daily exercise.

SELF EMLOYED (UK) - HMRC opened its claim page this week so for anyone who, like me, works under self-employment banner, check your eligibility on the page at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme  You may be eligible for a payment and even if it is small, it is better than nothing. It took me less than 10 minutes to complete.

I haven't been shopping this year but have been able to get a few bits and pieces rom village store, so Im not beneg=fitting from cheap supermarket prices. What I will say here is that looking at the supermarket websites, the trend in pricing is definitely upwards and if, as is being reported, the campaign to emprarily shut down the likes of meat processing plants where staff have been affected, then this will have a gradual domino effect, in my book.

It was disappointing to see reports of infected staff in the big, well-known biscuit factory and now the big chicken processing plant. Meanwhile, farmers and small holders still need to work but are facing all-time lows in seasonal staff for harvesting, so anything you can grow yourself, I'd recommend doing so in a cost-effective way. No point spending your last £20 on seeds and compost or a few hens for eggs if you risk not being there to tend t them i lockdown ends soonr rather than later. Poultry food prices could be affected and crops of anything can & do fail. Household scraps are fine but in a household that follows a zero-food-waste policy, there are next to no food scraps   Start small, only sow what you will eat - no point growing 100 lettuces if only 1 in the household eats lettuce etc. Aim for zero food waste.

If you read on here but don't post, please try to at least let us know you are there - thank you.

fionaandphil

I'm a long time lurker too!  I agree completely with SquirrelGirl and others, this is temporary for now but I think a lot will be looking at a more frugal way of living afterwards, either because of want or necessity.  Keep up the good work, I enjoy reading all your posts!

Frugaldom

NB: Apologies - I don't mean frugal living has run its course, I meant this particular forum version of the FL challege. Perhaps if it had retained its original name of how to live on £4000 a year... I am still doing that! The long-time posters on here have fallen away to a small hanfdful who have great advice to offer and support to give.(You know who you are   ) Hopefully many of the others are now all debt free, mortgage free, diehard frugalites and doing well. I tend to think of everyone as friends then when they disappear, never get to hear how things turned out. I do often wonder. 
I have been debt & mortgage free, living this lifestyle for well over 10 years now, so I do tend to notice the changing flow of how each of the challenges in various formats is perceived. As long as they help someone and then that someone goes on and shares their knowledge, then that is a good thing. Lockdown may well be a great time for reflection by many, but I do still think there is so muc more to be learned, otherwise it boils down to the Government virtually churning out money and then devaluing our currency again. Don't forget that this challenge has come through times of 10% interest rates and we have people living of their interest in order to have stress free lifestyles... many on here in the original challenges began with a dream of having £80,000 to £100,000 savings in the bank in order to live off the interest. Now, that figure would need to be... 100 times that?

MisterPym

Frugaldom said:

Back to the nitty gritty of reality now, while my unicorn eats her rainbow-scented oats.
Compost has become like gld dust around my area so the wormery has been relocated for convenience and is in the process of being restarted in an effort to speed things up a bit. I have tonnes of horse manure, which anyone can usually source for free, so this is being 'processed' as best possible to use it, rather than have to buy any i and when it becmes avalable. England may be a bit easier as your lockdown eased enough to get garden centres back open but here in Scotland we are still on ull lockdown, barring daily exercise.

SELF EMLOYED (UK) - HMRC opened its claim page this week so for anyone who, like me, works under self-employment banner, check your eligibility on the page at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme  You may be eligible for a payment and even if it is small, it is better than nothing. It took me less than 10 minutes to complete.

I haven't been shopping this year but have been able to get a few bits and pieces rom village store, so Im not beneg=fitting from cheap supermarket prices. What I will say here is that looking at the supermarket websites, the trend in pricing is definitely upwards and if, as is being reported, the campaign to emprarily shut down the likes of meat processing plants where staff have been affected, then this will have a gradual domino effect, in my book.

It was disappointing to see reports of infected staff in the big, well-known biscuit factory and now the big chicken processing plant. Meanwhile, farmers and small holders still need to work but are facing all-time lows in seasonal staff for harvesting, so anything you can grow yourself, I'd recommend doing so in a cost-effective way. No point spending your last £20 on seeds and compost or a few hens for eggs if you risk not being there to tend t them i lockdown ends soonr rather than later. Poultry food prices could be affected and crops of anything can & do fail. Household scraps are fine but in a household that follows a zero-food-waste policy, there are next to no food scraps   Start small, only sow what you will eat - no point growing 100 lettuces if only 1 in the household eats lettuce etc. Aim for zero food waste.

If you read on here but don't post, please try to at least let us know you are there - thank you.

Hello, I read every day but dont post. Please dont stop posting

SuperSecretSquirrel

I'm a shy lurker

Nonnadiluca

We have 2 small allotments, mostly fruit trees and bushes, and have upped the ante a bit on veg sowing. Most exciting is the newly planted asparagus bed, can't wait until next year! Onions and potatoes going great guns, also have perpetual spinach, runner beans, butternut squash, savoy cabbage, tomatoes, and salad leaves on the go. The garden has fruit trees and a hazel and a cobnut tree. We have a rowan tree in the garden which has unfortunately died, so will be replacing that and planting a couple more trees, sweet almond and cherry I think - lovely blossoms and food, what's not to love!
Also scoping out local foraging spots . The first batch of elderflower cordial has been made this morning, hideous amount of sugar, but it's a short lived, seasonal treat! Loads of blackberries hereabouts later in the year and several wild hazelnut trees, if we can beat the squirrels to them!!!
Although OH and I have always had a way below 'average' income, we've had a good lifestyle. Our wants are pretty simple, good food and time to do things that interest us, stuff just isn't important - my OH is the person on the planet who doesn't have a mobile phone! Having decided about thirty years ago that we would rather have time than money, we have made a life which suits us fine although other people probably think we're a bit odd. Luckily we don't care! 
I will make an effort to post from time to time; as you can see, your posts are very welcomed by a lot of people.

frostie101

Nonnadiluca said:

We have 2 small allotments, mostly fruit trees and bushes, and have upped the ante a bit on veg sowing. Most exciting is the newly planted asparagus bed, can't wait until next year! Onions and potatoes going great guns, also have perpetual spinach, runner beans, butternut squash, savoy cabbage, tomatoes, and salad leaves on the go. The garden has fruit trees and a hazel and a cobnut tree. We have a rowan tree in the garden which has unfortunately died, so will be replacing that and planting a couple more trees, sweet almond and cherry I think - lovely blossoms and food, what's not to love!
Also scoping out local foraging spots . The first batch of elderflower cordial has been made this morning, hideous amount of sugar, but it's a short lived, seasonal treat! Loads of blackberries hereabouts later in the year and several wild hazelnut trees, if we can beat the squirrels to them!!!
Although OH and I have always had a way below 'average' income, we've had a good lifestyle. Our wants are pretty simple, good food and time to do things that interest us, stuff just isn't important - my OH is the person on the planet who doesn't have a mobile phone! Having decided about thirty years ago that we would rather have time than money, we have made a life which suits us fine although other people probably think we're a bit odd. Luckily we don't care! 
I will make an effort to post from time to time; as you can see, your posts are very welcomed by a lot of people.

 This sounds wonderful. 

willow_loulou

More seeds going in today - I’ve lots of peppers coming on well so they can be moved from the seedling shelf down to the taller plant shelf. I’m considering a tomato greenhouse for them. I’m going to check out polythene prices and make one though. I have a storage shelf thing I can adapt. Maybe with some of that really strong tape stuff - I’m sure we have some somewhere. 

@Frugaldom do you make cloches its anything? 

Nonnadiluca

Thank you, although some would say it's pretty boring! I know we're really lucky to have a life which works for us.
It's funny, the things that form ones opinions, for me, it was catching a programme I never usually watched on TV, Esther Ransom had a chat show on BBC 2 many years ago and she had an oldish couple on who were frugal in the extreme. They had faced redundancies and hard times and become real penny pinchers, ironing wrapping paper to reuse, making their own underwear etc etc etc.. all very interesting, but the thing which struck me was when the woman said that she loved Chanel No 5 perfume, and by not spending money on things that weren't important to her, she could spend it on things that were. So simple and obvious, but I realised that, with a limited amount of money, every pound can only be spent once and it's all about choice.  We don't have a lot of things that some people would class as essential, but we don't miss what we've never had.
 I understand that different times in your life and different circumstances alter your needs; someone with a young family living in a big city has very different requirements to an older couple like us living on the edge of a small town, we can all only do what we can do. I hope you're doing whatever floats your boat!

BettyBoof

I am a lurker too. Really enjoying your posts (and the responses) and hope you'll keep going!