2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Welcome to the frugal living challenge, @Living_proof, hope you enjoy being here. 

Well done with the garden produce @zafiro1984 - it is so satisfying to forage and find extra veg in the garden

@mumtoomany, good luck with your book. It's a long process so take your time and enjoy it. Have you heard of NaNoWriMo.org and their writing challenges? I usually try to do the main one during November (50,000 words in a month) and have used this as a way to refocus on specific writing projects.

Hope you are ok @Couldsavemore, get well soon.

Sorry to read of your OH's loss of the local contract, @YORKSHIRELASS. Here's hoping the new owner will restart his contract.

Welcome back, @Frugalista

I'm just slowly catching up with the 8 pages of posts on here since my last proper update. My first supermarket order of the year arrived on Sunday and came in at £43.52  I spent £10 on sugar, milk, butter and cheese (friend collected it for me from Farmf00ds) and then tonight I was alerted to Olio listings nearby so managed to claim enough to make up a couple of meals, which is always a massive help. I made another couple of jars of marmalade and some more blackcurrant jelly to add to stores and have now sown rhubarb seeds and planted the gifted rhubarb crown. Biggest news of all is that we have finally managed to submit the planning app for Frugaldom - a costly exercise but one that's essential to the future plans for improving our chances of self-sustainability.

Frugaldom

@StrawberrySuze I grow potatoes and onions in fairly shady areas behind the barn, almost north-facing. As these are things we use a lot of, I tend to plant them anywhere there is space with some sort of soil/growing medium. Despite having 5 hectares of land, very little of it is, as yet, productive. I'm still at the gathering molehills stage while mulching and fertilising everywhere possible in an attempt to get some decent soil one day.

Wow! @Tanya12345 - a pig pen?  Sounds exciting! (Sorry to have laughed at cat eating lentils!)

Pasta-making enthusiasts - somewhere in the deep dark archives of this challenge there are posts about our pasta making exploits. I only ever used ordinary flour and our own eggs and was gifted a pasta maker for rolling it all out and cutting it. Before that I was rolling it with an empty wine bottle (I still have the same bottle that I use as a rolling pin). I tried several types of pasta, adding in tomato or herbs or spinach. We had a go at frugal ravioli. Loads of fun experimenting. 

Past Olio rescues included a vindaloo curry meal, which I froze. Nobody wanted it as it's so hot so I 'milded' it down by adding coconut milk, as I have a stock of coconut milk powder that I've had for years! The very hot curry instant;y changed to a much more palatable (for me) tikka massala type meal. Winner, winner, free chicken curry dinner!

I think that's me caught up to date. Apologies to anyone I have missed - feel free to message me direct if there's anything anyone wants to ask or if I've missed important posts.

Thrifty_Taylor

Congratulations Frugaldom on submitting your planning application. Hoping a speedy decision is made & wishing you well for carrying out all your plans 😀

Siebrie

Couldsavemore said:

Solar panels are definately not cheap but will pay for themselves long term.
I would like enough free electricity to run my house and an electric car... eventually...

Are you sure? They last about 25 years, need care in the meantime, may break. We only use €120/month on gas and electricity per month and for us, it would have taken about 60 years before it would have paid for itself. Even more, now that the Belgian government has made a decision about not rewarding the meters running backwards.

mumtoomany

Hi @Frugaldom, I think you are mistaking me for someone who is competent! Haha. I've been on MSE for around the same length of time as you and have not yet reached 500 posts. Writing 50,000 words would take me several lifetimes. It's taken 26 years to start, but it will have been well planned. 
I've sewn the hood onto DGS1's coat, all the poppers had pulled out, save buying a new one.
Made pea and ham soup with leftover scraps of gammon from Christmas. Used a bag of sprouts found lurking in the barn, (coolest place) dated 21st December, pealed and eaten.
Lettuce now starting to grow. Must get some more seeds in, if i find time today. 
Sheep due to be scanned of Friday, weather permitting.
Good to hear about your planing permission Frugaldom. Hope it all goes to plan now for you.
Hugs to all that need them, stay safe, mumtoomany. 

Living_proof

@Frugaldom thank you for the welcome. I am in enforced frugality mode here due to the weather but it's bright and cheerful, I almost feel I am on holiday! @Couldsavemore I have had my solar for seven years and it now owes me nothing. It was £5400 back then but I am sure prices have come down since then. It's true that their efficiency falls off over the 25 years and that you may need to repair or replace the inverter at some time, but overall I am delighted with my investment. If I were younger I would look at an air source heat pump, but the payback time would be too long I fear. My own total fuel consumption is £45 per month for a detached 4 bed house, although I have just put up the DD to £55 to cover the cold spell.

MazzieD

Wow it was chilly during the night, temperature fell below my frost setting on the central heating so it came on at 4am.  Very rare for that to happen. Fluffy monster had just woken me up to demand breakfast.  No chance at that time of the morning!!.

 A lovely sunny day but -5 outside.  Trotted off and noticed lots of F&V boxes as I was passing L*dl, couldn't resist popping in and having a look.  Usually there is quite a lot of fruit and not much veg but this morning it was mainly veg so snapped one up.  Just tried radishes for the first time, enjoyed them but wouldn't buy them at full price. 

Think that the box should last me to the end of the month combined with frozen veg left.  I quite enjoy making up meals with whatever I've got, only recently started doing this in an effort to cut shopping bills and no culinary disasters yet.  Got an interesting concoction in the slow cooker at the moment as part of my batch cooking for the month.

Just adding to my grocery budget when I noticed I'd typed £30 instead of £3 on a one off item so re-checking all the figures my spreadsheet this afternoon.  Did wonder why it was so high as I haven't done much shopping this month!.  

DawnW

@MazzieD radishes are easy to grow from seed if you like them. You don't even need a garden, as they grow quite happily in a pot. In fact I prefer to grow them in containers as they are less likely to get nibbled by pests.

RainbowHippie

@Viking_mfw imo all own brand tinned corn i've tried seem much of a muchness and are fine. I remember it was an adjustment when i first switched from green giant but i think they add extra salt and sugar to make it tastier! i dislike the frozen kind but find it's ok for cooking into things where it will be well hidden!

@frugaldom that great about the planning app, what will you be building? (if that's not too nosey a question!) Keeping my fingers crossed for you it's all accepted smoothly.

I love reading about those of you who are growing things this year, and i'm mentally filing away tips for the future! Last April-June we were lucky enough to find accommodation at a friend's place in Whitby for the lockdown, it had some very deep windowsills, and i grew lots of salad leaves and herbs in recycled cartons and tins. With that and foraging we didn't need to buy greens for a good couple of months. I'll miss it this year, no point while we're on the move as we don't have enough car space for plants! I can still forage though

Had a brief chat with DOH about finances last week, mostly we just agreed what we need to discuss and what information we will need, then spent a while gathering it from online banking, statements etc. No budget/targets set as yet. I'll try to pin him down again this week! He's previously been quite resistant to setting any kind of budget so i'm just glad we're having the conversation, even if it's progressing slowly.

Managed to not get sucked in to DOH suggesting takeaway last night, in the end because i wasn't joining him he decided not to order and made something easy (we had food in just nothing he fancied).
Thanks to whoever suggested Frugal Jo on youtube! I've spent a few pleasant evenings recently watching her channel while doing some embroidery for my friend's 40th bday present. I've got Fairyland Cottage bookmarked for when i run out of Frugal Jo
Have a lovely evening all xx

MazzieD

DawnW said:

@MazzieD radishes are easy to grow from seed if you like them. You don't even need a garden, as they grow quite happily in a pot. In fact I prefer to grow them in containers as they are less likely to get nibbled by pests.

Thanks, that's a good idea.  

Spreadsheet now sorted out, another couple of minor errors, I seem to like adding a 0 on the end of figures. Glad I noticed it as it's made quite a difference, obviously not a good idea to update it when I'm tired.