2021 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

Day 1 of 17 NSDs 😊

Good morning,

Today is officially day 1 of my 17 day no spend challenge. Our plans for the day include sowing all of the remaining vegetable seeds using our own compost, selling some surplus eggs to a neighbour, taking a walk to forage for kindling and doing a little research into selling something I own that may prove to be worth a few pounds. Breakfast will be homemade hot cross buns (given to me by a friend, my baking skills are limited!), lunch will be mushrooms omelettes with eggs 🥚 from our girls 👏🏻 and dinner is oven pizza and chips. No need to spend on anything at all. 

Have lovely frugal good Fridays all xx

[Deleted User]

Deleted_User said:

Morning frugal friends

I have decided to set myself a mini challenge, I am going to report progress here and hope no one minds! I have broken up for the Easter holiday, and am aiming to have 17 consecutive no spend days in a row. The next time I am allowed to spend, if I need to, will be Monday 19th April. 

I have done a stocktake and have plenty of food in, and the chickens lay daily so we are sorted on that front. I bought some fresh fruit this morning from the market, so am not counting today in the challenge. However my debit card has been put away and will not come out for at least 17 days! Easter fun will be free, involving lots of nature walks and foraging for kindling. We also have lots of wild garlic near us which we are going to make pesto from. 

Today’s plans include chopping up a pallet we found on someone’s drive this morning (we asked permission and the owner was more than happy for us to take it), planting our strawberry plants out and sowing some lettuce seeds 😊

I’ll report in daily xx

Good Morning @asparklyblonde, you have inspired me with this.  I have finished up for the Easter break now too and am going to set my own wee challenge too.  I will still do one weekly food shop but other than that, that's it.  I am planning some frugal - free - fitness over the holidays using Youtube videos (walk with Leslie) as my fitness levels have plummeted.  I want to spend as much time as I can outside either in the garden pottering and getting it set up fr summer or in my local area out for a stroll.  I will check in daily as well, if that's ok with everyone. Thanks you asb for the inspiration.

StrawberrySuze

Good Morning all.
Great to hear about everyone's achievements and challenges 🙂
I had a spendy day yesterday with dog food but timed it right for the final reductions at t**sco on Wednesday, got loads of bargains 😊 my freezers are now splitting at the seams!
I am intending to finish my trellis today and stain it with some woodstain I already have. It might not happen though as am going to have a long soak in the bath first and it is quite dull and cold here, I might have a day off and just read instead, there will definitely be no spending involved though! 
Keep frugalling on 🤗

AskYouWillGet

Spending the weekend sowing seeds after over doing it in the garden this week.
I'm in a frugal dilemma...should I save some seeds for next year or collect them from the plants that have grown and purposely allow some to go to seed. It is my first year growing both veg and flowers so starting from scratch.
Learning about permiculture is really interesting, it promotes leaving some crops and flowers in the ground rather than clearing which is good for biodiversity and the soil. So hoping if don't collect the seeds things may self-seed the following year.
Bought some BioChar a small tube only £3.50 instead of buying multipurpose soil for potting, just mix in to low quality soil and throw in some vercimulite too (which I picked up a large tub free from freegle last year).
Happy Easter weekend to everyone. There will be no choc eggs bought/given again this year, the whole family avoid these commercial hypes as much as possible. Wonder if any one else is the same?

[Deleted User]

The more the merrier on my mini challenge 😊

Day one completed. We’ve sowed cucumber and courgette seeds, traded some eggs for some plants and eaten from stores. I was tired this afternoon so napped rather than foraging for wood! Tomorrow meals are planned and we will be foraging too xx

[Deleted User]

Day one check in
Free fitness done via Youtube - just 15 mins but it's a start. I spent a good amount of time outside today as the weather was good and as long as I was out of the wind it was warm enough to sit outside. Most of weekly shop done, the rest will be done tomorrow.  

Wraithlady

I saved some seeds from a butternut squash and sowed them - not really expecting anything to grow.

I now have 6 healthy-looking chubby seedlings! Well pleased.

Living_proof

Wraithlady said:

I saved some seeds from a butternut squash and sowed them - not really expecting anything to grow.

I now have 6 healthy-looking chubby seedlings! Well pleased.

I don't want to rain on your parade Wraithlady but I think you need to be a bit cautious about all squash and similar seeds as they can produce poisonous fruits, and there was an issue with hybrid courgettes last year which caused a lot of sickness. Just make sure they grow to type, and I was going to do the same with saved seeds until I heard about the problems last year.

oystercatcher

Living_proof said:

Wraithlady said:

I saved some seeds from a butternut squash and sowed them - not really expecting anything to grow.

I now have 6 healthy-looking chubby seedlings! Well pleased.

I don't want to rain on your parade Wraithlady but I think you need to be a bit cautious about all squash and similar seeds as they can produce poisonous fruits, and there was an issue with hybrid courgettes last year which caused a lot of sickness. Just make sure they grow to type, and I was going to do the same with saved seeds until I heard about the problems last year.

I was just going to add in a comment about the two accidentally planted squash plants we found in with our chilli seedlings, We were so proud of them, now we aren't sure. I had never heard of this problem but living proof is right .

https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/22/what-toxic-squash-syndrome-how-safely-grow-courgettes-poisoning-uk-13162467/

MazzieD

I'm back.  Lurking isn't my strong point, I prefer to join in but it was interesting to see why so many have stopped posting and the high viewing figures compared to the numbers actually posting on here.  Sometimes you need to step back and figure out why, I don't normally announce my intentions but there was a reason behind it!.

I've been busy seeing a couple of close friends (socially distanced etc).  So nice to sit in someone else's garden in the sunshine yesterday, still a bit chilly but we managed and enjoyed a hot cross bun or two with good company.  Haven't laughed so much in ages.

I don't normally eat chocolate but was given a rather posh salted caramel Easter Egg by one of them so looking forward to trying it tomorrow.  Just have to hope that it doesn't give me chocolate cravings, I used to be a chocoholic 

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  Haven't caught up since my last post but think it's more important to actually get on here and write something in the hope that others will as well.  This is a good thread and obviously a lot of people are reading along so let's give them something to read and not leave it to one or two people trying to post every day to keep it alive and going.