2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Tanya12345

Just been out to buy Pig Food and vaccine ! Wish I could grow pig and chicken food. Growing our own meat works out more expensive than I thought when the Homestead was a dream ! Not complaining, just another example for me of everything being more complex than originally thought. Agree with Frugaldom, now its trendy, the price of "simple living" has rocketed and resources have to be carefully managed ! also lost loads of potatoes and veg to the vagaries of the weather !! Slipped and bought donuts and tiffin........xx

willow_loulou

Just had a massive win! I found a local wood production place that makes its waste into eco logs. They sell them very cheaply compared to my usual purchases so I popped in as I was heading that way. 

The chap was lovely but he had none bagged up. So he went to his unit and came out with 3 bags and said he needed to get rid of what he had (they start to break down if stacked to high) so I could take as many as I could get in the car for free! Unfortunately the car was full of people but I stacked the boot and everyone’s laps! 😂 really pleased with this find - going to get as many as I can store from there over the next few weeks. 

Tanya12345

Wow Willow_loulou - free heat !! That is an extreme win !! LAughing at the thought of the car filled up with eco logs and a few humans squashed against the windows.... xx

[Deleted User]

That is fantastic Willow! We have around 10 pallets chopped up ready to burn in anticipation of the chillier evenings, and about half a log store. Logs are so pricey we need to manage entirely on free wood this winter. We are only just covering the cost of electricity at the moment, our gas is miniscule in summer like most people. Central heating on in winter is a true luxury nowadays - many don't like me saying this out loud, but it is a reality for so many households. 

A very frugal day here. The children were at sports club, and I spent most of the day preparing food for either us, the dog or the chickens! We have a fantastic arrangement with the local grocer whereby all of his stock that isn't sellable (i.e. no bruises etc at all) he gives to us. The chickens benefit, so do we and it reduces his waste bill hugely.

Radishes were the order of the morning, and I spent a good chunk of time preparing them for the hens. They absolutely love them. 

Tomorrow I will spend, but it is covered by egg sales money (an oven pizza for us to share as a Friday treat, and a beer). We always have a pizza and DVD night here on a Friday. A friend teased me recently saying "no-one watches DVDs anymore" - urm, we do! And people are giving them away for free left, right and centre as a result so we do well! If I could just source the final Harry Potter movie on DVD without having to resort to Amazon the children would be thrilled. I keep my eyes peeled in chazzas, I am sure someone must have a copy!

Save for the aforementioned sales of approx. £3, no money will be spent at all until at least a week tomorrow. We are currently eating eggs, courguettes and strawberres aplenty thanks to the garden, and planning meals round that. 

Take care and KEEP ON GUYS, your future self will thank you for it. xx

willow_loulou

Tanya12345 said:

Wow Willow_loulou - free heat !! That is an extreme win !! LAughing at the thought of the car filled up with eco logs and a few humans squashed against the windows.... xx

That’s exactly what it was like 😂

willow_loulou

@Deleted_User it’s logs or electric oil rads here, the electric gets ridiculous if I rely on it so I’m very excited. Have a nightmare getting pallets in my little car 🚗 just trying to rejig my livingroom to store it all 😂

marionmgcars

Had a great day out.  We are away for weekend and stupidly forgot to pack warm jumpers.  Visited charity shop & got one each, a change from using expensive high street shops.  Also got a gorgeous small teapot for £2.00,  happy shopper 👍

willow_loulou

Too exhausted to do much today so the logs are still in my car! It’s dry at least 😂 having a nap then I need to do a food order. I spent £6 on food this week. The £1 is going from my purse to the saving jar. 

I got the left over milk from work this morning  so there’s plenty for the weekend. Going to cook up food for the weekend later so the kids know what’s what. 

I made a start on the Christmas makes whilst at work, it’s an informal session and we encourage mindfulness so I thought I’d crochet at the same time. It seemed to inspire others so that’s good. 

Must book the chimney sweep soon. 

Jellytotts

Wow Willow, free heat is a huge win!

Another frugal few days here, lots of allotment and garden produce picked and dealt with. Last of the spuds dug up (my poor back)and tonight we had the first of the corn cobs (they were amazing).  Picked up 2 items via freecycle and another to collect tomorrow. 1 was an item from our "need" list, the other 2 from the "want" list so pretty happy.

I saw a fabulous quilt design online and asked DH to 3D print me some templates, which he did. I've sorted all my fabric for it (old shirts/sheets etc) and will look forward to creating something for me whilst convalescing in the next few weeks. I rarely get to make stuff for myself, it's normally gifts or to sell in my Etsy shop. This is a proper treat and will only cost £6 as there was just one thing I needed.

Need to do haircuts over the weekend.  I do DH with the clippers, then I do the back and sides of mine (I keep it short) and then I hold up sections for him to snip at (I cannot work out where the scissors should be when looking in the mirror). Not had my hair cut properly in over 5 years now and I always get compliments on it.  

Shopaholic_no_more

Totally agree about the price of energy going up…..we got a shocking wake up call this month when we were told our combined energy usage was 117.00 whereas we had been paying 68.00 for the last year and a bit so was not happy. That was with very low gas usage as well 😳….worried for the winter….candlelight and jumpers order of the day for this year I think. Went on the comparison websites and was shocked to see that we are still paying one of the cheapest rates. We are an a vari fair tariff tbh. Not sure about fixed rates as the whole system seems so volatile at the moment. My slow cooker is going to get a lot more usage as well this winter.