2021 Frugal Living Challenge

zafiro1984

marionmgcars said

I always buy the cheapest Al*I dishwasher tablets & snap in half, but I do only have a slimline dishwasher. 

What a good idea, my dishwashers are also slimline. That will cut the price by half. I used my dishwasher for the first time today since August. I may start to use it more often and just keep my eye on the electric.

Pleased to say that my electric consumption for September was an average of 15.43 per day down from 22-23uinits per day in August. I put it down to just thinking about what I use and what I do. Nothing on stand-by, cooking on the ironheart instead of using a cooker, which also helps with the central heating, making sure the washer if full before I use it and therefore reducing the number of times it is used, no dishwasher use - but that may change. I'm going to try for a further reduction of 2 units per day in October but I'd be happy if it was the same should the weather turn colder. I'm sure free wood except for the cost of petrol for the chainsaw is the way to go.

I also came in at £9.77p under budget for food in September

Seed catalogues are dropping on the mat at the moment - I'm so tempted but I must make a list of what I actually and realistically will grow next year. Brassicas are a no no as our soil is acid sand. The veggie plot has got out of hand this year. It started with the hen lockdown right at he beginning of 2021 when the hens occupied a polytunnel. They then had free run of the plot whilst their area was made fox proof due to three trees coming down across the fencing in the spring so it never really got planted at all this year. it now looks a bit jungle like so I'll have to use the strimmer and start to knock it back into shape over the Autumn before I order pots/onions etc nearer Christmas.
Actually, I think I'd better order the earlies as I put them in the polytunnel and they are sent out in strict order as to when they were ordered, hopefully I'll get them in December. 

balabooberlies

Good Morning

I am pretty sure that I didn't dream this.  Watched a programme years ago where a lady had wood burners/oven (can't remember) that heated all the radiators in the house.  She proudly showed her wood pile and heating bills or lack of them.

Does anyone know what this system is called ?

bala

Frugaldom

balabooberlies said:

Good Morning

I am pretty sure that I didn't dream this.  Watched a programme years ago where a lady had wood burners/oven (can't remember) that heated all the radiators in the house.  She proudly showed her wood pile and heating bills or lack of them.

Does anyone know what this system is called ?

bala

Our logs heat the water and radiators, it's just a solid fuel heating system with back boiler on the stove. The down side is that it relies on electricity to power a pump to keep the water circulating to avoid the water tank over heating while there's no way of circulating it. A power cut mid winter when the fire is in full blaze is pretty terrifying. I want to upgrade ours to a big stove but won't unless I have the option of a battery back up. Solid fuel heating was what I grew up with as I've lived mainly in rural areas where gas mains, water mains, sewerage or reliable electricity supply weren't options.  

Forgot to add that these solid fuel systems could also run off the Aga, or other make,  stove so provided cooking. A lot of farms still have them.

Siebrie

It sounds like an Ondol or Gudeul heating system, which is Korean, and very efficient.

balabooberlies

Thank you Frugaldom and Siebre

planning a move next year and as long as OH is on board want to incorporate much of what I am learning on here.......

Frugaldom

Good luck with your plans. You can never be too prepared, especially where fuel supplies are concerned. Plan well ahead for plenty of dry, well-seasoned wood and plenty of storage space for it. 😊

[Deleted User]

I use my reciprocating saw to chop pallets up, and never remove the nails. The saw was bought for me many moons ago, and other than the odd new blade every now and again plus a small amount of electricity to use it is so cost effective and makes sawing pallets up a dream. 

I had the stove lit all day yesterday. It will be lit again tomorrow, we should be okay without it today. 

flossyblog

Hi everyone, September was an expensive month with €389.22 on groceries. €279.50 for utilities, €30.10 for medicine, €60 travelcard credit and €198 deposit for new mattress, which adds up to €956.82  in total. The freezer has about 21 meals, with only 3 months till the end of the year, we have enough toiletries and household & cleaning supplies to last us for the rest of the year, bar toothpaste.    

The combination oven switched from oven to microwave and completely ruined a quiche, inedible, which meant for the first time this year I had to throw out food.

I have a household inventory which I've listed below.  I like to know what I have at home and when to stock up on my usual buys when on special offer. 

Freezer

4 Bolognese

3 Chicken fillets 

8 Chilli con carne

6 pkts Jalapeno burgers

2 butter

2 portions mirepoix 

3 roasted onion portions 

Store cupboard

2 tins chickpeas

1 jar garlic/1 jar ginger

1 pkt Basmasti rice

1 Passata

1 mayonnaise

1 ltr Olive oil

12 all bran cereal

10 red wine

Hendricks gin & tonic gift Box unopened (2016) 

Herbs & spices 

Salt & Peppercorns

Cayenne pepper

Turmeric powder

Fennel seeds

Cloves

Cumin seed/Cumin powder

Chilli powder/Chilli flakes

Black cardamom/Green cardamom

Cleaning & Household supplies

3 Ariel liquid 

2 Dettol kitchen cleaners

1 Glorix bleach

1 Viakal 

1 ecover camomile washing up liquid

6 Scourers

2 pkts Incense

25 Bin liners 

15 Toilet rolls

2 pkts edet wipes

Dishwasher tabs

Dishwasher salts 

2 ltr cleaning vinegar

Freezer bags

Toiletries  

1 OralB Toothpaste

6 Shower gels

2 Shampoo

1 Conditioner

2 Body mousse & lotion

1 deodrant

1 Nivea creme

4 x 30ml bottles lavender/tea tree essential oils

fionaandphil

We succumbed and lit the fire last night and I've set the heating to come on for 30 minutes each morning to take the worst of the chill off.  I have also just tumble dried our bedsheets and towels - very un-frugal and I can practically hear the electric meter turning!  It has rained here all week and no signs of it abating today so I finally gave in.  

I've also just checked the food budget for the month and in at £339 this month which is huge for us.  It did include lots of extra toiletries and coffee on offer but still way too much.  I will have to do better this month 

stirchleygirl

Hi everyone

hope you are all doing ok and staying safe

sorry that I’ve been missing since early last year (when C-19 started) but last year and this year were extremely difficult for me due to my disability/C-19 for those who remember me I did return to work in April 2020 (after my relapse August 2019-Feb 2020) but this was working from home due to government directive work were lovely as the rest of the team were also working from home most of the time but with shielding ending last August it was time to actually go back to working on site and doing this it cemented the realisation that I was struggling badly and being on site behind screens and surgical masks (as per government instructions that ALL NHS staff wear surgical masks) speech was so muffled that I couldn’t understand what library users were saying to me and I also struggled with very basic tasks like issuing books and lots of other issues so came to the very sad conclusion that I had come to the end of the road of my working life work were brilliant and did all the proper procedures/legal stuff and final dismissal on grounds of capability was November 2020 so a year on I’ve finally come to terms with the fact of never working again (I’m 53)

so anyway I’m back here to get my finances in order as whilst I currently have more money coming in than I spend (as I’ve been frugal for many years) being reliant on a variety of benefits this comfortable level of income could change in the future (due to government policy and PIP assessors and now ESA assessors deciding that I’m not as ‘disabled’ as I actually am) 

so been spending quite a lot recently due to having a handyman start working his way through the jobs that I want doing in my home (as they have been waiting years due to no longer being able to do DIY work myself for many years) as now I’m not working I’ve got time and brain space to deal with it all so not frugal but these will improve my quality of life- you have to take joy where you can and in the little things in life when your life is so limited 

so my lovely main PA still does the fortnightly batch cooking of main meals that are then portioned up and frozen that I can then microwave when no PAs are ‘on shift’ ( I now have 3 wonderful PAs who between them cover the 5 week days) this fortnight it was a slow cooker vegetarian stew so remaining frugal with that

1 spend that I want to share in case others find this useful for keeping track of food stocks is the purchase of 3 x 2metre rolls of white board/write on wipe off on a sticky roll (like fablon) I got mine online from Amaz*n it’s £7.52 per roll

my PA put one on the inside of my food cupboard door (can be cut to the size you need) it’s a tall unit nearly to the ceiling hence needing nearly the full length of the roll and she drew lines across it at the level of each shelf and then listed the contents of each shelf so can easily see what food I have and nothing can get forgotten at the back of the shelves
the other 2 rolls were used on the front of my tall fridge and tall freezer again she drew lines at each shelf/drawer level 

my PAs will take photos of each list and text them to me so I can easily see from my bed what I’ve got so I can plan what they can prep/cook for me and also useful for when I have to do a shopping order I know what I’ve still got so I don’t end up with unintended multiples (which happens frequently due to my brain issues)

hope this idea is useful even to those who aren’t disabled as a way of keeping track of food stocks 

for those of you who are struggling on benefits and for those coming off furlough who face reduced hours or redundancy my heart and prayers go out to you all

keep on frugaling and I’ll try and be more regular in posting 😀