2021 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

rolorich said:

Oh Gosh lockdown and shielded letter arrived today so no more popping to the shops yellow sticker buying.  

I’m planning on just making do with my yarn, other craft materials and books I own.  I will have to get food deliveries in; Iceland seem the best option with free deliveries over £35 and I need to plan meals in advance pretty well now so that I don’t run out of essential items. 

I applied for the four free months supply of vitamin D the govt offering CEV people tonight; deadline for applying is TODAY.

stay safe all xx

Can I suggest taking a multi vit Or magnesium as well, as many of us need magnesium to absorb it. Also eat with it as it’s easily broken down by the gut before absorption. I have to take it, plus b12 jabs and folic acid for my immune issues. I’m no Dr, just info I’ve learned over many years so do what you think best x 

lm in the minority that’s pleased were to stay home, my worries have all lifted and I’m more relaxed than I have been in months. I’m sorry it’s going to be so hard on so many though. Especially parents and the self employed. Hugs to all, stay safe x

Frugaldom

Hi fruguys and gals, another late night for me. I was thinking that it's probably best to introduce myself for the benefit of all our newcomers joining the challenge for the first time. I set up the frugal living challenge as a household budget challenge many, many years ago then began publishing it in 1999. It has run in various places but finally found its way here, to MSE, in 2007, in time to set up the 2008 challenge to live on £4,000 per year. Everything can be found in the links on page 1, post 1. Since then, I have stuck rigidly to my budgets, saved relentlessly and invested (hopefully) wisely is property and land. My ultimate goal was to create a real Frugaldom where like-minded individuals could come along and experience the frugal lifestyle, sampling self-sustainability for themselves, with the opportunity to share what had been achieved and created over the years. I am still following that plan but somehow, I found myself becoming a sort of sanctuary for ponies, poultry and wildlife, which is the main reason I now need to be more frugal than ever. Feeding this lot costs a small fortune. In the time of doing these annual frugal living challenges I have cleared all debts, partnered with someone to pool resources and buy a house (see the 'buying a house without a mortgage' link on p1) and then began a renovation project. That is still on-going because we ended up buying land - about 5 hectares - to create Frugaldom. Then the holiday caravans for our visitors staying to visit Frugaldom. Then a tiny cottage with an allotment style garden and adjoining studio for letting out as a frugal living experience but the last person to rent during holidays, while helping at Frugaldom, ended up staying indefinitely. I set up a frugal breaks enterprise - if you read back through old challenges you will see that we often ran mini challenges within the main annual one, usually with a home-business theme of arts, crafts or other extra income generation scheme. My personal mini challenges have included:

• Trading Post for trading foods and other goods
• Growing fruit & veg
• Growing willows for weaving material and living sculptures, 
• Arts & crafts of various descriptions using recycled junk
• Blogging and writing for income
• A plant nursery, growing herbs
• Online shop
• Affordable breaks for fellow frugalers 

My latest mini challenge was to renovate an old caravan but Covid arrived and scuppered almost all of the 2020 plans. I simply didn't have the time, energy, tools or skillset to do this job on my own so, instead, I've decided to have the old caravan converted into a tiny house for visitors and apply for planning permission to build a hut (Scottish name for a small, off grid cabin) on the land where we have been planting a woodland, an orchard, foraging hedgerow, herb nursery, willow plantation, wildlife gardens, fruit & veg, and eco arts areas. (Plus there are now 10 ponies)  The hens and ducks have all had to be kept at home in covered runs owing to the latest UK Government legislation imposing lockdown on all poultry because of the avian influenza outbreaks. So there you have it, the past 20+ years of frugaldom, formerly known as username 'NYK' (Now You Know.) If anyone has any questions at all, feel free to ask. My annual challenge budget still remains at £4,000 and of that, my grocery budget remains at £1 per person per day for all meals, plus a bit extra for guests and additional items such as toiletries, cleaning and laundry products. 2021 is going to be a very, very frugal year.

I'd like to end this late night ramble by saying that at least 4 of our original and long-standing challengers remain good friends of Frugaldom and we have, over the years, managed to have some meet-ups at Frugaldom. Sadly, we have also lost a few of our members over the years but their memories live on.

3secondmemory

rolorich said:

Oh Gosh lockdown and shielded letter arrived today so no more popping to the shops yellow sticker buying.  

I’m planning on just making do with my yarn, other craft materials and books I own.  I will have to get food deliveries in; Iceland seem the best option with free deliveries over £35 and I need to plan meals in advance pretty well now so that I don’t run out of essential items. 

I applied for the four free months supply of vitamin D the govt offering CEV people tonight; deadline for applying is TODAY.

stay safe all xx

I am a big fan of Iceland but have noticed that since I get the £35 online delivery, the sell by dates are really short. My best bet is popping into store at 8 o’clock in the morning and doing a £25 shop with a same day delivery, once a fortnight. 

ancientmum

Gosh, Frugaldom, that is an interesting journey.  More power to you.  
I got some bread from olio, more than would fit in the freezer so made bread pudding, bread and butter pudding and breadcrumbs.  I'll make more breadcrumbs today and croutons when the oven is on for tea.  Bread pudding will be shared with family. Does anyone know the best way to store croutons please?
There is still some left that is fresh enough to eat as is, so I'm keeping that in the fridge. 

ancientmum

Gosh, Frugaldom, that is an interesting journey.  More power to you.  
I got some bread from olio, more than would fit in the freezer so made bread pudding, bread and butter pudding and breadcrumbs.  I'll make more breadcrumbs today and croutons when the oven is on for tea.  Bread pudding will be shared with family. Does anyone know the best way to store croutons please?
There is still some left that is fresh enough to eat as is, so I'm keeping that in the fridge. 

patentgirl

Morning well this is a strange start to retirement not that expected any different !lucky I am a homebody type with this continual rain raised borders for veggies on hold but planning everything for growing had successes in greenhouse last year particularly cucumbers/peppers/spinach/chard and tomatoes struggled with courgettes and broad beans in garden  planning all in my head what's going where.. Still getting my walk in whatever weather will help with trying to keep weight down as far as budgets all set up my goals keep to £3200 for food for the year hopefully will be able to get this figure down now I have time to budget better. £310 per month for car expenses,Xmas,birthdays, diesel, some bills so plan to save as much as we can out of DH salary for him to retire too . This is what we have done last few years, saving hard which enabled me to retire earlier I hated my job so stressful so already mental health improved for all newcomers it really does work being frugal we eat well not big spenders very rarely have takeaways our only vice was holidays which not available for near future anyway our next dream to buy some sort of camper van but they shot up last year with more people enjoying our lovely countryside with less flights available so no rush we can wait meanwhile will keep saving, enjoying what we have already and trying to keep healthy Good luck everyone for a frugal 2021.

willow_loulou

@ancientmum - frugaldom recommended jars last year, so I keep mine in empty sweet pickle jars 

Bluegreen143

Loved reading your story @Frugaldom - thanks for sharing.

New lockdown routine with the kids going well. Got the morning chores done, set up a colour matching activity for the little one and they’ve played with the train set and are now making piles of cushions in the living room. This is their favourite game and everyday I ask myself why we buy them toys!! Trying to muster up enthusiasm for taking them out into the garden for some fresh air.

I’ve found some instructions for boosting a flagging sourdough starter so trying that as a last ditch attempt to save it.

Plan is to make a new recipe tonight - samosas made with minced beef, sweet potato, brown rice and filo pastry. Hoping it’s yum! Will serve with some lentil daal, mango chutney, a yoghurt dip. Think I have some YS mini naans in the freezer too. 

KatyLovesCats

Love reading your posts @Frugaldom, so inspiring. Thank you. 

zafiro1984

Frugaldom, I take my hat off to you as you are so committed to your way of life. I'll try to be more frugal but I'll never come anywhere close to what you do.

I had to step outside my planned budget yesterday as we needed more PPE. We're both now shielding and taking this variant very seriously as we live in a high risk zone. Our help has asked if she can come in at 7am and be gone by 10am. That suits us as she does all the hard physical work to do with the horses, so we should be able to cope for the rest of the day. 

I'm still working my way through my egg surplus, just made four cake batter mixes, cooked one and put three in the freezer.  That took 16 eggs. I think I'll make some meringues this afternoon and I'm sure I read somewhere there is a cake made with just eggs yolks, I think it was a Scottish recipe, and it was a cross between a cake and shortbread. If I can find it again I'll have a go at it.