2021 Frugal Living Challenge

liz3chickens

Hi everyone, I have been reading all your interesting posts for a while but not posted. 

I try to apply the 5Rs refuse, reduce etc. and grow a small amount of veg and fruit and I consider myself quite frugal. My dilemma is regarding fruit and veg.  

Last year during lockdown I joined an organic box scheme - local veg, no plastic, delivered weekly.  It contains potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms plus whatever was in season. I supplement it with a few extras as we eat a lot of veg and I cook from scratch.
With the general rise in prices lately I thought I would suspend the box for a couple of weeks and try the local market/supermarkets.

So yesterday at the market I spent £9.90, the equivalent at Tesco £6.50, Aldi £5.70. (My local supermarkets) This didn’t include fruit and I had some veg left from last week.

My dilemma, which to choose?  
Organic Box -  all local produce, no plastic, delivered                      Most expensive
Local market - UK produce, no plastic, drive car
Supermarkets - UK/EU? produce, mostly plastic wrapped, drive.      Cheapest

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?      

balabooberlies

liz3chickens

the drive to the supermarket costs money, time and general wear and tear on your car.  Not to mention the cost on the environment.

Local market shopping keeps small traders going.

Just my thoughts but I could be totally wrong !

bala

x

-taff

Depends. If your goal is frugal living, then the cheapest wins. If your goal is support local market traders, go with them. If recycling and reusing and being green are your goal, go with the organic box.

Once you've decided what your most important consideration is, your answer should be clearer.

A lot of people here have a reason for frugal living, there's an end goal. Do you have an end goal you are working towards or are you being frugal because you must or you want to be?

balabooberlies

-taff said:

Depends. If your goal is frugal living, then the cheapest wins. If your goal is support local market traders, go with them. If recycling and reusing and being green are your goal, go with the organic box.

Once you've decided what your most important consideration is, your answer should be clearer.

A lot of people here have a reason for frugal living, there's an end goal. Do you have an end goal you are working towards or are you being frugal because you must or you want to be?

Excellent !

YorksLass

zafiro1984 said:

Also snap, mine spent his working life in suits or scrubs now he is outdoors most of the time, four layers of clothing under his coat one of which is a heated gillet, slippers indoors, woodburner/ironheart on all day and night.  I'm like you, I don't feel the cold, one layer under my coat, usually a short sleeved T-shirt, but I do sit near to the woodburner in the evenings.
Maybe the name YorkLass has something to do with it. I could be called LancsLass if I had to rename myself.
Writing the above reminds me I must look to see if they make heated socks or heated trouser legs, I know the gillet was 'warmly' (no pun intended) received last Christmas.

Oh, how I would love a wood burner!  Alas, our council owned home was built c,1960 (part concrete slab/part brick construction), originally all electric with underfloor heating (living room and hallway only) that didn't work very well, no fireplace or chimney.  Progressed to storage heaters (expensive and ran on Econ7 - not much good when you're out at work all day) and eventually were upgraded to gas central heating with radiators in all rooms.  Strangely enough, we hardly ever use the bedroom ones - maybe we've become used to not being so warm.  Or perhaps as you say it could be our location! 

I too find one layer is fine during the day while I'm moving around but I will confess to having some knitted gilets to slip on in the evenings.  And gloves when I'm out and about.  I've always had cold hands - maybe that's why I make good pastry!  

Jellytotts

Yorkslass - depending on where you want your burner, you may not need a chimney.  They can put a flue through the outside wall and run it externally.  We wouldn't be without a burner now, we had an open fire at our old house but it didn't pump out 1/4 of the heat the log burner does.

Ellie79

Evening all. Not really been around too much recently. Work and life. Plus a birthday (youngest child). It really has not been a frugal month! That said, I've shuffled some things around in the freezer so reduced my shop this week. The Christmas Dinner will be arriving in a couple of weeks so I need to make space.

I've spent the day resting, just feeling a bit worn out and not my usual chirpy self. But I have done that with a large fluffy blanket, hot water bottle and layers. Nice and warm. I was going to crochet but I didn't really feel like it. Hopefully I'll feel a bit brighter tomorrow. 

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and hopefully a good week ahead. 

willow_loulou

With the veg, is one better quality? I’d go with organic where possible and delivered, if I had one that delivered here I’d swap tomorrow even with the extra expense. Let us know what you decide. 

Jolly cold tonight, I’ve had a rough few days pain wise. Really looking forward to my treatment Wednesday! 

Frugaldom

weenancyinAmerica said:

During World War II, they dried carrot tops to use in place of salt. 

I didn't know that - thank you for sharing

Frugaldom

Good evening to all and appropriate responses to each of you - sorry that I'm still struggling to keep up with all the posts on here but life is full-on hectic with not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Frugal life is tending more and more towards freeganism, it would seem, so I'm making the most of it. The latest little frugaleur enterprise challenge is working out well (campervan/motorhome stopover site at Frugaldom) and I'm loving meeting so many lovely new people. There are still many who don't understand my thinking when I say 'no charge but feel free to leave a small donation towards feeding the ponies', none more so than the banks - apparently my social enterprise is more social than enterprise so opening a new account has been impossible. Regardless, I still have business PayPal and this approach fits in with my frugal mindset. I got a QR code for scan and pay to donate at the gate. I keep busy searching the online marketplaces for free or cheap secondhand items, will keep going with our fundraising and am now hoping the hut will be completed before the end of this month so we can spend some time in it before Christmas. I'd love to spend Christmas there but not sure if I'll have sourced everything I need to make the place habitable enough by then. We have campevans booked in over Christmas! 2022 is going to be about part-time, off-grid living, learning new types of frugality as there will be no tap water, drainage or electricity, and starting over, rebuilding the diminished savings after building said hut. 

Savings are still being drip fed whenever possible, no further wins on Premium Bonds, grocery budget at an all-time low tanks to regular Olio being back in our area and I've made enough jams, jellies, marmalades and sauces to last throughout next year, I think. Tag me in if you want me to see your posts as they are then flagged up on my emails.

Keep on frugaling and if in any doubt, just smile, wave and carry on regardless.