2021 Frugal Living Challenge

balabooberlies

Mummy2cheekymonkeys said:

Just been plodding along here. We have saved up enough to overpay 10% of our mortgage balance on the 1st January which has been our main savings aim for the year. 
I managed to pass my driving test first time on wednesday which I was over the moon with as I was so nervous. Thats one less expense to worry about now I don't need to keep having lessons. Although I now need to get put on the insurance so that will go up. 
Most of the christmas food shop is done which I used my £50 voucher from swagbucks for. I have just cashed in another £10 worth so will use that the week of christmas to get any last minute bits such as the cheap veg. 

Wow !

Congratulations on many fronts.

bala

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balabooberlies

Thank you Frugaldom

Never heard of coffe logs.  Much prefer the heat of coal to wood as it burns longer.  This might be a great alternative and if it is I can put my itchy conscience to bed.

bala
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Frugaldom

balabooberlies said:

Thank you Frugaldom

Never heard of coffe logs.  Much prefer the heat of coal to wood as it burns longer.  This might be a great alternative and if it is I can put my itchy conscience to bed.

bala
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I had never heard of them until meeting some of the campervan lifers - those living fulltime in their campers while touring Scotland in winter - and they introduced me to these. With coal being on the way out for most, these sounded like a great idea, if they work. I don't think anything will ever compete with the heat produced by coal if relying on an open fire or stove. We still have a coalman delivers in our area but with such a mild year gone by, we still have last year's coal in the bunker. At Frugaldom, however, it's only the hut that needs to be heated so I'm affording myself the luxury of trying out new things. I'll pass on my review of them once I've had the chance to try them out properly. I've got several types of fuel to try this winter - ecologs, coffee logs (Bio Bean) and 8-hour-burntime briquettes that I cannot believe will burn for anywhere near 8 hours. We shall see - a good scoop of dross was what used to keep the fires burning overnight and our coalman still sells dross.

willow_loulou

I’ve had the 8 hour brick and can say they do smoulder on for hours but little heat is made. They need other logs in with them. 

I was warned off the coffee logs as they create more residue in the chimney so never tried them. 

I use eco logs all the time with pallets and anything else I can get free or cheap. 

I got 9 pallets dropped off to me today by a friend. Very pleased with that! 

Mum2cheekymonkeys huge congratulations on passing your driving test! Great news. 

Frugaldom

@willow_loulou that's brilliant news about the pallets, we have them at the top of our list of needs & wants on the Frugaldom list and use them for all sorts of things. Just now we are using them to build a play area and winter quarters for the 2 goats we rescued in summer. I'm also goat-proofing around the pond so I can get my pond-edge garden done for next year. All the scrap wood is in the barn waiting to be chopped up for burning over winter.

balabooberlies

Frugaldom said:

balabooberlies said:

Thank you Frugaldom

Never heard of coffe logs.  Much prefer the heat of coal to wood as it burns longer.  This might be a great alternative and if it is I can put my itchy conscience to bed.

bala
x

I had never heard of them until meeting some of the campervan lifers - those living fulltime in their campers while touring Scotland in winter - and they introduced me to these. With coal being on the way out for most, these sounded like a great idea, if they work. I don't think anything will ever compete with the heat produced by coal if relying on an open fire or stove. We still have a coalman delivers in our area but with such a mild year gone by, we still have last year's coal in the bunker. At Frugaldom, however, it's only the hut that needs to be heated so I'm affording myself the luxury of trying out new things. I'll pass on my review of them once I've had the chance to try them out properly. I've got several types of fuel to try this winter - ecologs, coffee logs (Bio Bean) and 8-hour-burntime briquettes that I cannot believe will burn for anywhere near 8 hours. We shall see - a good scoop of dross was what used to keep the fires burning overnight and our coalman still sells dross.

Frugaldom you are a find !

Dross ?

Burntime briquettes ?

Am off to research......

bala

x

Frugaldom

@balabooberlies Dross is like the little bits f coal that fall through the riddles when it is being graded - they bag it and sell it as dross here. It's much cheaper than graded coal and brilliant for banking up overnight as it compacts and slow burns. Even on the open fire I have seen it last overnight. The slowburn briquettes are 'Night Briquettes' from a company called Lekto Woodfuel, who usually offer 10% discount on first order but I also found them listed on topcashback, so got 6% cash back from there and then the extra 0.5% cashback from my CC. I haven't tried the Lekto logs yet as I'm waiting for the stove to be cemented into the new flue. Once that's done I'll can light the stove and leave it burning all day to see how long the briquettes actually last. I think it said they are made from softwood bark rather than wood. I can but try. I may have made an expensive mistake in buying them but I do need longer lasting fuel at the hut as it;s where we will be drying off after things like tree planting.  should add that the new stove was a donated gift from someone upgrading theirs but it is a beautiful little stove and will hopefully keep us warm in the hut this winter.

Scottiedog_3

Frugaldom said:

@balabooberlies Dross is like the little bits f coal that fall through the riddles when it is being graded - they bag it and sell it as dross here. 

My granny was entitled to a certain number of bags of coal every two months as the widow of a coalminer. She used to go out and supervise the proceedings as the coal was being emptied into the coal bunker. "Dross!" she would roar, "You're giving me nothing but dross!" She could be a very scary lady....I can never hear the word without thinking of her.🙂

willow_loulou

Frugaldom said:

@willow_loulou that's brilliant news about the pallets, we have them at the top of our list of needs & wants on the Frugaldom list and use them for all sorts of things. Just now we are using them to build a play area and winter quarters for the 2 goats we rescued in summer. I'm also goat-proofing around the pond so I can get my pond-edge garden done for next year. All the scrap wood is in the barn waiting to be chopped up for burning over winter.

If we were not opposite ends of the country I’d absolutely share! 2 are really good quality so we’re going to repurpose into extending the chickens covered area as our new run is rubbish. Pallets are so useful! 

balabooberlies

Frugaldom said:

@balabooberlies Dross is like the little bits f coal that fall through the riddles when it is being graded - they bag it and sell it as dross here. It's much cheaper than graded coal and brilliant for banking up overnight as it compacts and slow burns. Even on the open fire I have seen it last overnight. The slowburn briquettes are 'Night Briquettes' from a company called Lekto Woodfuel, who usually offer 10% discount on first order but I also found them listed on topcashback, so got 6% cash back from there and then the extra 0.5% cashback from my CC. I haven't tried the Lekto logs yet as I'm waiting for the stove to be cemented into the new flue. Once that's done I'll can light the stove and leave it burning all day to see how long the briquettes actually last. I think it said they are made from softwood bark rather than wood. I can but try. I may have made an expensive mistake in buying them but I do need longer lasting fuel at the hut as it;s where we will be drying off after things like tree planting.  should add that the new stove was a donated gift from someone upgrading theirs but it is a beautiful little stove and will hopefully keep us warm in the hut this winter.

Am still on my quest for a back-boiler and still doing my research.  I grew up with an open fire and I cannot tell you how much comfort it gave me over the years.

I know I will have to have multi fuel burner.  Enjoying all the new things I am learning.  Thank you to all

bala

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