2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Bluegreen143

@Hotcocoahotflashes you’re really too late in the year to grow tomatoes and cucumbers but could take it for next year? If you want to get a feel for if you like growing food, you could still sow lettuce, rocket etc in pots. But you wouldn’t need to put these in the greenhouse.

Primrose

Hotcocoahotflashes said:

Morning everyone

Woke up to rain, but it's so warm again already. Another 6 hour shift in the worlds already way too hot carehome for me today so I'm packing extra water.

Can I ask if anyone has experience with mini greenhouses? We've been offered one (we don't have much outdoor space) but neither of us are green thumbed. Can we grow Tom's & cucumbers? Is it hard? And is it worth it?

I know there is a specific gardening forum but trying not to overwhelm myself with joining too many threads!

Thank you in advance. Have a great Sunday everyone

Re Mini greenhouses.  They can be rather  unstable in heavy wind but if you live in northern climes a mini greenhouse will certainly extend your growing season. .   Either put some concrete patio slabs on the base rack or do what we've done - put giant steel cuphook type clips into a house wall or strong fence and wrap  a long nylon luggage strap or something similar around the greenhouse on the top third of the structure.  This will keep it steady in the strongest wind

If you want to start off cucumbers and tomatoes in them they will work fine but cucumbers will grow in a deep 12" pot perfectly well outside tied to a stake.  You might want to consider growing tumbling varieties of tomatoes in your greenhouse , ie Tumbling Tom (red or yellow ones) -  they will use up less height and you might be able to pack two layers of them on the shelves instead of the height  of one tall plant. They also crop slightly earlier than upright varieties. 

Certainly worth the experiment.  The way prices are rising any money saved will be worth it.  Incidentally, look for varieties of "Mini" cucumbers  (ie Mini Munch).  They grow in profusion about 6" long and will keep you well stocked if you keep them well watered..

ladyholly

I have one and have started of courgettes before moving them outside. I tried cucumber in there but something destryed them. I dont know what and it was only the cucumbers. Tomatoes were also started in there (grown from seed). At the moment it is empty but i have fencers coming in the near fure (I hope) so it will have to be moved.  I also got some spring onions erlier than I would have done without it.

I am planning on propogating a strawberry plant I have and when the runners are separated from the main plant they will go in there to protect them over winter. I might put them in the house later if it gets very cold.

This is my first year with it and I am no gardener so everything is trial and error at the moment.

Good luck if you go for it.

Primrose

London_1 

Well belt-tightening has started and having seen martins video things look like they will be getting tough this coming winter so laying in some extra stocks to help streetch the cash flow a bit.

A few extra tins a week help and I'm using the book case in my spare room to store stuff as I have decluttered it from a lot of books to the CS. 

Hopefully we will all get through by careful budgetting and using everything up I have a zero waste policy in my house for both food and rubbish. 
Basically if its been bought to eat then it will get eaten. My freezer now has been filled up, and the cupboards are looking pretty full as well, so extra tins etc will go upstairs to my spare room.
Onwards and upwards chums this cost of Living stuff won't defeat this old woman i've lived through a lot worse  

JackieO xx

Inspirational post!  I like the idea of the "bookcase library" for storing dry goods.  Easy to find and access but keep your curtains   closed when people like your  window cleaner arrives in case they want to come shopping!.  We could store a lot of extra stuff in only my OH would declutter the many books he never reads!   

Having tinned goods which require little fuel for cooking will really help minimise  gas or electricity bills this winter especially for those living solo where a tin of something can be stretched over two days with a little ingenuity .

i read today thwt the public  are already being urged  cut their energy use to avoid winter lackouts so a little forward meal planning now will help adaptability.  I hope all those empty offices and shops wil switch  their lights off at night when the buildings are unoccupied.  Such a waste of electricity!

London_1

Primrose said:

London_1 

Well belt-tightening has started and having seen martins video things look like they will be getting tough this coming winter so laying in some extra stocks to help streetch the cash flow a bit.

A few extra tins a week help and I'm using the book case in my spare room to store stuff as I have decluttered it from a lot of books to the CS. 

Hopefully we will all get through by careful budgetting and using everything up I have a zero waste policy in my house for both food and rubbish. 
Basically if its been bought to eat then it will get eaten. My freezer now has been filled up, and the cupboards are looking pretty full as well, so extra tins etc will go upstairs to my spare room.
Onwards and upwards chums this cost of Living stuff won't defeat this old woman i've lived through a lot worse  

JackieO xx

    

Having tinned goods which require little fuel for cooking will really help minimise  gas or electricity bills this winter especially for those living solo where a tin of something can be stretched over two days with a little ingenuity .

i read today thwt the public  are already being urged  cut their energy use to avoid winter lackouts so a little forward meal planning now will help adaptability.  I hope all those empty offices and shops wil switch  their lights off at night when the buildings are unoccupied.  Such a waste of electricity!

Absolutely right it drive me really crackers when I see mpty buildings lit up like Christmas trees and no one apart from perhaps a security guard in them,probably heated as well when folk are sleeping rough on the streets.A couple of years ago we had a young man die in his sleeping bag pitched about 200 yards from heated well lit council offices Grr I do my bit to cut energy and keep door shut and curtains when it starts to get dark in the winter.I usually only have a side light on in the evening as if the tv is on I don't need anything else, just for my knitting.My children always said when living at home I was the electricity police ,its just growing up in the 1940s & 50s wasting anything was considered really bad form and I try not to waste any resources even today.

Dropped my grandsons off to work and popped into see if tesco's had anything worth buying but decided nothings caught my eye, so came home without anything Hanging onto my pennies, and making every copper count now. I have sorted out my 'bookcase storage unit and I'm really pleased as its easy to see whats available and what needs topping up. So far nothing as yet but I keep a strict eye on prices and find that as stated being on my own I can easily stretch stuff to two days. 

I noticed the price of tinned salmon has risen since last week from £2.25 to £3.00, so thats off the menu until it hopefully becomes a special offer. I have two tins in my 'bookcase' already from last week so I shall hang onto those for awhile yet. I swear its probably the same tins that were there a week ago . Eagle eyes are needed at all times I think  

JackieO xx

maryb

Hotcocoa, I bought a mini greenhouse this year and I found it really useful for the seedlings I started off inside the house.  Round about March they need to start going outside during the day but you can't leave them out overnight without protection so I was doing the hokey cokey morning and evening.  The mini greenhouse meant I could leave them out but they didn't get frosted

Primrose

Hot cocoa. If the greenhiuse offer is still available I,d take it. It willsave a lot of time and hassle moving plants from indoors to outside.

If nothing else in winter you  can move  all the upper wire racks to the bottom and drip-dry blouses, shirts, socks tv  in there pegged onto a coat  hanger hanging from the top rung on drizzly days, with the flap partly open. (Ie a sort of outdoor drying cabinet protected from the rain,) 

The art in having all these items is to learn how to use them flexibly  and get  them to serve you  to best advantage !

at Christmas and in very cold weather  it can also act as an emergency temporary overflow fridge,for surplus items, providing the flap is kept firmly closed against maurauding animals! 

cuddlymarm

Hi guys
I am hoping that our council will have the forethought to put a few comfy chairs in the library’s to allow people to keep warm.
If things get as hard as Martin thinks it might be an idea for council offices should have warm space as well.
My OH sometimes collects oldies and takes them to day centres/lunch clubs and ten back home. But they have to pay for the pleasure. These are the people that will perish first in the cold and are also the ones that slip into the background if no one notices they are struggling.
I have seen the greed already coming to the fore with people that don’t need to hoovering up TGTG bags. Buying more than one and openly saying that the stuff they didn’t like going to waste. Before you jump down my throat about pre judging people, I’m saying you should leave some for others and try to share what won’t get used.
We all need to look after each other is what I’m saying because at the moment the government is too busy concentrating on themselves to bother looking to it’s people.

amber03

Just coming back on after months off. Need to sort myself out money wise. Not in debt and was able to retire early but due to the cost of living rising so steeply, I need to reign in my spending. Decided to take my house keeping money out and using cash again which I used to do and prefer as I know where I am. For years I have had a stash of food upstairs “just in case”. Which was so handy when Covid hit and shops started having supply problems, so will be starting that up again. Also going to buy three tins a week for the “C” event in Xmas. Xx

Primrose

cuddlymarm said:

Hi guys
I am hoping that our council will have the forethought to put a few comfy chairs in the library’s to allow people to keep warm.

We all need to look after each other is what I’m saying because at the moment the government is too busy concentrating on themselves to bother looking to it’s people.

Our village library already encourages this activity and I hope we,ll be able to find more volunteers to serve tea or coffee over the  winter months as well. Sadly many libraries are closing or operating shorter hours due to council economies. Neighbours/friends  offering to do car sharing shopping trips as well will help petrol economy 

What concerns me deeply is that a housing trust which itself is a charity can have a tenant who lived alone and was discovered to have lain dead in their home for two years completely undiscovered. Surely somebody  somewhere must have been responsible for joining up the dots?