2022 Frugal Living Challenge

YORKSHIRELASS

Primrose so true.  I came from a tiny rural village where no-one gave a stuff about fashion or "things", then I got a job in a big city and felt so out of my depth.  This set me off on a path of spending beyond my means to look like everyone else and do the same things as my work colleagues, even though I couldnt afford it.  It has taken me years to unravel all that, and I am still clearing the debts.

DH and I drove a few miles from home onto the edge of the moors today and did a 5 mile walk, we are so lucky to live where we do.  We took a flask of coffee and a couple of chocolate biscuits to have half way around and it was so lovely to be out, the heather is stunning.  Finished off the day with pork loin and veg out of the garden, then a crumble made from our own apples.

MazzieD

Really appreciating having a Bank Holiday, an extra day to plan ahead as much as possible.  Some number crunching has been done and budget looked at yet again.  I really don't know what to think at the moment apart from hoping it's a mild winter, the worst of the cold usually happens between January - March here so that is likely to be even harder with yet another energy price increase.

It's really lovely weather wise, the sun has been shining for the last few days and temperatures in the mid twenties.  Just wandered into the City Centre for my daily walk, had a look at Air Fryers but not sure, the main problem is lack of space in my tiny Galley style kitchen and only two double electric sockets so already juggling existing small appliances.  

Decided to cut down on reading all the doom and gloom and remind myself that some of it is whipped up hysteria and won't necessarily happen.  I'll stick to MSE and a good dose of Y*u Tube (as long as it's sensible!.)

Cheery_Daff

Hi all, can I join you? I've read back over the whole thread (!) and really enjoyed the way the conversation has ranged from washing machines to jam to hay boxes to rationing and all over the place 😊

We live rurally (not even in a village) having moved from a city about 4.5 years ago. Our life here is a lot more expensive - we'd paid off the mortgage on the old house for a start, but took put a new one here which is £920 a month 😮 I'm the main earner, and Mr Cheery's pension and self-employed earnings wouldn't even cover the mortgage if anything happened to my job (although we are lucky that we could still sell up if needed and be mortgage free again).

We didn't have much when I grew up in the 80s, and I remember some of the strategies my mum used, although they were often of the 'sugar butties' variety rather than anything picturesque I'd particularly want to hark back to 😂 

I never want to go back to that feeling of not knowing how I'm going to pay a bill though.

We're in a good position now, and I'm so grateful for that. We're reasonably frugal with food and energy use, but there is a LOT more we could do - I knew that anyway but realised that even more reading back through this thread. 

I'd love to have that security of paying the mortgage off again - I loved it before! This mortgage has another 20 years to run so a lot of chipping away to do...

In practical terms, we have four rescue hens, a big garden where I mostly despair over my ability to neglect food crops 🙄 Lots of fruit bushes, and various things like dehydrator which I have never made proper use of. LPG rather than mains gas, although we've just started a decent 2 year fix thank goodness. Mortgage is fixed at 2.26% until Sept 2024 as well fortunately. 

Anyway, I'll shut up now and go back to listening and learning 😁

MazzieD

@Cheery_Daff Welcome, it really is worth reading back.  I think of it as a bit like a ramble through life, we wander all over the place!.

Primrose

Cheery_Daff said:

Hi all, can I join you? I've read back over the whole thread (!) and really enjoyed the way the conversation has ranged from washing machines to jam to hay boxes to rationing and all over the place 

Can you imagine the conversational buzz if we all found ourselves together in a church hall over tea and biscuits?.  The noise would be deafening and there would probably be no end to interesting and useful ideas swapped.  Just a pity our parents and grandparents didn,t have access to the internet in equally hard times. I suppose useful hints were shared locally in village halls or in rationing queues but there perhaps wouldn't have been the same widespread diversity of information we can all share on here.

Meanwhile  we,ve had a power cut here this morning and I,m hoping the powers that be arn,t getting us psyched up with a practice run for what we can expect this winter !

Primrose

BREADMAKERS AND POWER CUTS

Advice  please from anybody who.s set a breadmaker running  and then had a power cut. When the power comes back on do you end up getting a decent loaf or is it wrecked?

We were just about to set ours running this morning when the power cut out.  We're able to delay the start until power was restored but wondered what the result would have been if we,d already pressed "Start".

RateTartExtraordinaire

MazzieD said:

Really appreciating having a Bank Holiday, an extra day to plan ahead as much as possible.  Some number crunching has been done and budget looked at yet again.  I really don't know what to think at the moment apart from hoping it's a mild winter, the worst of the cold usually happens between January - March here so that is likely to be even harder with yet another energy price increase.

It's really lovely weather wise, the sun has been shining for the last few days and temperatures in the mid twenties.  Just wandered into the City Centre for my daily walk, had a look at Air Fryers but not sure, the main problem is lack of space in my tiny Galley style kitchen and only two double electric sockets so already juggling existing small appliances.  

Decided to cut down on reading all the doom and gloom and remind myself that some of it is whipped up hysteria and won't necessarily happen.  I'll stick to MSE and a good dose of Y*u Tube (as long as it's sensible!.)

Very sensible! I sometimes have to limit the doom and gloom! 

I spent some time number crunching at the weekend. I worked out my year to date energy usage and I've worked out that we've reduced our usage of Gas and Electricity in the last 12 months. Feeling very pleased that it is now coming down again since we both started working from home. It means all the energy saving effort was worth it. 

The Gas is down from around 7700 to 5950 KwH. Electricity less, but still a win, down by 100, from 2410 to 2310 KwH.
I've just put my figures into MSE's energy price rise bill tool  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/what-are-the-price-cap-unit-rates-/#tool

It is giving me £1350 annual estimate now which is about right, rising to £2350 annual estimate in October to January a rise of 74%, not as bad as I thought as I was calculating an 80% rise. It has made me want to save more...

RateTartExtraordinaire

Primrose said:

BREADMAKERS AND POWER CUTS

Advice  please from anybody who.s set a breadmaker running  and then had a power cut. When the power comes back on do you end up getting a decent loaf or is it wrecked?

We were just about to set ours running this morning when the power cut out.  We're able to delay the start until power was restored but wondered what the result would have been if we,d already pressed "Start".

I don't have a breadmaker. I'm not sure what would happen but I guess it would depend on the length of the power cut. I looked at breadmaking recently and whether you can freeze bread dough and defrost and cook it at a later date and you can.  You just have to make sure it is fully risen first. As long as it is fully risen before the power cut or has retained enough heat to allow it to rise then I reacon you'd be okay. Would it go dry on the top though? I guess it is airtight.

ladyholly

I have a question about air fryers.
. Does anyone know what the speed and economy is compared to a grill on an electric cooker?
My dh has grilled bacon every day (don'task) and I wondered if an air dryer would be cheaper or if it would take a long time. 

Jazee

Comparisons of cooking costs