2023 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

I guess everyone is busy, or else I sent you all off to sleep with my huge, long waffling post. Sorry about that.

I've only just discovered these forums are now part of the MSE app so I've downloaded it onto my phone and should, signal permitting, be able to keep up to date much more easily from now on - woohoo!

Money saving today - I saved the old duvets from the caravan and am using them to lag the water tanks at Frugaldom. Taps get covered with polystyrene to try and help keep them from freezing.

KajiKita

Frugaldom said:

I guess everyone is busy, or else I sent you all off to sleep with my huge, long waffling post. Sorry about that.

I've only just discovered these forums are now part of the MSE app so I've downloaded it onto my phone and should, signal permitting, be able to keep up to date much more easily from now on - woohoo!

Money saving today - I saved the old duvets from the caravan and am using them to lag the water tanks at Frugaldom. Taps get covered with polystyrene to try and help keep them from freezing.

I was proper tired this morning so couldn’t comment effectively until this morning. 😊

I know what you mean about the government not supporting independent or off grid living, it’s like our society is a sausage machine with only one track. It’s not too bad for me - I can exist within those constraints (though sometimes they drive me mad) but my best friend is going to end up at the age of 62, with only a small inheritance, poor health (arthritis) and an inability to work in conventional ways - in earlier times she might have been understood to have ADHD or similar I think. She had a brutal upbringing so expected to be dead by the age of 30, so to be 60+ with no certainty about her future and the ability to find a cheap good quality home so limited now, she is really scared and I am for her too. A lot of people would look at her and judge her to be a waster - but that discounts her artististry (she’s done a couple of exhibitions but not enough to make a living from) and the fact that she was an unacknowledged, unpaid carer for her mum for 20+ years. 

KK

Frugaldom

@KajiKita the more I hear, the worse it gets. The days of ignorance are well and truly over now there's so many communications channels and social media platforms. I'm not sure how much you've read but may know we have a tiny cottage that I thought could be let out as affordable housing but there is absolutely zero help for folks like us who scrimp and save to avoid debt and build a nest egg. Now we are spending thousands of pounds making improvements so future tenants can live in a better home than we have ourselves. It's crazy. If only there was an easy way to match up those who need help with those who can offer the right dirt at the right time, and make it affordable.

No snow here yet but it's been absolutely freezing - frost and I've haven't properly melted for the past two days. Log burner has been going from morning til night so log chopping is a daily chore. I'm loath to buy in logs as they are now also extortionate so it's a case of using whatever we have plus whatever dry scrap wood I can find. I was given a small gas lantern that runs on 190g butane cannisters so that is providing a little bit heat as well as light. I have solar lights on and am avoiding electricity as often as possible. There's a big pan of water warming on the log burner to rinse some dishes and fill hot water bottles.

Another price I was thinking about was coal. When I began this challenge, if I remember correctly, it was about £7 for a 50kg bag and now it's almost £30. My income certainly hasn't more than quadrupled in that time.

Good luck to everyone for the final month of our 2023 frugal living challenge.

KajiKita

Do you mean that you were blocked from letting to tenants until you had made improvements to your little cottage?

It’s been proper cold here too and we are blasting through our bought in logs. I am desperate for Mr KK to get the curtain tracks back up - we have two windows and a double set of patio doors without curtains and it is so cold in the mornings when I come downstairs now that I am sat in the sofa under a blanket, or am cold before I even get into the freezing cold car … 

KK

mama67

Frugaldom said:

@KajiKita the more I hear, the worse it gets. The days of ignorance are well and truly over now there's so many communications channels and social media platforms. I'm not sure how much you've read but may know we have a tiny cottage that I thought could be let out as affordable housing but there is absolutely zero help for folks like us who scrimp and save to avoid debt and build a nest egg. Now we are spending thousands of pounds making improvements so future tenants can live in a better home than we have ourselves. It's crazy. If only there was an easy way to match up those who need help with those who can offer the right dirt at the right time, and make it affordable.

No snow here yet but it's been absolutely freezing - frost and I've haven't properly melted for the past two days. Log burner has been going from morning til night so log chopping is a daily chore. I'm loath to buy in logs as they are now also extortionate so it's a case of using whatever we have plus whatever dry scrap wood I can find. I was given a small gas lantern that runs on 190g butane cannisters so that is providing a little bit heat as well as light. I have solar lights on and am avoiding electricity as often as possible. There's a big pan of water warming on the log burner to rinse some dishes and fill hot water bottles.

Another price I was thinking about was coal. When I began this challenge, if I remember correctly, it was about £7 for a 50kg bag and now it's almost £30. My income certainly hasn't more than quadrupled in that time.

Good luck to everyone for the final month of our 2023 frugal living challenge.

We have recently £30.30 for a 50kg bag of coal. 

As you know we sell kiln dried logs and a 180kg builders bag is £110. 

Raw materials costs have gone up & up. 

This time 2 years ago we were selling the same for £70. 

Frugaldom

Wow! @mama67, that's a horrendous jump, isn't it. Our previous loads were £75 to £80 and we can still get one lot crated in the metal frames used for the 1000 litre tanks for £90 delivered. A small tipper load is now close to £250 so we need to collect and process as much as possible throughout the year. Thinning out the trees last year should help a bit but they are spruce, so take a long time to season properly.

@KajiKita we haven't been stopped renting out it's just that we are refurbishing after our tenant left. It's taken/taking months to get workmen in to do anything. The joys of rural living... lack of tradesmen and they can name their price, pick and choose their jobs and work at their own pace. All the electrical and fire safety certificates are renewed but my Energy Performance Certificate has now expired We have the Scottish Landlord Registry, my licence number was due renewed, too. All this and we will get less than £100 a week rental, off of which the licence, certificates and insurances need to be paid. Legislation is constantly under review, nothing is simple.

Frugaldom

Welcome to December! The final countdown to the end of this challenge and beginning of the next has started. The main event is in sight and Winter has arrived.

I'll be happy to get through the rest of this year with the log store full, if nothing else. Next year is about finalising, completing and achieving all my long-term plans in preparation for retirement while still managing to live a simple, frugal lifestyle. It may not be possible on my original £4,000 per year but I'll work out my actual budget soon.

mama67

Frugaldom said:

Wow! @mama67, that's a horrendous jump, isn't it. Our previous loads were £75 to £80 and we can still get one lot crated in the metal frames used for the 1000 litre tanks for £90 delivered. A small tipper load is now close to £250 so we need to collect and process as much as possible throughout the year. Thinning out the trees last year should help a bit but they are spruce, so take a long time to season properly.

@KajiKita we haven't been stopped renting out it's just that we are refurbishing after our tenant left. It's taken/taking months to get workmen in to do anything. The joys of rural living... lack of tradesmen and they can name their price, pick and choose their jobs and work at their own pace. All the electrical and fire safety certificates are renewed but my Energy Performance Certificate has now expired We have the Scottish Landlord Registry, my licence number was due renewed, too. All this and we will get less than £100 a week rental, off of which the licence, certificates and insurances need to be paid. Legislation is constantly under review, nothing is simple.

Your prices are good. 

Our IBC crates are now £210 for kiln dried. 

Talking to certain people there is a lack of good wood available for processing. So suppliers can charge what they want. 

Then we have to Add in the processing costs. 

AnimalTribe

Hi

I’d like to join in for 2024 please. During December I’ll do one financial thing and one organising thing a day. Hopefully, that will get me off to a good start for next year.

I’ve update my 2023 spending diary spreadsheet, and added a column for savings made from buying reduced priced items, coupons etc so that I can transfer the amount to a savings account.

My Christmas cards are all written. It’s probably the first time that I’ll be able to send the cards second class instead of last minute first class. I had a few really lovely cards that didn’t have envelopes, but I found some pretty red paper and made some envelopes for them. I plan to hand-deliver these at a pre-Christmas family gathering. Over the last couple of years my DH has bought cards in the January sales – he’s agreed not to do that this year as I have FOUR years’ worth of cards already.

Glittering_M

Not posted for a while but we are definitely continuing next year.

We've got some very difficult decisions to make house wise which no matter what decision is made is going to have a negative impact on family relations. Whatever decision also hopefully involves buying a house and potentially knocking it down and starting over so will stretch us financially and emotionally.