2023 Frugal Living Challenge

Elisheba

Frugaldom said:

Supermarket prices for UHT milk have all gone up and there are restrictions on amounts when ordering online for home delivery. How excited were we to find M0rris0ns UHT milk on Amaz0n at a cheaper price and free delivery on orders over £20! Quite incredulous!

Rushed to look at Amazon, but there are sold out .  They work out at 69p a litre which is the same price are Aldi's basic UHT as well, so I'll remember to pop into Mr A's when I need some later this week. Would have been nice to get 12 litres plus delivered and save me lugging them around but hey ho.

willow_loulou

If anyone wants to feel a teeny bit better about our price increases, check out SomersinAlaska YouTube - He goes to a northern town and the prices made my jaw drop! It doesn’t make a real difference but it certainly made me look at things a little differently. 

Strict shopping list for my trip tomorrow. I’m getting better at this. 

My seeds are up! Made me really happy 😃 looking forward to getting my herbs going to dehydrate for the winter. I found good priced compost locally so going back for more when I get paid. 

zafiro1984

Just had a lovely windfall, We decided to deal with the ash trees  taken down last summer, they were tall. It has taken Dh and myself 4 weeks to log and put them under cover.  I'm really happy as the log barn/store was heading towards being empty with just enough dry wood to take us to the end of April.

I've been using the woodburner with its attached oven to do most of the cooking over the winter and it has saved us a significant amount of money both on electric and oil so now I've decided it's a no brainer and will use some of the ash over the summer - you can use ash in the green as it's very dense. A Turkish oak is also down but that's a different kettle of fish - the trunk was non-huggable, almost 5' wide. 

Siebrie

A friend came by and asked why our two cherry trees have such weird shapes. It's because they are mainly used for climbing in and hanging hammocks from I cut them accordingly. The birds get most of the cherries.

willow_loulou

Got some more seeds in today and planted up a well established tomato plant I picked up to try and give me a head start. 

My prolific account is doing well, I’m almost up to £19 in there. It’s going towards my holiday so I’m encouraged to check for surveys regularly. 

I’m letting my hair colour grow out to see the amount of grey - it’s an uncomfortable process! But I’ve started using coloured mousse which is cheaper than dye and easy to use - that’s £48 I’ve not had to spend as it’s getting to the point I can’t stand it much longer. Can recommend if you’re trying to do similar. 

2Scratters

@willow_loulou thanks for the mousse tip. I am currently doing ok in keeping my sort of colour as my hair is short and can get 2 hair colours out of 1 pack. Do they do ginger? 
I have saved some seeds from some toms but can't remember which sort. Just need to get them planted and see where we go from there.
Must do a meeting with DH to see what he would like us to grow too.

2 Scratters xx

Bluegreen143

I’m just at the stage (I’m 34) where I have a small amount of grey hairs starting to come through, just the odd one here and there - though my hair is naturally a very dark brown, almost black, and very long, so they tend to be noticeable even though there’s just a few. 

I’m toying with the idea of not dying them and just allowing the process to be totally natural, thinking it’ll be money saving plus use less chemicals… anyone else do the same? 

Only thing is, with almost waist length, wavy, very dark hair I’m wondering if in years to come when I get proper grey streaks, will I start to look a bit like a witch 🙈😂

I suppose if I don’t like it, I can start dying it later on…

joedenise

I decided quite early on that I wasn't going to bother with dying my hair and to go grey naturally.  I too have very dark brown hair.  Even now at the age of 70 I still have quite a lot of dark hair but definitely quite a lot of grey as well.  To be honest it got to the stage that I decided it just didn't look natural with trying to cover the grey (which is all that hair dyes near your own colour is doing really).  I'd say go for it.  As you've said yourself if you don't like it later your can always start dying it then.  Save your money!

Madbat60

Afternoon all.  Just having a break from making a pair of jogging bottoms.  I had a good result finding a new freezer this week.  Ours is more frost than freezing space.    I managed to get it reduced by £120 from an NHS discount site.   I'm happy with that.  

I have long curly hair and I made the decision about 8 years ago to stop dying it.  My hairdresser made me blonde so the grey would blend in, with the use of that purple shampoo.  I love my grey hair.  I've saved a fortune on having it dyed.  I wish I'd never started.  

Madbat60

@Frugaldom that's the sort of thing my DP would do with trees he'd cut down.  At the moment he's building an outdoor cooking station, made entirely from reclaimed wood and pallets.