2024 Frugal Living Challenge

AnimalTribe

Thanks for the reminder about wild garlic. I have a very small patch growing in my garden so I'll be able to pick a few leaves. I've also managed to get out into the garden and plant some veg seeds. I've been looking forward to some decent weather for what seems like an age.
Frugaldom - I'm jealous - I would love to see pine martens.

AnimalTribe

Frugaldom You mentioned dandelions - dandelion honey is lovely. I can't find the recipe I used last time but this is similar. I didn't leave any green bits on when I made it though. https://www.practicalfrugality.com/dandelion-honey-recipe/

Katiehound

dandelion honey- there's this recipe. I haven't made it but their Elder flower cordial recipe is spot on.

https://veganonboard.com/vegan-dandelion-honey/

Frugaldom

Dandelion honey I have tried, also honeysuckle flower 'honey'. Somewhere in the deep dark past if the frugal living challenge there is also my attempts at making dandelion cookies. 😊

There's seldom enough time to get on here to catch up. I just seem to have battened down the hatched on spending other than the regular bank debits. I seldom see or use cash. Supermarket shopping is by way of online but it's getting scary looking at prices. We've had it so good for so.long that the escalating prices have really rocked the food budget. Looking around Frugaldom garden force tonight was equally scary as everything is overgrown and nothing sown yet. I'd put in some courgettes seeds and left them uncovered so they got eaten by the mice. I still need top soil for raised beds and a far better composting system. Today, I had 4 tonnes of drainage rock and stone dust delivered to make a start on the muddy access track that leads round the orchard where we planted the £1 fruit bushes and clearance sale trees. Every single fruit bush has survived the winter. 😁

zafiro1984

Gosh it's absolute ages since I've been on MSE, life gets in the way. I'm just sitting here waiting for the doctors to ring with my annual blood sample results. They were supposed to ring 30 mins ago but hopefully they will use the land line as reception on the mobile is non-existent where we live and I know they have a note on their files as this is not the first time it has happened. So sitting here just getting bored I  thought I'd browse and see what's happening on MSE.

I've been trying hard to cut the household bills - the ones I have control over. I've managed to cut the electric by almost half this winter. We only used the heating for an hour before bed and again in the morning when we get up as I hate a cold bathroom. The wood burner was working all day (wood costs nothing just some petrol for the chainsaw) and it has an attached oven so all cooking was done on that as well. Another bonus was not only did I reduce my standing order to the electric company but I've managed to squeeze charging the electric car  on the STO.

DH is quite intolerant of some additives in processed food so I cook from scratch 90% of the time.
I did some calculations on how much it cost to make biscuits and cakes against buying them (I have my own chickens so eggs are practically free). I was surprised at how cheap it was, so recently I've made biscuit dough and freeze it in usable sizes - usually enough for about 10 biscuits - the Mary Berry, 4 egg, traybake mixes I freeze in three separate portions each makes about 8 buns - just enough to have after lunch (any buns left over either go as a treat to the hens/geese or end up the next day covered in custard)

I need to save on the water bill, easier said than done. I've been taking a reading each week to see what the average consumption is - it's settling out about 1.5 cu meters a day - so I need to work at that next.  Life grinds on

 

cw18

zafiro1984 said:

I need to save on the water bill, easier said than done. I've been taking a reading each week to see what the average consumption is - it's settling out about 1.5 cu meters a day - so I need to work at that next.  Life grinds on

 

   How many of you are there?   How many at home full time?
I'm on my own (out at work during the day, but with a second person here for about 30 hours most weekends), and average 32 litres a day !!!  A 6 monthly bill is for about 6 cubic metres.........

zafiro1984

CW18
I can understand your comment 

There are just the two of us plus someone most weekends. However, we do have 16 large animals that eat grass, I have started trying to cut back with the water. I sent DH around all the outside taps and he replaced or mended 5 out of 14, none were leaking badly but hopefully it will make a bit of a difference. I've also got a plan for using the 'left over' water from the animals to use on some plants but I need to find various bits and bobs of equipment, which I'm sure we have somewhere, so I don't end up lifting too much weight. 

nannygladys

Hi ref the water bill. I find I use very little water as there's only me and the majority (by a large amount) of the bill is drainage to and from the property of fresh and grey water and land drainage!!! It's really annoying but it is what it is I suppose. 

Prudent

I live in Scotland and our bills are not metered. This is an advantage if you use a lot, but not so good for light users. There was an above inflation increase this year 8.8 percent. It is billed as part of the council tax which means I tend to look at the figure as part of that overall cost. Just checked my bill and found that I pay £35 a month for water and waste. I am not sure how that compares to other areas of the country.

mama67

Prudent said:

I live in Scotland and our bills are not metered. This is an advantage if you use a lot, but not so good for light users. There was an above inflation increase this year 8.8 percent. It is billed as part of the council tax which means I tend to look at the figure as part of that overall cost. Just checked my bill and found that I pay £35 a month for water and waste. I am not sure how that compares to other areas of the country.

That is good. 

Here in Lincolnshire with Anglian Water we were paying £79 per month unmetered. 

Have recently gone into a meter and it has dropped to £52 without us changing our usage etc.