2024 Frugal Living Challenge

fionaandphil

We've had the same with raspberries this year @AnimalTribe they have gone wild, the rhubarb has been awful.  I'm sure its down to how wet it has been over winter.  Lovely day here in NW and the tomatoes and salad stuff all ripening beautifully so we are having a BBQ and salad for tea

RateTartExtraordinaire

My mum has had raspberries for donkey's years. They are all looking good this year. 
Last year was not great for the fruit which didn't get much rain when it needed it. 

I have a much smaller outdoor area and have mainly pots. So I have a bay tree and some herbs growing but would love to get a fruit tree if I could grow it in a large container. I've got a south facing garden so lots of sun all day. Any suggestions?

I made my own vegan ice cream this week. 
recipe
2 cans of coconut milk 400ml with highest fat content poss. I used a SM own brand version at 85p each.
100 grams of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

It was delicious, has no additives and preservatives, costs less money than the normal vanilla tub I buy which is £3 for 750ml
Only trouble is, it needs using up quicker...which I don't really see as a problem

AnimalTribe

RateTartExtraordinaire Thanks for the ice cream recipe. I've saved it and of course I have raspberries to go with it.

I already have a couple of tins of coconut milk in the house as it's was recommended by one of the dog care charities as a safe alternative to freeze (without any additions) as a doggy ice cream to cool them down - I haven't used it so far this year though as the temperatures never gotten hot enough to need it. I'd never even considered using it to make my own ice cream - duh!

Madbat60

Afternoon all
I've been MIA  but very busily frugaling away.  We are lucky in thd the south east  to have reasonable weather and we've been eating home grown veg for ages.  We have a tomato and cucumber glut at present.  Cucumber chutney is lovely.  We make sauces with the tomatoes and freeze them.  Our strawberries have just about finished along with the potatoes but my green beans have just started.  We're collecting and freezing blackberries at the moment to make wine and jam.  

I much prefer my own bread and we cook everything from scratch.  I don't have much success with Olio, it's all bread around here.  We have an outside cooking stove we use a lot.  Being self-sufficient and frugal is hard work and pretty much a full-time job.  I am very much a 1950's housewife.  I love it.  

Have a good afternoon all.

Prudent

It is indeed hard work being frugal. We haven't had much produce at all this year due to endless rain. Even the plants in the poly tunnel haven't thrived as it was cold at night into early summer. I was feeling a bit discouraged by it all, although I've had bountiful Lidl veg boxes this year. I watched a film last night on rewilding and bio diversity called 'why not Scotland'. I found it inspiring after all the negative climate news and the poor weather this year. It was shown as one of the events at my town's community week. The trailer is on Youtube, but I understand the full film will be on Youtube in September. Well worth a watch to show how we can have a better life using less resources.

However I should probably blush at that last sentence as I have been very unfrugal this month. It is only 7th and I have spent about 90% of my usual monthly spend. Most of the things were necessary purchases. Today was a definite mistake though. I last purchased picnic plates when I had a touring caravan in the mid 90s. We have quite a few visitors coming on Saturday and I don't have enough space to seat them all for a meal so I am doing a buffet. I decided it would be safer to give the young children picnic plates and bowls. I have been moaning we are low on them so ordered more. When they arrived I decided to tidy out the bottom cupboards in my dresser before putting them away. Of course I found the missing items at the back...I had already crushed the box into the recycle bin so I can't return them. I just hope we get some picnic weather now.





 

AnimalTribe

Ah Prudent it's always the way. You look for something for ages and finally have to give in and buy a replacement. As soon as you have the replacement in hand the original item magically appears right in front of you. It happens to me on occasion too.
I've had a good morning and managed to complete a food cupboard stock take. I'm not even going to try to check the freezer as it's full to bursting and if I take stuff out I'm unlikely to be able to shoehorn everything in again. I'm trying to use up what's in the house before buying more stuff (especially trying to get to the bottom of the freezer). It's an uphill struggle though as DH can't resist a bargain and as soon as I get a bit of free space he fills it up.

Prudent

Just wondering how everyone is getting on with their frugal year? 

I have just updated my signature to reflect some crafting spending. I haven't needed to buy a lot this year so I had reduced it earlier in the year to move some money to the car budget. I have made a few charity shop purchases in the last couple of weeks. The first was some lace trim (50p) and a couple of reels of sewing thread (50p). I am mainly a quilter and bag maker and I enjoy textile art. I saw a bargain yesterday though that was too good to pass. A local charity shop had a large amount of 100% wool high quality tartan in shades of blues and greens on a bolt for £10. I have never worked with tartan before but at that price I felt it was worth a go. Google tells me this kind of product usually sells for around £85 a metre and a rough measure of it tells me there is just over six metres. I like to contribute to a local Christmas fundraising craft sale in November so I will use some of it to make items for that.

My other spending all seems to be on target. I am having a break in Pitlochry for a week in September The cottage is free through the respitality scheme (a respite scheme for unpaid carers). I haven't spent much on family visits this year due to catching covid when they were planned and delayed house moves for family members. I am having a break in October to finally catch up with them. I won't see one of my sisters then so I might plan a break in December to see her if my health is good enough. They all live quite a distance from me which means I need to be well enough to travel. I will leave this budget how it is an update after the visits.

Food is still coming in a bit under budget thanks to the local community shop and numerous Lidl £1.50 fruit and veg boxes. I am moving any surplus to the gas and electricity account as OH has now lost his pension age winter fuel allowance. 

weenancyinAmerica

@Prudent - do you make teddy bears? Tartan bears might be interesting to try.

Prudent

weenancyinAmerica said:

@Prudent - do you make teddy bears? Tartan bears might be interesting to try.

That is a really good suggestion, thank you. I have never made a teddy bear but have made other stuffed animals such as bunnies and mice. Now you have me thinking....

florianatwobob

Prudent said:

weenancyinAmerica said:

@Prudent - do you make teddy bears? Tartan bears might be interesting to try.

That is a really good suggestion, thank you. I have never made a teddy bear but have made other stuffed animals such as bunnies and mice. Now you have me thinking....

I have a bear made from Harris Tweed. He’s very smart and I think a tartan ted would be equally smart.