2025 Frugal Living Challenge

fionaandphil

Hi, all, just popping in to say have you tried Auto Aid for car breakdown cover? Its about £60 for the year and covers you and DH/partner and covers homestart as well as breakdown and recovery.  Ours was tested a few years ago when we had an intermittent electrical fault and they had to keep coming out.  Always very quick to arrive, they send a local recovery company and keep you updated on when they will be there.  I think there may be a link for a discounted price on MSE which keeps the cost down

Quantaqa

Thanks @fionaandphil, I'll have a look at Auto Aid.

I am going to try and post on here daily in an attempt to stay focussed and accountable.  I am off work today and the weather is glorious so I am making best use of my washing line.  First load of washing done and hung out and a second load will be in shortly.  I also want to get winter coats/hats/gloves done and then put away until later in the year.  

This afternoon I'm going to:
*  Wash the car and do a quick hoover and dust inside as well.  It is really badly needing done, there is alot of dust settled on the outside due to it being so dry I think.  
* Do a bit of baking for snacks to take to work for the week ahead - the old favourite Chocolate brownies, some cookies and maybe rock cakes.

Then I'm going to just relax and enjoy the sunshine and make a start on my library book

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone and thank you for all your interesting posts. 

@Quantaqa, my car badly needs a wash / clean out. I thought about doing it yesterday but as I'm doing another BF tomorrow I decided that I was probably wasting my time and may do it tomorrow after the BF. What library book are you reading?

Picked up some ood eggs from my DM and added them to a jar of ood mincemeat) also from my DM) and made a Mary Berry fast Christmas cake (fruit cake) and a Victoria sponge. In the middle of the VS I placed in hm blackcurrant curd. We took some of the VS to a quiz and shared it out with our team mate during a half time break.
I took my sewing with me to the quiz. I got more done than I thought I would. I did the scoring for the quiz, which resulted in me having a free night out. 
Spent the morning finishing off a book 😀 it can now be returned to the library. I now only have two library books left. One is a paperback (Mandy Robotham) and I take this out with me. The other is a hardback (David Baldacci) so this will be read at home. 
Made more cards today, hoping to sell them tomorrow. 

Quantaqa

Hi @Gem-gem, I'm reading The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris.  I've never read her books before but I love the film Chocolat and this book is part of a 'chocolat' series, which I did not know before I started the book.  I am really enjoying it though so I think it works well on it's own.  I've ordered the new book 'Vianne' from the library as well.

All my plans for Friday went well, I got cookies and choc browinies made,  2 loads of washing dried and the house tidied a bit.  Today I still have the car to do which will be my next job and lots of ironing.  The winter coats have been washed and are out on the line drying now, along wth my swimming stuff as I had a refreshing swim this morning.

Gem-gem

@Quantaqa, DH and I have just finished washing the car. We had to use some elbow crease getting the bird poo off. I have also damp washed the inside. Vacuuming the inside will have to wait for another day Always pleased to save money. 

Was up at 5am, to put the dinner into the slow cooker before I went and did a BF. £109 profit made.

Dinner was Harissa chicken with butternut squash couscous, followed by apple and blackberry crumble. 

After dinner, I washed the kitchen floor and then sat down and watched an episode of Foyles War.
Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday and enjoying the weather. 

Frugaldom

Good evening, late night catch up from here. Weekend was spent laying in a path so we could wheel a barrow down to the burn to collect buckets of water as it's near drought conditions at the Frugaldom project. Being totally off-grid means no running water and all the rain barrels and tanks are running dry. Local aggregates merchant brought us about 4 tonnes of free stone & dirt at a delivery cost of £40 so that for the path and some drainage pipe meant an impromptu whip round (fundraiser), which brought in enough to cover those costs. Everything else needed, we already had. Now got plenty of water for animals and for the plants.

Olio included loads of bananas, scotch pies and a pizza plus some baked goods and milk. That saw us over the weekend plus tomorrow's meals. Our weekend visitor kindly brought me some sugar so I'll stew some more rhubarb and get it into the freezer.

Homemade laundry cleaner is still lasting but I'd to buy washing up liquid and hand wash plus wet wipes as gardening, animal care and no running water means compensating and compromising on the budget.

Keep up the good work everyone, this prolonged hit, dry spell won't last forever and it's almost warm enough at nights for the seedlings to go out. I've found a place for my sprouts and kale.

fionaandphil

It doesn't seem so long ago that we were all moaning about how wet it was and now we are all having to find water to keep everything going!  Our water butts are still going but not sure for how long, we have started saving water for hand washing to water the apple try, it is looking a bit dehyrdrated.  On the plus side, the washing is drying quickly and I have tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and peppers growing nicely in the greenshouse. 

Money wise, we are eating from freezers and have stared using the greenhouse lettuce for salads.  I think we are a while off from greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers but I'm sure we will have a glut at some point.

Hope you are all well and enjoying this summer weather.

mama67

We had a nice shower last night so only have to water the plants I repotted earlier. 

I still have wild garlic leave & flowers available and mint; and my first cut & come again salad leaves have been picked tonight. 

I have been planting chitters potato peelings so hopefully they will produce some even if not many potatoes. 

Not really growing anything else this year as the garden is a work in progress. 

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
We have also started to eat our 'pick again' lettuce. Along with the rocket, hopefully we won't have to buy any lettuce till late autumn. 

DH and I are away for a few days. We were going to stay in Norfolk but then decided to go to my DM's bungalow in Sussex as this should be the last year / summer that we will have access to free accommodation by the sea. (It is up for sale). 

We are going to make the most of it and come down for mini breaks. It only costs £25 for petrol. We have bought our breakfast, milk, fruit and cake with us. We have eaten out each night as there is a restaurant nearby that does three course for £10 on a Monday and two courses on a Tuesday for £12 (fillet steak is on the menu). Our dinner food and drink bill has come out at £75 for the three nights. Lunch and tea / coffee bill is £23. Three night break away - total £123 for the two of us. Norfolk would have cost between £600-700. So a good saving. 

Today we visit a farm shop that has a good butchery section, stocked up on different sausages all without sulphites - all made with only real ingredients. Our lunch - Cornish pasty had real chunky beef in it. It also has a cider shop - where they stock lots of different boxed ciders and perries from Kent, Sussex, Herefordshire, Somerset etc you can take your recycled containers and fill up with the draft drinks. They also sell their own milk, butter and cheese. It is called Middle Farm. It is on the A27 near Lewes. You can also visit the farm animals, buy animal feed and lots of other stuff. I so wish that we lived near it. My DM's place is half an hour drive from there (off peak).
We also visited Lewes. It has lots of interesting shops including Harvey's brewery shop - good to support the local business - cut out the middle man - supermarkets! 

Yesterday, we went for a walk - it was very hilly in places. The views were amazing. The weather has been amazing too. 

joedenise

Sounds like you had a good time.  Where about in Sussex did you go and can I ask what restaurant it was?  Those are such good value meals and I never see anything like that when we go away so usually end up in somewhere like W'spoons to get a cheap meal.

We have a motorhome and sometimes visit places in Sussex as it's not too far from us as we live in Kent but certainly never found anywhere that cheap to eat!