2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Skibunny40

Quantaqa said:

Hi All, just noticed that my TV Licence DD, due off on Monday, has gone down from £15 a month to £9 75. Has anyone else had this too? Does anyone know why? I've no idea if this is just for this month or will be ongoing. 

This is the same for me. I got a letter through giving me all the monthly DD amounts - can't remember exactly, but after this month at £9.75 it changes to about £14 for another 5 months then back to £15. Can't understand why they change it, but it's not just you!

Frugaldom

Good evening to all. I was going to come here and say happy end of May but time ticked on and I see it's now June, so happy new month!

Mainly garden related work over the past week with plenty more to do. Olio was ok this weekend with bananas, celery, salad and turnip plus the usual cakey bits. No losing weight here, that's for sure. It's waste to waist express direct!

I've managed to gather a whole new wardrobe if tops and jeans from various friends so I'm feeling very lucky to have such lovely people in my life. Truly grateful for how supportive folks are. 

We have been keeping a keen eye open for animal and bird babies and I think wildlife watching must be one of the greatest free pass times ever. Put out food and they will come. I often request items from Olio just to give to the badgers, fixes and pine martens. Nothing gets wasted here as the goats and ponies share any surplus safe veg.

My honeyberry plants now have 2 berries and my cucumber and tomato plants from @Prudent have flowers and tiny fruits starting!

Managed to get to the end of the month without a major grocery shop so June will be another month of use it up as I've battened down the hatches on savings. I'd to fill the car with petrol and now have the insurance due soon, followed by MOT in a couple of months, plus DGD's 21st and a family wedding gift that includes compensation for non-attendance. 

I don't know where all the time goes but to anyone planning anything in their future, do it sooner rather than later as life whizzes by far too quickly. 

Good luck to all our premium bond holders!

kimwp

You sound incredibly organised @Frugaldom!

I got round to netting some of the cherry tree yesterday. I think the pigeons have already had a good go, but I'll hopefully have some when they fully ripen in the autumn. It was supposed to be a six foot tree, but it's more like 15 foot and wide as well.
I've closed the net with clothes pegs, but wondering if they'll degrade with the increased sun exposure, so it might be better to use sewing thread?
There are lots of bunches of cherries on branches that are too high for me to net, it's a bit annoying.

Viking_mfw

Just made dinner in the slow cooker with olio pork, apple and calvados sauce, apples and carrots (all olio) plus the first harvest of sage leaves from our own plant. The plant came from Threave Gardens for anyone up @Frugaldom's way. 

Passing on a plug fitting via the village Facebook group - goodness knows how we ended up with a spare one during the bathroom renovation but we did.

Also listed a couple of children's wooden coat pegs for a couple of pounds. I have a stack of books to pack up and send off to one of the buying apps. Making space and transferring money to the mortgage. 

OH has a cheque from Nationw*de for the fairer share thingy. Trying to pay it in I've discovered all coop branches seem to have vanished. I'll need to send him to the post office to pay it in I think. 

sams247

Viking_mfw said:

Just made dinner in the slow cooker with olio pork, apple and calvados sauce, apples and carrots (all olio) plus the first harvest of sage leaves from our own plant. The plant came from Threave Gardens for anyone up @Frugaldom's way. 

Some people seem to do so well with Olio, my area has mountains of bread and hardly ever anything else.

Viking_mfw

I have a late night sainsburys food waste hero slot so can usually not give away most of it via the app. 

Gem-gem

@Frugaldom!, I'm pleased that you manage to get extra olio to help your four legged friends. DM used to feed badgers and foxes who visited her garden. She used to put the cat food out the her cat used to refuse!
@kimwp, don't blame you for netting your cherry tree. My neighbour has a cherry tree and last year gave it a hard prune. This resulted in my blackcurrant yield halving. I was happy to see flowers on the tree this year. Hopefully my yields will go back up. When I was a child, we had a cherry tree and we were lucky if we got 5% of yield. It was probably more like 1%!
@sams247, my DH has the To Good To Go app and we sometimes have the bakery bag. It is either usually full of doughnuts or white bread. 

Another boot fair done today, £134 profit. My best ever in terms of amount made. 

Viking_mfw

Viking_mfw said:

I have a late night sainsburys food waste hero slot so can usually not give away most of it via the app. 

I should say I distribute as much as possible despite this! Work colleagues, friends, random people in the village....

@Gem-gem I am in awe of your boot fair stamina!
Our red currants are largely protected by a thick mane of goosegrass/ sticky willy (depending on your end of the country,  or I suppose cleavers if you're feeling posh!) which I started leaving until harvest time. I'm not sure I'd know how to encourage it in the first place though!

Quantaqa

Good morning All. @Skibunny40, thanks for the reply re the TV Licence.  It's always helpful knowing it's not just me .

I am up sharp today as I want to get organised for the week ahead.  I've been choked with the cold and was in bed most of yesterday. I did manage to make a lasagne that will do for tonight and tomorrow's dinner.

Food plan for this week:
Monday and Tuesday - Lasagne with a beetroot salad
Wed and Thursday - Lentil Cottage pie
Friday - Quesadillas
Saturday - Chicken fajitas
Sunday - TBD

Lunches - Sandwiches.  I've also got a couple of the free fruit offers from Lidl so today I'll take a cut up Orange with some red grapes as a snack.

I have started using the local Community Fridge.  I am finding this much better than my local Oilo and  TGTG which, in my area, seems to be maily white bread and other baked goods.  The CF has a better selection including some fruit and veg.  During the summer it is suplied by the local Community Garden with fresh veg and fruit so I am looking forward to seeing what that is like.

Frugaldom

@kimwp I don't feel organised in the least. I've only just got round to sowing my veg seeds and have now started clearing out all the surplus plant pots and tree spirals / protectors. These are now sitting at the gate with a 'help yourself' sign and any donations left get put towards animal feed.

High winds and torrential rain here tonight so the water barrels will all be full again tomorrow. This afternoon we did more weeding and bagged up manure to sit at the gate. Tomorrow, weather permitting, will be more decluttering, this time in the barn. It's been done so many times before but the space keeps getting filled back up with 'stuff'.

Soup-making tomorrow, as I've got bits and pieces of veg needing used up and it's always handy for quick lunches or soup & pudding meals. There should also be more rhubarb ready to pick and stew. It's a childminding day so DD will probably bring milk and bread.

Premium bonds results have been published - small win here but it will go straight back into more bonds. One day it would be nice to hear of a big winner from within our midst. Good luck checking the June results. 😊