Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Frugaldom

Good afternoon, hope everyone is having an enjoyable weekend.

Frugal hobbies - hmm.... my line in 'hobbies' seems to have dried up, as life takes over and leaves not much room for anything else. I don't count kitchen dwelling or gardening as hobbies, nor do I count my limited crafting or 'making things', as these are for specific purposes, like gifts or for selling. Hmm... Previously, hobbies involved horses, birdkeeping, pets and writing. Now I'm a bit stumped! I need to make time for a hobby. :eek:

looby-loo_2

Hello everyone, I've just nipped in for 5 mins.

I've got a bad cold and everything is taking twice as long as it should. I should give in but DD1 is home from uni for the weekend and I really wanted to send her back with her favorite chocolate cake and make her favorite Sunday lunch. I wont see her again until after her exams.

I've got a new interest too which is distracting me today. I answered a freecycle add wanting a sewing machine. Turns out the lady renovates them for a charity which sends them abroad so people can make a living for their family. I've found 4 old machines so far and another half in the shed,the loft and from a lady in the village. I've cleaned them up and got them going. One is dated 1911 and another 1932 (there are two like that) and the other is old too. I'm going to try to find some more by asking about at work etc.

looby-loo_2

Prudent I don't see why you can't grow veg in the front garden. Why not mix them in with the flowers? In fact, I read somewhere that certain crops are more successful when dotted about and not planted in rows (only farmers need to plant in rows so they can get their machinery around the crop.) This is because the damaging insects can't see the plants so easily when in amongst other plants. Two years ago I ran out of space and dotted my purple sprouting broccoli all around my allotment. The plants were virtually untouched by caterpillars where as the cabbages planted in rows were covered. This might have been luck or timing but it is worth thinking about. Some plants are quite pretty anyway, so French beans have flowers all summer a long as you keep picking them. Your neighbour might not realise they are veg!

bails

What a great thing to be doing Loobyloo :T

You mean there's life outside MSE? :rotfl:I'm with you Nyk on the hobbies front, my life has been taken over with trying to make or save money! My pets aren't really hobbies, although the pregnant stray will soon turn into one I'm sure I went to the home today to try and get some help with all of our strays (8 of them) and they were fantastic! A guy came out and had a good look around and at the cats and he's coming back next week to catch as many as possible. They also gave me 2 bags of tinned food for them and we can go back for more if we need it. This is a big help as they were literally eating us out of house and home - all my half price supplies that should've lasted months and months are almost gone :eek: I've bought kitten food for the tabby as there wasn't much in the bags but hopefully we can get some more help with that too, as we're now unofficial cat carers.

I now have leek seedlings too, and one basil plant! :j

Anyone know why it seems to have gone so quiet in here? I used to have to try and keep up, now I'm wondering when the next post will appear! Hope everyone's alright and just busy saving money/enjoying life.

looby-loo_2

bails wrote: »

What a great thing to be doing Loobyloo :T

You mean there's life outside MSE? :rotfl:I'm with you Nyk on the hobbies front, my life has been taken over with trying to make or save money! My pets aren't really hobbies, although the pregnant stray will soon turn into one I'm sure I went to the home today to try and get some help with all of our strays (8 of them) and they were fantastic! A guy came out and had a good look around and at the cats and he's coming back next week to catch as many as possible. They also gave me 2 bags of tinned food for them and we can go back for more if we need it. This is a big help as they were literally eating us out of house and home - all my half price supplies that should've lasted months and months are almost gone :eek: I've bought kitten food for the tabby as there wasn't much in the bags but hopefully we can get some more help with that too, as we're now unofficial cat carers.

Hi Bails, Where have all these cats come from? I took in a stray cat from a thread on here 7 weeks ago today! Search 'I have a stray cat' to find it. A week later she had kittens and I do know what you mean by eating you out of house and home. Just wait until the kittens are born - she will eat twice as much! And more!:eek:

You are lucky that someone is willing to help. The RSPCA are hopeless round here but don't get me started on that. There are some kind private rescues though. This is my third litter of kittens (2 x rescue and 1 x accident) so ask if you have any questions.

bails

That's great Looby, thanks for that - we're first-timers so it'll be a steep learning curve An old lady a few doors down was taken into sheltered housing a month or so ago and apparently she used to feed all of these strays - once she was gone they soon found soft-hearted old muggins here Two have adopted us, the pregnant tabby and a black and white one but I'm afraid we were already at our pet limit financially (we have 2 guinea pigs, a cat and a kitten adopted from the home just before Christmas). I'm working on a plan to keep the tabby as she's gorgeous and my two love her but sadly I'll have to send the black and white one with the others I think. She'd be a lovely addition to someone's family, desperate for a bit of love, bless her. As for the kittens, I'm hoping OH's parents might have a couple of them... I'd keep them all if I could afford to my OH does well to accommodate such a softie Broke my heart walking round the home today, always does
Off to read your thread...

System

bails, someone i work with had kittens a few weeks ago (well, her cat had kittens!) she might be selling some of them when they are old enough - she saw an advert from someone wanting a tabby kitten, and they were offering up to £120! i though this was mad, but apparently there are hardly any rescue kittens around here.
maybe i should become a cat breeder!

Might be worth checking kitten demand where you are!

i have new mint, spinach and cress seedlings :Tmy spinach plants are doing the best by far, and they are only in wee pots on my kitchen windowsill

ps - re veg in front garden - go for it, it'll be very 'the good life'!

bails

I agree about the front veg patch (that sounds like a euphemism for something else - sorry, been over on WL19, the boys are so rude over there!:D) - go for it!

TBH JumbleBee, I don't think there'd be any call for that round here as when we got our kitten from the home last year there were 70 looking for homes!! And ideally I'd like them to go to people I know well (like myself :rotfl:). We'll see how many pop out first!

taka

:hello: Hiya folks!

Well my "frugal" hobby (other than a MSE addiction ) doesn't seem to be too frugal at the moment :eek: I love jewellery making but I keep on buying stuff to make things with but not actually getting round to making anything :doh:I'm trying to get stuff together to open an Etsy shop but I have the jewellery equivalent of writers block :mad: Aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!! :rotfl:

Good luck with the cats bails! :happyhear

lyndasharp

Kittens....aaah cute :-) Must not add any more to the menagerie.... actually Flora would hate it, she's not good with other cats.

My main not very frugal hobby is my classic car - though having said that, it's cheaper to run than a modern car. Just been out to a pub for lunch with other classic car owners, spent a whole £5 on food, so it's been a reasonably frugal day!

I also cross stitch, which isn't very cheap when things need framing! Plus I do jewellery making, and have a bad habit of buying beads because they are pretty...