Frugaldom in 2023

 

Frugal living brought us to Frugaldom - you can read previous blogs from over the years to follow the routes we took to get here, plus read more about the narrow path of frugality on which we remain today, in order to further improve what has already been achieved.

    The land of Frugaldom has an Animal Welfare Establishment licence, enabling us to give sanctuary to various ponies, goats and other animals while we tend to their needs and prepare to move certain ones on into permanent homes.If you could give a good, knowledgeable home to a pony then why not consider joining us as a sponsor or becoming a foster carer.

    Our yard area, in front of the barn, became a campervan stopover aire.Being totallyoff-grid,we offer nothing more than overnight parking in exchange for a donation. With the help of 'WC in Fields' we incorporated a waste water disposal facility, for use of which there's a £5.00 charge to help cover the service charges.

    Next, we completed the centrally located hut and it has served us well as a place to retreat during inclement weather. We often hide out in there for a cuppa with friends, family and our visiting volunteers who come to help plant trees to create a new woodland. So successful has the hut been that we have now applied for planning permission to build two more smaller huts that will allow the members of our extended Frugaldom family to opportunity to stay on site. Everything is off-grid so it's very much a case of getting right back to basics. We have portable solar for lights, a log burner for heat, a camping style gas stove for cooking indoors and a brazier / BBQ made from a washing maschine drum that gets used regularly outdoors.

    That about brings us up to date, other than telling you about the gypsy bowtop wagon. It arrived at Frugaldom after last year's Appleby Horse Fair, pulled by a lovely little horse named Tommy. A second wagon, drawn by the massive horse named Oddball, has stayed at Frugaldom on a couple of occasions in the past but this time, both wagons came in and only one went back out again, with Oddbal and Tommy leaving side by side. I don't know if this wagon will be heading back out on the road any time soon but for now, it's parked up and gets used where it is. Friends have camped out in it a number of times and will be again, during this year's tree planting. If anyone wants to plant some trees or coppice some willows to help expand our Legacy Woodland project, please get in contact. 

    Finances - we cannot have a full year's round-up without mentioning the moneysaving and frugal living endeavours, can we? Life has continued with my personal 'Living on £4,000 for a year' challenge, as has the '£1 per person per day for all meals'. The budget still works for the necessities but for groceries, it's mostly manageable thanks to sites and apps like Olioex.com and to the continuing efforts at homegrown fruit, vegetabls and herbs, plus the usual love of soup and porridge.

    I continue to run the frugal living challenge on moneysavingexpert.com, within their forums section. Check out the 2023 Frugal Living Challenge for yourself and feel free to join us online.

   We still have the holiday caravan for rent throughout the season on the basis that you bring everything you need, including bedding and linen, and leave the caravan exactly as you found it.

    And now for the fundraising part - we currently have 9 ponies, 2 goats, a small flock of hens and ducks, and two guinea pigs. We have much work to do just to keep this lot so we are unable to take on any more anmals at this time. We have fences needing repaired, the barn roof has sprung a leak, the goats need a proper house and the 'tree shelter' is in need of a major overhaul. The drive needs all the potholes filling in, there's more drainage needed and it's a fulltime job looking after the animals so all help is welcome and any contributions hugely appreciated. I set up a page specifically for friends, family and others sending contributions - it can be found at www.ko-fi.com/Frugaldom - so please take a look and consider becoming Friends of Frugaldom. 

    Finally, I will be trying to bring this blog back up to date while also transferring a few of the older files onto the Frugaldom.com website, which has a blog feature for the Frugaldom project itself. I'd like to reserve this blog for the actual nitty gritty, penny-pinching, budget-stretching, off-grid and frugal living topics.