Blogging on a Mobile

I've been away from frugal blogging for almost a year so need to apologise for spending too much time updating social media and not enough time writing. Sorry for my prolonged absence, I sincerely hope thee are still a few followers remaining here.  

So much has happened over the past year that I'm not sure where to start. I guess the biggest achievement, for Frugaldom, was succeeding in having two more huts built, making a total of three. The hut building has certainly been the most expensive aspect of the entire frugal living, frugal working, frugal freedom project, meaning that we can now have friends and family come to stay at Frugaldom. The huts were completed last summer and should have been funded by those looking to get involved in what's known as hutting - living off grid in nature rather than hopping on a plane and heading overseas during holidays or even weekends. In the grand scheme of things, we will never need to pay for another caravan, campsite or far flung travel expenses - we are happy to spend every minute of our free time at Frugaldom. 

The yard was extended to accommodate campervans or motorhomes and the paddock has been edged in flowers and fruit trees.

Through the gate leads to Vincent’s enclosure and then round to the pond and pony tracks. The plan is to create a haven for wildlife and for the animals that find their way here in search of sanctuary. We currently have 1 goat, 8 ponies, 4 cats, several badgers, fox and pine marten. It costs a small fortune to keep and feed everything but as always, my sums are done around minimum wage, anything more than that needs to be raised creatively. Between running 'Friends of Frugaldom', which is our subscriber based support group and occasional sales of commissioned ecoarts sculptures, we can manage to run the various frugal budget projects and for anything else, we fundraise among friends and followers. Without our fabulous, loyal and generous supporters, we would not have been able to take on the rescued animals or maintain our sanctuary licence. 

Without the Olio food heroes supplying us with surplus vegetables, fruit and other foodstuffs I would never be able to maintain such a low grocery budget.  (Please consider signing up to the Olio app to help cut food waste.)

Often, when we have volunteers or campervan nets visiting, there is enough food to feed us all for a weekend. Meals are very varied, regularly meat free and always frugal. Cakes and pastries, bread and rolls aren't rare so it now looks like I am pursuing a waste to waist personal challenge!

On the savings front, those are still being drip fed with the best rate I could find being 5.1% for regular savings in the Bank of Scotland. I am also still sticking with Premium Bonds, with these still coming out tops on the return on investment. I have been lucky recently and have awarded myself £100 to spruce up the wildlife pond.

New tax year, new challenges - follow along to have some frugal fun.

Back soon with a new blog post,

Susan at Frugaldom