Crispy Critturs - the next big thing?

The basis of this article that's buzzing around is absolute truth and I am following the story with great interest, mainly for the following reasons: 

• I'm a fan of frugal living

• I recycle everything I can

• I am always interested in affordable protein sources

• I keep poultry

• I am an avid supporter of frugaleurs (frugal entrepreneurs)

Crispy Critturs - the next big thing?

… According to World Poultry, "For direct human consumption, insects are governed by novel food regulation in Europe, but the researchers say insects are unlikely to require pre-market safety assessment, as many non-EU countries have already demonstrated a history of safe use..." - See more here

Another Frugal Soup Recipe for 2012

It's all over for another year - Christmas has been and gone, Hogmanay has been and gone, New Year has been and gone. We're now marching boldly into 2012, ready to do battle with whatever life throws at us and hopeful of grabbing any new opportunities that may present themselves along the way.

There was no winter snow over the festive week, instead, we had wind and rain with the odd smattering of sleat and hailstones. Occasionally, a glimmer of sunhine managed to sneak through the clouds. Sadly, we lost a 'runty duckling' that prefered to stay in the pond than seek shelted from the torrential dowpours, but the rest of the Frugaldom menagerie seems happy enough. The cat loves her new toys and the rabbit has been out for a run about the garden to work off all the extra carrot peelings she managed to consume over Christmas.

The breadmaker had been playing up for quite some time; it had lost all the little washers from between it's baking pan and the mixing blade which, itself, was almost worn out. Everything was crossed that it would see us through Christmas. As (good) luck would have it, mum had passed her's on to one of my sisters who had ended up putting it into her attic, so a quick phone call of pleasantries and pleading - OK, I simply asked her - meant she had time to fish the breadmaker from the attic and bring it on her trip to the family get together.

Despite it being a few years old, this machine is in almost new condition, as neither of its previous owners seemed to enjoy (or have time for) breadmaking. I think I won out on this, as it's now safely ensconced in my kitchen, replacing my old one. The old one, however, hasn't been thrown out, as it does still work! It might come in useful sometime in the future, or may even find itself with a shiny new baking pan and mixing blade.

Two loaves are better than one, apparently, as the 'new' machine makes two tiny loaves simultaneously. The settings allow for different types of mix to be used in each pan, so we can have white and wholemeal or cake and bread baking at the same time. Right now, I have a couple of bananas needing used up, so I'll probably do a wholemeal loaf alongside banana bread tomorrow morning.

The post-festive period is a great time for using up leftovers. Let's face it, most of us have them around this time of year, whether it's turkey from Christmas or steak pie, gammon or roast beef from New Year. I used half the stuffed turkey breast for Christmas day, so the other half went into the freezer, cooked. I had pheasants in the freezer, so one of them got cooked up with all the trimmings and served with puff pastry in suitable pie-like passion on New Year's Day. The cat is happy, as she has had all the extra meat chopped into catfood-sized nuggets and then everything else that remained of the fine bird went into my slow cooker.

Cue another one of those rather 'interesting' Frugaldom soup tales...

GAME AND TOMATO BROTH

Everything remaining from the pheasant went into the big crock pot in the slow cooker, along with a couple of onions and the leftover potatoes. This was set on the timer to simmer for a few hours overnight. At the same time, I rinsed off a 500g pack of broth mix and a cupful of butter beans, then left them soaking in cold water overnight.

In the morning, the stock was strained and then returned to the slow cooker, along with the broth mix, butter beans and half a carton of passata that I had lurking in the fridge. (I buy store's own 'basic' passata, as it's cheaper than tins of chopped tomatoes and works well as a base for turning the end slices of homemade bread into frugal, speedy pizzas.) Season the soup with salt & pepper, then leave to simmer until all the beans, peas, lentils and barley are tender.

That's it, that's the frugal game soup of the day and it works equally well using a shin of beef, although this would add to your costs by around 65p.

The pheasant cost me nothing, as I had traded for a brace through our LETS group, so stock from leftovers is an extra bonus, as we'd already had the bird for New Year's dinner. The broth mix and butter beans had been on special offer last year, when I made a bulk purchase, so I reckon they cost me no more than 50p in total. If I recall correctly, the cheap passata costs 23p and I'd already used half of it for lunchtime pizzas. The onions and  potatoes were leftovers from New Year's dinner and they were all homegrown, so I don't bother counting them. At a rough estimate, I got 4.5 litres of soup for no more than 73p plus the cooking time (20p).

I'd say 20 portions of soup for 93p was a fairly frugal meal, wouldn't you?

Looking forward to getting back into the frugaling spirit this year, with plenty of new projects and challenges. Don't forget you can follow the day to day activities of frugal living in our frugaldom forums, where the brand new 2012 Frugal Living Challenge has just begun.

NYK Media

http://www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Contemplating Self Sufficiency in the 21st Century

Self Sufficiency in 21st Century - Can it be achieved?

How could it possibly be made to work from an ordinary house with an ordinary garden? My answer to this isn't smallholding, it's microholding! We haven't any land for grazing livestock or cultivating orchards but we do have a garden and that's enough to be going on with for now.

Self-sufficiency needn't exclude generating cash, it just means gainful employment and state benefits don't count. Being self employed means we need to earn sufficient money to pay bills, taxes, National Insurance, overheads, running costs and day to day living expenses.  Self sufficiency is simply the term we use to mean personally sufficient in all our needs, bill paying included. The lower the overheads, the less need to worry about how to generate sufficient cash to survive. Understanding the overheads is paramount to success, as is fully comprehending the differences between needs and wants. At this precise moment in time, we are entirely self-sufficient on the financial front but not in the homegrown produce department. The proof that it could be done is something I have always wanted to witness.

The following is a breakdown of the estimated amount we, as a household of two adults, would NEED in order to survive until such times as the microholding was working to its fullest potential. As an ordinary household, rearing livestock is out, but there's still space for poultry.

Groceries £600.00

Toiletries £35.00
Cleaning £10.00
Electricity £450.00 - £1 per day plus standing charge
Coal £115.00 - multifuel stove for hot water, heat, cooking
Logs £200.00 - multifuel stove for hot water, heat, cooking
Internet £216 including phone calles
Mobiles £0.00 - no mobiles
Telephone £144 - line rental
TV Licence £0.00 - no TV, it isn't an essential
Clothing & footwear £40.00
Gifts £0.00 - homemade
Extras £70.00
Travel £180.00
Household Insurance £45.00
Other insurance - £360.00 - 2 lots
Livestock £350.00
National Insurance £250.00 - 2 lots
Council Tax £935.00 - no water rates as no water mains, reservoir fed
TOTAL - £4,000.00

Although a TV is not an essential, the telephone and Internet access are. These are your basic contact networks with the outside world, a source of income, advertising, marketing and PR. Most of all, it's the quickest way of keeping in contact with what's happening in the world of finance - where you can source the best bargains and really work your money. The above scenario assumes that you own your own home outright - no mortgage, no rent. Between two people, it's only £5.47 per person, per day that needs to be earned in order to survive. If you have rent or a mortgage, add that in, too.

But move on from that for now, we're still preparing the microholding. We need to grow fruit and vegetables as well as have fresh eggs. Cheap Fruit Bushes - Aldi special offer was 3 for £2.49 in February 2010, so that's at least a dozen fruit bushes for under £10. I set aside a tenner.

I was still mulling over the incubator conundrum for quail egg hatching and had decided to sell 2 of the 3 portables and invest in a more substantial one. Promptly listed them on eBid and sold the first one overnight. Result!

The usual chores get done on a daily basis - sorting out the fire, stocking up the kindling (cones and sticks), chopping logs, breadmaking, laundry, seeing to the feathered friends and stopping for coffee whenever a visitor arrives. Rural living doesn't need to mean being anti-social, there are always friends and nearby neighbours who'll visit.

Reducing the overheads pound by pound or penny by penny - whatever it takes - do it. Managed to shave £2 per month off the Internet and got all standard telephone calls included, an overall annual saving of around £115.00 by the time the BT online paperfree billing discount and free calls were taken into consideration.

Dug up a few more potatoes that had survived the winter frosts, food is food, waste not, want not. The garden wasn't looking too productive at the start of the year. The coal bunker was almost empty - we were down to the dross, but the log store was full. By the end of January, there was £3641.19 left of the household budget. £210 of the £358.81 spent had gone into the electricity meter! February arrived with sub-zero temperatures.

Despite the frozen ground, we pushed on at getting the new raised bed completed in the front garden. The railway sleepers allowed for 64 square feet but I wanted 16 of those squares to form a path along the middle, so every square was easy to reach. Filled up both sides with compost and molehill soil. The hens and ducks had a great time helping by scratching and pecking, so they got left to do the job of breaking up the clumps of frozen soil.

Aldi fruit bushes came on special offer. Remained strong, though, and only bought the 4 packs of 3, as planned. Managed to get:

2 x Tayberries
4 x Raspberries
2 x Gooseberries
1 x Redcurrant
3 x Blackcurrant

On the 5th of February, I noticed that the first of the tomato and pepper seeds had germinated and popped their heads through the soil in their pots on the kitchen windowsill! That same day, the postman delivered the 2 free packs of Allinson's baking yeast, so it was a good start to the day. Dry weather meant getting into the garden so preparations were underway for getting the new fruit bushes planted.

Indoor jobs included the making of more marmalade, in order to use up some oranges and limes that I'd traded for via LETS, some kidney bean pate and a game/veg pie.

Bean Pate Recipe
Kidney beans

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic. crushed

Teaspoon Chilli - finely chopped or powdered

Teaspoon Paprika

Lightly fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil then blitz everything in a blender. It's so easy to make that you can adapt the recipe to suit your own taste. Seems to keep fine in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

The incubator was ready to set half a dozen Silkie and Pekin eggs. Wasn't 100% sure which were which, so set half a dozen.

I started a rag rug using an old hessian peanut sack and strips of material from a bag of scraps. Was full of great intentions until I got bored with it! I'm not very good at sitting still for any length of time and, apart from that, the weather had taken a peculiar turn - I ended up getting sunburned on 6th February.

We managed to get a much larger growing area dug in the furthest corner plus the fruit bushes got planted - all 21 of them from what was supposed to be 12. Last year's fruit bushes got fenced in to safeguard them from ducks, the new square foot garden got topped up with more compost and we discovered a few more potatoes that had been missed. Got a couple more meals out of them. The following day, the raised bed/square foot garden got fenced and a gate fitted. It's the only way to keep the feathered marauders from demolishing whatever gets planted.

Took some time out to go over the 2007 challenge notes to see if there were any glaring differences and there's an entry about seeing the first bumble bee of the year - in February! There's also a note saying that cigarettes were £4.29 per 20. Same brand now is £5.30 That's a 23.5% increase! If only I'd invested heavily in cigarettes, I could have made a small fortune! Are there sell by dates on them? No!

By the 9th February, we were getting 9 hours of daylight, almost two thirds of the way to the magical 14 hours that the birds need for optimum laying. Still weren't getting many eggs at that point but it was enough to avoid the need for buying them. It was also sufficient to keep the lemon curd production line operational. Soup making was at its peak, to the point that I needed to increase production to keep up with demand. Managed to find a 6 litre slow cooker for under £20 including delivery - excellent!

Despite the continuing sub-zero temperatures, the sun kept shining that week, enough for line drying laundry, which was great. By the 11th, it was -7C This was good for emptying the contents of the freezer to reorganise it, not so good for digging a duck pond! By the 13th, we saw the arrival of the first lamb in the fields adjoining Frugaldom.

13th also brought news of Aldi's fruit tree offer - cue more cheap trees! Keeping control of a strict budget is difficult but fruit trees at under £5 each is fantastic! Perhaps it's safest not to know about these bargains; what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over, and all that. Then again, look to the future and all that extra potential for homegrown apples, pears, plums and cherries.

Still spending £30 a week on electricity while trying to keep the place from freezing, but the budget is being adhered to; if money gets spent on anything outside of the basic household budget, it has to come from residual income - egg related sales, commissions, eBid, winnings and bank interest payments on existing savings. With luck, there would be a few more chicks hatching soon.

Join us in the fun, frugal forum at
http://www.frugaldom.co.uk/

Life in Frugaldom: Catching up - 15th to 28th Jan 2010

The day of reckoning was upon us! The washing was done, there was a pineapple upside down cake in the oven, the biscuits were baked and I'd to wait for S2BN (soon-to-be-neighbour) getting back from town before the deed could be done - the preparing of the two brace of pheasants. I'd already printed off step by step instructions and S2BN had been watching YouTube videos of people making it look easy. Not going to go into detail on here but, suffice to say, the plucking was easier than I'd expected - despite the giggles! I slow cooked the four birds overnight, adding red wine, garlic and brown sugar for flavour. Thoroughly enjoyed the end result, although the other occupants of this frugal household weren't so keen. I didn't bother telling them that the broth was game soup or what was in the pies or casseroles from that day forward.

Went to a birthday lunch on the 17th, most enjoyable. Arrived home laden with leftovers of cake and trifle. The weather was dry and bright, so we got outside afterwards and spent an hour or so tidying the greenhouse, preparing seed trays and looking out the vegetable seeds.

After the fog cleared away on the 18th, most of the outdoor time was spent trying to clear up the aftermath of the mole-duck-hen wars. Then I managed to rescue a sole survivor, in the shape of a lonesome lettuce, from the big, covered tub by the back door. (Except it was no longer covered - ducks had demolished it!) It got emptied, refilled, more seeds sown and moved into the greenhouse. It was surprisingly warm in the sunshine! 18C in the greenhouse!

There were no parsnips planted here in 2009, so I was down to the last of the leeks, turnips and carrots in the winter veg beds. Aiming for more leeks, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, beans, and beetroot in 2010. The garlic has already sprouted through the frozen soil!

Bailey, the pheasant, was still with us, perfectly happy to eat, drink and socialise with the hens alongside. He got a newly revamped run with solid brick base that shouldn't let anything burrow in or out - Bailey bird seems to think he's a chicken!

By the 20th, it was pouring rain again, but there was a bit of excitement. People were starting to view the empty property next door! It'll be nice to see some life about the place, I only hope they've done their homework properly and can embrace frugal life by bartering with the neighbours.

Progress in revamping the kitchen was slow. I wanted to create a mini-farmhouse kitchen, complete with pot belly stove, but what I had was a shambles that sent a chill through your bones in the winter mornings.

Finished picking the last of the leeks and got them into the freezer - another item I won't need to buy in 2010 - then baked several carrot and sultana loaves to help reduce carrot mountain. The winds were howling by then, so candles were at the ready, along with some quick-fix snacks and flasks of boiling water, just in case of power cuts . More baking - gluten free loaves, to make a start using up the 10p bargain packs I'd bulk bought. First lot turned out like bricks, might make good fuel for the fire!

Laundry detergent getting low, so had to make another batch of that:

5 litres water
1 cup washing soda
1 bar of soap (or equivalent)

Few drops of essential oils - I like tea tree & lavender

Made 15 litres of the stuff, added some blue dye to half of it so it, hopefully, would make whites whiter. It should last for a good few months. Can't remember last time I bought laundry detergent. Cheated on the essential oils by using natural soap with lavender and tea tree oil added - makes it anti-bacterial and it smells nice.

22nd January - dragged a big wooden workbench frame from the garage, cleaned it up, then added an old piece of kitchen worktop. Re-jigging of the Frugaldon kitchen was now in progress. The charity shop bought stand was looking quite good once it was cleaned up and filled. Meanwhile, H had to do emergency repairs outside after last night's storm - replacing collapsed fencing, mending and pinning everything down with the surplus bricks from next door's messy corner. Share and share alike in Frugaldom, that's the number one rule of living here.

23rd January - Hens and ducks fed & watered, paths swept, new kitchen space admired and breakfast made. Attempted to make some 'elixir' for adding to the poultry water feeders: surely that would help encourage more egg laying.

ELIXIR
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup honey
8 cloves garlic

Blend for 60 seconds, pour mixture into a glass container, seal and leave in the frige for five days. Normal dosage is 1 to 2 teaspoonsful in a glass of water or fruit juice before breakfast for humans. Guess a tablespoonful will be enough in each hen water feeder. Hoped the duck eggs wouldn't taste of garlic!

Met up with S2BN for a cuppa and traded off some gherkins in exchange for a large jar of pickled beetroot. Next job was thinning out all the cookery books that I'd acquired, traded them out, too. Planted up a pot of mixed herb seeds, recycled a box of glass jars, started making a trifle and fitted in a two hour walk to take photographs. Between clearing out jam jars and having the walk, met landlord and had rewarding chat - got permission, at long last, to install the woodburner into the kitchen. CELEBRATING! (Elderflower 'champagne', anyone?)

The price of washing-up liquid had been annoying me, so an attempt was made at a DIY variety:

Washing Up Liquid

3 x litres boiling water
6 x drops tea tree or lime or lavender essential oil (or just use lemon or lime juice!)
1 x heaped tablespoon soap flakes
1 x heaped tablespoon of soda crystals
1 x tablespoon white vinegar

I grated a bar of my 'natural soap with teatree and lavender extract' to make the soap flakes. On measuring it, there's enough to make 8 lots of the above... 24 litres! My recipe worked out at the following prices:

Soap flakes - 33p (8 heaped tablespoons)
Tea tree - already in the soap flakes
Lavender - already in the soap flakes
Soda crystals - 16p (8 heaped tablespoons)
Vinegar - 8p (8 tablespoons)

TOTAL = £0.57 for 24 litres

Can you believe that? I couldn't!  Homemade, own variety eco-friendly washing up liquid for less than 3p per litre when shop bought stuff costs about 98p per litre! Awesome frugalicious find! I will never again buy W.U.L.! (Or so I thought!)

24th January - Whole list of stuff added to the 'to do' list while waiting for the porridge to cook. Ive been baking regularly - bread, biscuits, macaroons etc. Found time to start researching logburners and multifuel stoves and also managed to get several hundred single sachets of sugar split and emptied into a tub. A friend rehomed them this direction from a cafe closing down clearance. Counted out the £2 coins stash - £100 exactly! A good start to the stove fund.

Made a list of products I should no longer need to buy in 2010. It currently stands at:

Eggs
Pasta
Bread
Biscuits
Cakes
Jam
Lemon curd
Jelly (preserves)
Pickles & chutney
Laundry detergent
Washing up liquid
Greetings cards
Kindling for the fire

The longer the list grows, the less I need to spend. The less I need to spend, the more I can afford. Every penny saved is a penny earned and put in the bank for the longterm. 'Project logburner' was well and truly underway with every penny (and £2 coin) counted.

25th January: Happy Birthday, Rabbie!  Burn's night was a chilly affair. Temperatures had plummeted and everything had frozen solid, back to defrosting everything and thawing out drinkers, feeders and door catches at dawn. Indoor work seemed more appealing, so the freebie sewing machine got set up, the pinny got mended and then a curtain made for hiding the wooden work stand that now graced the Frugaldom kitchen. I couldn't fix the broken dial for setting the stitch type, but I was able to turn the spindle with a pair of pliers. This was the only reason someone wanted to discard this machine to landfill!

An electrician called, so the faulty light fittings have been repaired and he'll call back as soon as a date has been arranged with landlord for the removal of the broken storage heater in the kitchen. That will, at last, make way for the new stove. Electricity spending was standing at anything between between £30 and £50 per week plus the cost of coal & logs for the open fire.

Did I mention we had a psychotic Silkie? Dear little Captain Cornflake had grown up and turned into a grumpy psycho-cockerel that hated the mere sight of moi! He'd taken to sitting behind things, just waiting for me to appear, then he'd pounce - all fluffy feathers, beak and spurs!! Rehoming enquiries were ongoing after one too many attacks - beak and claws tearing at my legs when I stupidly went out wearing shoes instead of wellies! Ouch! I'm a complete coward - psychobird won the fight despite my pathetic efforts at shaking a big stick at him! Pheasant casserole for dinner again - I called it stew, the others ate it with puff pastry. It was either that or I'd have had to buy a haggis, befitting the occasion. What we should really have had was that damned, fluffy psycho of a cockerel. Woe to the woosies who walk among us, for thee shall starve in the event of attempting real self-sufficiency on such a small scale.

To round the night off, I did a bank sweep of all the extras that had accumulated from not spending plus the surplus raised in sales etc - £550!

Approaching the end of January, the following is what's now being saved for recycling:

paper - shredded for paper bricks & nesting material for hens
cardboard - for kindling
toilet roll & similar inner tubes - stuffed with paper for kindling
tins - to the recycling
glass - mostly for storing preserves or else sent to recycling
clothing & material - sewing projects & recycling
egg shells - washed, dried & crushed for hens
duck egg shells - going to attempt blowing them for decorating
tea bags - making plant food then composting
all fruit & veg peelings etc - hen feeding and composting
breadcrumbs - frozen for future use
hen bedding - recycled into compost
wood ash - dug into garden or used as dust bath material for hens
fallen cones & sticks - for kindling
dry leaves & wood chips - for hen runs
seeds from peppers & tomatoes - for growing the following year
candle ends - for kindling
soap ends - for making laundry gloop & WUL
Plastic containers & tubs for storage & planting
Tomato puree tubes - make excellent embellishments & decorations

After another powercut, I was back to 'project logburner' - I spotted a really cute little pot bellied stove / log burner on eBay that has the much needed hotplate on top! Stove cheap, all the accessories and fitting not cheap. Keep on saving.

Managed to get given four large railway sleepers, so plan for a new raised bed for square foot vegetable gardening was put into action. All three of the compost bins were full, so a good basis for getting the new veg patch started. Hens and ducks got very excited about the arrival of the sleepers. They all had a great time helping. The overly exuberant ones, however, went and dig up my garlic!

Son still wanted to look like Arnold Swartznegger, which meant feeding him copious amounts of chicken and eggs - told him he'd to buy all the extras himself, so he brought me three extra chickens to cook, 'because it was cheaper'. I'm so proud! Glad he likes cous cous with it - bulk bought that from discount food store, cost less than 10p per pack.

28th January 2010 - Read the sad news of the death of J. D. Salinger. The man was a literary genius who influenced so many, yet actively sought neither fame nor glory. Decided to read, 'Catcher in the Rye' again.

Spotted an offer for two free sachets of baking yeast on http://www.bakingmad.com/ while wasting time waiting for  biscuits to bake.

Apologies for these posts being a bit disjointed. There's just so much to summarise and so many photographs to consider for inclusion.

There ends weeks three and four of January 2010. Managed to spend a total of £86.49 over the fortnight and made back £6 in egg sales. With a son who eats half a dozen eggs a day and chickens that don't want to lay full tilt in winter, having 3 dozen spare eggs to sell was a miracle in the first place!

£3,651.19 remaining from the original £4,000 but there's now £117.52 in the 'Everything Else Kitty'.
More info and photos HERE

Join us in the fun, frugal forum at
http://www.frugaldom.co.uk/

Part 2 in the Countdown to Frugaldom's 2011 Challenge

  

 =========================================================

Woke at dawn and recorded outdoor temperature of -10C, but the sun soon shone from the clear sky. No amount of sunshine would call a halt to the morning's porridge making, so the laptop was left to boot up while the porridge oats were being blasted for their 6 minutes in the microwave - works out cheaper that way. :)

Snow must have been playing games with the airwaves because the wireless modem was picking up a public access network, which was showing as a wi-fi hotspot! In this area? I think not! Never did work out that strange, technological conundrum. Concern at that point was for path clearing and constructing a better shelter where the hens and ducks could feed safely before their dinner and water froze solid. The paths around the house needed sweeping several times a day to avoid frozen poop syndrome! Stubbing your toe on a frozen one is no laughing matter, especially when nipping outside in slippers to top up feeders and break the ice that was continually forming over the water. The other problem was the blustering winds - forewarned the neighbours that a tarpaulin could end up hanging from their satellite dish.

The slow baking meringues that had been left in the oven overnight failed miserably! As the oven cooled down, the condensation rose in the cold kitchen and the meringues seemed to have soaked it up like soggy sponges! Another lesson learned.

Still chilly at -7C so the feathered friends have needed an extra top up of warm water at nights. Joey has been most annoyed at not being able to get into his bath and appears to have taken the huff with everyone, so the empty run got scraped clear of snow and we stretched a tarpaulin across the top of it in the hope that we could provide a bit of dry, non-icy space for the birds to eat, drink and be merry.

Indoors, we'd resorted to turning up the electric heaters rather than risk running out of logs. The only other concern was that we'd run out of loo rolls and milk. By the 9th of January, temperatures had risen to around 0C, but not before my homemade rhubarb 'champagne' had frozen solid - glass bottles no good in these temperatures, so we lost several - the glass shattered. The elderflower variety seems to be doing ok wrapped in its straw jacket in the garage.

Spent an evening churning over the spending, saving and trading possibilities within our frugal community and the number-crunching threw up the following:.

Groceries £900
Toiletries £60
Cleaning £15
Electricity £1,100
Coal £150
Logs £160
Internet £240
Mobiles £20
Telephone £180
TV Licence £145
Clothing & footwear £35
Gifts £200
Misc £100
Travel £120
Insurances £225
Livestock £350

TOTAL £4,000

A few major changes had occured:

1) The grocery budget was slashed by about 25% to reflect LETS trading, bulk buying, bartering and home growing as much as possible.
2) Electricity had to be increased to reflect the Arctic conditions.
3) The cost of keeping the hens was incorporated. Estimated annual costs of feeding & bedding for the hens and ducks is about double the above, but I hoped to recoup half the costs this year and have it fully self-funding by 2011
4) Insurances include a tax free savings bond with life assurance built into it. I reckoned it was OK to have this as a funeral-type policy
5) Gifts budget got slashed until the Frugaldom project generated more cyberdosh.

Bread, cakes, eggs, jams, pickles, preserves, gifts, greetings cards, wrappings and trappings were all listed as 'do not buy' items. I'd have loved to have included vegetables, but the garden just wasn't quite up to that yet.

Managed a trip into town on the 10th but all the shops had run out of salt and porridge oats! Worse still, the cashline had run out of money! (Took note never to run out of any of the above ever again!)

A frugal cookathon produced 16 beef olives, a marmalade and treacle tart, the usual bread, a tray of lemon thin biscuits and a tray of ginger biscuits. I was beginning to think there was an extra person hiding in Frugaldom, as cakes and biscuits just seem to disappear! Sadly, it's more a case of my subconscious efforts at increasing my winter padding.



Fuel was getting low and by the 11th the log man still hadn't arrived. The snow was back, falling onto the icy lane, the meter was eating credit as the electric heaters stayed on continually and the guinea pig had taken not well. Poor, 'John Galloway', he went downhill so quickly and, sadly, passed away that night. Digging his little grave was a hard task, but he's now free to wander Guinea Pig heaven safe in the knowledge that his grave is protected by a homemade wormery, recycled from a wooden blanket box.

Attended a LETS meeting on the 14th and got to meet a couple of new faces. Traded homemade soup and lemon curd for 4 pheasants, which got hung in the shed. Having never plucked or prepared anything before, I enrolled the help of future neighbour, who duly studied YouTube videos in advance of the pheasant plucking kitchen party. Too right there'd be homebrew involved somewhere! The hens were NOT amused when they spotted the birds hanging in the garden shed! Can't decide if they got in a flap at the mere sight of them or if it was because they knew their feed was in the same shed!

On the eve of the 13th, the log man arrived - just in the nick of time, as it's cold and snowy out again. He just managed to get the little tipper truck back out the road, but had some serious problems trying to make it up the incline to the main road. It had been too dark to move the logs, so we left them until next day, when the rain promptly arrived! Everything got soaked! Then the fog rolled in - don't you just love Scottish weather? Hot chocolate was a warm welcome afterwards, as was the tax code notification letter that had arrived from HMRC - no tax to pay on the first £6,475 income - I hadn't even earned that!

Did a cost analysis of Frugaldom poultry keeping, it showed I needed to sell 182 dozen eggs a year, whilst still having enough eggs for home use - EEK! New strategy needed, had to count in chicks before they're hatched - a good looking trio can fetch well over £100 on a busy day at market. Biggest problem - no poultry markets within 100 miles of here. Hmm... don't suppose singing to the chickens will make them lay any more eggs.

Missed loads of fun-looking TV programmes because the adverse weather meant no signal. Only in our region could they discontinue analogue before digital was fully functional! The evening's entertainment proved to be just as funny, though - loading old photos into an album on Facebook.

The snow slowly thawed to reveal what was left of the lawn - a muddy minefield covvered in mole bunkers! My lovely plastic-covered lettuce planter (made from a recycled tub, was a sad sight to behold. The quackers had pulled the cover to bits and scoffed all but one lonely, straggly little lettuce seedling. But all is not lost - some of the carrots, leeks and turnips had survived the feathered and furry brigade.

When fridge inventory day arrived, I went foraging to the depths of refrigeration to see what was lurking in the furthest recesses. The expedition produced the following report:

Duck eggs x 7
milk x 1L
white wine (1/4 bottle approx)
tomato ketchup
brown sauce
sweet chilli sauce
hot chilli sauce
lemon juice
salad cream
mayonnaise
chutney
marmalade
bramble and apple jelly
lemon curd
lard
block of Brie
cheddar cheese
pineapple rings
6 yoghurts
a savoy cabbage
bag of onions

cookie dough

jar of mincemeat

tiny piece of butter

tub of margarine

pack of bacon (still defrosting)

Absolutely no space in the freezer at this point, so another bulk bake and cookathon day was out of the question, but cookies and a pineapple upsidedown cake got baked and a Brie based sauce got made. Syrup sponge in 6 minutes was microwave pudding and there were  plenty of sandwich options. There wasn't a lot of scope for 'real' meat and two veg type dinners, but the day of reckoning was fast approaching - the Frugaldom pheasant pluckers' kitchen work-out.

End of week two, a very expensive week at £154.39 by the time the logs got paid. However, a lucky break meant payment arrived from a sales commission, a small amount of cashback landed in my account and the weekly sale of surplus eggs. Total extra income came in at £111.52, so the first fortnight in January 2010 actually cost me only £150.80 and I had a full log store, fridge, freezer and larder. Frugal living rules! :)