Let's Not Forget About Frugal Living

Let's not forget our roots. 

Frugaldom, after all, grew from the concept of frugal living to bring about the freedom to enjoy life. Every year we set ourselves goals and every year we challenge ourselves to overcome any problems and make the most of every opportunity. Frugal living isn't merely penny pinching without reason, it is about wise spending for specific reasons. It should never be mistaken for meanness. Living well within your means can free up income to save for other things and to help others but getting to grips with a new budget can be daunting. For those interested, you can join us in the Moneysavingexpert.com forums and take part in our annual frugal living challenge. Alternatively, you are welcome to just follow along.

2026 Plans

Put more effort into growing fruit & veg

Make better use of space

Strive to make projects cash neutral

Offer more opportunities to others

Stay within budget

Improve existing facilities

Implement a plan for retirement 

Win £1million

OK, so that last one is a bit of a stretch of the imagination but it isn't beyond the realms of possibility for anyone holding NS&I Premium Bonds. I'm a big PB fan, despite the negativity expressed by some money gurus. I also save spare change, use a regular saver account, don't have any private pensions and haven't the ability to fill an ISA because my income equates to less than half the 2026 national living wage. 😆 Back to the chance of winning big... If that really did happen, I think my first move would be to hire in help looking after the animals as I've found it almost impossible to find like-minded others who can afford the luxury of volunteering while also being prepared to take charge in my absence. It's 7 days a week all year, every year, so my plans also include trying to get some time away from the project.

There's a Whole New Generation of Frugal Living Folks

The Frugal Bank

Hello to my frugal friends, family and fellow money savers. It's been a while since we discussed household finances - too long, in fact! It's now come to my attention that I've been living this frugal lifestyule for so long that I've forgotten that an entirely new generation has joined us, many of whom haven't, yet, discovered the joys of frugaldom. But what, exactly, do I mean by 'frugaldom'? Read on and find out for yourselves.

What is a Budget?

A budget is probably the most important thing you can have, as far as your finances are concerned,. It is your budget that dictates the lifestyle you can comfortably afford to lead. It's as simple as looking at the overall amount of money you have coming into your household and deducting all of the regular payments you have going out - everything from your rent or mortgage to repaying debts, paying household bills, food shopping, holidays and everything in between. If you add up all your out-goings (be brutally honest with yourself about this) and deduct them from your overall income, whatever is left is what you can realistically afford to save or overpay any debts to clear those off first. If your regular out-goings are higher than your regular income, then the bank of you is broken and needs some emergency repairs. It doesn't matter if you have savings in the bank - if you are eating into those just to live from day to day, rather than for emergencies, then you need to stem the flow of cash and balance your books.

What to do if your bank is broken

1. Stop spending immediately
2. Prioritise - essential household bills and debt repayments need paying first
3. Make a list because lists are very versatile and help you focus
4. Needs not wants - you need food and water to survive so think survival! You don't need tobacco, alcohol, cosmetics, expensive toiletries, 1,000 TV channels, takeaway mealsm big brand names or the latest gadgets.
5. Reassess your budget in a more meaningful way - keep a spending diary and record every penny spent. Your role has now become that of accountant and manager of your own home, no matter what form your home takes.
6. You need to count in all costs - from the cost of living to the cost of working - have you ever counted up how much your job is costing you? Are you wasting money on travel, coffee breaks, lunches etc?
7. Look at ways of generating some emergency income - extra work, sell stuff you no longer need, decluttering your space can declutter your mind.
8. Analyse your overall debt total to start chipping away at that, paying whatever is commanding the highest interest rate first.
9. Become a frugalista in the kitchen and adopt a zero tolerance for waste. Believe it or not, it is still possible to live on an average of £1 per day for all your meals, based on £365 per person over the year. I'm not saying that it is easy and you may need to find your nearest food bank, community larder and Olio food hero, plus find a friend prepared to share so you can take better advantage of offers - it can be done.
10. Learn to make and love porridge, soups, stir fries, stews, curries and strange concoctions of leftovers.

How can I save money?

Get creative. Consider what you do as your daily and nightly routines: how much fuel, electricity or gas are you using, how often do you socialise, how far do you travel, what paid hobbies do you enjoy, do you buy takeaway food... the list is endless. Pay attention to how you feel and why you feel that way about giving up anything that is eating into your funds. Think of alternatives: do you like art, writing, blogging, reading, walking, cycling, crafting, gardening... anything that can get you through the toughest of times without costing you money. Keep warm with wool or fleece and a hot water bottle but keep your home aired to prevent condensation and dampness. When you boil water, fill a flask with any extra to use later. Cook from scratch, search this blog for simple soup recipes and challenge yourself to create magic meals from leftovers, free food or home grown fruit and vegetables. There are so many ways to save money so I hope you will spend some time reading past posts while I do my utmost to bring this blog up to date. I can only apologise for drifting but it's been full on chaos trying to keep up with everything since the Covid-Brexit combination saw off our Frugaldom volunteer exchange students and lost us previously agreed foster homes for rescue animals that still remain in our care. 

Find some like-minded friends who understand your financial situation by joining us online - just look for @Frugaldom on social media or search for '2023 Frugal Living Challenge' in the Moneysavingexpert.com forums. Together, we can fix this. 

Find your frugal living mojo and life may never be the same again.

How to be a Frugal Living Expert 02

• #Frugal Living
• #Money Saving
• #Household Budgets
• #How to...

 

2016's frugal living challenge budget here is, once again, £4,000 for the year. This is a comfortable amount and allows for every other available penny to be saved, spent or invested elsewhere. How it is done is no mystery and nobody ever died from saving too much, nor from sharing such knowledge freely, did they? So let's go...

 

When it comes to budgeting, there are easier options than becoming a frugal living expert.

• You could bury your head in the sand and just spend blindly, while worrying yourself sick about how to afford A, B or C.
• You could make yourself ill trying to work all the hours you can, just to make ends meet.
• You could torture yourself working in a sole-destroying job that you hate, just to pay bills and take 4 weeks off a year worrying about going back to work again.
• You could take the even easier option of living on the wings of a prayer (while skint) while hoping that you win the lottery. It is a possibility if you afford yourself the luxury of buying a ticket, but then anything is possible. So grasp every opportunity that you can if it's absolutely free.

I use "searchlotto" to get free entries every week and this is my gratuitous referral link, in the hope of getting another free entry when a fellow frugal living expert signs up and does likewise. 

Some people spend many hours clicking, searching, doing surveys and filling up their blogs with paid advertising... this blog post is a little bit like that. It's what happens when costs need to be met but it seldom works out that way. So, please excuse the banners and links, but they are here for a reason. Do feel free to sign up and start sharing them on your own blogs, as it's basically free advertising for the companies they represent, combined with the opportunity for some freebies for us.

Another easy option while trying to get out of debt - and one I am all too familiar with, but let's not go there - is outright gambling. (Yes, I know buying scratch cards and lottery tickets is similar, but some people don't recognise that fact.) Living in hope of the dream 100/1 shot romping home with a tonne of your money on its nose.

But let's face it, how many people do you know who earn their money from racetracks who aren't actually in the employment of the track, trainers, owners or bookies? This is just another gratuitous link, but if you want to follow free tips for the fun of it, just to practise your number-crunching skills, then this is an ideal place. Other than that, just follow my horses galore blog, which helps pay to keep Frugaldom and the frugal forums, blogs and chat room operational.

National Minimum Wage in UK for an adult over 25 years of age is approximately £13,100 per year. After tax and insurance, it's a net income of about £12,000 per year, or £1,000 per month. This equates to almost £230 per week, which is a huge amount, compared to the £4,000 that I budget for annually.

Now we hear that the UK Living Wage is coming into force in April this year - a whopping great £7.20 per hour. That's £270 gross per week for each adult over the age of 25 who works a 37.5 hour week. As a trainee nurse in the 80's, I didn't even earn this in a month and back then, I thought I was on a phenomenal salary as a trainee! So you see, wealth and frugal living are not just about numbers and amounts, they are also about perception and priorities.

Please note that I do not earn National Minimum Wage - this is for budgeting examples only.

I appreciate that living in rural Scotland is about as far removed from living in the big city as it gets, but it's all relevant. If you're earning £40,000 a year while paying £25,000 a year on rent, plus work associated costs and general household bills, then your disposable income can turn out to be a fraction of your earnings - if there's anything left at all! In saying that, you can still buy a house in parts of the UK for less than £50k, so it's all about location and lifestyle.

Personally, I prefer quite a simple life that's affordable and fairly stress free. Put it this way - if my household costs only £4,000 to run for 2 of us and we're happy with our chosen way of life, then the reality of it is that we need only work about 6 paid hours each per week, doing minimum wage work, to cover all our costs. Now you can see that working 75 hours between two, even on the living wage, leaves 63 hours worth of income free to do with as we please.

Yes, I am in a very fortunate situation in that I have zero debts and the house is bought and paid for, but that's why all those years of scrimping and saving were implemented. They paid off! It took hard work, a single-mindedness that many found far too extreme and complete and utter dedication to the job I decided to do - live a frugal life in pursuit of financial freedom.

Looking at the 'real' cost of living, the following are the absolute essentials, rounded to the nearest £100:

Groceries - £700
Cleaning & Toiletries - £100
Heat and light - £1,000
Essential insurance - £200
Council tax - £1,000

Food is fairly cheap in the grand scale of things - it's waste that costs the most.

The food and drink budget here averages just under £1 per person per day for everything and we don't exactly starve, as my less than perfect body mass will testify!

Based on the above, it shows how easily we could 'live' on £3,000 a year. It more than adequately shows me that it's the roof over our heads that costs us most of our working lives, once we get past the false belief that we 'need' anything else in this very materialistic world of ours. Staying warm, dry, fed, watered and healthy are our top priorities - you would think!

Many people have rent or mortgages to pay so these costs must always be factored into the equation. Interest rates can divide and conquer even the best budget, as they fluctuate over the years. Right now, they are at an all time low, which is no good whatsoever for savers looking to gain interest on their cash, but for mortgage holders the opportunity to pay off lump sums has never been better. In my time as a house-owner, I have witnessed base rates ranging from the current low of 0.5% to as high as 15%

In my opinion, you should always, always, always make hay while the sun shines.

Money is an absolute necessity no matter what way we look at it, so there are no illusions or delusions here about wanting to go down the cashless route - it simply cannot work. Self sustainability has to embrace sustaining yourself financially as well as physically, mentally and spiritually, in whichever way you believe is right for you, while also contributing to society, as a whole.

Personally, I would love to be able to offer every single one of you regulars who read my frugal blog, participate in the frugal forums and join us in the chat room the opportunity to come and experience Frugaldom for yourselves, at no cost to you, but that remains part of the dream, as only a massive windfall would afford me that luxury. I do still enter a few free competitions now and again.

Now to get the non-essential spending prioritised... this is the pet monster of each household that feeds on disposable income. For those of you who have jobs to attend (we are fortunate in that we work from home) then the cost of having those jobs can be eye-watering, so think carefully about how much you are prepared to spend on doing the 'right' job.

And finally, for this section of our series about how to become a frugal living expert, time really is money - the less time you spend working at running the household you really want, the more money it's going to cost you to compensate for any short-comings. This is a serious lifestyle choice - it isn't simply a 'get out of debt free' card where personal solvency suddenly ends the game.

In part 3, I'll look at priorities within the non-essentials list, as society is trying to dictate that several of these 'wants' have become 'needs' when they, in fact, haven't.

NB: I have chosen only advertisers who offer free options - nothing on this page should cost anyone anything, other than myself, of course, who gets charged for commercial web services.

How to Become a Frugal Living Expert 01

• #Frugal Living
• #Money Saving
• #Household Budgets
• #Money Challenges

The first in a series of articles about how to become a frugal living expert.

The Frugal Living Challenge is an adaptation of my original 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge, which has been running online since 2007. Join our frugal living experts now.

Learn how to save money on food shopping

Our money saving and frugal living challenges date back to the late 1990's so many of us have gathered a considerable amount of experience along the way. Whether it is balancing our own books, controlling the household budget or simply living within our own means, we have managed to gather together a fair team of frugal living experts who can offer free online help and moral support to help solve personal money problems. Everything here is done as economically as possible and much has been achieved on what some considered to be near impossible budgets.

I can say with confidence that living free from debt while earning a small income is 100% possible. You do, however, need to exercise will power and keep yourself focussed on your plans in order to achieve these otherwise impossible goals. Waste not, want not... if you take care of the pennies then the pounds will take care of themselves as long as you avoid the trap of becoming penny wise and pound foolish!

We have seen many changes over the years, so each stage in the development of our frugal living and working adventure takes us a step closer to self sustainability and financial freedom.

A budget is personal to you, it should fit in with your personal financial situation and it should result in something you are happy to achieve. If you can reach the point at which you spend less than you earn, then you are halfway there. Getting to the point that you are spending less than you are earning while also  becoming absolutely free from debt is very liberating. Having enough cash left over after that to carefully, conscientiously and successfully save for your own future is the ultimate goal. You just need to believe it is possible and stick to your plan, no matter what.

There are no sure-fire winners in investments but a combination of small savings can amass small fortunes - and these will continue to grow as you continue to save after any debts have gone.

Have you got what it takes to join the quest for financial freedom?

This is not about self-deprivation or self-imposed poverty just for the sake of it, it is about providing genuine, mutual support for those who are prepared to take on the challenge of making a real difference to their own lives while sorting out nasic money problems or even serious financial situations. Don't quit - get financially fit!

Once debts are gone and you are in full control of your own spending (or not spending, as the case may be), the world is your oyster. Whether you choose to invest, donate, explore, plant a forest, see the world or lead a comfortable life knowing you are financially secure is entirely up to you.

It's never too late to learn how to become a frugal living expert!

Newcomers, let's get started right now. Old hands, let's put in a bit more practise until we really are expert money savers who can afford to spend free time sharing hints and tips with fellow frugal folks.

Stay financially strong throughout 2016

• #Money Saving
• #Household Budgets

So, did you enter January full of good intentions to eat less, exercise more and cut back on non-essentials? If the answer’s ‘Yes’ and you’ve been holding out for the month to end, hang on in there!

Just because the month is over, your salary’s been paid and you’ve recovered from Christmas’ financial hangover, it doesn’t mean you should revert to your old ways. Making a few simple cutbacks can keep your finances fighting fit throughout the year.

Still not motivated? What about that holiday in the sun you fancy, or that new car you’d love to drive about in? Asking yourself what you can afford to live without and sticking to a budget comes with financial rewards.

Our ten top budget tips will help you strengthen your finances. Take a look at the Money Masterclass and fun interactive quiz to see how a few daily cost-cutting measures will fatten your piggy bank: Fix Your Finances - What are your money-saving tips?

Our Facebook competition is designed to find Britain’s savviest saver - FreedomFinance on Facebook - so share your ideas to encourage others to stick to a healthy budget.

 

As your piggy bank gets fatter the financial outlook for 2016 gets brighter!

Life of Pie

The world, according to Frugaldom, is a complete package. We have all we need to create all that we want and if we break it, we have the wherewithal to fix it. Nothing is fake, everything is real - just take the time to look into this amazing frugal bubble that is our world. It's like the life of pie!

Life of Pie!

Humour me, if you will. I'm still the same person living the same frugal life surrounded by the same people, same space and same basic ingredients that make up Frugaldom and the world around me. Yes, some faces and places may have changed, some friends and family have passed along the way and new little humans have been born into our extended family, but nothing much has actually changed. We are still in this same bubble that holds all the secrets and solutions to all the mysteries. It still dumbfounds me that some people just can't see the bigger picture when it comes to looking after our spinning rock as it hurtles around that blazing ball that we call the sun.

Planet Earth (Free Blog Photos)

Don't get me wrong, I'm no scientist, I'm just someone who likes to think more and spend less when it comes to the topics of money and life. I can't stand money but it's a necessary evil in our society. Whether we see it as paper notes, metal, coins, pebbles or digital points, it is merely a number that can represent pretty much anything else, anywhere else. Our imaginations know no bounds and are restricted only by how much we can experience, not by how much money we have. It's like pie - some of us can bake our own from very little while others are happy to pay whatever it takes for others to do it for them.

Our world is a mish-mash of every possible ingredient available to mankind and it is all contained within this giant, multi-layered, bubble oven that's heated by the sun and insulated or protected by the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, atmosphere and any other invisible-force spheres that engulf our ball of spinning rock. They contain everything, dictate our weather, our climate, our tides and the phases of our moon. As far as mankind is concerned, nothing more gets added and nothing gets lost - it is baking mankind in an ever evolving life 'pie'.

Life of Pie

We have what we have and it is up to us all to keep making pie and sharing it accordingly. Some people will be researching and developing the very basic ingredients, some will be tweaking the recipe, some harvesting and preparing the ingredients and some making the dough. Some will be helping bake this never-ending pie while many more will be contributing to all the various fillings needed to help our spherical bakehouse stay in production and meanwhile, we all need to contribute to maintaining the oven, as a complete break-down would be globally catastrophic.

Sadly, there are those who will always want a larger slice of the pie than others and there are also those who aren't prepared to share their slice with anyone else under any circumstances - they'd rather pig out, get fat and dictate the pecking order. But one would do well to remember that when times get tough, those who spit feathers, bully the flock and crow loudest are likely to be next in the pie, even if it's just to bring peace to the neighbours.

Feed the world... every single person is contributing to the global pie in their own way - even if it doesn't turn out the way we like it.

There is only one way out of this kitchen and it isn't by any earthly door that anyone's ever found. We're in it together and we're in it for life... only you can decide how you choose to contribute. What holds it all together and keeps things going is the balance of nature and our combined, conscious efforts to maintain the equilibrium. I believe this is the very basic principle of life itself and that everything we amount to is what gets returned. Trying to lead a balanced life and helping those who can't should be first and foremost, in my mind. Money won't buy food, water, shelter or even fresh air if this bubble bursts, so why accumulate useless 'stuff' that has no meaning in the meaning of life unless you already have everything you need for a balanced and happy life? By all means, protect your investments, but spare a thought for those who have nothing.

We need to find alternatives to save our bubble from bursting!

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk / Frugaldom

Frugal Living from Scratch

Part 1 of 2: Getting right back to basics - this blog is about frugal living in a way that affords you a simple life of freedom from debts and the luxury to choose how and when you earn and spend your own money. You aren't completely free until every penny is your own. A complete, photo free 'rantathon' to get the penny rolling.

Let's get one thing straight - you don't own your own home if you have a mortgage, just as you don't own your own car if it was 'bought' on finance. It simply means you have borrowed these goods and made a personal pledge to pay over the odds for them while you use them and continue to pay over the odds for them even if you don't. It is a contractual obligation which is meant to keep you making payments that, in turn, bind you to earning whatever amount of money is needed to service the debts and live your life - whatever that may be. Likewise with everything you have in your possession - it isn't your own until you have zero debt and are no longer making payments of any description. It always baffles me how some folks can't see a mortgage as debt.

The battle cry I hear most often is that I (me, myself, I) cannot be frugal if I can afford to make major purchases for cash. Well, folks, it is by being frugal that we can afford such things in life and they are not so major when you look at the whole picture. I would go as far as declare myself a frugal living expert, having trained in the art for decades, learning by experience and honing my skills. Over and over again, I have show what does and does not work for me. Getting a 9 to 5 dead-end job and living in fear of interest rate or rent increases just doesn't cut it for me and I fail to understand why anyone in their right mind would want to torture themselves enduring that for fifty years of their life only to retire with nothing. Kudos to those of you who enjoy or endure that lifestyle, it's just not for me. I'm neither lucky nor privileged, I simply made a choice in my own life and stuck with it.

Absolute essentials, in my opinion, are shelter, suitable clothing and good basic nutrition that contributes towards your overall wellbeing. If you can get to a point that you can meet these needs with enough of your income left over to service all your debts, you have succeeded in the first step. The next step is to cut out absolutely everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that you really don't need and start saving to invest in your own future. Some really tough choices need to be made - if you can't afford a car but really need one for work, can you relocate then  walk or cycle? Failing that, can you change jobs to one within walking or cycling distance? I don't really understand sentimentality towards bricks and mortar, it's a stupid concept to me. Yes, by all means love your home, but if it's just a millstone around your neck filled with memories, pack up those memories and take them with you to some place you can afford to relax indefinitely without checking your bank balance every other week.

Why worry about what others think of you? Something like that is learned behaviour and is a rather evil trait to instil in any child, in my opinion. It's also one that is really difficult to free yourself from, but it is worth it in the end. Learning one's own worth based on non-monetary values is far more revealing than finances and fripperies.

Very little money is needed to live my chosen lifestyle. For me, understanding how anyone ends up in debt when earning what I'd consider a small fortune is intriguing, despite having seen the facts and figures for myself. There really is nobody to blame but the individuals who got there in the first place and more shame them if they choose to ignore it or, worse still, pass on that burden to others.

This blog isn't about becoming a superstar, a guru or a celebrity, it's about sharing my own journey to freedom. Knowing where you want to be is the difficult part but once you have established that, everything becomes so much clearer and easier. It's all down to budgeting - knowing exactly what you need every penny to do and making it happen, come what may.

Home is where the heart is and the heart shouldn't give a stuff what friends, relatives or neighbours think. It may be a glorified shed, a caravan, a bed-sit, a tumbledown cottage, a boat or even an underground bunker conversion! For some obscure reason, people attribute worth and status to bricks and mortar, but that's not for the frugalers starting from scratch. Financial riches may come later, but in the beginning, you need to liquidate everything and clear your minds, your schedules and your debts so you can begin again, frugal living from scratch.

There are always excuses for why this 'can't' be done - but I'm telling you it can, even if it means finding someone with a spare room to rent while you work several crappy jobs and save your way out of the red and into the black. Room renting isn't ideal for families, I can appreciate that, but it isn't impossible if it gives you a base from which to establish your plan. Being free to control the vision of your own destiny is paramount to success but I would always recommend seeing much further beyond that, to the next challenge. Frugal living is a skill that absolutely anyone can afford to master - it cannot be bought, it has to be lived!

How long have you gone without buying a non-essential in an effort to pay every extra penny into the debt pot or savings plan?

NYK in Frugaldom

Frugal Living from Scratch

Money Saving Experts

Are you a money saving expert or are you a frugal living expert? There is a world of differences between the two and both can be crushed by debt. Real frugal living frees you from debt before you start saving any money.

This is a quick blog post in my own defence, after my being subjected, once again, to what one may refer to as criticism against my frugal lifestyle. I just want to make one thing clear - make no mistakes, I actually love being frugal! Get it into your head that some of us don't need to be part of the general 9 to 5, or a salaried slave to the system that we call 'normal' society. Some of us actually enjoy our freedom and we will happily go without what others consider to be absolute essentials in order to afford simple living. I have no fear of losing my income or my home, I earn my own pittance and have the skills to create a home from wherever I may be at the time. Again, don't get me wrong, what I do pays very little, as I'm mostly writing and publishing free content, attempting to grow some food from the kitchen garden or assisting those whose budgets (or wisdom)  [prevent them from seeking professionals. I don't mind non-cash payments by way of some pickle, veggies, a bag of apples or a cake. I just need to earn sufficient to pay the essential bills and this is made possible by squeezing them as low as possible and seeing beyond the goal of 'living within my means'.

Some people assume that it is a basic human right to be able to afford certain things that I would consider absolute luxuries, but let's get this straight - paying for all these things as cheaply as possible in order to save cash in a tin, jar or bank while having any form of debt or money worries, in my opinion, is just plain dumb! Absolute debt freedom allows you the luxury to continue following a very frugal lifestyle while saving and investing in your own futures. I know there are other ways of doing things but this is mine and it works for me.

Frugal living allows those of us on low incomes to speculate a little in the hope that we will accumulate sufficient to afford to continue our stress free lifestyle, right through to retirement and beyond. That is not to say that we will ever reach a point when we can easily live off the interest from our savings but at no point will we get into the unsustainable situation whereby we have more going out than coming in - that is the gist of this story. It's about living within lowly means in a way that demonstrates how it is affordable to all and making the most of every penny to grow it into a pound.

Money saving - it is such an ambiguous phrase. Is it money-saving or is it simply saving money? Are you saving by shaving a percentage off the overall cost of what you buy or are you living well within your means in order to save what's leftover by way of cash and other investments. For the past ten years, I have been living a fairly frugal life, primarily to clear debts like credit cards and a couple of contracts I had locked myself into and then to free myself from the rent trap, as I prefer the security of owning over the pressure of earning hundreds of pounds extra each and every month in order to sustain rent payments. Personally, I feel I could make a home anywhere, as it's about how you feel and not the material 'stuff' that's built up around you. Personally, I don't care if what's around me is built from stone, brick, wood or mud. I don't care if the roof is slate, tile, shingle, tin or felt. Affording to feel comfortable, relaxed and secure within that space is what matters, free from the worry of how to pay for it.

So, when someone grumbles to me that their savings are dwindling, their out-goings are far greater than their income, their home isn't worth selling because they won't get back what they paid for it and they are worried about how they will afford to keep the roof over their head in the future, don't expect me to wave a magic wand and say, "There, there, everything will work out somehow." My answer is blunt and to the point - quit spending, quit throwing good money after bad and downsize instead of playing silly games of 'what will friends and neighbours think?'

Yes, I did say it as I saw it and do you know what their utterly disgusted response was, fellow frugal lifestyle fans?

"I could never live like you!"

www.frugalforums.co.uk

Money Saving Experts

Frugal Living Blog

Frugal living blog about how to do some money saving and cost cutting in an effort to live a good life, free from debt, without having to live in self-imposed poverty. You won't find us running for awards or seeking fame, fortune or even national recognition because we live the life we write - it is as simple as that.

Money Saving

The Frugal Blog is linked to and supported by the frugal forums, frugal shop, NYK's chat room and the land of Frugaldom, which came about as a direct result of having stuck with my frugal living, moneysaving challenge unfalteringly until the point of attaining debt freedom, and then for the next 7 years thereafter. This is now year 8 of my debt free challenge and almost all of it has been documented online as a frugal blog with forum posts.

Frugal Living Challenge

This is an adaptation of the original 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge, which has been running online since 2007. Some of the NYK challenges date back to the late 1990's, so I do have a considerable amount of experience in balancing my own books, while living within my own means, always done on a budget that some consider to be impossible. Utter nonsense! It is entirely possible and is an achievement of which I am particularly proud. I can say with confidence that frugal living, free from debt, on a small income is 100% possible. You do, however, need to exercise will power and keep yourself focussed on your plans in order to achieve these otherwise impossible goals.

We have seen many changes over the years, so each stage in the development of our frugal living and working plans takes us a step closer to the good life and beyond. Your budget is personal to you, it should fit with your personal financial situation and it should be something you are happy to achieve. If you can achieve a point at which you spend less than you have coming in, then you are halfway there. Getting to the point that you are spending less than you are earning while also absolutely free from debt is the ultimate goal. You just need to believe it is possible and stick to your plan, no matter what.

You can join our quest for financial freedom by visiting us in our members only frugal living forums.

My frugal living challenge is not about self-deprivation or self-imposed poverty just for the sake of it, it is about providing genuine support for those who are prepared to try making a real difference to their own lives while sorting out their difficult financial situations. Once the debts are gone and you are in full command of your own spending (or not spending, as the case may be), the world is your oyster. Whether you choose to invest, explore, plant a forest, see the world or lead a comfortable life knowing you are financially secure is entirely up to you.

Many former and current challengers have achieved debt freedom and now follow frugal lifestyles in order to stay free from debt while pursuing better lives without the entrapment of credit. Others are tackling debts, including mortgages, while following a frugal lifestyle in an attempt to reach their debt-free or mortgage-free day. Whichever stage you are at, feel free to join us and share your journey.

2015 saw the return of the live NYK Chat room, complete with scheduled chats for the purposes of additional support, plus live question time. The new platform has been tested over the past few months and it is hoped that the increased potential for even more real time interactivity can help many more people who want to embark on their own money saving journeys to financial freedom.

This challenge is about establishing your true cost of living, sticking to your budget, clearing debts (if you have any) and making savings wherever and however you can to enable you to live the life you really want.

Frugal living isn't for everyone, but everyone is welcome to join us. Methods employed by frugalers include batch cooking, stockpiling useful bargains, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), vegetable and fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cash-back sites and doing whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt.

For some it is about clearing debt, for others it's about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home parents or paying off the mortgage early. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds, others seek early retirement or self-sustainability. Above all, this is meant to be a fun and supportive way to manage a minimal budget so you have control of your own money.

• It's about NEEDS and not WANTS
• Living on a budget = living within our means
• Frugal = thrifty, living without waste

Fifty Shades of Money Saving

1. Recognise the differences between needs from wants
2. Spend within your means
3. Set a proper budget
4. Quit expensive habits
5. Houseshare or get a lodger
6. Shop via cashback sites
7. Always price compare
8. Buy reduced items in stores only if you need them
9. Stockpile & bulk buy long shelf life groceries that you will use
10. Batch cook
11. Make the most of charity shops
12. Join Freecycle or other similar waste awareness and recycling groups
13. LETS trading - become active members of trading & exchange groups
14. Barter
15. Grow herbs, fruit & vegetables
16. Preserving - jams, jellies, cordials, pickles, relishes & wine
17. Bake your own bread using cheap flour
18. Learn easy bake biscuit, cake and pastry recipes
19. Make your own greetings cards
20. Give homemade gifts
21. Share orders with friends, colleagues and family for better discounts & reduced delivery costs
22. Landshare, garden share or apply for an allotment if you have no growing space
23. Make the most of all freebies
24. Develop your own home-based business
25. Sell your surplus through the likes of eBid and eBay trading
26. Do a kitchen cupboard inventory of foodstuffs
27. Use lists for grocery shopping
28. Know exactly what is in your freezer
29. Use up everything in your fridge
30. Learn how to make soups, stews and casseroles
31. Make the most of your slow cooker, if you have one
32. Learn how to knit, crochet and/or sew
33. Make do and mend rather than buy new
34. Engage in clothes swaps and accessorise your outfits rather than have to buy new
35. Learn to make your own laundry cleaner
36. Make your own household cleaning agents:  invest in soda crystals or sodium bicarbonate,
37. Get inventive in the kitchen with herbs and spices to use up all leftovers
38. Use the free gym whenever you like - just open your door and step outside
39. Use housework as an exercise routine
40. Dry flowers so they last forever
41. Collect seeds for sowing
42. Go foraging for free wild foods
43. Trim your own hair or ask a friend to do it for you
44. Turn down the thermostat if you have central heating - wear an extra layer of clothing instead
45. Early to bed, early to rise - based on daylight, it can save on lighting
46. Collect fallen sticks, twigs, dry leaves and fir cones for kindling if you have an open fire or stove
47. Save all suitable containers for freezing or preserving food
48. Eat a sensible diet: over-eating is one of the costliest mistakes you can make, along with wasting food
49. Food is NOT bad just because it has passed its 'Best Before' date. Undamaged tins and properly stored dried goods can last for years beyond that
50. Stay focussed and stay strong - debts have to be paid before saving for rainy days and luxuries

By basing your frugal lifestyle around a combination of the above suggestions, you will soon begin to recognise many more ways of saving money but the easiest way to get started is simply to quit spending it until you have assessed your real cost of living. Monitoring and revising a budget is part of any frugal living plan.

IMPORTANT

Please respect others' lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support. Feel free to join us by following the frugal blog, registering for our free forums or joining us in the chat room sometime soon. We aren't here to score points or win prizes, we are here to show how simple life can be and then the fun can begin.

Frugal Living Blog

Oat and Sultana Energy Cookies Recipe

Just because we are embarking on a super-duper new food budget regime does not mean that we need to cast out all our luxuries, so here’s how we are dealing with the £5 per person per week for all meals challenge.

Breakfast is nearly always porridge, as a 1kg bag, costing 75p, provides sufficient for 20 servings. But I prefer to think of it as 7 days for 2 people will use up 700g porridge oats, leaving 300g each week for baking or other recipes.

PORRIDGE
2 x 50g scoops of porridge oats
5 x 50g scoops of water
Sprinkle of salt
Cook in microwave on high for about 5 minutes (depending on wattage)
Serve with a little milk and 30g of sultanas
7 days for 2 people will use up 700g of a 1kg bag of porridge oats, leaving 300g for baking. Sultanas are one of our 5-a-day and a 30g serving per person per breakfast for two equates to just 420g sultanas, leaving 80g for baking. So here goes...

OAT & SULTANA ENERGY COOKIES
100g porridge oats
80g sultanas
200g SR flour
100g sugar
170g melted margarine

Mix all of the above into a soft dough.

Split into 24 pieces, roll into balls and flatten into round cookies,

Read more here …

Join the Spending Revolution

Vendetta Against Debt! It's that time of year again, the time when we are planning ahead for 2015, renewing our vigour for the on-going battle against debt, building up our forces to thwart needless spending and fight for the right to protect our own financial security. This is a war against waste - financial and otherwise. Join us in our quest for financial freedom.

Frugaldom is no fairytale fantasy of mythical castles, dragons and miracles. You play your own part in this quest for freedom.

This is an adaptation of the original 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge, which has been running online since 2007. Some of the NYK challenges date back to the late 90's, so I do have a considerable amount of experience in balancing my own books, while living within my own means, always done on a budget that some consider to be impossible. Utter nonsense! It is entirely possible and is an achievement of which I am particularly proud. I can say with confidence that living free from debt while on a small income is 100% possible. You do, however, need to exercise will power and keep yourself focussed on your plans in order to achieve these otherwise impossible goals.

We have seen many changes over the years, so each stage in the development of our frugal living and working plans takes us a step closer to the good life and beyond. Your budget is personal to you, it should fit with your personal financial situation and it should be something you are happy to achieve. If you can achieve a point at which you spend less than you have coming in, then you are halfway there. Getting to the point that you are spending less than you are earning while also absolutely free from debt is the ultimate goal. You just need to believe it is possible and stick to your plan no matter what.

This challenge is not about self-deprivation or self-imposed poverty just for the sake of it, it is about providing genuine support for those who are prepared to take on the challenge of making a real difference to their own lives while sorting out their own difficult financial situations. Once the debts are gone and you are in full command of your own spending (or not spending, as the case may be), the world is your oyster. Whether you choose to invest, explore, plant a forest, see the world or lead a comfortable life knowing you are financially secure is entirely up to you.

Many former and current challengers have achieved debt freedom and now follow frugal lifestyles in order to stay free from debt while pursuing better lives without the entrapment of credit. Others are tackling debts, including mortgages, while following a frugal lifestyle in an attempt to reach their debt-free or mortgage-free day. Whichever stage you are at, feel free to join us for 2015 and share your journey.
You can join us free by registering a username at www.frugalforums.co.uk

2015 sees the return of the live NYK Chat room, complete with scheduled chats for the purposes of additional support, plus live question time. The new platform has been trialled over the past couple of months within the members' section of our host site at Scottishmultimedia.co.uk and it is hoped that the increased potential for even more real time interactivity can help many more people who want to embark on their own money journeys to financial freedom.

This challenge is about establishing your true cost of living, sticking to your budget, clearing debts (if you have any) and making savings wherever and however you can to enable you to live the life you really want.

Frugal living isn't for everyone, but everyone is welcome to join us. Methods employed by frugalers include batch cooking, stockpiling, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), Vegetable and fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cash-back sites and doing whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt.

For some it is about clearing debt, for others it's about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home parents or paying off the mortgage early. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds, others seek early retirement or self-sustainability. Above all, this is meant to be a fun and supportive way to manage a minimal budget so you have control of your own money.

It's about NEEDS and not WANTS.
Living on a budget = living within our means.

Frugal = thrifty, living without waste

Ideas to help you achieve and/or maintain debt free living:

Recognise the differences between needs from wants
Spend within your means
Set a proper budget
Quit expensive habits
Houseshare or get a lodger
Shop via cashback sites and always price compare
Buy reduced items in stores only if you need them
Stockpile & bulk buy
Batch cooking
Make the most of charity shops
Join Freecycle or other similar waste awareness and recycling associations
LETS trading - become active members of trading & exchange groups
Bartering
Grow your own herbs, fruit & vegetable
Preserving & wine-making
Bread-making & home baking
Card & gift making
Order splitting for better discounts & shared postal costs
Landsharing, allotments & frugal garden systems
Making the most of freebies
Develop your on home-based business
eBid and eBay trading
Monitoring and revising a budget is part of any frugal living plan. Gifts & cards could all to be homemade, livestock needs to pay its own keep, anything else needs to be cash neutral and pets are like people in a household - they need to be budgeted for in a 'what if' manner.

If you would like to be in contact with like-minded others while stretching your money further than you ever thought possible, join us online and be prepared to take the frugal ride of your life.

IMPORTANT

Please respect others' lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support.

Thank you.

Join the Spending Revolution

Motoring Moneysaving Tips Pre-MOT

The cost of keeping a safe, reliable car on the road can amount to a fair chunk of any frugal living budget, especially if that car is needed on a regular basis.

 

Making a few preliminary checks and doing the simpler things yourself before your MOT is due can save you a small fortune on potential garage bills. Here are a few moneysaving suggestions.

 

Information and graphics by www.motorparks.co.uk also available here

Visit the frugal blog for more moneysaving hints, tips and suggestions.

50 is the New 30

What are you doing to prepare for retirement when 50 has been deemed the new 30?

Not so long ago, the old age pension began at 55 for women but has gradually been pushed back to 67 for our age group – fast approaching 50 – but do you feel old?

50 is the New 30 … read more

Inside a Tiny House

Inside a Tiny House

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a tiny house looks like?

Wonder no more!

NYK has managed to meet up with Mark and Jen from TinyHouseUK and fully investigate what tiny houses are really like…

I love them!

Read all about it and see the photos here

Frugaldom Master Plan

Frugaldom Master Plan
Eco living (or green living), alternative energy, wildlife conservation, microholding and permaculture gardening don't mix easily with the concept of shoestring budgets and money saving. Add to this a healthy dose of sustainability and environmental art, then the whole process seems to be lagging behind in the affordability stakes. But this is what Frugaldom is all about - kneading the aforementioned into something workable and affordable by way of frugal living (and working).
In the Frugal Forums, our June Challenge has been named as, 'Just Do It!' I think it's self-explanatory but to avoid any shadow of doubt, it is  a month when we quit procrastinating, over-thinking and analysing things and just get the job done. At worst, it will fail and we'll need to start again. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, or so they say… read full blog here
x

Make Do and Mend in May

Make Do and Mend in May

Having attended the Home Renovation Show in Glasgow’s SSEC at the weekend, I returned to Frugaldom filled with ideas and impatient to get back to doing something constructive inside the house. The kitchen cannot be done until the bathroom (shower room) is in reasonable shape but impatience has got the better of me… I’m going to make do and mend what I can in the bathroom so I can plough on with the kitchen!

I have set myself a budget of just £30 to give the bathroom a quick makeover, making do with whatever I can find lying about the house and mending anything that can be salvaged as useable. Making the wall panelling by recycling old wooden window blinds was a plan I had been toying with for several weeks, so… read more here

5 Ways to Improve Your Credit Card Application

Scottish Multimedia | 5 Ways to Improve Your Credit Card Application

In order to get the lines of credit that you are looking for, you must present your financial picture in a way that bankers like to see it. Below are five tips for giving yourself the best chance of getting that new line of credit by improving your application.

1 - Get all mistakes corrected with the credit reporting agencies.

The agencies who report credit to banks are well known to make plenty of mistakes. Before you ever set foot in the office of your banker, you should take a look at your credit report to make sure that there are no items that seem out of place to you. Make a … read more

How will the Budget Affect Frugalers and Frugaleurs?

Let's Make a Point of Looking at the Budget

Here in the UK, we were treated to the latest Chancellor's speech by way of yesterday's budget. I will hold up my hands now and state that I did not listen to it all live, so I am still trying to find anything relevant to frugal living households with less than national minimum wage incomes... still looking!

Basic Income Tax thresholds, UK

As you'll can see by the above, the threshold for income tax is still climbing, apparently taking a further 288,000 out of the 'tax-payer' category. Personally, I can't imagine ever earning sufficient income to pay income tax if I pursue my current lifestyle. But how much of my £5,000 household budget actually goes to the Government?

Estimates

Council Tax - £1,000

General shopping - £25

Heating & lighting the house - £60

Telephone & Internet - £80

Television - £145.50

Travel/Deliveries - £48

Gifts - £70

Clothing & Footwear - £20

Everything else - £75

National Insurance (Class 2) - £140

Estimated total = £1,663.50 

In REAL terms, if I was earning £5,000 per year, as per my challenge budget for running a household that feeds 2 people, that would equate to almost a third of my income going to the Government in assorted taxes! Moving swiftly on... I'm leaving the budget to those who have pension funds and the financial capacity to aim for £15,000 saved into their ISAs.

Growing My Own Investments

Peas

 As previously discussed, I decided to try and save some of the damp, mouldy peas I rescued from the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. They were planted into recycled tin cans and sat in the window to try and get whatever little heat they could from any brief glimmers of sunshine reached them - it hasn't been much! Still, 3 of the 4 tins containing peas now have little plants growing from them. Nothing to be seen from the beans but I won't give up hope just yet.

Red Cabbage

 Here is an up to date look at my cabbage experiment - I remembered to change the water and checked the base while doing so. As you can see, we now have some good strong roots and those are definitely cabbage leaves growing from the sliced off top.

Using up the Eggs

We now have 2 of the 3 ducks laying and 2 of the bantams, so eggs aplenty. I'll be sharing the surplus eggs with friends and neighbours who are kind enough to barter. This afternoon, I made a tray of sponges to use up the bantam eggs but today seems to have been one of those 'oops' days... those aren't chocolate sponges! Never mind, they'll taste just fine in trifle, under custard or even just scoffed with a cup of coffee. No point icing them for visitors, is there? Guess I'll need to make a lemon drizzle cake this weekend. :)

Being 20 days into 'Making it in March', I thought readers may like to see what a gew of the others have been making. My 'makes' have been restricted to the normal daily domestic stuff recently owing to the amount of work involved in resuscitating and rejuvenating my frugal business empire.

Making it in March

Visit the forums at www.frugalforums.co.uk to find out what others are making in March.

Day 28 of Extremely Frugal February - Pizzas and Cannelloni

It's the Final Day of February! We Got Triple Nominated!

First of all, some exciting news! Our frugal blog has received three nominations into the 'MAD Awards this year - isn't that great? If you would like to nominate, the web address for this blog is http://frugaldom.blogspot.co.uk and you can vote for us either via the badge on the right hand side of this page or else by going to http://www.the-mads.com/ and nominating from there. We have been nominated into categories for BEST THRIFTY BLOG as well as BLOG OF THE YEAR and MOST INNOVATIVE BLOG, but I'm not quite sure how that happened. :)

Now look away if you are easily offended by weird food concoctions and past BBE dates!

Cheap bread and roll mix - 99p for 3.5kg

Last night was a late one - we met up with neighbours and went walking in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis after seeing the alerts for sufficient solar activity to bring it this far south. We stayed out until about 1am and saw nothing. I was so disappointed, having convinced myself that we would catch a tiny glimmer. It just didn't reach our corner of Scotland, despite being reported as far south as Essex. I did spot four meteors/shooting stars streaking overhead, though, and the sky was amazing with the millions of stars on display.

By way of compensation, my Approved Food* order arrived today, all £15.01 of it! 400 bread rolls' worth of mix for £3.96, so that's less than a penny per roll and enough to see us to the end of the year. Bit disappointed in the quality of the potatoes but I have my seed potatoes at the ready to start chitting (sprouting prior to planting) them soon. With luck, we'll be eating home grown by summer.

Now for some really extreme frugaling!

 

When opening the orders, they are always strapped with the nylon braided tapes. I have used these in the past to make streamers to hang in the garden as bird scarers but I thought I would try a bit of weaving. Seems to work, so I won't be throwing any more in the bin - I'm sure there are plenty of other things that can be made from them.

 

I used up the remaining 4 mini-naan breads from the open pack with another tin of tomatoes, herbs, pepper and a single portion of cheese for each of us - I had my usual pickle with mine.

Last night's chilli con-coction was too much for two people and H doesn't really like chilli, so I can't serve it 2 nights in a row. I went rummaging again and came up with a plan - but now the leftover chilli and rice has turned into another 6 meals! Look away now if you don't like to see the 'before' version of frugal meals...

Mixing the rice and chilli concoction with sage & onion stuffing

I mixed a cheap pack of stuffing with last night's leftover chilli and added the rice into this, as well.  I haven't a clue how this is going to turn out but I do have a vague idea of how I expect it to taste.

Filling the Cannelloni tubes with the mix 

I've less than half a box of the cannelloni tubes left but after filling the 11 of them, I still have some of the chilli mix left to use - I spy cabbage!

Filling in the gaps to use excess mix

 I peeled off a large cabbage leaf, split it and wrapped this around the remainder of the chilli concoction mix - haven't made stuffed cabbage in a while! The last scoop of mix got packed into the corner of my dish.

Frugal version of cannelloni - Frugalloni

I poured the jar of tomato and herb sauce over the filled pasta tubes and used half of the 25p tin of cheese chopped over the top. The other half has been wrapped in tin foil and put in the fridge for later use. This is my largest lasagne baking dish, which usually provides enough for 6. Everything was crossed in the hope this tasted OK.

Looks OK to me! Tasted lovely!

Baked the dish in the mini oven for about an hour and then gave it a quick blast under the grill to bubble the cheese. It tastes excellent to me, even H was quite impressed with it! We followed our Frugalloni meal with a bowl of 10p strawberry instant whip - not the healthiest option, but there has to be some vitamin and calcium content in milk dessert, hasn't there?

This living on £4,000 for the year is still fun! I have been doing this for years and, as all the debts slowly disappeared and savings began to build, I stuck with it to enable me to build up more savings. This year is no different and it's certainly no easier, what with the price of electricity, coal and fresh produce forever increasing in price. Hopefully there will be a point at which the garden has been sufficiently reclaimed and redeveloped to provide all the fruit and vegetables needed by the household but, until then, most foodstuff needs to be bought. Spending during February has been kept to an absolute minimum, although there were still a few pounds spent on non-essentials.

My £4,000 is for absolutely everything relating to the household except Council Tax, as I have no control over the price of that - it is compulsory and costs just shy of £1,000 for the year. We don't pay the waste water part, as there's no drainage system where we live, but we do have mains water here, so that chare is included in your Council Tax if you live in Scotland. Extremely frugal February has seen the following spends:

Groceries: £36.39
Electricity: NIL - I topped the pre-payment meter right up to last us all winter
Coal: £70 for 5 bags
Other: £6.32 + £7.52 in vouchers for coffee filters, firelighters and some thermal mugs.
Telephone & Internet: £15.79 (line rental paid in advance for 12 months)
Deliveries: £10.50
House Insurance: £145.78 (buildings & contents for 12 months)
Donations: £5.00 to a very brave friend who is doing a charity abseil down the Forth Bridge in May. (See here for details)

Total cash spends for February £289.78

Monthly average budget is £333.33, so I am about 13% under this month, despite a couple of big spends. I haven't ventured further than neighbours' houses other than our late-night walking expedition in search of the Northern Lights.

Tomorrow is day 1 of 'Making it in March'. It's about making absolutely anything except debt - food, gardens, clothes, gifts, recycled goods, savings, money, changes, amends... almost anything goes, you decide! You can join us free in this forum (registration is free). Before anything else, I still need to sew my blanket together!

NYK, Frugaldom

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