Day 5 of Extremely Frugal February - I got a 'new' Sofa!

28 Days of Extreme Frugal Living

Day 5 of 28, I got a sofa!

PS: I still spent £77.00 of my household budget! :)

My fabulously frugal sofa!

Just a shorty tonight after a typical meal day costing the usual £2 or thereabouts, £2.50 spent on a big box of firelighters (I haven't taken the time to make any!) and five bags of coal at a cost of £70.

I'm allowing about £2.50 for logs, as I wasn't overly vigilant about keeping the stove roaring today, but it did get used for heating all the hot water we used.

My new frugal carpet got delivered late this afternoon and is currently lying in the hall - I'll try not to trip over it again! Needless to say, it arrived just as H and neighbour were about to go and collect the sofa, so we haven't had time to lay it, meaning the sofa has had to go into neighbour's garage until tomorrow. I spent most of last night and today worrying about one thing I had overlooked... measurements! It's a big sofa and we have tiny doors! As it turned out, all the cushion top is removable and it should fit in when we move it tomorrow - I'll let you know how that goes!

Next worry was moving the sofa in an open trailer during a howling gale with torrential rain and hail. By sheer luck, the wind dropped and the rain almost stopped for about 45 of the 55 minutes it took them to haul it home! Thankfully, we did manage to find tarpaulins and the neighbour had one for over the top of the trailer. All is well, I am happy and we should have the living room beginning to look like a living room by tomorrow evening, at which point we will be celebrating with some leftover New Year 'cheer'!

I'd just like to say a very big thank you to the young gentleman who gave us this beautiful piece of furniture by way of 'pay it forward', to those who have helped make it possible to move it from A to B, to the neighbour whose garage we have borrowed and also to those who, tomorrow, are coming to lay the carpet and help man-handle the sofa into place.

I love my new sofa and I still haven't even seen it properly - it was too dark by then!

NYK, Frugaldom

The (Surprising) Cost of Electricity and Fuel

A Four Year Cost Comparison

First of all, the electrician has been and completed the wiring, so we have lights in the kitchen, bathroom and back hallway. Secondly, I've managed to plug a few more holes to cut down on the draughts, so it is steadily becoming less of a trial trying to heat Frugaldom.

Out of interest, I searched out my past accounts to compare electricity costs. I've only looked back as far as 2008, as the other files are backed up on a different system, but what I did find reminds me sharply of the costs incurred when you have no fixed abode and need to rely on private rentals!

In 2008, we lived in a 4 room, 3-storey, terraced house that relied solely on electricity for heating. This was supplied via storage heaters on an Economy 7 electricity meter and that house was very cold in winter!  During 2008, the household budget had to cough up £1,311.40 in total for fuel and energy - a fair whack when working on a budget of just £4,000 for the year. £1,218.90 of this was electricity.

In 2009, we lived in a 3 room, semi-detached bungalow that relied on storage heaters on Economy 7 style electricity meter and had an open coal fire in the living room. That house was equally cold in winter! During 2009, the household budget had to cough up £1,336.82 in total for electricity, coal and logs out of a challenge budget of £4,000 for the year. £1,030.00 of this was electricity.

In 2010, we were still in the same house, under the impression that we had a long lease. We eventually got permission to install a log burner in the kitchen, which previously had no heating in it at all. It was an extremely long and freezing winter. Excluding the purchase price and fitting of the stove, I spent £1,533.00 in total of my £4,000 budget on electricity, coal and logs. £1,190 of this was on electricity.

In 2011, we bought our 4 room, fixy-up, end terraced cottage with an open fire and back boiler - no other heating. I stuck with my challenging £4,000 per year household budget and have now spent everything that needs to be spent on fuel and energy. Despite the latest price increases, the overall cost of electricity, coal and logs has amounted to £1,305.87 and that includes two months when we were running two houses. £877.67 of this was electricity.

There is still a great deal of work to be done in our new home but every step of the way includes investigating how we can best cut our energy and fuel costs, while trying to create a warm living environment - something that can be very difficult to achieve if you are living in someone else's house, paying them rent.

The first steps have been taken, getting the place watertight, dried out and aired. We have begun the long task of draughtproofing and insulating, along with planning on how best to improve on the heating. It may take another few of years of scrimping, saving and creative DIY, but it's all progress along the way.

In 2012, my challenge is to keep with my £4,000 household budget (excluding council tax) and try to get the cost of fuel and energy below £1,200.00  It's a tall order when living in a fairly rural part of Scotland with no access to mains gas and no conventional central heating system, but I feel that it is within reach and, as we invest in improving the house, I'm sure savings will be easier made as each improvement project is completed. £780.00 of this is allocated to electricity

For now, I'm happy to be heading in the right direction and hope to cut down on coal use in favour of burning logs, which are reported to be carbon neutral. But we need a dry log store before that will happen. 

How much has electricity increased in price since 2008?

I raked out an old electricity bill from 2008 just to see how things had changed and was rather surprised by what I found.

In November 2008, we were paying 21.9p per day standing charge and 13.52p per kWh

In December 2011, we are paying 25p per day standing charge and 12.24p per kWh

If we estimate costs over a year at 5000 units or kWh ...

2008 costs = £755.94
2011 costs = £703.25

In money terms, our electricity has reduced in price since 2008, unlike the price of coal, which has increased by around 40%. Talk about needing a naths degree to work out how best to save and spend?
Frugal living combined with a curious interest in numbers certainly has its advantages! :)

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Temporary Interlude in the Log Burning Experiment

Part 3

Well, after the past couple of days of rain, hail, sleat, snow, gale force winds and flickering power, I'm hoping I can get back to normality.

Relying on log burning as our only source of heat and hot water is a non-starter for now, primarily because we simply don't have the facilities needed to make this realistic.

Winter weather has put paid to our having sufficient dry logs to burn but I was able to estimate a cost of £2.50 per day when combining that with £1.84 of coal plus the usual £2.14 of electricity. Total cost for that combination is £6.48 per day or £45.36 per week.

To my dismay, the more carbon neutral option of burning logs looks even more expensive than buring coal so, once again, trying to do anything remotely like following the 'green' way is proving to be uneconomical without first laying out a small fortune on a suitably large, dry, log store and paying to keep it filled with well seasoned timber.

I have seen 'kiln dried' logs available (at premium prices, for those who can afford them), but have to ask myself the question, what is fueling the kilns that are drying these logs and how much fossil fuel is used to cut and process them in the first place?

Is there really any economical, environmentally friendly, pollutant free way of generating heat and power and, if so, what is it?

What ever happened to Hydrogen Fuel Cells that run on water?

Is there a non-mains powered pump suitable for maintaining a solid fuel heating system so it doesn't need shut down when there's a power cut? (Likewise with solar PV, ground source heat pumps, oil or gas central heating, boilers etc, etc, etc.) Does everything regarded as 'normal' to everyday living rely on mains power?

Questions, questions, questions... we can't all simply go into a forest and handsaw a couple of trees to split and dry logs for firewood each year, so what's the solution?

I wonder who will win the LENR race to finally produce sufficient scientific evidence to support mainstream manufacture of energy catalysers?

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Cost of Heating a Rural Home in Scotland - Part 2

Burning Logs

Today is log day, so it won't be the easiest thing to try and calculate. The photo shows what was left of the trailer-load of logs bought exactly 4 weeks ago - enough there for another week, I would reckon. We had another load delivered yesterday, which should last us through the festive season. Until we get around to building a proper, walk-in log store, we don't have suitable space for storing much more than a trailer-load at a time. (The photo isn't blurry, it was snowing quite heavily yesterday and we've had another flurry today.)

I realise that many people advise against burning a combination of fuels, even although it has been done for centuries but, for the purposes of lighting the fire, I use one firelighter (7p) and kindling sticks. This morning, about a kilo of coal (23p) was added to get the fire blazing, then logs added. By this point, the water in the backboiler could be heard beginning to boil, so the pump was switched on to feed it through to the hot water tank and radiators.

During cold, wet, winter months, we need the coal in order to get enough heat generated to quickly dry off any dampness from the logs. We aren't yet equipped with a large, undercover log store and it didn't help that the latest load was delivered during a heavy downpour. Surplus logs are stacked (off the ground) and covered in a loose tarpaulin. (The frogs, toads and lizards love it in there!)

It takes 8 large wheelbarrow loads to shift a £40 load of logs, so I'm estimating £5 per barrowload. At a complete guess, I would think half a barrowload would last us a full day, but I'll start my trial today using what's already stacked by the fire and then continue tomorrow with a full barrowload.

I've had to hang a curtain over the doorway between kitchen and main hallway to try and cut down the through draught. Right now, owing to the horrible weather - high winds, rain and snow - the curtains are billowing, but this side of the house does feel warm.

Great excitement! An articulated lorry pulled up outside just minutes ago and my extravagant, environmentally friendly, Black Mountain sheep wool insulation has been delivered!

1) It arrived on a pallet, so that will provide more free kindling for the fire!

2) It was all wrapped up inside a massive, heavy-duty, polythene bag. This will be ideal for securing over the huge hole in the kitchen wall when they come to replace the kitchen window. In fact, I may pin it over the entire window, to help cut down on heat loss until then! I care not what it looks like when it's at the back of the house and only us to see it!

All we need now is to hear news of when the new window has been made and when the new back door and frame can be fitted, then we can plan on getting the new ceiling put up in the kitchen, along with the sheep wool insulation.

Back later with an update on log consumption by my hungry fire.

Edit: This experiment was temporarily halted as I'd to damp the fire right down when we had a power cut. This is the downside to relying on an electric pump to circulate all that hot water that's generated in the back boiler - it has no place to go other than to spurt out the overflow.

Estimating now continues, but with the addition of another kilo (23p) of coal to get the fire back up and running sufficiently to reheat the radiators; these cool down much more quickly than I'd like! In this sense, storage-type heaters are superior in their ability to retain their heat during power cuts. (Assuming they were fully charged prior to the outage, of course.)

This is the second power cut we've had over the past month, so a stand alone log burning stove, in addition to the heating system, is looking more and more of a possibility. One similar to what we installed in the previous house would serve us well, as that allowed us to cook on it, too. But that involves getting in the builders to fully check the second chimney. I feel another savings challenge coming along soon.

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Cost of Heating a Rural Home in Scotland - Part 1

Burning Coal

Following on from previous post, I have been trying to assess the cost of 'fire fuel' and electricity in order to budget more wisely for these things in the future.

Our new home is a stone-built, 3-bedroom, end terraced cottage, located in a fairly rural area of Scotland. The cottages in our block are over two hundred years old, single-glazed with slate roofs. There are no options for things like cavity wall insulation or loft insulation, as we have no cavities and no lofts.

We hope to remedy the problems as we progress with the renovation, but I suspect the property may take quite some time to dry out completely after lying empty for a couple of years. Leaking roof and burst pipes can't have helped, especially after the past two winters endured.

The only form of heating is by way of an open fire in the livingroom, with a backboiler that now heats water and three radiators. Until we can upgrade this to a more efficient stove system, we are probably losing more heat straight up the old chimney than gets into the room!

Coal is now £12.80 per 50kg bag when buying the cheapest available. In June, when we first moved into the house, I bought 4 bags at £11.80 per bag. In September, I stocked up with half a tonne for the special price of £108.00 and then added a further 250kg to this at a cost of £60.00

The total spend on coal since arriving here has been £215.20, equating to 22.65 pence per kilo delivered. For ease of calculation, we'll call it 23p per kilo. (In 2012, the cheapest coal will be 25.6p per kilo, assuming no further price increases.)

The first 'experiment', carried out yesterday, was to light the fire at 6.30am and keep it burning all day to calculate coal costs.

Before filling it with coal, I weighed the scuttle - it holds 8kg of coal, so costs £1.84 to fill. I used two of these between 7am and 11pm , so the open fire is consuming 1 kg (23p) of coal per hour. If I factor in the need for a firelighter and the sticks used for kindling, then add on a log last thing at night, it creeps up to approximately £4 per day. For that, we have hot water and 3 rooms with a source of heat.

Then there's electricity, with the first 25p per day being taken up on standing charges. We are getting through approximately 15 units of electricity per day, mainly because the house is occupied all day, every day, the shower is electric and we now have a convector heater set on low, running 24/7. A single kWh of electricity costs 12.24p, so that's another £1.84 per day.

In this, the first of a series of cost comparisons, the overall total for heat, light, hot water and power in our rural, frugal household is costing £6.09 per day or £42.63 per week.

(The above cannot be said to 'warm' the house, as most of the heat is being lost through the kitchen roof at the moment.)

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Price of Fuel

When it Comes to Heating Versus Eating

Winter is almost upon us here in Scotland, with the higher ground already having snow. This is good for the visiting ski enthusiasts but, for us mere frugalers, it means digging deep to ensure we can afford to eat while heating our homes.

WHAT ARE OUR CHOICES?

The cost of fuel is escalating beyond the reaches of some low paid, rural folks who have few options for finding extra work or securing a cheap, online utilities deal. With no mains gas and roads that are notorious for closing during the harshest winter weather, it leaves few options for the likes of oil tankers getting through to farms and outlying locations if their oil or liquid gas runs out quicker than expected. We are left with one basic option for heat, light and cooking - electricity. There are those who opted to supplement with cylinders of gas, but I'm told these have almost doubled in price recently, leaving many having to look for cheaper alternatives. Indeed, one local supplier is giving up stocking it completely.

In the current economic climate, electricity prices have risen to such a level that things like heating, cooking and hot water are becoming luxuries. Many are returning to solid fuel. But even here, prices are dictating the level to which one can afford to heat their home. (It would be fantastic to even consider that the ECAT could be a potential contender for frugalers within the next couple of years!)

PRICE OF COAL, LOGS AND ELECTRICITY

In our area, the very cheapest, lowest quality coal is now £12.80 per 50kg bag. A trailer load of logs will cost around £50. Electricity prices work out about 14p to 16p per kWh, unless you have E7 that allows for cheap rate during the night - an option I may, once again, need to consider, despite my loathing of storage heaters.

Here in Frugaldom, we live in a small, terraced cottage. We have key-metered mains electricity that now costs £1.75 per week in standing charges and 12.25p per unit. The budget was set for an average 100 units per week, but this has already been breached. £15 per week seems to be seeing us through OK, for now! It covers cooking, lighting, showers and running the computers that enable us to work from home. But temperatures are dropping steadily and we've hardly had a dry day in months - laundry mountain needs to be scaled soon!

COST OF HEATING AND HOT WATER

The only form of heating we have is from an open fire with back-boiler, which can heat the water and 3 radiators. Keeping that fire going long enough to do both for a sufficient length of time is costing us around £25 per week between coal and logs, so that's now £40 per week on power/fuel!

HEATING V EATING

Overall, I have allocated £1,345 of my £4,000 budget in 2012 to electricity, coal and logs. That's 33.62% of the entire frugal living challenge budget! The grocery budget, on the other hand, is less than £25 per week, at £1,250 including toiletries, laundry and cleaning products!

SAVING ON COAL AND LOGS

In true frugal fashion, I rescued a couple of bricks from inside an old storage heater and have placed these at either side of the fire grate, reducing the overall size of the burning area and, thus, lessening the amount of coal or wood needed at any given time. By doing this, I have managed to keep within this £40 per week limit, but the unheated kitchen is becoming colder and colder! The new roof hasn't yet been insulated, there's no ceiling and the back door and windows still need to be replaced. For this reason, I now also have an electric convector heater plugged in, set on 'frost', so it switches on for just long enough to keep the temperature from dropping to zero degrees.

INSULATION OPTIONS

Insulation is paramount i the quest to retain heat, so a great deal of time and effort has been put into deciding what type to fit into the flat kitchen roof. Don't expect help in covering the costs of insulation, as all the wonderful 'free' offers are for specific groups within society - none of which are us! If you choose to support yourself by working from home, have no young children, illnesses, disabilities or pensioners in your household and aren't in receipt of specific state benefits, you can forget financial help from the Government subsidised agencies. Likewise, if your home is of an older, stone built type, there are limitations in how and where you can insulate - again exempting many from help. My best advice is go it alone and, in the event you ever receive any grants or freebies, accept the bonus and bank the savings for the next rainy day disaster that is sure to come along sooner or later.

GOING GREEN, SHEEPS WOOL INSULATION

Frugal living does not lend itself to pursuing a green or eco-friendly lifestyle, that's for sure! While the big, commercial DIY stores offer subsidised glass fibre insulation at £2 per roll, there are few alternatives for the more consciencious house renovators. It's a similar story with things like installing a living roof, solar panels, a wind turbine or a water wheel.

Insulation - I priced Celotex and Kingspan type boards, which many suggest are the best available, then I compared these to environmentally friendly sheeps wool. The insulation qualities between these boards and natural sheeps wool were very similar, but both cost a fortune and both would still need to be boarded over with the new ceiling... so I've gone green on this issue and am supporting the British wool market - I've placed my order for Black Mountain Sheeps Wool. Better still, it actually worked out over 25% cheaper than the builders' merchant delivered prices for Celotex. It even beat eBay prices for surplus to requirement stock! I am happy paying my £45 + VAT delivery charge from Wales, I'd have stayed local had there been a reputable, affordable supplier, but there isn't!

What else has happened during by prolonged absence, for which I apologise. Sudden deaths are never something we are fully prepared for, regardless of how hard we try to prepare ourselves and protect ourselves against every eventuality. But that's a whole different story that warrants a blog post of its own, with a frank and honest look at what devastation, financial or otherwise, can occur in its wake.

THE COST OF RENOVATING A RURAL COTTAGE

The new back door and window have both been ordered, the joiner instructed to start three weeks ago (and he still hasn't returned!) and I'm now contemplating what type of woodburning stove to invest in for next winter. Everything takes time, especially when you live in the country. None of the local tradesmen seem to be in any particular hurry to secure extra work. Let's face it - they can cover a huge area, travel time eats into working hours and there's always someone closer to home needs work doing. Then there's always the bad weather, affecting work outdoors. I'm hoping our latest joiner won't fail us, but he is almost 3 weeks late for starting the door. In fairness, it's hardly stopped raining in all that time, so he's probably doing warmer, drier work inside someone else's fixy-up house.

CUTTING COSTS

Our initial survey estimated £15,000 for the essential remedial works, excluding interior fixtures, fittings and decor etc, but we hope to complete for less than £10,000 by salvaging and reusing whatever we can, while making the most of local freecycle and exchange trading groups. Even these things are difficult when you choose to follow the Frugaldom route, because the local population is spread so thinly across such a wide area that it's seldom you spot a 'bargain' that won't actually cost you more in petrol or diesel to go and collect it! Few and far between rings true on this count. Thank goodness for the Internet and home deliveries, that's all I can say!

DON'T FORGET TO FACTOR IN CAR COSTS!

I often get asked why we don't simply collect our own firewood or shop in the larger supermarkets, but making such obvious choices aren't economically viable. It could take the best part of a day to make the 100+ mile round trip to the nearest Asda Walmart or Tesco superstore. And when driving a smaller, more economical car, it makes it impossible to hitch up a trailer and lug a tonne of freshly cut timber home to try and chop it then store it for 12 to 18 months before it's seasoned and ready for use.

These are the types of things that many townsfolk forget to consider before selling up and shipping out into the country to live their perceived good life of near self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency simply does not exist. We all need money. Setting up a new lifestyle costs money. Pursuing that lifestyle costs money. It is a very expensive mistake to make if you don't find this out until after you've relocated and all your savings have gone. Thankfully, I've never done the city-dwelling, high-flying career lifestyle, so budgeting, for me, is par for my chosen course. I have, however, experienced how quickly it can all go very wrong.

LUXURY IN FRUGALDOM

Nonetheless, I set myself another challenge to earn a little extra from my writing and have now afforded myself the luxury of splashing out on my expensive, environmentally-friendly, sheeps wool insulation. Renovation work in the kitchen should resume soon, without Christmas shopping causing any adverse effect on the spending. Frugaldom should have a snug kitchen before this winter ends, but I'd like to think we could achieve this even before this increasingly late winter begins!

Edited in - I spoke too soon! The snow has begun falling in Frugaldom!
NYK Media
Frugal Living Challenge

Pursuing Frugal Goals

The Quest for Good Living Continues

It's been a very hectic and sad past couple of weeks, especially since the sudden death of my dad. He, too, was a forum and blog fan, although his feathered friends were racing pigeons, rather than hens, ducks and quail. Dad had a great send off last Friday, supported by literally hundreds of friends, colleagues and fellow pigeon enthusiasts who turned out alongside the family. I know for a fact that he'll be sadly missed by many.

Life continues, we all pick up the pieces and soldier on towards our own destinies. We can do no more than our best to ensure we enjoy life to the fullest during our brief time as mortals on this earth. But in true frugal spirit, it is always best to be prepared.

The clocks have changed, we have now officially left British Summer Time behind and are approaching the most expensive time of the year here - winter! Temperatures are already plunging in Scotland, with the first frosts and snow of the year having touched down in the northern parts. Energy prices have risen, once again, forcing many to cut back on heating - never a good idea, in my opinion. I'm still ever hopeful that the E-Cat will eventually prove to be a commericial success and help us all reduce energy costs.

Having only an open fire to heat the Frugaldom household, I'm pleased to say that the new pump, mended pipes and replacement valves are all doing a great job of powering three radiators and heating our water. Coal is costly, as are seasoned logs, but these things shouldn't need to be looked upon as luxury items. It is our right to be able to afford some comfort in our own homes, even if it does mean following a slightly less than 'gourmet' diet.

Nearby, building has resumed on a couple of new houses, so I'm keeping a keen eye on all the pallets of blocks that are being delivered. We love free pallets, so one point of call this coming week is to the building site to ask nicely if they would like us to relieve them of their cast offs. They can only say no. With luck, however, they may let us have them free to chop for firewood - fingers crossed.

The log store is emptying fast, so another load of logs will need to be ordered to see out the remainder of this year. At that point, the new 2012 budget will kick in and we'll be off on our merry way, following the next big frugal living challenge.

Renovations were temporarily halted this month but, thanks to our local LETS group, I have someone coming to see what work they can help do. I'm expecting them tomorrow morning. The first thing needing done is the new bathroom window to be finished off, sealing out the draughts. Next up will be getting some insulation so we can get a new ceiling fitted in the kitchen. If we can possibly squeeze in a new back door, these three jobs would be sufficient to see us through the winter in a wind and watertight house. (I'd better remember to phone the joiner to let him know what the hold up has been!)

I still need to organise a letter box for the front door, but am now loath to allow the joiner to cut a hole in it. Rather than do this, I think I'll invest in a tradition cast iron locking mail box and install it outside. I'm sure there must be some on offer somewhere that are available for home delivery.

Tuesday 1st November sees the beginning of Will Aid month. This is an annual event where solicitors volunteer their time and services for the purposes of Will making and then donate the representative fees to one of several participating charities. I'm not sure how much a basic Will normally costs but the suggested donation is £85 for a single Will, so I am going to take the opportunity to get this essential task done. I haven't much to leave family but sharing a jointly owned house could slightly complicates things. Better to be prepared than continually worry about what would happen if...

The next bit of preparation will be using up all the bits and pieces I have lurking in the fridge and cupboards in order to make way for new stock. I don't know if it's down to previous work involving the wholesale & retail industries, but stock rotation is important, even in the freezer. Plenty of soup making, baking, pie and stew-making, I should think. These things are all great as winter warmers and save on overall electricity costs when batch cooked.

The electric blankets are on the beds and I now need to look out my fleeces for lining the curtains that hang over our single-glazed windows. Draught excluders need replacing and the winter woolies all need airing, so there's plenty to keep me busy.

Outside, the garden is looking a little sad and soggy. H has weeded out the Saffron Crocus bed and we still need to lift some potatoes, cut down the sunflowers for drying (if they even got around to seeding) and turn over the makeshift beds before the frost gets here. I have some garlic cloves ready for planting and I'll get the strawberry plants all bedded down in straw. The trees at the bottom of the garden are beginning to look slightly naked - I can now see the cows in the back field! But all those leaves are falling into the hen run, so what's left of our hens have a fun time scratching in them. I'm planning on making a mesh composting cage after reading a simple 'how-to' guide in the Microholding Daily.

Since the mink attack, the hens haven't been laying. Nor have they been allowed to freerange. Instead, they can only be allowed out their runs while someone is there to keep an eye on them. This doesn't sit well with my overall plan, so some serious redesign work needs to be done in order to keep them all secure. Unfortunately, this is not a financial priority at the moment, so I'll need to set myself yet another challenge for 2012 - raising enough extra cash to improve the entire chicken run, ensuring nothing can climb or burrow into it. It's quite a big hen run, so it could be a very costly job!

If anyone is in need of a blogger, article writer or columnist, get in contact with me and we'll negotiate a frugal rate. My hens need protecting and my surplus savings are only enough to cover the cost of a cheap .22 as part of the Frugaldom vermin control/fur slippers for Christmas plan.

Don't forget you can keep up to date with NYK and Frugaldom news via the RSS Feed, where all the blog posts are listed.

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Never Mind the Winter Weather, What about Cold Fusion

Going all high-brow on frugal energy supplies

My mini-bomb site that's being cleared to reveal a lovely big space in the Frugaldom garden has been the subject of much debate. The area has almost been completely cleared, revealing a fantastic 8m x 3m of new space.

As energy supply is of key importance to us frugalers, all sorts of suggestions have been discussed, from a new wood store to a small poly tunnel, a bird aviary (I know!) to a bunker. Yes, I really did say a bunker!

Now, I know that when thinking of bunkers we may automatically think nuclear fall out shelters rather than cellars for storage or shelter from tornadoes, but I was thinking of neither.

Tomorrow, according to some reports, there might be a very important scientific experiment carried out at the University of Bologna in Italy! If this proves to be true and one Professor Rossi really can prove his theory works, any remote possibility of success could herald a new dawn in energy production.

I'm no scientist, least of all a nuclear physicist, but I am aware of the terms 'Cold Fusion' and 'LENR' (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions).  I watch 'The Big Bang Theory' and have a Scottish Higher in Biology, if that counts? I've even heard of the E-Cat. (No it isn't like a Tamagotchi, I don't think?)

Anyhow, tomorrow is meant to be the start of this latest great test, where they're going to bombard a metal medicine ball with computerised electronic impulses at such a rate as to compress the entire contents to produce new energy. At least that's how I like to think of it.

My coal I bought a fortnight ago cost me £108.00 for half a tonne.

I spend approximately £15 per week on electricity

Logs are £50 per trailer load delivered

I get through £25 worth of petrol each month despite working from home

What this all adds up to is the fact that over the period of a single year, our average energy and fuel costs amount to at least £125 every month! That is ridiculous when we are such a frugal household of waste not, want not people.

But back to my new space cleared in the back garden - IF Prof. Rossi's invention, known as the E-Cat (Energy Catalyser) really does work, proven without a shadow of a doubt, the future of clean energy will dawn by this weekend and it will herald a new beginning, the greatest invention ever that could solve the global warming problem while stopping the melt of the polar icecaps mid-flow. Let's say it could be some kind of miracle

Never mind the Mayan calander, the 2012/2013 predictions, the age of aquarius or the New World Order, the cold fusion war may be about to erupt!

Clean energy, cheap energy, renewable energy with supposedly little or no carbon footprint - could I fit a frugal e-cat or LEN reactor into the space we've just cleared in our back garden? I mean, how difficult can they be to build? They sound like big batteries with the power to squeeze out enough power to fuel the whole of Frugaldom indefinitely. What a thought that is! Too good to be true? Who knows!

I wonder if there would be enough space next to my frugal e-cat for a heated greenhouse? That would really help the veggies along during the cold, Scottish winter months!

I'm not holding my breath awaiting results from the October 6th tests - it may all be nothing more than an elaborate hoax. But then again, there are those who questioned the 1969 moon landings and just as many believe in the Loch Ness monster, aliens at Roswell and human cloning - we choose our own truths, sometimes carelessly.

I'll keep an open mind on this and hope there's just a bit of a news blackout on the e-cat discovery. That would explain all the claok and dagger stuff and the lack of global awareness. As I love to say, he who controls the media, controls the general public. Guess it would be a bit like proving you could run your car on water alone - think how well received that news would be!

Frugaldom.
www.scottishmultimedi.co.uk

Frugal Renovations in Full Swing...

We Have a New Front Door!

This being a Listed Building of almost 200 years old, we need planning permission before we can change anything, so the frugal way of getting around this is to replace like with like and reuse wherever possible.

You can imagine the joiner's bemused expression when I asked him to make us a brand new, wooden door after removing all the salvageable pieces from the old one to keep costs down. Thankfully, he agreed! (Thank you, Mr. R.)

A trip into the nearby village resulted in my returning to see the joiner's van parked in the street, his workbench and a gaping hole at the front of the house where the old door had been. Everything was ripped out back to bare stone walls.

Nearby, stood a brand new door, awaiting it's frugal fate. Not only had this new door to be transformed into one identical to the old one, I had even asked the joiner to salvage the glass from the middle and from the top fan lights.

The glass was carefully removed and then my friend the brillo pad helped me scrub all the old paint stains and putty until the panes were cleaned up and looking as close to new as old, frosted glass can look.

While this was being done, the joiner was busy attacking the new solid door with his saw, removing enough of it to fit in the old panel of glass. Meanwhile, he had made up the new door frame to fit - an odd size, as one might expect for our quirky little cottage.

The sun shone all day and before long, the new frame and door were in place, exact same handles, same lock and same glass as the old one. The new wood has received a coat of sealer and the letterbox didn't arrive in time to be fitted, so literally no bills can come through the door this week!

I invested in a small tin of undercoat and the same in non-drip gloss. Kindly gentleman at the store gave me a discount and threw in some free sandpaper to help with the frugal budget - people in rural communities are so helpful and supportive of one another, constantly demonstrating a mutual respect that I know I would miss if I had ever to venture into the big city.

Tomorrow, I'm half expecting the local plumber to arrive and attempt to resuscitate the old double radiator in the hall. I say 'half expect', as that's the way these things work about here. It's very much a 'take me as you find me, I'll be there when I arrive' kind of a place. Anyhow, all going well, this radiator will be heating  the main hall this winter, powered by a new pump on the hot water system attached to the backboiler behind the coal fire. Hoping against all odds that this can be saved and fixed, as it could prove sufficient to heat up the stairs, too. I'll let you know how it all goes.

To conclude tonight's blog post, I would like to add a few lines in memory of the miner who lost his life in yesterday's tragic accident at Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire. People seldom think much about how our fuel is generated, from where it originates or how it is produced. It simply arrives for our convenience, whether it be electricity, fossil fuel or even logs. But for this family, burning coal will forever remind us.

Yesterday, Tuesday 27th September, 2011, my children lost an uncle. More tragically, their cousins lost their father. My heart goes out to Brenda and all the family involved. Be strong, support one another and may Gerry rest in peace. He will never be forgotten.