Frugaldom Project April 2015 Part 2

Easter weekend and the weather is finer than it's been all week, This morning, the sun shone and work continued at Frugaldom. I was absolutely delighted when the phone rang to say that the fencing of corral #1 had been completed and was eager to pour over the resulting photos, so here goes... the culmination of a lifelong ambition to have a post and rail paddock!

Not much to say about this as the pictures speak louder than words, so I hope you enjoy seeing the progress being made at the Frugaldom project, here in southwest Scotland. I have published a separate post here detailing our unusual fund-raising event, whereby individuals or businesses can 'Tag a post at Frugaldom for £10' by as an additional way of pledging support.

To the left of this line of fencing we are in the process of planting a new willow bed and strip of woodland comprising birch, hazel and rowan, which can all tolerate the boggy ground during wet weather. Beyond that is the second corral, which we hope to fence sometime in the not too distant future.

This is looking towards the yard and what will become the start of our planned willow walk, which was being pegged out last month when planting the willow cuttings.

Now we need to finish painting the barn and getting all of these front posts tagged before the next phase of work can begin. It shouldn't be long before the grass starts growing, so I'm going to try to flatten out the tractor ruts next week.

This is looking straight across at the second corral, which will eventually be separated from this one by a new willow bed that will be coppiced for crafting materials. Beyond corral #2 is bog myrtle or sweet gale and to the right, you can just see the tree protectors from all the new crab apples we planted around the little quarry in November.

I don't think I will ever get tired of the view from here, it is just amazing. I've now seen it at dawn, at dusk, in sunshine and with snow on the Galloway Hills. I've also seen it disappear in torrential rain, but this is Scotland, all of the above could have occurred within the same day.

Final view of corral #1 at Frugaldom, looking towards what we call bracken hill and the future willow walk. Once things begin to grow, you may soon see traces of the willow hide I planted late last year. I hope it takes root and begins to grow soon.

That about wraps it up for this evening. To find out more about what's happening on a day to day basis, register free to join the forum and look for the dedicated 'Frugaldom Project' section.

Aside from this, I am still pursuing my challenge to slash the grocery budget to £5 per person per week and have managed, so far, to get it down to less than £1 per person per day. You can find more about that in the 2015 Challenge section of www.frugalforums.co.uk

See you all there!

NYK Media in Frugaldom.

Frugaldom Project April 2015 Part 2

More Simple Savings in September

Into week three of our 'Simple Savings in September' Challenge and the courgettes are still growing - fabulous plants that just keep on giving more and more - I cook them in everything at this time of year, even omelettes and chocolate cake.

…

Having already begun setting up the project and welcoming various visitors, my thoughts are continually wandering over there, plotting and planning the overall lay-out and design of what will become a horticultural farm or smallholding with its own nature reserve. It has to be self-sustainable, in keeping with the frugal living ethos and with open access to allow our members the opportunity to become a part of it. The first plantings have been done but with all these … read more here

More Simple Savings in September

Live Chat Room

Summary of the Friday Frugalers' Chat

Topic - Monthly Challenges

Tonight's scheduled chat was to discuss how to proceed with the various challenges we all face and how to proceed in a way that is both helpful and fun, leading us through the remaining five months of this year and into the start of 2015. Being prepared always helps. Hopefully, fellow frugal forum members can be there to help support newcomers to frugal living and to encourage those who may be going through a particularly difficult time.

The following challenges were proposed and agreed:

August Austerity Challenge

Austerity relates to a strict policy of simplicity and reduction in budget deficits, so August, despite such things as summer holidays, is about really knuckling down to make every single penny count towards reducing debt or avoiding it. (That means nothing on credit unless it is paid in full prior to any interest or other charges being imposed.) If you really don't think you need to be austere, then help out someone who does.

September Simple Savings Challenge

A month of saving every spare penny you have by way of buying cheaper brands, spending less, making or mending instead of buying, buying second-hand instead of new, cooking, baking, foraging, preserving... count up all costs before you start and don't do it if you can buy the item cheaper. Every single penny counts, even the odd one you might find on the pavement.

100 Day Challenge

Starts on 22nd September and ends 31st December 2014 - 100 days of extra vigilance in an effort to prepare for winter festivities and make it through to the end of the year with less debt than you had at the start of it. If you have no debt, then review your rainy day savings, take note of the figure on day 1 of the challenge and try to increase it by day 100.

Frugal ADVENTures

This challenge will run from 30th November to 26th December (4 weeks) - be prepared, the festivities occurs every year, so don't be caught out and feel pressurised into spending a small fortune on loved ones... show them that fun, laughter and happy memories are free, or at the very least show them they are frugal.

October Only if I (Really) Need it Challenge

Easy to understand - time to get those priorities in order and separate needs from wants. This will be a challenging month of spending only on what you cannot live without.

November's Never Give Up Challenge

It's a long haul getting from one year to the next if you have debts or other worries, so November is about reflecting on what's most important to you, sharing with friends, offering and accepting support and, most of all, never giving up on hopes, dreams or ambitions. We aren't chasing rainbows here, we are painting our own. We'll be discussing what really gets in the way and what is simply perceived as getting in the way, addressing what frugal living is really all about and how great it can be to lead by example, regain any lost positivity and help those less fortunate than ourselves.

December - Declare Yourself a Frugal Success

Yes, I said success! There are no failures in Frugaldom, only blips, slip-ups, diversions and delays. If you are still actively participating in this glorious lifestyle and still in pursuit of frugal freedom, then you are a winner and that deserves recognition and celebration. We will celebrate all our successes, even the tiniest ones that may, otherwise, have been overlooked.

Thank you all for being a part of Frugaldom and for taking the time to contribute to the forums.

Your support means everything!

NB: NYK Chat is a recently introduced initiative that enables our members to meet online in real-time for live chat sessions. Only fully active members of the forums can access the chat room. Registration is free and applications to join are processed as quickly as possible. Don't forget to activate new membership.

The NYK Chat Room

The NYK Chat Room

To date, the preliminary get-togethers in the new chat room have proven to be most enjoyable, enlightening and entertaining. We all appreciate that typing errors can inadvertently be made and allowances should be made for this, mainly down to the fact that I wear out the letters on a key board quicker than I wear out shoes!

Here goes with the weekly schedule; hopefully it will cater for your every need across the frugal spectrum.

Read more here

Grow Wild Scotland - Vote Here

Grow Wild is an exciting four-year campaign to bring people together to sow UK native wild flowers. It could help transform where you live, bringing colour and surprise to your neighbourhood. By Growing Wild, we can turn our gardens and windowsills into wildlife-friendly, wild flower patches. Read more here

Doing the Monster Mash with Autumn Root Veg

Oh, Sweet Potato, you are HUGE!

Frugal food is in abundance at this time of year and my fresh egg supplies are, thankfully, still plentiful. Duck eggs, hen eggs, bantam eggs, quail eggs... not to mention the glut of cucumbers I'm still harvesting, plus apples, berries and plums. So much for so little and all there for the picking to help keep the grocery budget to a minimum.

 

Here in Frugaldom, we seldom sell eggs. It's more a case of giving them away and welcoming all sorts of gifts in return - home baking, greenhouse produce, garden produce, even furniture or DIY items that neighbours no longer require; I'll trade for anything useful!

 

Today's egg deliveries have been done: I set off with my supplies and came home with carrots, onion and sweet potatoes to add to the potatoes, squash, marrow, beans and lemon drizzle cake from last week's exchanges. I love this way of life, it's just so money savvy in a waste not, want not sort of way. Today's sweet potatoes are absolutely massive!

 

What does a frugal living person do with their root veg and squash? We do the monster mash!

 

Big pot of water on the hot plate and then let's start peeling... a few potatoes, a few carrots, a huge sweet potato and then, finally, the last of the squash. I don't salt the water to boil these and there's a very special reason why - chicken stock! My feathered livestock like this over their breakfast.

 

Once all the vegetables are cooked through, I simply drain off the water into a bucket and it gets kept for using in the garden, the poultry feed or else into the stock pot to make soup. Zero waste.

 

Brightly coloured monster mash can be made using most types of root vegetables, it's not just the preserve of potatoes, turnips and swede. I season them accordingly with salt and pepper, add a knob of butter or margarine, a splash of milk and then get mashing. Any surplus can be frozen, but I add some powdered milk to that before splitting it up into empty margarine tubs, it seems to help prevent the mash from going watery when it thaws.

 

This autumn coloured monster mash makes for a very orange dinner and I normally serve mine with vegetable-laden stew. The veggie mash is much more nutritious than simple mashed potatoes.

 

Not content with my autumnal coloured main meal, there's still the glut of apples to deal with, so crumbles galore! Add a bit of colour (and a few extra vitamins) by including a handful of stewed berries or a tablespoonful of homemade hedgerow jelly, which is what I did here. I do like my food to be colourful!

 

This crumble was made using wholemeal flour mixed with the sesame and sunflower seed bread flour.

 

We seem to have a real-life micro community here, based on a few neighbours who can see past the 'frugal living' eccentricities and see the lifestyle for what it really is - a caring and sharing one that doesn't like waste. Not only did I return home with my bag of vegetables, I was also given 2 small bolster cushions that I can recover and a bag of wool oddments. What a superb day's trading it has been in Frugaldom and not a penny spent.

 

Right, I'm off to finish making my free Velux blind so I can get part 2 of that blog post done. Hopefully, the blind will be completed tonight and hanging in the window by bedtime.

 

NYK, Frugaldom.

Easter Round-up in Frugaldom

First of all, I'd like to share the news that we have just managed to break through the £200 mark with our fundraising, trying to help raise cash towards replacing the local lifeboat. Our main challenges takes place Bank holiday weekend on 24th May, 2013, when we'll be leaving Port William and travelling to Fort William with the aim of taking members of Clan McGonk to the summit of Ben Nevis - UK's highest mountain.

Today, which also happens to be Easter Sunday, is the first day of British Summertime here in UK but our local Scottish weather wouldn't have you believe that. It's around 5 Deg C in the sunshine, the ponds are still frozen and there are still lanes blocked by snowdrifts. It is, however, dry and breezy, so frugal line drying of laundry is a boost. The roads are also clear enough to gt back out on the bikes, assuming you're careful and stick to main routes. This is the bike sitting next to the roadside on the main route into our area - still quite deep with snow, to say the least.

I took the opportunity to stop for a couple of photos to show how much had melted on the exposed areas - vast swathes of grass now showing through, but with lengthy drifts along the walls. The above was taken at lunchtime today, over a weeks since the blizzards hit us.

Yesterday, we cycled down to the local village to meet with someone who is keep to establish a project that really appeals to me - one involving a food co-operative for local growers and producers, along with a community based cafe and work space for the local artists and crafters among us.

The project revolves around the old corn mill and adjoining 16 acres of land. There are already hens, ducks and pigs there, plus the two Clydesdale horses that are being put to work, hauling out debris and ploughing the land where a heritage variety of wheat will be grown. It's hoped that the old water wheel can be restored and put back into use, powering the mill, while outdoors can be run as a self-sufficientish smallholding, providing fresh food locally. There's also a small fishing boat and scope for a wide variety of fruit and vegetable plots. And lest we forget, the favoured mode of transport could help reduce carbon emissions if work and local travel was done by horse power, on foot or by bicycle. It all sounds great, I just hope the project can get off the ground and achive success.

The bartering system may well come into play, but the project needs
to establish itself and garner the support of the locals in order that it may progress.

Spud, one of the Clydesdales, has already endeared himself to the village by being put to work during last week's power cuts, when he was out and about pulling fishcrates filled with fuel and delivering it to places that modern vehicles simply couldn't reach. Photo here is of Charlie and Spud relaxing by the side of the burn that flows alongside the mill.

Aside from visiting the old mill, we also had a stop off at the shore, where it was rather amusing to see snow lying along the edges of the slipways, right to the water's edge. Sunny it may be, but warm it is not. Who knows how or when anything can be sown in this weather but one thing's for sure - we'll be needing many more logs and pinecones before it's warm enough to do without the stove indoors and the prospect of being warm outdoors is still looking pretty distant, even in the greenhouse. Speaking of which, I wonder if there's space for a couple of fullsize polytunnels at either of the nearby frugal projects? Must ask!

Winter Struck with a Vengeance!

Why It's Fab to be Frugal!

A full week has passed since my last blog post and I have to apologise for that. However, 3 of those days we were without power during some of the worst snow storms people in this area have seen in their life times! This southwest corner of Scotland just doesn't normally get severe winter weather. But I'll get to that in a moment or two.

 

On Thursday 21st March, we had a fabulously frugal outing to the beach. It was a glorious day of sunshine and blue sky, there was a blustery wind but the heat was getting through despite this, especially when cycling with the wind driving us onwards along the roads at a jolly speed. I packed a picnic lunch into the cool bag, loaded it onto the bike and then we headed off to take some photographs for the eco-arts blog.

 

In all, we covered about 15 miles, so everything is within fairly easy reach when the weather plays fair. Cycling along the shore was bright and breezy, then it's a simple case of wheeling the bikes down onto the beach, where it's safe to leave them. Let's face it, Frugaldom isn't exactly situated in the busiest of areas and tourist season doesn't start for another few days. The beach was completely deserted, as it is on most of our visits.

 

We explored some nearby caves, where smugglers may once have hidden their booty. There's local folklore relating to certain caves on this shore having been inhabited by troglodytes - I just love that word, don't you? Now, of course, the cave is nothing more than a bin, filled with whatever has been blown in over the winter. On my next visit here, I must remember to take a rubbish bag and gloves so I can clear the place out a bit. I is such a shame to see it filled with plastic bottles and the discarded waste blown after being tossed out the windows by passing motorists. Sadly, there are no bins within the vicinity, so I'm not quite sure how I'd lug it all to the nearest suitable disposal point.

 

On Thursday night, the power supply must have been interupted because I

woke around 7am on the Friday morning to the clunk of the meter and the whir of the electrics stirring back to life. It had been fairly windy through the night and a friend had even pointed out that the sky looked like it was cooking up a big storm. "Be prepared!" That was the last thing I remember thinking on the Thursday night - thank goodness I took heed!

We have Velux windows upstairs here, but when I looked out in the morning there was not a single thing to be seen - they were completely covered in SNOW! The house was freezing - no central heating here and the electric heaters had gone off due to the powercut - so I grabbed the camera (as one does in such emergency situations) and went out to the front door to be greeted by this! I was able to get online to access some local news but the power went back out before 8am.

That was the start of the snowy weekend that will go down in history for many of the locals here, as they just aren't used to seeing this amount of snow land on their doorsteps: they had no power, no preparation time and many had no emergency supplies. By now, we were blocked in by the drifts. Nobody wandered far on Friday while the blizzards blew and the snow drifts grew.

'Wilbur' was lit and the kettle was on the go constantly for hot water, hot drinks and warmth. I cooked the breakfast porridge on the stove top, boiled a ham and made a pot of soup for lunches, cooked the potatoes, the veggies, fried bacon and eggs... Wilbur has been working 24/7 since Friday morning and I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to be prepared for inclement weather combined with no mains power.
Our open fire couldn't be lit because it has a back boiler that heats the water and radiators - it is driven by an electric pump. Those with gas or oil central heating had nothing because it's all reliant on electrically driven pumps. Those with solar panels and wind turbines were no better off, as these are connected to the National Grid - none are stand alone with power storage facilities.




The road is under there somewhere

Most about here do have camping equipment and generators, so the street ran pretty much as normal with the help of some additional community spirit, but no amount of that keeps the place ticking over when fuel supplies begin to run out - and that began happening when the power failed to return after 48 hours in sub-zero temperatures and high winds drifting the now very deep snow - this was the top end of our road on Sunday.


Several miles away, suppliers had run out of gas and the petrol stations had no power to pump fuel for any vehicles even if they could have reached the forecourts.

Our main road beig dug out at the weekend

All the roads blocked, even the main trunk road that links the Irish ferry port at Cairnryan to Dumfries and then Carisle. It's the Irish-English link route. This A75 Euroroute soon became impassable, with hundreds of vehicles and passengers stranded. The snow ploughs couldn't get through the roads! When the tractors became trapped in drifting snow, it was the turn of the 'big boys' in their 'big toys'.

As I write this, our roads have now all been cleared, leaving massive walls of snow along either side. Feed lorries, fuel lorries and other deliveries have all made it through and things are running relatively smoothly BUT the snow has begun falling again and the temperature has not reached much above freezing since last week. It's beautiful to look out on the white landscape and was especially so on Sunday, when the sun shone brilliantly from perfect blue skies. This photo shows the road we normally walk along when doing one of our circular routes - it was cleared by Monday but that was as far as we could get along it on Sunday. Those on the other side were stuck and without power for many hours longer than us here on the 'main' road.

Food supplies here are always relatively good, wth plenty of longterm items and 2 freezers running. But freezers need electricity and defrosted food needs cooking or using up quickly. I am very fortunate to have my stand alone multi-fuel stove for cooking. My frozen food has all survived despite 3 days without power, by way of packing the free space with bags of snow. The hens and ducks are laying daily, so eggs were shared with neighbours who happily swapped for a few carrots to make extra soup and a couple of packs of firelighters, which are always needed for emergencies.

The power company flew along the route of the powerlines and had emergency repairs done relatively quickly, in my opinion, while our local lifeboat crew down in the village helped countless households to cope. An emergency Facebook page was set up to help snowbound residents of Dumfries and Galloway, although I was unaware of that until I received a phone call from a friend of a relative of an elderly resident within walking dostance of me needing help.

Our roadsides currently look like this, but without the blue sky, as that's now turned to more snow. To get those roads cleared as well as keeping the elderly relatively warm and fed plus help struggling farmers dig out stranded livestock, it meant community spirit was raised tenfold.

Hopefully, we wont see a repeat of this event for a long time, but we are forecast more snow and the odds are heavily stacked in favour of a white Easter.

For now, the crisis has been averted and many have even managed to get out and enjoy the exceptional scenes created by this sudden and very unusual weather event.

Some of us even got as far as to find the time to create some eco-art by the roadside!

I hope you like the Snowcat!


Note to all who plan on following the frugaldom lifestyle:

• ALWAYS keep your old-fashioned, 'plug into the socket' phone handy. Wireless handsets are brilliant most times but completely useless during power cuts.
• Don't forget that there is little or no mobile phone signals in remote or rural areas.
• Keep rechargeable batteries fully charged.
• Keep candles and matches handy at all times and ensure you have safe locations and holders for them..
• Keep a stock of long shelf-life, fast cook foodstuffs, instant coffee and dried milk.
• Ensure you always have sufficient medication, if required.
• Always keep a plentiful supply of pet and livestock feeding/bedding/supplies.
• Know where everything is in case it's needed in a hurry.

Frugaldom forums can be found at www.frugaldom.myfreeforum.org

Handmade Christmas on a Frugal Budget

Hand Making Christmas

Snowman Soup

This year, I'm in a bit of a quandary as to what to do and how to proceed as far as cards and gifts are concerned. Basically, most folks I know are skint and opting out of gift-giving or card sending. I can't really blame them on the cards thing, as it saddens me to see tons of pretty cardboard binned or burned after the festivities are done and dusted, and it doesn't help that the cheapest postage stamp is now 50p, which is enough only for the flattest, non-embellished cards. Anything fancy and we're into the realms of 'large letter' postage.

For those on certain benefits, (I can't tell you which ones as I don't know) thre's the opportunity to purchase a limited number of discounted stamps, so make the most of it, even if it's just to help a friend, as I know some are doing.

For details of the 'snowman soup' featured in the photo, see blog post here.

My middle name, or one of them, should be 'disorganised'! I do try my best to save up as many vouchers and points as possible throughout the year so I can afford Christmas but it never works out that way! I shop online via Topcashback, collect Nectar points, Co-op points and accrue credit card cashback. The sum total can amount to well over £100 worth over the year, which a small fortune for me! It buys all sorts of essentials through the year - like cat food, bulk food buys and assorted gifts that can be sent directly. Trouble is, the voucher savings never last long enough to complete the Christmas shopping. I need to get inventive and make gifts that can be posted for the minimum First Class amount of £2.70, plus I now live in a tiny community where everyone exchanges cards, hence my need for extras.

Tonight's job is card-making and I can cheat a bit with the bulk of them by way of the cardmaking kits I bought in a charity auction. These will be hand delivered to friends, family and neighbours. The further afield ones all get sent to one address for sister to distribute accordingly. I would show you the kit cards all made up but can't, as a couple of the recipients would see them before receiving them. :)

NOTE TO SELF: Double sided sticky tape and sticky tabs are just that - STICKY!

After completing the kit cards, it will be time to move on to the individually created ones for gran daughters, nieces and nephews. Coupled with that, I shall also create my entry card for the bloggers' competition that was announced following our completion of the Secret Santa challenge.

The Christmas Card Crafting Competition will need a blog post on its own, but everyone is free to take part. Here are the details I received from Money Supermarket about the 'Christmas card craft off' challenge:

We want to see photos, guides, tips and the different stages you went through – and in exchange you’ll be in with a shot of winning one of the incredible prizes, which are on offer to the top three entries in each category:

Adults

• 1st – iPad Mini
• 2nd – £100 Hobbycraft vouchers
• 3rd - £50 Hobbycraft vouchers

 Children

• 1st – iPad Mini
• 2nd – £100 Hobbycraft vouchers
• 3rd - £50 Hobbycraft vouchers

Like any good frugaler, I'm determined to secure my entry into the competition, but need to get my personal Christmas cards out before that. 

 

Back soon,

 

Frugaldom

www.frugaldom.com

Please Help Spread the Word Before this Money is Gone

Well Earned Travel, a Fitting Tribute and Funding to Make it all Possible.

Frugal living is something that many of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents have been familiar with for years. This lifestyle is nothing new to them and they can certainly teach us a thing or two about household budgeting after what they have been through during The War.

Making the most of whatever was available, adopting a waste not, want not attitude and trying their best to eke out every penny was all part of a normal day. This has never been more apparent than during wartime.

Vegetable growing, sewing, dressmaking, batch cooking for their hungry families and keeping the home fires burning may have been essential to survival. Meanwhile, husbands, fathers and sons would be in far off places, facing the challenges and dangers of war. Back then, there were no such luxuries as computers, globally networked mobile phones or public telephony - communications were whatever brief notes could be scribbled and sent to comfort loved ones and offer a tiny fragment of reassurance to those back home. It really is amazing just how much we take for granted nowadays when we get down to thiking about it all.

The Dig for Victory scheme was introduced as soon as World War II began, meaning that every available space back home had to be turned over to food production. Stores would never last the entire nation  for six months, let alone years, so allotments began springing up everywhere.

Looking back, it is difficult to imagine how people coped living with the stresses of a war-torn nation while trying to carry on with life in the absense of many of the able-bodied men. The fight was as much here as anywhere else, only here it was a fight for survival in a slightly different way. Life was a struggle.

All of those survivors deserve recognition and all deserve to be able to afford to visit those far-flung places where they once fought or where loved ones lost their lives. Hopefully, the following will be of help to some. All that I ask is that you spread the word to all concerned before this funding is gone.

Heroes Return 2 is a £17 million scheme providing funding to WWII veterans, their wives or husbands, widows or widowers and, where needed, accompanying carers to visit the overseas areas where World War II veterans saw active service.

Launched in 2004 as part of the Big Lottery Fund's Veterans Reunited programme, the scheme has already helped thousands of UK veterans to revisit battlefields where they once fought and for widows, spouses and carers to witness where it all happened.

Many fought and died to defend our nation in order that we might enjoy freedom and safety. We have what we have because of our wartime heroes. It is only natural that we should make every effort to ensure all those affected can afford to make the trip to pay a final and fitting tribute to their loved ones who lost their lives in the name of this country.

Grants of up to *£5,500 are available to veterans resident in the UK and Republic of Ireland who fought with or alongside British forces in WWII. Widows and widowers of veterans are also eligible, as are carers and spouses traveling with veterans.

Ted Cachart, himself a WW2 veteran who has successfully been through the funding process, is more than willing to help anyone through their application process. Ted can be contacted via any of the following:

Tel: 01582 737152
Mobile: 07543 550 660 
Email: info@worldwartwoheritage.com

Please help spread the word before funding ends in January 2012.


*£5500 is the total for a husband and wife as well as a carer to the far east.

Please feel free to print this blog post and redistribute it to anyone who may not know about the scheme or even to your local newspapers, radio and/or TV stations. Full details regarding the funding available from the Big Lottery Fund website.

The People's Supermarket Got Me Started!

Tonight was one of those rare occasions when our TV actually managed to pick up a signal. We managed to see a full episode of Landward, then watched 'The People's Supermarket' with great interest. I'd caught part of one episode previously and then clicked to follow @TPSLondon on Twitter. Not having the benefit of superfast broadband in these rural parts, I can't watch any reruns online, so my research has been severely restricted - Twitter, Facebook and their website.

Twitter bio says:
Name: People's Supermarket

Location: Holborn, London
Web http://www.thepeoplessupermarket.org/
Bio: The People's Supermarket is a bold new venture which allows a community to come together and take charge of the food they buy and eat.
 
Sadly, tonight's TV episode appears to have been the final part of the series, ending with the shop picking up a few more members and trading briskly enough to warrant its immediate survival. There's even a suggestion of another store!
 
With around 650 members paying £25 each per year to join the TPS project, unless I'm wrong, membership has generated a mere £16,250 before deduction of admin costs. That's equivalent to less than one week's overheads on the entire project. So, how much bang do members get for their bucks?
 
First of all, it looks as though members need to volunteer an average of an hour per week helping run the store. In exchange for membership and helping out, members are also entitled to a 10% discount on their groceries. Based on the National Minimum Wage of £5.93, membership equates to a total of just over £333.00 per year. My question is, can someone save more than that by joining?
 
THE ANSWER IS YES, OF COURSE YOU CAN! But only if you're a shoppers who is guaranteed to spend an average of £65 (inclusive of discount) every week in TPS.
 
People, there are massive savings to be made here! Everyone tell a friend, relative, neighbour or colleague. Do a bulk shop on whatever items you all need. Batch cook and share. The apples and broccoli in tonight's programme were perfect examples; adapt the diet and the meal plan to suit what's available, join forces with others and share-shop. It's a no brainer!

• You're helping local producers,
• You're supporting your local community,
• You're helping others save money and
• You're helping keep perfectly good produce out of the landfills.

It's second nature to followers of the frugaldom lifestyle but it's also the oldest 'new trend' to hit the high streets! TPS really is a store where every penny and every person counts! And that's coming from someone who has only ever set foot in the City of London once in her entire life!

Let's ask the same question of a typical frugal family. Here, we base grocery shopping on the concept that an average of £1 per person per day is sufficient to feed a family, assuming you are prepared to batch cook, preserve, implement a zero waste policy, grow your own wherever possible and stockpile on any bargains. For a typical 'frugaldom' family of four, even allowing for special occasions, the annual grocery budget is still only £1,500.00  TPS membership may have no appeal to our frugalers, until you remind them that by share-shopping, that exact same £1,500 could buy them a lot more (or cost them less) and provide the opportunity to meet a whole group of similarly minded individuals. Not only that, look at the opportunities to get away for a day into the country, fruit and veg picking.
 
With TPS being open to the general public, I'm struggling to see why the place isn't mobbed on a daily basis. I haven't seen enough of the series to understand the original concept, location or footfall past the door. From what I understand, it appears that the project, while being underfunded from the start, was set up to offer fresh, locally sourced produce at below supermarket prices. This is based on the premise that fresh produce being offered there was unacceptable or unwanted by the big supermarkets.  Misshapen or over/undersized fruit & veg seemed like brilliant buys, to me. I mean, where else can you buy fresh peppers for 15p each without there being a 'whoops' yellow or orange sticker on them? 
 
TPS offering hot food to takeaway was an ingenious idea, although I'm not sure how prices compared to elsewhere. Regardless, it's a great way to reduce, reuse and recycle leftover fresh produce. Followers of the frugaldom lifestyle are well used to cooking up such delicacies on a regular basis and would eagerly flock to bag a few more bargains, given half the chance.
 
Being underfunded from the start, it can't have been easy to get the whole TPS project off the ground. However, there seemed to be a distinct lack of co-operation and communication among the members during meetings. The fact that the majority of existing members didn't seem to be taking advantage of what was on offer clearly proved that the supporters of this scheme are divided. Seeing only 6 people out of 350 members turn up for apple-picking was sad, but that, again, reflects on how precious everyone deems their own time and how disjointed society has become. Time is money, for many. That's the society we live in today and the society that we have allowed ourselves to create.
 
From where I'm looking, there are those who want to pay their money as 'silent partners', there are those who want to be seen to volunteer their services within a less fortunate area than their own (but don't channel their own spending power through the store) and there are those who prefer to just shop - with money saving in mind. For many others, it might even be beneath them to be seen in such a store as TPS! 
 
But the 21st Century has brought a new trendiness to austerity. It's good to be green, it's perfecly acceptable to be prudent and, for all those 'big spending, flash Harrys', saving is uppermost on their minds, whether they acknowledge it or not. Just check out all the current tax evasion strategies being employed within the UK right now.
 
Only by offering lucrative 'deals' can the big spenders be drawn into the picture. Fresh veg boxes are all the rage, lunch packs and snack packs are all the rage, get those frugal entrepreneurial brains into action and create a whole new chain of products from what's already available. How close is TPS to large office blocks or concentrated numbers of lunchtime snackers? If they don't want the whole fruit, offer to cut it into smaller pieces for them and charge them accordingly, ask the guy on the bicycle to deliver in time for lunch or teabreak.
 
The possibilities are endless... aim for FREE implementation of all you can, aim to REDUCE every overhead you can, aim to SAVE OTHERS time, inconvenience and money, aim to encourage DISCUSSION among existing members and spread the word... those are my personal thoughts on the matter.
 
So, where does that leave the concept of a people's supermarket? I don't know about London, (£18,000 minimum turnover to break even every week is a fortune to someone like me!) but here in Frugaldom, there is always a need to set the bottom line and then keep lowering it. If rates are payable, I'd be seeking some form of rebate for the community project. I'd be monitoring every single unit of electricity consumed, every litre of water, every penny of insurance paid and every penny spent on transport. As an active member of a Local Exchange Trading Scheme, the concept is similar - we all pitch in as much as possible and we all pay out as little as possible. There's cashback, promotional activities, free publicity, free advertising and marketing opportunities, free involvement of the general public, free opportunities to SAVE MONEY...
 
The basic concept of The People's Supermarket is brilliant, yet the implementation may be its failing... I'd bring in 'back up' in the shape of the nearest London LETS group or similar. At worst, all surplus produce could be traded out on their points system and then the accumulated points could be offered to other LETS members who were prepared to put in a few hours of work in exchange for cheap fruit and veg.
 
I may be coming across as a bit of a country bumpkin with no apparent concept of city life, but I trust in society's playing fields not being level. And I have worked in a city, albeit Glasgow in the 80's. 
 
Rural living on a frugal budget can, in many ways, be much more challenging than budgeting in or around the big cities. Throughout the UK, I am sure there must be thousands of families that could benefit from being part of a scheme similar to The People's Supermarket. Even if they can't promise 4 hours of their time a month and £25 a year membership, they can appreciate bargains and they do need to eat. We just need to look at the huge success of the newest 'big 3' frugal food stores: Approved Food, Food Bargains and Big Brands for Less to see that it isn't just the low income households who are taking advantage of this type of shopping - we do, afterall, see the vans delivering the boxes!
 
Don't forget to join us in the Frugaldom Forums to discuss Frugal Food, amongst many other subjects.

The Doon of May - a fantastic project in the making.

Just recently, we've been spending some time at the Doon of May. It consists of 175 acres of mixed forest and woodlands surrounded by a traditional, dry stone dyke. One side is bordered by Mochrum Loch, but it's what's within the Doon of May that fascinates me: there's an iron age hill fort!



Last weekend, whilst the sun was shining and the day was warm, we headed across there and followed the track to the old fort. Telltale signs still remain from this year's beltane event, which included dancing around a traditional maypole. The hill fort is completely overgrown but the autumn weather is quickly resulting in the bracken to dying back. Wellies on (you never know what snakes may be hiding amongst the undergrowth of Galloway), cameras in hand, we set off to climb the fort and see what views it had to offer from the top. It was well worth it!

  



Doon of May is located between Kirkcowan and Port William. Travelling from Newton Stewart direction means a fairly lengthy 15 mile drive, much of it along single track through Mochrum Estate. You can tell by the cattle grids what to expect, as sheep and cattle graze the surrounding countryside, wandering wherever they like. This includes the road, so please drive slowly and carefully and don't risk getting out of the car with your camera if you're between a cow and her calf.



Likewise, don't wander around with your dogs, as the livestock see them as predators if they get too close. All that aside, it's a lovely drive. I can only imagine how great it would be on horseback if we were guaranteed there were no tactical low flying exercises incorporating fast military jets and helicopters.

  

The old hill fort is about 20 minutes walk from the main gates. With luck, there will be someone about to point you in the right direction. If not, be careful not to get lost. for the benefit of those who may not get the chance to visit this place, the view from the top is quite spectacular. You can easily pick out the Mull of Galloway with its lighthouse and, on a clear day, you can see across to Ireland. I'm told that being up there after dark gives you the orange glow of the streetlamps that light up Belfast.



The Doon of May is privately owned but set up to operate as a base for workers' co-operatives interested in reforestation, food production, wildlife preservation and an exciting array of woodland crafts. I plan on learning a great deal more about Iron Age settlements and the lifestyles back then but also have a keen interest in cultivating willow for sculpting, basket-weaving and, ultimately, as a carbon neutral fuel. Add to this the fact that we enjoy growing fruit, I can see great potential for becoming much more involved in this project in the longterm. Forest art is something else that interests us, and there's already some of that to be found within the forest.

These are just a few of the photos I took last weekend. More will follow if the weather holds for this weekend, when we'll take a look at how we can get some sort of working co-operative together and get path clearing, planting, cultivating, hedging, ditching, dyking and crafting. We need to seek the best possible way to help take the project forward. I'm confident that a few fellow members of GallowayLETS will be interested, especially as it's more about skills sharing and investment of time rather than hard cash. Cree trading to get jobs done sounds alright to me. The best methods of funding future projects can be dealt with at a later date.

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