How to be a Frugal Living Expert, part 3

• #Frugal Living
• #Money Saving
• #Free Food
• #Household Budgets
• #Food on a Budget
• #Money Challenges
• #How to...

Quit spending on stuff you don't need! I cannot repeat this often enough! It is the number one cause of being skint, no matter how much or how little money you have coming into your household. Frugal living is about HOW you allocate your budget.

 

How poor is poor? I can't answer that question as it's all relevant to personal perception. I can't afford racehorses, yachts or a beach house in Monacco but it doesn't make me poor. Everyone wants a slice of your cake and the bigger your cake, the bigger the slice they want! But isn't it funny how rich people don't seem to cut all that many more slices from their huge, rich cakes? It still starts with the roof over their head, the food and drink on their table, their transport and then the usual stuff, like pets, fashion, hobbies and holidays. They DO NOT dash off and spend a heap more time at the Bingo, bookies or pub, not do they do a trolley dash three times a day around the supermarkets looking for yellow stickers and I doubt very much if they cut out tokens for the £9 holiday from several tabloid newspapers (rather than 1), up their brand of tobacco and graduate from Lambrini to Lambrusco and then perhaps onto a cheap Prosecco!

So, it's time to start thinking like a solvent person and quit whining about being poor. Enrich your life by learning how to think positively and see beyond the debt. Think like a wealthy and wise person, while taking care of your pennies.

Now to look at what's cheap today that used to be the preserve of the rich!

Most people who use the Internet now have access from home, work or via their mobiles - we know this because our libraries are being closed at an alarming rate through lack of use and I cannot remember the last time I saw a pay-per-hour Internet cafe since my own closed down in the 90's. It was the preserve of the rich to drive saloons with car phones and when I eventually introduced mobile phones into my business plan, it cost £149.99 for the cheapest pay-as-you-go hand set, which looked a bit like a brick in comparison to today's sleek little touch screen gadgets. Access to technology has turned the definition of poverty on its head.

And yet we have food banks, over 5% unemployment (which does NOT mean we have almost 95% in employment) and people saddled with unsustainable debt that includes mortgages on properties that have sunk into negative equity.
But interest rates have never been so low for so long, mortgages never been so affordable and many of the luxuries around us have fallen within the reach of even the most basic earners. I can sail to Ireland for a tenner and call it a day cruise, despite fuel prices being almost ten times what they were at the start of the 80's! What has gone wrong?

Internet costs money and we don't actually NEED it. Based on various criteria, it looks to cost around £10 per week, by the time you factor in contracts (if you have any), line rentals for land lines and the various call and Internet (usually broadband) packages.

To be honest, £10 per week is very reasonable to someone like me who was introduced to the Internet via charged national call rates. I remember the day they dropped Internet access charges to local rate and then a further drop to a penny a minute (on top of your monthly or annual fee, plus telephone line rental) and we celebrated no end - probably with Lambrusco, as Lambrini hadn't yet been invented. I think it came about to make cheap fizzy wine sound like the classier Martini - only not shaken or stirred!

When all-inclusive Internet packages arrived, we swore our undying love to our computers. But we mustn't overlook the fact that, despite these massive drops in price, Internet is still something that many cannot afford. So let's look at what £10 can buy you if you really are broke!

What food types are suitable for all diets, including sugar and grain intolerant ones, that are affordable to all budgets and can cover our basic nutritional requirements? My guess is that homemade soup is the most obvious choice, as it can be cooked almost anywhere, even over a campfire, and comprises water based stock, some veggies and, if you're felling flush, a handful of pulses and/or grains.

How many of you have been to a butcher, asked for dog bones and then used pony carrots and a handful of broth mix or rice to make a pot of soup?

What would you give up first? Your mobile phone, your Internet access or something else - anything else other than your connection to the outside world?

Join us in the www.frugalforums.co.uk to discuss it further

Frugal Living from Scratch 2

 

Part 2 of 2: Getting right back to basics - Each step forward can be seen as another step back towards the starting line. Each tiny achievement marks the successful completion of part of your lifelong challenge, your quest for freedom. Along the way you will meet many sceptics, cynics and even a few cheats and liars whose only ploys are to get your money. As long as you have your 'get out of jail free' card then you know you'll be back in the game soon.

So here I am, sat in my latest home, looking out the window at a pretty grey and wet day with 'pretty' being the most important word in that sentence. The curtains are quite awful, but that's an easily remedied problem once I get around to making some new ones. Perhaps I'll add a pelmet or even some nets, who knows? I haven't decided yet. For now, the curtains serve the purpose of shutting out some of the cold at night.

Most of my days will now be spent between here and Frugaldom, planting and sowing, clearing and cleaning, plotting and planning and wading through all the meetings that these projects seem to involve. The site where we have the caravan is quite busy with fishermen, so I'm managing to hog the satellite wifi connection very easily from my makeshift office corner. It has great views and has all the facilities I could possibly need.

Buying a bigger caravan and siting in on a holiday park may seem like a major luxury to some - indeed, it has already been commented upon! However, this suits our needs and was within a strict budget. Now my new neighbours will know who and where I am, as this lot's sitting outside the caravan waiting to be built into the new decking. I can't wait to see it completed and then I'll be ready for welcoming visitors. I'm using this week as a trial run to work out what is needed, having come here on Friday with only the barest essentials. There's hot water and a heated towel rail, hand washing items of clothing isn't a problem. (Neighbours, if you happen to be reading this, come and introduce yourselves. Just make sure you get the right caravan, as I see several had decking delivered this week.)

This is frugal living! The little fridge is rather bare but I've cooked up some pasta salad, made some fruit jelly and strawberrry whip for desserts and will waste nothing - anything else is from a packet and most of it is vegetarian until I get the groceries brought over from the house. Meals are interesting! I had a box of individual milk portions at the office caravan that came free with an Approved Food order some time ago, so I decanted all of their contents into a jug and used it to bake some rice pudding with sultanas. Had some for lunch today and can have the rest as breakfast, snacks or pudding tomorrow.

Each of the tiny milk cartons has been washed and will be used to plant a single pea, so I can have some home produce. No point wasting good cartons when they can be put to good use. This is frugal living - waste not, want not. We'll grow what we can wherever we can and hope to have enough produce to swap and share. It's just a little chilly out to expect miracles at the moment.

This is my frugal life! The view of our barn dwarfed by the snowy Galloway Hills on the horizon is an awesome reminder of how small we all are in the grand scale of life. Only we can choose how we live and if we choose to live in a simple way then so be it. We don't own the land even when we buy it, the land ultimately owns us and will dictate what grows where, no matter what. Frugaldom is very much about watching the lie of the land and working out what might do best where and when in the future. Some people choose to spend their money on a big house, expensive jewellery, a luxury car, designer labels or visiting foreign and exotic places - we choose this.

Tree planting on a chilly but sunny day, overlooked by hills and snow, with the sheer joy of this being no more than a short walk from home - for some it is a nightmare they would never want to have but for others, it's their lives' work, investing in a better future.

Just to make sure we truly appreciated these days of walking, fetching, carrying, digging and tree planting, we were honoured by the presence of this beautiful bird in flight as it soared above us on our walk between field and caravan - the Red Kite has reached Frugaldom.

Believe it or not, in the beginning it is quite difficult to stop spending money when you're on a roll - no matter what you buy, it becomes a habit, just like smoking, drinking, gambling, even clothes, shoes, handbags or hobby stuff. We each justify our spending but any manner of excuses but we are wise to remember that the ends justify the means - and I'd rather end up with the freedom to soar wherever frugal life takes me. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that, but taking your first flight of fancy into your own future of freedom is like starting from scratch over and over again. You just need to quit spending on stuff that weighs you down, then spread your wings and work like crazy to reach each goal.

Join us in Frugaldom, give up spending on what you don't need and shape yourself a new and affordable lifestyle while you invest in your future.

Frugal Living from Scratch 2

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

Welcome to Frugal Living and my Annual Money Challenges

For the Benefit of Newcomers to my Concept of Frugaldom

Frugal living may not be for everyone and it does take quite a bit of explaining to some who can neither see the need, nor have ever experienced the need for trying it. But it is a lifestyle choice that's made by many, nonetheless.

Having already posted about my annual household budget - the £4,000 - I would now like to go over the cost implications of everything else that needs paying. Like I already said, frugal living gave us the ability to save for and buy a very cheap fixy-up over the space of a very short period of time but I did throw in my lot with A. N. Other to buy a 3-bedroom house with a big garden rather than a small flat with no garden. But no matter which way you look at it, £4,000 just won't last a year if you need to count in rent or mortgage and any outside the household expenses, which is why none of these things are included in my £4,000.00 However, this does include the costs of working from home, some of which are tax deductible at the end of each financial year. For everything else, I have a separate kitty, known as...

My Everything Else Kitty - E.E.K.

My Everything Else Kitty

There's no escaping the fact that life costs cash and we need to be really flexible in order to fit everything into the box that is our lifestyle. As you can see by the antics of the frugal puss, even she is a contortionist when it comes to making sure she gets in on the action - if, at first, you don't think you can fit something into your affordability box,  keep trying from different angles until you've found a way succeeding.

Everything else outside of the standard necessities are, for me, paid from my 'EEK'. This is the cash kitty that gets topped up by a tiny drip of interest from savings, gift certificates, points, cash back, winnings, sales of surplus eggs, de-cluttered goods and any cash gifts that happen to come my way at birthdays or Christmas time. Let's face it, keeping hens, ducks, quail, a cat and, now, two giant loppy-lug rabbits isn't through real necessity, its more for the fun than the frugality.

It's great having fresh eggs for cooking and baking but we can't possibly eat them all, so I trade many of them for other things and need to raise any extra cash to cover the costs of feeding the feathered and furry friends, keeping them all bedded down at night and keeping them healthy. I also have my wormery, the pet worms that help recycle household waste into liquid fertiliser that cucumbers seem to thrive on, judging by the enormous crop we had last year.

But how does my 'EEK' work in real terms?

Last year ended with an overall balance of £39.70, so that has been carried over and popped into the 'EEK' savings. On top of that, I have a voucher balance of £30.54 in my Amazon account and have just requested payment of another £8 worth of Amazon vouchers via Topcashback*, which gives me cash back on anything I buy using links from their website. There's also £7 of credit lying in my Approved Food* account, which will more than cover the postage of my next order when I need heavy, long shelf-life goods - they normally do regular offers on bread flour, which is how I can bake a loaf for around 25p.

Cashback Credit Cards

The use of credit cards may be seen by some as incurring debt but I have one golden rule - if I can't afford to pay something in full at the time then I don't put it on the credit card. Online shopping and being self-employed means that I have some added protection by using a credit, as opposed to a debit, card, so absolutely everything goes onto it that possibly can - even my 12 months' BT line rental. Why? Because as long as I pay in full within the interest free timeframe, I get an automatic 1% cash back that costs me nothing and gets paid in a lump sum around the end of each financial year.

Spending £4,000 on the household budget almost exclusively paying by card means brings almost £40 of free cash into the 'EEK' by April of each year, plus whatever else I have paid for by this method. While renovating, almost all of the building materials have been paid this way and in addition to that the livestock feeding, garden-related purchases and any extras that can be added get paid this way. Last year's free money courtesy of the credit card company amounted to £68.94 and that's not to be sneezed at when you see cheap flights, train fairs, ferry fairs or short breaks advertised for less!

All these little bits and pieces add up over the year and, with luck and careful spending, can cover everything else I need to buy. Sales of surplus eggs would normally cover the cost of feed and bedding or else what I exchange for the eggs helps reduce the grocery budget. It is a simple case of not buying anything unless we can realistically afford it and if we can't afford it (or don't see the need to buy it) we can attempt to make it.

Being self employed means keeping up with National Insurance payments, so I have just paid out £70.20, which covers 6 months. This is not part of my household running costs, so does not impact on the £4,000. It is a miniscule sum but it is contributing to my old age pension, so I have no qualms about paying it, even on a voluntary basis when profits aren't sufficient to warrant any further deductions. My monthly savings bond is paid from what I no longer spend on cigarettes and anything else is absolutely mine to do with as I please, even if it's just a few pennies left in my (homemade) purse.

Use it up, Don't Bin it, Burn it or Bury it.

My attempt at zero waste failed dismally owing to the amount of plastic packaging that's used by many companies. Plain brown cardboard is great as it gets rolled up and used in the fire, but plastics are a total pain and need to be binned if it isn't of the type that I can reused - meat packaging, for example! 

We have an open fire and a stove, so anything that is safe to burn gets recycled into fuel and used to heat the house, boil the kettle and even cook food. Recently, I was learning a bit more about recycling wood shavings into eco-fuel and I'm now wondering if it would work using the shavings from the rabbit cages and hen houses, but I'm not too sure how easy it would be to dry the blocks once they are made, or how smelly they might be to make while soaking them for a month at a time - time will tell!

I have a Paper Brick Maker* and it's great for experimenting by adding in things like dried leaves, twigs and shredded paper but, again, the blocks take a long time to dry. I guess I should really try much harder at making a stock pile of these during summer sunshine to help combat rising costs of winter coal. I shall pledge now to make an attempt on the eco-fuel from shavings using this method.

Photos by B.B. Photography



This was our local village main street when the storm surge hit at high tide on Friday (photos taken by a pal's brother), so let's hope things don't get any worse over the coming days. Now I need to wind this up and be prepared for the next storm that seems to be heading our way - we are almost at the top of the hill, so no sea surge reaches us, just the likelihood of power outages and the steam in the garden bursting its banks if the storm force winds drive in torrential rain at the same time as high tide.

The West coast has been taking a real battering recently and the next potential hit isn't looking any less ferocious, so the flasks, candles, torches and hot water bottles are all at the ready plus a stack of wood piled by the stove and an open invitation extended to anyone who may be adversely affected to head up the hill to Frugaldom.

Stay safe, folks, and never forget that no matter how little money you have, your chances of subduing Mother Nature when she is throwing a strop are the exact same as any millionaire - appreciate what you have while you have it and make the most of the important things in life that money cannot buy.

NYK, Frugaldom

PS: We're playing at 'planks'
Several of us take part in whatever free fitness fun we can find, so visit us in the Frugal Forums if you would like to take part. Right now, we're doing the '30 Day Plank Challenge' to prove to ourselves that we do have core muscles and to start toning them up in time for spring.

*I can earn a few extra points or pounds when friends join and use sites via my referral links

Big Adventures on a Little Shoestring

Things to do before I'm... 10?

The pink piggy

It is never too young to start your 'to do' list and learn how to budget so that you can afford to live a good life... is it? Frugal Gran at your service!

 

This is the first of a series of blog posts that I'll be including here, as this huge adventure unfolds. You can follow them by following the blog or by clicking on the link called 'Frugal Gran' that will appear in the index at the bottom of the blog. It's going to be fun, fun, fun! :)

 

It was eldest grand daughter's 9th birthday recently. Like all junior misses, birthday girls just wanna have fun... so she partied at the weekend with other junior friends.

 

But I wanted to do something a little bit different for this birthday, something that could grow and develop with her as she journeys through her final year of being a single digit age and then decide for herself if she wants to continue along the frugal path when she reaches the ripe old age of 10.

 

I devised a plan, a secret plan, one that involved a 'to do' list. Then, instead of giving her a wrapped-up, tied with bows gift, I issued dear grand daughter with her personalised 'official invite' to join the adventure... and awaited her reaction!

 

She absolutely loved it , is extremely excited and desperate to get started!

 

What so enthrals a 9 year-old, you might ask? Fun and frugal learning, that's what!

 

Here's how it works (so far) and I hope that you will all find this as entertaining as I did, should you choose to pursue a similar path. First of all, the secret paperwork needs to be assembled into a notebook format. Simply put, I printed out a homemade card on paper and inserted it inside several other sheets of paper, marked off headers saying 'NOTES' and added a 'Happy Birthday' graphic to the front. This is what it said inside:

 

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

Dear xxxx,

 

This is your very special birthday invitation to come to Thrift Cottage for holiday adventures. You can arrange to stay any time you want and we will have an adventure, no matter what the weather.

 

To prepare for these adventures, I have bought us some adventure kit, including the things in these photos.

 

I have been putting all the spare coins into the pink piggy bank, so we will count them all out when you come to stay. Then, we will go into town in search of our first big adventure before planning the next one.

 

Keep this special adventure booklet safe so you can keep a note and photos of things you do before your next birthday. Being 9 is going to be great fun!

Just to make sure we get plenty of time for extra special outdoor adventures, I have made sure we are all prepared for overnight stays. 

 

The big 'xxxx' storage space at Thrift Cottage will also include crafting stuff and sleepover items, just in case we manage to get out to do some camping. Even indoor camping can be fun!

 

I couldn't find us any pink sleeping bags and pillows, so blue and purple will need to do, but these will go with the tent.

 

Let's hope we get some nice sunny weather for the next school holidays so we can get started with our adventures as soon as possible.

 

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

 

School is already back, here in Scotland, so the next holiday that's long enough for a big adventure is mid-October. However, there is time to fit in a couple of mini adventures between now and then, even if it means indoor camping and planning future expeditions. Believe it or not, Frugal Gran is every bit as excited by all of this! I hope you will all enjoy following us over the next twelve months, as we go off in search of new knowledge that will, one day, become fantastic future memories. Everything will be done on a shoestring budget in an effort to discover just how much fun can be had while following a frugal lifestyle.

 

I'll let you know how much is in the pink piggy as soon as it has been officially counted.

 

Frugal Gran!

Edited in: We counted out the pennies from the piggy and managed to just squeak in at £40. :)

When Running Frugal Forums and Blogs...

Who Reads What, When and Why?

Specially posted for 'someone'.

I couldn't decide whether this post should be included here or in the likes of the Paranoid Times blog. The topic is a rather curious one but I am sure it's a familiar one to some of you reading this.

Blogs are normally more likened to diarie, but I disagree strongly with this comparison.  Diaries always conjure up images of secrets contained within private writings, innermost thoughts set down in print for the benefit of the writer, little thought ever being given to any other eventual readers. Not so with blogs - they are for all the world to find and explore, should anyone be at all interested in searching.

Here is where things begin to get a little more different. Recently, a discussion sprang up about lack of followers, comments and/or sales, despite the invisible number-crunching programmes churning out figures that suggested thousands of visitors.

With blogs, forums and websites, you can invite any number of people to visit, join or contribute but the truth of the matter is, few will! Regardless of whether they be a friend, relative or, even, spouse, few of these people will actively support your 'cause' for the simple fact that your 'cause' may not necessarily be theirs.

So let's look at how the figures pan out, as I do happen to have a websites, some forums and several blogs. Most are used purely as free space for writing about things I would like to keep for future reference, or for the purposes of checking back to see what progress has been made on certain projects, when and where. Some are relevant to what's being discussed elsewhere but, owing to their nature, such diverse topics cannot be mixed together. None of these things is aimed at generating traffic by way of the general public. Should they choose to read, they are welcome to do so. This blog is for all, it's where I give away the secrets of my money saving, frugal lifestyle, but it is not about footfall through a virtual business gateway.

Back to the numbers - I recently opened up the Frugaldom forums to the public, so we now have a slowly growing 'membership'. It's free, so anyone can join at anytime. But of those who choose to join, how many are brave enough to step up to the mark and declare their interest in money saving and frugal living? How many are brave enough to post on the forums, comment in the blogs or physically interact with others, most of whom are there for the exact same reasons?

To date, 436 usernames have been registered on the newest frugal living forums.

Of these, I deleted 176 (40.3%) because they failed to complete the joining process . This leads me to believe they are spammers or electronic, automated 'visitors' sent to infest the forum with links to websites that I wouldn't want there in the first place.

Of the 260 'active' users, only 97 (37.3%) of them have ever posted to acknowledge their presence.

Of the 97 who posted, only 28 (28.9%) of them return to post regularly. This is what I refer to as the true conversion rate - 28 posters out of a possible 97.

THIS IS A FANTASTIC RESULT!

BUT... how many of these 28 people are longstanding family friends or relatives? Not a single one!
This post has been thrown together to demonstrate how the numbers game really works - I have nothing to hide, nothing to sell and I don't track visitors to my forums, so there could be a million readers and I would never know they were there unless they took the time to register or participate in the discussions.

If you are in the business of generating yourself some income, you need to spread the word far and wide then monitor every real visitor. You need to analyse what percetage of these visitors are spending their hard earned cash while visiting your site or business. As a general rule of thumb, many marketing, advertising and sales professionals would accept 0.5% as an average result for something like a leaflet drop, while others spend a little more time preparing their leaflets - normally paying extra for sales copywriting - and look towards around 2.5%, assuming they have done their homework and targetted their advertising.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that in order to have thousands flocking to buy your product or service, you need to remember that your chances of turning a casual passer-by into a visitor (or reader) can be around 1 in 200 and then you still need to convert your visitors into paying customers or clients. Agai, this can be as low as 1 in 200. That's like one sale from every 40,000 website visitors!

What has this all got to do with Frugaldom or the frugal living and working brigade? Most of us are self-employed and/or working from home. We all need to earn a living and the depressing fact is that it's not always easy. The hours can be long, the hourly rate once calculated over each year can be a joke and the prospect of fame and riches isn't somthing often considered; those things don't drop into your lap purely with a stroke of luck.

The Frugaldom blog is about showing, by example, that fame and riches aren't always the best rewards. The sense of achievement and the freedom to pursue our own goals within our own budgets are what matters most to us. The integration of the concept of frugaleurs - entrepreneurs who have little or no debt/financial backing - is something completely new to many. It is my hope that dreams can be realised, even fortunes made, but without being indebted to a system that seems to prefer keeping the majority of people trapped by debt.

Be all you can be, set yourself free from the constraits of escalating credit or debt, speculate within your means if you have to, but be prepared to do whatever it takes (within the eyes of the law) to succeed and live a happy life, because we get only one shot at it...

That shot is now.

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

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.

Welcome to 2011

Dear Frugaldom Readers,

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a successful year ahead and to congratulate all of you who succeeded in completing any of the previous challenges.


Frugaldom isn't about how much money you have coming into your household, it's more about what you do with that money and how it gets spent. Even those on the smallest of incomes can achieve rich lives but, similarly, even those with high earnings can find themselves on a downward spiral of debt. The Frugaldom forums are here to support anyone who has an interest in managing their own finances in a prudent and wise fashion. We don't mind if it's to clear debt, follow self-sufficiency or amass fortunes while building business empires, we are all frugal entrepreneurs, at heart, with the capacity to succeed.


It's not about how much you have, it's about how you spend it and every penny counts in the game of frugal living and working.


Frugal does not mean poor, nor does it refer to any form of meanness. Being frugal is having the ability to achieve financial freedom by living within your own means. It's about sensible money planning and about taking full control of your own future in a way that leaves you solvent.


Bearing all of the above in mine, I'd also like to remind everyone concerned that the most important factors in following the Frugaldom challenges are FUN, ACHIEVEMENT and FREEDOM to interact on a regular basis with likeminded others. We are all here for the same reason - an interest in money (or lack of it) and all that it encompasses.


Though the paths to success can be long and twisted, strewn with obstacles and pitfalls, the paths are always there. We just need to take that first step in the right direction.

From everyone here in Frugaldom, good luck, good budgeting and good living in 2011.


Thank you all for being a part of it.


NYK Media / Frugaldom