Now You Know - it really is frugal.

'Now You Know'

As you may know, we began life as ‘Now You Know’, hence the NYK, away back in 1998. A group of us got together to try and beat the budget and try to afford to build businesses, create comfortable homes and generally live a good life that would lead us safely out of debt.

 

Along the way, many fell off the wagon. In fact, if I’m perfectly honest, the current day group of frugal living challengers includes not a single one of the original group, although there are still a couple of them on the side lines who are still battling on bravely to keep their heads above water.

 

‘Now You Know’ began as an online newsletter and then developed into what was then known as an e-zine (an electronic magazine), before becoming what, to my knowledge, was the first online Scottish newspaper.

 

In 1999, we went into print, publishing a monthly newspaper. It didn’t last long – the big boys don’t like the little people playing with their toys and by toys, I mean advertising revenue. But that’s an entirely different story.

 

The premise of the entire project was always, always, always to help others find ways of affording to do things they may, otherwise, not have afforded. Whether it was providing virtual or office support for home-based business, networking to promote one another, assessing budgets to help deal with debt, or even just demonstrating how to feed a family for a week on a tenner, it was always fun and frugal.

 

Now, 15 years later, we are able to turn out not one, but two daily ‘newspapers’, and all at a cost of zero pounds. I earn nothing from the publications, nor do I have full editorial control or any rights to any advertising revenue, but I no longer need to pay a graphic designer and a printer £1,000 each month, nor do I need to pay a distribution company, an advertising salesman or the overheads of a busy office.

 

Over the past 15 years, I have been stripped clean of all those costs and do you know what? I wouldn’t have them back if you paid me.

 

So, friends of NYK and Frugaldom alike – this is the current version of ‘Now You Know’, still covering Scottish news, views, reviews, stories, pictures and it sometimes even spills over into Frugaldom.

 

If you want to become a part of it, there are a number of things you can do:

 

Follow @Frugaldom on Twitter

Like the Frugaldom page on Facebook

Join the free Frugal Forums

Follow this Frugal Blog

 

Whatever you decide to do, remember we are about helping one another and making life and work affordable. We have challenges galore, including those for frugal entrepreneurs, new cottage industries, crafting, frugal living, writing, blogging, artwork, cooking and starting a new home-based business.

 

Just like Richard Branson, we began out journey with a small newsletter. Unlike Sir Richard Branson, we didn’t turn it all into a highflying multi-national phenomenon, but that, dear friends, would not have been frugal living.

 

I often wonder how much debt is owed by big business and who, ultimately, pays all that back in the event of a collapse. I was saddened to see that in the case of MPG Printgroup, it is likely to be around £10,200,000.00 (according to administrator's report). That has to adversely affect many. It must be affecting every one of the 210 employees and their families. That’s another 210 families that could suddenly be thrown into what this nations deems ‘poverty’ (based on their income) and I think that is just wrong.

 

But I digress – this was supposed to be a blog post about how to get your free daily copy of ‘Now You Know’ to accompany your free daily copy of The Microholding Daily.

 

NYK, Frugaldom

Please Send Warm Weather Soon, Thank You.

And Now We Have Rain.

It seems such a very long time ago,
That winter hit us with everything it could throw,
Yet, here I am, sitting just so,
Looking out the window and still seeing snow!

A very bad poem, indeed! But it's true. Now, to add to the mix, the rain has begun to fall. I doubt very much if it will be enough to wash away the acres of snow we still have around this area, but it's a start. Take a look at the photo - that's me standing next to one of the drifts that still blocks a local lane. Time to light the stove, I think, as I can see my breath in here again!

The prolonged cold spell hasn't done anyone any favours, that's for sure. The garden has barely been touched this year, other than some basic tidying and clipping the straggling brambles that nothing seems to stop from growing. There are buds on many of the trees and fruit bushes, so they must sense something better coming our way soon.

Indoors can be much colder than outdoors when the sun shines during winter here, so there have been quite a few extra miles of walking and cycling done, carrying with me my trusty basket and taking the opportunity to fill it with firewood. I'm mostly taking advantage of all the fallen sticks that have dried to tinder and become perfect for lighting the stove.

Alternative energy that's helping to reduce our overall carbon emissions! Dry firewood, hand collected, brought home by bike.

You don't need to walk or cycle very far to find an abundance of free fuel lying by the roadsides. Around this area, there's not even the need to venture into the forests or woodlands, as there's so much lying by the roadsides that can be salvaged. Most of these crushed, fallen branches are now so dry that they ignite instantly and are soon burning hot enough to boil the kettle within minutes - a warning, indeed, to landowners, farmers and gamekeepers of the dangers of wildfires spreading during moor burnings! We have collected quite a few bags filled with already charred gorse wood and this seems to burn with frightening ferocity!

Free heat is never something to be scoffed at, especially when we consider the cost of electricity, and is always welcome during the cold months here in Frugaldom. Some also say it's carbon neutral, so a bit of a benefit to be had in that department, too - no fossil fuels used in cars to collect or move these sticks, as we're walking and cycling nowadays. It also gives us far more opportunities to take the time to photogrph the wildlife that lives all around us.

Having to adapt to not having a car has been quite a smooth transition, I have to admit. It certainly
makes you think more about how far you are going and how heavy the load will be that needs carrying home. I have now switched to a wicker basket on the back of the bike for collecting sticks, as it's far easier to just lift that off and sit it by the stove.

In the greenhouse, which is unheated barring any sunshine, the wormery has been safely under cover and its occupants are thriving. Last week, while feeding the wrigglers, we spotted several babies wiggling about the place, so it may well be tme to start tapping off that lovely 'worm juice' soon and preparing the raised beds for this year's veg-growing. Just send us a little more sunshine and a lot less frost to arm the ground enough to sow something soon.

On the 'working from home' side of things, the new googly eyes have arrived to complete the next batch of McGonks and we have just published the first ebook of the year:

"What if the Famous had Allotments? A quirky guide to vegetable gardeners of fame and fantasy." It was written by 'Northsider Dave', whose blog you may already read. The new ebook should, hopefully, be available to download to your Kindle by this evening. I'll post the link here as soon as it becomes available.

Good luck with the new book, Dave! :)

A Look Back Over the Frugal Years

2013 is LOOMING LARGE! 

I can't believe how quickly time is marching on and that we're a mere four days from December 2012! Preparing for 2013 seems a bit 'pie in the sky', yet here we are... pies, shortbread, clootie dumplings and anything else you can think of begging to be baked or boiled!

Everyone's talking in Christmas-speak, Yule-speak and winter festivities-speak, so it's high time that I got to work on the new Frugaldom moneymaking challenge, before drifting off into fluffy-cloud-land to dream of Santa, roaring log fires, hot chocolate and marshmallows.

As most people know, a frugal lifestyle allows little in the budget for anything outside the cost of living, especially while trying to renovate an 1805 cottage that sucks every breath of warmth from you as soon as you walk in the door. 'Sausage dog' draught excluders, fleece curtain linings, winter woolies and extra quilts are all at the ready, having been rudely awakened from their summer slumbers. But that won't halt the ever-increasing cost of living. No way.

Beating inflation is about staying ahead of the game and, for those of us who are self-employed, that means one of two things... increasing the income or reducing the overheads. Well my overheads are as close to zero as I can possibly bring them without imposing hypothermia or malnutrition on anyone who ventures near, so that leaves income.

Frugal living means frugal working, so another new challenge has been launched for 2013. We've been doing these for years. Nobody has ever got rich yet, but they are such immense fun that it would be sad to stop trying now.

The premise is that you 'invest' a fixed amount, say £10, and then work towards growing your money to show profit. This year, I invested in some egg cartons and began selling frugal gourmet quail eggs. A fellow frugaler developed her skills in making jewellery items, while another bought fabric and sold cushion-sized squares.

It's amazing how much fun you can have with £10 but, for 2013, we are upping the stakes to a whopping £50! The challenge launched recently during Gobal Entrepreneurship Week with one frugaler setting up a secondhand clothes business, catering for larger ladies, while another is looking into room rental. Me? I have set up 'Clan McGonk' as part of my long-standing eco-arts project.

Eco-art is about creating one thing from another using, wherever possibe, what would otherwise be treated as surplus to requirement.

With this in mind, I thought it would be rather fun to recap on some of the past challenges, products and ideas. For a start, it may tempt a few of you to consider joining our 2013 challenge

My garden logman bird feeder was built from off cuts left by the treefeller when a neighbour had a conifer felled in her garden last year.

'Cash cow', along with several other characters, was made from papier mache. We simply recycled old newspapers and turned them into banks - and all other forms of sealed pots - for yet another savings challenge.

The pebble and shell 'pets', as you can easily see, were made from pebbles and shells. (I think that was the 2005/6 challenge - we've been doing this for some time.) With investment made into tiny 'googly eyes', they, in turn, began finding their way onto everything! We sold some really, really crazy items via eBid.

Does anyone remember any of the other recycled items that Frugaldom produced over the years? What about the famous 'willitfit'? The wooden postal measuring slots were made from offcuts salvaged from a local picture framer. I got all manner of offcuts, mostly thin hardboard of the type used to back prints for framing. Those were great days! The smaller pieces of wood were turned into wooden savings 'bricks' and the bits sliced from the postal slots were made into keyrings. A small investment was made into the rings and hoops for creating the keychains. And then, along came the offcuts from plywood - how fantastic was that? Free plywood and a friend with a fancy shmancy cutting tool that meant we could draw shapes, then he could cut them accordingly.

All manner of creatures appeared on the doorstep, as we turned them into hand-painted planters.

Perhaps the days of larger free offcuts will return, but the recession is surely here to stay - nobody wants to part with free wood nowadays, not when it can go on a stove to help fend off the cold and boil a kettle for a cuppa. So, it's time to move on and attempt to make something from whatever people are finding themselves getting rid of to the bin man. Pity I can't recycle plastics. Hmm...

To hand, I have old clothing, household textiles and shredded paper! With this in mind, plus the fact that sis had the job of creating furry toys for tombola stall prizes, she gave me the idea of how I could adapt a previous project (1999, so few if any of you will remember it!) to bring it online and into production.

My 2013 Frugaleur Challenge is to make recycled furry friends, otherwise known as my clan of McGonks! The initial start-up capital will be invested in such things as website creation, felt, fur, ribbon, little pompoms, big googly eyes and any variety of sewing and replenishing the sewing box with toymaking related items. (I love homemade Christmas presents, don't you?) At the moment, I am unravelling an old jumper to free up some wool for knitting little scarves and crocheting mini-blankets, but I still need to source chunky knitting needles and a crochet hook - soon it will be gonks galore!

During a previous challenge - shell & pebble pets - I managed to grow my investment enough to invest in a lovely new glue gun, so that will help somewhere along the way. During the wood craze, I afforded to invest in a pyrography iron and I already have an office shredder, so that will help make the stuffing! Eco-arts, eco-gonks, eco-fun, who needs a Furby?!

I'm really excited about getting my new frugaleur project off the ground, having already invested in domain names for the new website and dusted down many of the files containing the photos and exploits of my previous character.

Not only will Clan McGonk exist, it will also have its own series of mini ebooks and a selection of collectable furry friends from which to choose. You'll can follow the stories online, take part and generally have some frugal fun. There's even a McGonks page ready to be developed on Facebook - how cool (and free) is that? Now that I come to think about it, perhaps I shouldn't have give away the sewing machine, afterall! I'm going to have to stitch up these furry little critturs by hand.

If you would like to take part in the 2013 challenge, check out the site at www.frugaleur.com and let's get making, baking, creating and crafting for the new year. It's frugal fun all round and we are always interested in trading with like-minded others.

Frugaldom.