Cycling in Wigtownshire

Cycling in Wigtownshire

This is a photo blog post to show future visitors to Frugaldom a little bit of the surrounding countryside across or through which we cycle. There isn’t much by way of amenities in our corner of the country but the landscape, walking and cycling opportunities make up for that plus the surrounding villages almost all have a shop of some description.  Our local store just happens to be for sale, if anyone is looking to relocate and set up in business. Huge potential for the right buyer as there must easily be 1000 people within the surrounding and out-lying area who would appreciate the opportunity to buy local produce at affordable prices. (Just a thought.)

Anyway, here goes for a short trip out on the bikes – short because it’s the first weekend that we’ve dragged our bikes out since last summer and it takes a few days to get past the aches and pains and back into the swing of things… it’s a bit like getting back on a horse after a long break! Ouchy!

Hopefully, this frugal mode of transport will suffice, as the fuel prices and cost of putting a car back on the road are just beyond comprehension… I keep thinking of everything I could invest in for the Frugaldom project for the amount it would cost to buy even a banger!

Read more here

Scottish Multimedia | Frugal Holiday to the Scottish Isles

Frugal Holiday to the Scottish Isles

Who needs the Caribbean when we have golden sands, shimmering turquoise sea, azure sky and sunshine in Scotland. Yes, this really is Scotland and it really is April. (This is a photo blog, apologies for any slow loading.)

You can reach Glasgow from most places, so that's where we headed in order to set off on our whirlwind, whistle stop frugal tour. I was very lucky in that I was able to hitch a lift from Frugaldom to Lanarkshire, so £10 covered my share of the fuel costs. As it was Easter holiday weekend, I spent four nights with family and friends before setting off on our island hopping adventure.

Being based in Wishaw gave us easy access to Glasgow, so we opted for open return train tickets at a cost of £40, allowing us to travel from our original destination via Glasgow Central, Queen Street and then on to Oban, which is a lovely little harbour town on the Argyll coast. It was a bit overcast when we left Glasgow but the clouds lifted the further north we travelled… Read more (photo blog includes my home made souvenir.)

Day 1 of Making it in March - My Indoor Garden #MIIM

Day 1 of 31 - Attempting to Make Something Every Day in March

 

Here we are in March already! The day began bright and then there was a tremendous downpour here, but it soon cleared and the sunshine actually brought a tiny bit of warmth with it. By mid-morning, it was looking positively spring-like, although I'm not easily fooled, after last March!

 

This month's challenge in the frugal forums is called 'Making it in March'. It is all about making things rather than buying them, making decisions not to spend, making our way along the frugal path of life, pretty much making anything we want to try making, really. I have been sharing dozens of ideas and suggestions via my Facebook pages so I can check back to see which to try making this month.

My 'makes' for today were fairly simple and all of them free! I made the decision to pull on my boots and go for a walk, in an effort to regain some fitness and start losing the many pounds in weight I have gained over winter. This is always so much easier said than done but having challenged myself to blog every day about these challenges, it might provide me with some extra incentive.

The outdoor gym - slow pace, beginner level

Today I went to the free outdoor gym and did 3 miles on the local treadmill. While there, I took some photographs to make an online album of progress. You should be able to see the full album HERE without needing to register or log into Facebook.

Lunch was a cup of soup with a slice of bread and then it was time to make something constructive. First, a wander around the garden and into the greenhouse to check progress on some cuttings.


Close up of the tiny flower emerging from House Leek in the garden

I am quite amazed that succulents can survive our cold climate but mine are doing rather well. In fact, this one, which is outside in the garden planted in a recycled car wheel with tyre still fitted, is showing signs of flowering! The cuttings from this plant are growing well, as are all the others. This gave me an idea!

My homemade, indoor succulent garden

Neighbour had sent me along some leftover salad stuff for feeding to the Frugaldom hens and rabbits, so I recycled the disposable plastic bowl into a mini-succulents garden by filling it with a mix of compost, vermiculite, pebbles and the cuttings I had in the greenhouse. I'm not up on names of plants, so I'd to search online and guess. The rosette shaped one turns deep burgundy, almost black in summer sunlight, it is a Black Tree Aeonium, apparently also known as houseleek tree or Irish rose. Alongside this I have a couple more cuttings from my money plant (also known as Jade Plant), a tiny Aloe Vera, a rooted cutting from Phyllis, my aging Epiphyllum (Easter Cactus) I got via Freecycle about 6 or 7 years ago, some Sedum and cuttings from my House Leek, which is the one that's about to flower outside in the garden.

I'm really pleased with how my tiny oasis turned out and really hope that it flourishes. My mini-succulents garden shall be counted as my 'make' for the first day of the 'Making it in March' challenge. Cost = NIL, as I had everything I needed to put this together.

While outside 'paying' in the garden, I made up a couple more plastic tubs as mini propagators and have now sown a few salad leaves and some cayenne pepper seeds. It will take them some time to germinate, even indoors is less than 10 degrees C first thing in the morning before the fire gets lit, but it's a start.

Off to do an hour's blanket sewing now, hope everyone has had a good day and please feel free to join in this month's moneysaving challenge to 'Make it in March'.

NYK, Frugaldom


Finding Free Stuff All Around Us

Making the Most of Freebies!

FREE FOR ALL!

I don't have any expensive camera equipment - my little 3x zoom digital model was 'bought' using free Buddy Points via the eBid online auctions - nor have I ever studied any form of photography, so this is the best of my abilities on a budget of zero - the full moon on 17th December 2013 at around 2am.

 

Next is the winter solstice - 21 December at 17.11, to be precise - otherwise known as the shortest day or the longest night, whichever way you choose to look at it. In reality it is both, so it's like a seasonal BOGOF (Buy One, Get One Free) bargain with the price tag reading £0.00

 

Enjoy your freebies! Even if you can't spot them this month, they are repeated like clockwork and will never become the preserve of the rich and/or famous.

 

NYK, Frugaldom

Big Adventures on a Small Budget

Frugal Gran Fun on our Budget Scottish Adventure!

(Part 1 of this post can be found here, where I first announced plans for some big adventures with eldest grand daughter.)

October school holidays arrived at last and I was able to pack the tent and rucksacks then head off into the wilderness with my 9-year-old grand daughter, taking her on her first ever frugal adventure - to 'climb a mountain'. We headed for Stranraer, boarding the train for Glasgow and taking many photographs along the way.  It cost a grand total of £26 for the two of us to get into the big city (Glasgow) and then a further £5 to get us from there to our destination in Lanarkshire, where we were planning to hill walk.

Along the way, we saw Ailsa Craig. This is a small island about 10 miles off the coast and is known locally as 'Paddy's Milestone'. It's part of an extinct volcano where they used to (and possibly will again) mine granite for making curling stones. At the moment, it is a bird sanctuary that you can visit by boat from Girvan. It's also for sale, if anyone has a cool £1.5 million to spare.

 



Once we reached Glasgow Central Station, we walked to Buchanan Bus Station to catch the express coach to our destination in Lanarkshire. We passed a puppeteer putting on a free street display, we stopped to see a student demonstration against Monsanto and we stopped to enjoy a free performance by this  fantastic pipes and drums band known as Clanadonia. Grand daughter wasn't overly enthusiastic about their music until I told her the name of one of their songs - 'Hamster heid'. (You can listen to Hamster Heid here.) I think the combination of bagpipes and tribal drums is brilliant! Free open air concerts - how frugal is that in the entertainment stakes?

 

We arrived in Lanarkshire at dinnertime on Saturday after travelling for about 6 hours. We spent Sunday catching up with family and then, on the Monday, we headed off to Black Law wind farm, near Forth. There are over 50 huge turbines, each measuring over 125m in height. We took a picnic and had that while seated under turbine number 43. From the wind farm, we were able to see that there was no snow on the top of Tinto Hill, our next destination. Unfortunately, we got absolutely soaked when a huge rain cloud arrived and burst over our heads!

 

A curious find we made last year had to be checked out again and, sure enough, it remains to this day - a massive pine tree decorated with Christmas baubles! It sits by the edge of the forest that runs along the main road from Black Law to what's known as 'The Headless Cross'.

 

 

Tuesday dawned fairly dry, so we packed our rucksacks and headed through Lanark towards Thankerton and Tinto Hill. The summit of this hill is the highest point in central Scotland, at 711m or 2,332ft. It's a 5-mile walk from the car park and a perfect introduction for anyone interested in hill walking. On arrival, we couldn't see the top for low clouds!

 

 

Fortunately, the rain stayed away for the couple of hours it took us to walk to the top and back. It took us approximately two and a half hours to complete, walking at what I would call an easy pace, stopping for littlest member of our group to eat sweets, add or remove layers of clothing as required and check out the landscape while looking for all sorts of weird and wonderful beings! Visibility was very poor from about the halfway mark, so it made for an eerie first hill-walking experience for grand daughter. She did seem to enjoy it, though.

 

The cairn at the top of Tinto dates back to the Iron Age and is the largest cairn in Scotland. We could just make it out before we reached the rocky scree and, although we had passed several other walkers, we found ourselves alone at the top.

 

Like all good visitors to the site, we carried our pebbles to the summit to add to the pile. On a clear day you can see for miles and pick out many of the other Scottish peaks but we didn't get a clear day - maybe next time. We left our pebbles, on which we had written our names and the date, on the cairn.

 

As you can see, 9-year-olds aren't very tall compared to the summit décor and the view was non-existent, but we made it! Hats and gloves were soaked by the swirling fog, grand daughter had to cling on for all she was worth to stay upright in the wind that blasted the summit and the place was deserted. Not quite a day for picnics, but it didn't stop us from scoffing what we had with us.

 

 

As we descended from the clouds we managed to catch a glimpse of the views lower down the slope. Despite the lack of sunshine we still had a sing and dance on our trip back down. Indeed, we jogged the final leg of our journey while singing all sorts of silly songs, pretending to be on exercise like army recruits!

Our next port of call was the Carmichael visitor centre, where we went in for a late lunch.

We also had a trip around the little animal park, meeting the hens, goats, pigs and a lovely Sebastopol 'furry' goose, among other creatures. Then it was time to explore their waxwork museum!

It's quite a scary place, especially when you get further in to the part with Sawney Beane and family, displayed in all their gory glory! Entry to the waxwork exhibitions is free, although we did drop a donation into their collection tin. (But who is Sawney Beane, you might ask?)

Alexander Bean (or Sawney) was an infamous Scottish cannibal said to have originated from East Lothian in the 15th Century. He lived with his wife and extended family in a cave at Bennane Head, between Girvan and Ballantrae on the Ayrshire/Galloway coast. We pass through the area when travelling between here and Lanarkshire but I haven't, yet, taken the time to go in search of the gruesome cave.

After all the excitement of wind farms, mountains and waxworks, we had a surprise birthday party to throw, so we got ourselves some modelling balloons and had fun making balloon animals, designing cards, decorating a room and then enjoying all the party fare.

Next on the agenda was a crafting and making day, when we did knitting, crochet, weaving, needle point and pompom making. After that we had a shopping day and then, on the day before our holiday ended, we carved a pumpkin.

Lighting the pumpkin lantern marked the end of our first big, fun-filled, frugal adventure. Everything got packed up and we now need to wait until next year to do it all over again, but in a different location.

I hope you enjoyed sharing our frugal mini-adventure.

NYK Media, Frugaldom


This Time Last Year...

Reconsidering all my options.

Reed Bunting



This time last year, it was snowing. Temperatures were sub zero and all around us was white. The lane was frozen solid, almost impassable because of it's icy state, glittering invitingly to anyone who dared even attempt to skim its glassy surface in anything more than a pair of wellies. Walking, although a very frugal pastime, was quite treacherous, but not so much that it deterred us from partaking of frugal photography.

Within the scope of affordable inventions, I reckon digital cameras surpass most new visual technology. They have opened up the doors to a whole new world for amateur photographers, especially those who had previously found the costs of film, development, delayed results and, ultimately, wastage, prohibitive. No more shall we feel the financial pain of throwing away the bad photos, for the 21st Century brought technological magic to the fingertips of ever prudent, camera-wielding wizard - affordable fun! Indeed, we purchased an exceptionally fine model using eBid Buddy Points - no cash involved.

Many a stunning view was captured from around the place we call Frugaldom with many of these images saved and printed for calenders, postcards and greetings cards; some even became keyrings, coasters and fridge magnets.

This time last year, I had already seen my daughter celebrate her engagement (July 2009) and then her wedding (September 2009). These things are major family events that NEED to be budgeted for well in advance. Thankfully, frugal living, for me, had begun in 2001 and has continued, unabeited, since. It is neither inhibitive nor does it prevent me from living life the way I want it. In fact, it is very liberating. Self-catering a birthday party for 120 people on a budget of around £100 for food was entertaining, to say the least - but everybody loved it and nobody cared - they ate, they drank and they made merry. By pulling together, the families managed to throw a most memorable wedding party the following September and then, come mid 2010, my son didn't go without for his 21st. Frugal living is the only way to live if you intend becoming a frugal entrepreneur. It's about grasping opportunities and running the risk of succeeding in making something out of almost nothing.

Throughout 2010, frugality was the watchword. The resulting spreadsheets have slowly, year by year, been developed to reflect everything I could possibly need or spend. At the same time, they have managed to remain incredibly simple and show me where changes need to be made at any given time. The ISA may not have been filled and I may not own my own home, but that's not the point. As a frugal entrepreneur, I feel it is better to live and save within my means, able to take advantage of whatever small opportunity comes along.

I originally started this challenge to clear outstanding debts and then accrue some savings in the hope of buying a house without a mortgage - but now I'm not so sure. If I buy a house, it represents nothing more that a roof over my head until it becomes inheritance for my kids, but why should they wait? Why shouldn't they learn my frugal ways and benefit from them now?

This time last year I promised myself we would save every £2 coin and every piece of spare change into the homemade papier mache banks we'd all made. By Christmas, the household had an extra £150+ to play with and my son still hasn't even emptied his bank, yet.

This time last year was a full year ago and it's hard to believe how quickly that time has passed. But pass it has. This New Year, I was blessed with a brand new baby grand daughter, my second in the family, so why should I squirrel away every penny to pay for a house that will, ultimately, be sold? I haven't fully given up on buying a house without a mortgage. To be 100% honest, I know, exactly, what house I want to buy. But money in the bank isn't everything. So I have another plan...

Back on the frugal grocery challenge, tonight's dinner was courtesy of the freezer - leftover roast beef with gravy, puff pastry and assorted root veg - homegrown potatoes, turnips and parsnips -  that were lurking in the bottom of the freezer. Frugaler and frugaler... another day goes by without needing to buy.  I did spend some money, though: £23 on coal, £15 on electricity and £15 to my friendly society bond with life assurance. I also squirreled £66.94 into the savings account to round up to the next even hundred, but that was only because it was such an untidy figure at the start of the day. The friendly society bond isn't a brilliant investment but it does allow you to put up to £25 per month into tax free savings and offers a guaranteed life assurance from day one. At worst, it'll cover a cheap funeral, at best I'll get some money back in a few years time. I opened the policy online via Topcashback, so I made the most of that and the extra £15 of M&S vouchers I received. They're offering £50 cashback at the moment for a Scottish Friendly Bond, but it takes a long time to track and pay out - most insurance related products seem to take at least three months. I'll let you know when this year's home contents policy pays the cashback - it should be due soon. 

Please always double check for the best available deals at the time. Savings bonds can go down as well as up, so not always the best option for anyone just wanting to save for a rainy day. Personally, I dislike life insurance because of the risk of losing it all by out-living the policy! At least the life assurance with the friendly society bond offers me something back after the alloted timescale or a small death benefit to save the family from any sudden expenses like a funeral. It isn't morbid - it makes good frugal sense.

Tomorrow, I think, might be Premium Bonds checking day!