Make Do and Mend in May

Make Do and Mend in May

Having attended the Home Renovation Show in Glasgow’s SSEC at the weekend, I returned to Frugaldom filled with ideas and impatient to get back to doing something constructive inside the house. The kitchen cannot be done until the bathroom (shower room) is in reasonable shape but impatience has got the better of me… I’m going to make do and mend what I can in the bathroom so I can plough on with the kitchen!

I have set myself a budget of just £30 to give the bathroom a quick makeover, making do with whatever I can find lying about the house and mending anything that can be salvaged as useable. Making the wall panelling by recycling old wooden window blinds was a plan I had been toying with for several weeks, so… read more here

Frugal Blog - Repairing the Poly Tunnel and Recycling Milk Cartons

Scottish Multimedia | Repairing the Polytunnel and Recycling Milk Cartons

Today proved to be quite a productive one for achieving major tasks, like getting repairing the storm battered polytunnel and making a start on my 'Mishy Challenge' vertical pod garden.

Living where we do, access to large, plastic milk cartons isn't something that happens regularly, so I have only managed to accrue 8 in total, but one of those is being used to hold my homemade laundry liquid for now. I still hadn't a clue where I was going to build my vertical garden, as we don't have any fences from which to hang anything, so we concentrated on putting the polytunnel back together. First up, sorting out the base - there is none. For the moment, we have cardboard, builders' bags, fish crates and compost bags… continue

Do You Ever Get the Urge?

Amidst Chaos You Can Find Calm Frugality

It's been raining for the past few days but it hasn't halted progress here in Frugaldom. We now have a larger pile of logs sitting at the back door awaiting sawing and chopping, but I keep getting the urge to do something a little bit different. So I did!

 

The bargain poly-tunnel was recently moved into it's permanent position and I'm going to leave it built up over winter, hoping it is sheltered enough to withstand any gales or snow storms we may encounter between now and next spring. There's nothing planted inside it at the moment, just three old fish crates with the surplus cucumber plants that didn't fit in the little greenhouse. So, I set up my wooden airer and have been drying off some laundry inside the tunnel. This not using mains electricity for laundry is becoming a fun habit, but I digress... back to the log pile!

 

At 3m long, these logs are screaming out to be turned into path edging going down through my slowly emerging permacultured garden. What better way to edge paths than with logs?

 

I don't know about you, but I love natural wood. This is cheap and cheerful wood, cut locally from sustainable, commercially managed forest. These are like the treetops after they are felled and the trunks cut to length and hauled off to the yards. The forestry commission here sells these logs for £22 per tonne. We went as far as weighing the logs and they weighed between 20kg and 25kg each. There were 44 logs in total, which got shared between neighbour and ourselves, plus we split the transport costs, so it totalled £20 for 22 logs - that's not even £1 for a 3m log!

 

The above is the first of the logs being laid alongside the length of path that was uncovered, from hereon in it's a case of digging, laying in some weed control (probably a recycled building merchant tote bag) and then getting some woodchips or gravel laid. Suffice to say, I can't wait to see the end result, even although I know it's going to take months. These are very rustic path edgings, but could also become raised bed surrounds and who knows all what else - I'm thinking bird hide at the bottom of the garden near the stream, as its a great place for photographing the wildlife.

 

Cutting this post short as it's just gone 9pm and I have just received a rather interesting looking delivery by courier. Exciting, or what?

 

NYK in Frugaldom.

Edited in - Huge excitement here, as the late night delivery is the 'Twister' washing machine that's up for grabs in our free competition draw for those taking part in our Septimus Frugalus Challenge! Better still, it has arrived with a few other Ventus freebies for me to try! Excellent!

Autumn 2012

Autumn 2012 Has Arrived

I'm not sure where all the time goes but I am sure that it goes somewhere!

 

Frugaldom has been rather quiet, barring all the renovation works that are slowly, but surely, going on around us.

 

Now that October has arrived, we've had a sharp reminder to prepare for winter. The above photo was taken at sunset, looking out across Luce Bay towards the Rhins of Galloway. This is the inspiration for the colour scheme in the kitchen, just as soon as we get around to creating one. The option to buy a brand new, fitted kitchen has been removed and, instead, I'll be makng do with whatever I have available and adding a few units as and when possible. A lovely frugal friend has kindly offered us some solid wood doors, so these will be collected soon.

 

The arrival of the first frosts was duly marked and a renewed attempt made to get the garden under control. This year certainly hasn't been the best for growing much of anything, apart from herbs and, surprisingly, tomatoes!

 

But the time has come to begin serious preparations for winter, so that's what life is going to be all about in this frugal household - in the hope that we can get the heating sorted out before the onset of winter. The little pot-belly stove is still sitting boxed, ony slightly closer to being installed than it was the day I bought it. And there's still no kitchen, so frugal grocery shopping has been severely hampered by lack of choice in these rural parts. Proper cooking has been off the cards for many months now, so the grocery budget has taken the brunt of that.

 

Food, electricity, telephone line rental, fuel, logs, coal and anything else you like to mention seems to be increasing in price at an alarming rate, but still we plough on with the challenge of living on £4,000 or less for the year.

 

I'm guessing that as soon as the kitchen is done, I'll be hoping that batch cooked meals can incorporate all these herbs that are taking over the garden. I even have bunches of herbs indoors in vases, as per the photo at the top of this post! Have to say that this is proving to be far superior to any room freshener, costs nothing to replenish and has the added bonus that some of the herbs root whilst sitting in the water. I fear I may find myself living within a field of mint by Spring 2013!

 

So, indoors is chaos, but what of the frugal microholding? Well, the delapidated outbuilding has now been transformed into a suitable workspace for 2013, providing a bright and airy 'studio' for all the eco-art projects we have planned.

 

One part of the old building simply wasn't worth saving, so it has been cleared away to make space for the log store and an area specifically for chopping wood. In the shed, we now have a lovely sawbench, donated by a frugal friend. It has been put to excellent use, sawing and chopping all the old wood that was removed from the outbuilding and from indoors during the strip-out of the rear of the house. This is proving to be ideal for burning on the open fire and soon warms the radiators and heats a tank of hot water. Luxury!

Back on the eco-renovation front, we're trying hard to reuse whatever we can. Can anyone remember the lovely tiles I found when clearing out the rotten hall floor? Well, you'll be pleased to know that the original hall paving remained intact after we lifted out all that old flooring. It lay hidden beneath the layers of plastic, wood, cement, vinyl and carpet.

 

Over the past couple of weeks, the entire hallway has been lifted, dug down, raised, backfilled, damproofed and those ancient tiles are in the process of being relaid. I know this may seem a little extreme to some and that it may have been cheaper to simply have covered over the whole lot with new wood, but have you seen the price of decent hall carpet? Added to the fact that the restored 1800s floor will become a main feature, there's the fact that I'm saving a small fortune on not having to carpet it!

 

The ducks, hens and quail are all still laying well, so eggs are still commonplace meals in the Frugaldom household. Souffle omlettes are cooked up at every opportunity and there's been lemon drizzle cake aplenty throughout the summer. In fact, I think it's time to make another batch while I still have the use of the old cooker. (It's misbehaving more and more, so the current 'big' savings challenge is to invest in a shiny new one, by way of compensation for not installing a brand new kitchen. But I'll still be waiting for the very best deal and making sure I get cashback!)

 

 

My latest frugal-craft project is the unravelling of two old cardigans in the hope that I can knit up some wooly cushion covers, but the recent temperature drop is making me think more along the lines of knitting a wee blanket for over my knees while sitting at the computer! I'm also planning on knitting some nice deep pockets for my favourite cardigan and doing a repair job on it, as I am loath to throw it out - it's so long and so warm, jst what I need during the cold winter months.

 

Preparations for winter are now fully underway:

• Summer clothes folded and packed away, winter attire now at the ready. 
• Kindling sticks being chopped and stockpiled daily.
• Big bag of candle wax sat nearby to aid in kindling.
• Saw bench and axe in daily use.
• Insulation being added wherever possible in the house.
• Matches, candles, firelighters, rechargeable torch at the ready
• Coal bunker filled
• Garden produce prepped and into the freezer whenever possible.
• Enough preserves in store to last until next year

All that remains now is to kit out a kitchen, get the bathroom and cloakroom completed, finish restoring the paving in the hall, plasterboard the hall and stairway, build a cupboard and install the logburner. Hmm... I somehow cannot see all that being done before the end of 2012, certainly not on a frugal budget. But never mind - this winter we have a solid, insulated roof over the back of the house, that's progress!

 

That's it for now, but don't forget you can follow @frugaldom on Twitter and join us in the free forums at http://frugaldom.myfreeforum.org anytime.

 

If you are Scottish based, work from home or have a small business and a genuine interest in keeping costs down, join us in the new Scottish Web Directory (www.scottishwebdirectory.com) for some free advertising and promotion. A penny saved is a penny earned, as they say, so never feel backward at coming forward with ideas or suggestions about how we can help one another to succeed in our frugal living and frugal working challenges.

Frugal Living - A Means to an End

WHY DO WE DO IT? BECAUSE WE CAN!



Eco-renovation - it's a titanic task



Almost a month has passed since my last post, what with one thing and another happening within the family (RIP 'Wee Jean' 08/08/1918 - 29/07/2012) and various other circumstances beyond my control.

It's now time to get back on the frugal path to put this place in order, even if that path does appear very long and winding at times. I freely admit to occasionally stopping and wondering if it will all be worthwhile, but I also freely admit to saying a positive 'YES', it will be worth it!

My cousin volunteered to pose for this photo during one of our recent adventures and I thought it very apt for this post. :)

Work has restarted, once again. Once completed, the outbuilding will provide the much-needed space to allow work indoors to resume. I may even have a kitchen by the end of this year!


The (soon to be) studio.



The 'studio' is beginning to look good now that all the old wood and blocks have been replaced. We salvaged the old back door that was removed from the house plus half a dozen of the windows that were lying about the garden when we arrived here. There are still two more windows to be completed but the frames are in and all that's needed is for the glass to be fitted - this we have had to buy. (We got a really good deal from a local double glazing company who had spares lying in their yard.) One day soon, we'll have a studio workshop right on our back doorstep and working from home will become even more enjoyable. 

As the year progresses, we're having our fair share of sunshine, even managing to don the shorts and visit the beach a few times to enjoy a splash about with the grand children. This, however, reminds me of how unfit and over weight I havew become, so it is time to address this problem in a much more serious way. Afterall, we have the best gym in the world right outside our doors and anyone is free to use it at any time!

The great outdoors can offer anything you want from a short walk to the post box to some high-powered aerobics, assuming you have the enthusiasm to just do it! Frugal living should never leave you needing, even if you have to create your own imaginery outdoor gym.

An eco-renovation doesn't come cheap if we're looking at eco-friendly building products but a frugal eco-renovation is about making things affordable. Whether it means cutting back on unneccessary expense so you can afford the right materials or recycling what is already available to you, it is still good! Ensuring you are fit enough to enjoy and appreciate all the years of scrimping, saving and hard work that goes into a renovation project has to feature strongly in your plans if you expect to reap the long term benefits. So I am making a new start RIGHT NOW!

GET FITTER, NOT FATTER (Pedometer cost 99p inc P&P via eBay.) I often hear or read of people trying their best to get fit and lose weight by spending ridiculous amounts of money on low fat and/or high protein foods, joining local gyms and/or 'investing' in fitness equipment. I have to admit to having thought about these things myself in the past, especially as my son is a fitness fanatic and into all sorts of weight training.

I have now cast aside those thoughts and am lookingg at the whole picture - the old joints have taken some serious punishment over the years, what with various falls, bumps, sprains, strains and fractures (mainly horse-related) and it has been quarter of a century since I weighed what I would like to weigh. That's 25 years of careless living that has slowly increased my weight and decreased my fitness. I certainly don't plan on taking another 25 years to redress this balance, but I do understand that it will be a long and arduous task, one that cannot be supplemented by unneccessary spending, dieting fads and paying to be told how to do it. The process needs to fit in time-wise and weather-wise with frugal living, earning an income and renovating a home!

I hope nobody minds if I post about my exploits during this frugal 'Get Fitter, Not Fatter' challenge, but I set it up online so long ago that even I am beginning to think of it as a bit of a joke.

The following items are what some people see as essentials to their fitness regimes:

• rowing machine
treadmill
exercise bike

local swimming pool

weights

The following are what I have right here, right now:

This is my Rowing Machine. OK, so my rowing machine comes in the form of a small rowing boat moored at the edge of the nearby loch, but look at the spectacular views it offers and look at the space for sharing with friends, taking a healthy lunch and, if we so desired, trying our hands at fly-fishing. I haven't done the fishing bit, as that entails purchasing a permit that allows us to fish - not frugal - but rowing around Elrig loch is a brilliant way to get some easy exercise whilst communing with nature.

This is my Treadmill. The frugal treadmill will keep going for miles and miles, as the roads, lanes and tracks criss-cross the countryside. The whole point of spending years scrimping and saving is to afford to live debtfree somewhere we want to be, a place of our own that we can call home. If you can't see the possibilities of doing something like this on your own, then consider finding someone with shared ambitions. You'd be amazed at how many people jump at the chance to quit the rat race and follow their dreams as crafters, writers, artists or even for the simple choice of working their own hours in order to make the most of everything else life has to offer. Chaos is acceptable, no matter what others may think, if it is en route to realising your dreams.

The Exercise Bike (cycling) Almost everyone knows someone with a bicycle tucked away in a shed, forgotten, unused or surplus to requirement. Well, I borrowed one from a friend this summer. What with one thing and another, I haven't even managed out on it once, but there are no real excuses. They say that you never forget how to ride a bike... I'll put that theory to the test just as soon as my knees have agreed to bend and straighten in one smooth rotational action while synchronising with upper body balance and an ability to steer.

The Poolside - Living in a rural location means there's not really much call for such things as gyms or leisure centres with indoor heated swimming pools. Living within walking distance of the coast, however, offers all sorts of possibilities. Wild swimming can be done pretty much anywhere you find that's safe and clean enough for you to take the plunge. A friend has invested in a wet suit so she isn't completely restricted to only the hottest days of the year, swimming in several of the lochs that can be found within the region - her particular favourites are all within the Galloway Forest Park. I prefer the sea, as the thought of pike swimming below me puts me off even dipping a toe into any of our nearby lochs. As yet, I have not swum in the sea, only paddled.

Weights - Who needs dumbells when there are millions of rocks lying around the place? One local here power walks while carrying a rock in each hand, raising them and lowering them in step with his pace of walking. I'm sure this must provide an extra element of aerobic exercise and will be setting him well on his way to achieving his optimum heart rate.

My first challenge is to gather enough rocks to equate to the amount of excess weight I am already carrying. Granted, it won't come close to Stonehenge, but I'm sure it will amount to a tiny cairn, at least.

That's the tale of Frugaldom thus far - the indoor renovation works ground to a halt months ago, the weeds always seem to be winning the war in the garden, the greenhouse is still standing and producing some lovely tomatoes, I'm cooking courgettes in almost everything - bread and cakes alike - the derelict outbuilding should have a new lease of life as a studio within the next couple of weeks and I'm about to embark on a much healthier lifestyle, even if it takes me forever.

How could anyone not want to live this life? It's certainly never boring!

This post is also dedicated to all friends, family and other residents of Garlieston in the wake of recent events, the facts of which have been twisted out of recognition by certain newspapers that chose to feed the general public with outright lies! I would appeal to anyone who has read such garbage to cast it aside and never sink to the depths of allowing it to cloud their judgement on our wonderful area!

Regular updates relating to frugal living can be found in our forums at http://frugaldom.myfreeforum.org 

Feel free to join us online anytime and invite your friends to do similar.

Some Summer Updates from Frugaldom

Life in Frugaldom

There has been so much happening in the garden that work indoors has ended up on the backburner again! End result is, we still don't have a kitchen but we have a whole host of critturs, beasties and birds visiting the wildlife garden and, in return, not an awful lot by way of homegrown vegetables.

The strawberries did incredibly well and we're now onto blackcurrants and raspberries. I think I've picked a sufficient quantity of blackcurrants to make enough jam to last us until next year, but have had to freeze the berries pending further work on what will, eventually, be reinstated as my kitchen.

Last week, I picked the first cabbage, but there are few surviving the constant slug attacks. The slugs are out of control at the moment, so I really need better defences and a clear division made between the vegetable plots and the rest of the garden. This permaculture lark is all fine and good, communing with nature and encouraging wildlife, but it's very time consuming and slow to cultivate.

The herb spiral, on the other hand, has come on in leaps and bounds, producing a profusion of herbs, strawberries and water cress in the tiny 'pondlet' at the bottom of it. Since building this one, I have now completed a second, circular bed adjacent to it, which has been planted with more herbs and flowers. The herb spiral is a garden feature that I can highly recommend, I'm really impressed by how well everything grows in it.


My next project was 'the logman'.

Late last year, a neighbour had a conifer felled and gave us all the wood, so it had been stacked at the bottom of the garden for some time. To be honest, it isn't the best type of wood for burning on an open fire, so this led me to thinking up a novel idea of what to do with the logs - I built a raised bed shaped roughly like a boat and have planted blueberry bushes and heather in it. At the 'helm', I used the final log to make a bird table and named him 'the logman'. He's very popular with the birds, I have to admit, and his lantern can be lit on summer nights, so he's become quite a feature in the Frugaldom garden. His face is made from bottle tops and a twig, with some more twigs secured around the edge of the slice of log that serves as the bird table. Again, I am really pleased at how this turned out and even more impressed by the number and variety of birds that frequent 'him' on a daily basis.

The good weather continued here despite tales of flash floods and high tides elsewhere, so it seemed like a good idea to make a start on creating the long awaited 'bug hotel'. Some readers may remember I was able to get a wrought iron hanging rail from someone on Freecycle a few years back and this was originally converted into a vegetable growing rack. This year, however, it became the basis for the new bug hotel. I was inspired to begin this project after reading about 'Bugingham Palace', so set about creating my own, frugal version.

The Frugaldom bug hotel was completed last week and even includes a homemade bee house, which was made using the hollow stems pruned from the Himalayan Honeysuckle at the bottom of the garden. Again, I am quite proud of the end result, finishing it all off with a butterfly house that I found for half price in Aldi. £3.49 seemed like a small price to pay when everything else used was free. I have now made a start on the bottle garden, but it's only in the early stages, so nothing much worth discussing just yet.

 But what about the whole homeworking/microholding/self-sustainability 'thing'?, I hear you ask. Well, while the weather has been good, we have taken the opportunity to invest some of the savings into renovating the old outbuilding, which will then provide us with safe, dry storage space and work-space by way of a garden room, otherwise known as our eco-arts studio.

This is what the building looked like when we first bought the property. It was a derelict disaster zone, to say the least. It took us months to clear away all the rubbish that completely filled it and surrounded it, then there were all those broken windows to sort out before they fell on anyone.

The serious work began on this project about three weeks ago, but it has proven to be a far bigger job than first anticipated. For a start, the roof and two full walls - those not shown in the photos - have had to be removed and replaced to make the building safe. In order to do this, we had to disconnect the electrics, (I could hardly believe there were live wires in there in the first place!)which will need to be fully replaced at some point.

We are now at the stage of needing to find a door and new windows to replace the old ones, so I've been busy scouring the area for anything that might fit. Hopefully, one of the glazing companies from the nearest town may have some old ones available at a cheap enough price to warrant moving them and making them fit the gaps. In the meantime, the old concrete blocks have had a coat of whitewash to brighten them up a bit and there's someone out there right now sorting out the floor and replacing all the wood. Exciting times ahead and everyones' fingers are crossed that the sunshine will return soon so we can complete the renovation. Only then will we tackle the completion of the kitchen.

For anyone interested in life in and around our area, I have set up a Facebook page that is now home to all the photographs of the surrounding area, along with progress photos taken of the wildlife garden, so please feel free to visit and 'like' the page, that way you can be kept bang up to date with garden progress in our tiny corner of southwest Scotland.

The Frugaldom forums are also still fairly busy for anyone who would like to take part in any of the frugal living challenges.

Hoping not to leave if for so long next time and looking forward to making the most of this summer's staycation. There's so much to see and do when you're trying not to spend, so wildlife, nature and the 'make do and mend' activities are all being well served, as are free events being attended.

www.frugaldom.com

Springtime in Frugaldom

Spring has, hopefully, sprung!

It's been a while since I last posted on here, so please accept my apologies.

Over the past few weeks, work on the Frugaldom household kind of ground to a standstill for one reason or another but we are now back on track, joiners on site and we have also made a little more progress in the garden.

Sadly, we lost one of our young ducks during the really cold weather but everything else seems to be thriving. We're now getting an egg a day from the remaining 4 ducks. My plan of having two trios didn't quite work out to plan, as Joey, our old drake, has adopted both Custard Cream and Oreo to his hareem, leaving poor Runty and Dunty as the odd-couple. Dunty, despite her slight defect, is laying us an egg every day and managing to keep up with the others.

To be fair to our Scottish weather, we haven't had it too bad over the past couple of months. That is adequaetly reflected in my lack of posting here, as the garden has been taking over much of my time, lately. Seeds had to be sown, potatoes planted, veg patches dug, raised beds filled and I've even created a tiny pond and planting area on the patio. It saved having to go to the expense of filling in the big hole in the middle of the concrete and working out how to drain surface water when it rained heavily. The pond now has a solar powered fountain added to help aerate the water for whatever critturs might decide to take up residence. I've incorporated a length of plastic pipe and plenty of bark and boulders so there's cover for lizards, frogs and toads. Whether or not they will ever visit is another matter, as is making it childproof for any visitors bringing little ones - still to be done.

I'm rather pleased with my mini-pond and adjoining crittur habitat. I used an old piece of plastic to shape the end then built it up into a tiered circular bed using rocks and logs. It is now home to some of last year's cuttings of strawberries, thyme and lupins, with the outside edge sown with perpetual spinach and radishes. The spinach, once it grows, should deter the rabbit from eating the strawberries, as she'll be too busy eating spinach - I hope!

Seeds aplenty have been sown into pots and fish crates then covered over with panes of glass or polythene. Everything seems to be coming on alright but it's still far too cold here, despite last months occasional heatwave-like days, to transplant anything into the garden. This photo was taken last month, the strawberry plants are now all flowering and the fruit beginning to appear already.

The icing on the cake, to date, has to be the completion of my herb spiral, as described by many articles on the subject of permaculture. Although we aren't following their 'rule book' too closely, a permanent, micro-agricultural garden is what we are aiming for by way of our microholding, so the theories fit well with what we are trying to do. I have already planted it up with herbs, marigolds and more strawberry plants, with only the basil having succumbed to the frost when I forgot to cover it with its bubblewrap hat.

Further down the garden, the cane frames are being reconstructed for beans and peas, then there's new 'edging' going around the fruit beds. Empty wine bottles are being collected by all for the purposes of these new edgings, so no expense spared. Of course, it could take some time to collect enough bottles when we don't buy any! :)

Indoors, work began last week to get the back of the house renovated fully, restoring it to a kitchen, cloakroom and shower room. We're back to the original stone walls what we think used to be stables and the joiners are hard at work fitting it all out for new ceilings, floors and stud walls, each section damp proofed, insulated using the sheeps wool and then lined with insulated/foil backed plasterboard. The concrete floors have been leveled (as best I could get them), a vapour barrier laid then insulated underlay with extra vapour barrier laid on top of that. Now the flooring is being fitted and should, hopefully, be completed by this weekend.

In eager anticipation of starting on actual living space, I now have, in my possession, a brand new replacement for 'George', our pot belly stove in the previous house. He was such a handy little pig to have around the place, eating his way through any scraps of wood, sticks, logs or the ocassional shovel of coal for an extra blast of heat.  The new arrival has been named 'Wilbur'!

We had a lengthy, in-depth conversation with frugal friends. They live off grid in their 'fixy up' and their recommendation was that we keep the open fire with the existing back boiler, radiators and hot water system, as it's all void during an electrical failure or power cut, which has happened several times since we moved here. Having a free-standing logburner as an extra source of heat and for occasional cooking will cost literally thousands of pounds less than replacing the entire open fire with a new solid fuel stove and boiler system connected to radiators, so we'll remove the crumbling old fireplace and replace it with something a little more secure and leave the existing back boiler to warm the radiators and hot water.

I am awaiting the arrival of a 'knotty pine' door for the bathroom and hoping it arrives soon. It's all been a bit "open plan" during this phase of the work. Then again, the joiner still needs to make the wall and door surround that will hold said door in position, so that's probably what's to be done between now and the weekend.

Plenty of phots have been uploaded, including step by step on creating the herb spiral in our frugal living forums. Feel free to visit.

The Kitchen is the Hub of the Frugal Household

Frugalising the Kitchen

While money saving and frugal living can be fun, it is also a lifestyle that many people have to follow, for one reason or another. The reason I chose it was simple - lack of income, no entitlement to benefits, no possibility of a mortgage and I love the lifestyle. Saving to buy a house outright was the only sensible option, in my opinion.

Buying a cheap fixy up property as a renovation project can also be fun, but we need to live and work here, earning enough to sustain the household and carry out essential refurbishment. The most important element of this longterm project is affordability - the house has to be made into a warm, dry, comfortable home and the garden laid out in such a way that it can help sustain the household. This is what I refer to as microholding. It's a very small, self sustaining unit, providing all that's needed to generate enough income to keep the house and household running efficiently, while also providing us with a source of food and, hopefully one day, energy.

Reducing overheads is a must - it doesn't make economical sense to have to spend £50 per week in winter heating a small house, so insulation is the number one priority. The kitchen is the heart of the frugal  microholding lifestyle. It is where all the food is prepared, it is the gateway to the garden and it is also the most energy hungry part of the house, as far as electricity is concerned. This room is a conversion that appears to join an old stable, wash house or pig sty to the main house, so the later walls are block built while the original ones are stone.

So far, we have fixed all the electrical and water supplies and renewed the entire kitchen roof. The roof, hopefully, has been the single most expensive part of the project so far. Insulation began with 100mm of Black Mountain Sheep Wool insulation, followed by foil-backed plasterboard. This new ceiling still has to be plastered, but that job can't be done until the window and walls have been completed. Sheep wool is not the cheapest option but it does fit in with our best efforts at eco-renovation.

Last week, we managed to get the old window and frame stripped out and replaced, making a further change to the temperature difference between outside and in the kitchen, which has no current source of heating. During these chilly, winter mornings, when the outside thermometer is reading 0C, the kitchen is holding 10C without heating. Once the fire is lit, the heat spreads and raises this another couple of degrees, so things are looking up in that department. Once the walls are replaced and we have a proper floor, rather than just bare concrete, things should improve dramatically.

Today sees the start of 'project kitchen walls'. The next batch of 50mm sheep wool insulation has just been delivered and this is what will insulate the new walls. Phase one is removing the old plasterboard, then the walls need to be damp proofed before fitting the sheep wool between the wooden framework that will then be clad in foil-backed plasterboard. Again, these will need to be plastered, but that's for another phase of the frugaldom renovation project.

Now, I'm off to clear the space along the back wall of the kitchen and start making a big mess. I'll update with a photo as soon as the first wall is visible.

1st Update: This is the first corner to be revealed after stripping it back to the bare block. Only the wood at ground level is rotten, with the usual tell tale signs of woodworm.

The actual blockwork feels dry, other than one tiny damp patch at ground level, which would have been below the level at which the kitchen was previously saturated by burst pipes and the old, leaky roof.

I'm optimistic... I think this looks like a DIY job once I've read up a bit more about the best methods of damp proofing.

The rotten wood will need to come out and be replaced but I still have about 10 litres of the Cuprinol 5 Star wood treatment, so that means I can treat all the wood before it gets covered over by new plasterboard.

I'll continue removing the old plasterboard, all of which seems to be perfectly dry and, possibly, reuseable for something, even if it is only the outbuilding. with luck, the temperature won't plummet too low, as there's going to be absolutely nothing to stop what little heat we do have in the kitchen from escaping straight out through the wall. Perhaps I'll drag out the huge sheet of polythene that accompanied the last delivery of sheep wool - anything is better than nothing. :)

2nd Update - There were no hidden surprises awaiting me behind the old plasterboard. Indeed, it was amazingly dry and still no signs of any rising damp. This is an external wall, so I'd have expected any dampness to have shown itself by now.  Frugalpuss thought it was a great game of hind and seek and is still sat in the midst of the dusty mess.

The framework on the wall is far too narrow, so this will all be brought out to extend the gap to allow for 50mm of sheep wool to be used to insulate it. It isn't particularly draughty with the boards down, so I'm hoping that means the new roof is doing its full and proper job. The walls and concrete floor all need to be damp proofed but I'm still awaiting word about what the most economical and environmentally friendly way of doing this really is. All suggestions welcome.

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Sheep Are Keeping My Kitchen Warm!

New Roof, New Door, More Rewiring, Insulation and a New Ceiling

Amidst our current trials (and errors) of calculating the costs involved in heating an old cottage in a rural Scottish village, we have reached the next step of our renovation journey.

As can be expected, the good old Scottish weather has dictated the order of things, so it was with some dismay that we had to endure the full blast of last week's 'hurricane' with the wind whistling through the old back door at the same time as having no ceiling in the kitchen. Any attempt to heat the place was pointless.

But the insulation had arrived - six rolls of Black Mountain sheep wool. We opted to purchase this from a company called Natural Insulations and I have to say, their service was faultless. The half pallet of insulation arrived at the door within a couple of days and the delivery company kept us informed as to exactly when they would arrive. I even kept the pallet as extra firewood.

This has been one of my 'luxury buys' for the Frugaldom household, as the budget wouldn't normally stretch that far. Attempting to be environmentally friendly, however, is something that we want to do here, despite all odds associated with frugal living.

There is little (or no) incetive for households on a tight budget to incorporate enviromentally friendly, carbon neutral products into any renovation or improvement projects, so some financial jiggery pokery had to be done, along with a money making challenge to help increase the income last month. Fortunately, that goal was achieved and I wasn't forced to settle for cheap, nasty, subsidised glass fibre insulation.

Being in the unfortunate situation that our roof had to be replaced without removing it in its entirety (owing to adverse weather conditions) the joiners were faced with the task of then renewing the ceiling while incorporating insulation from the uderside, rather than being able to simply lay it between rafters. To be fair, they had expected me to opt for insulation boards such as Celotex or Kingspan, so this was a first encounter with sheep wool for them.

Work began this morning with the arrival of the electrician to rewire the kitchen, followed shortly by the joiners, complete with the foil backed plasterboard and other necessary bits and pieces.

The insulation was at the ready and I have now been informed that it is excellent to work with, when comparing it to standard glass fibre. Aside from the fact that the joiner currently looks a bit like a yeti, where his fleece has attracted the other fleece, he has suffered no irritation from the product whatsoever.

The Black Mountain sheep wool insulation at 100mm thickness offers a thermal conductivity of 0.039 W/m².K. It is 95% natural wool fibre, created from the fleeces of Swaledales and Welsh Black Face sheep. It is a truly sustainable product, easy to handle, cut and shape, has an ozone depletion potential of zero, locks away carbon and even feels warm to the touch. It can absorb up to 35% moisture without its insulating properties being affected, so that's a definite bonus in a well used kitchen. (Technical data can be found here.) And the cat loves it!

The kitchen is progressing well, with most of the rewiring completed and the new ceiling now being fitted to incorporate all this lovely insulation.

I've double checked to ensure cables are double-insulated and they've all been tested to ensure there's no possibility of any heat radiating that could create any fire hazard and the plasterboard is now going up, adding an extra barrier by way of the foil-backing.

You can already feel the difference in the temperature of the kitchen, despite it blowing a gale outside at the moment, and that's just the first half of the ceiling done.

My initial comparison had been done on the chance that we would have had to use Celotex or Kingspan type insulation board, but further research proved that this board would have cost around 20% more than us having had the sheep wool delivered to Scotland from Wales, so there has been some small saving, enough to cover the cost of the foil-backed plasterboard! There has not been a great deal of extra expense incurred by 'going green' on this issue.

All in all, I'm very optimistic about the quality and capabilities of this product and very pleased that the decision was made to go the most environmentally friendly route available to us.

The electrician has to return and finish wiring in the lights, the ceiling needs fitted in the back hallway, where sheep wool has also been added, and then there's plenty more to do after that. But we have the long-awaited, insulated kitchen ceiling, just in time for winter setting in properly.

There's money saving and then there' money saving - the sheep wool won't need to be topped up or replaced every 10 years, for a start, and I have the rest of the winter to calculate what savings can be made in keeping at least one room of the house warm until we've saved enough to start on the next one.

In addition to the above, we also had the back door and framework replaced, so no more wind whistling through that!

On completion of the kitchen, this will be the first part of the house to be insulated, so the challenge is on to save enough to invest in more sheep wool for the rest of the house, both upstairs and down.

The frugal renovation project continues with the replacement of the kitchen window, which was held up by it not being made in time for the joiner's visit this week. The joys of Listed buildings and their 'like for like' modernisation policies, everything new needs to be made the same size and shape as the old, but I guess that's what I like about old buildings - they have traditional character.

NYK Media

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

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

Burning Coal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Insulating a Flat Roof...

... From the Inside!

Having replaced the flat roof above our kitchen, we've now ripped down the internal ceiling - sounds a bit of a weird way of doing things, but the weather wasn't in our favour when the roof was being done and we couldn't do without the kitchen at the time, nor could we risk water into the electrics. Now, however, we are left with a dilemma - what type of insulation should we use?

The insulation will need to be fitted from the inside before the new ceiling goes up, so this does make things a little bit more complicated: the insulation needs to be held in place until the new plasterboard gets fixed and, just to complicate things more, these jobs may not be possible to do on the same day.

Insulation is really important in as far as holding in the heat during our freezing Scottish winters and the recent weather has done nothing to help things along. Now that the frost has arrived, we need to work quickly to beat the big freeze that is bound to arrive soon.

Insulation, insulation, insulation... slabs, butts, rolls, Celotex, Kingspan, Rockwool, Thermafleece, EcoTherm, Space Blanket... ? I don't really want glass fibre or cheap and nasty, but costs for anything else are ridiculous for such an essential component of our renovation project! And what's worse is the fact that this is just the first room! We have no insulation at all at the moment.

Keep in mind that this is for a kitchen, so there will be extra heat generated from cooking that I'd prefer not to lose straight up through a flat roof. There will also be steam, which could cause condensation if we don't do the job right.

Whatever I choose, it will probably be fitted above foil-backed plasterboard and then decorated. We probably won't plaster the ceiling, prefering to employ a more frugal, Scottish process known as 'Ames Taping', then simply decorating over the top.

I haven't decided on any interior decor, yet. That's way down the list of priorities. The immediate problem is settling on what type of insulation to use, when I would prefer NOT to use the cheap and nasty glass fibre variety.

This blog post is now open for debate and comment... what type of insulation do you think would be the best to suit our purpose?

From an ecological point of view, I would love to use the environmentally friendly sheep wool, like Thermafleece.

For ease of fitting, thermal boards such as Kingspan or Celotex would be an obvious choice.

All of the above are expensive in comparison to the 'cheap and nasty' subsidised rolls of insulation that are currently available at 'buy one, get 3 free', IF you live anywhere near a stockist. We don't! That would be a huge saving, but would I be happy knowing that's what's up there when we're planning on being here for the longterm with the kitchen being the busiest room in the house?

From a financial point of view, I can have insulation board delivered, probably free, from our local(ish) builders' merchants, whereas the sheep wool variety is being quoted at £60+ JUST FOR DELIVERY!

The boards are far easier to work with in our situation, what with them being installed on the underside of the ceiling, cut to fit and they should stay in place while fitting the plasterboard. It makes me wonder if 100mm polystyrene would be simpler to use.

Why is sheep wool so expensive when farmers are constantly complaining that they're only getting about 50p per fleece at shearing time?

Are the terms 'green' and 'eco-friendly' just new-age speak for 'expensive'?

Why is it so impossible to be green AND frugal?

Your recommendations or feedback on this matter would be greatly appreciated. The job has to be done soon, the kitchen renovation 'savings pot' is about to be emptied and I don't really want to regret my choice a few winters down the line.

If any insulation supplier would like to sponsor the Frugaldom kitchen roof project, I'll happily dedicate this post to your company and ensure that all SEO tactics are employed to your full advantage! :)

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

A Little Bit More Progress

Frugaldom House to Home Project Progress

It's now been five months since we moved into our 'fixy-up' and we've reached a point where a little bit more work can be done in order to make the place completely wind and watertight. We were also blessed with a pleasant surprise, when we discovered that the kitchen ceiling was nowhere near as bad as we had been expecting to find it.

Today, after getting the bathroom window properly sealed in, work began on stripping out the old kitchen and back hallway ceiling. For whatever reason, this part of the house, which we think is a conversion from old stables, had been sheeted out in thick chip board and then covered in polystyrene tiles.

Owing to the fire hazard that is polystyrene, all the tiles were ripped from throughout the entire house before even moving in, but the chipboard had to remain in place. To be honest, I was dreading it all coming down in case it revealed rotten timbers!

By lunchtime today, all the old wood had been pulled down to reveal the sarking, which is in surprisingly good condition. Only one part where most of the water had been running in over the previous couple of years, when the property was empty, looks like needing replaced. Savings, savings, savings! I love savings!

This is what got ripped out today.

Imagine if any of that lot had come down on someone's head? Eek! It's almost completely dried out so, assuming we have no rain overnight, this will get chopped up as firewood and stored for using over winter. It should have been done this afternoon, but someone stole all the daylight hours from beneath our very noses!

Our street is a very quiet street. It's normal for it to be quiet, except for the minute we decide to start moving anything out there! As luck would have it, the freight lorry arrived to collect several boxes of books that were being shipped out, at the exact same time as the log delivery arrived. And this was just as 'Ratty' was trying to get all his tools packed into the back of his car after finishing the kitchen work. We had a queue of vehicles lining the tiny street waiting to get to our door!

Tools all packed and away, boxes all shunted out into the lorry and then it was straight to work unloading the logs by hand from friend's trailer, along with a load of wood chips for the duck runs.

It didn't take too long, but then there was the barrowing of it all around to the back of the house before stacking it.

It took only about an hour to shift everything to where it is supposed to be but, suffice to say, lunch turned out to be a very, very late affair. Thank goodness for homemade pea and ham soup and some freshly baked bread.

The contents of the kitchen were returned to their rightful places and then the joiner phoned - to say he would be here tomorrow to measure up the kitchen window and back door. Keep in mind that we haven't even managed to get around to having a letter box installed in the new front door or manage to get around to glossing it, let alone have thought of ordering the window that the joiner is going to be fitting!

Never mind, at least we are quite cosy with the fire blazing, the water heating and the radiators all being warmed by the same logs. I can't wait to get the new log burner, but that's a whole different challenge for 2012.

Our log store has now been refilled and there's a spare pile by the back door, as well as those now stacked either side of the fireplace, so this should keep us going for the remainder of the year - I hope!

The 2011 Frugaldom Challenge budget of £4,000 has now been reduced to £687.36

The 'Everything Else Kitty' is in deficit by £609.71 with no prospect of egg sales since the 'wee minky bandit' incident. (Not bad considering that includes the house move and emergency repairs.)

There's enough vouchers, points and spare change in the Christmas kitty to cover gift buying this year.

The fixy-up (bought and paid for) is well on its way to becoming our 'forever' home.

The next challenge is to cover the costs of insulating and replacing the kitchen & back hallway ceilings, upgrading the electrics in that part of the house, replacing the door and window 'like for like' (which involves having a wooden door made to measure) and then making the most of all that until next year. That's when the real work will begin - doing repairs that others will actually be able to see, like new log burner heating system, interior plasterboard walls, ceilings and proper floors.

Now I need to find the best deal on sheeps' wool insulation, a letter box and a matching set of door handles. Topcashback, here I come! :)

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk