Frugaldom

Potential for More Doom and Gloom?

2012-02-13T14:10:00.000Z

Quantitative Easing and the Frugal Household

So once again, the Bank of England (and British Government) saw fit to churn out another £50 BILLION in cash, apparently bringing the total up to £375 BILLION of new money that's recently been (or is currently being) pumped into our failing, some may say spendthrift, economy.

Elsewhere, the US can do similar by way of the Federal Reserve, but what is happening in the Euro Zone, when the likes of Greece needs to impose further austerity measures in order to secure more 'bale-out' funding? Am I to assume that someone, somewhere, simply prints out more Euros?

Austerity measures were apparently imposed on Britain, but I don't know what they were or what they currently are, having witnessed absolutely no improvement in my personal financial circumstances, although the price of fuel (domestic heating and motor) seriously curtails any thoughts of living in a warm home or travelling without a specific need to travel.

Isn't our traditional British method of "QUANTITATIVE EASING" just a posh term for a BALE OUT? I'm no politician, nor am I an economist, but surely if the Bank of England is literally printing new money, we would expect to see some English notes pass through our own hands eventually, here in Scotland? Northern Ireland have their own bank notes, too, so come on guys, let's hear it from you across the water - how many Bank of England notes have passed through your hands over the past couple of years?

Or have I completely misunderstood the concept of how this 'easing' works? Isn't the presumption that it filters down through all the different levels until there's extra money (real money) circulating at consumer level?

What does QE do to the value of the pound? Surely, if the nation's pot of money is being topped up then there has to be a dilution occuring, a trickle of devaluation, meaning that more is, in actual fact, leading to less, over time? As far as I'm aware, devaluation of the GB pound - that's how I see it - occured in 1931, 1967, 1976, 2008 and I've kind of lost track, other than my understanding that it's been watered down by a further £375 BILLION since then. Do we know the percentage dilution?

Tread cautiously, frugal lifers, because somewhere along the line, this has to have a greater impact. Near worthless money in banks is earning close to nothing yet our 'anywhere els' investmets are being watered down continually.

What is the real answer for those of us who have little or no savings and who practically live hand to mouth each week, albeit debt free? Into what should we be investing our time, energy and meagre excesses?

NYK Media
Frugaldom

Porridge For Breakfast - Less Than 10p per Serving

2012-02-05T17:30:00.003Z

9p Porridge - What a Bargain!

Following on from my previous post that breaks down the cost of porridge, I noticed a flaw in the figures! Shame on me! The actual cost of each serving made here in Frugaldom should be ONLY 9p!

If, like me, you are paying £1 per kilo for porridge oats and cooking them in the microwave, then the following should be true:

1 scoop (50g) porridge oats - 5p

Pinch of salt - included in cost of sugar, as the number is too small

2.5 scoops tap water

6 minutes in a 700w microwave on full power - 1p (based o 14p per kWh)

Sprinkle of sugar (89p per kilo) - less than a penny, let's call it 1p to include the salt

Milk (49p per litre) - 2p

Total for one serving of porridge is approximately 9p

The reduced price reflects the difference between buying expensive, well known brands of porridge oats and the more cost effective stores' own bags of oats. I always use the bags, as they are so much cheaper than the boxes.

NYK Media
Frugaldom

February's Frugal Grocery Challenge

2012-02-01T16:32:00.002Z

Cheap Meals for £1 or Less per Person per Day

With a grocery budget of £1 per person per day, it is getting more and more difficult to afford too much meat in the diets, but it isn't impossible, so long as you aren't expecting steak or roast beef too often.

I've been carrying out my own version of frugal grocery shopping for more years than I care to mention. Originally, during the 80's, it began with keeping hens for eggs, baking bread by hand and cooking whatever I could from scratch, making the most of a slow cooker.

Times have changed slightly, with the emergence of the huge supermarkets. By the late 90s, we had the bread wars, where it was possible to buy a cheap loaf for as little as 4p, rendering it a complete waste of time and energy even contemplating self-baking it. But again the times have changed and the cheapest loaf (of questionable quality) is now approaching 50p. So how does a household manage to survive on a tiny food budget?

From today, 1st February, I am going to cost up each of the meals we eat in a day. I'll try to do this for the full month - time permitting - and see how far off the £1 per person per day we really are.

Breakfast is usually porridge during the colder months and let's face it, that's most likely to be about seven months out of the twelve if you live in Scotland. (There's a section of the Frugaldom Forum dedicated to cheap meals and how to help keep the cost of grocery shopping within a tight budget.)

19p PORRIDGE FOR BREAKFAST

Porridge oats currently cost me £1 per kilo and one kilo makes approximately 20 to 22 portions.

1 x small cup (45-50g) of porridge oats
2.5 x small cups of water
Good pinch of salt

I cook mine in the microwave, it takes about 6 to 8 minutes, depending on how powerful the microwave is. Don't forget to stir it halfway through and let it stand for a minute before serving. Serve with milk and a sprinkle of sugar (if prefered).

Allowing 8p for the salt, milk and sugar, this costs approximately 18p per serving in grocery costs. My microwave is 700w, so a 5 minute blast with this costs approx 1p, making the REAL cost of a bowl of porridge each morning 19p per serving.

If you have a handful of dried fruit with your porridge, you can easily add on another 10p, so maybe best save the fruit for mid-morning snacks. (The recommended amount of porridge oats per serving is 45g.)

24p PIZZAS FOR LUNCH

I very rarely buy pizzas, nor do I specially bake pizza bases. I find that using homemade bread works equally well and is a great way of using up the end slices. These taste more like French Bread Pizzas.

My breadmaker does 2 x 450g loaves at a time, so they cost around 35p for wholegrain by the time I factor in the electricity. Assuming each loaf slices into 8-10 slices, I allow 4p per slice.

Getting your minimum 5-a-day fruit and vegetable servings each and every day can sem expensive, so it's a case of making the most of what's available at the right price. Tinned tomatoes, whenever you can bulk buy them on offer, will always be your friend. They don't really go out of date or go off as long as the cans aren't dented, so no need to pay too much attention to the BBE dates stamped on the end.

Today's pizza lunch included 2 of our 5-a-day by way of chopped red pepper, onions and tomatoes. I keep bags of chopped peppers in the freezer after buying them whenever I see them cheap. At the moment, I am buying peppers with my ROSSPA orders, at a cost of 80p for 3.

Ingredients

80g diced onions (5p)

40g chopped peppers (7.5p)

Tin of tomatoes (33p)

Salt, pepper, pinch of mixed herbs (1p)

Bread - 12p

20g finely grated cheese (11.5p)

Total cost = 70p, that's less than 24p per pizza, plus leftovers for the freezer.

While the grill is heating, I give the veggies a couple of minutes cooking on full power in the microwave to soften them up, then I add the tin of tomatoes and seasoning. This all then gets microwaved on full power for a further couple of minutes to make sure it is all properly heated. This is your basic pizza sauce mix.

Lay your bread out on the grill tray and slightly toast one side before turning it over and covering each slice with the sauce, followed by a sprinkling of your grated cheese.

20g of mature cheddar

Grate the cheese as finely as you can, using the smallest side of the grater. This enables you to stretch the 20g cube of cheese much further. I use mature cheddar cheese, as we all prefer the flavour, but I'm sure there are cheaper options. To give you an idea of quantity, here is what 20g of cheddar looks like. It is a tiny amount, but that's the price of cheese nowadays, it's extortionate! We need to be economical in that department!

Freeze any extra sauce

Surprisingly, the above sauce is enough for 4 pizzas. I made only 3, so the extra tomato, pepper and onion topping has gone into a margarine tub for freezing. If you don't use it for a quick pizza, it's fine for adding to bolognese or chilli con carne. Is also nice with a little chilli added and served with fajitas in place of shop bought salsa.

If all your ingredients are costed now, it's like having free ingredients when the time comes to use them in your next meal.

NYK Media
Frugaldom

Aurora Borealis - In Search of the Northern Lights of Frugaldom

2012-01-27T11:36:00.003Z

Frugal Living and Wet Weather Blues

Since the weekend, I have been trying to watch the night skies in the hope of catching my first ever glimpse of the Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis, to give it its proper name. It's the first time in several years that the solar activity has reached sufficient levels to allow us, here in the southern sector of Scotland, to witness this splendid, somewhat terrifying, atmospheric phenomenon. I believe there have even been sightings as far south as northern England!

All week long it has been cloudy and wet! We have had rain, hail, sleat and snow. Finally, yesterday looked like it had 'snowed out', with several areas of Scotland particularly badly hit. However, the aftermath of this was plummeting temperatures and a black velvet, star spangled sky that was lit up by a new moon and the bright light of 'nearby' Venus. I had to ask twice about this bright light, as I was convinced it was a satellite. There's never as much as a flicker of twinkle from it that I have noticed. But then the telescope is still packed away in a box from housemoving and my eyesight isn't what it used to be.

With great expectations, I kept one eye on the aurora activity level map for the northern hemisphere and the other on the night sky... was hoping to see the activity level beat 7. Then the clouds moved back in again and the heavens opened! It's still raining now!

Don't get me wrong, I am no astronomer. Nor am I a regular star gazer (although we do have that telescope lurking somewhere) but the prospect of seeing Aurora Borealis completely free of charge (no pun intended) from our own garden, when people can pay thousands of pounds holidaying in far off, northern countries, paying for guided expeditions as part of a lifetime dream, it's very, very moneysaving and would be most satisfying to be able to make that 'claim to fame'.

Being unable to see beyond the rain clouds here, I chose to watch events unfold in Norway, by way of the Aurora Sky Station live camera - absolutely awesome! Spectacular footage and all for free, from the comfort of home. If you do check out the site, remember you can't see the lights during the day, you'll need to tune in at night.

Apologies for the lack of posts here of recent times, procrastination has been lurking dangerously close to chronic level. I promise to try and update more often and, for now, would like to extend a special thanks to those of you who have chosen to have this humble, frugal little blog delivered to your Kindles.

Edited in:
According to the Met Office, our local forecast is for a freezing night with clear skies. What's the betting that means the Aurora has retreated well out of view? Dead cert!

NYK Media
Frugal Living in Frugaldom

The Kitchen is the Hub of the Frugal Household

2012-01-19T12:19:00.002Z

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

A Frugally Productive Day

2012-01-10T17:25:00.001Z

GARDEN PRODUCE IN WINTER

I've been waiting for quite some time to get a dry enough day to get out into the garden to see how things are growing. The ground is saturated - far too wet to even think about planting anything - but it was alright for picking some fresh produce.

Today's haul got me a tub of brussels sprouts, some curly kale and 15 leeks. The ducks got their share of leafy greens to nibble on, when I pulled up a couple of rows of the old broccoli plus some kale, then it was indoors to start preparing the day's pickings. Before that, I pulled out the dead sunflowers, so their thick, woody stalks were soon blazing on the fire, helping to heat the water.

Breadbaking was on the agenda, so two small loaves got baked in the replacement breadmaker. It bakes faster than my old one, probably owing to the fact that it does two small loaves instead of one large one. I like this feature, as it allows me to bake a white loaf and a wholemeal loaf at the same time. That's very handy when the household is divided on what each likes best.

Then there was the 'Nile' mince to cook. I named it this, as mince is such a versatile meat product that can be bulked out and made into so many different dishes - it simply stretches for miles, just like the River Nile.

Bog standard mince and potatoes is tasty at the best of times but with a slow cooker, you can simply add everything into the one pot and have a 'casserole' style meal that could easily feed a large family without a problem.

Today, the mince is cooking along with potatoes, carrrots, onions, leeks and brussel sprouts. I add plenty of stock and seasoning, then dumplings get added about half an hour before serving the meal in big bowls, along with freshly baked bread, if required. It's tasty, nutritious and very filling!

(Dumplings are a mix of plain flour, suet and water mixed into dough, divided into dough balls and can be cooked in mince, stew or soup.)

Whatever mince doesn't get used today will be transformed by the addition of tomatoes, herbs and garlic to make a bolognese style sauce for serving with pasta and then the remains of that topped up with chilli peppers and kidney beans to serve at a later date with boiled rice. My slow cooker is one of the most used items I have in my kitchen and I can highly recommend them to anyone. I use a 6.5L Morphy Richards.

Each of these dishes can be frozen in meal sized portions for future use, so we can get three meals for three of us out of the one pack of mince, which started out weighing a mere 400g for a cost of £1.20 The potatoes, onions, brussel sprouts and leeks are all from the garden. I'm ashamed to say, I had to buy the carrots!

Sadly, we've lost our second crop of carrots, which were well and truly wrecked when the rabbit decided it would be fun to play in that particular bed after finding her way in through the netting! She had it dug into nothing by the time we found her. And judging by the huge holes I found among the stalks of last year's broccoli and the brussels sprouts this afternoon, she's been making a habit of frequenting that spot, too.

Note to rabbit-keeping vegetable growers - your rabbit will love freeranging in your garden but it will also find its way into anything, showing you where you have failed to 'crittur-proof' your precious veggies. The Frugaldom bunny doesn't seem to touch turnips, kale, broccoli, cauliflower or sprouts, but she loves carrots, pea shoots, strawberries and raspberry leaves. I've even seen her nibbling on the mint!

Hoping to be able to get some seeds started soon, so I'll probably start with my salad leaves in their tub, as these are easily covered in plastic as a makeshift cloche. I would normally start some other seeds off in trays and keep them on the kitchen windowsill but being in our 'fixy-up' means I don't actually have a windowsill to use until the old window gets replaced. Weather permitting, I'm hoping it could maybe get fitted this weekend, which would then help cut down more of the draughts at the back of the house.

Here's to the 2012 growing season. If the mild weather continues, we might even get back out into the garden soon - if only the high winds and rain would stay away for a bit!

The duck pond is mucky but, thanks to the drainage, we have avoided any floods or mud pits... so far. We lost one of our young ducks to the severe weather during the storms but everything else seems to be fairing well. Roll on the start of egg laying, as we're only getting a few bantam eggs at the moment - hardly conducive to cost-effective egg production!

Work has now begun on the website in preparation for the new year. All the links will be added to the http://www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk/ site, which will become the centre of this frugal little kingdom, updated to reflect progress in the development of our first microholding.

Don't forget you can join in with any of the frugal challenges at http://www.frugaldom.com/ where I have linked
the free forums.

NYK Media
http://www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk/

Another Frugal Soup Recipe for 2012

2012-01-02T20:50:00.002Z

It's all over for another year - Christmas has been and gone, Hogmanay has been and gone, New Year has been and gone. We're now marching boldly into 2012, ready to do battle with whatever life throws at us and hopeful of grabbing any new opportunities that may present themselves along the way.

There was no winter snow over the festive week, instead, we had wind and rain with the odd smattering of sleat and hailstones. Occasionally, a glimmer of sunhine managed to sneak through the clouds. Sadly, we lost a 'runty duckling' that prefered to stay in the pond than seek shelted from the torrential dowpours, but the rest of the Frugaldom menagerie seems happy enough. The cat loves her new toys and the rabbit has been out for a run about the garden to work off all the extra carrot peelings she managed to consume over Christmas.

The breadmaker had been playing up for quite some time; it had lost all the little washers from between it's baking pan and the mixing blade which, itself, was almost worn out. Everything was crossed that it would see us through Christmas. As (good) luck would have it, mum had passed her's on to one of my sisters who had ended up putting it into her attic, so a quick phone call of pleasantries and pleading - OK, I simply asked her - meant she had time to fish the breadmaker from the attic and bring it on her trip to the family get together.

Despite it being a few years old, this machine is in almost new condition, as neither of its previous owners seemed to enjoy (or have time for) breadmaking. I think I won out on this, as it's now safely ensconced in my kitchen, replacing my old one. The old one, however, hasn't been thrown out, as it does still work! It might come in useful sometime in the future, or may even find itself with a shiny new baking pan and mixing blade.

Two loaves are better than one, apparently, as the 'new' machine makes two tiny loaves simultaneously. The settings allow for different types of mix to be used in each pan, so we can have white and wholemeal or cake and bread baking at the same time. Right now, I have a couple of bananas needing used up, so I'll probably do a wholemeal loaf alongside banana bread tomorrow morning.

The post-festive period is a great time for using up leftovers. Let's face it, most of us have them around this time of year, whether it's turkey from Christmas or steak pie, gammon or roast beef from New Year. I used half the stuffed turkey breast for Christmas day, so the other half went into the freezer, cooked. I had pheasants in the freezer, so one of them got cooked up with all the trimmings and served with puff pastry in suitable pie-like passion on New Year's Day. The cat is happy, as she has had all the extra meat chopped into catfood-sized nuggets and then everything else that remained of the fine bird went into my slow cooker.

Cue another one of those rather 'interesting' Frugaldom soup tales...

GAME AND TOMATO BROTH

Everything remaining from the pheasant went into the big crock pot in the slow cooker, along with a couple of onions and the leftover potatoes. This was set on the timer to simmer for a few hours overnight. At the same time, I rinsed off a 500g pack of broth mix and a cupful of butter beans, then left them soaking in cold water overnight.

In the morning, the stock was strained and then returned to the slow cooker, along with the broth mix, butter beans and half a carton of passata that I had lurking in the fridge. (I buy store's own 'basic' passata, as it's cheaper than tins of chopped tomatoes and works well as a base for turning the end slices of homemade bread into frugal, speedy pizzas.) Season the soup with salt & pepper, then leave to simmer until all the beans, peas, lentils and barley are tender.

That's it, that's the frugal game soup of the day and it works equally well using a shin of beef, although this would add to your costs by around 65p.

The pheasant cost me nothing, as I had traded for a brace through our LETS group, so stock from leftovers is an extra bonus, as we'd already had the bird for New Year's dinner. The broth mix and butter beans had been on special offer last year, when I made a bulk purchase, so I reckon they cost me no more than 50p in total. If I recall correctly, the cheap passata costs 23p and I'd already used half of it for lunchtime pizzas. The onions and potatoes were leftovers from New Year's dinner and they were all homegrown, so I don't bother counting them. At a rough estimate, I got 4.5 litres of soup for no more than 73p plus the cooking time (20p).

I'd say 20 portions of soup for 93p was a fairly frugal meal, wouldn't you?

Looking forward to getting back into the frugaling spirit this year, with plenty of new projects and challenges. Don't forget you can follow the day to day activities of frugal living in our frugaldom forums, where the brand new 2012 Frugal Living Challenge has just begun.

NYK Media

http://www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Traditional Scottish Clootie Dumpling and Easy Shortbread Biscuits

2011-12-24T13:46:00.001Z

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011 TO ONE AND ALL!

It's that time of year again, time for spending what we can afford on gifts for friends, family and loved ones. Homemade gifts abound, as do decorations, rhubarb and elderberry fizz, ginger beer, cakes, shortbread and, for us here in Scotland, the traditional 'clootie dumpling'. For anyone who missed last year's copy, here are the basic recipes I use.

Having moved house, I still haven't unpacked my cookie cutters, so this year's shortbread had to be cut into rounds using a tumbler.

I used a very simple 2, 4, 6 recipe, as follows:

Scottish Shortbread Biscuits

2oz / 50g sugar
4oz / 100g butter (or margarine)
6oz / 150g plain flour (I used 5 plain flour and 1 cornflour)

Mix the butter, sugar and flour.
Place the resulting dough in the fridge for half an hour before rolling and cutting
Bake on a floured tray for approximately 25 minutes at 170C
Remove from oven, sprinkle with sugar and cool on a wire rack.

I used the old measurements (ounces) and got 24 shortbread biscuits from this.

Next up was the clootie dumpling, so my old, trusty cloot (cloth) got boil washed beforehand.

Granny Kerr's Traditional Scottish Clootie Dumpling

Get a large stockpot of water on to boil before you start, so the water is ready for the dumpling. Place a plate on the bottom of the pan, so the dumpling can bounce off that, rather than the bottom of the pan.

INGREDIENTS

12oz plain flour

4oz shredded suet

3 tablespoons of sugar

3 large handfuls of raisins (or sultanas or dried fruit)

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon all spice
1 teaspoon ginger

Mix all of the above dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add

1 large tablespoon of treacle

1 large dessertspoon of syrup

Enough milk to bind the mix together into a soft consistency without it going mushy.

Lay out the wet cloot / cloth and sprinkle plain flour liberally across the middle part, where the mix will be poured. (I use a round cloot/cloth cut from an old cotton tablecover, but a piece of muslin or even a cotton tea towel would do.)

Pour all of the mix into the centre of the cloth.

Gather up the edges and tie them all with string or a piece of cloth, leaving enough room for the mix to expand as it cooks.

Gently lower the dumpling into the pan of boiling water.

This now needs to be kept on the boil for three to three and a half hours, always ensuring that the water level doesn't drop.

It's also wise to check that you have left enough room for the mix to expand in the cloth. We don't want any episodes of dumpling bursting oot its cloot!

Traditionally, coins or lucky charms would be cooked in the dumpling, as gifts for whoever found them in their serving. This practice has slowly fallen by the wayside for health and safety, food hygiene and dentistry reasons, but some stalwarts still follow tradition! Best to ask your host before biting into a big mouthful of clootie dumpling, especially if your host happens to be a wacky, Scottish traditionalist.

Removing the dumpling from the cloth can be a bit hazardous, so use tongs to lift it from the boiling water and take great care not to drop it. I find it easiest to place the whole thing into the mixing bowl until the cloth is untied - a tricky process that's easier done if you have long nails, rather than burn your fingers. The prongs of a fork work quite well, too.

Turn the dumpling out onto a large plate - at this stage it will look very pale and pasty or, as we say here, 'peely wally'.

Sprinkle with some sugar and place into a hot oven for approximately 15 minutes, keep checking it doesn't burn.

During its time in the oven, your dumpling should develop a lovely, brown, leathery-looking skin. At this point, it is ready for eating hot, served with cream, custard or even some milk. You can decorate it with a small sprig of holly and a dusting of icing sugar if you really want it to look 'posh'.

If it's not needed at this time, allow your dumpling to cool, wrap it in tinfoil and keep it until it is needed.

Dumpling freezes well, whole or sliced.

Once thawed, dumpling can be reheated in the microwave, oven, grill or steamer.

If reheating dumpling in the oven, wrap it in tinfoil to prevent it from drying out, you can uncover it for the final few minutes.

If grilling, it's probably best to slice the dumpling first.

If reheating in the microwave, plate up the servings and cover them with an upturned bowl or microwave safe cling film.

Dumpling is very versatile. It's a fruit pudding that can be eaten hot with a topping of your choice, or it is a fruit cake that can be sliced and served cold, in similar fashion to fruit loaf. But better still, it can be sliced and pan fried as part of a traditional breakfast fry-up.

Have you had your dumpling this year?

ENJOY!

NYK Media

http://www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The (Surprising) Cost of Electricity and Fuel

2011-12-14T17:51:00.002Z

A Four Year Cost Comparison

First of all, the electrician has been and completed the wiring, so we have lights in the kitchen, bathroom and back hallway. Secondly, I've managed to plug a few more holes to cut down on the draughts, so it is steadily becoming less of a trial trying to heat Frugaldom.

Out of interest, I searched out my past accounts to compare electricity costs. I've only looked back as far as 2008, as the other files are backed up on a different system, but what I did find reminds me sharply of the costs incurred when you have no fixed abode and need to rely on private rentals!

In 2008, we lived in a 4 room, 3-storey, terraced house that relied solely on electricity for heating. This was supplied via storage heaters on an Economy 7 electricity meter and that house was very cold in winter! During 2008, the household budget had to cough up £1,311.40 in total for fuel and energy - a fair whack when working on a budget of just £4,000 for the year. £1,218.90 of this was electricity.

In 2009, we lived in a 3 room, semi-detached bungalow that relied on storage heaters on Economy 7 style electricity meter and had an open coal fire in the living room. That house was equally cold in winter! During 2009, the household budget had to cough up £1,336.82 in total for electricity, coal and logs out of a challenge budget of £4,000 for the year. £1,030.00 of this was electricity.

In 2010, we were still in the same house, under the impression that we had a long lease. We eventually got permission to install a log burner in the kitchen, which previously had no heating in it at all. It was an extremely long and freezing winter. Excluding the purchase price and fitting of the stove, I spent £1,533.00 in total of my £4,000 budget on electricity, coal and logs. £1,190 of this was on electricity.

In 2011, we bought our 4 room, fixy-up, end terraced cottage with an open fire and back boiler - no other heating. I stuck with my challenging £4,000 per year household budget and have now spent everything that needs to be spent on fuel and energy. Despite the latest price increases, the overall cost of electricity, coal and logs has amounted to £1,305.87 and that includes two months when we were running two houses. £877.67 of this was electricity.

There is still a great deal of work to be done in our new home but every step of the way includes investigating how we can best cut our energy and fuel costs, while trying to create a warm living environment - something that can be very difficult to achieve if you are living in someone else's house, paying them rent.

The first steps have been taken, getting the place watertight, dried out and aired. We have begun the long task of draughtproofing and insulating, along with planning on how best to improve on the heating. It may take another few of years of scrimping, saving and creative DIY, but it's all progress along the way.

In 2012, my challenge is to keep with my £4,000 household budget (excluding council tax) and try to get the cost of fuel and energy below £1,200.00 It's a tall order when living in a fairly rural part of Scotland with no access to mains gas and no conventional central heating system, but I feel that it is within reach and, as we invest in improving the house, I'm sure savings will be easier made as each improvement project is completed. £780.00 of this is allocated to electricity

For now, I'm happy to be heading in the right direction and hope to cut down on coal use in favour of burning logs, which are reported to be carbon neutral. But we need a dry log store before that will happen.

How much has electricity increased in price since 2008?

I raked out an old electricity bill from 2008 just to see how things had changed and was rather surprised by what I found.

In November 2008, we were paying 21.9p per day standing charge and 13.52p per kWh

In December 2011, we are paying 25p per day standing charge and 12.24p per kWh

If we estimate costs over a year at 5000 units or kWh ...

2008 costs = £755.94
2011 costs = £703.25

In money terms, our electricity has reduced in price since 2008, unlike the price of coal, which has increased by around 40%. Talk about needing a naths degree to work out how best to save and spend?
Frugal living combined with a curious interest in numbers certainly has its advantages! :)

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

How to Make Your Own Fake Snow for Windows

2011-12-13T18:56:00.001Z

Frugal festive window decorations...
that didn’t make it into the Hillary’s blog.

Over on the Hillary’s window blinds blog we’ve been getting quite excited about Christmas. In fact, it’s been the theme for most of our recent posts and this week will be no exception. We’ve once more given up on discussing the various varieties of wooden blinds and, instead, are suggesting you find something more festive to cover your window. As pleased as we are with our Christmas window dressing guide, I must admit that not all our ideas have been the most frugal. To me, this is a little sad as, since I was small, my favourite Christmas decorations have always been the home made ones that make Christmas feel really personal.

So whilst the Hillary’s blog is a great place to go for inspiration of ways to Christmas-a-tise your window if you’re in a hurry, here I’m going to share three of my favourite window decorating techniques that you can make yourself at home from things you probably already have.

Frosty windows

Painting snow on the edges of your window or stencilling on other Christmassy designs when done with care can actually look really effective; depending on exactly where you are living it’s been a while since there was a proper white Christmas so if you’ve missed them it can be a great way to pretend. However, cans of aerosol snow are not really the most frugal way to do it and one has to wonder what their impact on the environment might be.

Instead, why not try this recipe for making your own fake snow?

Mix about half a can of lager with three or four table spoons of Epsom salts - that's how simple it is! You’ll be left with a snowy looking paste that is safe paint on you windows.

Although it’s not as quick as spraying, in many ways I prefer it, using a brush to paint allows you to produce a lot more accurate details, and if you prefer to stencil you can still do this using a sponge.

When twelfth night comes the snow should come off easily with vinegar and water.

The paper snow flake

If you’re looking for a different way to add snow to your windows, making snowflakes from paper is one of those great children’s Christmas crafts that adults all seem to have forgotten about. Although you can buy these ready made in the shops now, I think the real fun of these is the process of making them and discovering how they turn out.

So, in case you’ve forgotten your primary school art lessons and need a reminder about how to create these, here are step by step instructions.

1. Cut squares of paper to the size you want your snow flake to be

2. Fold diagonally in half making a triangle

3. Fold again to make a smaller triangle

4. Fold in the corners of the triangle making an arrow head shape

5. Use scissors to cut a triangle from the tip of your arrow head

6. Cut a pattern into the sides of your arrow with scissors

If everything went well you should then be able to unfold your arrow revealing a beautiful snowflake; make a few of these and they’ll be great to stick in your window.

Recycle Christmas cards

Consider keeping your Christmas cards from year to year, as a far more fun way to recycle them than just throwing them in the recycling bin is to use them to make brand new Christmas decorations. There are lots of creative ways you can use old Christmas cards, gift tags, paper models or even using them as the base for the paper snowflakes mentioned above are just a few of the options, but my personal favourite is to make a collage by cutting out any characters or particularly exciting pictures. One great place you can then display this collage is, of course, in the window. If you have window blinds this is particularly easy, just roll your blind about a quarter of the way down and attach the collage to the blind itself.

These are just a few of the more frugal Christmas window decorating ideas, you no doubt have many of your own. That’s why homemade Christmas decorations are so great, they are so personal and give everyone a chance to show off some creativity. If you find the time this Christmas, I hope you enjoy making some of your own decorations.

Merry Christmas!

A guest blog for the followers of Frugaldom

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Sheep Are Keeping My Kitchen Warm!

2011-12-13T16:04:00.007Z

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

Temporary Interlude in the Log Burning Experiment

2011-12-09T15:37:00.001Z

Part 3

Well, after the past couple of days of rain, hail, sleat, snow, gale force winds and flickering power, I'm hoping I can get back to normality.

Relying on log burning as our only source of heat and hot water is a non-starter for now, primarily because we simply don't have the facilities needed to make this realistic.

Winter weather has put paid to our having sufficient dry logs to burn but I was able to estimate a cost of £2.50 per day when combining that with £1.84 of coal plus the usual £2.14 of electricity. Total cost for that combination is £6.48 per day or £45.36 per week.

To my dismay, the more carbon neutral option of burning logs looks even more expensive than buring coal so, once again, trying to do anything remotely like following the 'green' way is proving to be uneconomical without first laying out a small fortune on a suitably large, dry, log store and paying to keep it filled with well seasoned timber.

I have seen 'kiln dried' logs available (at premium prices, for those who can afford them), but have to ask myself the question, what is fueling the kilns that are drying these logs and how much fossil fuel is used to cut and process them in the first place?

Is there really any economical, environmentally friendly, pollutant free way of generating heat and power and, if so, what is it?

What ever happened to Hydrogen Fuel Cells that run on water?

Is there a non-mains powered pump suitable for maintaining a solid fuel heating system so it doesn't need shut down when there's a power cut? (Likewise with solar PV, ground source heat pumps, oil or gas central heating, boilers etc, etc, etc.) Does everything regarded as 'normal' to everyday living rely on mains power?

Questions, questions, questions... we can't all simply go into a forest and handsaw a couple of trees to split and dry logs for firewood each year, so what's the solution?

I wonder who will win the LENR race to finally produce sufficient scientific evidence to support mainstream manufacture of energy catalysers?

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Cost of Heating a Rural Home in Scotland - Part 2

2011-12-07T13:18:00.002Z

Burning Logs

Today is log day, so it won't be the easiest thing to try and calculate. The photo shows what was left of the trailer-load of logs bought exactly 4 weeks ago - enough there for another week, I would reckon. We had another load delivered yesterday, which should last us through the festive season. Until we get around to building a proper, walk-in log store, we don't have suitable space for storing much more than a trailer-load at a time. (The photo isn't blurry, it was snowing quite heavily yesterday and we've had another flurry today.)

I realise that many people advise against burning a combination of fuels, even although it has been done for centuries but, for the purposes of lighting the fire, I use one firelighter (7p) and kindling sticks. This morning, about a kilo of coal (23p) was added to get the fire blazing, then logs added. By this point, the water in the backboiler could be heard beginning to boil, so the pump was switched on to feed it through to the hot water tank and radiators.

During cold, wet, winter months, we need the coal in order to get enough heat generated to quickly dry off any dampness from the logs. We aren't yet equipped with a large, undercover log store and it didn't help that the latest load was delivered during a heavy downpour. Surplus logs are stacked (off the ground) and covered in a loose tarpaulin. (The frogs, toads and lizards love it in there!)

It takes 8 large wheelbarrow loads to shift a £40 load of logs, so I'm estimating £5 per barrowload. At a complete guess, I would think half a barrowload would last us a full day, but I'll start my trial today using what's already stacked by the fire and then continue tomorrow with a full barrowload.

I've had to hang a curtain over the doorway between kitchen and main hallway to try and cut down the through draught. Right now, owing to the horrible weather - high winds, rain and snow - the curtains are billowing, but this side of the house does feel warm.

Great excitement! An articulated lorry pulled up outside just minutes ago and my extravagant, environmentally friendly, Black Mountain sheep wool insulation has been delivered!

1) It arrived on a pallet, so that will provide more free kindling for the fire!

2) It was all wrapped up inside a massive, heavy-duty, polythene bag. This will be ideal for securing over the huge hole in the kitchen wall when they come to replace the kitchen window. In fact, I may pin it over the entire window, to help cut down on heat loss until then! I care not what it looks like when it's at the back of the house and only us to see it!

All we need now is to hear news of when the new window has been made and when the new back door and frame can be fitted, then we can plan on getting the new ceiling put up in the kitchen, along with the sheep wool insulation.

Back later with an update on log consumption by my hungry fire.

Edit: This experiment was temporarily halted as I'd to damp the fire right down when we had a power cut. This is the downside to relying on an electric pump to circulate all that hot water that's generated in the back boiler - it has no place to go other than to spurt out the overflow.

Estimating now continues, but with the addition of another kilo (23p) of coal to get the fire back up and running sufficiently to reheat the radiators; these cool down much more quickly than I'd like! In this sense, storage-type heaters are superior in their ability to retain their heat during power cuts. (Assuming they were fully charged prior to the outage, of course.)

This is the second power cut we've had over the past month, so a stand alone log burning stove, in addition to the heating system, is looking more and more of a possibility. One similar to what we installed in the previous house would serve us well, as that allowed us to cook on it, too. But that involves getting in the builders to fully check the second chimney. I feel another savings challenge coming along soon.

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

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

2011-12-06T23:15:00.004Z

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

Can You Afford NOT to Control Your Own Household Budget?

2011-12-05T09:46:00.003Z

It's Not Rocket Science!

I hate the above term! For me, it is on a par with phrases such as "it ticks all the right boxes" and "it's a blank canvas", the types of things people say on TV and radio, in everyday conversation and in the workplace. I had a boss who used to use the rocket science phrase to the point of infuriation! (Apologies, Robert, you probably weren't even aware of this nasty habit, but we were working for the MoD at the time and, for all we know, it may well have been related to rocket science, but not when you were talking to me about data analysis.) But I digress.

This post is about some homebased experimentation, research and analysis into what's the most cost-effective and efficient way of living on a tight budget, especially while trying to heat a rural property in cold, wet, windy Scotland.

IT'S A SET OF NON-SCIENTIFIC ENERGY EXPERIMENTS

Today is Monday, first day of the working week for most. Yesterday, we had the first snow of the year and last night/early hours of this morning, we had a torrential hail storm driven by high winds. Winter has arrived!

Here in Frugaldom, we are continually faced with the conundrum of how best to heat the house (and water) within a very strict, very challenging budget. This budget is based on several years of research and analysis, based on various households and their differing financial situations. It has never been about rocket science, it has always been about simple arithmetic and home economics. The interesting part is that my calculation results were always curiously similar, regardless of the level of income to any participating household. Indeed, it would appear that the higher the income, the more chance there was of a higher ratio of debt. Fortunately, many people have started to 'wise up' to this and are now taking cotrol of their own finances.

£4,000 FOR A FULL YEAR - IS IT POSSIBLE?

Basically, it has to be possible, as there are no other options for some people. If you are interested in how I arrived at the figure, the following is from 2001 and was republished, every bit as relevant, in 2008:

LIFESTYLE 1

Couple with 2 of a family, husband is a professional who works full time on a salary of £30,000 and wife is a full time mother/homemaker (not sure what the politically correct term for this category is any more!) Total income approx £452 per week including Child Benefit.

Mortgage & Buildings insurance - £740 per month = £170 per week
Council Tax/Water - £125 per month = £24 per week
2 cars, both on HP - £300 per month = £70 week
2 x road tax, insurance, servicing, petrol/diesel etc = £270 per month = £62 week
Credit cards - £100 per month = £23 week
Bank loan - £100 per month = £23 week

Total expenditure before actual living expenses - £372 per week

Remaining Balance - £80/week for everything else

LIFESTYLE 2

Couple with 2 of a family, husband works full time, wife part time, joint salary of £18,000 plus Child Benefit, total income approx £300 per week

Mortgage & Buildings insurance - £303 per month = £70 week
Council Tax/Water - £100 per month = £23 week
Home Improvement loan - £266 per month = £61 week
Credit/HP - £100 per month = £23 week
Other debts - £100 per month = £23 week
Car - road tax, insurance, servicing, fuel etc - £100 per month = £23 week

Total expenditure before actual living expenses - £223

Remaining Balance - £77.00 for everything else

(There is a slight difference in today's figures in that the above would now qualify for Working Tax and Child Tax Credits, fuel prices and car costs have escalated and mortgage rates have fallen dramatically. Nothing much else has changed over the past 10 years, despite everything. Is it any wonder the country is going to the dogs?)

Having analysed many household budgets, it didn't really seem to matter what the annual income was, there always seemed to be a significant difference in the way that income was spent. As an example, a single professional person earning £52,000 a year may well have only £4,000 to actually live off after paying the upkeep of a rather spectacular house, complete with tennis court, swimming pool, fast car, regular entertaining, foreign holidays and paying for a gardener and housekeeper.

In 2011, a single young person working fulltime on national minimum wage with rent to pay, keeping in mind they are excluded from Working Tax Credit on accounts of age, may well have far less than £4,000 on which to live. (I'd suggest housesharing or getting a lodger!)

TRY TO GET YOURSELF DEBT FREE

No matter what your income bracket, we could all be in the same boat. Fortunately, we have the freedom to choose how we stay afloat. No matter what you do or how you do it, you are always going to have to pay the cost of living. If you can reduce the cost of living and clear off ALL debts, then think of the fun you can have from thereon in.

Budget to within an inch of your life and see just how much it costs you to live. You can see by the above how I arrived at the £4,000 and hopefully this will make things a little clearer for our newest followers, rather than having to search through at least 5 years' worth of information.

NOTHING MUCH HAS CHANGED OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS

Nothing much has changed over those years. Whether we like it or not, £4,000 is the sum total of disposable income that many households have available each year, whether they realise it or not, and this £4,000 needs to cover all the basic costs of running a household, including energy costs. This is where it gets very interesting!

HOW MUCH DOES ENERGY COST?

This is the beginning of a series of posts analysing the true costs of running a household in the 21st Century. Fuel or energy costs are what divide many of our individial budgets, whether it's a simple case of heating, lighting and power or incorporating the cost of commuting. It all revolves around fuel and energy - every penny we spend may be affected by these prices and I hope to relay the results of several simple, home based, non-scientific experiments in an attempt to help solve their cost-associated problems.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

NYK Media ~ Frugaldom
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

The Price of Fuel

2011-12-04T14:06:00.002Z

When it Comes to Heating Versus Eating

Winter is almost upon us here in Scotland, with the higher ground already having snow. This is good for the visiting ski enthusiasts but, for us mere frugalers, it means digging deep to ensure we can afford to eat while heating our homes.

WHAT ARE OUR CHOICES?

The cost of fuel is escalating beyond the reaches of some low paid, rural folks who have few options for finding extra work or securing a cheap, online utilities deal. With no mains gas and roads that are notorious for closing during the harshest winter weather, it leaves few options for the likes of oil tankers getting through to farms and outlying locations if their oil or liquid gas runs out quicker than expected. We are left with one basic option for heat, light and cooking - electricity. There are those who opted to supplement with cylinders of gas, but I'm told these have almost doubled in price recently, leaving many having to look for cheaper alternatives. Indeed, one local supplier is giving up stocking it completely.

In the current economic climate, electricity prices have risen to such a level that things like heating, cooking and hot water are becoming luxuries. Many are returning to solid fuel. But even here, prices are dictating the level to which one can afford to heat their home. (It would be fantastic to even consider that the ECAT could be a potential contender for frugalers within the next couple of years!)

PRICE OF COAL, LOGS AND ELECTRICITY

In our area, the very cheapest, lowest quality coal is now £12.80 per 50kg bag. A trailer load of logs will cost around £50. Electricity prices work out about 14p to 16p per kWh, unless you have E7 that allows for cheap rate during the night - an option I may, once again, need to consider, despite my loathing of storage heaters.

Here in Frugaldom, we live in a small, terraced cottage. We have key-metered mains electricity that now costs £1.75 per week in standing charges and 12.25p per unit. The budget was set for an average 100 units per week, but this has already been breached. £15 per week seems to be seeing us through OK, for now! It covers cooking, lighting, showers and running the computers that enable us to work from home. But temperatures are dropping steadily and we've hardly had a dry day in months - laundry mountain needs to be scaled soon!

COST OF HEATING AND HOT WATER

The only form of heating we have is from an open fire with back-boiler, which can heat the water and 3 radiators. Keeping that fire going long enough to do both for a sufficient length of time is costing us around £25 per week between coal and logs, so that's now £40 per week on power/fuel!

HEATING V EATING

Overall, I have allocated £1,345 of my £4,000 budget in 2012 to electricity, coal and logs. That's 33.62% of the entire frugal living challenge budget! The grocery budget, on the other hand, is less than £25 per week, at £1,250 including toiletries, laundry and cleaning products!

SAVING ON COAL AND LOGS

In true frugal fashion, I rescued a couple of bricks from inside an old storage heater and have placed these at either side of the fire grate, reducing the overall size of the burning area and, thus, lessening the amount of coal or wood needed at any given time. By doing this, I have managed to keep within this £40 per week limit, but the unheated kitchen is becoming colder and colder! The new roof hasn't yet been insulated, there's no ceiling and the back door and windows still need to be replaced. For this reason, I now also have an electric convector heater plugged in, set on 'frost', so it switches on for just long enough to keep the temperature from dropping to zero degrees.

INSULATION OPTIONS

Insulation is paramount i the quest to retain heat, so a great deal of time and effort has been put into deciding what type to fit into the flat kitchen roof. Don't expect help in covering the costs of insulation, as all the wonderful 'free' offers are for specific groups within society - none of which are us! If you choose to support yourself by working from home, have no young children, illnesses, disabilities or pensioners in your household and aren't in receipt of specific state benefits, you can forget financial help from the Government subsidised agencies. Likewise, if your home is of an older, stone built type, there are limitations in how and where you can insulate - again exempting many from help. My best advice is go it alone and, in the event you ever receive any grants or freebies, accept the bonus and bank the savings for the next rainy day disaster that is sure to come along sooner or later.

GOING GREEN, SHEEPS WOOL INSULATION

Frugal living does not lend itself to pursuing a green or eco-friendly lifestyle, that's for sure! While the big, commercial DIY stores offer subsidised glass fibre insulation at £2 per roll, there are few alternatives for the more consciencious house renovators. It's a similar story with things like installing a living roof, solar panels, a wind turbine or a water wheel.

Insulation - I priced Celotex and Kingspan type boards, which many suggest are the best available, then I compared these to environmentally friendly sheeps wool. The insulation qualities between these boards and natural sheeps wool were very similar, but both cost a fortune and both would still need to be boarded over with the new ceiling... so I've gone green on this issue and am supporting the British wool market - I've placed my order for Black Mountain Sheeps Wool. Better still, it actually worked out over 25% cheaper than the builders' merchant delivered prices for Celotex. It even beat eBay prices for surplus to requirement stock! I am happy paying my £45 + VAT delivery charge from Wales, I'd have stayed local had there been a reputable, affordable supplier, but there isn't!

What else has happened during by prolonged absence, for which I apologise. Sudden deaths are never something we are fully prepared for, regardless of how hard we try to prepare ourselves and protect ourselves against every eventuality. But that's a whole different story that warrants a blog post of its own, with a frank and honest look at what devastation, financial or otherwise, can occur in its wake.

THE COST OF RENOVATING A RURAL COTTAGE

The new back door and window have both been ordered, the joiner instructed to start three weeks ago (and he still hasn't returned!) and I'm now contemplating what type of woodburning stove to invest in for next winter. Everything takes time, especially when you live in the country. None of the local tradesmen seem to be in any particular hurry to secure extra work. Let's face it - they can cover a huge area, travel time eats into working hours and there's always someone closer to home needs work doing. Then there's always the bad weather, affecting work outdoors. I'm hoping our latest joiner won't fail us, but he is almost 3 weeks late for starting the door. In fairness, it's hardly stopped raining in all that time, so he's probably doing warmer, drier work inside someone else's fixy-up house.

CUTTING COSTS

Our initial survey estimated £15,000 for the essential remedial works, excluding interior fixtures, fittings and decor etc, but we hope to complete for less than £10,000 by salvaging and reusing whatever we can, while making the most of local freecycle and exchange trading groups. Even these things are difficult when you choose to follow the Frugaldom route, because the local population is spread so thinly across such a wide area that it's seldom you spot a 'bargain' that won't actually cost you more in petrol or diesel to go and collect it! Few and far between rings true on this count. Thank goodness for the Internet and home deliveries, that's all I can say!

DON'T FORGET TO FACTOR IN CAR COSTS!

I often get asked why we don't simply collect our own firewood or shop in the larger supermarkets, but making such obvious choices aren't economically viable. It could take the best part of a day to make the 100+ mile round trip to the nearest Asda Walmart or Tesco superstore. And when driving a smaller, more economical car, it makes it impossible to hitch up a trailer and lug a tonne of freshly cut timber home to try and chop it then store it for 12 to 18 months before it's seasoned and ready for use.

These are the types of things that many townsfolk forget to consider before selling up and shipping out into the country to live their perceived good life of near self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency simply does not exist. We all need money. Setting up a new lifestyle costs money. Pursuing that lifestyle costs money. It is a very expensive mistake to make if you don't find this out until after you've relocated and all your savings have gone. Thankfully, I've never done the city-dwelling, high-flying career lifestyle, so budgeting, for me, is par for my chosen course. I have, however, experienced how quickly it can all go very wrong.

LUXURY IN FRUGALDOM

Nonetheless, I set myself another challenge to earn a little extra from my writing and have now afforded myself the luxury of splashing out on my expensive, environmentally-friendly, sheeps wool insulation. Renovation work in the kitchen should resume soon, without Christmas shopping causing any adverse effect on the spending. Frugaldom should have a snug kitchen before this winter ends, but I'd like to think we could achieve this even before this increasingly late winter begins!

Edited in - I spoke too soon! The snow has begun falling in Frugaldom!
NYK Media
Frugal Living Challenge

Lottery Money is Funding Far Eastern Prisoners of War Trip to Jakarta in March 2012

2011-11-29T17:13:00.000Z

Lottery Money is Funding Far Eastern Prisoners of War Trip to Jakarta in March 2012

Lottery Funded Trip of Remembrance to Java

2011-11-29T15:11:00.002Z

The JAVA Far East Prisoners of War Club 1942

“To keep going the spirit that kept us going”

www.thejavafepowclub42.org

Patrons: HRH The Countess of Wessex and Dame Vera Lynn DBE

In March 2012, John Babbage is taking a group of Far East POW’s / wives / widows / siblings on a poignant return visit to the locations where they were incarcerated, namely: JAVA, AMBON and HARUKU.

Sadly, out of a group of 23, the actual number of veterans in the group has gradually dwindled to only four. Bearing in mind the average age of the veterans is 90 plus, it’s hardly surprising. Regrettably, failing health is taking its toll.

This will probably be the last such visit for this group of people, so John wants to make absolutely sure that every Far East veteran out there is aware of this tour.

Subject to Big Lottery terms and conditions, the trip will be covered by lottery funding, to the value of £1800.00. An equal amount could be given for an accompanying relative and/or carer. This is absolutely the last chance, as this particular lottery funding ends 31st January 2012.

The visit to honour and remember what was sacrificed for us is being organised by John Babbage, who can be contacted by Tel. 01582 737 172 or email info@worldwartwoheritage.com

The trip includes members of The Java Far Eastern Prisoner of War Club, which is the largest and only remaining nationwide Club for these veterans and their widows.

The itinerary and bookings are currently being finalised – if you or anyone you know would like to find out about how to join this trip you can contact John Babbage through the World War Two Heritage website or to simply learn more about The Java FEPOW Club, you can visit the Club’s web site at http://www.thejavafepowclub42.org/

On a slightly different, although related, note, an appeal has gone out to help recover a brooch belonging to Dame Vera Lynn after she lost it during the Remembrance Day ceremony she was attending at the Royal Albert Hall. The brooch has great sentimental value, as it was gifted to her from Field Marshall Montgomery. BBC news item about it here.

NYK Media

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

WW2 Veterans Visit Singapore and Thailand for VE Day

2011-11-23T18:44:00.004Z

Memorial Tour to Singapore and Thailand - on a budget!

Tour review by John Babbage
World War Two Heritage

Kanchanaburi War Cemetery

We decided to make this trip as memorable as possible for the veterans, their wives and their siblings. With the veterans' average age being around 90, we were conscious of the fact that the chances of these fine, esteemed gentlemen returning here again were quite slim.

Our pre tour efforts involved spending weeks on extensive and exhaustive letter writing and PR, as well as pleas for cooperation from sympathetic ex-pats.

We managed to put together a special, genuinely unique tour, which we can say with total modesty would be hard to emulate by any other tour planner anywhere, not to mention keeping it within a tight budget. Our tour price came to £1800.00. The only similar tour we could find, without all the add-ons we provided, amounted to £2500.00

The result of our really hard work bore fruit by way of locating the “Wanderers” Rugby Club in Singapore, to which we are eternally grateful. Made up of tough ex-pats working in Singapore, they provided a 42 seater luxury coach (solely at our disposal) and, as a surprise, arranged a special trip for us to “Raffles” with all expenses covered, including the best champagne.

To their credit and our appreciation, the “Wanderers” also arranged an afternoon for us at the world famous Singapore “British Club”, which often receives heads of state including our own Royal Family.

The rooftop lounge was opened specially and the entire afternoon was devoted exclusively to the veterans and their accompanying families.

We communicated with the British Embassy and were present at their memorial service alongside the Gurkha contingent.

During the evening we were special guests at the British Defence Advisor's superb colonial style residence for a fish and chips supper with drinks.

Heartfelt thanks go to Mathew O'Leary of Barclays Capital, Singapore. Cheers, mate!

Singapore Krenji Cemetary

On to Thailand, transfer to River Kwai - Kanchanaburi

VE Day Service at the War Memorial, Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, and then a poignant, off-the-cuff chat with Victor Vale, survivor, Burma rail road.

The last 2 nights of our visit were spent at the 5-star 'Sheraton Orchid' with luxury riverside rooms. Our hosts for the duration of our stay were the brilliant duo of Mr James and Mrs Noi Fanning. James, who is an an ex-pat, and his charming wife looked after the vets throughout. James and Noi gave up their time voluntarily to cater and organise all the localised trips and absolutely everything was laid on by this wonderful couple.

I am eternally grateful to them, as well as to Mathew in Singapore, for taking some of the strain off me. Being a pensioner myself, this did prove to be a pretty exhausting, although very worthwhile, trip.

(Photos and videos will be added to the website soon, in the meantime you can see some of them here.)

Please feel free to redistribute this article, as it shows the great work still being done for our WW2 veterans. Mr Babbage did a tremendous job putting together this tour and he hopes to be able to do many more of a similar nature. Heroes Return 2 Lottery funding for battlefield, commemorative and memorial tours is available until January 2012 for WW2 veterans, their spouses and, in some cases, their carers, too.

Money Saving Recipes, It's Frugal Gourmet...

2011-11-21T16:27:00.001Z

Beans on Toast With a Difference!

This may not be your idea of a gourmet meal but it is frugal, tasty and nutritious.

With the price of a tin of baked beans in tomato sauce creeping up and up, I decided it was time to get to grips with making my own. I already bake all the bread for the household, so why not make what goes over the top of it when it's toasted? Cheap baked beans are becoming tasteless, bland and uninteresting!

This was a bit of an experiment, as I was too lazy to search out a recipe for the sauce, but it worked. In fact, it worked so well that we had eaten our tasty lunch before I even remembered that I should have taken a photograph for the recipe blog! I'll try to remember next time.

Dried Cannellini beans had been on offer at 49p per 500g pack, so, when the opportuity arose, I 'invested' in 4 packs. As dried foods go, this type of foodstuff lasts a long, long time, so 'sell by' and 'best before' dates can pretty much be ignored.

I soaked a cupful of the dried beans overnight in cold water, then rinsed them off in the morning before setting them to boil rapidly in a pan of water for about 10 minutes. (Do not salt the water, as this is said to toughen the bean skins as they cook.)

After boiling them, reduce the heat and simmer for around an hour and a half. Had I been making a larger quantity, I would probably transfer them into the slow cooker and simmer them that way, but I find there's little or no difference in price of electricity used when comparing cooker-top simmering to slow cooking, especially when using small quantites.

Once cooked, drain and rinse the beans then set them aside while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, I cheated. I had jars of cheap pasta sauce in stock (cheaper than tinned chopped tomatoes), so I used the following to make the sauce:

100g of cannellini beans (9.8p)
1/2 jar Sainsbury's Basic pasta sauce (9p)
tablespoon of tomato puree (4.5p)
teaspoon of sugar (4.4p)
1/2 teaspoon salt (0.2p)

Total cost - 27.9p

All of the above were mixed together - sample the sauce so you can make any adjustments to flavour, then add the beans.

The above was left to cool then refrigerated overnight, as we didn't need them on the day. This, afterall, was just an experiment on a small scale.

Today we had toast with the beans topped with grated cheese (50g cheddar cheese - 28.4p) and thoroughly enjoyed them.

I do realise that for many it is easy to just nip to the nearest supermarket and pay around the same price for store's own basic brand of baked beans, but when you live 20 miles from the nearest supermarket and follow the code of frugal living, popping to the shop isn't an option. To be honest, I think the homemade variety tasted much nicer than any shop-bought baked beans I've ever bought.

I can recommend Frugaldom beans to anyone. The herbs from the jar of pasta sauce added that extra flavour and, I'm guessing, also added a couple more vitamins to the mix. It's probably what turned the Frugaldom version of beans on toast into a frugal gourmet lunch for two.

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Has Amazon Made a Mistake or is it a Con?

2011-11-20T11:46:00.007Z

Please Correct Me If I'm Wrong

Country Value Complete Dry Cat Food 1.25 kg (Pack of 3)

Price: £7.17 (£0.64 / kg), this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. In stock. Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk

The above most definitely says 1.25kg (Pack of 3), doesn't it?
And at £7.17 (£0.64/ kg) then there should be a total of approx 11.2kg or 3 x (3 x 1.25kg) right?

Here in Frugaldom, everything gets done on a budget - it's part of our frugal living attempts, so the way we spend our money means everything when trying to live within our means, make some savings and cut costs.

I normally buy store's own basic cat biscuits, currently costing around 99p per kilo. When checking on Amazon, I was delighted to find value cat biscuits quoted at 64p per kilo! My cat isn't fussy, she eats mice, for goodness' sake, she's hardly going to grumble at a downshift from Aldi to a value 'brand'.

I ALMOST fell for the above offer! (Or could this be a regular con, I now wonder?)

The product was in my basket and en route to the checkout before I noticed my potential mistake!

1.25kg x 3 = 3.75kg. At a total cost of £7.17, wouldn't that make the product £1.91 per kilo and NOT, as advertised, £0.64 per kilo? In order for the product to be 64p per kilo, the overall weight would need to be 11.2kg, which is almost three times the stated amount, but I can't find anywhere saying that you are buying 3 x (3 x 1.25kg) and don't see anywhere to query this. Can anyone tell me exactly what I would be buying if I bought the above product?

Have I completely missed something important?

I emailed Amazon to ask, as it clearly states £0.64 per kilo on the Amazon.co.uk listing and soon received this response:

Hello xxxx,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk with your enquiry.
I understand that you would like to know how many pack you would receive on purchasing "Country Value Complete Dry Cat Food".

After looking into your enquiry I found that you will receiving 3 X 1.25 kg only and not 3 X (3 X 1.25 kg).

If you have any other questions please contact us using the link below. (link removed)

Thank you for your interest in Amazon.co.uk
Did I solve your problem?

As you can guess, this did NOT solve my problem - my problem is that the details on their website is clearly WRONG! So back I go again, to repeat what I have already explained quite clearly to them the first time and await a satisfactory response! The following has been sent:

***

Further to your response... no, your answer did not solve my problem. I have included your response at the end of this email.

My problem is, I want to buy value cat food at £0.64p per kg, as described on your website at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Country-Value-Complete-Food-1-25/dp/B004H1LYEY/ but either the item description or pricing is WRONG!

If I order this product, it is going to cost me £1.91 per kilo, which is NOT value. Once again, I ask you to confirm the number of packs and this time the total weight of the product as sold, as the description clearly states £0.64p per kilo, which means there must be 3 x (3 x 1.25kg)

***

Once again, I await their response and can only hope that they have, indeed, made a mistake and that there isn't an underlying trend of misselling such products on what I had come to rely on as a reputable, reliable, trustworthy company!

Edited in: It's now 6th December. Cat food was duly delivered (and grossly overcharged) and a apology with refund of £4.50 given. That's fine for me, but I just checked their website and see that they have left the mistake on there. I wonder how many people will notice it. I feel a 'customer review' coming on...

NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Teaching Money Matters in School - WHY?

2011-11-19T21:20:00.003Z

Home Economics + Basic Arithmetic = Good Kousekeeping!

Shona Prophett gets into her stride on the state of the nation.

I've been watching the recent news and developments with regards to the petitions that are floating around the place. They are plying us with reasons to pledge our support to their cause, asking us to help bring money matters into schools as part of our basic education system. To be frank, I just don't get it!

School is a place for children learning the basics needed for their future adult lives, isn't it? These lessons are simple, they establish an elementary understanding of subjects that are important to everyone during future careers, regardless of what that career may or may not be. We can choose to listen and learn or we can tolerate these 'lessons' up until the point we have the freedom of choice to leave school and learn in another capacity - through life itself.

Some may see school simply as a place where children get sent during the day so they aren't wandering the streets with nothing better to do, biding their time until they are old enough to earn. School, like nursery, could even be seen as a place where children go so their parents can carry out activities other than childcare, like earning an income or anything else they see fit to do in the absence of their offspring.

Whatever any of us thinks of school, it is our right to have a basic education and our duty to provide similar for future generations. But it is not our duty to accept responsibility for the bad spending habits of others. We each receive a basic understanding of reading, writing and arithmetic, along with the simple concept of economics, be they home or otherwise, so common sense should prevail. But it doesn't!

Those who should know more than us have burdened this society with false beliefs that we should all be classed as equals, that we should all be able to partake of a decent meal, own designer labels, buy the most up to date gadgetry and possess all manner of luxury items. We should all be able to afford hobbies, pastimes and holidays, convenience and luxury should be readily available, en masse.

They led us to believe that we could all own our own homes and have the basic skills necessary to turn us into entrepreneurs or even just start our own businesses. But they overlooked one fundamental flaw in the plan - the fact that money is not a living entity. It cannot grow naturally, it cannot adapt to its surroundings and it cannot learn right from wrong. It is nothing more than paper, plastic and metal developed, manufactured and controlled by the chosen few who, to their disgrace, have been unable to balance the nations' books.

The concept is simple - take one pile of money, divide it be any number to whom you see fit to lend, then sit back and watch them pay dividends, by way of interest. If those payments fail, charge even more, add on penalties and drive the borrowers further into debt. Offer an array of incentives and promises of a better future, more security, better choices and the potential to feel good and then sit back, watch the borrowers borrow more and spend more, lining the pockets of the chosen few or those who chose to become one of them by sheer grit and determination. They all seem to have one thing in common - a total disregard for others when things, not surprisigly, go wrong. But there are always the 'get out' clauses of insolvency and bankruptcy!

This continual building of debt has now escalated to such a height that even they cannot fathom out an agreeable method to stopping it, let alone putting it right. Their solutions are to print more money, cut back on what they think is 'unneccessary' spending and make it even more difficult for 'normal' people to build real, reputable businesses that can grow to prosper and employ others.

They price ordinary people out of the market with legislation governing maternity pay, paternity pay, pension schemes, insurances, restricted working hours and minimum wage thresholds, then sit back and await the next emergency move.

But where do they go when all the previous options fail? They need to cast blame further and wider, so now we see the blame being laid on the children... If the youth of today and the common people had learned more, this may never have happened.

Well that is bullshit!

Those who dragged this nation to its proverbial knees were the very people who allegedly benefited from extra education. All their accumulated wealth of wisdom and expertise led us to where we are now, watching and waiting for the next global catastrophe that can quickly be assigned a few billion that adds to the amassed debt. They need huge tragedies, wars and disasters, so future generations can look back on history and point the finger of blame in any direction except that which is true. Nobody appears to have shoulders broad enough to support the burden of controlling what really cannot be controlled, so let's start again - educate the young.

To whom should we look for this teaching?

How and why are the current teaching methods allegedly failing us so badly?

Controlling a company, household or personal budget is nothing more than a combination of basic arithmetic and home economics, so why are so many people so bad at it?

Why isn't a closer look being taken at the education system itself?

Why are teachers failing to teach the basic principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?

Why are parents failing to teach their children the basic skills necessary for survival in a capitalist society?

Is it not possible that some form of brainwashing has swept through our entire Western civilisation, engulfing an entire generation, and that generation is not the youth of today! Nor even is it their parents' nor their grand parents' generations.

There has always been poverty, unrest, unfair division and class differences. YES! I dare to suggest that we still live within a 'Class' system and I dare to deny the existence of this so-called 'classless society' or equality that was dreamt up by some 'numpty' who thought the only way to cast off blame from those who should have known better, would be to invite society's minions into their lifestyle of wanton greed and waste - offer them more credit, hold them down by debt, if they come out fighting, let them take the blame when it all goes wrong.

So, I guess what I am trying to say here is that, in my humble opinion, people won't learn lessons that they don't want to learn, even if it is taught in schools. Brainwashing is everywhere - it's called advertising! Unless we ignore all of that and accept that debt is caused by spending more than we have, then what gets taught in our schools matters not one jot.

It is up to us, as individuals, to challenge ourselves to live within our means and if speculative investments need to be made, have a back up plan in the event you don't quite pull it off in time.

Shona Prophett
www.shonaprophett.co.uk

When Running Frugal Forums and Blogs...

2011-11-17T16:30:00.000Z

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

Spiced Sesame Seed and Sultana Cookies

2011-11-11T17:30:00.001Z

It's Time to Make Further Savings, So Let's Get Baking.

Having decided that November should be a 'use it up' month, rather than a 'main grocery shop' month, I have been busy using up whatever I can in an effort to reduce the stockpile of food in our house.

The main reason for doing this is to ensure that I stay within my £4,000 annual budget, as per the annual Frugaldom Challenge but in trying to do that, we always run out of something.

Milk is the main thing needed, along with the occasional chicken, but I have plenty of bacon and at least 3 pheasants in the freezer, so we won't starve. We're slowly working our way through the garden vegetables, rhubarb and apples that had all been blanched or stewed and then frozen and I have plenty of dried goods, like pasta, rice and pulses.

The loss of the hens has been a bit of a blow, as we'd become accustomed to always having eggs to fall back on when a quick meal was required. Today's meagre offerings amounted to one solitary egg, laid by one of the bantams that survived the mink attack! This is the first egg that has been laid since that day - 15th October - so I'm hoping it's a sign of more to come. If only the ducks would start laying soon.

But I digress.

Having friends visit for coffee most weeks means it can get a little embarrassing with no biscuits to offer, so today's household challenge was to rake about in the cupboards and see what could be turned into cookies in time for this weekend's visitations.

The following is my basic cookie recipe:

8 rounded tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons margarine (melted)

2 tablespoons sugar

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

Having that solitary egg was a blessing, I can tell you!

To the above, I added:

6 tablespoons of sultanas

2 heaped tablespoons sesame seeds

Quarter teaspoon mixed spice

Quarter teaspoon cinnamon

Extra sprinkle of sugar

Mix everything together until it forms a soft dough that can be easily split and rolled into balls

This should be enough for 36 cookies. Roll each into a ball, flatten them between palms and then place them on a floured tray. I prefer to have the trays sprinkled with flour rather than greasing them - they're easier cleaned if you haven't any hot water.

Bake at 200C for around 15-18 minutes, depending on how thick you made them. At this point, I switch off the oven and leave the biscuits in there for about 5 more minutes.

Remove from the oven and transfer onto wire cooling trays, where the biscuits will dry and crisp up a bit. (Always best to taste them while they're still hot, though, lest they all get scoffed before you get the chance to sit down with a cuppa.)

Cookies are so easy to make. You can add just about anything you like into the basic mix - chocolate chips (add a tablespoon of chocolate powder as well, if you want to make them double choc chip), dried fruit, nuts, porridge oats, berries, seeds, coconut, sweets, toffee chips, muesli, ginger, spice, cinnamon, fudge pieces, Smarties, M&Ms ...

If you want extra luxury, you can coat the cookies in chocolate.

If you want chunky cookies, roll larger pieces of the mix and just flatten them down a little.

If you want many, many frugal cookies, roll them thin and bake them for a shorter time, or else slow bake them at a lower temperature if you want wafer thin, crispy biscuits.

Right, that's the cookie baking taken care of for this weekend and it has saved me from spending any money buying biscuits from the shop. Result!

Let me know if you try these and what you added to yours.

NYK Media

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Insulating a Flat Roof...

2011-11-08T23:02:00.000Z

... 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