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October 07 Energy Saving Challenge
This is a horrifying thought, especially considering the 3.5m UK households already in fuel poverty (spending more than 10 per cent of their income on fuel), according to government figures released last week. Recent research by the National Housing Federation predicts that almost 25 per cent of UK households will end 2009 owing money to their energy provider, and that many people on low incomes will be forced to choose between heating or eating during the winter. What’s more, energy watchdog Ofgem has this week warned companies to stop charging customers different prices if they pay by different means. Currently customers on pre-payment meters – often people with credit problems or in fuel poverty – and those paying by cheque pay more for their energy than those settling their bill via direct debit. So this month MSN have set me a new challenge - to cut my energy bill and investigate ways of saving energy around the home. During the task I will be finding out where DJ and I are wasting precious energy every day around the house and introducing measures to combat this, examining the government’s new insulation initiative and energy companies' social tariffs, as well as investigating alternative energy sources and life without gas and electricity. I used to consider our household as reasonably green, but since I began working from home and started using the heating during the day in the winter our fuel bills have risen considerably, in addition to the energy price hikes. Only recently I was shocked by receiving a bumper bill from my old energy company NPower. So it’s clear that something has to change. And while we can’t necessarily control international coal and oil prices, with which our energy prices are linked, we can do something about our own consumption and examine alternatives. Sometimes it frightens me just how reliant we are on gas and electricity these days and how helpless we seem to be whenever there is a major power outage. Are we too reliant on gas and electricity? What do you think is the answer to our fuel price woes? Leave a comment and let me know. Technorati Tags: the frugal life,frugal living,frugal,saving money,living cheaply,moneysaving tips,credit crunch,energy prices,saving energy,fuel poverty,ofgem,heat or eat
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October 03 Frugal chill-outs: Ten ways to pamper yourself in the credit crunch
Have I missed any out any other frugal ways to relax? Leave a comment and let me know. Have a great weekend, Piper xxx del.icio.us Tags: the frugal life,frugal living,saving money,living cheaply,frugal,moneysaving tips,pampering,frugal luxuries,cheap ways to pamper yourself,credit crunch
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October 01 How Does Your Garden Grow?
DJ’s brassicas – kale, broccoli and cabbage - were a bit of a washout too. He put netting over them to keep out the cabbage white butterflies, but they managed to get in there anyway – and probably stayed there because of the netting - and decimated everything. Thankfully they have made a tactical withdrawal and the kale and cabbage are recovering. DJ was also excited about growing basil from seed this year, but he found he didn’t like the flavour of the variety he grew, so it was a bit of a waste of time!
What have been your gardening successes and failures this year? Got any good frugal gardening tips? Leave a message and let me know. Technorati Tags: the frugal life,frugal living,frugal,living cheaply,moneysaving tips,gardening,growing vegetables,growing your own veg,frugal gardening,the good life,credit crunch
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September 30 Frugal Luxuries
The summer having been disappointing, his tomato crop was fairly mixed. Generally they turned out nice and red but some had a rather watery flavour thanks to too much rain. But recently with the warmer weather their flavour has been improving, so DJ made a gorgeous roast tomato soup from a recipe he found in Grow Your Own Magazine, actually from Waitrose.com. It was delicious, especially with fresh homemade bread. You just can’t beat simple homemade soup. That combined with reading a top 20 list of money saving tips from readers of Glamour Magazine – including a home-made spa treatment a lady who used to spend $10,000 on pampering at spas now uses - got me thinking about frugal luxuries. It may sound like a contradiction in terms – surely the frugal life is all about self-denial? Stopping yourself from spending cash on things you don’t need and scrimping and saving? Well, it can be, but as some of you have pointed out in your blog comments it should also be about enjoying a simpler, better quality way of life - if possible - by scrimping in some areas of your finances so you can spend money – or time - wisely on other things that matter to you. That might be working fewer hours, and surviving on a smaller salary, so you can spend more time with your kids or on a project you care about. Or saving the cash you used to spend on cigarettes towards a holiday. Although it’s clear from your comments on the blog that everyone’s circumstances are different, and for some people frugal living isn't a lifestyle choice but a necessity.
So what I’d like to know is – what are your favourite cheap ways to pamper or treat yourself? Please get in touch and let me know, and I’ll put a list of the best ones up on the blog.
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September 27 Brand vs Budget Brand: Food for Less
I forgot to mention in my shopping list that I’d also purchased the Smart Price spaghetti – a steal at 22p for 500g. And I was a happy customer. DJ used it in a prawn chilli pasta dish and I couldn’t taste the difference between that and the 84p Napolina spaghetti I sometimes buy. I’ll definitely be purchasing that item again. The 41p mayonnaise was also good quality – a bit fattening as I normally try to buy a reduced calorie mayo - but very tasty. This morning I tried out the 74p (for 750g) cornflakes. These don’t come in a cardboard box but a plastic bag - presumably to save on packaging costs, but possibly because the real cardboard was inside the packet. The flakes looked like Kellogg’s cornflakes so I was surprised they had so little flavour. They weren’t inedible but after a few minutes of munching away on them and listening to gloomy tales of the credit crunch on the radio I felt a bit depressed. Not the greatest way to start your day! But after I cracked and sprinkled a few Crunchie Nut Cornflakes on top they became surprisingly more palatable, so perhaps that’s a solution to economising on breakfast cereal. Mixing and matching budget and conventional brands. The chopped tomatoes (21p) tasted exactly the same as any mid-range brand I might buy. I’m a bit fussy with tomato pasta sauces, though, so I probably wouldn’t use them in one, but I’d happily throw them in a casserole or chilli. The baked beans (20p) also got the thumbs up. As for the sweet corn (19p), it obviously wasn’t as tasty as the cobs DJ grows on his vegetable plot but it wasn’t bad and the chickens were quite happy with it. The tomato soup (18p) was a bit bland but nothing some salt and pepper and a handful of dried herbs couldn’t sort out. I expected the washing up liquid (44p) to be runny but it was actually fairly thick and I didn’t need to use much. Another good buy. All in all, while with my sensitive skin I probably wouldn’t buy the Smart Price toiletries again - apart from the 14p soap and 37p loo roll – I was impressed with the staple food stuffs, the chopped tomatoes, beans, sweet corn, pasta, etc. and the washing up liquid and will definitely be stocking up on them. Have a great weekend, Piper xxx Would you buy budget food brands? Or do you get what you pay for? What can you recommend? Technorati Tags: the frugal life,frugal living,saving money,living cheaply,food prices,budget brands,supermarket own brands,moneysaving tips,asda smart price,credit crunch,own brands,budgeting
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