The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: daddymatty82 on March 28, 2012, 01:22:26 pm
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Were in the process of culling ad many Bills as possible so that means were getting rid of internet and sky atm iv called to change my loan payments as was paying 100 a month down to now 10 quid a month atm were 75 quid paying out more than getting in. So canceled the car insurence which is due on the 11th so no car fuel or insurance to deal with. Just the payments on the car its self. So with. No net Il be online through my phone which I'm going to minimize so won't be on here much . Hope to be back online ASAP. Cheers matty
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We may well be doing that, funny we used to have loads of money!!!!!!! Now we have loads of time and only enough money to shuffle along and we cut all our costs most of the time.....no pressies for people either most of the time that guts me, my stuff is usualy pre owned but I was going to treat myself by now had a humuguouewerse fuel bill so NO new boots or outdoor coat, my ripped pre owned one will do for now and I bet I will see another in the second hand shops. we got rid of the car on 2 occasions and its a big struggle, but do able if you live in an acessable area......good luck and be back on track soon!!!
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Am right with you (as recent posts re LPG and insurance may have indicated!!)! Good luck - maybe we should start a 'economy drive' tip sheet! No sky for us anyway, but freesat is fine. I'm on verge of knocking broadband on the head - BT have now said (after a year) that they cant do any more for us and 0.5 Mb is it!!! Library is 4 miles away, but it could be done! Anyway good luck again - let us know if you stumble accross any shocking savings!!
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Good luck with the economy drive :thumbsup:
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Good luck, Hermit. Get rid of any uneccessary gadgets as well, I dont even have a toaster and only a leccy kettle for emergencies. The leccy company have owed us hundreds for years now but we let them keep it in case of emergencies. I have a creel for drying the washing, the dryer stores the ironing! and no dishwasher, a bowl is better. You can get your vehicle on agricultural use which lets you use red diesel and lets you go a certain distance from your croft if its on croft business. ( thats basic though you must check details yourself for that) We stopped Sky years ago and now only get what we can through the ariel, not that we care much. And dont get loans, save up instead!!!!
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I always think how many stand buy lights are on in houses these days and things charging up? Money saving tips are always good......I save a lot of money by not going out ;)
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I always think how many stand buy lights are on in houses these days and things charging up? Money saving tips are always good......I save a lot of money by not going out ;)
You're so right about standby lights we got one of those energy monitor thingies with British gas and it is astounding how much you can save by keeping an eye on it . We are down to about £20 month which is a lot less than we used to pay. Like you we dont have many appliances tho (No dryer,dishwasher or iron!! If we ever meet - I'll be the rumpled one!) and we do try to boil kettles/cook on our woodburner top as much as poss (having seen how horrendous the oven was for energy....) The things that are killing are the sudden surprises (dead sheep, dead van gearboxes...)
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No bills , no gadgets , virtually no costs , £5 a month for the mobile , as soon as the veg plot starts producing again , no food costs . Just milk , sugar , coffee and tea to sort out now .
Milk =get a cow
sugar= get some sugar beet seeds (anyone got any to spare ?)
tea= get a camellia sinensis
coffee= err go without or carry on buying it .
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For tea grow mint and lemon verbena, makes a lovely tea.
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I grow mint but tend not to like anything lemony (apart from on pancakes). I drink herbal teas for their health benefits, but haven't found one that i could honestly say i like so far !
I will continue to drink them and different new ones , but , i do like 'proper' tea , hence the camellia s.
Will try some L V though , cheers H.
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If you get rid of your telly it's another 15 quid or so saved every month in TV licence!!!! (But I need my library books now to keep me sane...). I would find it scary not to have a car at least for emergencies, but we are in the middle-of-nowehere... Couldn't live without broadband and real coffee though....
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I grow mint but tend not to like anything lemony (apart from on pancakes). I drink herbal teas for their health benefits, but haven't found one that i could honestly say i like so far !
I will continue to drink them and different new ones , but , i do like 'proper' tea , hence the camellia s.
Will try some L V though , cheers H.
Can't you get a hold of some tea plants and grow it yourself ;)
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Hats off to you Rusty! Inspiring. We're a bit away from that yet!
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Yes Annie , easy to grow tea , ( camellia sinensis ) , the problem is buying the plants ! , £9.99 each . Not much i know , but a lot when you have no money !
On it's own , one plant would be affordable . But which 'one' thing off the list of thousands of 'one' things do you get ? lol .
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If you're taking the car off the road make sure you advise DVLA with a SORN notification, good thing about this is you'll find your manure bill will go down, but only because "you'll be in deep sh,t" If you don't tell 'em ;)
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Rusty, for sweetening you could grow Stevia. One leaf, just licked tastes too sugary sweet to me. I can send you a few seeds if you would like some.
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DaddyMatty, I hope you find a way to keep in touch. Being poor isn't so bad, being in debt is soul-destroying :( :( Hope all comes right for you :)
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Camelia grows well and so many be you can collect some leaves, but what about dandelion tea or coffee? Then of course nettle tea!!
I can economise on most things but absolutely hate cheap tea, I would rather not drink it, tea bags will be the very last luxury food to go for me!!!
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Sandy,
You would hate the tea that I make then. Most tea is much too strong for me so I make one teabag (cheapest tea bags I can get) last all day.
I drink it black, or light brown in my case, and don't have sugar.
Mmmm I really look forward to my cups of tea as I don't drink coffee.
Sally
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I like my tea opposite to how I like men, strong and dark and not sweet!!! ;)
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Thanks Sylvia , that would be great . I did have some that i sowed last year , but it coincided with one of my dogs going very ill and then dieing.
Everything went to pieces for a while , but back on track now .
I think it is about 100 or more times sweeter than sugar , so it would taste very sweet if licked !
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I like my tea opposite to how I like men, strong and dark and not sweet!!! ;)
Me too Sandy. I think the call it "Builders Tea" which means its strong enough to stand your spoon up in. No sugar for me either, Ive never taken sugar in drinks. If I ever have a shock and someone makes me a hot sweet tea, I'll spit it straight out again ;D
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I was brought up on Park Drive flavored tea due to my mum's smoking habbits of putting her fags out on the saucers!!!
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YUK! :o
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Its amazing how little we do need to get by in life. We no longer do big shops at the supermarket as we found ourselfs with food going off or uneaten. OH picks up what we do need on his way home from work and we do spend less. I stay at home most days, only work 6 hours a week so use my car for that.
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Funny how we are all doing similar things, I have always loved pre owned stuff, most of my best clothes are second hand as with most stuff in the house, although I would buy new electricle items and as there are only us 2 and sometimes my hubby can eat at work, I do not do large shopping at supermarkets either, if you get the timing right, we also sometimes get some fantastic bargains, on Friday night I had not eaten but went to the co op at 8 and bought 2 lots of fresh king prawns, 2 tubs of prawn cocktail and some mixed salad ready prep ed, I made myself the most amazing Prawn cocktail with very little effort and enough for 2 but ate it all myself, all for 50p as they were all 10 each!! and I left some, then another time some fresh mixed veg reduced to 10p and another night we bought 2 vegetarian Indian ready meals, reduced from nearly £4 each to 50p each....If you do not have to plan ahead a meal its worth going later, amazed at how little I spend on food now, never pay full price for bread, I either make my own or buy reduced stuff, we also bought 3 large chickens at £!.50 each, I cooked them and frozed the cooked chicken and take it out when I need it, then made some stock as well and before some one asks were they organic...sorry but I cannot afford to pay the price of organic stuff!!
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Yes bartering is the thing to do, I love a good barter.
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leghorn that is a very moving post and I agree. I could grow stuff but do not, we just had our energy bill, gas and electric together and its £1,300, we would never want to leave some one here to look after the place as the bill would double in a week, its a big old house that sucks the fuel and its interesting to find some one else with a big bill too.....we have not paid ours yet but will do next week..money goes as quick as we earn it and as my husbands job is agency, we never know if he will be in work from week to week...like you we like our life and do not wish for too much but I had a very small tax return and really wanted to buy something extravagant for myself...hope to get a new posh outdoor coat!!!!!!!!!
I did some agency work and get offered work each day but not too mobile to do the care work offered..however, I took o ut work insurance for our car and its soooo expensive..I used to pay just over £100 now I pay more like £600 and on less income....whats gong on to make us all so poor? Thanks for that post....
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I am pennyless too , but through choice and my total rejection of the corrupt system and it's base 'money'.
Being such a stubbon arse , and my 'need' to live a cleaner , less harmful , corruption free lifestyle , does make life different to say the least . But being on my own makes it easy to accept the hardships this way of life brings ,as they are only hardships if you want a 'normal' lifestyle .
Clean food , free from poison was my main aim in my new lifestyle , but then the corruption of the eu and mp's , the bankers etc , made me just want out !
Nearly there now , at last , and it feels good to be free of the insane money chase that is modern life .
I do feel alone at times , as everyone i know is totally caught up in the system , even family .
But i feel that things are about to change , and for those relient on the system , it won't be good . Very little will change for me , i already live the life , but for my family things may be very different . They know where i am and that i will do anything i can to help them if and when the time comes and they want the help.
2k for leccy blows my mind . There again £1.45 for a litre of petrol does too , i went mental when it went up to 50p a gallon ! Really glad i don't buy it anymore , nearly 5 years now since i stopped using a car .
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I wish Russ....!!! I am so glad we have no children as mine are grown up, it makes them outcasts not to have the same as others and the others only have stuff to be in the club!!!!!!
I cannot see many smallholders surviving as they need an income to pay for stuff...a true self sufficiant life is a difficult balance, like you say, no car, no holiday unless you look after some one elses land and def no treats....I do admire you Russ and love your posts.....I run this B&B so I do not have to go out into that horrid world of work !!
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Yes Sandy , as you say it is a balance and the need for kids to fit in these days is paramount , for a large % of adults too.
I never had or felt such a need ( no surprise there then ! ) .
I always stood alone , but played the game to a point . Those days are well gone .
Some smallholders will make it through , i can think of a few on here .
But the system that many rely on , will crush them.
We all have different levels of system dependence , consumerism , bills etc and thus different amounts of 'money' needed . The needs of partners have to be thought about too . Being single helps on that score.
The less you want , the less you need.
Not something that most practice these days , but as everyday passes more and more will have to . Those that don't are doomed , as Fraser off dads army would say !
Summer on it's way now mate , more b+b customers will make life easier . I do realise that not everyone can , or would want to , live as i do ( yet ! lol ) .
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Morning, :wave: my post read a little wrong, I meant that its getting more costly to live for us all and to keep a smallholding in particular as all expenses are going up..I was shocked to see how much my car insurance has gone up and as for petrol? I do not use too much but it certainly is a factor in how much people travel, then fuel bills have rocketed, we keep the heating off when we are here on our own but it can get very cold. The B&B buisness has always done well, we are full now and for a while and since we opened, only had a few empty weeks in the winter, mainly due to the weather, we will not get rich from it as the money goes back but its the same as a good income from a job for me, its my hubby as he does not have a regular income, he works for an agency and now just finnished another contract, if we had his imcome too we would be sorted...One thing that P's me off, as I get older I have less and less money, at least prescriptions are free here ( loads of medication!!) and soon free bus travel for me so some saving there. My middle daughter is emigrating soon, her hubby is hanging onto his job just, the prospects in UK are not good at all....and they moved my pension age!!!!
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It will be the same for anyone with a big mortgage and no wage , a position which many are going to be in soon , smallholder or not !
Moving the pension age is one step , the next will be removing it altogether , and there are rumours of this happening !
The ' universal credit ' is the next step . Mmmm credit ? .
The modern use of the word credit = debt ! Credit card = debt card , buying a car on credit means creating a debt . Universal credit = universal debt !
Another step toward complete control or slavery.
Greece will close it's banks without warning , to prevent a run on them , that will cause sthtf and spain will go the same way as greece , italy will then follow and the euro will die ! That may be when they get rid of cash completely .
The whole population will then be under total control .
The above assumes we get through the olympics without a 7/7 style false flag 'terror' attack ?
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I hate credit cards of any sort, the store cards are sooo bad, to me I can see a smirky business man trying to entice people into owing lots of money just to buy more crap!!!!! (I have loads of real crap by the way) I often notice how many things people have to update these days, all the tech stuff for a start, we have pre owned TV's currently a 52" rear projection in one room and a 42" in another, great sound and we did replace one bulb for £50 . Not sure that people cannot see that we are brainwashed into buying the latest of everything, it becomes hard to buy what you actualy want!!!! How will the worlds debt be sorted???
If you won on a lottery would you remain self sufficiant Russ? I guess it would be easier to set yourself up and buy the land.....
Bankers the lot of them!!!
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I have never done the lottery once since it began Sandy , so not likely to win it anytime soon . But if i did somehow get the money , i would buy land yes , but again not likely as i don't 'do' money !
My way of life IS my way of life and self reliance IS the fundamental backbone/basis of it , there is no alternative for me , as the only other choice is the system . A system that i have fought against , one way or another , all my life .
The accident put everything on hold for 15+ years.
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:wave: Very well said...life is too short to waste ......
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Am right with you (as recent posts re LPG and insurance may have indicated!!)! Good luck - maybe we should start a 'economy drive' tip sheet! No sky for us anyway, but freesat is fine. I'm on verge of knocking broadband on the head - BT have now said (after a year) that they cant do any more for us and 0.5 Mb is it!!! Library is 4 miles away, but it could be done! Anyway good luck again - let us know if you stumble accross any shocking savings!!
There is a book some times second hadn on the likes of Amazon. " Swimming with the Pirahana makes you hungry " or similar title.
the book is filed with commonsense way fo reducing your outgooings and debt reduction but these are frequently over looked common sense ones .
I was give the book 15 yrs or so ago by a good friend who purchased it for us as a way to try and help us find our feet. It helped us no end as we were starting to try tocome to terms with me being 75% disabled and worried sick as to how we cold survive . We worried so much it actually stopped us thinking straight .
I gave the boo away to someone else in similar circumstances and they say it also helped them out .
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No bills , no gadgets , virtually no costs , £5 a month for the mobile , as soon as the veg plot starts producing again , no food costs . Just milk , sugar , coffee and tea to sort out now .
Milk =get a cow
sugar= get some sugar beet seeds (anyone got any to spare ?)
tea= get a camellia sinensis
coffee= err go without or carry on buying it .
sugar ..get bees or do without and save your teeth ;) or use sterilized apple juice .
Coffee roast broken up acorns then crush them ..makes ersatzr coffee that the germans used in WW2 or you can make a chickory coffee from the roasted roots with caramised sugar for further colouring & slight taste aka gravy browning ( a bottle of which last years & years ). .. I think there is still some sold under the name of " camp coffee " .
I used to like it but it is rather bitter.
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Cheers P , had bees but they buggered off . You do get the double bonus of honey and wax for candles etc , but you also have the cost of pest and desease treatment , swings and roundabouts .
The stevia plant and sugar beet are both easy to grow . Sugar beet is very easy to produce sugar from , and the waste is animal feed !
The coffee alternatives i have tried and would rather go back to drinking tea , they were kack ! lol.
Dandilion root , acorn , chicory , yuk yuk yuk and camp coffee , oh god , the smell of that stuff would make me chuck up .
No i would be happy with just tea , grew up on that so no probs there .
Yes L , the money chase is all consuming . Whether it be for survival within the system for the poor , or , the insatiable greed of the rich .
The 30's will be nothing compared to what is around the corner , if 'they' don't initiate their get out of jail card , WW3 !
Although i have no money , i have no bills or debts and my land is mine . It is hard getting to where i am , but it is so much better than the alternative , the money chase = the system .
Good luck with your new way of living .
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Rusty can you obtain stevia seeds /plants here in the UK , do they grow ?
I brought a bottle of Stevia extract liquid whilst I was in Canada ,as it was compact and easy to carry with me .
Gosh what an awful after taste like asprin and saccharin ( sp ) I went without sugar for nearly three months because it was so lousy.
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Yes P , you can get them from , www.nickys-nursery.co.uk (http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk) , £2.95 for 40 seeds .
They grow ok in the uk
, i sowed some last year but due to circumstances lost those that came through .
If you don't like the taste of stevia , then you could grow a few sugar beet . About 18% by weight , is sugar . They grow as easy as beetroot and all you do to get the sugar is chop them up and boil them , remove the beet and reduce the liquid till it thick and syrupy . Cool it and you have brown sugar. You can treat it further by adding something , i forget what , and you end up with refined white sugar and blackjack molasses . I only made brown sugar and it was very easy to do .
I got given a trailer load that i made into sugar . The ones i grew from seed got eaten by cows lol .
Got to get more seeds of both this year . Till then i will have to keep buying silver spoon sugar , made from sugar beet !
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Haven't read this thread since I offered you some Stevia seeds Russ. Pm me your address also you Plantoid and I will send you a few seeds.
Dandelion coffee is o.k. if made with hot milk but acorn coffee is horrible whichever way you make it.