Challenge Updates: Bills, No Spend and Christmas!

Christmas Completed by December

SFT asked whether everyone was winning at the Christmas Done by December challenge. Just to recap, my targets were to get Christmas gifts completely finished, to buy one Christmas decoration each, to finish my Advent calendar and to make some decorations to send to family members.

Well, here's how it stands now:

• Finish Christmas gifts - Over halfway! I started the month with just one person (my sister) crossed off my list. Halfway through, I now have nine more people crossed off (actually eleven if you split "the kids" category up!). I have ideas and half-presents for another five people, which just leaves a couple of very awkward people causing me trouble! (Looking at you, Dad!)
•  Buy a Christmas decoration - Complete! It is a bit of a family tradition of ours to visit Trelawney garden centre in Cornwall each year to marvel at the Christmas displays and get a bauble/Christmas decoration. Well, this year we went a bit earlier than usual and even let The Boyfriend tag along. I bought a beautiful glass bauble with hand-painted swirls, whilst The Boyfriend got a glass robin with mistletoe painted on its flanks!
• Finish Advent calendar - Nearly there! On Friday I posted part three of how to make an Advent calendar, but over the weekend I finished the stockings for part four too (will be posted on Friday!). Now I just have to sort out the numbers and bits and bobs to put inside them! :)
• Make Christmas decorations for family - Gathering materials! I am still in the early stages of this one! I want to post them at the start of December so I need to get cracking! I want to make star or heart fabric decorations from some leftover gingham. 

No Spend Week

Last  week I challenged myself to a No Spend Week, with the caveat that if I saw some good Christmas present deals I would be allowed to snap them up. I have to be honest guys, I failed the challenge. I managed five of seven days as No Spend.

I do have some excuses if you want to hear them? :) On Thursday I had to give a presentation about Physics in Biology. Now if you know anything about biologists, you'll know that they gave up physics as soon as they possibly could at school then ran away, avoiding all talk of the subject ever after! After a week of stressing about my presentation, on Thursday evening I did knowingly go to the pub with everyone else and have half a pint of lager!

My second excuse is slightly better; I bought some red card and red buttons to complete the Advent calendar and Christmas decorations respectively.

Still, overall most days were a success, right? :)



Lowering the Bills

Last month I wrote about how The Boyfriend and I planned on lowering our bills. Between 5th September and 5th October we spent £36.07 on energy (including £34.01 on electricity) and £26.55 on water. Following the plan of shorter showers and turning things off at the wall, I'm pleased to announce that between October and November (31 day period) we spent £34.15 on energy and £24.70 on water, a decrease of 5% and 7% respectively. 

I want to keep this up and hopefully report even lower costs next month! :)



SFT asked if we are winning. I think I have had some success in these challenges. How are you getting on? :)

My Plan to Lower Our Bills

I have decided to review our electricity, gas and water meters monthly, to keep an eye on our usage and prevent any big shocks when the first bill comes through the door.

This month we have used:

Gas – £2.06

Electricity - £34.01

Water – £26.55 (not including the £118 water leak when we first moved in, which is thankfully being paid by the landlord)

The average UK energy bill is £1259 per year, which of course includes a lot of winter heating and child-related costs. Our combined total for this month is £36.07 (a quarter of the UK average) but I still think we could lower this, especially since there are only two of us and it isn't winter yet!

The average UK water bill is £376 a year. Ours will be £312 if it stays the same, so we should definitely be able to cut back on this!

Methods we already use to cut down energy use:

• Currently no heating
• Clothes are washed at 30°C
• We don't have a tumble drier, so clothes are dried outside on that rare sunny day
• The fridge is fairly empty, which helps it to run efficiently (see comments below for a discussion on whether this is actually the case!!)
• Energy saving light bulbs
• We have a mini-oven, so we don't have to pre-heat the big oven for ages just to cook a small meal for two

Methods we use to save water:

• Wait for a full load of washing before running the machine
• Take showers not baths
• If it's yellow, we let it mellow (my Mum will kill me if she sees that!) :)
• The toilet has a very small tank, so we're not wasting litres of water down the drain
• We live in Bristol, so there's no need to water the plants! :)

To try and get the bills down this month, I will be employing the following tactics:

• Mark a line on the kettle for two mugs of water (The Boyfriend gets a bit enthusiastic and boils it nearly full!!)
• Be very careful to turn things off at the wall. The TV is in standby mode even if you push the off button on the set, so you really have to turn it off at the wall.
• Look into getting better curtains. The curtains in our flat are so thin you can half see through them! They won't do any good in winter when we need to insulate the flat as much as possible.
• Get a shower timer. We are both guilty of luxuriating in the shower for far longer than necessary. We need to jump in, get clean and get out!

How do you rate against the UK average bills? Got any top tips for us? (We are renting so can't do anything that permanently affects the property, such as installing insulation and changing kitchen appliances).

Six Environmentally Friendly Ways to Stop Slugs!

Disclaimer: Turns out, it's illegal to use coffee grounds as a pesticide until they have been properly tested, but you can still use them as a soil enhancer! Funny old world, isn't it? :)

Slugs! The bane of every gardener. One day your lettuces look set to win a prize at the village show, the next they are reduced to a stump by these slimey fiends.

The lovely weather for vegetables (rain!) means that hundreds of the little blighters emerged to wreak havoc on cabbages and my Dad's chili plants (he was NOT amused!). Lili from creativesavv left a comment saying that she was having a lot of trouble with them over in the USA too, due to the weather.

Can anything be done to save the crops and flowers we have spent hours nurturing??

There are a lot of techniques for slug control, from lethal measures to methods that leave the slugs happy but noticeably absent from your vegetable patch! I must admit that I would much prefer to leave slugs alive wherever possible because it is not a life-or-death situation for me. Yes it's annoying if my crops get munched but there's always a trip to Tesco for some lettuce.

Non-lethal measures

1. Gritty barriers – Slugs and snails are very keen to protect their soft “foot”, so placing a barrier of sharp grit around plants will make them think twice about trying to attack your vegetables. Top things to use include crushed eggshells (make sure they are washed or you will attract vermin), coffee grounds (slugs are also repelled by the remaining caffeine, which is poisonous to them) (Edit: actually it is illegal to use coffee as a pesticide), sand and oats.
   
   
2. Sacrificial plantings – Protect your valuable crops by planting a sacrificial ring of less-important plants that slugs go crazy for. A great example is lettuce. The effect of this can be enhanced by spraying your sacrificial plants (and other weeds near your vegetable patch) with beer, which slugs looooove!
   
   
3. Copper rings / aluminium foil – I've heard great things about copper. You can buy little rings to put around your plants, which should give slugs a little electric shock. It's not lethal, but hurts just enough to make them turn back. The same effect is said to be had with aluminium foil. I recently tested these two metals and found them woefully lacking however. Gary the test slug happily slimed from copper coins to foil and back again!
   
   

   

   Gary didn't mind copper or aluminium!

   
   

I think gardeners should employ as many of the above non-lethal techniques as possible in combination. None of them would probably be effective enough alone, but gritty barriers combined with sacrificial plantings should give your vegetables enough respite from the slimey villains. 

If you want to get serious, here are some lethal methods for getting rid of slugs in a way that will not harm the rest of the wildlife in your garden:

Lethal measures

1. Slug pellets – Old-fashioned slug pellets are toxic to helpful birds and mammals that eat the dying slugs, as well as unwitting pets or children that might eat them. Now there are non-toxic varieties that are much more specific to slugs and snails, such as ferrous phosphate or aluminium sulphate.
   
   
2. Nematodes – Nematodes are microscopic worms that are by far the most numerous organisms found on Earth. They can be found almost anywhere on the planet, but some soil-living nematodes are particularly good at killing slugs. Nemaslug (the trade name for slug-killing nematodes) is a fairly expensive method of slug disposal, coming in at around £10.75 including postage, but it is easy to apply and will kill slugs above and below ground over a 40m² area for six weeks. They are specific to slugs and will not harm other forms of wildlife.
   
   
3. Beer traps – A far cheaper method is a beer trap; a plastic container of beer buried slightly below the ground with a lip so that slugs can enter but hopefully excluding most other small invertebrates. Slugs are attracted to the smell of beer, then fall into the trap and drown. Beer can be used in non-lethal methods too (see above).

Other resources

My alma mater Cardiff University has done a lot of research into the prevention of slugs and snails. Professor William Symondson wrote this article containing an absolute wealth of information for killing, repelling and distracting slugs.

Do you have any top tips for slug distraction or removal? I'll be using coffee grounds to protect my cabbages. Mum works in a coffee shop, but you can pick them up for free at any Starbucks.

Goals Update

I last wrote an update on my goals about three months ago, so I thought it was high time I did another one!

Moving to Bristol

When I announced that I am debt free, I decided that the next important thing I needed to do was save £800 to finance moving to Bristol. I have since increased this to £1000, to cover things like my share of a flat deposit and the first month's rent, as well as the cost of actually moving. I currently have £541 saved from my wages, eBay sales, selling textbooks and a refunded train ticket.

SFT's Challenge: Find an extra £50 in May!

 Saving for Travel challenged everyone to find an extra £50 in May, either by earning more, using vouchers or selling things. I only had the opportunity to work an extra 2.25 hours because I was away for nearly two weeks in total, but I did sell a couple of small items on eBay and used a few vouchers to net an overall extra £29.30. Still, every little helps!

 

New Year's Resolutions

My New Year's Resolutions were:

1.  100 No Spend Days - Back at the end of February I had achieved 27 No Spend Days, which has now increased to 58 NSDs. This is an increase of around 10 days a month. Not too bad considering all the travelling I've been doing this year! 

2. Record every penny spent and earned - I do this every day and would recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their money management. It helps you to understand what you could save money on and what your priorities are.

3. Reduce waste and helping the planet - I challenge myself to stay under 100 miles per week in my car, which is often difficult as around 50 miles are used just getting to work and back and my nearest town is a 14 mile round trip! I tend not to go to town unless visiting  my Nana though. My vegetable patch is coming on well (although my leeks were eaten *sniffle*) and I still don't really buy much.

4. Find a PhD - complete! :D

5. Spend more time with friends - went to visit some good friends in Kent and Essex, and see a lot more of my friends at home too. 

6. Weight loss - don't ask! 

 How are you doing? Are you in the middle of any challenges of your own?

Growing Your Own Tomatoes – The Pros and Cons of Seeds

Totally missed my 100th post. I'm a centenarian now! :)

Growing your own veg is a brilliant thing to do. You save money, reduce waste and food miles, and it is immensely rewarding too!

Tomatoes are a favourite of many gardeners because they are fairly simple to grow (light + warmth + water + fertiliser = yummy tomatoes), but in my family at least there is a big debate over whether to grow the plants from seeds or pick up young plants from the garden centre.

The PROS of growing from seed

Cost – The obvious benefit of growing tomatoes (and most plants) from seed is that they are MUCH cheaper. Most seed packets (around 50 seeds) retail for around £1 to £1.50, whereas small plants in my local garden centre were 85p each. Even if you buy top quality seeds (F1 hybrids that are pretty much guaranteed to germinate, survive and produce a lot of fruit) for £3 a packet, you will get 15-20 good plants that will produce a lot of fruit.

Greater selection – If you look in a garden centre, they will probably be selling one variety of regular tomato plant and maybe a cherry tomato variety. In contrast, there are 5+ varieties of tomato seeds in my local garden centre. If you look online you will be truly spoilt for choice, with a massive array of seeds available for £1 plus a few pence postage.

Sense of pride – I love the excitement of seeing the first little seedling poking up through the soil. If you raise a plant from germination to fruition you get far more of a sense of pride than planting a tomato from the shop and collecting the fruits later on.

The CONS of growing from seed

Need a propagator – I said that tomatoes were fairly easy to grow, but they are quite fussy blighters. The seeds will not germinate if they don't get the conditions they like. They need to be kept at ~20°C, which at this time of year means that you will probably need a propagator. They also like to be not too wet, not too dry, with lots of light once the seedlings are up.

More susceptible to disease – Tomatoes are susceptible to “damping off”, a generic term for fungal rot which can affect both seeds and young seedlings. You can prevent this by storing seeds in dry conditions until ready to plant and by not over-watering them once planted. You should also ensure seedlings get a lot of light and the air is not excessively humid.

Require fairly constant care – Seedlings generally require a lot more looking after because they are not yet established. This means you will need to check if they need watering every 1-2 days and make sure you move them to a warm location if it will be really cold overnight. You also have to keep an eye out for disease because they are growing at such close proximity to each other and it will spread quickly through the young plants.

Do you prefer growing your tomatoes from a stock plant or from seed? Anyone tried both methods and can compare their yields from the two? For now I'll just watch my tiny seedlings grow in the window. :)

Resolutions Recap

Every now and then I set myself a set of goals. If I don't revisit them, I forget them quite quickly! Here's how I'm getting on with various tasks I've set myself on this blog.

New Year's Resolutions

Like most people, I set some New Year resolutions.

1. 100 No Spend days – At the end of February, I have had 27 No Spend days out of a possible 60 days of the year so far. I thought that was pretty good, but people like Saving For Travel are putting me to shame with nearly every day being No Spend! I wondered whether this challenge would encourage me to spend more on days that I'd already spent, but so far I don't think that is the case.
2. Record every penny saved and earned – I really enjoy doing this! It's a great way to stay in control of your wallet. At the end of each month I can tally up how much I spent on what and possibly manipulate the next month's budget accordingly.
   
   
   
   
   
3.  Reducing waste and helping the planet – I wrote a post of how to help the planet for free with a variety of ways to reduce waste and live green. This year I have dug over the vegetabe patch ready for planting next year, cycled more (although it's usually not possible for me to cycle to work, because I don't feel safe cycling at 4am down dark country lanes!), made gifts from free materials, donated to Freecycle, made cloth shopping bags and did some much-needed car maintenance.
4. Find a PhD – This is going very well. I've met a lot of important scientists in my field and my applications have had some very positive feedback. I should be hearing back from Universities towards the end of March.
5. Spend more time with friends – I've been trying to say yes more to opportunities that arise.
6. 
   Weight loss – I didn't actually get on the scales until last week, but I don't think I would've lost any weight before then anyway. I am now throwing myself back in to healthy eating and continuing hiking and cycling, the two forms of (free!) exercise I most enjoy.

Eat British

Following the Eat British challenge, we have been eating more locally. We always buy Hovis now (usually on offer), which uses entirely British wheat. All our cheese, eggs, milk, meat etc. is generally British anyway. We've also been eating a lot more seasonal root vegetables. When it's time to harvest our vegetables later in the year we'll have even more local produce! :D

Priorities

Towards the end of last year I set a few priorities. Some have already been covered above, but these haven't:

1. Repay my debt and build some savings for next year – The only debt I have now is a small 0% interest overdraft, which is slowly being whittled away at. More importantly, I have an emergency fund as well as savings for car repairs and road tax (currently drained by Jools' naughtiness), gifts and the dentist! My net worth increasing slowly but surely.
2. Visit my Nana more often – I see my Nana a lot more now, which is ace because she is an amazing lady. She does all sorts of charity work, is a fantastic friend to LOTS of people, always has a great story to tell and was described by a local newspaper as keeping ”everyone in stitches” and the life of the party!
3. Get rid of clutter – I've sold two textbooks on Amazon, which made me £20 after the expensive postage costs! I've also donated a lot of old stuff and am working on getting more out of the way! (I can't take it all back up to Uni!)

These goals are really motivating me to use my time wisely this year. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have a bit more free time now that I just have the one job so it is important that I make the most of it. 

How are your New Year's resolutions going, if you made any? Got any challenges going on at the minute? 

Charitable Giving on a Budget

When you're barely keeping your head above water it seems inconceivable to give money to charity, even if you'd really like to. I'm here to tell you that there are a lot of different ways to make a difference without breaking the budget!

• Do you have an old mobile phone you no longer want or used printing ink cartridge? Even if it's broken, many companies will recycle it for you for free. Recycle 4 Charity let you choose who receives your money, paying £1 for an ink cartridge and up to £70 for a working phone.
  
  
  
• What do you do with old pairs of glasses? Did you know that 10% of the world are disabled or disadvantaged because they don't have access to spectacles? Many are excluded from school and cannot see properly to work. If you get a new pair of glasses, please don't throw the others away! Take them to your optician and they will send them to Vision Aid Overseas free of charge.
  
  
• Have a bit of a spring clean and donate old clothing, CDs, DVDs, games, ornaments or even furniture to your local charity shop. Most places are always in desperate need of new stock. Charities range from animal welfare to medical research to global humanitarian groups, so you can choose who you want to support.
  
  
• You can make a donation in someone's name as a birthday or Christmas present for someone in your life who wants to help too, but perhaps can't afford to make a donation themselves. Oxfam have a great range of clutter-free gifts that allow you to provide water, food, education or shelter to people in need.
  
• Many people save their copper coins but even with a full piggy bank you are left with little reward but a lengthy trip to the bank to get it changed to more usable tender! Why not donate your 1p and 2p coins to charity whenever you pass a collection box? It'll be a quick and easy way to make a small difference.
  
  
• What about taking part in a sponsored event, or organising your own? Most charities have a link on their websites for information on events and how to help. You might even get to try something you've never done before – skydiving, anyone?
  
  
  
• Volunteer! You can find out about a huge range of volunteer work in your area using Do-It. From conservation work to working with the elderly, from charity shop work to helping to run a youth centre for children; pick a charity you feel best suits your concerns about the world and then go out there and make a difference.
  
  
• Many charities rely on small monthly donation. A £2 a month donation to Oxfam provides food for people that need it most, at a cost of £24 a year to you.

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.” 

Mother Teresa

Decluttering: My First Freecycle

Today I entered the wonderful world of Freecycle. I can't imagine there are many frugal people who've never heard of it, but just in case...

Freecycle is a global network of local groups, where members post items to giveaway to others. Basically the idea is to get out of the consumer cycle and reduce waste. It's a way of recycling. Things offered on my local group today included a wardrobe, working dishwasher, top soil, lots of baby clothes, a small TV, a trampoline and a 3-piece suit of sofa and chairs.

Honestly, my post wasn't all that exciting compared to that stuff!

I've been having a bit of a declutter. I advertised that I wanted to be rid of a big folder full of plastic wallets that I used to keep my Uni work neat. I would never use them again; they are expensive, environmentally damaging, and you have to keep pulling the sheets of paper out to be able to write on them!!

Within a few minutes of the post going live I had four e-mails from people desperate for my second-hand plastic wallets!

I decided I wasn't too keen on the idea of someone coming to my house to collect them, so I asked the first replier to meet me outside the pub in the village. It must've looked a strange exchange; two cars pulling into a dark carpark, exchanging an unmarked bag with few words exchanged, then each driving off in a separate direction.. Hee hee!

Have you ever got anything exciting from Freecycle? There is certainly a lot I would've liked today but the point is to REDUCE my clutter, not add to it! The Boyfriend once got a load of educational books he needed for free, which I thought was amazing at the time, considering the cost of them.

Would you list your things on Freecycle? Would you let someone come to your house to collect them, or am I just paranoid? :)

Keep Britain Tidy!

Yesterday I decided to go for a walk. Inspired by Ilona's rubbish walks, I took a couple of bin bags and a pair of rubber gloves with me, in order to pick up any rubbish I found. (Mum came with me as the official “holder of clean stuff and photographer”).

I didn't get far before I found my first piece of plastic. In fact, I didn't walk very far all day. I walked a grand total of 0.4 miles before I had to turn back.

Why did I turn back so soon? I simply couldn't carry any more rubbish!

My lane is a single track, poorly maintained road running through dairy fields and cropland. It is not highly populated or busy with traffic, yet I collected 2 bin liners full of rubbish.

On the face of it, the lane didn't look too bad. I'd seen an old fertiliser bag on the side of the road and a plastic bag attached to a bramble, but nothing much else. The problem was that it was all half-hidden in the foliage of the hedges.

Amongst other things, I found: 

• A half-full soy milk carton – OH, THE SMELL! 
• 5 coffee cups 
• 2 Red Bull cans 
• A beer bottle
• A ring-holder for cans – prime choking material for wildlife 
• Agricultural rubbish – black liners from hay bales and fertiliser bags.
• Lots and lots of clear plastic – mainly cellophane. 
• Several cola bottles, including one half-full 2 litre bottle! 
• Two plastic bags full of soy milk cartons.. (this was definitely the strangest find, but they were in a ditch so it was a deliberate dumping)

Why do people feel the need to fling things out of the window as they drive through the beautiful Cornish countryside? It's polluting and damages the health of wildlife. The next free day I have I'm going back out to clear the next section of lane of rubbish. I WILL get round my 4 mile circuit!

Have you ever collected rubbish? Would you give it a go?

CHALLENGE: Best of British – What I Learned

Thank you for all your comments over the past few days! 

This challenge was an absolute eye-opener. I couldn't believe how heavily I rely on imported foods for every day living! Although I wasn't quite as naïve as some of my friends, who wondered why I couldn't have tea since it is an “English heritage”!

What I Will Take Away

Whilst this diet will be too restrictive to keep up, until I build up my own resources anyway, I would like to take away a few goals for the year. Firstly, I will grow much more of my own food in the future. When I get my own place I would love to keep chickens for eggs, but that is a long way off yet. In the meantime I'll get my hands dirty in the garden!

If I had known during 2011 that I would decide to undertake this challenge in January 2012, it would have been prudent to grow beans and can them in preparation for winter protein. This year I will definitely preserve home-grown food, as I would love to become more self-sufficient.

I will make an effort to eat “mainly” British. If most of the ingredients are British (for example Hovis uses 100% British wheat), that will be a good compromise for me. I will eat seasonal vegetables grown in the UK, which will save me money as well as reducing my carbon footprint!

Eating entirely British is very difficult and I don't really recommend trying it. My challenge to you is to pay attention to where you food comes from in the next couple of weeks. What surprised you? Maybe try to incorporate more 100% British meals (or wherever you live). It'll save you money (when eating seasonally) and be kinder to the planet!

CHALLENGE: Best of British – The Frugality of Eating Local

Firstly, a big thank you to Pamela over at Frugal Homemaking, who wrote about my challenge in her blog. She mentioned that even meat has seasons, which is something I hadn't considered before. Meat eaters could have a problem trying to find British lamb before spring is sprung, whilst many species of fish can only be caught at specific times of year. Just more difficulties to add to the list!


The Frugality of Eating Local
Onto my thoughts for today. You may think I've been paying over the odds for foods just to ensure they are British. Whilst that may be the case for some foods (HONEY = £3.99 for a jar from Devon, 99p for Tesco Value honey jar of the same size!!), I've found that in general it is actually enabling me to save money!

Meal planning

This challenge is very restrictive, especially as a vegetarian, so it is important I have in my head an idea of what I will eat for the day. A typical day's worth of food has been:

  - Porridge for breakfast (Scottish oats and Cornish milk) – 23p (~5p for the porridge, 18p for the milk)

  - Spinach, leek and cheese omelette with a salad for lunch (fried in British butter to avoid the unclear origins of vegetable oil) – 99p (~20p for the spinach, 9p for the leek, 25p for the cheese, 35p for the eggs, 10p for the lettuce)

  - Apple for a snack (from Kent) - ~9p

  - A big bowl of vegetable stew for dinner (carrots, potatoes, parsnips, swede – no salt as Cornish sea salt is bloody expensive, although Pamela mentioned a book about eating locally where the authors made their own salt from seawater) - ~40p (~5p for carrot, 10p for potato, 10p for parsnip, 15p for swede)

  - Yogurt and honey for a snack – 65p (~40p for yogurt, 25p for spoonful of honey)

To be honest, most days have had very similar menus! It is hard to be creative on the narrow scope of this challenge, especially when I was fitting food in around two jobs! An entire day's food for £2.36 can't be bad though!

Seasonal eating

Whilst eating locally, you have to eat seasonally. Whatever's in season is cheapest. We all know this, yet I for one have rarely paid it any attention. A simple rule is that if you can find it in your local farmer's market, you'll know that it is seasonal, fresh and cheap. If you eat winter vegetables now, and stock up on British strawberries in the summer, you'll save yourself a bundle over the year. (If you have your own vegetable patch you're already miles ahead – FREE seasonal food!!)

No junk food!

Pretty much NO junk food snacks are 100% British, so I've not been wasting any money on that! Walkers crisps are made with British potatoes, but the oil and flavourings are likely to be imported. Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which grow in Africa. Lots of cakes are made using palm oil from Africa or Asia, something which I will not be returning to after this week is over because of its devastating effect on the environment. 

For those who want to make an entirely British sugary snack, why not make biscuits from 250g butter, 140g Silverspoon sugar (the only company I've found to use British sugar beet rather than imported sugar cane to make sugar), 1 egg yolk and 300g plain flour. Bake at 180°C or gas mark 4 for 12-15 minutes.

Savings of the Past

We could learn a lot by revisiting old recipes from World War II, when imported fruit and veg was almost non-existent and people had to make do with what they had. It can be very cheap to survive on a diet of local meats and seasonal vegetables. If you had to survive entirely on your own country's food, what would you need to change to do it? Start a vegetable plot? Preserve food? Raise animals? What do you already do to eat local?