I wouldn't say I am living a particularly frugal lifestyle and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't even entirely sure how to start. However, after a couple of hours research and reading about other people's experiences, I realised that, for me, frugal living wouldn't just be beneficial but necessary.

Frugal living in the countryside means no mains sewers, sometimes no mains water and certainly no ‘nipping to the shop’ to buy an individual item if you run out of it, so it is always handy to know how to make your own products, such as laundry cleaner.

What is the difference between a pullet egg and a hen egg?

2018 is going to be about concentrating on the little things to enable us to get more of the big things done! Like they say, if you take care of the pennies, then the pounds will take care of themselves. So, our first port of call is the chicken shack, where the Frugaldom hens reside. Last summer, we hatched out some chicks in the incubator - from a dozen eggs, we had 9 chicks but of those, only 8 survived the first 24 hours and 5 of them were cockerels!

WE ARE BACK

What happened to the Frugal Living Blog?

Technology overtook us! Apologies for the lengthy delay in updating but somewhere along the line the virtual software upgraded and rendered my website obsolete when I tried to upload the new version. Many, many thanks to David for sorting out this problem and my profoundest apologies to all who lost access to the forums. That was a very sad loss, indeed, with several years of records and reports still on the server somewhere, we just can't read them. I finally resorted to updating the Frugaldom Blog, so it is still HERE. I will redirect frugalblog.co.uk very soon.

A few days of glorious weather has put some sun on ponies' backs, helped with tree planting, dried out the ground a bit and even seems to have encouraged the wildlife. But beer-making? What's that all about, I hear you ask?

Following a frugal regime during winter is never easy. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks or who agrees or disagrees with our lifestyle choices, it's always around February that we could happily crank up the heating and throw extra logs on the fire... or else pack up and head for warmer, drier climes!

Homemade Spicy Courgette Soup - With many household budgets being stretched to the limit, food is something that we cannot afford to waste, nor should we tolerate it! This is one in a series of recipes provide by our soup dragon here in Frugaldom - it can cost less than 5p per serving to make and can easily be frozen in recycled margarine tubs for later use.

Home ownership for first time buyers can be a daunting prospect so this is a little bit about how frugal living can help you save to buy a house, or even save to rent to buy a house! The lifestyle affords the luxury of saving more of your cash for your dream home.

Quit spending on stuff you don't need! I cannot repeat this often enough! It is the number one cause of being skint, no matter how much or how little money you have coming into your household. Frugal living is about HOW you allocate your budget.

Clean, safe drinking water is an absolute essential, so I have been wondering how to get it at Frugaldom when we are entirely off the grid, off the mains and off the idea of spending thousands of pounds drilling a well, installing pipes or fiddling with filters.