Where growing, making & good living come together

Reading while lurgy-ed

Posted by on Thursday 9 February 2012 in meta | 2 comments

Gah, I hate limbo illness – when you’re not ill enough to completely take to your bed and be waited on hand & foot, but when you’re not well either so end up padding around in a daze and have to slump in an exhausted heap after walking up stairs with a basket of washing or down to the chickens with some seeds. I have done a lot of slumping in the last few days, a lot of ‘what?’ing because my slow brain hasn’t processed what’s been asked of it and some napping (only some because naps leave me mega-disorientated). I’ve also done a lot of reading – fluff when my brain’s not been engaged but other stuff too. Here are some of my favourite bits of the good stuff:

Rachel‘s year without ‘poo – great to hear about her experience and the tricks she’s picked up/developed. Her water-only hair looks fab too.

Ilona the MeanQueen got me thinking about money cushions/long-term savings. Every personal finance blog/book I read insists on people building up long term savings. But Ilona has no intention of leaving a nest egg behind. As I say in her comment section, we try for a balance – in our early 30s, we’re less likely to have a state pension waiting for us or, at this rate, a NHS to look after us, so long term savings will be important. But at the same time, I’ve now essentially downshifted twice – halving my income each time so vastly reducing the amount I can put into savings – because no amount of long-term savings are worth being that miserable over. Anyway, thought provoking/different angle post.

I got a lot of my fluff reading from Cracked.com – an often geeky, even more often rude humour site – but they do have some more poignant articles too — albeit ones still littered with swears and poo jokes. If that sort of thing doesn’t offend you, then I’d recommend reading this recent one on bad lifelong habits from living in poverty.

The Steel Kitten is on a mission – and put together a very thought provoking blog post on realising your dream — both in the sense of accomplishing it but more importantly figuring out what it is in the first place!

Jono of Real Men Sow has written a great summary post about the things to consider when buying seeds for this growing season – things he learnt from tracking the money savings from his growing last year.

UPDATE: I meant to include this on my list too: Paved with Good Intentions. It is a brief article but touching on the idea that when people reduce the energy consumption of their homes, they may be tempted to take the money they save on their energy bills and use it in another way that actually uses more energy over all – possibly good for the economy but probably bad for the environment. I’ve been thinking about this regarding frugal living too but haven’t finalised my thoughts on it yet. Interesting idea though.

Have you read any interesting blog posts/articles online recently? If so, do share – I’m not up to full fighting strength yet so need more input :)

Read More

A few quick links to elsewhere

Posted by on Wednesday 8 June 2011 in meta | 0 comments

Having a busy (and rainy) day today so no time for a proper post but just time for some links that might interest you a little self-promotion ;)

  • After the brief discussion about composting teabags the other week, I did a bit of research about which brands/types contain synthetic fibres (polypropylene) and posted the results on Recycle This. In brief, stapled gusset ones are polypropylene-free but you might have to remove the staple/string. All the rest are heat-sealed and contain polypropylene – the teabags should break down and the synthetic fibres “disappear” into your compost, but it’s up to you whether you want it in there.
  • I’ve very much enjoyed Rachel‘s recent tours of her village and garden, and planned to do my own of the awesome woods behind our house (and maybe beyond). But I forgot to take my camera when we’ve gone on long walks around the woods recently and since Lily sprained a leg last week, our recent walks have been shorter. On Friday, we just walked the “lower loop” as we call it, through the horses’ field. I did take pictures of that though so stage 1 of my tour: John & Lily in the horses’ field.
  • And those who enjoyed the book pictures a few weeks ago may like my Venn Diagrams of my favourite books.
Read More

Some recent treats from blogland

Posted by on Thursday 5 May 2011 in frugal, growing, personal finance | 0 comments

I seem to have spent nearly all of today reading. No, not our many many books but blogs. I’ve read some great stuff so thought I’d share:

  • First up, Failure Is An Option by The Greening of Gavin‘s Gavin. Oh my yes. I have “failed” so many times over the last few years – and every single time I learnt a lesson and will not repeat that mistake. I rarely use super expensive seeds and compost/pots can be reclaimed so it’s only costing my time to try, fail and learn not to do that again. I like hobbies which allow free/super cheap do-overs (I have frogged certain yarns oh so many times). Yes, failure is frustrating and it makes it feel like a waste of time but if you treat it as a learning curve then it’s not a waste, it’s a building block of knowledge.
  • And speaking of minimising time expenditure, Fiona, The Cottage Smallholder, has been writing about perennial veg recently – tree cabbages and orach. (The latter isn’t perennial but is a self-seeder, and has a very long harvesting window.) Two interesting veggies to think about when I’ve got my “miniature forest garden” planning hat on.
  • Changing the topic, I liked this post about avoiding slipping into the trap of always having to make the ultimate healthy homecooked food for every meal – especially when you’re just starting out. I’m a fan of gradual but steady changes that’ll stick rather than extreme shifts which might not. Looking back now, I’m amazed at some of our old habits or the way we used to cook things – but like with gardening, they were steps along the path which is taking us forward.
  • It’s not a wise, overreaching philosophy for life like some of the other posts above but I really enjoy Jono’s Real Men Sow updates each month, working out exactly how much money he’s saved by growing his own. That’s how I’m going to keep track of our output this year too.
  • And sticking with the super practical, I’m going to treat ManVsDebt‘s latest action list as a to-do list for the next few months. There is, obviously, an irony that some of my favourite recent blog posts have been all about action while I’ve been reading rather than acting today…

Have you read any good blog posts recently? Do share!

Read More

Bloomin’ lovely inspiration

Posted by on Thursday 24 March 2011 in meta | 8 comments

I’ve just been catching up with some blogs in my feed reader and read this wonderful (short) article on Simple Green Frugal by Notes from the Frugal Trenches.

Titled “Bloom where you’re planted”, FT explains she hears a lot of “if only”s (for example, “if only we had a bigger kitchen, we would make jam”) but she’s realised:

in almost any circumstance, you can choose to bloom where you are planted, or choose to stay underground. Listing all the reasons you can’t simplify, or make frugal, green choices, will never let you break through the barrier to a purposeful life.

A great sentiment, very nicely put – especially at this time of year when we’re thinking about stuff sprouting & blooming and starting anew.

By nature, I’m a pessimistic procrastinator but I’ve been trying optimism on for size recently – I’ve become the silver lining girl at drama (two weeks until the first performance and the prompt still has by far the biggest part…) and I’m trying to be a bit more go-getting too – getting on with stuff rather than leave it until the world is perfect and stars are aligned or whatever. I’m going to keep the “bloom where you’re planted” sentiment in mind next time I find myself saying “if only” or “I can’t do x“.

(Speaking of blooms, our across-the-road neighbours bought us a lovely Spring-flowers bouquet for keeping an eye on their house while they were away – tulips, narcissus & daffodils, hyacinth and two types of purple flowers I can’t identify. We have flowers in the house so rarely that we don’t actually own any vases any more: these are in an old nutella jar on the office window sill, with an old pickle jar holding the overflow daffodils on my desk. I’m enjoying the novelty of having them but glad it’s warm enough to have the office door open – those hyacinths are rather aromatic!)

Read More

Making frugality & saving into a game?

Posted by on Wednesday 8 December 2010 in frugal | 1 comment

I read this post the other day and thought it was an interesting idea.

It’s easy to stay focused and frugal when you have clear debts to pay off or when you’re saving something in particular, and it’s easy at the start when you can make huge changes to your outgoings by changing a few wasteful habits. But as time goes on, as those debts disappear/you met your immediate savings goal and it gets harder to cut back because you’re already as low as you can/are willing to go, it can get boring.

This post – Gaming the System: score points with your savings – suggests a couple of ways to make it into a bit of a game. I love the idea of getting the kids to reduce utility bills but worry about the situations when the reward is buying something…

As an avid strategy gamer though, it’s definitely something for me to think about.

Read More