For some strange reason I thought once Autumn/Winter arrived I’d have time to sit back and take a well earned breather, I mean, plants don’t grow in the winter, do they?

How wrong could I be? It never occurred to me I could be growing vegetables in winter, I’d never heard of winter vegetable gardening! As far as I was concerned plants became dormant in winter, and that was the time I spent pouring over the numerous seed catalogs I had ordered. DOHH!

My winter vegetable crops; Kale, Cabbages, Carrots, Leeks, and Brussels sprouts are going strong, and are producing more than enough for our needs for the winter.

In the shed my mushrooms are growing full pelt, I have to dry more than half in order to save waste!

In the greenhouse I have honey dew melons, aubergines, prickly pears, peanuts and dragon fruit (I know, but I couldn’t resist the name, even though I’ve never tasted one in my life!). I have to make a confession here, any of the greenhouse plants I could be growing indoors (along with tons of others), on windowsills, but I love the look of my full greenhouse!

But it doesn’t stop there; there are plants I want to be planting now for cropping in the spring, like garlic, onions, cabbages. Then there are the plants which are beneficial to wildlife which I won’t be harvesting, like sweet peas and wallflowers, they attract the first pollinators of the year to a garden, (and because I’m a woman, make the allotment look pretty too!).

I have been totally stunned by how easy it has been to grow our own food. You listen to the gardeners on telly saying you have to plant at such and such time, the plants have to go in such and such place, and it all seems a bit like rocket science, but it really isn’t like that at all!

You put a plant in the ground, and nature does the rest. The plant wants to grow; it wants to produce the fruit we wait so eagerly for! Even if the conditions are not ideal for it, you will get something.

People have the misconception a winter vegetable garden will look ugly, but that is really not the case, even cabbages will bring a spot of green to an otherwise dormant city winter garden, and in the grey days of winter, a touch of green is always welcome. To walk past a garden and see the delicate fronds of carrots growing among the dormant flowers is really quite beautiful to see.

Yes it is a little more work than I had expected, but the benefits so out weigh effort, it is well and truly worth it.

Image source: Wikimedia

My posting on this blog has been awfully inconsistent in recent months and I have blamed this mostly on lack of time and being busy with the realities of life…. and that sadly is making enough cash to pay the rent!

Anyway I recently asked for some feedback from all my subscribers and had a great response. I also reached out for some help with writing so that I can make sure I bring more regular content and keep this blog alive.

Frugality is important to me and I believe is something that we can all benefit from.

I got some great replies to my call writing for help but one in particular seemed perfect and after a few short back and forth emails she will be publishing her first post here very soon.

So I welcome Susan and hope that she enjoys writing here enough to stick around.

I asked Susan to send me a little info about herself so that I could introduce her to everyone.

I’m 51, but act nearer my shoe size which is 5.  Live in a not so nice part of London, in a flat with no garden, with Hubby, Cat (KitKat) and hundreds of tropical fish.  I have been interested in living green/frugally since the ’70’s but have really taken it to heart in the last ten years since I fell ill with COPD.  I have also been battling with an underactive thyroid for the best part of 25 years, which doctors are still trying to work out!  I love crafts of all kinds, including, gardening, cooking, sewing, knitting, crochet, cross stitch, embroidery, lace making, parchent craft,  er do you want me to go on?  I got an allotment in April, which surprisingly has kept us in veg for the last four months, I say surprisingly as neither of us has ever had a garden, and the closest I have come are plants in the flat!  Hubby kills any plant he looks at, so apart from digging, he isn’t much use!  lol.  I think you may need to add that I am scatter brained, impulsive, and have about the weirdest sense of humour around, how hubby puts up with me I don’t know!  (I tell everyone our surname is Baldwin, he is bald and I win).

If you want to read a little of Susan’s stuff before hand she can also be found writing on her personal blog Musings of a Dragon.

As you can see she is rather funny. Quite different to me but with my wish to write a little more often here too I hope that the varied voices will help serve our readers in a much better fashion.

If anyone has anything they would like us to write about in the coming weeks please let us know.

1. By turning your thermostat down just one or two degrees will make a lot of difference. You will probably not even notice the adjustment, but this will help save you money and help the environment.

2. If you spend most of your time in one room for long periods of time and you have a gas or electric fire, why not use that to heat up the room you need. This will take less energy than a central heating system trying to heat up the whole house and the room will get warm really quickly.

3. Keep doors shut when you are trying to keep rooms warm. There is no point in having your central heating making your living room nice and toasty, while you stand chatting at your front door with your neighbour. Your heating system will be working extra hard to get rid of the cold, therefore costing you more money.

4. Use door runners to stop drafts creeping underneath. You can even make these yourself out of an old pair of tights stuffed with material from old clothes.

5. If you find there is a draft coming in through the side of one of your window panes, simply run some masking tape down it to block them out.

6. Wear extra clothes. If you are sitting in your house in a t shirt complaining that it is cold, it is so much more cost effective to simply put a jumper on rather than spending money on your heating.

7. Make sure your radiators are working to their full potential. You may need to bleed them to get the best out of them.

8. Remember to turn your heating off at night. You don’t need it on when you are asleep, so set the timer to come on about half an hour before you wake up and it will be lovely and warm.

9. Remember to switch it off when you go out. It is pointless in spending money on heating a house that no one is spending any time in. If you like your house to be warm when you get in simply set the timer again.

10. If you can afford it, have cavity wall insulation implemented in your property. There are many schemes that local councils run to cut the cost for home owners to help them with their energy bills. Walls that are insulated hold so much more heat in, reducing the amount of time you need your heating on.

11. For extra warmth without turning up your heating, why not light some large candles in the room you are spending time in. It is surprising how much heat they give off.

12. After you have finished cooking, leave  your oven door open. This lets a lot of heat out for a fair while after the oven has been switched off.

13. Insulate your loft. Insulation should be at least 8 to 10 inches thick in order for it to be efficient. This could cut your heating bill a great deal as heat rises, so you need to stop it escaping.

14. Try and stop yourself turning on the heating as soon as the first slightly cold day arrives. You will find that you get used to the extra warmth and will be switching it on every day. Try and wait until it gets really cold.

15. Double glazed windows are far more efficient at keeping out the cold rather than single glazed windows. If you can afford to double glaze your home, it is money well spent that will help to reduce your heating bill every year.

If you combine all these tips, you will soon notice that your house is warmer and your heating bills are lower. You can also know that you are doing your bit to help the environment as well as helping your wallet.

It’s great how they manage to write them in a way that you always have something to look forward to

Anyway I also like the toolbar from the makers of Zwinky that I have. It allows me to put smileys into my instant messengers, emails and wherever and now they have added the new Horoscope option Kazulah. Basically it allows me to get my horoscope for free every day…..

Mine today is:

Virgo

August 23 - September 22

You need to make sure that you’re not just trashing the big plan for the sake of picking nits. Unless you think something is headed for disaster, try to keep your comments as positive as possible.

…. I guess this means I have to be careful today… If only I knew what the big plan was!!

Download Kazulah now and let me know what you think.

So if you have been thinking about starting a blog of your own…. my advice is stop what you are doing and start right this second. You can blog about your interests or use it to help grow your business or make a little cash on the side. The possibilities are endless….. The other thing I would recommend is don’t start off on a free Google blog. They are ok but can become extremely limiting. If you start off using Wordpress (my favorite blogging platform) then you can make it work for you whatever level you are at. Wordpress is very flexible and will grow with your needs.

If you have no idea where and how to start then look no further…. I was speaking to a blogging friend of mine yesterday and he has a great new and free service for anyone who is looking to start a blog.

Kevin’s free blog setup is a simple service which I feel is certainly the easiest way to jump in. If you are wondering what the catch is…. there isn’t one. You simply choose your hosting plan (Kevin makes his cash through referral commission, that’s why he offers you a free service) and Kevin can help you with the rest.

So here is exactly what Free Instant Blog offers:

1. A free email consultation to establish exactly what it is that you want to accomplish with your blog.
2. A professional installation of the latest released version of Wordpress.
3. Basic server setup to include a professional yourname@youraddress.com email address.
4. Spam protection configuration to filter comment spam.
5. Basic Search Engine Optimization of wordpress install, including permalink restructuring.
6. Feedburner account creation and installation that allows tracking, promotion, customization, and possibly monetization of your RSS Feed.
7. Configuration of a robots.txt file to protect areas of your blog to prevent search engine spiders from crawling them.
8. Installation and configuration of 20 plugins  and 10 themes to choose from.

So if you want a blog you have nothing to lose. I speak to Kevin very regularily and he is a great guy, so I have no problems vouching for him and I can assure you I am NOT getting paid to write these good things.

Any questions, ask away…

Image Source: http://www.sharewareconnection.com/fireplace-3d-screensaver.htm

So this is the first article of the Fall here on Frugal Zeitgeist that looks to save a little cash on the heating bills.

One way in which many people are now cutting back on using gas or electricity to heat their homes is by going back to burning fuel. Many people have installed stoves or just renovated their old fireplaces. A modern stove or fireplace and low pollution fuel (that means no coal!) can keep your house warm and cozy for much less, especially if you use recycled paper as the fuel…..

Considering that the average family of four trashes up to 50lbs of paper each week (*1) and just one compressed newspaper can burn for an hour, we are wasting a lot of free fuel.

A small machine can be used to compress your waste newspaper or plain cardboard into low pollution highly efficient burning briquettes.

One machine involves wetting the paper and compressing it into a briquette and then drying for three months…. As it’s October already you probably don’t have three months to wait, so for those not thinking ahead a device that can compress dry paper into a more attractive log shape.

Here are a few of the log / brick making products available on Amazon:

Or alternatively eHow shows you how to roll recycled newspaper logs without special equipment:
Make Your Own Paper Logs

Let me know of your successes or failures with using recycled paper bricks / logs.

Sources:
(*1) http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/TrashGoesToSchool/Throw-Away.html

Original Content by: FrugalZeitgeist.com

This recipe is a little similar to my Quick Flat Bread recipe. If you are a bread lover, like me, I also suggest you check out my Wholemeal Raisin Bread recipe. All of these recipes are very frugal and I think pretty healthy.

….. And here is the recipe written down for you….

Makes approximate 10 large tortillas

Ingredients:

3 cups of Wholemeal Flour

1/2 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar

1/2 Tablespoon of Salt

1/2 Tablespoon of Turmeric

1 Tablespoon of Oil

1 1/2 Tablespoon of Good Quality Curry Powder

2/3 of a cup of Milk (I use 2%)

A little warm water

Spray oil for cooking

Method:

Put the Flour, Brown Sugar, Salt, Turmeric, Oil and Curry Powder into a large bowl and mix.

Add the milk and a little warm water to get a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough becomes a smooth elastic ball.

Let the dough site for at least 10 minutes before cooking.

Lightly flour the surface again, then use a rolling pin (or a glass snapple bottle like me ) to roll golf ball sized pieces of the dough into thin tortillas ready for cooking.

Heat a pan until it is very hot. As you can see in my video the pan is smoking.

Spray or brush a little oil onto the pan and then put a tortilla in. Spray or brush the top with a little oil and cook each torilla for 30-40 seconds on each side.

Ideally serve warm.

I store the dough in the fridge and often make fresh tortillas for my lunch. The dough can be stored in a sealed container for a week or so. Keep this dough at hand and you can always make fresh tortillas.

Please let me know how you get on with this recipe or if you create any variations.

So I thought there could be no better subject to talk about than Inexpensive Vacation Ideas, especially as I am still in the holiday mood.

I went on vacation to Vermont with my girlfriend and visited some of her friends and family. We climbed a mountain, went canoing and put on a lot of weight!

So here goes.

1. Stay Local

Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Metcalf_indian_summer_vermont.jpg

I live in Montreal but for my recent vacation I visited the beautiful state of Vermont. It’s only 2 hours away but feels like a world apart. Living in Quebec there also would have been plenty of great options here. With the rising price of gas and the knock on effect being rising flight prices it often pays to stay within reasonable driving distance…. You may just discover a slice of paradise that you can visit a little more often.

2. Visit Friends or Family

The older I get the more friends are spreading all over the place. This means more people to visit and less hotel bills. In Vermont we stayed with my Girlfriends family in a lovely house overlooking Burlington. It had a pool and beautiful sunsets…. Plus I felt at home and had no pressure.

Visiting friends also allows you to get quicker access to the good and bad things in an area. Locals know best! Hopefully I will be visiting New York and Boston, to stay with friends, before the year is out.

3. Eat and Drink Frugally

Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Barbeque.jpg

Food and Drink are always a big expense on my vacations. It’s great to go to restaurants and I definitely went to plenty of restaurants whilst I was away but it pays to save here and there.

I love having BBQ’s. I have a great memory of being in France with friends. We went to the supermarket and purchased a whole range of food and beer. Then we went to a small out of the way beach and made a fire to BBQ our food. We watched the tide come in, the sun go down and enjoyed our food and drinks late into the night. This was all done at a fraction of the cost of a restaurant meal.

You can also pack sandwiches if you are going to spend a day wandering around town or eat your restaurant meal during the lunch specials time rather than in the evening.

4. Go somewhere with festivals

Montreal in the summer is a great place to visit during the summer. It’s full of free festivals and at there is absolutely tons to do even on a small budget.

Most cities and some smaller towns have at least a few free festivals a year so it’s worth planning ahead and arriving during this period. You can get a hell of a lot of entertainment without emptying your wallet.

5. Go on a Road Trip with Budget Transport

If you want to see a lot of places and like to rough it a little then you can plan quite an adventurous trip on budget transport. If you look into it you can come across service like Luck Star that offer trips from Boston to New York for as little as $1 or Allo Stop that get’s you from Montreal to Quebec City for $15.

There is so much more you can do to stretch your wallet but keep the vacation a vacation as it should be. I find it’s nice to be frugal but not let it rule everything whilst you are trying to relax and rid the stresses of everyday life.

So if you happen to read this message, let me know what you are up to and if you have any frugal ideas or questions.

Be back soon…

Forest.

I’m sure many of you blog or have websites yourself… If you don’t I would always advise you to start blogging. It’s a great, addictive, way to spend some spare time and you get to network with some great people.

One of the ways in which webmasters and bloggers like me make a little pocket change is through affiliate marketing.

When you see a banner on my site it is likely that I will earn a dollar or so if you sign up to the featured product or site or buy something through my banner. This does not mean that I put any old banners up. I check the products first and make sure that they are things that will benefit my readers.

It’s simply a referral fee, nothing sinister.

Affiliate marketing can help your blog and earn you money. For example if you talk about a great valued camera you can add an affiliate link to the ebay page and earn a percentage of the sale of anyone who visits ebay and purchases the product.

So if you are interested in earning a little extra money then one of the best Affiliate Marketing companies, Pepperjam are offering a great, no strings incentive which allows you to earn $10 purely for signing up.

What’s so great about these Pepperjam fella’s and how to I get my $27+???

Pepperjam are relatively new but most of the companies they offer affiliate links for are highly respected and trusted.

They provide affiliate links for great companies such as Ebay, Playboy Store, BBC America, Ben Sherman, Cartoon Network shop, Fender, Jelly Belly, Sesame Street store and much much more.

This allows you to earn cash promoting products you genuinely like and believe in and that’s what makes Pepperjam great.

They also offer a great interface, an interesting blog and great customer support.

…. Now onto the FREE cash.

Pepperjam Offer $10 free to anyone who signs up through a special banner (see below) and has their blog accepted. Sadly I signed up before this offer but have privately referred a few friends and they all got this.

Pepperjam allows you to earn $10 for writing a post about them (This post will earn me $10) under their blogger incentive program. That’s a minimum of $10 but they actually allow you to post 5 times in a month!

If you refer a friend through your special sign up banner you earn $7… this is unlimited. $70 for 10 blogging friends! Awesome, the sky is the limit!

Then obviously you can earn by promoting various products. I set a realistic $27 FREE but as you can see their are people making full time incomes from this.

Let me know if you have any further questions…. If I refer anyone I am always open for support. I believe in Pepperjam and will always give you further help if needed.

Remember to get the benefit you have to sign up through a special banner, just like this