Homebird Living: the 2022 Farm edition

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As a true Homebird, being frugal is something I try and do daily. I don’t go overboard and make my own cleaning products or only forage for food, but I do what I reasonably can with what my lifestyle allows.

As a bit of background, I’m 27 years old, work full time, with two horses, a terrier, a very busy farming/haulage driving boyfriend and we are currently 7 months pregnant. We also have a farmhouse renovation project we are funding as well as saving for our baby and everything else life throws at you! So frugality comes in handy with our lifestyle.

First things first, our animals never go without anything. The dog needs hypoallergenic food as without it she gets super itchy. The horses will get hay, feed, farriery, vets visits whenever required and our herd of cows are being fed a lot more than usual this time of year due to the dry weather (*does a quick rain dance*).

Yet, even with our animals taking priority, there are simple things I try and do to save us money. As well as certain things I’m going to start doing which could also help.

1. Cooking – such an overarching subheading as there is literally SO much that can go into this category but I will give summarising it a go. Also, I have previously written an article for the Ladies Countryside Community about saving money on food shopping – click the link here to have a read: https://ladiescountrysidecommunity.com/blogs/food-glorious-food

Convenience is a great thing and supporting local is important to us so we try and do this where possible. I have put in place a milk delivery which comes on a Saturday and Tuesday and we have 6 pints of milk, 1 pint of orange juice and a loaf of sliced bread. It’s just super handy to have this in place as we would forever run out of milk or bread and not realise until one of us goes to make some cereal. So always having fresh delivered is fantastic and it also supports a local farmer! Before I was pregnant we also got eggs delivered weekly but as I have to have red lion stamped eggs currently, we stopped this. We have tweaked this order over time to figure out how much we needed and because of this, we never have any wastage so no money going down the drain.

I may reduce the bread to once every two weeks as it does keep well in the fridge and I really fancy making my own bread. I’ve done some experiments and I’ve found a super easy mix from Tesco which is £1 a bag and really doesn’t need much intervention from me! I also have the chance of borrowing a bread maker from the in-laws so may give this a go to see how easy it is. We absolutely LOVE fresh bread and butter in our house so I think this would be a treat for us daily and would perhaps also save us a couple of pounds here and there.

Also, if people gift you food find a way to use it as part of your meals. For example, at the moment my grandparents and in laws have had a much more successful gardening year than I have (I’m blaming pregnancy and heat!) so they are constantly gifting me the extras they don’t need. We get cucumbers, tomatoes, jams, chutneys and lots of fresh fruit so I’ve started freezing what I can and storing using the rest up in meals. Yes, it takes a little more time but actually you can really tell the difference between homegrown and shop bought produce. My favourite thing at the minute is to use old takeaway tubs to freeze washed tomatoes along with herbs, salt, pepper and also garlic. When you then defrost these they become mushy and you automatically have yourself a base for a pasta or curry! We also have an absolute glut of cooking apples from this huge apple tree in our garden so I have washed, chopped and frozen as many as I can in our freezer to use for crumbles and pies over winter.

Homegrown – as I said above, my garden really hasn’t done too well this year. I’ve had a few bits and bobs but nothing I could say ‘this has saved me so much money’ so I will try again next year! However, we did have some of our pigs butchered into sausages, gammon joints, steaks and bacon so we have an abundance of meat to use. We are selling bits here and there and all money is going to FIL to go towards the costs of feeding/ butchering but actually, we now have so much meat to last us months, if not years! So these cuts of pork are featuring heavily in our meals at the moment, meaning we aren’t having to spend much money on meat. FIL also attends livestock markets weekly (part of our family business relies on being at these markets) and quite often he will come home with boxes of beef or lamb and give us some. So we always seem to have decent cuts of meat to use in the freezer which is handy.

2) Renovating – I think for me the biggest hurdle to overcome was actually just accepting help. For months I felt so guilty because my MIL would come down to our house and help/organise the renovation of certain rooms. Growing up, my own family only really got professionals in to decorate the house so I had no skills to bring to the table. Yet, she has taken her time with me and now I can confidently say I am happy painting, sanding, wallpapering, and also building furniture! It’s so nice to put your own stamp on your house – something I never appreciated before we moved to the farm and now I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also love up cycling old pieces into new ones so a lot of our renovation has only cost me time and no money. Just occasionally fuel money to collect the furniture that others don’t need.

Also, renovating a bit at a time has helped us save money and stress. We’ve done each room as we need it! So far we have done our bedroom, bathroom, snug, kitchen and dining room, downstairs WC and utility, nursery and spare room. We are now working on the extra toilet, extra spare room, hall, stairs, landing and living room with fire place. Doing it gradually has helped us save a lot of money and meant we could save up more money before starting the next room. This allowed us to keep saving into our emergency fund account and keep living normally rather than scrimping for pennies. Also, by doing what we can ourselves means we again are saving on paying for professionals.

3) Living below our means – working on my budgeting monthly has really helped to start saving more monthly to help towards our future costs. I’ve currently got savings for Christmas, the baby’s bank account, emergency funds, a small buffer in my current account and also my own personal savings. For a long time I would live pay check to pay check but I reevaluated how I spent my money and now I’m in a happier position! There is still lots to be done but I don’t feel stuck anymore. Dan has always been good with his money management so I’m glad it’s finally rubbed off on me! To help keep on track I use my notebook to update my savings and debt monthly and keep it somewhere accessible. I also review all my monthly costs and have recently switched horse insurance providers and have started claiming what expenses I can through work (business mileage and my eye test so far!).

If any of my other homebirds out there can give me any other tips or tricks to help with the modern frugal lifestyle I would very much like to hear them. I don’t have time to do endless surveys or have lots of things to sell on eBay so ideas that fit into my kind of lifestyle would be fantastic!

Frumpy to fabulous

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Over the last month I’ve been experimenting with ways to improve my lifestyle choices and in turn, lose weight.

For a long time I’ve been unhappy with how I look and haven’t felt confident. I would wear yard clothes, work uniform or baggy jumpers yet have lots of Summer dresses sat in my wardrobe gathering dust.

On the 21st June, I sought advice from my closest friend who had personal training experience and my new lifestyle began. Now I’m not going to exaggerate anything in this post. I want it to be an honest article to help NORMAL people lose weight in a NORMAL way around work and a social life. No fancy diets or magic here I’m afraid and you won’t be shifting 10lb in a week. These are steps I have taken to kickstart my frumpy to fabulous journey and I’m living proof they’re working.

So here we go. I’d love to hear your thoughts at the end!  

An open attitude

Honestly, the best thing to adopt before any kind of weight loss journey is an open attitude. If you’re stuck in your ways with food or exercise you need to accept that to lose weight you will have to make changes. I did and it was difficult but so far I don’t think I could go back to my lifestyle before. Having an open attitude and looking at the journey positively will help you progress; remember, the start of the journey is you at your heaviest so try to not get bogged down about your starting figure. Mine was my heaviest weight by far but 4 weeks in, I feel less frumpy and more energetic, even if I don’t look much different on the outside!

Spices

The more spice you throw on food, the tastier it is. The tastier it is the more you enjoy it. The more you enjoy it the less you feel like you’re dieting. This is how I’m looking at food now! I was stuck in a rut making the same dinners so to experiment with herbs and spices was one step towards making new meals. I headed straight to Aldi to stock up as they’re super cheap and have a wide variety of spices and flavourings, as well as fresh herbs and herb plants for your kitchen windowsill.

Portion sizes

Looking back, I think my worst enemy was always portion sizes. I was never one for weighing food and once the food was on my plate I wouldn’t like to leave it or “waste it”. I started off by weighing my cereal and it was so upsetting that my usual portion size was literally double the recommended serving. Another example was when I would make a recipe from a cookbook and weighed out pasta to use, again it was half the amount I would have pre-lifestyle change. Getting this under control was difficult the first couple of days but after that my body seemed to adjust.

Water intake

Following on nicely from the point above, I’d always have water with my meal. I’d been told that quite often when you’re stomach feels empty it is often due to dehydration and to take a big drink of water. Well, I’m now drinking approximately 3 litres of water a day and can just about curb the snack cravings!

Alcohol-free zone

One of the most difficult decisions was to give up alcohol whilst I was trying to lose weight. Now, I come from a family of alcohol appreciators and not having wine, prosecco, gin or cider in the house was considered a dire emergency. I also recently purchased a crate of wine of Laithwaites that I hadn’t quite finished, so I had to hide the last bottles at the back of the cupboard. Alcohol is empty calories and as my body only needed about 1600 calories a day to maintain weight, let alone lose any, I didn’t have ANY calories to spare. So, since the 21st June I have only drank water or tea but a positive is that my skin has cleared up nicely. However, I did break this rule for my birthday but didn’t go too crazy!

Balsamic vinegar

I never knew how delicious this stuff was until I started using it to cook with. Throwing it over a steak whilst it is cooking adds so much flavour or it’s great to jazz up a salad. Farm shops have some fantastic selections and I’ve currently got a balsamic and orange vinegar to try from the brand new Elliott’s Farm Shop near Weedon.

Low fat spreadable cheese

I’m a cheese lover and between Dan and I we used to go through 2 blocks a week. Not great for the waistline! However, low fat spreadable cheese is great on crackers or Ryvitas and I still feel like I’m getting my cheese ‘hit’. I also fell in love with Parmesan, an equally cheesy substitute that you don’t need much of for flavour.

The Body Coach’s cookbooks

I’ve had these books for a few years now but never really paid much attention to them until I decided to start my new healthier way of living. However, once I opened them and saw how easy the recipes were, I never looked back! I’ve had cookbooks before where you have to buy lots of hard-to-find ingredients that could be expensive. They also only included recipes that take a while to prepare – something I found tedious fitting in around work and sorting the horse. Yet, the Shift, Shape and Sustain cookbooks from Joe Wicks are SO easy. As explained above, I stocked up on spices and coconut oil and now adapt the recipes so both Dan and I will eat them (he is much fussier than I am). We’ve had steak, meatballs, paella, sausages, pasta dishes and all of them are made with a healthier lifestyle in mind. I often share my own attempts of these dishes on my Instagram stories and highlights so have a look for some dinner inspiration.

Low calorie ice cream!

I LOVE ice cream. I knew this was one thing I couldn’t give up so had to research (as in taste test) quite a lot of the low-calorie ice creams on offer. The protein ice creams I didn’t particularly like as the texture of them wasn’t quite the same as normal ice cream. However, the Moophoria range from Ben & Jerry’s and also the Graham’s Goodness range found in Aldi are both delicious! The tubs are between 300-500 calories each and each will last me 3-4 days. The salted caramel Grahams Goodness flavour is particularly delicious.

At the point of writing this blog I had lost 4.2kg in weight just from these changes. I endeavour to lose more and will be sharing the progress over on my Instagram feed. I’d love to hear your thoughts so either comment below, on my Instagram post of feel free to DM me.

Green fingers

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At the beginning of the year I wanted to start growing my own fruit and vegetables. I’ve grown up with grandparents who always used their garden space to help stock the kitchen. I remember going to their house where she’d let us eat the juicy red tomatoes she had just picked from her greenhouse. I didn’t like tomatoes then; now, 20 years later, I use them in every dish.

My mum also made an allotment space at the bottom of the garden. This would be full of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, beetroot and runner beans. There were also apple trees, plum trees and cherry trees, as well as potatoes, chilli’s and peppers growing in pots. We’d make apple crumble, potato salad, plum jam and then use the rest to bulk out meal ideas. I loved digging through the potato trough to find the tatties for tea and finding extra apples to feed my horse – usually when we had too many and they were starting to go over.

Since moving out last year with my partner Dan, our small patch of lawn (fenced in by rotting panels with weeds taking over the patio) just didn’t quite fill me with the same excitement. Our rental contract said we weren’t allowed to change the layout of the garden which meant growing things in pots. I’m not a seasoned gardener so wasn’t sure where to start. I remember walking round our local garden centre in early March with the intention of stocking up on pots, compost and seeds but left empty-handed.

I wasn’t put off though. I follow lots of gardening blogs so after consulting my Grandparents about what was best to grow, I purchased some deep troughs and a half-barrel trough ready to plant some potatoes, strawberries and leeks. This was a good start and I felt so accomplished. This led me to spiralling and buying more seeds…

Since then I have spoken to our landlord and they’ve agreed to let me change the use of an old sandpit that was built into the side of the garden into a raised bed. I want to use this for salad plants and carrots, both from seeds donated by my Mum. I also get to paint the fence and tidy up the plant beds in which I have planted some sunflower seedlings. I may also plant some lavender as I love the smell and colour.

I planted potatoes, runner beans, strawberries, leeks, onions and beetroot in various pots. I have also purchased grow-bags ready for tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies and melons – all plants donated by my Grandparents. I am excited to see how everything turns out and can’t wait to eat some of the produce I’ve grown for myself.