How to be Super-Thrifty

I just read Kath Kelly's book 'How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day'. Mainly because I was curious to find out just what was allowed to be included in the £1, as I'd heard about it on the radio, and couldn't believe that this was possible. The book turned out to be an entertaining and informative read.

The feat - which started as a bit of a dare - seems to have taken place a couple of years ago, so perhaps Ms Kelly managed to avoid some of the food price rises. Rent wasn't included in the £1, but everything else was.... although some of the survival tactics were a little cheeky, like pinching newspapers out of other people's recycling boxes when they were left out on bin-day, to get the coupons to collect tokens for freebies. Other strategies, such as buying reduced price items in the supermarket and picking wild food were rather more familiar.

The author managed not only to survive - AND put on weight - but also to get in a couple of trips away without cheating, which was all very impressive on such a tiny budget. Internet sites that are of use to anyone wishing to live a more frugal - and green - lifestyle are listed at the back of the book, and include Freecycle, organic farm volunteering, and car-sharing sites.

The only snag is that the book itself has a hefty £6.99 price tag..... this seemed to jar with the spirit of the book - so I borrowed it from the local library for just a 25p reservation fee. Ms Kelly would be proud!

Frugal food from the sea

In If you go down to the sea today, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall introduces a wealth of food to be found for free on the beach, including leafy greens, seaweeds, herbs and shellfish. The article includes top tips and inspiring recipes from John Wright, and concludes with six tips for safe eating!

Wild Food

Wild food - the kind you have to forage for yourself in the countryside - has seen a resurgence of interest of late, I'm told. Perhaps the likes of Fergus Drennan (that man who cooks roadkill), the popularity of SAS Survival manuals, and Ray Mears, have something to do with it.

I've been doing some foraging of my own . No roadkill, just in case you were worried for a moment. I blame my Granny - she took us mushroom picking as children, and grew most of her own fruit and veg, which we picked and helped her make into jam in the long summer holidays. And then there has been my growing dissatisfaction with the supermarkets that are geared so much towards getting maximum profit for minimum quality produce, and their preference for selling prepackaged foods over whole veg... and the limited availability of cheaper products. And then the sudden food inflation on top of all that.

I've quickly realised there are certain benefits to wild food that didn't cross my mind as a child, when squeezing behind raspberry bushes to get at the best fruit. So here they are - in no particular order:

- Fresh air and a bit of exercise (it makes a nice early evening walk going berry hunting or mushrooming)

- You can't really watch Telly when you're busy in the kitchen

- You start to appreciate food more and don't waste so much when you've put effort into collecting it yourself

- You learn about plants & their uses

- Less food miles - the food itself hasn't gone very far, and you probably haven't needed as many trips to the shops

- Tastier food - I've discovered some new flavours and realised that my home-made jam is much nicer than what you can get in a supermarket

- A more varied diet - ever seen elderberries or stinging nettles in Tescos, anyone?

- A sense of history - not that long ago, this activity was 'normal' (at least some readers of this article will think I've gone off my rocker) and people were much more directly reliant on the land and what was seasonal.

The main downside is the amount of time it can take - that, and the fact that you start somewhat obsessively looking about you for the food in the nearest hedge.