If I read it right, your rent is not that much to start with. How big are your plots anyway?

I've got to pay $840 a year just to store my jetski. So stuff cost $$ nowadays.

No one likes to see their expenses increase. But as our world decomposes around us, things will get much worse than that. Here are some $$ tips for you.

For those of us not on Wall Street or running a big bank or HMO, there seems to be many trends chipping away at our very survival before the SHTF comes knocking at our door. So even if none of our SHTF scenarios come to fruition, living life itself can be a survival feat nowadays if your not rich. As such, there are many areas I have had to scale back in or completely cut from my budget.

When I travel with my trailer I boondock for free. Never pay for an RV park. Of course, if your in Key West, boondocking is tough. You can park at Walmart's, Cracker Barrel restaurants, motel parking lots, churches, casinos, shopping centers, RV dealers, etc.

Have not been to a barber in decades. I used to go to a beauty school, but they even raised their prices beyond my confront level. So I buzz my own hair...3, 2,1 guards.

I reuse floss 2 or 3 times and can reuse mouth wash once or twice if desperate. (Rinse mouth with water first to get the loose stuff our or brush teeth first.)

Paper towels all get a quick rinse and dry to be reused if not oily or too dirty.

Tons of money get wasted on paper products I used to grab 2 or 3 Kleenex at a time without even thinking bout it. Started to use old style handkerchiefs as I did when I was a kid to save on paper. Cut the use of Kleenex out about 95%.

Speaking of money, I cut out credit card interest 100%. The banks get money at 0% from the gov then loan it back to us for 25% to 30% on our credit cards...and what do we get on our investments...1/20th of 1%.

Do you need any further proof that the bankers / insurance companies / Wall Street are in control of our politicians? I have chuckle at the knuckleheads on the forums that rage about how Obama is a socialist. Yeah, he is a real socialist isn't he?

When bills come due they are deducted from my saving account. Saves on stamps, checks and time. Don't use checking account for auto deductions though, only savings account. The banks will rape you with overblown fees if you screw up. With saving accounts, I don't have to worry as much.

Water and utilities will only keep rising in our future. Military showers save on water too. Especially important in the summer during growing season as it eats up water.

http://usalandlord.stores.yahoo.net/shonsw.html

Dilution and extension help stretch dollars...

Soy sauce - 50% or more dilution with water. Tastes OK but started to do it to reduce the astronomical salt content. Careful though, it get moldy at room temps. so just dilute what you need.

Pancakes - WW pancake mix is very high priced. I dilute original Aunt Jemima with 40% WW flour and a little corn meal and rye flour. The leavening in the Aunt Jemima is enough 'as is' to work with the plain flour.

Again started to do it for sodium cut back, but great to add whole grains to it as well. I use an egg and part milk in the batter. Or can use just water, but like egg better. do not use oil, but probably would be better with oil.

Maple syrup - use 10% water in it

Grape juice - add 40% water for a lighter drink with less calories.

OJ - fresh squeezed I add 15% to 20% water and a table spoon of sugar if the oranges are tart. Careful with the store-bought OJ, it is loaded with chemicals.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300124712

Hand dish liquid soap I dilute 75% with water and it is still thick. I use it on sponges more than in sinks, so have not tested it except for sponge washing use. I also keep all the hand and bath soap pieces and recast into new soap bars.

Bleach used for mold cleaning around the house can be diluted 80% with water.Just takes a few seconds longer to blast the mold.

Been baking all my own bread since 1997. Grind some grains, although the wheat has shot up so high that it is close to the price of buying ground wheat at Walmart.

Also problems with getting some good grain nowadays. Bought 50 pounds of organic oat groats from Canada. Was dirty, had rock in it as well as mouse poop. And to top it off was rancid as hell. Before you buy in bulk, always test small batches and have a return policy that works for you.

Had similar problems with rice from India. Stunk of burlap and no amount of washing the rice would rid the odor.

I make all my own salad dressing, kraut and pickles. Make my own raw juices. (But I do this cause of quality and not out of frugality. Store-bought crap is cooked and may have questionable origins.)

Two interesting sites...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q

http://www.backyardfoodproduction.com/dvd

I cut out all magazines and newspapers. I get what I need from the library. Cut my cable when it got to $70 a month. got tired of them raising it every year like clockwork, so cut the bastards out. No Blockbuster, cut them out, I get tons of DVD's for free from the library.

Never go to the movies. I like yoga, inline skating, longboarding, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, scuba, snow sports, mountain boarding, tree climbing, weight training.

If the Net gets too expensive I'll go back to using the library for free.

Make my own yogurt. Make 4 quarts for $2 and some electric to keep them warm for 8 hours. Switched over to organic milk and it cost more, but still a lot less than buying organic yogurt.

Make my jam, cost a few cents a jar if you got the jars and make high pectin jams that don't require store bought pectin.

I refill my own #1 propane cylinders from a large bulk tanks. Buy my bulk propane at a co-op, cost $12.50 per 20 pounds.

We heat with gas and keep the thermostat set at 62 at night and keep the heat OFF during the day. If it is in the single digits or teens outside, the house gets down into the high 40's or low 50's in daytime. I usually turn on the heat around 9 PM and shut it down at 8 or 9 am.

Although if house gets below 50, wife makes me turn up the heat to 52 or so since the house wont heat back up until after midnight if it below 50 at 9 PM Monthly bill for this type of schedule in mid $250's in the coldest months.

I also supplement my garden with foraging. There are lots of fruit trees in my local and some of em are abandoned or neglected so I make good use of their produce. So if your local is conducive to foraging, study it up and have many options for food production available to you if the world starts decomposing around you.

Keepitlow, good tips. Check out the Frugal forum for more ideas.

John, good luck, sound like your council is more reasonable than the others that wanted exorbitant increases. Those councils probably wanted to drive out the gardeners and sell the land for market rate to developers. Your council sounds like it just wants to pay employees. Those employees may have to have their hours cut or lose their jobs to volunteer labor to keep fees low for the gardeners. Maybe the grass on the paths should be paved or graveled over to eliminate those maintenance fees.

Is it 25 pounds per month or per year?

Are there government grants you can apply for to help with the running of allotments?

John ... I wonder if the increase in food prices can factor into your arguments? The people getting squeezed from both sides at once.

Also, don't know the details of what drives the maintenance costs for your allotment area, but might some of these costs be reduced by allotment members taking on some of the chores?

I note that England is doing a lot of cutting back ... same here ... our city [San Diego county] has cut $millions from budget, with $millions more to cut, or go bankrupt. Ditto for our state [California] local cities and counties are raising recreation fees, closing libraries and swim pools, laying off police, and giving non-paid days off to employees. In short, the depression/recession is felt here, too.

I wish you well, with your attempt to keep your fees at current levels. But wonder if the harsh economic times might force your city/county to raise fees. Perhaps the best you can hope for is to keep the increase lower. But breaking down the true costs and looking for places to save money seems the best bet. And of course, public pressure on the commisioners. Are local newspapers sympathetic to your cause? Maybe a series of articles about the benefits from allotment gardening ... personal stories of members whose lives have been improved. I always dislike those 'hearts and flowers' sob-story type of articles, when they are used for an issue that I oppose [around here, that is illegal in-migration], but they seem to work in getting public sentiment on your side.

BTW ... very interesting blog ... and user friendly, too!

Here is a link that might be useful: Food prices soar

If that's 25 pounds ($40) per year I would consider it a great bargain and not complain, but I'm assuming that's a monthly fee. The article says that it has gone up 20% in *each* of the last five years. I would expect that trend to continue unabated if not challenged. Is it possible for the allotment owners to do the necessary maintenance themselves? It doesn't seem like much.
I wonder what these "staff costs" are. They appear to be separate from maintenance and are the lion's share of the costs. It wouldn't surprise me if that money had little or nothing to do with the allotments.

Are property taxes and insurance fees required for the land? Is the land paid for? The linked article mentions "recent capital investments" was the land re-mortgaged?

Can allotments apply for tax exempt status on the grounds that they benefit society? If grants are not available, can appeals for donations be made? Can difficult council members be voted out? Is there widespread public support for the lottie gardeners? Is this a fairly affluent neighborhood?

The rent increase presumably is one of the ripple effects of the British austerity measures recently enacted. Not surprising.

I can't imagine how to change the mind of that man and the ideology that is in power now, so I'd simply use the little old lady argument and her small pension isn't enough and she grows her own food for her and her cats (awwww, pwecious!!!) and go from there. I can't imagine there's much wiggle room over there right now and folks are going to suck it up one way or another.

We're (America) right behind you and about 2016 or so will be doing much of the same unless sanity prevails.

Dan

Not to get all political, but almost every economic projection shows a US recovery by 2014...oddly, helped by that "bailout" mess.

Now...how that projects to US jobs vs. the health of the financial markets (which may be US owned/traded, but operating in a world market)...who knows...

Remember, that same set of folks making those projections failed to warn 95% of society of the coming bubble so most of them are not to be trusted. Dr Doom being one exception, IMHO.

Nonetheless, I suspect the OP is not the only one in this boat and several of those over there are undergoing similar. I suggest a wider communication net and also letting us know what tactic you used and how it went.

Dan

Keepit, you're a dude after my own heart!

I do most of those things, plus some others.

The price of everything keeps going up.

My "allotment" rent just went up $1500 a year. That's the increase in the property taxes I pay for the land I grow my fruit trees on.

Britain is on a severe austerity program. Governments are scrambling to find revenue anywhere they can. Looks like the local government has decided they can no longer subsidize the garden plots.

Happyday, there is no reason for the council to raise prices so they can drive out the gardeners and sell for high prices. The land belongs to the council and if they want to sell it, they will simply give everyone notice that the program has been discontinued, and they will sell the land. They don't need permission because it belongs to them in the first place.

About all you can do is to get public support behind you. If the taxpayers are tired of subsidizing you, that is not going to be easy. But there are many benefits to the gardens, so you could try to get the press to write a nice piece about you and maybe get some public support.

Wow keepitlow, I have been scraping by and reducing spending more and more as my income decreases and expenses increase. I think its time I really started getting serious about it though. Thanks for the tips and links.

keepitlow I bookmarked your post. A lot of good ideas there. I too need to keep cost at a minimum. Fixed income and health problems so I can not return to work. It is OK I do not mind I make a kind of game out of it. I eat well but cheap. Think Plebe, Vulgar, Commoner, Serf. ;)

Curt

Hey, keepitlow,

I started reading your tips and immediately copied and pasted into a document so I could save them for posterity.

Was reading with relish until I got to your temp setpoints and the amount that you spend on gas for heat...

There's something not optimized or extremely different between our relative situations. We got a high-efficiency two-stage Trane a few years back when we found that the last owner had vented the wood stove and the gas furnace into the same flue. Last year we didn't run the wood stove hardly at all over another issue with the installation, and kept the furnace set at 68 during the day and 57 overnight. We have a fair amount of south-facing glass, all triple-pane windows, and average insulation. We only attempt to keep about 1000 sq. ft. of the house (living, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom) at these temps. Our max gas bill in the past two years has been $100.69, and that includes the base charge and our hot water. That month we used 105 therms. Nine months out the year our gas bill is less than $30.

In zone 6 a $250 heating bill shocks me. There ought to be some way that you and your wife can cut that bill while enjoying some more thermal comfort!

John - I think that the responses you are getting from US readers highlight just what a fantastic bargain our allotment system is. My ANNUAL rent is £36.30 (just under $59) for a city centre allotment of about 725sq feet 10 minutes from home on foot and right beside a beautiful park. That includes unlimited water and maintenance of the boundary grass. We cut the grass paths between each plot ouselves. The council dumps leaves in autumn of which we can take as many as we want. There are no additional costs such as tax or insurance. There are 50% reductions for students,people on benefits and pensioners. There is a 2+ year waiting list for a plot.

I'm assuming your £25 rent is also per annum and, not surprisingly, our US readers can hardly believe how cheap that is. Personally, I think your council is trying to budget as best it can. If you have to choose between elderly care, education, rubbish collection or allotments where would you make the savings? Can you really not manage to find 10 quid a year extra to carry on with your allotment?

Local authorities are required by law to provide allotments in the same way they must collect our rubbish - they don't do it out of kindness. Regarding the sale of allotment land, sometimes this is possible if the allotments are not owned by local authorities. However, if they are, they are protected by statute and Allotment holders must be offered alternative plots if the allotment land is developed.

Flora,

With a city centre allotment, do you have any trouble with theft or vandalism?

Jim

Wow. Here in Wisconsin you just need to own 10 acres of woods and your property taxes are almost nothing. My family owns around 60 acres and most of it (minus the fields) are in forest management (basically the government tells you when you can harvest the wood). Its basically a huge welfare program for landowners (think CRP)... On that 60 acres i think they may pay $200 a year..if that. If they would actually sell their crops (12 acres of fields) they would be making money every year (they plant corn/soybeans and leave it for the deer!!!).

Most large landowners these days are very wealthy, so no wonder there are programs like this.

I will say that if you build a structure on the land, then your property taxes will jump. A friend who has a small cabin on 40 acres pays over $1000/year.

jimster - I've had my plot for about 19 years now and have had 1 theft of a fork which I left leaning against my compost heap. I've never had theft or vandalism of the vegetables themselves. I think other urban sites have more trouble but we are lucky because although we are in town it is a quiet leafy neighbourhood.

I pay ten bucks a year for an acre of public land which comes with nothing, no water, no leaves, no mowing. But it's wicked cheap in a county where 1/4 lots go for 400k.

For those who asked about if cost was per year, flora uk has given a good summary... and the current £25 I pay is per year. I'm getting a general feeling that it's a bargain, which it is. But not all allotment holders will find it easy to pay the extra £10 when they're on a pension... and the fear is this is the start of a trend. I'm hoping we'll be able to get the council to link future increase to an external factor like inflation so we don't get big hikes.

Appreciate all the fantastic advice! Thank you. John

Here is a link that might be useful: An English Allotment Garden

Our town is supposedly starting some allotments, which will supposedly have water. I think they will be free, or nearly so, but last I saw them they were still trying to get people to clear the trees for firewood. Where they are is fairly poor soil, too.

If I could get a plot with good soil and water for 25 pounds a year I'd be happy.

To be honest, Johnmac, it is a good price. My guess is that people will pay, because they are producing hundreds of pounds of vegetables out of that plot. Surely it comes down to nutrition per pound...

That sounds very cheap. I would not complain at that cost. I think that is like $50 USD.

I want most of my yard rezoned Agriculture. Here the tax rate is much lower on that type of land.

I pay $2400/year for 1/4 lot (and house), but i can bike to almost all the stores, live near a bus route, airport isn't far from here, river, bars...all the good stuff.

I want most of my yard rezoned Agriculture.

99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999725% of jurisdictions in USA do not split zoning on residential parcels under, say, 10 ac.

Dan

Window insulation for cheapskates: get some sheets of Rmax insulation from Home Depot. 1" thickness works well. It needs to have the aluminum foil on both sides. Cut them to fit snugly into your window frames on the inside of the house. They need to be snug enough to stop most air flow. I guess you could use them on the outside too, if your frames are shaped right to hold them. Make sure the side with the printing on it is facing inside, so it doesn't look ugly from the outside. To conceal the insulation on the inside of the house, use curtains, blinds, etc.

I had a room with two double doors to the outside. It was freezing cold in the winter, even with the heat on. With the Rmax installed, it's cozy warm, and uses very little heat.

You need the foil on the outside surface to keep the sunlight away from the plastic foam. You need the foil on the inside surface to act as a vapor barrier.

I keep the Rmax in over the summer on the south side. It keeps the house a lot cooler.

I'm single, so I get to do stuff like this. I don't guarantee it will pass the wife test. For a better-looking window covering, look at the Comfortrack system (see link). The cellular shade gives good insulation, and the plastic strips stop air flow. I have two windows with this, and it's excellent. But it's a couple of hundred bucks per window.

Here is a link that might be useful: Comfortrack system

remax is polyicosanurate foam, very toxic if it makes dust, which it does in the cutting. I always cut it with a razor knife to reduce the dust. Also very flammable, should never be exposed in a house, like any insulation should be covered with drywall or at least curtains or something to reduce the possibility of catching aflame if there were a fire near to it.