From the category archives:

Shopping

Bag a book bargain

September 8, 2009

Rosie Boycott’s “Our Farm” can be yours for just £2.99, rather than the advertised £15.99.

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Halfords to target frugal cyclists

November 21, 2008

Cycling is on the up, and one of Britain’s biggest retail park retailers is cashing in by opening up a chain of bike-focused stores.

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Frugal Christmas

November 15, 2008

Hot on the heels of this week’s posting about the hampers we’re making for our neighbours this Christmas, the Telegraph notes that ‘sewing machines, buttons and craft equipment are flying off the shelves as consumers start preparing a make-do-and-mend Christmas’.

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Why self-sufficiency matters

August 4, 2008

As inflation takes a hold, there are better reasons than ever to move towards self-sufficiency.

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Tescopoly by Andrew Simms: review

March 4, 2008

There are many reasons to become self-sufficient. For some it’s the simple enjoyment of standing on your own two feet, while for others it’s a desire not to be beholden to the whims and manipulation of the big-chain supermarkets. Andrew Simm’s book is a good argument for the latter.

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Grow your own cauliflowers

January 31, 2008

Cauliflower isn’t the guaranteed cash crop it once was, and so its continued propagation – in the UK at least – is in doubt. That will likely push up prices next year as we face a shortage, making growing at home a financially sensible proposition.

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The Butt Butt water butt

January 19, 2008

It’s weeks like this when you wish you had more than one water butt. Rain, rain and more rain, with only a slight respite on Monday. If you could somehow catch it all you’d be watering for free until June. I’ve got one butt at the back of the outhouse, and I have another one [...]

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Five online ethical eco superstores

January 18, 2008

The saying ‘it’s not easy being green’ no longer rings true. The options for buying cleaner, more ethical, lower carbon products are growing by the day. So much so, in fact, that there are almost too many options. Here is Blagger’s pick of the top five online ethical or eco superstores. Nigel’s Eco Store is [...]

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Chicken Out campaign

January 12, 2008

The UK is going contented-chicken crazy right now. For three nights this week, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall took over prime-time Channel 4 to show how cruel so-called ‘standard’ chicken farming is, in Hugh’s Chicken Run. It made for uncomfortable viewing, not because he crammed 2,500 chicken so densely into a barn that they had no room to [...]

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Unusual Online Seed Stores

January 4, 2008

For this week’s Five Friday Favourites, we’re continuing the theme of planning for the food growing year ahead by picking five of the UK’s less common online seed outlets, whose catalogues may have passed you by. Chiltern Seeds (actually based in Cumbria) sells over 4,500 varieties of rare or old seeds, covering both flowers and [...]

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