Frugal Living Part 2.

Well, I didnt have time yesterday to expand much on what we've been doing, although while Ive been thinking about this post, I do wonder if Frugal Living is really the correct term to describe our lifestyle, but putting a label on it isnt easy, that horrible term 'downsizing' is almost there, as is... hehehe 'back to basics' but we are really back to basics in the true meaning of the term..
Its a sort of pared down, cut out style, and thats not the bad thing it sounds.
We've tried to cut out all the rubbish from our lives, and I mean all kinds of rubbish and not just the kind that goes into a bin bag... although we have done that too...
Firstly, my aim is to cut our production of rubbish to a minimum... to me thats a bagful over around 3 weeks.. any more is not acceptable, we are working hard on recycling, at the moment we recycle, all our plastic, glass although we dont have to bother with much as any jars we do get are reused for preserves, storage etc, I use any excess and unrefusable plastic bags etc for stuffing draft excluders for the doors. All our horrible tetra pak milk things go to recycling, any paper and organic matter either gets burnt and put on our land or goes on the main compost heap for returning to the land later..
All our woodash goes on the land for valuable potash too. Any leftovers  of food I dont make soup with or serve up in someway the next day is fed to the dogs.
We have cut out on as many chemicals and preservatives etc in our food as possible, we eat as little from tins or packets as we can, and try to reply on homegrown, home cooked fresh food. Yes it takes longer, there isnt much 'fast food' in our house, but again, its removing  'rubbish ' from our lives... We dont get all crazy about it, it doesnt stop me buying a tub of ice cream... or eating a bought cake... our life isnt about deprivation, just healthy, good food, with as little amount of proccesing as we can...
I have to buy cheap flour, as we cannot afford the extortionate cost of stoneground here , so I add flax seed, oats and seseme seed to the mix when I bake our bread, and its lovely... and cost pennies...
We always have to balance buying cheap with good... and you can get cheap and add little extras to make it more nutritious...

We still do not have electrical gadgets, just a freezer, a few low energy bulbs, my hand wizzer, and my washing machine (I mean ... its not the dark ages!) the washing machine is rarely used on any cycle that goes above 30 º and I generally keep it to one load a week.. we do have a TV, a tiny portable one given to us free from a friend,  but the Tv is just for watching the odd DVD in winter time, we get them free from the libary, its not switched on from one month to the next, we can really not get a picture most of the time on the one channel we get. So just dont bother.
We enjoy social meals, talking and joking over our food... we play cards, scrabble, and now Trivial pursuit sometimes, so we dont get bored...

We spend time with our Portuguese neighbours and a select few ex pat friends, but we certainly dont socialise with ex pats much, we didnt come to Portugal to spend our life like that...
we are very self reliant, we enjoy each others company, and our dogs, our land and peace and quiet... hehehe that sounds so bloody boring doesnt it... but for us, its perfect...