I'm a Chorley mum-of-4 but I only spend £300 a month and gave away most of my inheritance

Lancashire Post

Meet the super scrimper who refuses to spend a penny on anything non-essential, furnished her entire home for free and grows 85% of the food she eats - saving herself £600 a month.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Sharon and I'm a frugalist. I spend my life trying not to spend any money. I like to

00:12get things for free. The majority of the things in my house are free. I get free food and I have

00:17my own hens. I rent land, which means I also grow my own vegetables. You know, I also give away

00:24things. People give me things. I get called a penny pincher, you know. But I love it though. This is a

00:30great lifestyle and I always wanted to live the dream. The good life, as you put it. And I think

00:36it's great. Raising animals, looking after animals, growing your own, making my own, making my own bread.

00:43Just living as frugal as possible. Very, very little money spent. And I'd love other people to do the

00:50same, to be quite honest. I'd love to be able to teach people how to do it because it's a great

00:54way to live. Biggest freebies that I would say I got was the sofa. I got that for free. It was

00:59nearly new. Somebody was just moving house. I managed to strap that to the top of my dad's car

01:03and drive home with it, wobbly, all the way home. I managed to get myself a king-sized divan bed for

01:09free. Again, I had to take that bit by bit home. That was for somebody who was moving out the house.

01:13It was quite new. Everything else has either been from relatives or from friends or sitting on free

01:20sites. And sometimes I make things as well or repurpose things. I have three cars. Two of them

01:26were my dad's. One of them is kind of like free because there's no tax on it. It's tax-free,

01:31cheap to run, which allows me to go up to the farm and grow my own vegetables. It's just finding a way

01:37of just acquiring things cheaply, you know, either free or being given away. Clothes get handed down

01:44to me by my daughter or go to jumble sales. I just like the feeling of being able to get things for

01:50free. And, you know, it just gives me a good feeling that, you know, I've been able to do it.

01:55I have a flock of 14 hens. Obviously, that's free food straight away, isn't it? I make my own cakes.

02:02I try and make as much food as I can as well. I sell the eggs to my sonny, text me into work.

02:07My friends buy the eggs. Other people bought the eggs near the farm as well. So I use a lot of

02:12these free apps, giving away free things. This particular one's called Trash Nothing. It's

02:17absolutely great and it's all local things as well. So for example, something here, someone's

02:22looking for something like a, there's a box there for free. Just check out where it is and you just

02:27email the person and you could have it within the day. And it's also good if you want to get rid of

02:31things yourself as well. So you're not going to the tip. So that's a really good app called

02:36Trash Nothing. There's also the Olio app and I use this quite a lot. This is a food sharing

02:40app. So for example, you've got a list here of the local people. You see the food they're

02:45giving away today. They're giving away bread. They're giving away bakery items, onions.

02:50So basically click on what you want, onions, see who it is, send them a message to say you

02:57want it. Look at the area where it is. And there you go. Just go and pick it up.

03:01So you request this. They'll ask you to watch your video, watch the request. You watch the

03:08video. And once you've got your rewards, you just go and pick it up. I live with my son,

03:12but there's only me to feed. So I'm not a great big eater anyway, but what I do make

03:16is from fresh and nine times out of 10 with the things I've made from the Olio app. Now

03:21sometimes with the money I get from my son, I'll go down to the local spa and buy things

03:26for 30p than reduce sales because you'd be surprised what you can get from there. And

03:30I'm just trying to save as much money as I can. And, you know, the free items I've made,

03:35you know, I freeze them to make more things, make more meals somewhere down the line.

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