Extreme Frugality in France - We Can't Afford Heating.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มิ.ย. 2023
- We don't have central heating and can't afford it. What do we do instead?
Also we have a mini tour de France in our village this week. It was great.
Frugal Queen in France
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We are a British couple living in Brittany on a budget.
Frugal recipes, days out, home renovations and day to day making do in France.
We’ll give you hints, tips, advice and an insight into our life in France.
Website www.frugalqueeninfrance.com/
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Twitter / batt_jane
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![Maximalist forced to DECLUTTER bc she's moving!! [Beckys big move pt. 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XMcy7qJ9sAo/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi Jane! You and Mike are so smart to use the trees in your forest on and around your property. It is so important for a healthy forest to periodically thin it out by taking down the larger trees so the smaller, younger trees can thrive. You are helping your forest :) The radiant heat of the firewood is sooooooo nice!
I’m currently in winter in Australia. Haven’t had a heater all winter. Early to bec, two hot water bottles, four blankets plus a camp blanket/poncho. Wearing my dressing gown over PJs, singlet long sleeve top & double lined woollen beanie. No fire, heater. Up to the chooks as soon as the sun is warm enough. 2nd year of not turning on a heater. One hot water bottle on chest, one between the legs. Can’t wait until Spring. Go in the sun when possible.
Greetings from Costa Rica. All of us are in the same boat. Trying to live a frugal life as inflation is worldwide and it is difficult to save any money. Blessings and all the best.
Thanks for sharing!
There is a difference between having to do it and voluntarily doing it.
Better to be frugal voluntarily then to be forced to be frugal. So watch and learn while you have a choice.
@dorothylockwood4017 Learning to be frugal is a facade where I am from. its very much a social thing. Its great entertainment but when people apply it, they soon find out where there are in society. People treat you differently. Thats the descion a lot of people have to make here in the US. It does seem silly but just look at bud light. It is silly till your head gets chopped off.
I still have to smile at the whole thing about paper bags. I'm 60 and when we were young and people started using plastic it was because it was "better for the environment since it didn't cut down trees". My mom and dad would say, "But trees are renewable - you can grow more!" Now...45+ years later we are full circle back to what my parents have been saying all along - trees are a renewable resource. It is wonderful that you have your own woods!
Yep!
I remember this, I would have been about 5 and I can remember thinking this is going to go so wrong, I bet I see it and now in my 60’s I have. Very sad
My sentiments exactly...
It’s a lovely feeling when you light the first fire in winter and you can think, we did that 💪 photosynthesis is brilliant, totally sustainable and by managing your woodland you increase biodiversity, fab!
Couldn't agree more!
I think your wood management system is really good and people shouldn’t be critical. You need to use all that dead wood anyway and putting the remains back into compost is the right thing to do. Obviously hard work but you two look good on it! Thank you for the bike racing clip too. We are eagerly waiting for the Tour de France to watch on TV soon!
Thanks for watching
We are during the same as you - getting the fire stack replenished. Fortunately I do have a forest attached to the farm. However we also started a coppice 15 years ago which is a continual cycle of growing and cutting. Which is just as well as I couldn't afford heating oil for the past winter and stone built house need heat in the winter to maintain their integrity.
I loved watching the cyclists going through your area. Thank you.
We'd love a forest
Here in Poland people are getting their makeup bills as they tend to estimate your bills for 6 months at a time and then at the end of that time, they come and check the meters and you get a bill to make up the difference if you used more than you were billed for. For our church building, which is a house, we have about $3000 makeup bill for the gas and my friends have a $1500 for their electricity (we underpaid because the prognosis was too low as well as inflation making the prices go up!).
I understand using resources for your home. We had a wood burning fireplace in our home. We drove to the mountains and harvested blown down trees and cleaned up fire areas to help heat our home in Colorado. The childre helped, although not a favorite excursion
Such fun as we all look back. I am in my mid eighties and know what a challenge it would be today. Thankful for the memories.
Thanks very much for watching and commenting
I would remind everyone that old growth trees needs to be cut out of a forest to make room for younger green ones that require lots of sunlight. And also to prevent massive forest fires from a high canopy of old dead or dried trees. Wood ashes are a great soil enricher and, if dried properly, wood burns fairly clean.
Very true
You two are such hard workers! Thank you for showing us the bikers, that was cool!
Our pleasure!
If we don't clear the trees in our wooded land, which 30 acres is a lot to keep up with, if we were to have a fire, it would spread across it all. With no rain for 8 weeks, then 1/10th of an inch of rain 2 weeks ago, we are at a high fire risk. So clearance between trees, and cleaning up downed trees matters. Keep up the good work!! We also heat with wood and last year installed a gas wall heater(we got on clearance), for future needs. My husband is 67. He did the plumbing for the gas, the pipes cost more than the heater itself.
Thanks for sharing
Look what the forest fires are causing in Canada! The great climate change country without an adequate forestation program polluting the air! What a joke!
What a beautiful video Jane. We can technically afford heating, but just can't justify it with the prices going crazy. We love the crackling of the fire, and cosying up with blankets on the lounge, it's worth more than the money you save.
Thanks for watching
Brings such good memories of my late mom and late dad cutting and using the wood splitter when they lived on their farm. They always did it together. They enjoyed it. When they sold the farm they missed it. You both are extremely blessed to have all those trees for firewood. Blessings to you both❤️
I don't see you as frugal people. I think you're mindful and have a plentiful life. And it's a great thing. Good for you! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼💌💌💌
We can't afford central heating either. We have it installed but it's not hooked up right now. We joke that we have 2 seasons, Winter and Winter's coming.😂
Yep! Everyone except the billionaires will have nothing and go cold
love that you share the ‘behind the scene’ of real, honest country living! Personally I’d not want to live anywhere or anyway different! Susan
I totally agree!
Thanks for sharing parts of your beautiful woods/property. It’s a bit of paradise that you both have created.
Remember lugging back driftwood from a beach day. Felt great to be free.
Good times
Brilliant video! We live in West Kent and also have 2 wood burners. We always seem to know somebody who has had to fell a tree because of disease, so yours truly and hubby spend a lot of time liberating the wood. I bought a small amount last winter and it was rubbish! For kindling we look in skips for any pallets . We always ask though. We are proving that you can live frugally even in the middle of a large town! We done J&M!!
Thanks very much
No question but so enjoyed seeing the footage of the bike race. My dream is to someday see Le Tour de France in person! And Jane, that color( of your shirt) looks fantastic on you!
Living in Quebec, my husband and I were totally amazed to see a bike team from Quebec at your race. How cool was that.
Very cool
Great video, loved the mini Tour de France. I am freezing and dehydrating fruits for the winter, selling items we no longer use or need, finally got the husband on board. Best wishes.
Great that your husband is on board too
@@FrugalQueeninFrance It is a miracle, lol
How do you get your husband on board? While I obsess over saving pennies on my grocery bill my husband says tonight that he’s thinking of going to the rugby World Cup in Paris. WTF! We have so much debt and no savings, how do I get him to wake up?!
@@michalaharesnape5434 Hi Michala, sorry to hear that, do you have a written budget for absolutely everything. Do you sit down together and 'do' the budget every month? Do you have a visual on the wall of how much debt you have and how you're paying it down?
@@FrugalQueeninFrance we have a written budget, I stick to it. Then my husband blows it on a trip to Belgium, which we did recently, because his brother invited us to go. We’re just not on the same page and it’s driving me crazy, he doesn’t understand how much I obsess over budgeting and meal planning. I’m trying so hard to curb spending and pay off debt ( at a time when food prices are crazy). He just doesn’t get it.
We love wood heat. It feels warmer. This is the first house we’ve had without a wood stove, but at 75, it’s getting much harder.
Same for us husb is 73 and Im 62. Always had multiple heat sources. Wood stove...installed a pellet stove as a second source because of our age the wood cutting is getting a bit more difficult but we still do it and we have gas central heat which we try not to use
Heating/ power and fuel in Australia is seriously expensive. I do not have heating or an electric blanket, save the energy money for the summer months when it gets hot. At present the house temperature is about 13-14 cel. Wonderful to see you both preparing for the chilly winter.
Thanks for watching
really really enjoyed that video Jane and Mike . it reminds me of what harvest is and what make hay while the sun shines means..... a bit jealous about your woodburner, but live in the city...and laws keep changing.....i want to see mulled wine and xmas pies in front of fire on xmas eve video would be great....then i would be 100% jealous
Glad you enjoyed it
Must be amazing to have so much land! But also a lot of hard work, you certainly don’t have to go to the gym for a workout. Always love to see the beautiful area you live in.
Your so lucky to have the cycling race going past your home! That would be my ideal retirement. A beer and watching them go past :) Thanks for the video .
We are lucky enough to have a wood stove. It is a wonderful warm and pleasant heat. Our neighbor took down three trees last week and asked if we would come clean up the wood. Yes! We sure did. It is green so will be saved for next winter but planning ahead and doing the work now helps us be frugal. Thank you for your video and enjoyed seeing the bike race too.
Thanks very much
Thanks for the extra video Jane 🚲🚲 a real sign that summer is here! I’m on my second round of decluttering - I’m on to sorting out the stuff that I can sell and any extra money I make is going towards paying down my mortgage now we have all these crazy interest rates. Thanks again for all your great video content. Really helps keep me motivated to pay off my last bit of debt.
Thanks for watching
Well now I am close of my 70's ... but when I was younger I lived in Europe for 30 years ... 7 years in Switzerland and 23 years in France, mainly in Toulouse... I have sweet memories for the rest of my life.... I was born a North-American... so, the first years in Europe so I had to adapt to no central heating... strange way tho have hot water for washing dishes and shower.... humidity some mornings.... such a small fridge in the small kitchen, I had to out with my big black french market bag to the grocery almost every day.... .. I have moved back here in Montreal in the mid 90"s... but you know what... I would do it exactly the same again !!! My best to you both ... :-) Best regards from Montreal (Canada)
Thanks for sharing
You both lead a beautiful life style your home and garden is stunning you both work so hard together are you worried about when you become to old and unfit what happens then.❤❤❤no rudeness emptied...
No we're not worried. We'll deal with changes as they arise.
The old timers here used to say that wood heats three times as much as any other fuel. First, when you chop down the tree, secondly, when you cut it up and stack it and thirdly, when you actually make your fire!
It does
Hello Jane & Mike, always enjoy your videos, thank you. Just wanted to say Jane that you look lovely in that colour top 🙂
Oh thank you!
Hi Jane I'm in NZ and it's winter here. We are doing same with excess trees on our property here. Currently burning logs we cut up last year. Let's see if the net zero agenda tries to ban wood burners in the future.
As a seventy five year old widow living in the middle of forty wooded acres of oak and hickory, I use my light weight electric saw to cut up trees that are marked with an orange ribbon (dead). other trees marked but green are cut for the following years use. Being in the mid west (USA) I follow the weather temps for cutting and splitting.
Brilliant
Oops, I meant to put Down comforter!!
We just went to a bike race last week that was in our city for the first time. They decided to make it an annual event. Those racers really can go fast. What a great treat to watch them. We packed a picnic lunch and stayed for the day.
Hi Jane and Mike...so enjoyed your brilliant video, and was surprised that we have a similar set up regarding heating. Although we do have an oil fired boiler system...we only use it to heat the water for 2 hrs every day(1hr in the morning/1 hr in the evening) as we use our wood burner for heating the house during the winter. Yes I am lucky and live on a farm but our wood comes from all over the place...and always free :) We chop all summer and store ours in a polytunnel year round...the temperature gets up into the 90's+ during the summer and the wood is seasoned very quickly. The heat the wood burner generates actually boils a kettle for our tea in the winter and in power cuts we have managed to cook basic foods on it by candlelight. It heats our whole home beautifully every evening and all day if very cold, we do not put our boiler on at all as it's on a thermostat so never gets cold enough inside to switch on! We are very careful though and have our chimney swept by our chimneysweep at least twice a year as many years ago we had a chimney fire which was terrifying. Love following you both and have used many of your tips.....I do a budget every month and keep all receipts and menu plan...since i have done this i don't waste food like in the past...and leftovers are consumed or reworked into soups/casseroles etc to be 'new' foods. Although i love the summer...and our kitchen garden...i look forwards to Winter, snuggling up in front of the fire with a good book and a cuppa.
I have serious wood envy guys! Fab job!
Thanks for watching
I Love Heating Our house with Wood , It's warmer and a Constant Heat unlike Forced Air Heating which is only warm when Furnace is running , and as an added Bonus Drying my Clothes with the wood heat , Saving Money .
Thanks very much, we do the same
My family and I by chance were at the starting line of Ride London this year. The bikes rushed by so quickly! Crazy fast :)
Oh wow!
My husband and I love your videos; they are always something to look forward to during tough weeks. We are currently in the phase of working extra to pay off debts and eventually build our savings and it can be draining and frustrating sometimes. Is there a chance that you and Mike have posted or will post any motivational chats for those of us still in the grind and trying to reach the other side? We appreciate everything you do and wish you a lovely week!
th-cam.com/video/EreR8wU75Go/w-d-xo.html
I was recently visiting family in a suburban area, used to be farmland, now a blight of housing development. All the houses were huge. And all I think of is where are the small houses? Where can people buy a house that is compact but comfortable and energy efficient,nowhere people can afford the heating and still save money? I just shake my head and think of the waste of time, money, resources.
I love seeing snippets of the French lifestyle. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching
Lots of healthy exercise cutting and stacking wood. Live long and prosper!
Thanks very much
Wood warms you twice- when you chop it and when you burn it. I loved seeing the bike races! I have to say though, the guys on the motorcycles were cheating! 😂
Thanks very much
We have a propane heating system that has a wood furnace option. We live on 5 acres and cut the standing dead trees every year along with friends who don't want or can't use their trees. It's an extremely efficient heating and we love it.
Thanks for watching
That's a great workout, too! 😊
Thanks for showing the bicycle race, how exciting!
It's so cool
We heat exclusively with wood and we love it. The processing and preparation of our stacks are a good workout as an added benefit. The only thing I don't like is that it's my job to get on the roof and clean the flue. My husband does the chainsaw work and I do the splitting.
We are also splitting and storing our wood for winter. We collect fallen branches when we see them and chop up the small stuff for mulches. We also only heat with wood and live in a small cottage in a forest. A heat pump system is out of reach for us currently without going into debt. Small is Beautiful. Love your videos. 🌷🙏
It's called forest management! By taking out the dead and dying the young trees will grow, and you will be warm, and less to feed potential forest fires.
Exactly, we also coppice our own hazel and willow
It's great that you are prepared and have plenty of wood for your winter.
Yes, thank you
My sister who lives in Amsterdam this past winter told me that the cost of heating their townhouse was so expensive they had to keep the temperature between 11-13 degrees Celsius. I live in Canada and that is too cold for us in the winter but our energy costs are not as high.
Thanks for sharing!
Your energy is amazing. Well done Jane and Mike. Liked the cycling also.
Thanks so much! 😊
I've got quite a different life here in California than the one you and your family have, but my memories from childhood are quite similar. These included life at the Lakes in Minnesota with my Grandparents, and it was a more frugal, earthy and natural lifestyle that I now long for. We've had drought here in California for several years and the risk of fires on parched earth is high. People think twice about fireplaces (etc). However I love your home and land and especially how you improve and care for them. Thank you so much for a glimpse into your world and lifestyle.
Thanks for including the little clips from the bike race, that was so neat!! It would have been an exciting few seconds/minutes to watch them go by 😀.
It looks like you had a fabulous week!
Wow! You have your work “cut” out for you in the wood cutting department 😅! I love that you two find ways to use the natural resources around you, and then you replenish. If only all of us took such care of our earth! That is so cool that you are able to see the cyclists twice!! P.S. Your garden is looking lush and lovely 👌🏻
Thanks so much!
Enjoy all your videos!
Love watching cycling! You are lucky to see them in person 👍
Good wood management..we do the same. Ages 73 and 62
Love the beautiful race video, how fun!!
How exciting to see all of the bikes. 🚲🚲🚲🚲
I love the sound of the chainsaw. My father worked as a logger back in the early 1950's, and we lived in the middle of a forest as well. For thirty years, we had only wood heat, like you...two wood heaters in the house. On top of that, we had a wood heater in the chicken house (-40 at times, they appreciated that), and another in the little building that housed our well. We went through lots of firewood too. For the last 14 years, we've lived in a smaller house, slightly warmer climate, and thankfully on the coldest days we burn two milk crates of firewood. Each crate is one foot high, wide and deep. In the last few years, I would turn on an electric heater for about an hour while I made the fire. It took the chill off in this damp climate that really affected my arthritis. It raised the price of our electric bill by about fourty euros for a year, quite reasonable.
I enjoyed your video! Beautiful property. My favorite part was the doggie at the end! So precious!
I love watching your videos! We heat with wood. My husband tries to cut wood in the early spring instead of in the summer. It isn't always possible, of course. His wood-splitter is gas-powered and outside, so he prefers the cooler weather to work in. He also says that the wood splits easier when it is cold out. I'm not criticizing your schedule - just sharing what my husband has found works best for him.
That is awesome!
Lovely footage as always.Thank you!
Thanks very much
Thanks yor answering my question. Now we know how to cure indoor firewood!
Thanks for consistently posting videos. I like hearing about your frugal life. Would you consider showing your viewers what you harvest from your garden?
In good time
Thanks Jane and Mike, great video. Love that pink top on you looks fab xx
Love the video. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Saw you chopping kindling Jane, it's one of my favorite jobs, very therapeutic I think. I love filling my kindling baskets ready for winter
I love doing it too
I appreciate you both. You work hard to live a retired frugal lifestyle. I learn a lot from you. Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
Loved this latest video, Jane and Mike! Race was super fun to watch!! You both inspire me to keep on examining the many areas of my life I want to be more wise and intentional about. Merci!
Thanks very much
Another fun video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
You have a very lovely setting (yard). I really admire you and your husband. I try to be frugal but not always successful
Thank you so much!
I supplement my wood with coal. It's so therapeutic preparing the wood for use in several winters time.
I am preparing and drying herbs!
Wonderful video you two!
Thanks so much!
Enjoyed the walk around your property, oh and the bike race. We've lived on 3 acres in the middle of farmland for the past 50 years and harvest our dead trees also. Also of them have a blight from beetles. Anyway, with our wood burning stove, heating with wood has saved us alot of money over the years. We also have a oil furnace, but use it as little as possible.
Thanks for sharing
Wonderful video!
Glad you liked it!
Noticed you have up cycled your garden furniture looks great Jane
Our front door needs to be replaced as it is warping. The prices are crazy and the fitting charge needs to be factured in. My husband is an electrician and can do most DIY but refuses to fit a front door. The money put aside for the gardenwill have to do. Mike is a god send to you and my husband to me. Thanks again for a great video and nice to see the bike race. x
Good luck with your door
Yes, good luck with your door. My husband is a retired plumber and would not do finish carpentry of any kind. He worked with finish carpentry masters and never would do it. If your husband is a working electrician (my plumber is retired) you might be able to work a swap of labor. My husband got to know lots of the different tradespeople. We did lots of that in our younger years. Tho as he is no longer working and can't trade labor we do have to pay for some of those skills now for home maintenance.
Hi Jane, I would try to find some Don comforters for winter. Lots of sales on these in the summer months. Times are terrible right now.
Understand the costs of heating systems & fuel prices...many years ago my ex & I built a house and installed a multi fuel furnace - it burned heating oil , coal, or wood - was very inexpensive to operate...it did have an electric blower to spread the heat through the ductwork.
I appreciate your hard working nature. Lovely to see
So nice of you
What fun! Thank you so much! 🙋♀️🇺🇸🥰‼️
You are so welcome!
We use old fallen trees for our cooking and for heating the water (all year around), which we get from our own farm. It makes the kitchen a bit hot in summer, but I try to bake on cooler days eyc. Green timber takes many years to dry properly here.... so I hope you keep your chimneys cleaned as it can coke up chimneys. All the best. Your videos are most inspiring. Thank you from Queensland, Australia. 🇦🇺
I do the same thing. I think about wood all year round. I live in south Australia and it's not as cold as you guys get but I burn a fire for about 4 months a year to keep warm. I have never bought wood ever....it grows on trees for goodness sake! I see wood as money. I look out for farms that padocks are cluttered with fallen red gum. Ask the farmer " do you want that cleaned up?" Most often than not they are so happy to let me come on there land and chop wood as long as I respect gate rules. It is getting harder as I get older but for as long as I'm able I will cut wood my self. I actually love chopping kinderling I find it a stress relief or if I'm mad I'm out with my little 🪓. I find Oregon the best for kinderling it splits so easy. I find that in builders waste bins. I love builders bins I get so much stuff for projects in them. I just ask first and often builders will ask me what I'd like and they will stack it near the bin so I don't even need to climb in. I built my green house from builders waste just had to by the plastic. Built a duck pen and garden beds, compost bays got gutter off cuts and grow 🍓 in them along my fence.
Oh and once I found a whole box of nail gun nails. I don't own a nail gun but I can pull nails apart and use old fashioned was. Half a box of screws. It's so crazy what builders see as waste on job sites.
Love it!!
We also have a bike race here in the Adirondacks called the Black Fly Challenge. It’s amazing to watch 2,000 bikes roar past our house, or try to climb the hill. It depends on the year because the start point reverses between Inlet and Indian Lake every year. We personally like to watch when it starts here in Inlet.
It’s basically a bike challenge with biting black flies and they are sooo bad in June. So if you go slow or have to stop you’ll get bit up pretty bad.
That’s also the start of gardening season so blood sweat and tears go into gardening 😅
Hubby got 2 big trees they were cutting down near here. Tree company was happy to dump it here. At some point he will rent a splitter and get it stacked for later.
That is awesome!
Thank you from usa..lovely yard and your wood piles are amazing.
Thank you very much!
Our Electric Bills are rising 29 per cent on July 1. So no reverse cycle air con this winter. Just layering up. Summer won't be fun in Australia this year 🥵😧 Fun to see the riders, they're great for the local economy 💯 We have a international bike race each summer in Adelaide also.
Hi Jane and Mike 🤗 That is a lot of hard work getting all that wood ready but so worth it. Glad you'll be able to keep warm this Winter. I really enjoyed that bike race bit! This is the type of road cycling that we do. We love it so much 🥰 Not much racing here in our part of Canada though.
Thanks for watching
East Central Ohio and we heat almost exclusively with wood now too. We also have a small brillo well but, it does not produce enough gas to heat this 1883 farmhouse. We have a log splitter that is ran by the tractor. My great grandfather immigrated here from France with his mother when he was two. Apparently we are related to Leon Bourgeois. Would love to visit France someday.
When we lived on 3 and half acres we choppeddead wood out of the surrounding trees . As you say the trees regenerate naturally so no harm is done.
Thanks for watching
You both are very hard workers!!! I am sure you are tired when you go to bed but feel accomplished at the end of the day!!! You will really be grateful in the winter!!!!
Thank you so much!
The cost of gas and electric has gone up in Australia significantly. While I do have a woodburner, I don't have free firewood. The cost to purchase that is around 500 Euros, but it works out cheaper than the gas or electric. On most nights I either go to bed early to keep warm or wear an oodie
How exciting to have the racers go right past your home!
I know how much work it is to split and stack all that firewood. I have a wood burning stove to help heat my house in the winter.
Due to health issues I have not used my stove in the last several years.
I do plan to use it this coming winter though.
Unfortunately I have to now buy my firewood. I used to get it when my neighbors chopped down trees. Sadly they have either passed away or are in bad health and can’t cut down trees anymore.
I do have a little bit of wood left that needs to be split. I’m hoping that I will be able to split it before it ruins, it’s been sitting for the last 3-4 years.