Summer 2026 at Frugaldom

FIRST BABY OF 2026

A firm favourite with our overnight visitors is the thrill of seeing and photographing the pine martens and badgers. Pine Marten View spot is has a direct line of view to the tree platform where the local pine martens can often be seen checking out the feeder boxes. On 06 June, Jigsaw (one of the females) brought a new kit for a first visit to the tree. You can see him/her peeking over from the right hand side of the platform. Pine marten babies are noisy and boisterous so the mums bring only one at a time to teach them how to forage and hunt.

For motorhomers and campervanners, we have our corner parking bay known as Badger's Holt, which overlooks a feeding station that's only metres away.

With these long summer days, members of the Clan MacBrock are often seen out foraging and climbing up onto this feeding platform, looking for peanuts or eggs. Being parked up for the night and seeing wild badgers this close is an absolute thrill for many and we love that we have made so many new friends (and gained a few support group members) from those of you who return to our little patch of peaceful wilderness each year, or even each month. 

NEW FOR SUMMER 2026

The paddock side park-up has been introduced for those looking for a quiet stopover with views overlooking the herb paddock where the badgers frequent, which has now had a new pond installed. 

In keeping with the rest of the project, we have included another of Harvey's Ecoarts sculptures - a lifesize heron. Today, the real heron swooped low over Frugaldom for a closer look but as luck would have it, I didn't even have my mobile on me to attempt photographing it.

This now gives us 3 dedicated and individually named campervan or motorhome park-ups suitable for wildlife fans and budding photographers. A search for Frugaldom online will bring up several wildlife photographers and YouTube channels. We have been featured in many videos and have even had short film and television crews out filming... Watch out for those over the coming months.

PRICING

Prices remain unchanged this year and are as follows:

Self-contained vehicles up to 7.5m - £15 for 1 night, £25 for 2 nights

Friends of Frugaldom membership - from £5 per month

Pony Partners - from £10 per month

Sanctuary Supporters - from £15 per month

Wildlife Watchers - from £25 per month

Happy Hutters - from £100 per month

Campervans, motorhomes and other vehicles adapted for sleeping are restricted to maximum length of 7.5m owing to the narrow roads, soft verges and sharp turns for access along our track. Maximum stay is 28 days (£75 per week) and we welcome enquiries from potential volunteers. Frugaldom is an entirely voluntary project, privately owned and receives no official funding. In true frugal fashion, we aim to be financially self-sustainable, operating as a social enterprise with every penny raised going into feeding the animals and running the project. We are totally off-grid with no services on site so very much a place where you bring all you need and leave no trace. We do have waste emptying and this can be used for service stops - £5 charge applies - but we don't have running water.

If you would like to find out more about supporting us, check out Frugaldom on Ko-fi here. If you don't want to join us, you can simply leave a tip and consider adding a review to our pages on Google, Facebook, SearchforSites or Park4Night. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you will visit, or return, soon. What3Words:///Photo.Regal.Fencing and please note that everyone on the 5 mile single track road between us and the A75 has the same DG80ET postcode so Sat Nav is not 100% reliable out here. Nor is mobile phone signal so please text or WhatsApp 07795 870688 rather than leave me a voice message as I can seldom retrieve them.

We are open all year round for overnight stops.

Frugal Living Blog - Cooking Whatever is Growing.

If you are here for the animals, wildlife & nature project, Scottish hutting or our off-grid stopover site for campervans/motorhomes, see HERE for details. By way of update for our wildlife watchers and bird spotters, the first swallows have returned to the barn, there are bats out and about, the grasshopper warblers have returned and the badgers and pine martens are active most nights. 

This blog post is more to do with the origins of the name Frugaldom: Frugal living freedom. You are very welcome to read along if you would like to know more about frugality and money saving, plus you can join the Friends of Frugaldom or support the project HERE, or join us free in the Frugal Living Challenge within the forums section of moneysavingexpert.com website.

TODAY HAS BEEN FAIRLY FRUGAL AND PRODUCTIVE

After mucking out, watering and feeding all the animals, I had coffee with the friend who had been helping. She had made a fruit crumble so we ate that at lunchtime. The topic of food growing is a popular one here so we were planning where to plant different things. She pointed out that the nettles were already growing and I had spotted many dandelions flowering.

This afternoon, I picked a tubful of young nettle leaves, some garlic shoots (not cloves), lemon balm and some chives, plus a mugful of dandelions.

I often used chives in place of spring onions and they are perpetual / perenniall so create a colourful purple display in summer. The garlic is now also perennial after leaving bulbs in the ground to grow wild.

Chives and garlic are growing happily together in the herb garden and as you can see, so, too, are the strawberry runners and chives.

The rhubarb is at a stage that we can harvest stalks for crumbles, but the very mild, wet winter interspersed with sub zero temperatures and occasional high teens warm sunshine caused the plants to flower so those had all to be cut out as soon as spotted. You will see here that there are also strawberry plants evident. They get everywhere but I do lift some and pot them on to sell or swap at the main gate where we have the 'Trading Post'.

The rain stayed awake long enough to allow two buckets of weeds to be pulled out and some of the herb beds tidied. This one contains sweet cicely, one of my favourite herbs, great for chewing on, adding to stewed rhubarb or feeding to the ponies, who love it. It's said to be good for soothing throats during persistent coughs.

I picked some lemon balm while weeding and this got added to the other herbs picked.

We have never tried growing butter beans so this is something new for us. Friend brought them along today and we will decide where best to plant them over the next week.

Chopped herbs - nettles, chives, garlic shoots and a few leaves of lemon balm. I fried these for a few minutes in some butter and a splash of oil, seasoned with salt and pepper to have with spaghetti.

The resulting meal was very tasty and I can highly recommend it. I am not vegetarian but meat is so expensive that it does not feature strongly in our diet.

What did I do with the dandelions? I made some cookies. There was no flour at the hut so I used a pack of pancake mix and added the dandelion petals, some sultanas and some finely grated orange peel, then mixed it into cookie dough using butter and some warm water.  I 'baked' the cookies in the Omnia on top of the gas camping stove, as I'm currently at the hut,. completely off-grid. 

That has been my day so far: There is a campervan parked in the yard with the occupants keen to spot the badgers and pine martens tonight. The rain has returned with a vengeance but, thankfully, the wildlife cares not a jot about getting wet when there are peanuts, eggs and other tasty (appropriate) snacks available at the feeding stations.

Setting the Record Straight

Here are some of the comments I have had relating to our yard space being offered to campervanners and motorhomers to stopover and enjoy the experience of watching the wildlife overnight...

Why pay £15 to park when there are plenty of free places to pull in and stay?

You have no services, why pay money for nothing?

Landowners / site owners are just trying to rip us off, it's daylight robbery.

Money for nothing! I'd rather park for free elsewhere.

Far too expensive for solo travellers.

So, what are you getting for your £15?

First of all, land is expensive, ground works are expensive, drainage and hard standing are expensive, fencing is expensive and so are annual licence fees, annual insurances, monthly service contracts for waste disposal, repairs and maintenance, administrative costs, fire points, our time... Need I go on? 

What you get when staying at Frugaldom is peace of mind that you are on a legally recognised, insured, safe and secure site for the purposes of enjoying nature and, hopefully, photographing the wildlife that can come within meters of your park-up spot.

Some people don't get the opportunity to see the likes of pine martens, badgers, foxes or red squirrels. Some people don't get the opportunity to sit and relax, watching hundreds of wild birds feeding nearby or birds of prey soaring overhead.

Some people have never experienced star-laden skies or witnessed the spectacle of the Milky Way spanning the darkness above us. But for a mere £15, you can come along absolutely any night of the year and could experience all of the above, while also enjoying seeing some unique art in nature created right here for the enjoyment of all.

Ecoart combines recycling and repurposing with environmental artwork, while creating new habitats for wildlife. With over 70 individual sculptures to see here, this alone is like visiting an open air exhibition... Free of charge. Elsewhere, the wildlife feeding stations are kept topped up with bird, squirrel, pine marten and badger food to ensure everything has the best possible chance to thrive on this land.

Until 2024, Frugaldom operated a licensed animal welfare establishment. Although we no longer take in animals, we still have several rescued ponies, goats and the feral / stray cats that have found their way here. We don't mind visitors bringing pets but for very obvious reasons, they need to be well behaved and kept under total control on short leads. Movements are restricted after dark to lessen the chance of ponies being spooked resulting in injuries.

We work on site seven days per week throughout the year, voluntarily, looking after animals, trying out best to raise income to help cover feed costs while also trying to maintain the campervan/motorhome site and the recreational huts.

We may not have modern day luxury services such as electricity, showers, toilets or, indeed, running water, but most campervans and motorhomes are self contained with their own toilets and sinks. Waste from each can be disposed of at the relevant points here, then it is dealt with by a fully licensed waste management company - another of our regular overheads.

On the subject of solo travellers, I have to say that travelling solo does not automatically reduce the footprint of your vehicle. It still takes up a parking space, therefore still costs the same as a vehicle with any other number of occupants. We pay hundreds of pounds each year for insurance in order to be able to offer our premises for stopovers so I consider our pricing structure to be very fair. 

£15 for 1 night

£25 for 2 nights

£10 per night thereafter up to a maximum stay of 28 days. We offer further discounts for anyone looking to stay 28 days and to anyone offering their help while here.

Wildlife Watching 

If you care to check prices elsewhere, you will find that it can cost £100 for access to a wildlife hide for a few hours. Here at Frugaldom, you can see the wildlife from your park-up. We have solar powered cameras that you can log into and see what's at the nearby feeding stations after dark. We have solar lighting that enables you to spot the badgers and the pine martens when they visit. You are welcome to bring your own trail cameras to set up at the feeding stations. For anyone who wants to visit but has no campervan or motorhome, you can park up in your car and have access to a hut at a cost of £50 per night for up to 4 people - hut opportunities will be dealt with in a separate post. We also allow box tents during suitable weather but no ground pegs, generators, BBQs or campfires.

Frugaldom is a rather unique place that offers unique opportunities to experience nature and witness the wonders of wildlife. We are not like a lay-by where you just pull in, cook your meal, sleep and leave. While you are here, you are treated as friends, like part of the project, appreciated for supporting all that we do here and welcome to stay longer, return often and even join our 'Friends of Frugaldom' support group.

I think that answers most of the queries I've been asked and addresses all of the 'why pay for nothing' type comments. If you still feel you aren't getting value for money then Frugaldom is not the place for you. If you genuinely want to visit but honestly cannot afford £15 then email me (Susan) frugaldom@gmail.com and we can discuss how you could swap some of your time helping at Frugaldom in exchange for park-up. Frugal by name, frugal by nature.

Check out Frugaldom on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

How to Support Frugaldom

All the fun of Frugaldom revolves around the animals who have found a safe haven at the project. Since starting our wildlife habitat creation in 2014, we have planted over 12,000 saplings generating woodland and hedgerow, as well as wildlife corridors, ponds and orchard areas. Frugaldom is a privately owned, volunteer run project without funding, run voluntarily. We have ponies, goats and feral cats on site, as well as all the wildlife.

We rely on our personal income to fund the majority of the project and have extra support from family and friends. Monthly funds to help provide for animals and wildlife are generated from memberships to our support group and stopover fees from the campervans and motorhomes that visit. Find out how to support the Frugaldom project here. We offer various options, from adding a few £s to the 'tip' jar, to signing up monthly as Friends of Frugaldom, pony partners, sanctuary supporters, wildlife watchers or happy hutters.

For campervans and motorhomes, we offer overnight parking on hard-standing near wildlife feeding stations at a cost of £15 for 1 night or £25 for 2 nights.

Overnight camping in huts is permitted (£50 per night) but you will need to bring everything you need, just as you would if tenting. Frugaldom is completely off-grid so there's no running water, no plumbing and no electrics. We operate on a strictly 'bring all you need and leave no trace' basis and our top priority is the safety of the animals and wildlife.

Follow Frugaldom on Facebook, or check out @Frugaldom on X, Instagram, YouTube, Google or Ko-fi.

March of the Badgers

As promised... As soon as our fundraising 'tips' reach £10 we run a 'WHATGOT' eggsperiment. Thanks to generous gifts of various foods, we can put out a wildlife buffet of special fox & badger food, eggs, nuts, fruit and peanut butter. 

Tip a pound or more into the fundraiser on our ko-fi.com/Frugaldom page (if you haven't already) to play along and guess 'whatgot' the food from the secret location. Photos of the wildlife buffet will be posted from tonight, exclusively for our supporters. Trail camera is at the ready.

Thank you to all our new supporters and to our campervan visitors who have captured some amazing photographs over the past week, including this fantastic close up (taken from the yard on long lens) of pine marten.

We are enjoying listening to the frog chorus! We have dozens of frogs spawning in the wildlife pond, first spawn spotted on 13/02/26 so let's hope the winter freeze stays to a minimum.

Clan MacBrock has been more active recently, but still no signs of the mama badgers. We hope they have both had cubs and that they will soon bring them to visit us. We plan on getting a few more feeding boxes so we can leave out some extra food that will be safe from mice and birds.

Join us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, Google, Ko-fi... Just search for Frugaldom and follow along. Comment, react or share the posts and that also helps support the project.