Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

This is the follow up thread to the 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge. The following links will take you to all the previous challenges. This is the introduction to the newly revamped challenge.


Introduction to the 2010 challenge
Part 1 - January - March 2010

Part 1 - January to March 2009
Part 2 - April to June 2009
Part 3 - July to September 2009
Part 4 - October to December 2009

Part 1 - January to March 2008
Part 2 - April to June 2008
Part 3 - July to September 2008
Part 4 - October to December 2008

IMPORTANT.
Please respect other peoples lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support. Thank you

The challenge is about establishing your true cost of living, sticking to your budget, clearing any debts and making savings wherever and however you can to enable you to live the life your really want.

Frugal living isn't for everyone, but everyone is welcome to join us. Methods employed by our merry band of frugallers include batch cooking, stockpiling, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), Vegetable & fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cashback sites and earning whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt. For some it is initially about clearing debt, for others it's about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home mums or paying off the mortgage early. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds. Above all, this is a fun and supportive way to manage your budget so you have control of your own cost of living.

If you would like to join us for 2010, I need to SEE THOSE NAMES, so make them big, bold and colourful.

Living on a budget = living within our means. Frugal = thrifty, living without waste

Ideas to help you achieve and/or maintain debt free living
housesharing
getting a lodger
shopping via cashback sites,
buying reduced items in stores,
batch cooking,
making the most of charity shops,
joining Freecycle or other similar waste awareness and recycling associations,
becoming active members of trading & exchange groups such as LETS,
growing our own fruit & veg,
preserving & winemaking
card & gift making
order splitting for better discounts,
landsharing,
free scratchcards,
matched betting,
free online bingo,
eBid and eBay trading
etc, etc, etc...

HANDY LINKS
I am neither endorsing nor recommending any of the links provided here, members of our extended frugal community have simply found them to contain helpful information.

£1000 in 100 days - our challenge thread to earn a few pounds extra, hopefully £1000.
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Approved Food[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - amazing bargains if you don't mind short dates or past sell by – save a fortune whilst saving it from landfill![/FONT]
Bite Card - 20% off food at train stations (ideal for regular travellers)
CASHBACK - The official MSE list of sites offering the best cashback deals
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Complete (MSE) cooking collection[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - Loads and loads and loads of recipes[/FONT]
Crafting for Christmas - homemade presents
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Electricity & Gas savings[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - monitor your electricity & gas with the MoneySaving Carbon Club[/FONT]
Flannel Cake making - unusual gifts
Foraging & Preserving - free foods, when, where, what to do with them
Free 2010 OS MSE calendar - download and print
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Free crafts ideas[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - how to make papier mache banks etc[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Freecycle[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] (UK) - don't bin it, rehome it.[/FONT]
Gift Baskets & Hampers - an index to the MSE relevant threads
Gifts in a jar - you don't need a canner for these
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Greenfingered money saving[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - Gardening & growing your own food[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Grocery bargains[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - Supermarket price reduction times[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hunger Site[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - Charity site where every click counts[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]i-Measure[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - log your meter readings and try to reduce your carbon footprint[/FONT]
Leftovers - don't bin them, get creative, make another meal.
LETS - Local Exchange Trading Schemes and alternative currencies within communities
Martin's mad moneysaver ads - a surprising new addition to the site - advertising offers!
Martin's current offers & discount codes - updated daily
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Menu Planning[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - hundreds of options and suggestions[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nutrition and diet info[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], an excellent thread - thanks to Weezl74[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Old Style indexed collection[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - Indexed collection of links, hints and tips for anything old style, moneysaving and frugal.[/FONT]
Preparing for winter the frugal way
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Recipes part 1[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - thanks to Rosieben on the Grocery Challenge[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Recipes part 2[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - thanks, again, to Rosieben[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Remoska discussion[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - everything you need to know about Remoska ovens[/FONT]
Rural Moneysaving Hunt - official MSE discussion
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Selling on eBid[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - decluttering and recycling for cash with no listing fees[/FONT]
Snowman Soup - always a favourite with frugallers during the festive season
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Soapnuts[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - The frugal, eco-friendly alternative to soap powder or detergents[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Soapnuts thread on MSE[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - discuss, ask questions here[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Spending Diary[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - excellent free resource for recording your spends[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Start a cottage industry[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] - the official MSE discussion[/FONT]
Weezl74's 50p per person per day eating healthily thread
Will Power & Billy Can - part 1, part 2, part 3

The bits we need to include to make this work

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Please read the MSE forum rules and help us to keep this challenge on track, thank you.
If you have any questions about this challenge, feel free to PM me.
The following is taken from the official MSE forum rules section:

KEEPING THREADS ON-TOPIC

Please try not to take threads off-topic. This can be confusing for new users and makes it especially difficult for people ... Where requests from Board Guides for threads to be brought back on track have not been followed off-topic posts may be removed. We encourage community, but not thread derailment.

Please bear in mind the main purpose of the site is to save money. The forum team has therefore been instructed to prioritise its time on the MoneySaving forums.

KEEPING TOPICS RELEVANT TO THE BOARD

There are two boards provided for off-topic chat and discussion. The MoneySavers Arms has been set up for fun, more lighter-hearted chat (although do still remember this is a family forum – keep it clean please). Discussion Time is for discussion of current issues (read Martin’s description).

If you post a topic that does not relate to the board it’s posted on it will be moved to a more relevant MoneySaving board or to Discussion Time/The MoneySavers Arms.
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This challenge is about paying for needs so we can afford to live debt free and save for wants. It runs from 1st January to 31st December 2010. The links will give you an idea of how previous challenges have gone.