2017 Frugal Living Challenge

Penny_pauper wrote: »

My biggest problem has been me. I can't believe how much I want to spend, now that I have signed up to this challenge. I have had to talk myself down from booking a weekend away for the family because I feel I deserve a reward for staying on budget this month. Please remember I am new to this but I think I am probably going to learn quite a bit about what motivates me as this year goes on. Happy frugalling everyone. PP

Pp I totally know where you are coming from! In June last year I got inspired by, and embarked on, a year of not buying anything new. It started to make me conscious of the psychological drive to just spend money. I was out of work for a while and I started a new job and on my payday in my lunch break I started to walk into town to buy some shampoo and conditioner I had been recommended. 5 minutes into the walk I realised I didn't actually need S&C so turned around and went for a walk instead. Was interesting just to see the drivers. There have been the odd day where I have felt all my clothes are shoddy and I should get some more but that feeling usually lasts a day and the following day my clothes seem fine!

It's interesting to see there are strong forces guiding us!

One thing that I have found has really helped me not want to buy lots of new things has been the gradual de-cluttering I've been doing over the last couple of years. I started out doing it because I was finding it hard to keep on top of everything in the house, getting overwhelmed, couldn't find things when I needed them, didn't have enough storage, and so on - and I realised I just had too much stuff, a lot of which I didn't need/use. So I started gradually getting rid of things - using up if possible, donating to other people/charity shop, and as a last resort the tip. Anyway, I've reduced what we have in the house probably by half in the last two years (it gets a bit addictive!) and it is so much easier to keep on top of everything. One surprising consequence (to me anyway) was that it really reduced my desire to buy anything new - having realised that so many of the things I really wanted at the time of buying I didn't actually need, or really want, and have ended up being got rid of. I now value the space I've created in the house and it makes me think really carefully about whether something is worth bringing into that space. Also - the amount of stuff at the tip :eek: quite frightening when looking in the skips and thinking about how much we are all throwing away every day - definitely made me more aware.

Aside from that though - the car passed it's MOT yesterday- phew! Another NSD here today which makes 11 for January so far. And I am very grateful that the sun popped out for a bit today as the children played happily in the garden for an hour while I got some wood chopped and sawed - I always feel better when the wood store is in order! Now enjoying sitting in front of a nice fire while DD (staying up late!) is lying on the rug, lovely and snug, drawing pictures

Hi everyone. I joined this thread back in 2008 (previous username!), and it really helped me to save to move to Australia. I've been here 8 years now and I have managed to buy a house, but I've lost track a bit of watching the pennys. So I've downloaded the new spreadsheet (thanks cw18) and have done my yearly totals. This blew me away, we spend $8000 a year just on insurances (something that I need to look at). I wont post the totals as $ and pounds just dont compare (the cost of living is very high here) but I subscribed to the thread and am starting to monitor the spending again.
Last week I took lunch to work everyday as hubby made 20 meals for the freezer and I'm updating the spreadsheet every day.
The plan is to pay off some debt that I've managed to accrue, and then start on the mortgage again.
Good luck with it and looking forward to reading the thread this year.

Morning fellow frugaliers hurrah to the weekend (although I only work max 3 days a week!) I've been up a while and madam is happy doing her own thing so I can spent an hour updating ss & spending diary. A bit annoyed with myself as we did succumb to a takeaway last week and this has made us go over our grocery budget by £8. Hoping to recoup this over the next month.

Been crunching the numbers and no matter which way I cut it it's hard being on a low income. I have adjusted my desires to buy things and reduced my outgoings considerably (well I had to after having over a year off of work) but on lots of levels it's hard not to be earning decent money and having the option of spending what I want. I'm also addicted to saving and find it hard only to be able to put about £100 a month into long term savings. I decided to go part time when I returned to work and I do enjoy spending time with dgd and having time off but I didn't anticipate how I would feel so poor. It's all for the greater good as I plan to start a masters this year with the hope of retraining as a clinical psychologist if I can get accepted onto a paid PhD course after finishing the masters. Relatively short term pain for a long term gain....

Been doing my tax return for the mystery shopping I do and have to finalise a couple of figures which I need to check with my bank over the interest I received and tax paid and an old employer as I can't seem to find my p60, but on initial figures it looks like I'm entitled to a reasonable rebate :-)

Sounds like we have a similar plan determined new ms! After becoming a little (very) disillusioned with my current career in terms of future prospects, job security, etc. I bit the bullet and have just applied for the Clinical Psychology course (for Sept. 2017 entry). It is a tough course to get on to, as I'm sure you know, but the positives if you can manage it are great - the paid training being one of the big ones. There's no way I could do it otherwise as there is only my wage to support me and the kids. Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that if I apply for the next few years that I'll get lucky on one of them. Great idea doing the Masters too - I'm sure that will help you get on

Kids are at their Dads for a few hours today so I am trying to get ahead for the week, there is soup needing to be made which will cover tea for the next couple of days, flapjack to be baked, more wood to be chopped, garlic to be planted - unfortunately all I want to do at the moment is lie on the sofa and rest (DS cheerfully got everyone up at 5.40am today :eek:) Once I get up and going I'll be fine