2014 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User] · 19 October 2014 at 9:44PM

Wishing you the best of luck with your plan, optimistic-mummy:beer:

Inspired by Frugaldom I'm doing a sort of 'dummy run' for the rest of this year (I came very late to this challenge:o) and am setting my stall out to start 2015 as I mean to go on;)

his_missus · 20 October 2014 at 12:00PM

Hi all,

Finally managed to get Hubby back on track so we're heading in the same direction. I made him look at the finances and work out how much we need to put away each month to reach our total (rather than just seeing what's left over at the end of the month) and I think it really opened his eyes.
His wage basically covers household bills and mortgage etc. and mine is for my personal DDs, day to day spending, groceries and savings. Once he saw how much I will have left for groceries, general spends AFTER I've added to the savings account, he gets that we need to be quite frugal, especially with Christmas around the corner.

SO, I'm going to stick with using the click and collect grocery thing (keeping Hubby out of the supermarket) and market shopping once a fortnight, batch cooking once I've been shopping and filling the freezer (to prevent food wastage) and I'm hoping to get the shopping bill and day to day spends (these are being cut right back) to £120 a fortnight which I believe is more than generous for 2 adults and 3 cats

alja · 20 October 2014 at 12:52PM

Hello all, I haven't posted in here since July. I've definitely had a busy few months and although I've been generally good with my money, it's time to get back on top of things properly.

At the moment I'm not working, I left my most recent job about 3 weeks ago. However, I have just been offered a second interview for a job that could be really good for me, so things are looking up.

I'm aiming to try and buy my first home next year if possible/if I find somewhere I like. So I am going to set myself the goal of reaching £40,000 in savings by 1st Sept, giving me 10 months roughly to do it in. So I need to find £7500 from somewhere!

I've been doing all my survey websites as much as possible whilst I've been off work and have tried my best to curb my clothes spending and general visits to the shops. Christmas shopping has been started, trying to reduce the amount of trips I make to get things and we have agreed to buy less this year, which will also help.

Just need to cut back on spending here and there, as the little bits really add up!

I've tried to sell a few clothing items on local FB selling pages lately too, but nothing seems to be budging unfortunately, even though my prices are quite cheap

may have to resort to eb*y again...

Well, I hope you're all well and I look forward to getting back into reading your posts as they're always so motivational

Mrs_Cheshire · 20 October 2014 at 1:24PM

Love seeing how other people manage on tight budgets. I'm going to spend some time looking through our expenses over the next couple of months in order to see if I can write a similar plan to frugaldom for 2015!

Kantankrus_Mare · 20 October 2014 at 2:20PM

Well... after being told that we owed the council £6 for the council tax on our rental property that we sold last month (despite it sitting empty for 4 months :mad:)...we have now been told we are owed £58 due to overpayments and we received a cheque this morning.

I tell you....they haven't a clue what they are doing but I'm not complaining. It will go straight into our holiday savings pot for next year. :T

sparrer · 20 October 2014 at 3:01PM

Not posted for a while, after a few minor disasters I'm finding things a bit tight at the moment but being used to that - as a single parent many years ago I've never forgotten the old habits - my belt is pulled in at least two notches until I get back on track. Decided that this year it will be all home made produce presents for friends and family, and no cards (except for the DGC) but a donation to my fav charity instead. I did this last year, cards and postage would have cost about £14 so WaterAid benefitted by that amount. I find, as I'm sure others have mentioned, that shopping locally is much cheaper going to supermarkets. I'm surprised how little rubbish I've been buying by avoiding the Big Boys!

cw18 · 20 October 2014 at 4:11PM

sparrer wrote: »

I find, as I'm sure others have mentioned, that shopping locally is much cheaper going to supermarkets

Unfortunately not an option I have. Within a half mile of home I have a Mr M and an A!di, and just a touch further out a £-Stretch and Icel@nd - but not a single greengrocer, butcher or market. If I want one of those I'm looking at a minimum of 1.5 miles each way (over priced butcher) but realistically 3 miles each way (market).

Just_be_2 · 20 October 2014 at 8:07PM

I started this challenge on January 1st- I had a lot of bad spending habits. What I have gained this year so far is the ability to be controlled with spending. Keeping track of my spending facilitated this. I now haven't gone 'overdrawn' for a good 6 months which to me is fantastic. The best bit for me if that I don't even want to spend, I can go days and weeks spending nothing but allocated grocery spends (within budget!) whereas before I almost HAD to spend something every day. It's been a valuable learning curve. I feel confident that I could live on £6,000 next year and in planning to attempt £5,000 the ear after. I too have aspirations of buying a home so I'm giving myself 6 years to save a deposit (by then those dreaded defaults will have dropped off!) and I will hopefully be in a buying position. That's my motivation

Mrs_Cheshire · 20 October 2014 at 8:39PM

sparrer wrote: »

I find, as I'm sure others have mentioned, that shopping locally is much cheaper going to supermarkets. I'm surprised how little rubbish I've been buying by avoiding the Big Boys!

I live in a very upmarket area of Manchester, so don't always find the independants cheaper than the supermarkets, but luckily have an A*di locally so mainly shop there. I agree about how much rubbish you buy when faced by all the offers in the big boys!

lynnejk · 21 October 2014 at 12:43AM

his_missus wrote: »

SO, I'm going to stick with using the click and collect grocery thing (keeping Hubby out of the supermarket) and market shopping once a fortnight, batch cooking once I've been shopping and filling the freezer (to prevent food wastage) and I'm hoping to get the shopping bill and day to day spends (these are being cut right back) to £120 a fortnight which I believe is more than generous for 2 adults and 3 cats

Just wondered if you had looked at the monthly Grocery Challenge thread on here. It's really helpful if you are trying to budget on your household stuff.

cw18 wrote: »

Unfortunately not an option I have. Within a half mile of home I have a Mr M and an A!di, and just a touch further out a £-Stretch and Icel@nd - but not a single greengrocer, butcher or market. If I want one of those I'm looking at a minimum of 1.5 miles each way (over priced butcher) but realistically 3 miles each way (market).

We are pretty similar here, with all the sms and discounters within about four miles of us but have to go 25 miles round trip for a proper butcher. We get a 'farmer's market' once a month but you just would not believe the prices.

It really is heartening to read so many people are taking a serious look at getting in control of their funds and saving for the future and I wish them all the very best of luck. Go for it peoples :T

Lx

2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free