Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

taka

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

Grandma247 -Thanks. I do keep hearing good things about these remoskas and not generally just from people that like their gadgetry, which makes me really think they must be onto a good secret there.
They are a bit expensive for us at the mo as we tend to save vouchers from surveys we do for what we need but I can't find remoskas on AmaZon or aRgos. Will have to save and hopefully they will catch on to the interest and start stocking them soon.

Remoskas are only sold via Lakeland - £99 for the smaller one! You do sometimes see them on ebay but you are taking a chance on them still being ok! I keep thinking they'd be good then wonder if its worth it for just me or if it'd just live in a cupboard all the time like my slowcooker and rarely get used.

knithappens

will have to check out the ramoska.

Also just got my payslip for this month, now only on SMP for the next 2 months before i go back to work, so glad i squireled what little I had away, plus good practice for when my pay is reduced when i go back. as there will be a drop of 12,000 PA as going 3 days, but will be worth it as i will be time rich at least

cheerfulness4

taka - I hadn't realised that they pop up on ebay. It is surprising there are so few retailers of them with Lakeland basically having the monopoly.

I was a bit hesitant with my slowcooker when I first got it but I love it now that its out on the worktop all the time. I tend to forget about gadgets if I have them in cupboards so its handy that I've been able to make room for it.
Slowcooker rice pud is the best!
We now only ever cook our chickens and meat in it, rather than the oven. Somehow seems it go so much further.

Kittikins

I bought a remoska on ebay and it's one of the best things I have - fabulous, I can cook nearly everything in it, try it - you won't regret it. There's a big thread on OS about them, with lots of hints, tips, recipes. I rarely use the oven now.

LilacPixie

Cheerfulness don't you find a chicken cooked in the SC is moister and the meat literally falls off the bone leaving very little waste.

Puddleglum

Hello again,

I have spent the past few weeks reading last year's posts and trying to work out how Mr P and I were going to be able to do this.

We really do spend all our money, our fault as we are stubbornly trying to stay put living in a house that we used to run as a B&B and the mortgage takes up half our income; with two young Puddleglumites who are doing their best to help us spend the other half.

So we are doing this to help us stay here and enjoy the space without fee paying grumpy guests!:D

Here is the budget which I think I can control for 2010

water 370
gas 1404
electric 1080
phone 350
tv licence 145
sky 486
mobile 120
pet food 185
vets bills 150
cat extras 50
groceries 1895
toiletries 60
dentist 60
prescriptions 50
alcohol 280
haircuts 50
clothing 100
presents 200
anything else 400
contingency 500

TOTAL £7935

Fingers crossed, here goes!:A Good Luck everyone.

Frugaldom

Good afternoon frugalers

On this, the shortest day of the year, we have reached 129 names in our challenger list with only 10 more days remaining of 2009. I get so used to counting challenge days that I keep overlooking Christmas! :eek:

Don't forget we have a list of handy, helpful links in post 1, including the Rem0ska threads for anyone concerned. I don't have one, nor do I have a dehydrator, but I do have a mini oven, a 2-ring hotplate, slow cooker, steamer, microwave, deef fat fryer and a breadmaker, all of which are in regular use. I also borrowed the neighbour's dehydrator for doing pineapple, which tasted great and probably worked out at a fraction of the cost of buying, but then it also got scoffed withion days of it being packed into the jar. :rotfl: DS and I ate the chunks like sweets.

I've updated the list of challengees, please check to ensure your name has been included.

nikki20022008 wrote: »

Shopping£1,200.00 Clothes£250.00 Eat out£100.00 Night out £200.00 Holiday£1,800.00 Christmas£400.00 Birthdays£400.00 Misc£150.00 Hair£240.00 Nails£382.00
Diesel£1,300.00 Cleaner£1,820.00 School Dinners£494.00 Totals£8,736.00

This is my final budget I'm going to see how I get on but its realistic so should do just fine.

Nikki, Luxury items do not count in our frugal budgets - luxuries are personal choices, they are what you choose to spend your surplus to requirement cash on, the things you can afford after paying out what it costs to live. We are only interested in the basic cost of running a frugal household without incurring debt (or to enable you to pay off debt). I mean no disrespect, but how much you spend paying your cleaner, going for manicures and/or beauty treatments, going on holidays or having your hair done is not part of the cost of frugal living because these things are not essentials, they are luxuries. Could you reduce any of these or, even, do without any of them until your debts were paid?

pink_numbers wrote: »

I really wished I didn't see that link, the yarns are very cheap, and I ended up buying loads!!!

Pink_numbers - step away from that website unless it works out cheaper than buying pressies :rotfl:

pink_numbers

nykmedia wrote: »

Pink_numbers - step away from that website unless it works out cheaper than buying pressies :rotfl:

TOO LATE! :rotfl:

but it does work out cheaper and nicer than buying pressies. I always think handmade stuff is so much nicer It also keeps me out of mischief by keeping me busy in evenings, thus saves me money on going out or shopping trips

pink_numbers

we just made a batch of cold processed neem soap for the first time (first time for adding neem, fourth batch of soap ever made), fingers crossed that this works, as OH finds neem soap the best for his poorly skin.

Frugaldom

In 2009, I've bought no laundry detergent at all, I used soap nuts and made up about 5 litres of 'laundry gloop'. Still got loads of soapnuts left and there's probably enough gloop to see me through January before I make some more. Just saving up all the broken soap pieces until needed as it is a huge financial saving when you see the price of liquid laundry wash! For some reason, I can never get powder to dissolve in the machine, so I stopped using it a long time ago. The other thing that's easy for gifts is cutting your own herbs like rosemary or lavender and putting in inside bottles of cheap bubble bath. If you do them at least 6 weeks before they are needed, you can make up any combination and have lovely herbal scented products decanted into smaller bottles. At 29p for a litre and free herbs from garden, it can be made into 10 x 100ml bottles. If you want to be really posh, make fancy personalised labels and bottle it into brand new glass bottles, these are quite cheap if you need to buy them - just ask in your local pharmacy or vet's surgery.