Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

slowlyfading

nykmedia wrote: »

You're already on my list, SlowlyFading, no worries. Hope you're looking forward to the new year, new challenges and new career it may bring for you! You've been doing incredibly well these past few months, so I hope everything keeps going in the right direction for you.

I cannot tell you just how excited/scared/nervous I am about the upcoming months! In just over 6 months time, I will hopefully a)have qualified as a secondary teacher b) found a job and c) moved in with the BF! Exciting stuff, but very scary at the same time! xxx

[Deleted User]

Hi All

I have got SO much to read on this thread :rolleyes: Wasnt as good as I thought I'd be on the challenge this year, Daisy seems to take up more time than I thought possible. So missed out a lot of spends being recorded. 2010 - I will aim for a 6k challenge figure, but I'm not going to separate that out into headings if that makes sense... will just try and keep necessary spends as low as possible and RECORD them all!! Am aiming to come in at under 6k anyway. Not including mortgage, water, council tax and business related expenses. But AM going to include fuel now for my car as I am officially at SAHM... so in theory I should be using the car left.

We're trying to overpay our mortgage as much as possible so here goes.......

xx

skint_in_skirt

cw18 wrote: »

Is that £293 just for groceries (and emergencies)?

My actual dog food bill (for one large Yorkie and one 'average' Dalmatian) has come in at about £27/month on average - but this includes moving the larger dog onto a special diet at the start of October (which increased his cost from £10/month to £50/month :eek: ). The larger dog is on 500g dried food a day, and the smaller one is on 125g of a much cheaper dried food/day. (They were on the same until October).

It also doesn't include lunches for my son on the days he's at college (4 days/week Jan thru July, 3 days/week Sept/Dec) as he pays for these from his EMA - though I did give him the option of taking a packed lunch, which he declined.

And I obviously don't have nappies to contend with either

I do rely very heavily on Whoopsie items (reduced to clear), and have also worked very hard on portion control - particularly of meat. Although my spreadsheet shows an awful lot of snacky/treat foods being purchased, almost all of them were Whoopsies and it's still a much smaller quantity than a couple of years back.

So I'd say it's possible if your dog food bill is lower than mine, and if you can hunt for Whoopsies and excercise portion control. But I'd also say it could be tight......

:TThanks a lot for sharing your information with me there about how you did it. I cut and pasted the quote as I am unsure if I am allowed to do that- newbie!)
I am absolutely excited now about this and I'm beginning to see it as a challenge rather than a nightmare!
I didn't count in anything for emergencies so I suppose that is included in the £293 I have.
You're spot on about the cost of dog food, in preparation for 'cutting down' in January I recently changed from James Wellbeloved (2 of the dogs) and Hill's Prescription Diet food (1 dog only) to the Value Complete Dog Food at Asda.
It is only 92p a bag and I've not noticed any deterioation in their health (or their coats), so I think I can justify buying them cheaper food - If I am having to live on value brands the dogsare too!;) So my outgoings on the dogs are £12 per month now and their treats are carrots so that'll be even cheaper than gravy bones etc.

I will try the 'whoopsies', since I will be working part-time it will be a bit easier than on a weekend. I will be able to get to the shops a bit more and buy and freeze, rather than pay full price. My DH spent eight quid on fish (2 ready dinners) today and I almost blew up, is there anyway of getting the rest of them on my 'frugal living' bandwagon?:D

Thanks again CW:T, I am even going to try to persuade my teenager to go packed lunch in January and save a further £50 a month. Your boy is using his EMA but at the moment mine is still £2.50 a day for lunch and it does add up.

cw18

skint_in_skirt wrote: »

I am absolutely excited now about this and I'm beginning to see it as a challenge rather than a nightmare!

I've found this challenge surprisingly fun in 2009 - and I was pretty much in your shoes this time last year, having hit a major drop in income (mostly due to redundancy). I'm really looking forward to running it again in 2010, as I know that I can do this now - even with unexpected emergencies (£650 in vets bills!) :T

You're spot on about the cost of dog food, in preparation for 'cutting down' in January I recently changed from James Wellbeloved (2 of the dogs) and Hill's Prescription Diet food (1 dog only) to the Value Complete Dog Food at Asda.

We used to feed the larger dog on the JW food (advised when we first got him, as it's a low protein one which helps reduce the risk of stones). Then Pets @ Home brought out one under their own label that appears to be identical - and was much cheaper - so we down-shifted him to that. When income dropped (due to my being on extended sick) I managed to source a cheaper low protein one, but have wondered if it was this caused him to suffer from stones in September. However the vets said we did well to keep him clear of them as long as we did (he was 6 in March), so I'm not sure it was But if your one dog was on a prescription diet for a specific health issue, then I have to admit I'd be very careful about moving him/her off it without consulting the vet first.

skint_in_skirt

grandma247 wrote: »

It might be helpful to break the amount down to see how you intend spending it.
The dogs could be the budget breaker. What does it normally cost you for them ? Do they have normal food or special food ?

I replied to CW in a post but not sure if it's polite posting etiquette to reply to two in one post. Feel free to keep me right on this, as I am still getting used to this
I am now down to a very small £12 per month using the 92p asda complete dog food. I've given up on premium brands and cut out their treats by giving them carrots instead. Weirdly they all love carrots!;)

The breakdown you suggested I have worked out as being:
£73 per week on groceries incl dog food (asda smartprice) and essential toiletries (aldi). No spending money will be available for updating any household or wardrobe things until I go back to full-time work.:p

I wonder if I need to break down the £73 into particular items???

I love the 'mend it' philosophy on here, todayI sewed some jeans of mine and a cardi of my tot's that I would have previously gone to Next and replaced ....changed days! :money:

skint_in_skirt

cw18 wrote: »

But if your one dog was on a prescription diet for a specific health issue, then I have to admit I'd be very careful about moving him/her off it without consulting the vet first.

He had been on it for 'weight control' but is now much trimmer. The vet nurse had continued him on it for 'maintenance'. I will weigh myself later, then lift the dog up and weigh us both to get his up-to-date weight then check again in a month or so. You are right , it would be wrong to alter something that may affect him, so if he starts gaining again, I will definitely get him back to the vet for weigh ins and prescription food.
Doesn't help that he is a scrounger/scavenger and the tot throws her unfinished breakfast, lunch and dinners on him/at him/to him!

cw18

I won't have the dog(s) in the same room as us when we're eating - partly for health reasons (used to have a dog who'd jump up onto the table and start tucking into my DD's meals!), but also to stop anyone being tempted to feed them anything off our plates. It's also not unheard of for me to shut the Dalmatian out of the kitchen when I'm cooking (I have a stairgate I can drop into place when required which has stopped him moaning too much - he also used to claw at the kitchen door), but it does really depend on what I'm cooking...... the more likely he is to pester/beg, the more likely it is he'll be shut out.

My Dalmatian is another veg (and fruit) eater - and when I chop loads of veg for my thick veg soup he sits beside me drooling.... He used to whine and nudge/paw me a lot, but has learned that doing those things means he gets precisely nothing When we got him he was showing signs of allergies that could have been (at least partially) food related, so the vet said not to give him standard treats but OK'd using veg -- raw potatoes being the only absolute 'no-no', but citrus fruit being very small quanties and very rarely. I've read/heard that onions can be bad for them too, but he loves those - so again I restrict how much and how often. The only thing he's ever 'stolen' have been red peppers - from inside a multipack bag inside a carrier bag !!! People screeched about these being dangerous when he did it, but I think it's primarily the seeds that are the problem - and he left those scattered the length of my hall (how I knew he'd had the peppers :rolleyes2 ).

His favourites are carrots, mushrooms and tomatoes...... leading to a very bemused member of staff in the local supermarket, when I cleared the shelf of the cherry tomatoes he was marking down (to a silly little amount) one evening. He asked what I was going to make with them, and looked stunned when I said they were for the dog :rotfl:

savingfortravel

[QUOTE=skint in skirt;28119781

I will weigh myself later, then lift the dog up and weigh us both to get his up-to-date weight [/QUOTE]

What kind of dog?...I'd imagined a big dalmatian like CWs..probably not..you are asking lots of good questions...and CW is one of our experts, particularly at budgets and dogs so take full advantage..the rest of us ordinary folk are here to support you in other ways, including morale.
Congrats on the mending..that's excellent!

sft

skint_in_skirt

We have a kitchen gate too CW and it does get used when people come to the door etc, (even to separate them when they're eating) but when we go to the dinner table and the three of them start with their whining, barking etc other I give up.
At some point in the past few years I must have given in to them!:p (Probably when the current tot came along!)
The Dog Whisperer would spend his life in my house saying 'tssssssssssssssssssssst'!!! I do manage to cook without them whining, but since I started using the Crock Pot to do my cheaper dinners they go into the kitchen for an "air sniff"!
They're small Lhasa Apsos so not as able as a Dalmatian to reach up, although on one occasion Scavenger One jumped onto the table via a chair and a window ledge to enjoy the remainder of a leftover! Otherwise, they are quite well mannered honest

cw18

savingfortravel wrote: »

I'd imagined a big dalmatian like CWs..probably not..

I weigh him the same way a lot of the time :rotfl:

But it's easier (for my back) to walk him to the vets and put him on their scales (which are in the waiting area) - and getting him in to do this is easy due to the fact he loves going Getting him past the vets is hard work (even on the opposite side of the road), but getting him out after weighing and not seeing a vet is a total nightmare