Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

rozeepozee

knithappens wrote: »

have you tried olive oil, hrealth visitors hihly recommend it as a moisturiser or newborns, and it is really good, plus has less of an odour.

Almond oil might work (also recommended for babies - I used it to great effect on DS's cradelcap) but buy it from Asian supermarkets in large amounts, not beauty shops where it'll be ten times the price.

mumtoomany

Hi all, been lurking here for a while and decided to take the plunge, (well maybe more dip my toes in rather than plunge!) We are at present a family of five. Myself, DH, 2DD's and DS. Two other DD's living away from home. Earlier this year we were 8. Older children moving partners in and out. The house is often more like musical chairs. All the children at home are in full time education. DH works full time on little more than minimum wage, and I have 3 part time jobs, total of 20 hours per week.

I am hoping to spend only £9000 for the year. This will include all bills, hopefully a holiday, Christmas and Birthdays, car expenses and food etc for us all and the dog.

Good luck everyone.

Mumtoomany.

savingfortravel

Welcome Mumtoomany!

sft

slowlyfading

Nyk, I think I'm going to set my budget at £6,000 for the year. This is double what my budget was for 2009, but I'm hoping that by raising it by half will still allow me to be frugal, but will take into account the big life changes I think will happen in the next 12 months! I'm strangely excited about starting a new spreadheet - think i need to get out more :rotfl:

cw18

slowlyfading wrote: »

I'm strangely excited about starting a new spreadheet - think i need to get out more :rotfl:

Well, that makes two of us :rotfl:

slowlyfading

cw18 wrote: »

Well, that makes two of us :rotfl:

Glad its not just me! :rotfl:

JayJay14

rozeepozee - OH and I didn't exchange gifts this year, there was nothing we needed or even wanted and we both agreed that there was no point in spending money on something just to give a gift.

I am working on the budget and should be all set for the new year - and I'm quite excited too.

rozeepozee

rozeepozee wrote: »

Almond oil might work (also recommended for babies - I used it to great effect on DS's cradelcap) but buy it from Asian supermarkets in large amounts, not beauty shops where it'll be ten times the price.

On a similar vein, Asian supermarkets (proper large ones, not just little shops) are often fantastic value for things like rice, flour, spices, fresh herbs and fruit. Places with large Asian communities are often the best, Bolton has a great one which I go to whenever I visit my folks. Asians tend to have larger families (mine bucked the trend, I'm an only child) so food from Asian supermarkets always seems to be cheaper and you can buy it in bulk. You'll get ten times the amount you'd get in Tescos and the like, for loads less. For example, in my store cupboard I have 300g of coriander seeds for 79p, 400g of jeera (cumin) for £1.59. Tesco is selling 20g of coriander seeds for £1.63 and 35g of cumin for £1.64 :eek:. (How do they justify these prices - grrr!) You might need to ask for a translation at times as much of the food is imported and will have the Urdu word rather than the English!

Once you have a stockpile of low cost spices, curries are a really cheap meal to make and very healthy!

LilacPixie

can I just say i hate excel. I am attempting to make a spreadsheet and failing

mooomin

LilacPixie wrote: »

can I just say i hate excel. I am attempting to make a spreadsheet and failing

What are you trying to get it to do?