Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

Frugaldom

Welcome JackieO, feel free to wander through the previous versions of our challenge to see how others adapt their lifestyles to meet frugality. We normally post our budgets on here but I am still working on mine. I can, however, post my current results to demonstrate what works for me and my household of 3.

Kiwisaver_2

Can I play, please?

Kiwisaver

Just about got my budget down pat and trying my hardest to save, so that I can come home and see my family in 2010. Have other things I need to work on later in the year like paying some off the mortgage, but the main priority for the first half year is to get myself seriously wedged up for my big trip.

Kellylea

I would love to join KELLYLEA.

I am 22 (23 in feb) and have made a resolution for 2010 to be my no spending year. I worked on my budget last night and taking away rent, water and council tax plus I decided to take out the minimum debt repayments too as they are neccesary and I will be paying a fixed amount of £100 off a particular debt each month in a kind of snowballing method.

So my budget to live on for the year is £8000 which seems so high compared to what you all say but I can't get it lower than this without selling our car but then other half couldn't get to work as buses dont run at night and he works nights and plus the bus fayre would then bump it up.

Anyway regardless £8k is a huge step for us as we have been very naughty people over the past few years and now have 13k of debt.

I have a one year old baby boy and we are trying for another to add to the brood which is a scary prospect as Zach was a suprise to us.

So my plan is envelopes, I will take out on 1st of month money to put in our grocery envelope, socialising envelope (£10 each a week), petrol envelope. Then pay all our bills on that day too. Check pay slips and any overtime or money over the usual amount will go immediately to savings as will all child benefit and tax credits as these will pay for the bits the kids need through out the year as this can be very unpredictable and I don't want it in my budget as I may feel defeated.

Look forward to getting to know you all and moving into Frugal Lane!

x x x

bails

Frugal Lane, quality! :T Welcome everyone, it's great to have you on board - keep those 'sign ups' coming!

I initially joined MSE to help me cope with losing my salary very suddenly, which was terrifying. Now, as I am about to go back to work full-time, having learnt so much about frugal living (with a lot more still to learn), I wonder what I will possibly do with all that cash :rotfl:This really COULD happen to you too

Actually, OH and I do have a 'grand plan' for the extra money...but you'll have to wait until Jan 1st to find out what it is lol! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

I thought it best to add my own budget to date here, as well as in the old thread. Any questions relating to this, please feel free to ask. This is what I include for keeping 3 of us and how much I have spent on each category during 2009 to date:

Groceries - £1,142
Toiletries - £46.56
Cleaning products - £13.12
Electricity - £890
Coal - £146.82
Logs - £160
Internet - £219.89
Mobile - £20
Telephone - £144.40
TV Licence - Due paid in December
Clothing & Footwear - £88.47
Gifts - £286.14
Extras - £26.43
Travel - £50.85 (included day trip to Belfast)
Insurance - £40.28
Misc - £12.38

TOTAL - £3,357.36

My budget has been £4000 for the past few years. I have been housesharing since 2001, I have lived in 9 different houses in that time owing to divorce, work, family and several unreliable landlords. Hopefully, where I live now will become home for the foreseeable future and, hopefully, I've now met the right person to share it with, so the budget may change slightly in 2010 as we adapt from house sharing to life sharing. :rotfl:

ChinaTea

Can I join in please. I've been lurking for the last year or so and think am ready now to sign up proper. Haven't worked my budget out yet but think it will be around the 4000 mark. There's only me and 3 cats so this should really be doable.

I've spent so much less money the last year just by lurking and taking note of the frugal tips. I'm having some work done on the bungalow next year and although this will be covered by a disabled facilites grant (hopefully) this doesn't include redecoration, carpets etc. Also have debts to pay off, although think this will take several years of being frugal. I already cook everything from scratch, make own bread, cook in batches, etc, my biggest problem is impulse buying, not clothes or shoes but books and hobby stuff.

Will sort out my budget over the next couple of weeks and look forward to a frugal new year.

charliee_3

go-on then.. add me!!! CHARLIEE
we are thinking of trying for a baby next year and it will be our first full year as home-owners so lots of projects we want to do including starting a veg garden to dig for victory (ours)!

we dont have too much debt, but our budget is to the bone and we barely make ends meet/ overspend most months and save hardly anything.

there are lots of areas where we can save money and lots where we just cant seem to.. mostly in telecommunications/ IT

we spend about at least £80-90 a month just on phones/ internet/ TV and it gets on my nerves but i cant seem to cut it down to what i feel we should be paying (more like £30!) but with the home phone line rental for the internet, my mobile, OH mobile braodband and basic sky TV package it is working out expensive..

and our food bills are out of control.. i rarely make food plans or lists and if i do i forget them or ignore them..

and we buy takeaways quite regularly (about 2 a month) which is another £30 down the pan (literally)

OH train ticket is our biggest non home expense.. got it on a 0% credit card but works out £340 a month just for that...

and i spoil our son.. i buy him too many cute things, mostly cheap bits, just a couple of pounds each. it mounts up, but i cant resist..

here's to a more frugal 2010!

Frugaldom

Everyone has been listed up to CharlieE. Good luck to you all for 2010.

I've been informed that this challenge is being removed from here as it isn't considered Old Style by MSE, but I'm sure it should be fairly easy to find wherever it ends up. Please subscribe to the thread via the 'thread tools' drop down menu at the top of the page to ensure you don't lose us. Thank you.

Penelope_Penguin

Good morning everyone :beer: I've been discussing this challenge with nykmedia, and we've agreed that as it isn;t a strictly Old Style Challenge, I'll move it to the How Much Have You Saved Board (which is where MSE Andrea has asked that we put Diary Threads ).

Good luck with your challenges :T

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

SuzyWuzy_2

nykmedia wrote: »

Welcome to our latest 'frecruits' (frugal recruits), I think I have all the names listed on page one and you'll learn the language as we proceed with the challenge. Basically, if it falls withing the 'frugal' heading then it begins with 'Fr', so if I'm going frugal shopping, I'm 'fropping' and when our dear frugalfriends have their babies, they have frugalmites or frugalettes. You'll catch on soon. :rotfl:I live in the Kingdom of Frug, forever known as 'Frugaldom', if anyone wants to live here, there's an empty house along the 'froad'. :rotfl:And before anyone asks the question or allows the thought to cross their mind, YES, we are all a little bit mad here but it is fondly known as being frugally eccentric. :cool:

:rotfl::rotfl:I'm going to fit in here. Thanks for the thread Nyk , I love reading your blog page, cant wait for decembers to start! Your an inspiration

pink_numbers wrote: »

You DO know that you have done an AMAZING job to cut down your food bill to so low don't you??? Not only have you halved, yes halved your food bill, but £75 for seven people is fantastic!

Thanks Pink, I think that we can improved on it alot, figure includes packed lunches for schools, work etc but not milk formula or nappies as I wash them.

I want to cutback on snacky stuff, biscuits, wine and Oh's lidls panache. We also have a Mr A's takeaway curry £6 which is included. I have a mini plan on what I want to do for 2010 food wise so fingers crossed!!

It would be nice for know what everyone else spends on groceries.

xnatalie81x wrote: »

WOW - This time last year I was on maternity leave (son was born Nov 07) and i was in the same predicament - stay or leave.

Hi Natalie, thanks for your comments and ideas. It's a hard choice isn't it. I'd be a SAHM if it wasn't for the money. We've been discussing it daily. We desperately need and want a bigger house so going back to work will look better mortgage wise. I hoped for a redundancy payout from work but it looks a no goer at the moment. I would like to be pregnant again around February so fingers crossed IF I go back it shouldn't be for too long.

Bails - arrh your words were lovely ! Thank you. What a welcome for us all