Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

ceridwen

dave4545454 wrote: »

good luck to everyone in the challenge for 2010, it definitely can be done, i worked out that 2009 cost me under £1500

Hmm.....errr....skip-diving???/guerilla gardening ??? Errr...yep...do tell..:D

Think today's challenge is making mush edible - last nights experiment with the slowcooker was putting some oat groats that had been sitting there forever in my cupboard waiting for me to think how to use them and cooking them overnight.

Thinks...maybe I shouldnt have soaked them for hours first - as one is recommended to do for "standard" cooking in a saucepan...:rolleyes:. They've cooked very much to mush - so I've rescued them and thrown some stewed rhubarb on top and some poppy seeds (to add a bit of crunch) and thats my porridge substitute this morning. Trying not to think of just how burnt-on they were to the crockpot itself - "fun" job for later to clean that off...:o.

Yesterday's attempt at making my own moisturizer resulted in a severe misjudging of the size of jar I needed for the finished product - so its sitting languishing at the bottom of a standard size honey jar now...the next test is to try it and see what its like. Remininding myself "ceridwen - do you really want all sorts of horrible chemical nasties heading straight through your skin into your insides? Well then - keep making the natural stuff" (having read that 60% of what one puts ON the skin heads straight THROUGH the skin....aaaagh!).

BigMummaF

flying_fresian wrote: »

Ooh.

I'm not amazing with Excel either.

For this challenge I have a sheet which shows my budget for the year and then am going to fill in spends monthly into sheets I think. I'm half thinking of getting a notebook and stapling all my receipts into it to save all this bl**dy Excel work

I'm not brilliant at any poota stuff either, but I think I've found a way to keep me organised. It is extremely long winded but I've enjoyed getting the practise as much as filling it in. And of course, I have had serious help from the lovely cw :T
OK. I have a spreadsheet for each month & on that are the categories I want to itemise. It is predominantly various food groups so I can see where I may be able to make some cut-backs.
Down the first column, I've headings for:- Dairy, Deli, Frozen Savory, Frozen Sweet, Fruit, Meat & Fish, Miscellaneous, Store Cupboard, Tinned, Veg. Then comes Coupon, No Spend Day, Petrol, Other & a place to record Gas & Lekkie readings. There's also one for a local store that doesn't itemise the bill so if I forget to write it down as I go I can lump it in as just the total
Across the top SIZE=1]starting in the first column so it comes under the heading[/SIZE is:- Date, Store, Item, Quantity, Catch Weight, Price per Catch Weight, Price Each, Offer & Total. I can add notes after the total column to say if we liked that brand etc.
So off I toddles to MrT SIZE=1]our closest reasonably priced[/SIZE do the shopping then scribble all over the receipt saying what weighs how much & any specifics of the deals I can remember. Open the spreadsheet & cop off the recipt so it would look something like..
Dairy
27...T...milk...2...2pt...-...-...86...-...172
28...M...milk...2...2pt...-...86...10...RTC...20...full fat! rice pud!!
Then I would see that MrMorrie had full fat milk Reduced To Clear, it should have been 86p per unit but I got it for 10p each to make rice pud etc.
Fruit
27...T...pp pears...2...800g...-...159...2-4-200...200
27...T...nanas...-...732g...98/kg...-...-...68
Here I bought pre-packed pears [that I weigh in the shop to see if they're good value before buying ] that were £1:59 a bag or Buy 2 for £2 & loose bananas.
Miscellaneous at the moment, houses those things that I buy to make a meal like burger rolls or a packet of biscuits because I no longer buy them routinely, while Store has everything I need keep in my cupboard like foil, pain killers, baking ingredients & shampoo. Other is the place for Gifts, car bits, pet meds etc.
For my own interest, I then have a spreadsheet for each category & copy the info over at the end of the month just to compare the prices. For instance, that 3L milk in MrT has gone from £1:50 down to £1:26 & back up to £1:40 with various prices in between!
I have looked at the spreadsheet cw very kindly sent through & will use that too come next Friday but I'm also going to make myself a little accounts book & write all the monthly totals in there too, just in case the poota has a headache one day

mooomin

Another person armed with cw18's spreadsheet here and ready to do battle with my budget

I looked it at first and thought "eek" but it's easy to use once you start playing with the figures and seeing how it can work for you. I'm geekishly looking forward to filling it in every day

patentgirl

Hi Nykmedia and everyone else
Could I please join up PATENTGIRL
I followed last years thread with interest and think I am ready for starting now will have to work out totals, just me and DH and 1 dd left at home although her bf often is here, older DD married with baby boy and DS recently set up home with gf and baby girl so they all eat with us at least once a week! DH luckliey got an allotment last year but has now found a full time job so think it will be down to me to take over responsibilty this year so would like some tips if anyone has any, we need to start saving for our retirement which is just round the corner, so this is the year we need to start long term changes, off to look at excel!

cw18

flying_fresian wrote: »

Another person armed with cw18's spreadsheet here and ready to do battle with my budget

I looked it at first and thought "eek" but it's easy to use once you start playing with the figures and seeing how it can work for you. I'm geekishly looking forward to filling it in every day

I'm really pleased to read this - especially the latter bit

I have tried to remember to warn people it can look pretty scarey, but the bulk of the work is done behind the scenes - and all the 'end user' needs do is set up their regular payment headings (once), set their annual budget (for each category - once, but these can be adjusted through the year like I did this year), and then just enter spends as/when they occur. These spending entries don't even have to be entered as detailed as I do - the spreadsheet will work just as happily on being told 'Mr T - £34.20' as it will being told what every item I bought was, and how much I saved by buying (some of) the items as Whoopsies

mooomin

cw18 wrote: »

I have tried to remember to warn people it can look pretty scarey, but the bulk of the work is done behind the scenes - and all the 'end user' needs do is set up their regular payment headings (once), set their annual budget (for each category - once, but these can be adjusted through the year like I did this year), and then just enter spends as/when they occur. These spending entries don't even have to be entered as detailed as I do - the spreadsheet will work just as happily on being told 'Mr T - £34.20' as it will being told what every item I bought was, and how much I saved by buying (some of) the items as Whoopsies

I like it a lot, and was having fun working out how the whoopsies bit worked last night, sad sod that I am I am quite the whoopsies hunter, so am going to try and input all of these through the year to see what I have saved! I might not input all other spends though.....I am quite lazy at times and don't want this to feel like a chore - can't wait for January 1st now

I like that there's a running total on the front sheet so I can look at it and think, "ok, I have overspent on X but am under budget on Y so this will mean I'm on target (Or not!)"

Thanks again :T

cw18

You're welcome



If there's anyone else who'd like to see a copy (with no obligation to use it, and permission totally granted to tweak it to fit your own requirements), then as long as you have Excel 97 or above (let me know if on 2007, as 97-2003 is a backwards compatible version that I can't fully test) let me have your email address and I'll happily send it through

JayJay14

cw18 - you have a pm

rozeepozee

I'm feeling very frustrated that I have a bored toddler who wants to be entertained and a very achey pregnancy bump which means I can't sit at the computer for too long - as I want to PLAY with Cheryl's speadsheet :mad:

JayJay14

Thanks for the spreadsheet cw - I have started filling it in, and the totals are the scarey part.

When you have never looked at budgets yearly before it is really wierd. I am hoping that I can work out a realistic plan but this may be my training year I think:rotfl:

I will also have to plan for DS's 21st in May and Ashia's(DD1) wedding in September, though DS never asks for much and Ashia is planning an MSE frugal Wedding so I should have some help.