Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

educateandsave

Please add me. This is a brilliant idea - great to have so much support for a common goal.

educateandsave

larmy16

OK, so in a bid to stick to my food budget which will be £50 per week for three adults and will include everything (hopefully!) This also includes a cat on Hills Science plan and his cat litter.

I am doing a two weekly shop at Tesco for all the basics and heavy stuff plus our frozen vegetarian products. This I will aim to keep to under £60 (£30 per week) and include the £3.00 delivery charge. Went a little over today but found a £10 off voucher code so I stocked up on lots of loo rolls.

The remaining £20 per week will be to cover bread, milk, fresh fruit, veg etc. from Waitrose, which is a convenient place I pass regularly so will save on extra petrol.

I will be defrosting the freezer at the weekend in preparation for my new routine!

So my £100 per week allowance should be spent as follows.

£50.00 food
£20 for petrol
£30 to cover phone credit, haircuts, going out occasionally etc. I occasionally pay someone to tidy up my garden, so this will have to be saved up for too.

larmy16

Forgot to say that we went to Primark yesterday where they were selling off some mens' dressing gowns for £4.00 each. Nice and cosy too.

I bought the small size one and my son had a medium. We bought them to keep downstairs. I am wearing mine now. I feel a bit like Leslie Phillips in a smoking jacket but have turned the central heating down as I feel nice and warm.

Can still get on and do my housework in it too!

rozeepozee

For those asking about Asian supermarkets and cheap herbs, I found my receipt from my last visit. It was to the Manchester Superstores (so I'm assuming there's one in Manchester too?) on Cannon Street in Bolton:

20kg of Basmati Rice £17.99
400ml Natco Coconut milk 59p (not the cheapest)
200g green cardamom pods £3.29
400g tamarind 49p
400g garam masala £1.59
300g poppy seeds £2.79
400g jeera/cumin £1.59
400g star anise £1.09
400g haldi/turmeric 89p
1kg almonds £5.29
500g chana daal 79p
300g fennel seeds 89p
300g coriander seeds 79p
25g bay leaves 59p
400g chili powder 1.39
250ml mustard oil 99p

We really stocked up and won't have to buy many spices for ages (although I quickly used up the Chana daal making a lovely tarka dall and sprout and lentil curry - xmas dinner left overs! So need more of that.)

Most of these were fairly recognisable brands too - e.g. Natco. I wonder how it compares with Tesco and other Asian supermarkets in other areas?

JayneC

Hi all,

Not posted much but have been preparing!! Have written down my budget in detail and have opened a new savings account to put some of my 'one off expenses' money in.

Have divided my annual amounts into monthly amounts and will put away that each month - so into said savings account will go holiday money, xmas and birthday expenses, car costs and the misc/contingency money. I have another savings account for pure savings that I'm hoping not to touch and by doing this challenge save enough for a woodburning stove and back boiler by next winter.

Have allocated amounts for my 2 kids still at home that I'm responsible for (have another DD at home but she has own income and takes care of her own personal expenses, at least that's the theory!), for things such as clothing and school trips, etc. Will put a monthly amount into their building society accounts for this purpose. Also have allocated an amount for personal use - leisure and clothing - that I need to keep separate so think I'll use my savings a/c that's attached to my current a/c for that. It doesn't pay any interest to speak of but there's not likely to be much in there for any length of time.

So now will be using a total of 8 different accounts!!! Hopefully that will help me keep track!

Is anybody else hoping to save for something in particular?

Jayne x

mooomin

JayneC wrote: »

Is anybody else hoping to save for something in particular?

If I can stick to this budget and put any extra away, I'm hoping to add to my existing savings with my surplus each month and clear my remaining debt. This will mean I achieve my aim of being Debt-Free By 30, with only the mortgage left to tackle

I am hoping to receive a bonus in March from work which will pay for our mini-holiday at the end of that month (If not my current savings and Tesco deals vouchers will cover it), meaning the money saved from being frugal goes directly to my debt.

I bought a new diary today (paid for with voucher from work, so free!) which I'm going to put all my spending into. One of my problems with daily updates on spreadsheets is that sometimes I forget/can't be bothered. If I have this diary with me at all times I can input the info into Cheryl's spreadsheet when I have time/inclination. I'm also going to staple my receipts in there to confirm the amounts spent.

knithappens

flying_fresian wrote: »

If I can stick to this budget and put any extra away, I'm hoping to add to my existing savings with my surplus each month and clear my remaining debt. This will mean I achieve my aim of being Debt-Free By 30, with only the mortgage left to tackle

I am hoping to receive a bonus in March from work which will pay for our mini-holiday at the end of that month (If not my current savings and Tesco deals vouchers will cover it), meaning the money saved from being frugal goes directly to my debt.

I bought a new diary today (paid for with voucher from work, so free!) which I'm going to put all my spending into. One of my problems with daily updates on spreadsheets is that sometimes I forget/can't be bothered. If I have this diary with me at all times I can input the info into Cheryl's spreadsheet when I have time/inclination. I'm also going to staple my receipts in there to confirm the amounts spent.

same here but to be debt free by 35 ( ekk 2 and a half years) then tackle the mortgage with full force. I want to be mortgage free by 45 at the latest.

cake21

cake21 wrote: »

I will try and pay for magazine subscriptions/books/dvds/music (easy target as these could be borrowed free from the library) with cashback received in 2010 :money::D

To that end I listed 45 items for sale on Amazon Marketplace today, using the tips in the Amazon selling thread :money::D

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

I won't be joining in because it scares the beejesus out of me :eek: - I've looked at my spending levels and I can't get anywhere near it, the £4k that is, (or even £5k, even when I exclude all bills and think of not going on holiday! Gulp) despite having no children!!

To echo LilacPixie, come and join in!

I understood the thread to be all about working out what your needs cost, and budgeting for them; taking control over your own finances whatever they may be.

JayneC wrote: »

Is anybody else hoping to save for something in particular?

I would like to:
1. pay off my mortgage as soon as possible because it does feel like a millstone :eek:
2. practice living off a lower amount ready for a lower-paying job closer to home
and ultimately for retirement :j

Frugaldom

Welcome to all the new people who have 'signed up' this afternoon! We've now reach 170 participants with not much more than 24 hours to go until the beginning of yet another challenge, albeit slightly adapted to suit many more frugalites.

Re the Freecycle queries, our local ones seem to have changed to Freeble or Freegle and we also have Freeshare. They are all hosted on Yahoo boards, so you can log into your Yahoo account and change your settings for each group depending on whether you want individual emails or a condensed summary email at the end of each day. I switched to individual emails so I can see what's being listed as soon as it's advertised.

Tonight's dinner in our frugal household was baked potatoes done on the open fire after I forgot to put the key into the electricity meter and DS went off to work with it in his pocket! OOPS! Thankfully, the electricity didn't go out until after the banana/sultana loaf had finished baking in the breadmaker. (I had bashed bananas that had to be used and substituted sultanas for walnuts in recipe.) We had about 6 hours with nothing more than the log fire and a flask of coffee, courtesy of the neighbour when she came round this morning for her cuppa! :rotfl: DS got home from work just as I was lighting all the candles, but it was so pretty and the baked potatoes were so worth it! (Even when we do have power they are worth the frugal wait. :rotfl:) That's saved me a couple of £s whilst the electric heater was incapacitated.

Today's frugal activities included reading 'Low cost of Living' (no power, so I couldn't do work ), but I got the impression our challenge thread could still teach the author a thing or two about REALLY lowering costs. :rotfl:

To all who wonder about the £4,000 - this is only my personal budget, we each have our own depending on personal circumstances, hence the reason the challenge name has changed, so PLEASE JOIN US! You don't even need to declare your budget, as long as you know how much you have to cover the cost of pursuing a debt free lifestyle then you're sorted. Bust those debts, increase those savings, aim beyond your wildest dreams and see where the adventure takes you.

Lilac Pixie - I lived in Aberdeenshire for a bit, still got family & friends up there

watchthisspace_2

Can i join please???
Watchthisspace :j