Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

kezlou

Hi all wondering if i would be able to join in the challenge for next year.kezlou We really need to get out of debt and our overdrafts badly this challenge might give me the kick i need.

Where do i begin, well were a family of four theirs me (26), OH (31), DS1 (9), DS2 (5) and two cats (m + f both neutered). Over the years we have accumulated about £8000 worth of debt e.g. CC’s and OD’s , and about £30,000 of student loans. The student loansi don’t have pay yet as are well below the threshold. But I still have to pay £1500 back to them due to a miscalculation. The figure used to be far more but I’ve managed to pay £6000 off with great difficulty.
Since 2003 I and my DH have had quite a rough go at things what with deaths in the family, business going bust , birth of a second child, having to retrain from scratch. I lost my university funding which left us totally overdrawn and me up the creek without a paddle.
Back in October my partner managed to secure a temporary position with some funding until March2010, after that i have no idea what’s going to happen. I am now a forced SAHM, but i am still applying for jobs, had plenty of interviews but nothing has happened so far, but still looking. I have decided enough is enough and a budget needs to be sorted out as i badly want to be out of debt and to stop living within our overdrafts.
Me and the boys having started growing our own veg / fruit in pots, we only have a very small yard so can’t produce loads but it’s still all good and the boys love it. Throughout summer we pick brambles, fruits and freeze them, make our own jam. I already bulk buy certain products, e.g. cat food, batch make food, buy reduced foods and home cook everything inc bread. Which has cut our grocery bill dramatically i think i have halved it.

We're always going to car boots sales, searching through charity shops and regularly use freecycle. We are currently doing up the home slowly and I’m recycling various materials i have for curtains, cushions beanbags etc so i think I’m on the right track. Well i hope i am.:o Wow thats a long post sorry all.

Kerfuffle

Thanks cw18 and bails for sharing your stories, you've both really inspired in more ways than one.

Kerfuffle

mardatha wrote: »

why does everybody else know these things and I don't ? :rolleyes: TY !

Have you managed to do it ok?

bails

Thanks for sharing your story too CW x It is so amazing what can be achieved and the level of security that can be gained in a previously scary situation :T

Welcome latest recruits

meg72

May I join please. I have thanks to this site achieved my cheapest ever
Christmas. Am all finished except for fresh fruit and veg and have some
gifts over for next year. Also still have my sealed pot.

I would love to take my Grandsons for a holiday next year so need to do some serious saving


Meg72

Frugaldom

Good afternoon to all

I have just updated the challenger list to include everyone up to Meg72, so welcome on board fruguys and gals, I hope you're ready to begin a walk on the wild (frugal) side for 2010, the new age of thrift. :rotfl:I realise that many people are already well versed in frugal or thrifty ways but ours is a collective challenge where support is exchanged for support, encouragement is exchanged for encouragement and irresponsible spending on non essentials whilst being in debt is frowned upon, otherwise we may as well not be participating here. :rotfl:

Onward and upward, we were asked to leave the OS forums and got relegated to the 'how much money have you saved' thread. There are so many people disagreeing with this choice, which, I might add, was made on our behalf by the powers that be on MSE, that I am going to request we be moved back over to the DFW threads. Even once we have no debt, we wannabe debt free forever! Bookmarks will still work IF MSE agrees to move us to a more suitable home.

NowWhat_2

Serial lurker here - and I believe this thread should have stayed on the DFW Board. Certainly - if it got moved from there - then it should be on the O.S. Board as a second choice.

Lets hope there is only one more "shift from pillar to post" - and thats back onto one of those two Boards. I don't understand why you have been "marginalised" after all this time....now tell me you havent "staged a raid on MSE Towers" or upset a Board Guide on some other thread of yours? I'm puzzled as to why this is happening.

Frugaldom

Hi NowWhat, I'm afraid that I cannot answer your question as I don't understand it myself. We all started off on DFW then got moved to the diaries section there. With many others requesting to join the challenge but who had already cleared their debts by living frugally, OS looked like the obvious place to go. As you'll have gathered by now, the MSE definition of 'Old Style' is obviously not what we understood it to be and the board guides moved us to a different location. I have now contacted them and asked for this challenge to be moved to DFW.

Edited in - As far as I am aware, I have not upset any board guides anywhere else on MSE nor has anyone, to my knowledge, staged or planned any form of raid on MSE towers.

Frugaldom

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

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].

Owing to popular demand and the prospect of what appears to be capable of manifesting itself as virtual rioting :rotfl: can we please be moved off the 'How Much Have You Saved' board and transferred to the DFW boards? If I need to maintain a small debt in order to qualify for such a move, my credit card balance is never zero, even when paying in full every month. PLEASE MOVE US.

PS - I never agreed that this was not 'Old Style', I thought it was. I simply didn't disagree with the decision by MSE to remove us from their 'OS' boards.

mardatha

I dont like the DFW forums and I'm never there. I only found you because you came down to OS . But as long as I can follow you now I don't really care where I am LOL !