FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 1. (Living on £4,000 a year)

Pippilongstocking

sophiesmum wrote: »

Love the "Humphrey" account lol, my uncle used to work for unigate dairies then and got us loads of sheets of humphrey stickers and stripey straws with milkshake in, which we swapped at school for football cards, and marbles (early LETS trades maybe lol)

Thats great - I knew someone would remember!

What is LETS? (sorry SM - I am being thicko here)

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j:j
A NSD here again- it's too slippery to tempt me anywhere near the shops unless I absolutely have to go:D
As ever on a work day not a whole lot of frugalling done but more bits collected from freecyclers and more to go tomorrow. I had great plans to clean another cupboard in the kitchen this evening but I've run out of energy so have copied down frugal recipes instead.
Someone asked for my tuna bake recipe [sorry my brain is once again playing hide and seek with me again this evening]
We make it by cooking pasta [we just bring it to the boil, leave lid on and turn heat off for 10 mins so it cooks through], mix a can of tuna with a tin of sweetcorn and a condensed mushroom soup. Stir the whole lot through the pasta and put grated cheddar on top. If we're using the oven for something else then we'll heat it through there or quickly microwave it.

This is the frugal recipe I'm going to trial at the weekend- if you change the chicken stock to a veg one then it would be suitable for vegetarians.
Carrot and sweetcorn crumble [sv 4]
1lb carrots, 1/2 oz butter, 2tsp clear honey, 3 tbsp chicken stock, s&p, 8oz can sweetcorn, 1tbsp chopped fresh parsley [I'll be using dried]
Topping: 4oz plain or wholemeal flour, 21/2 oz butter, 1oz breadcrumbs, pinch ground ginger
Preheat oven 190C. Cook carrots for 15mins or until they're just tender. Drain and dice them, then mix with butter, honey, stock and s&p. Spread carrots in a greased 2pt [1litre] baking dish. Cover with sweetcorn and parsley.
To make topping mix flour with 1/2 tsp salt. Rub in butter until crumbs. Stir in breadcrumbs and ginger. Sprinkle topping over vegetables and cook in oven for 20 mins until crumble is crisp and brown. Serve with a green veg

Arilx

JayJay14

Evenin' all:D

I have quite a stockpile considering there are only two of us. I keep at least a month of food in the freezers and cupboards as OH could be unemployed at any time due to being a temp at the mo (though he would love a full time job). He finishes his current job two weeks on Friday (29th) so it is always at the forefront of my mind. He hasn't been out of work in the last 2.5 years, though we sem to be cutting it a bit fine at the moment or the next one.

We have some savings (not as much as I would have liked but we went bonkers and had a holiday in October:eek:) so we will probably get by. So this is the reason for my challenge. To keep the basic costs down so that we can afford to pay the mortgage and CCs and still have something to make us feel we are 'living' - we have gym membership but can cancel if we cannot pay it, but would rather not:rotfl:

Have an interesting day at work tomorrow - a trip to a Materials Recycling Facility. I've wanted to go for ages, I work in the recycling dept at our local council and it will be interesting to see what happens to it all - and I will be able to tell the residents what happens to it with some authority. I mainly deal with queries as part of my job so first had knowledge will be handy.

Long post but I figure I haven't posted for ages, I am keeping up with the spreadsheet and think it will definately become a habit:T

annie123

Evening frugal friends
Have become addicted to CW spreadsheet, its sooo informative about ones shopping habits.

I still 'shop' as I did 18months ago (when I was on good London wages, but redundancy changed that :rolleyes:) popping in on the way home from work to pick up bits, quick look in Next etc, not that I buy anything now as I'm on 4k pa :rolleyes: but old habits die hard.

Noticed this because I fill in every box on the spreadsheet, and everyday there is something I buy! only now I buy whoopsies:D, or sugar free polo mints instead:D
Mints replace the cigs I dont smoke and so far I've cut out 10 of the 30 a day I smoke, and I plan to have stopped by the summer.

Anyone else use skype?
DS introduced me to this last night, and the money I/DD will save with DDs phone calls to BF is almost as much as our electric bill each month:eek: so am just deciding which skype phone/headset to get off ebay, (as a standby if I don't get one on freecycle) will pay for itself in less than a week:j

If anyones going to be growing food this year,
This is a link to gardening ideas for January that I started a while ago
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=351480
taken from the link below, which has the whole year except Nov and Dec, thought I did them too
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=9001607#post9001607

I'm no expert but it might help someone here as a starting point, lots of gardeners added some good ideas/links
I only have a tiny garden, but it is amazing how much you can grow in a little space, but often with a bit of trial and error first

Right back to looking at skype phones
xx

Ches

I had to pick up my medication from Boots today (free prescriptions) and walked right through the shop without buying anything.

Went into WH Smiths with OH who wanted to buy a newspaper. Saw my favourite magazine on the shelf but after having a quick look I decided it was a waste of money so didn't buy it.

Completely ignored M&S.

Did buy some mince in Sainsburys though as we fancied spag bol and I didn't have any in the freezer. Halved the packet, added a grated carrot and some mushrooms which made enough for us tonight and another portion for the freezer. These 1 person portions I use when OH is working away. The other half of the mince I will either freeze or use up tomorrow.

My on-line fuel bill was available to view on-line and I am about £90 in credit between the gas and the electic so pleased with that as the next bills are likely to be heavier so a bit of a head start with them. All in all a really good day. :j

larmy16

Have an interesting day at work tomorrow - a trip to a Materials Recycling Facility. I've wanted to go for ages, I work in the recycling dept at our local council and it will be interesting to see what happens to it all - and I will be able to tell the residents what happens to it with some authority. I mainly deal with queries as part of my job so first had knowledge will be handy.

Jayjay I would love to know this too. I have often pondered on it being a good idea for the councils to produce a dvd on what happens to our recycling for anyone who is interested. I would gladly pay a pound!

I heard that truly rag rags got made into J cloths? I know that fleeces are made out of plastic.

Kittikins

LoopyChriss - sorry, but I've read elsewhere on this site that the Boot$ 75% sale is NOT starting tomorrow, they've postponed it for possibly a week due to the bad weather putting customers off going to the shops....

When I was in my local shop picking up an order the other day, the manager told me that the company had bought a lot less in for Christmas than in previous years, so the pickings are a lot slimmer this year.

Spent more than I anticipated in Mr T's today grrr....

kittiej

Hello All

Well I got caught in the snow coming home, what should have been a half hour journey turned into 2 hours and in the end I had to leave my car down in the town as I couldn't get it up the hill which is a main road. Not much gritting has been done as the stocks are low apparently.

Spent 90p on 12 large rolls from work so that's £36.09 of my £3k budget


Eon Rep. Thanks for the advice. I wouldn't mind a copy of the 100 ways to save tips thingy. I have been on the interactive house also, more for the interior layout and decor lol. No I did pick up a couple of tips whilst on there.

My DD is probably £79 per month for gas because last year the heating was on 24/7. This year my CH has packed up so just using the gas fire now and to heat the water which I put on as I need it for an hour at a time so that's probably 4 hours a week.

I have just submitted my meter readings, and I always do when I receive a bill whether asked to or not. I don't want to be under charged.

I shall wait to see what my bills are at the end of the month.

bails

Hi frugallers!

Well, I've had the best day! On the train back from Brighton, as it was running 40 minutes late, we were given about £10 of free snacks from the trolley :T Has this happened to anyone else? I was over the moon (can you imagine how happy I'd be if this happens to me next year Nyk/BB? :rotfl:)

Then dad picked us up from the station and we popped by the dream cottage It's looking good, really lovely, and the work is going more slowly than planned so the timeframe would fit in better with us :rotfl:

After that, we went in search of wedding fields for the tipis, which was quite successful, and the outdoor space for the ceremony is big enough for all our guests and can hold chairs too :T

I am so happy with all of this! And then I get home to all my animals, perfect

Ooh, and I even picked up a hanging basket off the street in Brighton and carried it all the way up here to grow tomatoes in this summer :T

Hope you're all doing well; will try and catch up soon x

lynzpower

Another great day for me frugalling. I really feel im rediscovering the fine art of moneysaving so thanks to all for all contributions.

I have:
*taken lunch- filled my flask up as well so could have both cup-asoup and tea throughout what was a bitterly cold day outside. A handful of the end of the tin of quality street, bag of crisps, this is the sort of food I need outside in this weather!
*cleared out a building with work and have yet more recycling bags and bin liners. We reckon we wont need to buy bin liners probably till september, got loads. Also grabbed a few plant pots ( useful, I was thinking about buying some) and bottle of surface spray.
*Also found 7 books to go on amazon and a pair of trousers ( nice, autograph, look brand new) if they dont fit me they will go on ebay.

Days like these I love my job

*Great news! Im getting the piano- I can have it! I just have to work out whom I can get to transport it for me and lift it up the stairs :eek: However, I did some tinkling about with it and just cant wait to get it!

*been looking on LETS, but in my area there is absolutely nothing on the site at all, looks somewhat dormant I would love to get involved ( I met someone at a green fair talking about lets in another area of london) there are plenty of things I could do with help with and have am few skills I could offer. Will ponder this one- any other londoners in LETS? Im in SE11/1
*went into sainsburys to buy my flour but got caught out- you now have to spend over a fiver to be able to park for free.:mad: Cheeky blighters. I bought 3 bags of flour, a diet coke treat for self, some cheese for 2.50 and some mayo for OH to take for tuna mayo sandwiches which just tipped it over 6.00
*Tidied out my van and found a screwed up P&D parking ticket for 9.75 that I need to claw back from expenses. Also found 37p in coppers. Turned out a carrier bag and found a further 5p downstairs. There is gold in these hills!
*having a veggie curry with some rubber chicken from freezer with rice and onion bhajis from the M&S Xmas offer.
*found another CD that I dont like so might resurrect music magpie to flog a few, will see though, I think we sold most of the stuff not scratched to death.

Thanks for the january planting thread Annie, very useful. I dug out my grow your own veg and really not a lot we can start now, but willstart gathering stuff for end of Feb. We too have to grow in pots, we never know when we will move.

I was thinking about growing potatoes in a bin up there, does anyone have any advice- is it easy?