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

knithappens

just typed a huge post and lost it, too tired to type it again, so will just say high for now as busy listing ob ebay, and seeing what the items i have on there are selling for, even stch a babies 1st xmas stocking and teddy on there lol

Puddleglum

Hi All,

The Chief Luddite (me!) at Drama Queen Central (me again!) has just managed to list 5 items on EBay.:j

You wouldn't believe the howls of frustration, the kicking of chairs, the cups of coffee and chocolate, yes chocolate. My first 5 items ever, are on EBay.

Just had to share this with someone. Thanks for reading.

Shuffles off to recover.

Puddleglum

knithappens

Puddleglum wrote: »

Hi All,

The Chief Luddite (me!) at Drama Queen Central (me again!) has just managed to list 5 items on EBay.:j

You wouldn't believe the howls of frustration, the kicking of chairs, the cups of coffee and chocolate, yes chocolate. My first 5 items ever, are on EBay.

Just had to share this with someone. Thanks for reading.

Shuffles off to recover.

Puddleglum

i have listed 23 in the last 24 hours, i feel i am going insane.

mooomin

Puddleglum wrote: »

My first 5 items ever, are on EBay.

Just had to share this with someone. Thanks for reading.

Shuffles off to recover.

Puddleglum

Well done!!

knithappens wrote: »

i have listed 23 in the last 24 hours, i feel i am going insane.

I'm up to 15 and am so fed up. Taking a break to watch Kitchen Nightmare with Mr Fresian for a while then shall return to the hell that is Ebay listing.

I think I'm being punished by the gods for being in debt :rotfl::rotfl:

purple_angel_3

Hi all,

Hope everyone has had a good wekend.

I have been sorting the kitchen this weekend, have a load of items to go to the charity shop. Took a trip to Ikea on Saturday to return some kitchen cupboard shelf that were the wrong size, got a refund of £1.00 and shelves that fit and I walked all the way through the store and did not buy anything very pleased with myself. Kitchen is now very organised.

Notice that Wilko's has onion sets and seed potatoes, plan to get some next weekend. Need to start planning this years growing for the allotment and the garden.

purple_angel

lynzpower

Notice that Wilko's has onion sets and seed potatoes, plan to get some next weekend. Need to start planning this years growing for the allotment and the garden.

theyve also got a mnushroom set (careful- that I cut my hand on )! its about 5.50, I might get it for ease- maybe. Need to read up on mushroom container growing

I too lost a massive reply earlier and cant be bothered to do it again aside from to say I havent ebayed yet, and not sure im im going to I SO cant be faffed right now!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Another day of frugalization (or maybe not).

1. went on son's paperround with him. This may not be frugal to everyone else but it earns him £4 that he doesn't have to harrass me for. Although the spendthriftness seems to have skipped a generation because he doesn't seem to ever want to spend it having £100 in his money box.
2. Went to visit my parents and got force fed some lunch. This would have been v v good had I not alread had lunch at my own house, and a huge roast tea being made by DH. *burp*
3. My dad is going to the fruit & Veg market tomorrow. My 20 pieces of fruit bought yesterday for £2.25 is now six pieces of fruit, five of which are bananas so I've given him £3 to buy some more satsumas and pears. My family are a plague of locusts
4. Did a massive shop in Morrisons for less than £43. They had some good special offers / bargains too. Shouldn't need to go midweek. Even got there early enough for the cheap bread and cheap chickens,.
5. Took my coppers down to the coinstar machine, kept some 10ps back and in total shifted £2.73 over to my £365 in 365 account (now stands at £30 for Christmas).
6. Was walking past Clintons and a box of wrapping paper that had been 99p per roll last week was reduced to 49p per roll, so I picked up five rolls.
7. Didn't buy any newspapers in the morning but waited til I went to see my parents and nabbed their three papers, plus the two they got on Saturday. Not getting newspapers and my fix of celebrity gossip is something I really miss, and truly takes willpower not to buy.
8. It was a bit warmer today so didn't feel the need to have the heating on. The fire and a jumper sufficed. Jeez, August cant come quick enough!
9. Finally got around to posting the letter from DH accepting his offer of a dentist. No more paying for private treatment - woohoo! Shame it didn't come three months ago
10. Bought a huge 2kg pork joint for £4.50 today, and it is large enough to be split into two meals.
11. Made a PAD of sorts to my CC. Needed to pay £93 to bring it back under limit and absorb the interest they are adding on next week, and paid £100 so it should be £7 under the limit.

Not so frugal

1. Bought lightbulbs which were the wrong ones and DH didn't notice until he'd cut the packet open so I can't even take them back and swap them - GRRRR
2. Found out today that I'm going to be an Auntie for the first time. My brother and his partner are expecting!! I just know if it's a girl I'll be going bankrupt for buying pink things!!!!!

JustKeepSwimming_2

jtb2412 wrote: »

2nd TR ...... if my son turns out to be half the man you are then I'd be a very happy mummy indeed.

I wish you all the best and admire your loyalty and family values - no amount of money can EVER make up for those. Do pop on for a 'natter' if you can though, we've all got big ears and happy to listen if you need a moan at any time.

Totally seconded! Best wishes 2ndTR & you'll always find someone on here to talk to for support. People on here have been so kind to me during difficult times.

cw18 wrote: »

I assume dried mushrooms could be thrown into spag bols and sausage casseroles (which would save me freezer space, as I seem to keep collecting mushrooms in there :rolleyes2: )

CW18 - is there a knack to freezing mushooms? Mine always go slimey :eek:

xnatalie81x

Hi all - dunno if you remember me paying loads for hen food and not being able to find a local place to buy cheap I FOUND ONE -- it is like a farm distributor thing where you go ask for it and they get it for you. Bag layers pellets and bag of corn (i love my girlies lol) for £15 - that lasts around 3mths as i mix them together and they get kitchen scraps too.

They are still laying 3 eggs a day (3 hens) and i have started to pay my neighbour 6 eggs a week to look after my 2 year old for 2hrs while i work on a Monday

Yesterday was my first ever swimming lesson for my own business and went fantabulous

Lots happening here which i won't bore you with - am reading all posts but enjoying lurking at the moment. My budget is well on target

Frugaldom

I'd just like to congratulate Lilli for her excellent post, I LOVE to hear of people having their frugal living 'lightbulb moment' and you certainly seem to have had yours. Well done! :T:j:beer:

Today we had lunch with the neighbours and brought home huge 'doggy bags', so that's pudding sorted for a few days in this household. Had a lovely time discussing all sorts of frugalite stuff then came home and decided to repot my one surviving lettuce seedling from the tub outside - the ducks managed to get the cover off and demolish the beginnings of my early spring salad leaves! :rolleyes: I now have a solitary lettuce plant in a pot on my windowsill, but it spurred me on the rake over the big planter and sow more slad leaves. This time, the box has been put within the safety of the greenhouse.

Seed box has been looke dout and all dates checked - I have aubergines, tomatoes, leeks and peppers that can all be planted January & February, so my plan for the rest of this month is to get all the preparation work done and then het planting. I'll start them off indoors and then move them outdoors under glass. We have another rescued chest of drawers awaiting conversion to a coldframe, so this will also need fixing up soon. A little bit of sunshine is all it takes to renew my energy for tackling the garden.

Increasing savings is looking a bit shaky, as I'm still £1500 short on filling my ISA for the 2009/10 year, so that's been playing on my mind. Being self-employed, I can't do overtime and, being a frugal-fiend, I don't have a pile of surplus to requirement items I can sell, so it's going to be a case of every penny saved is a penny earned is a penny saved - from my budget, cashback, website clicks and anything else I can think of. LETS trading should help reduce the grocery budget, as I swap most of my homehelping and pet-sitting duties for food, like my pheasants.

Hope everyone has had a frugal weekend.