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

candygirl

I'm hanging my head in shame cos I cannot be arsed putting all my stuff on ebay today, due to a hangover, n tiredness with being up with DGD last night:o:o
I will do it soon though;)
Just updated my spends so far this month, and despite all my clothes buying I reckon i'll be within budget hopefully:D:D

babyboysmommy

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Roast chicken dinner was a huge hit - not only fed me and the kids, but 3 dogs, two cats AND enough left over for chicken and leek pasta bake tomorrow plus little treats for the dogs and catsx

Can I please have the recipe for the chicken & leek pasta bake. I also did a chicken today & have lots of leftovers. Many thanks

savingfortravel

Evening Everyone!

Got a few posts to catch up on. Thank you Lilliput for your fantastic post. Agree with you 100% and so glad I can come 'here' for some likeminded support. I don't worry about the Jones'..but do have to discipline myself to keep smart (hair, clothes, shoes) for school.
Really liking the 'tip-offs' for cashback and freebies..that really does help us all. Keep them coming folks.
Also loving people's frugal achievements of the day.


SFT's Frugal Achievements of the Day

• Went on our walk-frugal entertainment...out in the sunshine on the best day of the year so far.
• Went to the pub for lunch but shared a tuna mayo baguette..there was plenty for a snack (accompanied by crisps and huge amount of salad)
• Bought a B*den cardi from ebay for £10. For school of course.
• Still a little bit of cold coffee in the cafeteria so made another cup with a splash of milk and hot water.
• Up to 80 tins of B B*ked B*ans.
• Frugal tea-1/4 of M and S pizza each with our value potatoes as chips.
• Collected more 'bits and bobs' for my card making.
• Drinking Value lager whilst watching Larkrise.

Take care all

I didn't put anything on ebay but am thrilled that so many of you did. Well done.


sft

cw18

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

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

I wouldn't say mine go slimey, but I only ever use them to cook them into things like spag bol.

I just freeze them as they come - whole if they're small, chopped into halves/quarters for the slightly larger, or sliced for the largest. If I have time/space, then I prefer to freeze the chopped/sliced ones on a tray before packing - but don't always do this.

thriftylass

Will catch up on posts soon.
Went snowboarding today. Got the liftpass free so that was £25 saved. Only spent £6 on lunch and a pint later. Unfortunately, we were starving so the fish pie is finished, none left for lunch . Really sore, so had an unfrugal bath .

lynzpower

Yes agree totally in awe of thos ewho put things on ebay! Well done you lot! :j

My frugal achievements were:
*Went to lidl and aldi only to buy whatever thier cheapie veg was. Got potatoes, onions, shallots, blueberries, butternut squash potatoes & carrots and more passata and chopped tomatoes and double cream as Ill do some baking this week.
*Spent no money on toiletries although was tempted ( am also doing the no more toiletries challenge)
*listed one book on amazon
*done my toluna clicks
*gained 10 more points with my pru as walked 10000 steps along with going to the gym. Gold status will be mine!
*Oh has a dreadful hangover so he doesnt want a main meal however i made up a brunch with tin beans, some rubbish HM bread ( used up a hovis granary mix- not buying that again) couple of eggs and some turkey rashers that had been in the freezer a while and the last of the mushrooms. this means the roast pork, asparagus and dauphoniise & carrot & parnip rosti is tomorrows offering ( after work) however all components need to be used up.
*Saved the mushroom carton as a tray for planting seedlings in when the time comes
*got my free shelving unit sorted in the office now, am about to do a bit more tidying to try and get it finished.
*have done some toluna surveys. Ive worked out they only send the vouchers earned when you have enough for your NEXT voucher on order. I have 12 quids worth of love to shop vouchers with them due to be sent out and im about 15000 points off getting my next one, if that makes any sense!
*house is looking quite good, lots of tidying done today.

Frugal failings:
lots of things I havent done but there is always tomorrow!



Hugs to anyone that needs them xx

cw18

flying_fresian wrote: »

I'm annoyed that I spent so much today (£42.74) BUT pleased that it has all been spent on things we will use that were well reduced.

If you think that's a lot you're going to have palpatations at my spending today

Need to total it all up by category, but I know I spent £235 (give or take) as I had that, plus some small coins, in my purse when I went out -- and have come back with barely more than coppers (having used cash only in the shops) :eek: :eek:

BUT, my first stop - and biggest spend - was for a new coat. Decided well before Christmas I was going to splash out on a good quality waterproof coat, as I'm sick of the cheap one I have leaking (I've had it about 6 years, and it started leaking a couple of years after getting it). There were 3 makes my DH regularly looked at when he wanted a new coat for hill-walking, and one of them has an outlet store on a retail park about 10 miles from me - so I'd long since decided that was where I was headed for one.

Whittled choice in the store down to 2 having explained exactly what I'd use it for/want to get from it. One was £90 (should have been £150 I think) and the other was £169 (original price £249). Compared them closely, and the 'security pocket' on the more expensive one was much better, as were the 'storm flaps' over the zip and the pockets- plus the cheaper one was slightly shorter than my current one (which doesn't quite cover my rump, meaning I get nasty wet patches where the rain runs off), whereas as the dearer one was longer and provided the 'desired coverage'.

Then quizzed the staff in detail on "life expectancy" of coats and cleaning/maintaining the waterproof status, and it became clear the dearer one (the G0rtex version, which was something DH always considered a bonus) was dearer for a reason.

So I came home with the dearer one, plus a bottle of 2-in-1 cleaner/re-proofer which was another £9.95 but claims to contain enough for 'up to 10 washes' - so that should last a loooong time if I can manage just to need doing it at the start of each winter They didn't push the purchase of this (unlike a certain shoe shop who try and sell me special cleaners every time I purchase footwear from them), and I actually wouldn't have even known they had it available had I not asked about the cleaning process.

It's not all coming from my budget though...... and with a bit of 'creative accounting' I may not actually have to account for any of it

I had £50 from my parents (Christmas pressie) that I earmarked towards this purchase.

I've then got a further £58.47 I can 'deduct' from the cost without feeling I'm cheating, as I had this left from my £8k budget for 2009 - so in theory that's "savings" that don't form part of my budget for this year, especially as I'd planned to get a new coat earlier in the winter but not had chance to get to the store since I started work.

This means I currently have £108.47 to come come off the cost - so only £60.53 to account for in terms of the coat, plus £9.95 for the cleaner making a total of £70.48

I'm also trying to decide whether I can discount the rest......

I got a whopping £71.83 in C00p dividend vouchers late last year, and haven't been near the bank to pay them into my account since then. Wandered to our closest C00p store this morning, and (as well as picking up two of the £2.50 bags of toilet rolls) I managed to get them cashed there :T As this is 'additional income' I can't count on/don't include in my income figures when calculating my budgets (and don't anticipate getting anything like as much again) and didn't spend last year, I don't see why this can't come off the cost of the coat as well When I got the dividends I actually planned on using them for 'extras' for Christmas, but in the end I didn't need them as I covered everything within my £8k budget.

This would completely cover the rest of the coat and the cleaning solution...... just struggling to decide whether this last bit of 'creative accounting' can really be justified :rolleyes2


Anyhow, I'm now off to enter all todays spending (which also includes £17 on 4 T-shirts to make up part of elder DS's birthday and Christmas pressies - one of which was reduced from £8 to £3 as it's a Christmas themed one) into my spreadsheet.

BigMummaF

I've just checked the May 09 DigIn newsletter & it works :j It says it will be back again "in the Spring" & I'm hoping THIS will take you to the page..

Today while the roast was cooking, I've made a pastry-pie each for us & Pup from Friday's cottage pie left-overs, ready for dinner tomorrow as I'll be out all day wiv me muvva. They've been cooked so I'll only need to do mash & green veg in one pot & a bit of gravy in another, cuz the left over mixed veg went under the lid too I also tried a new-to-me recipe for cheese straws; my usual uses egg yolk & bits of things, whereas this one was equal quantities of plain flour, grated cheese & marg, with a bit of salt & I added a couple of teaspoons of dried mustard too. Extremely messy to rub in, but that may have been because I used tub as opposed to the recommended block marg & they were a bit too close together on the baking sheet, but who needs pretty when you're not entertaining

Skint_Lynne

Hi all,

I've been quiet of late, as I've not had a lot to update on.:o I am doing quite well I think, today was another NSD, I am sticking to putting the £100 in the purse on a Friday, and I have had money left every week so far.

I had a really nice day today and a nice evening last night visiting friends. Last night was the friend who had/has husband trouble, I was delivering christmas presents there:rolleyes:, and she had another friend of hers visiting, it was a really good laugh. I ended up having some really good debates with the friend, I love that sort of thing. The wee fella was just interested in his christmas pressie, as they are at that age, he must have wondered what we were on about at times.:p

Then, today I left home around 12.30 and went to friend 1 who has 2 wee girls, I had made them chef's sets up which they were over the moon with, they had the hats and aprons on in seconds.:rotfl:

I stayed there for a couple of hours, then went to friend 2 who has a boy of 7 and a wee girl of 2, who is a cutie pie, they were delighted as well. It gives them something to look forward to when I deliver the presents in January.:rotfl:

Then went to mum's for dinner, then 2 my brother's as my SIL had made a shepherd's pie for me, that will be dinner tomorrow. And, of course I got to see :heart2:my favourite:heart2::smileyheahe is just a wee sweetheart, he now calls me Auntie, and repeats it all the time, just so cute.

So a good day all round, I am defo going to visit my friends more, especially with DH going away in March, so that will keep me busy. I felt bad as the kids had gotten so big, and I do love catching up with my friends. You get wrapped up in yourself and live in your bubble most of the time, I need to burst the bubble methinks.;)

Even better, no cash spent, but days like this are priceless anyway and cannot be bought.

Speak later all. xx

Skint_Lynne

Thanks for the link Big Mumma,

I've saved it in my favourites. I got the seeds last year, but still have them to use this year. It would be good to get some more.;)