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

ChinaTea

Lilo, Sorry to hear your news.

Had a good day at MrA yesterday, didn't want much and stuck to my list. Have only spent £30.35 so far this year on food and shouldn't need anything till into Feb. Did buy 4 x Branston beans for £1.50 so will try these at weekend.

Did buy me a proper preserving pan though £35 but this came out of £2 coins and change savings from last year. Figure this will have loads of uses aside from jam and pickle. batch cooking potatoes for the freezer, blanching, thought of loads of things when I was deciding whether to buy it or not.

Lunch today is a fridge/store cupboard pasta bake and tea will be the remains of an apple crumble from the freezer.

Spreadsheet is looking good so far, no3 puss is at vets for booster and check up in the morning but have budgeted for this x 3.

Made an early start on OU yesterday as well, read the whole of 1 chapter of the set book. Really need to spend next week catching up with housework, unfinished projects etc before course starts in earnest on Feb 3rd. Have a cardigan to complete, 5 socks to knit, bed cover to make for DGS from camoflage fleece I got before Christmas on ebay. was watching wartime kitchen on yesterday when it was on recently and loved the idea of cooking different veg in 1 pan using muslin bags. I bought a metre of muslin last year for 1.75 so want to make some bags for this. OMG the list is getting ever longer.

Right off to make a start on something or the other.

mooomin

Hi everyone

Frugal things today -

No money spent so far (Hoping Mr Fresian will buy milk while I'm at work!)

Homemade lunch - last night's dinner

Dinner will be bolognaise from the freezer :T

Payday tomorrow (Woo!) and I have a little money leftover! I also, according to my calculations, finally owe less than half of what I originally owed, so I'm feeling very proud :A

Have a frugalicious day!

Frugaldom

Hi Fru-guys and gals

Seriously, I am nowhere near being a farmer. I grew up living on a farm, but not as a farmer's daughter. I currently live on a farm, but not as a farmer ir a farmer's wife, just as a frugalite. I've always had livestock of some description or another, so never embraced the whole 'see the world' concept. My one vow, when growing up, was that I'd never marry a farmer - mainly because the majority of those I know wouldn't give an inch of grazing space to anything equine. :rotfl: I fully respect their way of life but can see both sides of the coin clearly. I think anyone who is prepared to give up their otherwise 'normal' street-based life to pursue farming must either be A) Crazy or Multi-millionaires with the appropriate staff, until their money runs out, that is.

I've always fancied 'the good life', but I am nowhere near being self-sufficient - we still need to do non-frugaldom work to supplement this lifestyle, but doing that from home helps. My theory is that if you are 100% aware of what it costs to meet your basic needs whilst living the lifestyle you want, then that's the bottom line.

I don't normally break down the prices of individual meals. I worked that lot out yesterday.

In 2008, I spent a total of £1,226.95 on groceries, which included catering for 100+ for DD's engagement party (cold buffet but a meal's worth nonetheless) There are 3 of us living in our household, so 3 x 365 meals = 1095 + 100 for party + approx 36 extra meals for visiting friends & relatives = 1231 meals approximately over the year, plus several BBQs. You can see that it all converts to less than £1 per person per day.

In 2009, I spent £1,231.63 on groceries for 3 of us + 11 visiting relatives for the weekend of DD's wedding + approx 12 meals for holidaying parents and the occasional BBQ. Again, this equates to less than £1 per day per person. My cupboards, larder, pantry, fridge and freezer were all full at new year on accounts of bulk buying, LETS trading, bartering, homegrown fruit & veg and foraging.

2010 - My annual target food budget for this year has been slashed to £900 because I intend doing a lot more fruit & veg growing, LETS trading, bartering and foraging. Bulk buys in dried goods are like investments, so the arrival of companies like Approved Foods on the scene has made this possible.

Now I need to go and get 4 carrot & sultana frugal loaves out of the oven before they burn. I'm still picking wonky-shaped carrots from the garden and had everything else needed in stock. I'll cost these up after lunch.

Catch up soon frugal friends.:)

candygirl

Hiya peeps:D:D
Have just totalled up my spends so far this month, and it's not as bad as I thought, despite all the clothes shopping:o:oand I have 2 pairs of trousers to take back so that'll be a bit extra going back in my bank;)
Went to the Boots 75% off sale last night, and got £23 of stuff for £6.49 which will do for a couple of bday pressies, so am quite chuffed:D
Am feeling a bit tired and down at the mo, so not firing on all cylinders, and wont be going for a swim today, but am taking HM veggie curry round to Mums for tea later on:D
Just off to wash up, and walk the hounds, so have fabbily frugal days everyone xx:A

loopychriss

gilligansyle wrote: »

All the talk of Branston beans, I bought some last week to try. Never again. . It's false economy for me to buy cheap beans, they don't get eaten.

The thing is, they're not usually cheap beans: in Morrisons they are usually £2.34 for 4 tins, which is nearly 60p a tin, the same price as Heinz! I personally don't like Heinz beans, so I guess it's each to his own, but Branston are certainly not cheap beans (unless they're on offer)!

babyboysmommy

nykmedia wrote: »

Now I need to go and get 4 carrot & sultana frugal loaves out of the oven before they burn. I'm still picking wonky-shaped carrots from the garden and had everything else needed in stock. I'll cost these up after lunch.

If you get a chance would it be possible to post the recipe? Many thanks

Not much to report here. A NSD for me, a day at home trying to catch up on housework etc.

I've dusted off my cross stitch things & plan on finishing a project I started ages ago but am not even close to finishing. I might also do some smaller projects that will be gifts, time consuming but cheap as I already have everything I need.

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j
Found 5p this morning and another penny last night. My frugal findings have now hit the heady heights of 8p this year:rotfl::rotfl:Hey ho it's not money I've had to earn though!
Today I will have to spend something as I'm going to a friend's 40th party tomorrow night and I need to take a small gift. I've only known him for a few weeks so it'll just be a token gift which won't break the bank.
Tonight I'm off to my friend's for my evening of making crystallised ginger- should be different:D The small person has got his first cookery lesson tomorrow:eek:He'll be making shortbread but I suspect it might all have been eaten long before he gets home which is quite a feat really as we live virtually opposite the school.

Now for the non frugal naughty news- erm as of tomorrow my Luddite self is being dragged into the 21st century as we have bought a Wii:o It's coming out of savings and we have given the purchase some thought. Lots of reasons [apart from wanting one:rotfl:] for buying it plus we're going to have a lot of fun :j
Arilx

thriftylass

Gonna have guests for tea tonight but didn't need to get much in as main and desert will come out of store cupboard/freezer (herby lamb/pork meat balls with spicy tomato sauce and couscous and apple puffs for after). Starter will be some baked camembert that I got in my almost free top up shop yesterday. Hopefully BF will get the drinks in

thriftylass

babyboysmommy wrote: »

I've dusted off my cross stitch things & plan on finishing a project I started ages ago but am not even close to finishing. I might also do some smaller projects that will be gifts, time consuming but cheap as I already have everything I need.

I got a really nice old-fashioned sampler ages ago that I wanted to start (although BF rolled his eyes when I showed him, thinking that's me 30 going on 70 :rotfl:). Just don't have the time and patients atm

rozeepozee

The bad news is I managed to burn my first attempt of a meal in the Slow Cooker! A little disheartening. Recipe said cook on high for 3 hours then on auto for 8. I'd only read the 8 hours bit so hadn't given enough time to get it ready for eating tonight. So I left instructions for OH to turn onto auto after 4 hours. This was obviously too long however, and although OH "thought he could smell burning" didn't do anything about it apart from follow my instructions (didn't dare probably as he would then have been blamed..). Anyway, managed to salvage most of the contents though they're very dry, we'll add some tinned toms and still have tea tonight.

Very pleased by discovering a slightly local Aldi. It's much cheaper than anywhere else, although the range of foods is a fraction of Tesco's, but as we only buy staples and cook from scratch, don't think this will affect us too much. So my bag of shopping came to under £15 and this was with a not budgeted for £3.49 bottle of wine for OH and thermal underwear set for £4.49 for son (it's still darn cold here in sheffield and kids thermals cost a fortune in the outdoor stores!)

I mentioned Aldi's prices and varieties of seeds in an earlier post - they do have a pack of mixed salad leaves and gardeners delight cherry toms in this offer at 39p per packet if anyone's wanting cheap veggie seeds.