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

ceridwen

lynzpower wrote: »

They are not coming back btw. Confused and rolleyes are gone forever - unless you import them or something similar yourself. Apparently they were causing offence to people- so they have gone forever. Martins choice.

Thanks for that - I had wondered if that was what had happened to them....and why..

rictus123

xnatalie81x wrote: »

Yep - i do it too - i water the families half water, half ff milk and mine to 3/4 water and 1/4 milk. Although changes nutritionally i ofset that against the amount of yoghurts and cheese these gannett's get through and they barely drink milk now. Mostly mine and OH coffee's now.

Just think 6pints is £2.25 and we get through 12 pints a week now (couple of milkshakes and lots of cereal) - normally would be £4.50 BUT with 1/2 and 1/2 my 12 pints costs £2.25 - a saving of £2.25 per week x 52 = £117.00 per year :T - my neighbour, mum and aunt do it now

I suppose when you put it like that it does add up :T

Kiwisaver_2

You've all been such busy bunnies and making great progress, you'll all be having the most fabulously organised and uncluttered homes (unlike me), although I am trying.

Nyk you kitchen jobbie sounds great.

I thought it was just me that got excited about packaging, about two years ago when we were first considering buying a new home I started a collection of bits and bobs that we needed. The first of which was a set of salad serving spoons and I put them away in a safe place. Despite searching I have never seen them since, BUT I found them today, in their original package and carrier bag. :T I was most excited, not that I found the salad servers you understand (I've managed all this time without them) but excited to find that they were wrapped in lovely tissue paper, which was promptly folded and put away with other such collected bits and bobs.

I had a good day, the weather was a bit kinder and more congenial for doing jobs around the house, so I went a bit mad with the cleaning and hoovering all through. I blitzed the utility room and tidied up and decanted my stash of cleaning stuff.

Yesterday I bought a huge slab of rump steak (500g) for about £2, so that was made into beef satays, which we had with some HM satay sauce and salad. The steak was quite fatty and wouldn't have been the best for frying, but was good after having all the yucky bits chopped off and marinated all day.

I also sowed some seeds in my little propagator: cocktail tomatoes, peppers, mixed lettuce, coriander and basil.

JayJay14

This is my third attempt to post this:mad:

Frugal living today so far,

Mushroom soup for lunch - last of value box of mushrooms
Quiche cooling - more of those mushrooms
Date and choc muffins - never made these before but had loads of dried dates in store
Bread just baked - for with the soup

More of this sort of activity later I think.

Some help please,

I have lots of my dear late mum's stuff boxed up in the loft. This has been there since 1998. I think the time (especially in view of OH's impending unemployment) to sell.
I am not interested in ebay - the thought of parceling up an antique art deco dinner service and trouping down to the post office, fills me with terror.:rotfl:
How do I go about realising as much as I can? The local auchioneer is the sort of place you buy bancrupt stock so not really the way to go.

Any suggestions greatly received as I have never done anything like this before.

Back to the kitchen I think.

larmy16

Bit of a pooey end of the week.

My car had to be MOT'D and cost £232 to get through. could have been worse but it was more than I had hoped so had to empty out my e accounts of monies saved for other categories.

I also had to pay £22.20 towards my Christmas club (but that is good) - also managed to keep my £365 savings of £34 and my sealed pot is still going.

Sadly my pledge to not shop on Amazon has been broken but I can always try again as from today!!

Good luck all.

rictus123

larmy16 wrote: »

Bit of a pooey end of the week.

My car had to be MOT'D and cost £232 to get through. could have been worse but it was more than I had hoped so had to empty out my e accounts of monies saved for other categories.

I also had to pay £22.20 towards my Christmas club (but that is good) - also managed to keep my £365 savings of £34 and my sealed pot is still going.

Sadly my pledge to not shop on Amazon has been broken but I can always try again as from today!!

Good luck all.

Cheap if you ask me, i think mine is going to be alot more but hey thats life isnt it Well done on the £365 challenge, over pay it like mad if you can Iv decided im going to join in with it, starting in Febuary though for 10 months so i get it for xmas:)

Frugal_Mouse

JayJay14 wrote: »

Some help please,

I have lots of my dear late mum's stuff boxed up in the loft. This has been there since 1998. I think the time (especially in view of OH's impending unemployment) to sell.
I am not interested in ebay - the thought of parceling up an antique art deco dinner service and trouping down to the post office, fills me with terror.:rotfl:
How do I go about realising as much as I can? The local auchioneer is the sort of place you buy bancrupt stock so not really the way to go.

Any suggestions greatly received as I have never done anything like this before.

My local newspaer has free online ads where you can also upload a photograph. Maybe you have something similar? Ask a local antiques dealer if they could sell them on commission? Check the online specialist art deco/china sellers to see if they are buying in stock or have a client searching for what you want to sell. There are also the companies that specialise in china matching (google for chinasearch)

Good luck.

FM
x

Brighton_belle

when I first joined the forums, the shrugging smilie always came across to me as 'what the F*** are you talking about, idiot'. It was ages before I understood it as a genuine, 'confused'. So I can understand why some have taken offence.

Natalie - just in case: stop thinking about 'you know what' - it's the weekend. Hope the child care issue finds another good solution.
Thanks for the reminder about milk - have been meaning to try this for ages.

Todays great news is I got our elec bill. Spent less this quater than the same quater last year:j. Not only that, I am now over £100 in credit and they have agreed to refund that to me and reduce our monthly ddm from £42 to £36:beer:. All very timely - so along with no C tax or Water rates for the next 2 months, I suddenly feel a little flush (no, not going on a spending spree becasue it tax & rates balances out over the year, so isn't actually 'extra money' but it is nice to have it).

Frugal/ simplifying plans:
try watered down milk
more shredding from weeding bills / household paperwork
work on mosaic
meal plan for rest of month
stuff to dump and charity shop

glendam

Talking of safe places that might even be black holes I have bought and squirrelled away
Box set Audrey Hepburn films
Slumdog Millionaire dvd
2 electric tooth brushes
2 random pressies for Christmas but forgot what they are too
and Upsy daisy who turned up after I had bought the second one.

So if anyone knows where my safe place might be let me know.
Sorry about the dog Cheryl

Glenda

XSpender

Hello All

Haven't posted much this last week or so but have been reading up until a couple of days ago.

Got a call Wed to say had to go to head office thurs (a 5 1/2 hour train journey away with an hours notice:eek:) to be told that I have been made redundant.:(

Every cloud has a silver lining though as I will still receive all my mat benefits and a good pay off which will enable us to clear the IVA and be debt free 4 and a half years early:money:. The shares and bits I have will clear the finance on DH car and we can manage fine using all the tips and support off you guys on DH wage and the benefits I will receive.

It also means that I do not have to rush back to work when baby is 6 months old to a job that means a lot of long travelling days and overnight stays which doesnt suit having a small child. I will be a SAHM until I am ready to find a new job. Something I never ever thought I would be although I have to say at the moment it is my dream job:D

I also got signed off on the sick for 2 weeks as I have a bad back from being pregnant so may not be able to read/post much but will go now and catch up as much as I can.

I hope you are all well and doing great against your budgets.

XS xx