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

cw18

rictus123 wrote: »

Does anyone have a link for a nice online spreadsheet(cant get spreadsheets on my laptop, dont have excel:( ) Need to do one for now until summer holiday and then a different one after my payrise to see what i can do by 2011! Im addicted to this!

You could download Open Office - apparently it's free, and older Excel spreadsheets open in it just fine A number of people are using my spreadsheet after I saved it as 'compatible for Excel 97-2003'

Alternatively, Nyk has Spending Diary in the list of useful links in the first post I think it's more a tool for recording what you've spent than your budget, but I will admit to only having had a quick look at it late in 2008/early 2009 so I could be wrong/it could have been changed

homegrown_life

do you have a google account? You could create something using google docs which has the advantage of always being online so you can access it from lots of places, can't lose it and it doesn't take up space on your own computer.

mooomin

flying_fresian wrote: »

Today will be a spend day (Boo!) as I need to get milk, margarine and olive oil. I will check out the whoopsies too, but normally don't get anything good on a Sunday.

No Spend Day after all!

We had visitors and asked them to bring milk (lazy Sunday!) from the shop but they didn't want us to pay them. Well, I wasn't going to complain :A Tomorrow will be a Spend Day I think, but I'm happy that I'm now up to 10 NSDs for the month - I joined a challenge on the DFW boards and committed to 120 NSDs for the year, so I'm on track!


We had HM chilli for dinner and I attempted to make flapjacks but they burnt and couldn't be rescued from the baking tray. I'll try again tomorrow I think.

I made £77 + postage today from Ebay sales, and have many things for Mr Fresian to post for me tomorrow All the money I made will be put into my loan-clearing fund.

I'm going to finish watching Slumdog Millionaire now and go to bed. Night all!

PS - Did I imagine that there was a frunchkins group on Facebook? If so, never mind!

Skint_Lynne

I have just done a stocktake of my freezer.:eek: I have enough food to last until the end of time in there methinks!! I will not bore you with the whole list of contents, because there is far too much. I will do the storecupboard sometime this week.

The good thing is I guess that DH will be home for a couple of weeks before he goes away to Afghanistan, so I will only really need to buy fruit, veg, bread and milk. The bad thing is that I have about 20 packs of bacon that I will need to get in there before 10th february. I bought them in costco as they were on special offer and there's not room for them in there. I'll need to get eating, but the problem is that when I take something out, there's always something else to put back in there. I'll just have bacon for my breakfast every morning for a while.:rotfl:

Also, no batch cooking until I make a dent in the freezer!!

Lynz, I had a quick look at your blog, that space you have is fantastic. I will look forward to seeing the pictures in summer when you have veggies growing all over the place.

I hope that I can get into my garden soon, it is looking well grotty, lots of weeds all over the place. I think I will do my growing in pots this year as my plots will need treated with a strong weedkiller and dug over a good few times before anything can go in there. A friend of mine is a florist, so I'll ask her to keep the black buckets they get instead of binning them and I'll grow some potatoes in them. I'm also going to do tomatoes, courgettes, chillis and some lettuce. Just keeping it simple so that I don't overstretch myself.

Speak soon. xx

Fishcake_Random

I've just added another win to my list for January. A peroni coaster, after entering most days for about 4 months. Perserverance pays I think!!!!
Currently trying for some more Lady Gaga prices, fingers crossed.
x x x

Frugaldom

LilacPixie wrote: »

... I have an old coal cupboard thing that we use to keep pushchairs, highchair, travel cot etc in as well as the xmas decs and stuff so thinking of clearing that out.

I turned mine into a walk-in pantry with shelves now laden with home produce, preserves and bulk bought bargains.

savingfortravel wrote: »

Nyk-Just wondered what are the best bottles to keep for Elderflower champagne? thanks sft

As a few others have said, I used screw cap, glass bottles from fizzy drinks but also used 2 litre plastic fizzy drinks bottles - umm... until the great explosion of 2009 when my pantry got coated ceiling to floor in pink, bramble champagne. Do not use plastic and if you use glass bottles with screw caps, make sure you release the gas a little every now and again.

lynzpower wrote: »

http://1001daystill.blogspot.com/

Managed to unearth my blog that I aim to keep more updated this year!

If you click on User CP and then edit your profile, you can add a link to your page so it's easy to find. Means we can all just click on a user's name then select to read the homepage whenever we want.

I've had a very busy, but very frugal, weekend revamping the kitchen, making, baking, budgeting and decluttering. I haven't spent a single penny but have managed to 'find' another small chunk of cash for my ISA, thanks to the contents of my £2 coin box and my previous 'interest beater' challenge. :j My list of 'no need to buy' items has grown again and now stands at the following:

Eggs
Pasta
Bread
Biscuits
Cakes
Jam
Lemon curd
Jelly (preserves)
Pickles & chutney
Laundry detergent
Greetings cards
Kindling for the fire
Washing up liquid

I made up 3 litres of washing up liquid for a total cost of less than 20p! :j That should keep me going until about Easter. I also

• baked a tray of 'Twinks', a tray of coconut macaroons and a wholemeal loaf,
• earmarked 20+ paperbacks for charity shop,
• cleaned the bathroom,
• finished making trifle, (just the cream to add tomorrow)
• decluttered a bit more
• took more photos for my greetings card & calendar project
• cut material ready to sew tomorrow
• did a review of personal finances (Hoping to fill 2009/10 ISA by end of tax year)
• shredded some newspaper to top up hen bedding material

Very pleased with what's been achieved both indoors and outdoors this weekend, as HS has been working on the livestock runs in between tidying the shed and making another start on decluttering the garage. :T

Sorry this is so long, I haven't had a chance to read or post today and have only just about caught up with the thread.

Fishcake_Random

Ooooooh any chance of a washing up liquid recipe???
x x x

NualaBuala

Hi everyone! :wave:

Thanks for the good wishes Lynz – what you said about guilt and shame is really interesting and hit the nail on the head. Thanks for sharing your blog – can’t wait to see the “after” photos when you’ve got stuff growing.

Mumoffour, hope your Dad is ok, am thinking of you.

Cheryl, so sorry about your doggie – huge hugs.

XSpender, sorry to hear of redundancy. Hope you’re ok – glad you’re finding the sliver lining.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow Kittyj! Hope you have a lovely day.
LilacPixie, hope you’re not too worried about the appointment. I really hope all is ok and the appt goes fine.

Chika and Candygirl – :rotfl: a fellow PMTer here (but not at the moment, phew! Can recommend chocolate as a “cure”.

Fishcake – I’m a backpack girl too. I’ve had friends laugh at me for using one instead of a handbag! LOL! But I don’t drive so it’s the easiest way to transport stuff and keep stuff I might need with me like a bottle of (tap) water, snack etc.

My frugal activities this weekend:
- a nice walk in the park
- knitting (coming along nicely)
- a special offer burger and chips in BK for lunch/dinner. Treated my sister as she has been super-good to me. Ok, not really frugal but it was a special offer and kept me so full I didn't eat another morsel that day.
- More triffid-clearing in the garden. Chopped a lot of it up to dry out a little inside before using as kindling. Found out it will cost €6 to dump a carload of green waste so the more I can dispose of this way the better.
- Frugal meals at home (apart from burger treat) using up what I have here.
- Organised my desk to get stuck into college work tomorrow
- Cheap fruit from Aldi (got a lovely pineapple, one of my favourite fruits, yum!) Resisted buying more seeds as I don't need them. :A
- Kept the heat off in the evenings, have fire lit and wearing extra layers. Imeasure tomorrow will tell if it's paid off.


Hope you all enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Frugaldom

Oops, forgot to say ...

Welcome Savvy Student, I have added your name to the challenger list in post 2.

I mentioned Faceb00k because those of us who have accounts can click the 'Faceb00k' icon at the bottom of this page and link to the Frugal Living Challenge from there, but there's no specific group for this challenge, nor would I want to start one.

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Ooooooh any chance of a washing up liquid recipe???
x x x

Please read post 1, HANDY LINKS section, it says something like 'Laundry Gloop and other cleaning products' or something like that.

JayJay14

Pretty good day today, did go grocery shopping with DD2 but only spent a few pounds and got some excellent woopsies.

OH has nearly finished the shower replacement, and as he was going to Wilkos for some plumbing bits I asked him to look at the seed potatoes. So we have a bag of first earlies which we have stored in the shed for when we plant them. Need to get the boxes sorted out, buy some compost and get wood to make a fourth deep bed. We have 3 so far with one of them having the respberry canes and rhubarb in. There is room for something else but haven't decided what to put there yet.

Does anyone know of any decent fruit trees? I know aldi do these now and again but I don't get there very often. Fancy gooseberry or blackcurrant - might need more deep beds.....

I feel a snack attack coming on - date and choc muffin with my coffee I think:D