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

rictus123

chika wrote: »

Wow. it's snowing again?! Where do you live?

about 30 miles from Aberdeen

rictus123

its not right now though hope it does all day tomorrow.

knithappens

aeb - if you want to continue breastfeeding i say carry on, i know you have 3, and yes it will put a demand on your body and you will loose weight especially when they go through growth spurts, but if your weight was too low your body would nt produce the milk. babycentre have a lovely supoortive breastfeeding forum http://community.babycentre.co.uk/groups/a2975/breastfeeding , the ladies on there have given me alot of advice, plus another month or so and the kiddos wont demand as much milk from you. I just made it to 6 months and now she is weaning she mainly feeds at night, s gettingmore and more nutrients from food. i comment you for getting this far, you have done thehrd slog, it gets easier from here witht he feeding, so maybe perceviere for the next month or so. there are some supplements you can take too it is a funny sounding name, but they mention it on the breastfeeding board time and time again.

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j:j
Haven't posted much this week as work has been very busy and have had other bits going on in my real life.
We watched "The Moon and The Sledgehammer" DVD [lent to me so no cost:D] earlier in the week. IT's a quirky short film [true story] about a family who lived in the woods-they'd built their own home, had no running water or power [they relied on fires and a well], grew their own veg, kept chickens and shot rabbits and pheasants form food...is this starting to sound familiar:rotfl::rotfl:It wasn't a sentimental portrayal [they openly didn't like each other very much:eek:] but some of their thoughts ring very true today whilst others were totally off the scale. It's certainly a one off viewing wise:D
Frugal shopping done tonight- took advantage of the 3 for £10 meat offer Sainsburys are doing at the moment and topped up on some reduced bread and pizza. The new frugal recipe planned for this week is egg and rice curry [using the famous 9p curry sauce which I'll add extras to] and we'll also have mushroom toad in the hole which is another cheapie one. Baking wise I shall fall back on my old fav for when time is short -chocolate crunchies which will see us through our lunches.
We've got a friend coming for lunch on Sat [using up peppers and bacon on offer] and I've got an evening do because it's the Pagan Imbolc Celebration coming up soon and then on Sunday more preparation for decorating. Filling and sanding- yumski;)
Aril
PS With the talk of pheasants a few pages back another friend was beating for the shoot last weekend. She not only got paid for it [not a lot but it all helps] but came away with a couple of birds aswell. Wondered if anyone else has done this to earn a few more pennies in the season?

thriftylass

aeb wrote: »

Memories too of watching The Good Life, I bought my first gardening book (which was reduced) with a 10/- (50p) book token when I was just 10 years old. I still have it. All text with just one or two line drawings and lots or reading. My dad said 'what a silly book for a child to want'. The book always reminds me of that comment and his oh, such little faith in me. Set the tone for our relationship right until the end when I told him I had got to be deputy head and his reply was 'b****y pen pusher'.

Reminded me a bit of my dad, although he wasn't quite as extreme and our relationship is brilliant now. But his and his dad's best compliment was usually "that's alright", never a well done. He came round later on though after I got my PhD, telling me that he initially thought what is she studying biology for, easy way out sort of thing. But luckily he kept it to himself then and now he's proud.

Anyway, as I'm not planning on spending any money tomorrow and it'll be payday I consider January over and post my numbers (sorry bit blurry)



I spend a lot less on catfood than thought (she must've caught her own dinner often and went over a few things a bit, but all in all not bad especially when I compare it to last year's attempts . Plus out of the £366 spent about £50 are still money wasted on drinks, snacks and so on. So next month should be equally succesfull or even better.

Off to try doing some catch up reading

Erme

PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME TIS SNOWING IN ABERDEEN LOL...I'm in the Deen and nae sna here so far (but was wondering why I needed to put the heater on full blast tonight when I came in LOL).

I'm stressed out. Thinking I'd have to forgo the mobile on Wednesday I found a really good deal via mobilephonechecker.co.uk which I promptly ordered online. Then the card wouldn't work so I phoned (only for them to then charge me £5.99 delivery) and said I'd get the confirmation email soon (within 24 hours...am still waiting) and it'd come by 9pm today (could come btwn 7.30am and 9pm - lovely). No confirmation email and still no phone (despite being in all evening) so I start hunting for emails. LOL. What joy (not). One rude call to sales...no where. Customer service doesn't open till 9am tomorrow (and it's 10p a min..not great!) so I email their parent company. The down side is I only now have 7 working days to cancel this stupid thing, it could take 4 working days for the parent company to process my complaint (but noticed me resending it on their website put it straight through to escalations - there's hope!) and I'm like...what utter nonsense. I'm not with the best mobile company and you were in effect being fleeced for the phone (unlimited text contract and this thing don't even text properly) by paying £30 at the end of the contract after cashback (full cashback till then which I've never had any probs with). but I though - hey ho £30 for unltd texts and 350 mins for 18months was worth it...

though is it worth all this stress? Or would I be better off bartering with my old co? I can upgrade in like 2.5 weeks time....

Let me know...

Not a NSD but only £1.49 spent. Got tap water @ the drop in and a Mars bar and just had to buy harrods espresso cups for £1 in the charity shop (two)...simply irresistable.

Have lunch for tomorrow simply by adding a load of processed cheese to my packet pasta and beans (free) that was past its BB date. . So that'll fill my wrap nicely. Then I have to have a bash at home made houmous on Sat (have the chick peas and tahini...loads in fact...just need oil etc) for wrap fillings. Next week think I'll have houmous and celery in my lunch wraps (got the wraps for buy 1 get one free last week @ morrisons ) and go from there. Though if wraps long term cost more than £1 a packet I'm going back to pittas. (they're cheaper. 6 days worth = approx 60p) or even cheap bread that I'll freeze and sandwiches. Home made bread does not work out any cheaper than cheap bread. But if I want rolls for soup I'll just make scones (wholemeal) and freeze. Makes sense. Won't take me long (will use bicarb for rising agent).

Have got a copy of the bean book (1980 fontana) by rose elliot cheap off amazon and got a plastic cover for it from WO that has gone into liquidation for pennies. Looks really good. Has houmous and khitchari and how to sprout beans.

Alas A didn't come round for coffee. So no £3 for the book I gave him but at least I got the £10 refund on the dodgy kettle (Russell Hobbs Mona kettles have a WORLDWIDE product recall pls note. Do NOT buy them from charity shops - like I did. Buy any Russell Hobbs steel kettle from a charity shop and phone up russell hobbs just to check. Their no is on their website) so that was good. But like I said I think I'm OB this week due to blowing about £18 on Tues and food was more than I'd like it to be. But still on tract to save this month and have a list of wee treats (costing no more than £3) on my phone and big things I need (eg. external hard drive, sewing machine cable)..

BTW...think the book that mentions making clothes out of duvet covers etc is 'I made that myself' or something. Bright yellow book. About £10 off amazon. Designed for beginners and hippies...

Hugs

E

cha97michelle

knithappens wrote: »

aeb - if you want to continue breastfeeding i say carry on, i know you have 3, and yes it will put a demand on your body and you will loose weight especially when they go through growth spurts, but if your weight was too low your body would nt produce the milk. babycentre have a lovely supoortive breastfeeding forum http://community.babycentre.co.uk/groups/a2975/breastfeeding , the ladies on there have given me alot of advice, plus another month or so and the kiddos wont demand as much milk from you. I just made it to 6 months and now she is weaning she mainly feeds at night, s gettingmore and more nutrients from food. i comment you for getting this far, you have done thehrd slog, it gets easier from here witht he feeding, so maybe perceviere for the next month or so. there are some supplements you can take too it is a funny sounding name, but they mention it on the breastfeeding board time and time again.

Are you thinking Fenugreek? Can get it as a tea or tablets i think.

Personally, i would agree that you wouldn't be making the milk if you were malnourished. I would up my consumption of very calorific food. Perhaps you could cut down a little with the girls maybe feed one in morning and other in afternoon, and if they will drink from a straw go for that. What about a doidy cup? They are supposed to be able to drink from them from 4 months old as the cup is so angled. The health visitor might be able to get you one of these for free. My MIL got me one free from her workplace although that was London. Different areas seem to have different freebies.



I don't have a lot to post myself today. I have been doing a lot of reading of blogs. I have also made a honey tea loaf which seemed to be cheap and tasty/ I am not sure on costings as i am quite bad at that sort of things but i got the recipe from the cbeebies website, and there are a few other recipes i want to try from there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/icancook/makes/honeytealoaf/

good for littlies to help you make.

Michelle

hermum

Twinkles08 wrote: »

I have a rather random question,that maybe someone here wd know the answer to as I'm pretty clueless.Do you think it wd be poss to dye a terricotta orange throw,purple instead?I remember my mum dyeing things in a bucket but I thought you cd do it in the washing machine as well?I don't want to buy a new throw but I wd like to dye it to my fave colour!Just wondered if it wd work as it is a burnt orang shade? (I hate it!:o)

I used to periodically dye my machine washable sofa covers, using the same original colour dye. By the time you buy the dye, price of the wash & salt etc, it was pretty expensive, but worth it to rejuvenate a suite. If you have to remove the colour first & could end up with something unusable it probably wouldn't be cost effective. Have you thought about either swapping with a friend or selling the one you have on ebay & buying another with the money? At least that way you will have what you want. Primark sell fleece throws for around £3. If you do dye it, please let us know the cost & outcome.

top_drawer_2

Hello everyone,

A low (kind of) spend day today .... I was at my sewing class which I paid for in bulk awhile ago ... I am going well on my skirt despite having the most horrid fabric in the world!!

So my purchases today were resticted to SR flour, some diet bars and my lunch - all in all £6.51 spent including bus fares/tea at class etc.

Tonight I have been researching home made beauty products and wondered whether it was possible to buy regularly used products in bulk. I have found a oriental and a chinese supermarket in my area so will have to visit to see if I can get White vinagar in bulk .... but what about baking soda etc? also any ideas on where to get emulisfying wax, shea butter and glycerin other than on the web?

I have come across this website but for white vinagar im looking at max postage ... any other ideas anyone?

grandma247

Aeb I used to have complan made with milk to get the extra calories and nutrients because I could never face breakfast but my body needed it. I know it has milk in it but the extra helped. If you only have a few weeks to go stick with it if you really want to and encourage the cup drinking too.
An elderly friend also gave me a tip when I had my second and that was to cook pinhead oats and eat them in the early afternoon as I found my milk was weaker then and the baby was fretful. It worked.
You have done so well up to now.