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

mama67

Frugaldom wrote: »

Hi Fruguys and gals,

Glad everyone's ticking along, appropriate responses to all can be assumed, I never seem to get around to responding to the chatty ones.

Blizzard conditions here, so I'm glad I have a huge stock of everything in and won't need to venture outside the immediate vicinity. Have defrosted another chicken but will do that in the oven so I can collect the fat as I'm now using this instead of oil in breadmaking. It saves having to buy oil and would otherwise be wasted, so I'll be attempting to render as much as possible from now on then clarifying it for storing. According to my research, it should keep for months and it can be frozen.

I'm planning on having a go at making my own cream cheese later this week. I have a large carton of natural yoghurt (45p Basics) that I'll use as a starter for homemade yoghurt and from thereonin, I'm led to believe I can just keep perpetuating this from each batch I make. SM will be my advisor on this project as it was after tasting her delicious cream cheese with garlic & herbs that I wanted to try making my own. It costs so much for 'Phili' that it would be great to be able to produce something similar for dips and spreads at home. (Just try a search for homemade cream cheese and you should come up with the post where it was last discussed.)

CW - I've just noticed the 'Sold' motice on that house we'd earmarked for you, so I'm afraid you've missed your chance - unless you're holding out on us? :rotfl:

Erme, sorry to sound overly-inquisitive, but how does your illness manifest itself? You did really well restricting the blow-out to just your savings whilst still managing to keep on top of the essential bills, of that you should be proud! You seem to have some level of control compared to a couple of people I've known, so well done thus far! :T Just don't light that fire in the kitchen. :rotfl:

Lynz, apologies your way, too. Just seeing your post within a forum named 'Frugal Living' made me laugh. A budget that incorporates a pet passport for foreign travel/taking a dog on several holidays is so, so far removed from my world that I'm having a giggling fit thinking about it! :rotfl:Again, I'm really sorry, it isn't anything you should take personally, it's just so far removed from my lifestyle that you'd probably have hysterics at some of the things I do to avoid spending. :rotfl:

Nyk, are you making your bread in the machine still, as I dont put any fat into myine, althoiugh it does say to.

I read somewhere it is more for keeping properties of the bread, but if like us you use a loaf a day/other day then wouldn't need it

cuddlymarm

Good morning everyone (just)

I've had a lovely morning and now feel all virtuous because I have bought all the March birthday pressies and cards (now all I have to do is remember to wrap and send at the appropriate time)
I've had quite a frugal morning because Waterstones have a 3 for 2 on selected kids books.The Disney shop has an offer on a couple of Princess and the frog soft toys £5.99 (normally £15) if you spend over £15 instore (nice to put away if you need something like this in the near future)
I also called at poundland and bought OH a sandwich box, (well a pack of 3 actually),he has now decided to start taking a packed lunch:j some Tetley teabags and a pack of 6 WW Tortilla chips ( apparently normally £1.98 and very nice according to a lady who had 6 packs in her basket)
Oh and just to finish my lovely morning I found a lovely chunky jumper at the charity shop.:j

Its lovely when a plan comes together
Oh and leftover chilli for lunch (always nicer on the 2nd day)
Cuddles:rotfl:

gilligansyle

Morning

Nyk - how on earth do you manage to stretch your chicken so far? We had a small (1.3kg) chicken on Sunday, used some for sandwiches on monday, bits in omelette yesterday and am now using the carcass for stock. There is maybe a few bits left that could be used as a filler, but not enough for a complete meal. I am in complete awe!
Breadmaker is now on, trying olive bread for a change.

I am debating with myself at the moment about having a 'holiday' at the end of the year. Hopefully I will be debt free by then, but it will be cheap anyway. A week on an eco project planting trees in Andalucia, only a couple of hundred pounds all in, and can get flights from Liverpool quite cheap when the winter schedules are published.
May make it a target to pay off the debt faster, especially if I get a job, and then treat myself, just this once.

Frugaldom

Hi Mama67, yes, I use a spoonful of the fat in the breadmaker. It seems to give the bread a little extra flavour and the loaves are lasting overnight without drying out as much. But I also used the fat to grease the tins for baking meat pies, used some in the pastry and am going to use some for stir fying tonight, so it's really handy to keep it rather than chuck it all out for the wild birds to feast on. (It doesn't set hard enough to make the fatballs or for packing into the half coconut shells.)

Every penny counts - at this rate I might not need to buy any more oil or lard in 2010

Meant to say - V!rg!n train fares sale is on today, if you travel a lot, you could try for some of their £5 tickets.

Just saw your post, Gilligansyle, re the chicken. I bulk it out with loads of veg and very rarely just serve it up as a carved roast. This way, one large breast fillet can make a meal for 3, as can a leg & a wing, so that's 4 meals right away plus all the extra that comes off the carcase prior to soupmaking is enough to mix in with more gravy and mixed veg for a pie. That's 5 x 3 meals right away and if you make the soup thick with pulses, veg and rice then it can be used as half of a soup and pudding lunch. A large family chicken can produce 5 litres of soup when bulked out and 5 litres of soup equates to 20 bowls in our house.

Janey51

Hello frugalites. Been so long since I was on this thread I will be surprised if I still know anyone.
Regrettably..my oil bill alone is going to blow the entire annual budget this year :rotfl:

summertea

Hi Guys,

Not been all that great at posting since Jan but have been frugalling away merrily and was not doing too badly until all my memberships became due £181 eeek. I should just point out i'm an entomologist (i study bugs) so i need to keep up with society's and journals for my career (once i figure out where it has gone) but i did not allow for this nor the increase in my gym membership i was thinking about rewriting my budget to allow for the increases but it feels a bit like cheating how does everyone else sort it out?

X ST

Lily_The_Legend

pagangirl wrote: »

:j:j:j Yaaaaaaaay - just noticed I got 2 stars :j:j:j

Yay pagangirl! I wonder if you get two stars after posting over 200 comments then. I'm still on my first!

Frugaldom

Janey51 wrote: »

Hello frugalites. Been so long since I was on this thread I will be surprised if I still know anyone.
Regrettably..my oil bill alone is going to blow the entire annual budget this year :rotfl:

Hello! How nice to see you back here, Janey. We still have a few of the original 'diehards' but I think the main things you'll maybe have missed are:

Whitewing expecting mini-whitewing

Lyndasharp getting married next month

Bails getting married in September but not yet back from her wanderings, think she's currently around the Thailand area

Sophiesmum moving into the house next door to me

So many more events to cover that it's impossible to condense them all into one post. Best just say welcome back and hope to see you more often. Guessing you're still in same house judging by the oil costs. :eek: Please let us all know you are doing OK.

babyboysmommy

I've had a really productive morning. I did a months shop in Tesc0's so need to do some bulk cooking in the next day or so.

We have a Bichon Frise dog, they need baths & hair cuts every 8-12 weeks so that's another job done today. If I took him to the dog groomer it would cost £35 each time. Instead when he was a puppy I bought some dog clippers for £20. He's now 10 & I'm using the same clippers, I get the blades sharpened every so often. I must have saved a lot over the years.

The guinea pig is booked in at the vets later to have it's claws clipped - a free service they offer. The dog though has vaccinations tomorrow & will need dental work so at a guess that's going to cost up to £200.

I've ditched my private dentist & have registered at a local NHS one so more savings long term, just a short walk from home so savings on fuel as well I've been trying to do this for a long time but NHS dentists with spaces are hard to find locally. Today I was able to register myself & DS

sophiesmum_2

Janey51 wrote: »

Hello frugalites. Been so long since I was on this thread I will be surprised if I still know anyone.
Regrettably..my oil bill alone is going to blow the entire annual budget this year :rotfl:

Hi Janey
Hope life is treating you well, EEEEEk at the oil costs!!!!!