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

Blairweech

Asda are doing 5kg of onions for £1, according to HUKD

candygirl

Blairweech wrote: »

Asda are doing 5kg of onions for £1, according to HUKD

I just saw that and thought wow:j:j:j

looby-loo_2

grandma247 wrote: »

Thats is very common. I emptied a whole packet of tea into a teapot a couple of times

My husband did this today. I hope he's not pregnant:eek:

annie123

Evening frugalers

Today I went dumpster diving, or a rummage in a skip to be more precise:D

Went up to my car this morning, parked 2 roads away (the joy of living in London!) and opposite was a skip that had appeared over night, already full.

What caught my eye was the whole large role of tough/thick clear polythene 10foot wide and about 20 yards of it.....thinking homemade cold frame, mini temporary greenhouse (tiny garden no room for one all year) draught proofing the roof under the tiles....no felt etc lots and lots of uses
Then spotted 6 rolls of xmas paper, so that came too,
a light up globe which is in full working order....took that to the charity shop, didn't like to think of it going into land fill,
2 pyrex dishes
1 cast iron skillet
1 massive aluminum saucepan
2 knives
1 silver letter opener
1 pair of un opened beige curtains (just right for DD cream and coffee coloured bedroom)
1 pine barstool/chair also for DD room so she can reach things on shelves easier (DD is an adult, well she's 20 going on 15 sometimes!!)
A badly broken pine chair, chopped up for the fire
and all the loose bits came home in a plastic laundry basket which is hideous but will line it with cardboard and plant up with food

I'm really chuffed :T

Can't remember the last time I looked in a skip and saw anything but rubble, so really pleased.

I'm easily pleased
I'll stop waffling and go and make a cuppa now
xx

rozeepozee

whitewing wrote: »

Hello (mainly to the old timers as I haven't posted or even lurked much lately). Just came on to say that we had a beautiful baby girl last week. She's an absolute darling, and we're very grateful for the NHS and the excellent care we received. I had some complications and needed monitoring every day, and inducing early. It would have cost an absolute fortune if we hadn't had the NHS.

cw18 wrote: »

Congrats Whitewing

Congratulations whitewing. Like you, I am very thankful for our NHS.

Hope you don't mind me nicking your balloons Cheryl - it's a very frugal way to send them

tez_c wrote: »

This is really interesting - I'm not sure I have to guts to try it though,

ruby1968 wrote: »

Hi all can I join please.

Welcome newbies! Don't be intimidated Tez, my budget's set at £10,000 for a family of 3 (soon to be 5). I've never budgeted seriously before (well not since my student days) and I'm not hardcore like some of the "proper" frugaleers on here. but it makes me think about my spending and I know I'm spending less and spending more intelligently as a result. It's definately changed my behavioiur (I'm no longer snobby about Lidl and Aldi for a start!) and I'm aware of how much things cost and how to make my money go further. Reading the thread gives you loads of ideas and alerts about cheap deals and everyone's very supportive - you can't "fail" the challenge, as far as I'm concerned.

mumtoomany

Hi all,

Thought I should update you all on my spends for February. I was trying to be money neutral for grocery and toiletries for the whole month. Well I made it! Total spend for Feb £10.46 on food and £2.32 on toiletries. These came out of £13 free scratchcard money. Also spent £10 M0rrisons miles vouchers and £10 nectar points.

I still had enough food in freezer for a couple of weeks at end of the month, but was almost out of bread , milk, fruit and veg, etc.

The biggest spend for the month was petrol. DS had an open day at Aberystwyth Uni. So DH, DS, DD4 and I made a day of it.

I managed to put just over £1000 into saving account at the end of the month. ( not bad when we work les than 60 hours per week between us at a fraction over minimum wage ). Only need to find another £99,000 now for our dream house. Better hurry before it's sold!

Hope you are all well, must go and catch up with the thread now.

Mumtoomany.

FrankieM

Morning,
Not been posting much but have been reading. I hope you are all keeping well!

I spent yesterday reading an extract from a book called A Nation of Farmers. Makes me want to get planting! It's based in the U.S where it always seems to be sunny so makes growing things so much easier.
Anyway, if nothing else it's got me focused on my small holding, though there are no funds for that yet, it encourages me to hold onto the dream!

I'm wanting to get some seeds planted up but I haven't got a greenhouse or a heater in my conservatory so no where warm to get them started. I'm not sure what to do, does anyone have any ideas?

Other than that, it's bit of baking for next weeks lunches, spicy baked bean curry for tea tonight and general tidying.

xnatalie81x

Good Morning

Migraine is now just an annoying headache so day 6 - should be over soon! We won't be moving this month as we had hoped, but now will be end of April as we have struggled to raise the deposit and don't want to wait for a court order, which is what the council would do.

Am still frequenting this thread to read and also nosing on weezl's post

Have baked twinks hobnobs and fairy cakes plus bulking out dinners. Also started some planting and have tomato, peopper, cauli, broad beans, peas and cabbage seeds in pots on window sills. Have to get to allotment soon to start my planning and check on the brussels, purple sprouting and cauli i put in in Oct/Nov time

Twinkles08

Wow mumtoomany,that's impressive!:T and here I am chuffed that we're putting 100 into savings a month (although prev it was zilch so it's defo a positive step).
Congrats to whitewing on the birth of your dd.
Sorry I've been mia,I gave birth to a baby girl 2 weeks ago today and things have been manic ever since!lol.She was 8 days early and it was a quick labour.I was expecting a long haul like my dd1 but from start to finish was just over 4 hrs.Half way through I was cooking a roast chicken dinner and putting my dd to bed.I was only in hospital 25 mins before she arrived and nearly had baby sat on the toilet.All v surreal!!Afterwards I remember thinking I hope mum puts that chicken in the fridge and doesn't bin the leftovers!:rotfl:
Well we did well in feb considering we brought one offs like nursing bras and a new raincover for the pram etc.We are still spending too much on our 'anything else' section.But I think the budget for this is set too low.For the 4 of us I've allocated 100 pounds but hubby smokes and spends 40 a month on cigs.Which means straight away we've spent almost half.Wd it be cheating to tweak the budget??

ETA forgot to say my tomato seedling has sprouted!I'm so excited as prev I've only ever grown a sunflower when I was a kid.It's a tumbling tomato plant,do I need to support it with a stick/pencil/cane?

cw18

Twinkles08 wrote: »

Sorry I've been mia,I gave birth to a baby girl 2 weeks ago today

Congratulations

Wd it be cheating to tweak the budget??

As long as you have the money to add to it (ie. increasing it doesn't put you in debt), then I don't see it as cheating at all...... As I've said before, it's much better to increase it now if you've found a flaw in your budget than to keep overspending in one category and be tempted to think 'S0d it' about the whole thing'