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

Blairweech

Good morning folks!

Aril: :rotfl:. Your sewing circle sounds fantastic, wish there was something like that near me.

Went to the carboot yesterday and did not buy anything Took my list, did not find anything on it. Was tempted by a few things, but as I no longer have my own house they were things I couldn't buy. However, I did then buy a purse on ebay for £3 - mine is far too small and I thought I would see loads at the carboot but didnt (I bet I will next week though!). I bought one with a clear window at the front - I thought I would put a picture of my dream smallholding in there to help lead me from financial temptation. I am going to make an effort to save something every day day, no matter how small

Had an offer on my car but its really low (and its only been on a day with 10 watchers), so will leave it a little bit before countering. Today I will be out in the shed - sorting, packing, unpacking, labelling. You get the idea.

Morrisons have an offer for a whole sea bass for £1.50 atm

Got a leaflet from Which for a free veg growing guide - if you call on 0800 533 035 and quote 'veg54F' - I think its only available by phone

XSpender

Good Morning All

Up early this morning as Arg0s delivered the nursery furniture at 7.30am.:eek:

Congratulations to all those with recent weddings and new jobs:)

Jobs for today are to clean kitchen, make banana bread using up dodgy bananas (I don't like it but am hoping DH will as it is for his pack up) and another cake and some bread. I have vistors tomorrow and thursday so will bake something again on wednesday to keep the supply going. I also need to chop and freeze a bag of peppers before they get past it.

Easy tea tonight of chicken dippers (on offer)/ quorn dippers, oven chips (on offer) and peas (from freezer).

Had a lovely Mr M veggie casserole at DMs yesterday so am going to look for a recipe to recreate it myself.

There is not much left in the grocery budget for this month but apart from some fruit, milk and sugar there is nothing we need for this month t is just a case of keeping to te list when we are in Mr M. I expect that I will be over budget on groceries by the end of March as I intend to stock up ready for when the baby arrives but it will even out over the next month or 2.

Got 3 tins of beans (Mr T low salt/sugar) for a £1 and 3 tins of Heinz spaghetti in tom sauce for £1 in Mr T on Saturday for some easy lunches.

DH is desperate for an eye test and glasses, he could hardly see when driving in the dark on Saturday night and I had to drive home. I haven't budgeted for this so I am pleased I am getting an unexpected bonus from work at the end of the month to cover the cost. I just hope I can persuade him he does not need designer frames as only needs them for reading/driving etc;)

I am going to try get the washing basket emptied and on the line today as if I wait for DH to do it he will stick it all in the TD!

Enjoy your day!

XS x

Fishcake_Random

This weekend has been a disaster money wise, I have been forgetting to update my budget book and have been going a bit mad on the spending front lately.
I really don't feel worthy of your company today.
I think I may scrap this month and restart from the 1st with our shiny new challenge thread. I have already been thinking a little about next years challenge and as this year is only a first attempt I know next year will be that bit better. So I think this year will mainly be a year of trying things and investigating and noticing where our pennys are going. I'm feeling pretty down alreay about it all though.
Today I am going to try and redeem myself a little by having a frugal day. I need to have a massive tidy up, everything lately seems to have slipped behind and I never did make all those potatoe pies I wanted so that is this afternoons task. I will not waste a full bag of potatoes even if they are only 49p. I desprarately need some back up meals in the freezer for when bump arrives so I have no excuse.
I'll probally be flitting on and off here today to keep me on track.
x x x x x

rozeepozee

Aw, fishcake, don't be disheartened. Relapse is a part of the cycle of change - it's really hard to change behaviour and it's common to revert to earlier behaviours - It's all part of the process so don't beat yourself up about it.

I'm finding it really tough at the mo. There are too many temptations with a baby/babies due. I'd really love to splurge on a new breastfeeding wardrobe and keep watching loads of lovely clothes on ebay (although I end up not bidding as I can't believe how much people are willing to pay for secondhand clothes - £30 for a dress :eek:) I've also just bought an electric bed off ebay as I've been sleeping so badly - that was £200 not budgeted for - but it'll be fantastic for after my caesarean as it's difficult to get up and down from bed with the scar and I hope also for night time breasfeeding when I'll be trying to BF two babies at once to save time. Once I don;t need it, I'll pass it onto my folks who look after my 93 year old gran - she'll get some use out of it.

R x

Fishcake_Random

Thanks R that really touched me.

I just started work on my kitchen and found my very first tomato shoot. From my very first attempt at tomatoes. Maybe things are looking up already lol
x x x x

Frugaldom

Good afternoon fellow frugalers

Fishcake, it takes more than one attempt at cycling without the stabilisers, I remember all those skint knees but the main thing was, the bike was bought and paid for and the skint knees mended. Just keep pedaling along and ride out the wobbles, you'll get there in the end.

Had a busy weekend in the garden and greenhouse planting whatever I couold before anything got blown away. We still have bitterly cold, high winds here, so no fun outside despite the sunshine. But it's lovely and warm in the greenhouse and the tomato seeds on the kitchen windowsill should soon be strong enough to go out for repotting.

My tiny bantams (Pekins) are laying eggs every day, so I've been selling some for hatching now that I know they're fertile and I'm going to pop a few more into the incubator this week. Yesterday, Captain Beaky went to his new home, so that's one less cockerel crowing at 6am. Longterm frugallers here will remember him hatching last Spring from an assorted batch of eggs - he was enormous, even at a day old! :rotfl:

3 chicks doing well here but still no signs of any quail eggs hatching.

Having given a good home to SM's EasiYo, I've now just finished making my first batch of soft cheese and it tastes lovely. No additives, just UHT skimmed milk, some pureed garlic and a sprinkle of herbs. Lunch today was butternut squash soup (Ald! 'souper' 6 offer) followed by milk jelly to use up some evaporated milk I had opened.

Has anyone made a start on their square foot garden for this year? Mine's all turned and raked, ready for planting, but I still haven't actually marked out the squares, let alone sown any seeds into it. If the winds would drop a bit, I'd go and get some potatoes into one side of it but I need to clip the second wing of one particularly determined bantam who keeps flying over the fence into that corner of the garden. I guess if I went and DID those things instead of sitting here thinking about them, I'd make far more progress in a day.

Rictus, keep up the good work with your savings goals. Having cash in the bank when it's most needed is something you'll never regret, assuming you cam bring yourself to spend it when the time comes. :rotfl:I now hate spending if it means affecting the balance on savings. I'm a frugaddict! :rotfl: Or should that be frugalholic?

SmlSave

Mine's all turned and raked, ready for planting, but I still haven't actually marked out the squares, let alone sown any seeds into it. If the winds would drop a bit, I'd go and get some potatoes into one side of it

Doh, you just reminded me that I was supposed to plant the potatoes this weekend! Am happy to report that I got leeks, toms, spring onions and radish seeds all in

Hope everyone's well

Fishcake_Random

Well my lounge and my kitchen are blitzed. So that is good news at the very least. I've made one massive potato pie and 2 smaller ones but I couldnt open the corned beef so I have improvised with a mixture of leftovers so they are mystery pies. I'm just about to pop them in the oven and then I can hopefully cool them and freeze them before OH spots them with his beady eyes lol.
I still have half a bag of potatoes left though that need something doing with them. I was thinking of experimenting with hash browns as I can pop out for onions. Anyone tried them? Do they freeze okay?
x x x x

ChinaTea

Had a really good weekend with DS + DGS. DGS came to stay over on Saturday and DS joined us on Sunday for his birthday. DGS helped make a birthday cake and 'helped' with making yorkshires and stuffing. He was so excited about the Xmas pud that he couldn't get hid dinner down fast enough. Of course I had to make sure he got the silver coin in his, anyone would have thought he had found a winning lottery ticket in it. We then had the lighting of the candles and chorus of Happy Birthday. The high point for me was after DGS (5) had eaten his main course when he said, "You do good cooking Nanny" praise indeed.

Started out sunny and dry this morning is now cold, windy and overcast. Still have got indoor jobs caught up with. No cooking today as I plated a meal up from yesterday and will probably be eating Xmas pud up all week but it was really good. I did get a bit carried away before Christmas with them and have 5 more smaller ones left but will keep a couple for this next year.

Can't believe it's only 3 weeks to Easter, this year has gone so quickly.

Pippilongstocking

Hey frugalleers - good wishes to you all

This weekend - upstairs water tank in new house decided to leak - not fun - two floors soaked - thank goodness for a quick on the mark plumber and a friend with a vax and a dehumidifier -ergh - thank goodness we were in!

On the financial side (apart from the extra electric at the mo) the landlord is paying for the tank being fixed etc

Got 25m of windbreak up at the weekend and 30m of rabbit netting (to keep the dog in not the rabbits out) - 125m to go!!

Will get to that as soon as - aside those adventures not much in the way for frugaleering

Campervan alternator is now fixed (I have got 4 in a box in the shed which cam ewith the van - a man here services them (£30 cash to give him) and one of my 4 is in good workign order so OH can fix that for me saving me £90-100 for the alternator)

Got a lot of wool from freegle here to make more of my blanket for hte kids
Also have been given 30+ bags of top soils to make some raised beds thisyear until I can get a polytunnel up - so will make the raised beds where the tunnel will go and save me a job once its up IYSWIM

OH up next week with a van to move most of hte big things to the new house - just need to get my shopping list sorted for him - no point in comign up with an empty van! Not with our ferry costs anyway!

Hen laying everyday - must get her some chums - chicks a step far for me at the moment - but will get some later

Must organise some packing this week! And get on to ebaying more plants/seeds

Well done on jobs etc you guys - you all sound so organised!