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

Pippilongstocking

flippin36 wrote: »

I so want one of them but I can only find them at £24.99. Does anyone know of a cheaper one?

Mine was 28 - at Ethical superstore - I waited for a free delivery option and also got quidco so I think it was about 25 in the end.

Priceless though - it certainly changes your perceptions of energy use - and whilst folks argue you don't save anything - I'd argue that having left on my immersion overnight - when I found out it was 45p/hour - I think its 'saved' its value in less than 3 months to be honest :eek:

I certainly didnt do that again, you can spot if anything is on once you get your eye in :rotfl:

it also allows you to [STRIKE]spy[/STRIKE] keep track of energy used by your lodgers when they crank up any additional electric heaters, leave tellies on etc (make sure your family know you have one....)

Changing ot low energy bulbs and removing bulbs from light fittings with more than a couple of bulbs also makes a difference

And when you see the cooker :eek::eek::eek:

Only petrol spend for me today £25

Not that I am obsessed or anything

redglass_2

ceridwen wrote: »

I came across a chapter on food co-ops and the comments about how some people are able to buy better food because of belonging to one of them. /QUOTE]

OMG I'll never catch up with this thread...Just wanted to say that you may be closer to a co-op than you think, NualaBuala. My local one is almost invisible from outside the building and is only open part of the week. As a result it was over twenty years before I discovered it, though I live just down the road! It cost me all of 1p to join and prices compare favourably with other places (though it's still important to check before buying - rather like Ebay).

cw18

danielley wrote: »

Also I often hear people saying ‘I have some chilli in the freezer so that is dinner sorted’ etc. How do you guys defrost things? Do you always use Microwaves, or does anyone just put stuff in the pan / oven…. I’d be interested to know.

Depends on how organised I am in the morning (or even the night before). I try to pull it out in time to defrost (move from tub/bag to pan while frozen, then leave at room temperature, or in fridge overnight), but if I forget/hadn't decided what to make early enough I put it over a low light and cook from frozen (but this uses more gas, so I try not to do this too often).

cw18

knithappens wrote: »

quick question about the spreadsheet the totals page do you entrr monthly budget or yearly??

cake21 wrote: »

yearly (message too short )

Yep, all set up to work when given annual budgets. But you can enter that as a formula rather than a straight number

eg. If your Council Tax is £63.18 a month, but only payable for 10 months of the year, then in the annual figure cell you enter
=63.18*10
This will then display as an annual figure of 631.80, and all the calculations that use this figure still work fine

danielley

Carpet Fitter didn't turn up!!!!!

OH and I are currently sat on the bare floor as we ripped up old carpet on Sunday and moved 2 sofas and tv cabinet into dining room last night.

It was a lot of effort to move them, so we dont want to move them back until we have to.

The thing that is annoying me is the Carpet Shop haven't even rang! I have been trying to ring them all day and there has been no answer (they are a small independant shop)

I know the weather has been shocking and that perhaps the shop/fitter didn't get into work, but if it was my small business and I knew that customers were expecting delivieries I would have at least trekked to the shop to get my order book so I could ring people! :mad:

annie123

top_drawer wrote: »

Can anyone tell me whether it will make a difference whether the foil screen thingys behind the radiator is actually attached to the wall?

We used bluetack for the first year, but had to keep poping it back.
Then we used doublesided foam 'things', got them in the craft bit at wilkinsons for £1, lots of uses:D
They have been there for a few years now and just checked them, will need to scrap them off! stuck fast to the wall:rolleyes:

cw18

chika wrote: »

Does anyone bake with fresh yeast - I remember people getting it for free from the supermarket bakers. Is this still true and is it easy to work with?

I haven't, but yes they do. Mentioned to my manager (very tongue in cheek) that I knew friends got freebies from other supermarkets (I work in the bakery in a Mr M), and he said that (although not advertised) we give it as well - but there is a limit to how much at a time to any one customer (40g)

ceridwen

Aril wrote: »

Have a good frugalling day- there's a film clip on one of the American moneysaving sites that shows you how to scoop up snow and then use it to make vanilla icecream:D:D That however, won't be featuring my my evening's entertainment plans:rotfl:

Arilx

Thats just the sort of quirky tip I am likely to try:D - so if you have a linkie for it I'd be interested to have a looksee:D

Better make a bit of "leeway" methinks....I've been checking up on other peoples budgets today....as in seeing if anyone "close" needs a bed for the night or an offer of me doing their shopping for them via the Internet. I know full well that I've got all the "facilities" - but a lotta people I know might end up stuck with the cost of an overnight stay in a b & b if they cant get home or taxi fares if they cant go shopping. So - resting satisfied now that "close" people know theres a spare bed or access to t'internet if they require it to "keep the show on the road".

NualaBuala

redglass wrote: »

OMG I'll never catch up with this thread...Just wanted to say that you may be closer to a co-op than you think, NualaBuala. My local one is almost invisible from outside the building and is only open part of the week. As a result it was over twenty years before I discovered it, though I live just down the road! It cost me all of 1p to join and prices compare favourably with other places (though it's still important to check before buying - rather like Ebay).

Thanks a million redglass, I have found a coop fairly close (about 40 minutes on the bus which is good enough for me). They are not dirt cheap but I think the prices are fair, and that's important to me. And the food is great quality too. Like you said, it's tucked away and you'd never know it's there! They are only open 2 days a week but that's fine too.

This thread is flying along isn't it? I'm sure I'm missing lots of important stuff but hopefully folks will understand it's hard keeping up.

Made the leftover bolognaise into a lasagne, hope it tastes nice as I did a bit of an experiment by using yoghurt and soft cheese instead of bechamel. It looks a bit funny so fingers crossed! There are another 3 large portions left after the one I'm about to scoff so will have to squish them in the freezer somehow.

Pippilongstocking

Lots of 10p bargains in my local c-op - infact only took a couple of bits cos there were so many and i go alot so dont want chucked out for abusing the reduced section as we go most days

they have that nice butter type spread stuff for about 44p/tub - dated til april if anyones interested - i've chucked 6 in my fridge
and they've got fair trade posh filter coffee on offer for £1.07

eta JUST SET UP MY GROCERY BUDGET SPREADSHEET

AND THE SAME FOR THE CAR BUDGET (ALTHOUGH ITS SEPERATE TO THIS BUT THANK YOU EH FOR THE SPREADSHEET) - 2K A YEAR ON CAR RELATED EXPENSES (omg!!!!!!!!!!!) ALTHOUGH IT INCLUDES PETROL.