FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 2, April - June.

JayJay14

Have to agree on this jtb - we have lost a couple of courgettes though we have time to start again. Have found that £ land is a good place to get fleece.

We have our potatoes in ex recycling boxes, if we get frost we can put them in the garage overnight to escape it.

cha97michelle

Mine aren't ouside yet. They are either in the greenhouse or on my living room window sill. I only put the larger things out in the greenhouse. Can't wait for the weather to warm up more.

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes Annie.

xnatalie81x

Morning All

Am making an effort to post more frequently - am starting to lose sight of where i am going, and why and spending very close to the line!

Yesterday was excellent. We had a local event which was COMPLETELY free (apart from the ice cream van which i stayed well away from) - kids went on bouncy castle, made hedgehogs, had faces painted, tried circus skills - and all free all i spent was £2 in the car park at our local community hospital (and 80p on a tropical juice and 3 waters from the hospital machine) after DD managed to hurt finger in car door. She loved having her x ray though and seeing her bones - she was very brave as i could not go in with her due to bean in my belly - but the x rayer lady left the door open

Did go food shopping to get a few top ups and i got some picnic things:
2 mini french sticks 78p (cheese topped and wholemeal)
pot sandwich filler 1.25
2 pks doghnuts 1.00

I originally put 2 sarnies in the trolley but £2 for 2 sarnies what a joke!!!! So put them back and got other bits instead. I took 4 bottles of diluted value squash and we all had a fab and cheap day!!!!!!!

My target i to live on 12,500 for the year and MARCH was 780.34/1036.61(the 12500 divided by 12 mths) so i am doing very well so far. Every month has been under and April looking to be under (but my a very minute amount lol)

My grocery budget i take out at the beginning of the month and any i do not spend is saved for seeds and veg growing stuff as that will eventually loweer grocery budget for subsequent years. I have made most savings in gifts which i bought most of (xmas and b'days lol) in the Jan sales so should come in mega under budget.

Rises in child tax credit and child benefit have been received gratefully but i have a few probs with business. I managed to pay myself last 2 terms (although not my proper rate - still good!) but i have major probs with the printer and my leaflets did not come through so i now need 22 more swimmers before the end of April (24th) to break even and pay myself. I am focusing on getting ther 11 needed to break even but no pay for me - shame as that will hit the budget quite hard. The main prob is that i am employing teachers with only a couple of swimmers so costs not quite covered in the more advanced classes as i need to move beginners through to fill the more advanced and take in new beginners and i also took on an extra hour on a Sunday so trying to market new classes too!! All good fun

I have lots of veggies on the go at the moment and so hoping to reduce the grocery budget by tons and save the extra for investment. I am also considering letting the allotment go. I will be very busy with another baby and when i took lottie on it was with the belief that my youngest would be in pre school and giving me time to get over there from Sept thi year. That will not be possible now so i have until Aug to decide (fees due) and in the meantime i am trying to work out what i can fit into my new huuuuuuuuuuuuge garden. OH is rubbish and wants nothing there 'a garden should be a garden' IDIOT but i have slowly made him come around to the idea of a couple of neat raised beds............. now i must save for them lol

NualaBuala

Hi everyone :wave:

Belated Happy Birthday cha97michelle!

Frugaldom wrote: »

Nuala Buala - I have rehomed all spare cockerels along with hens, none have been killed and I have no intentions of ever killing any of mine. But yes, you are right - in order for the general public to have eggs, many chicks die, just like many calves die in order that we can have a ready supply of fresh milk. If you're squeamish at all, it's best not to even think about what happens to surplus to requirement livestock within the food chain. (Or chemicals, clothing, toiletries, cosmetics, fishing, tourist, pet, performing arts or any other industry, for that matter.)

I wish you lived near me so I could buy my eggs from you! I trying to eat more veggie and vegan food because I've been troubled by how the food I eat ends up on my table. Until quite recently I had no idea that animals die so I can have eggs and milk. Some day I might try keeping my own hens but right now it's not practical.

Great link Erme, thanks!:T Hope you have enough food to tide you over - do take care of yourself and take money out of savings if need be. Don't think we should go hungry just to be frugal if there is any way to avoid it!

On the not-so-frugal front I baked a lemon drizzle cake yesterday. Not cheap cos of all the eggs and butter. And lemons not especially cheap either but it is delicous. And very rich and filling! So maybe I can convince myself it is frugal after all! :rotfl: Mind you I haven't been buying crisps, biscuits etc and at least this has some goodness in it. I might try to find a vegan version next time I do it, would probably be cheaper too. Also made a big batch of hummus and have portioned into small containers. I'll freeze some though I seem to get through it at a fierce rate lol!

I'm going to try some of those recipe's over on Weezl's thread - she and her gang are doing sterling work over there! :T Might find inspiration for dinner tonight as I don't yet know what I'm having.

Hope you all have a great day!

pagangirl

Belated Happy Birthday cha97michelle - hope it was a good one :hello:

phoebe03cat

Hi everyone; a beautiful day here and a line full of washing. Am non frugally paying dd2 to do the ironing for me as we are away tonight and tomorrow. Helping her with the work ethic (not that she needs it mind you) as she normally just mucks in with all the family jobs without being asked.
Have spent more than usual on shopping this week but all 75%off stickered stuff for freezer. Will now challenge myself to see how far I can make it go just to confirm it is actually frugal stockpiling. Spreadsheet now proving really useful and dh has come on board. Have got him doing the 'all important' analysis teehee.
Got to go as we will be taking a frugal meal for lunch and food for breakfast tomorrow. DH even forgoing the usual fried full English; thank goodness. Will enjoy our 'pub lunch' even more as that would just be a step too far.
Have a great weekend everyone.

Kiwisaver_2

I have had a fabbily frugal Friday, so much so that I now know what it must feel like to win the pools. I hear all you fellow frugallers going on about 'meal deals' and five whatever veggie offers and we have nothing of the like ever. Today I walked into the supermarket and was totally floored by a big sign '$10 MEAL DEAL' Oh wow! 10kg sack of potatoes, 2kg of Onions, 1.5kg of Carrots and a Pumpkin - all for $10 (about 4 quids). I don't think I ever saw so much food for so little money. :T

Honestly, I was so excited and couldn't heave them bags into my trolley quickly enough. I chose only the smallest pumpkin as they were all so HUGE and still it's too heavy for my scales. Recently I have been paying $1.99 per kg for potatoes, so perhaps you might understand why that represents such a good deal to me. OH looked at me stunned when he saw the sack of potatoes and wondered who else was coming to eat them all.

I hope it's the start of a regular thing. *Fingers crossed*

I got another free pack of ladies doodaas in the mail today, along with a voucher to buy a pack and get another one free. I also got a $20 voucher for one of my favourite clothes stores (if you spend $100). So I will make good use of that next week as I really do need some work trousers and a winter cardi as it's getting decidedly chilly in the mornings now.

And to top it all we had a new series on TV tonight 'Come Dine with Me' which I have heard so much about on MSE. I was so pleased when they announced it coming up.

Little things, eh?

Erme

tx nuala for the thing. I didn't do a pre spend work out of things yesterday. I think that was my crime and buying tomato ketchup (big bottle should last months) etc and flour and what not.

Anyhow fortunately I bought my fave snack cous cous for snacks at night (expensive but necessary) have worked out I have enough for a snack till like Monday night (not including Monday night) by which point I may allow myself some 10p stuff ala Mr.C so should be fine (phew)...

Today is therapy and more work on the business. I now have a facebook page for it and am adding politicians as friend on FB (it's a cheap fixation) so am also suggesting they join my biz page. So far have sarah brown (wife of gordon brown) as friend and am trying to get alastair campbell (but he's tricky) and a few others. Just a little high which is affecting routine but I'm not overspending so why worry.

Tonight is free dinner...DV tomorrow will be free lunch. I have a menu plan and SOS veg soup and noodles in freezer. Last night was the first night of wacky night's sleep for a little while all cos I'm back on the meds :t.

Anyhow have to skoot. Nice to hear about the gardening updates. I figure I'm going to be very ungreenfingered (despite my plan to put dwarf beans on windowsill) and just blag free food from ppls gardens/allotments . It's called recovery (and being toobusy..)

Hugs

E

candygirl

Been very frugal today and took my car vac back, as it was crap and got a refund:j:jThis covered my spends on bits of shopping and flowers for Dad's grave tomoz as it would've been his 70th birthday:(:(
Didn't spend owt yesterday ir Wed so have been quite good [STRIKE]for me[/STRIKE]this week:D
hope you all have fab weekends x:A

Kerry_Woman

Wishing you a belated Happy Birthday cha97michelle.