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

Frugaldom

Puddleglum wrote: »

Hello Margaret, hello mrsmuggy!:A

Same from me, welcome on board... although it's not quite on board Mr Meerkat's cruiser! :eek::beer: Have fun on that!

Wet and wndy here, so I;m indoors and at the computer most of the time. My 'get fitter, not fatter part deux' challenge is now well underway and it's only now I'm seeing where all the extra weight came from! I weighed a serving of muesli yesterday and compared it to what the pack recommended and my 'serving' was more than twice the recommended! No wonder we get through stuff so quickly, our portion control is ridiculous! Even halving it still puts me over the recommended serving size! :rotfl:Oh well, onward ho! Should see a small decrease in the grocery shopping over the year now I've found out I buy and serve enough for 6 at a time rather than 3. :rotfl:

Just waiting for an order from F00d Bargains as some of my LETS buddies asked for tins etc, so combined order for all of us came to only £20 ish includding delivery. 5p for tins of kidney beans in chili sauce was a bargain nobody could refuse. And I did use the 'frugaldom10' discount code and it did get me a further 10% off.

Chicks all growing well here, garden's looking greener and seeds are sprouting but that's probably thanks to all the rain we're getting whilst the weather man spouts on about heatwaves. Haven't seen any heatwave here, that's for sure! Maybe next week. :cool:

Hope everyone's doing well, quite a few gone missing in action over the past month or two but I guess that's to be expected. Frugalisation isn't everyone's cup of tea. :rotfl:

Kiwisaver_2

Frugaldom wrote: »

Hope everyone's doing well, quite a few gone missing in action over the past month or two but I guess that's to be expected. Frugalisation isn't everyone's cup of tea. :rotfl:

I think it's probably sustaining the momentum and discipline of planning and keeping records, researching etc that's the harder part. I have surprised myself to still be here four months on and I have never devoted so much time and effort into household and finance matters in all my life. Sometimes it does feel overwhelming and I wonder what I did with the time in the past. :eek:

However, despite the extra work, it's all been so worth it and I'll be chuffed to bits come Friday to see my four months spends sitting nicely below one third of the annual budget. :T

pagangirl

:wave:to Margaret & mrsmuggy

[grandma 247 - Pagan girl I hope you enjoyed your trip to Skipton] - errrm - didn't go exactly as planned IBS kicked off, coach had no toilets on board, so even after taking immodium tablet, wasn't going to take a chance, so ended up not going. Lost out on £5.00 deposit, but had frugal no spend day instead Was not a happy bunny !

Hugs to all

NualaBuala

Hello everyone! And welcome MrsMuggy and Margaret! :hello:

Erme, your "I feel pants" spend made me smile! I think I've done a few of those in my time. Well done on keeping yours frugal and hope you're feeling better now, hugs to you!

Today is mild and breezy and I'm hoping to get out in the garden to do a wee bit. I keep getting ideas of stuff I'd like to do but end up dithering and doing nothing. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the garden because I don't know how much longer I'll have it. And since I don't know where I'll be living next, I don't even know if I'll have room for pots and things. I hope I do! I'm treating the garden mainly as therapy for the depression as it seems to do me the world of good. There's something healthy about being tired out from lifting and digging. And the smell of soil and plants puts me in great form. But I think I will have some salad and veggies to show for my effots so that will be a bonus.

Had pancakes today for a cheap and tasty brunch. Not sure what dinner will be yet, maybe egg fried rice to use up some bits of veg. I'm going away at the end of next week (very frugally) so I'll have to plan carefully to use up perishables and make a bit of room in the freezer for my ex who is coming to housesit while I'm gone.

Have to mend my rucksack before I go - at least I remembered the strap is damaged this time before going to pack.

Has anyone watched Blood, Sweat and Tears on BBC3? It was on last night but is repeated regularly. I highly recommend it - it's an eye-opener. Even the poorest of us in this part of the world are rich compared with people working so hard for so little in Africa and elsewhere. I felt ashamed of how I've wasted stuff in the past. £50 was enough to put a girl through 5 years of night school in Ethiopia. So that made me think long and hard about how I spend my money.

Right, off to finish my cuppa and then out to the garden. Have a great day everyone!

Edit: I'm not sure if you'll be able to view this from the UK but it's fantastic! http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/features/mooneycam/robincam.html Derek Mooney is one of our wildlife experts and he has set up a camera in a nest box which robins took up residence in. The young are just a few days old and watching the Mum and Dad feed them and keep them warm is better than Corrie in my book!

Margaret54

Hi everyone, and thank you all so much for the very warm welcome aboard:) Hi mrsmuggy, great to see another new person too:) What a great site and so many things to learn, I just love it all. A real community, smashing.

mrsmuggy

pagangirl wrote: »

:wave:to Margaret & mrsmuggy

[grandma 247 - Pagan girl I hope you enjoyed your trip to Skipton] - errrm - didn't go exactly as planned IBS kicked off, coach had no toilets on board, so even after taking immodium tablet, wasn't going to take a chance, so ended up not going. Lost out on £5.00 deposit, but had frugal no spend day instead Was not a happy bunny !

Hugs to all

Thanks for the welcome.I too suffer from IBS and i panic when i don't know where the toilets as well,but over the years i've learnt what upsets me and what doesn't,still doesn't stop the anxiety though of finding toilets just in case

mrsmuggy

Hi Margaret54,its lovely here isn't it,think i might like it here as people are so friendly

Margaret54

Hi Yes Nuala I have watched that programme on BBC3 and it really made me think about what we really do have in life. I was moved the first time I saw it and as you said, even people who are poorer in this Country are rich compared to them. We have such a choice in food clothes footwear, oh in everything really and it makes me sad to see how very hard these people have to work and the conditions they have to work in, to earn a tiny amount of wages. I count my blessings a lot I really do.

mrsmuggy

Oh has gone back to work this week after a week of decorating the stairs and hallway,we've done it ourselves because we couldn't afford to pay for it but at least we have saved money that way,unfortunately the ceilings are high in our flat so we've had to do walls and ceilings in the same colour because you can't get a good edge with a paint brush on the end of a pole. So we bought 2 large tubs of white wilkos silk and added a tester pot of blue so making it into a hint of a tint paint,saved money as only cost us £22 for the lot,well chuffed:rotfl:So now i've got to do the glossing and wall papering but that is leftover paper from another room so again not expensive for us and really brightens up the stairway,good job well done

grandma247

Hello to mrsmuggy and Margaret54.

I have had a long day today. I took ds2 to the airport and sent him off to America this morning. It was very strange. He has never been so far away from us or for so long before. He gets back the beginning of June. He is supposed to be phoning when he gets to his final destination which will be 2am tomorrow morning our time. I told him I would rather be woken than spend the rest of the night worrying as he is only 20 in July but he has suprised me with how grown up and independant he really is, he had everything sussed about the web check in thing and he is not afraid to ask if he needs help.
Once he is with the family he is staying with I think I will be able to relax.
On the frugal front I only used about £5-6 of fuel with driving slower (partly due to traffic holdups) and another £4 for the car park so not too bad but it will be tight during May as I am putting money in his bank account for the last three weeks of his hols.