FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE part 3, July - Dec 2010

slowlyfading

Thanks Still, I will be fuming if I'm ill all holiday!

pink_numbers

grandma247 - thank you so much for that link. I think I have something similar, mine's a chocolate box. The problem is I dip into it! Times like this I really feel my lack of will power.

Mooloo - wooo I never looked at it that way, thank you. I'm so focused on how much over budget I am to the original 6k plan, that I couldn't see how much I've saved. I CAN afford to spend the 9k, but I would love to do better next year. No I have no debts, as I'm too scared of getting into debt.
I don't think you fell off the wagon at all - you were on one wagon, and you were forced to move onto another wagon. To save £750 when you have also increased the number of people in your household is a HUGE achievement! It must feel SO good to have that money there for security. I've followed your own thread over the months/years and I think what you are doing for your family is SO amazing, and worth so much.
I love the image of 'my own little frugaldom' It has been quite motivating to imagine my ideal frugaldom (with chickens running around and fruits and veg growing everywhere). It has reminded me of what I was working towards, so I can't thank you enough for putting that image in my head.

ChinaTea - I love making my bread by hand wouldn't make it any other way. It's really not that hard a work at all once you get used to the process. I am sorry that your BM died, but I am so happy that it's been a trigger for you to try it out by hand, because it does save so much electricity as you say!

pink_numbers

slowlyfading wrote: »

Thanks Still, I will be fuming if I'm ill all holiday!

I just had a bad bout of chest infection but I managed to recover quicker than I normally do. Please keep your chest warm (I wore a scarf the whole time). I make a hot drink with HM blackcurrent (ribena will be just as good), honey and a pinch of ginger powder (lemon too if you have it). Drink it really hot. It helped me keep my body warm.

Hope you get better very soon! big hugs.

grandma247

Pink numbers a chocolate box is far too tempting:).


When my ds1 was in Cyprus he had a chesty cold and a Cypriot lady who ran the shop and cafe they frequented gave him some Cypriot brandy and told him to rub some on his chest and drink the rest. He thought she was joking but she insisted he do it and after a few days he was better. I don't think it would go down well here though.

pink_numbers

ha ha thankfully, it's a beautiful tin that my mother gave me, which did have choc in, but isn't blatantly a choc tin. It has beautiful drawings of completely unrelated images. Not sure what the makers were trying to convey with the images, but it does stop me from getting tempted

my gran had a similar thing for colds, she used to soak muslin cloth with sake (I'm Japanese) and wrap it around my throat for the day. I think the gist of it is to keep your throat/chest warm. Used to stink and I hated it!!

Frugaldom

Quick catch up again.

Pink_numbers, I use a cashback credit card for everything I can, including recurring payments, so income sits in the bank until payment in full is made to the card the following month. This way, if any emergency should arise, I know I have enough credit limit on my card to cover most things and have instant access to ISA funds by way of of a direct transfer of funds to bank account. But I don't live near a bank or post office, so I tend to just keep enough cash to cover things like coal, logs and 'minimergencies'. I don't live near very much, to be honest, so temptation is not something that often gets in my way. What the eye can't see... and all that.

Slowlyfading, hope you have a great holiday and aren't bogged down by any illnesses

Good luck with the blood tests, China Tea

What's everyone thinking of the Government's austerity measures since the big 'spending review'? Hopefully, everyone on here is already in a position to cope with any sudden financial changes. Living within our means to attain and maintain a debtfree status is, afterall, what this challenge is primarily about - frugalising everything.

Fishcake_Random

Can I have lots of sympathy from my frugal friends???
I had a tooth out yesterday and my poor face and jaw is so swollen and bruised today I'm feeling really down. Though people keep giving my OH dirty looks when he's with me lol. I love the way people assume things. Reminds me of when I was making loads of brandy cherrys and was in tesco with 3 massive bottles of own brand brandy and Fishfinger in the buggy. You could almost hear people calling SS in their heads.
At least I'm still under my maternity exemption thingy so it was free instead of about £47 ish.
x x x x

pink_numbers

Frugaldom - thank you for sharing how your system works. It's so helpful to see how other people do it, because everyone's system is different and I learn new ways of managing money. Sometimes, you get so bogged down in your own system that you can't think of another way of doing it. Then you see other people's systems and go "why didn't I think of that before??"

I don't allow myself to have a credit card due to my bipolar, (I borrow partner's cc if I need to book a flight or something and pay him back the same day) but I can see how having the money in ISA would really encourage me to not touch it and make do with the cash I have. I am going to serious consider this option. Thank you.

Fishcake - ohhhhh poor you having a tooth out is such a miserable thing to go through. You don't want to eat, move or talk to anyone. You have my total sympathy. I just really hope you feel a lot better very soon. Fortunately, mouth is the quickest healing part of your body, so you should be out of the woods tomorrow or the day after

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Hi everyone, once more I have to admit to not posting for ages, anyway I am continually trying to be frugal. I lost hope with this posting business because evertime I seemed to loose the messages somehow, Frugaldom did advise me to save them as I went along but :oI dont know how to...........:o so will try to remember to ask my brother when I next see him.

I said I would tell how I manage my budget and since then I've recognised some things I do I other folks do also but I doubt any of us do it totally the same.

ANYWAY... this is it...... I listed my monthly expenses and income then all my annual expenses such as house, contents and car insurance. I also include car MOT and service, boiler service, white goods insurance and CPP etc. Everything that needs a one of annual payment, I divide that by 12 and put that amount on my monthly list.

Then another list which took me quite a while to put together was the other annual expenses list....Birthdays, Christmas, clothes, shoes and shoe repairs, gardening 'stuff', books, toiletries, charity payments, oh! and petrol and yes, food, which is just a roughly worked out amount from the receipts I have spent in the previous year plus everything else that I cant think of at the moment. This list also was added up and divided by 12 and the amount put onto my monthly list. This amount is my credit cards expenses and I set myself an amount to spend each month and will not go a penny more, I stop spending if I get to the amount I set myself...yes I love lists and yes I live alone so I can just stop spending and exist on my freezer and food cupboard....:D I dont have a cash back card but use an A*** one which gives me vouchers to spend instore just before Christmas. This helps to cover extra food and the odd present that I have forgotten beforehand.

All the lists I have made are now added together and deducted from my monthly income, no, it does not always come out so I then start paring my expenses down until it does and thats the hard bit as I often think it cant be done but I works it out eventually.

I have quite a few savings accounts and into one goes my income, I call this one my 'purse', this account earns interest so I leave it there until I need to transfer it back to my current account to cover D/D and S/Os, this I do online daily. My next account is used to pay for oil plus a little extra as I will need a new boiler in the not too distant future. Recently I did a 0% balance transfer to cover some of the debts incured when I fell off the wagon and went on a spending spree and have an account for that also. My balance transfer is 0% for 6 months so I pay the minimum each month and the remainder is divided by 6 and goes into the account each month, this way I earn interest and have enough to pay the whole amount up before it starts incurring charges....hopefully..... and thats where the discipline starts as although I know I have it I have to think of it as spent so I am not tempted..well not much but it has been known!!!!!

My last savings account is for a small amount saved for my Grandson who has just got to university in case he gets really stuck financially and I want to be able to offer him something then.

I have just looked at what I have written and expect you are asleep by now but I actually find this easy to follow because I've done it this way for so many years. The amounts and reasons for savings change but my income stays the same except when I do my car boot sales and sell scones and biscuits in the summer, this money goes to pay for more ingredients for the next week and the profit goes into a separate emergency account. Unfortunately I have not done even one car boot this year because I have had two operations and either have not been able to drive or as now I can't lift, so roll on next year.

I do hope you can make sense of this.

Elizabeth.

Savvy_sewing

Mooloo - wooo I never looked at it that way, thank you. I'm so focused on how much over budget I am to the original 6k plan, that I couldn't see how much I've saved. I CAN afford to spend the 9k, but I would love to do better next year. No I have no debts, as I'm too scared of getting into debt.
I don't think you fell off the wagon at all - you were on one wagon, and you were forced to move onto another wagon. To save £750 when you have also increased the number of people in your household is a HUGE achievement! It must feel SO good to have that money there for security. I've followed your own thread over the months/years and I think what you are doing for your family is SO amazing, and worth so much.
I love the image of 'my own little frugaldom' It has been quite motivating to imagine my ideal frugaldom (with chickens running around and fruits and veg growing everywhere). It has reminded me of what I was working towards, so I can't thank you enough for putting that image in my head.
Quote from Pink-numbered, I havent gone mad and started to talk to myself......yet

Your very welcome!
If you follow my thread, then you need a medal.
I am about to start another one, but cannot make up my mind when it should be, now at the start of the move, or later when I actually get into the new place? But if this was a new start for mooloo, what shall I call the next one!! mmm.

I made a chicken bung in as I call it, in the pressure cooker yesterday, and as it was only, DGD and me yesterday in the end its what we are having again tonight. Its just as well as I dont have any energy today.