FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE part 3, July - Dec 2010

NualaBuala

pink_numbers wrote: »

SHOES :D:D

(only kidding, I've worn the same boots for three years)

I know what you mean, I want a secure future for the two of us. I'd rather spend at 40% to know that I can go on for longer, than spend 100% of our income and have no security. The only problem is, building security can be a bit boring! lol

I hear you! That's why I have to give myself some leeway in my budget or else I think I'd go on one gigantic SPLURGE!

We just did a massive three months shop for food to freeze. Now we have 6 months of dry good and 3 months of freezer food, I won't have to step into a supermarket for at least 3 months (I hate supermarkets). We just have an awful lot of processing to do tomorrow, mincing meat, making sausages, etc. PHEW!

I hate them too - have started bulk buying in our food co-op where possible. Sounds like you are hardcore old style! :T:T:T

Savvy_sewing

Keep me out of town!! arg, I was in the town between twin1's signing on at the jobcentre and my appointment with the Solicitor and I spent in the £ shop and a charity shop. Saw boots that would fit twin1 in the charity shop for £6 and bought them for her. then I did a really mad thing and bought a designer dress for £10 that I know will not fit me. I am going to experiment with it and see if I can sell it on ebay! I also bought a jumper for me, which i do need though. I have very few jumpers, £5.50. So my no buying clothes went out of the window, and i was supposed to be downsizing my wardrobe.

For my penance tomorrow its get the digital camera out, and photograph things. Then do that dreaded Ebay I am always saying I will do and never do do! There can be no excuses now, or I will have to go on a drastic diet and wear the dress in......2 years??? No I dont want to be a size 8 ever again. I was too thin and ill then.

Kerry_Woman

Jayne - Great news about your loan and cc.

cw18

mardatha wrote: »

It's not getting any easier and that's a fact. Every time I get the food bill sorted, something happens and I have to change things.

Tell me about it !!!

I recently increased my grocery budget by 10p per person per day over the year (covered by reducing my contingency fund), purely to try and cover the calorie intake I need. And then I only just about clung on to a static weight, so I did the same increase again.

This week I under-ate slightly (got sick of going to bed feeling like a stuffed pig just to get all my calories down me), but shouldn't have lost more than 0.5lb if my basic calorie requirement is right - but got on the scales this morning to find I've lost another 1.5lb in the last week (which means I'm still looking at needing to increase my basic intake by 25% before I add on any extras I earn from exercise).

So I'm going to have to increase my grocery budget again, but I think it's going to have to be a substantial increase so I can start including high calorie but less filling foods (such as nuts) on a more regular basis. I actually reckon that my budget for next year will have to at least double (on a per person basis as it's only me now) while still being heavily Whoopsie driven - and if the Whoopsies dry up/carbs increase in price as much as it's looking as they may then I'm well and truly snookered

Even now I'm struggling to squeeze the extra I need from other budgets for 2011, as the reductions in water and electricity since DS moved out won't come anywhere near covering it all, and neither will ditching the TV licence (which I was already considering and it now looks essential that I do). The only things I can see that would 'free up' enough money are getting rid of the car (which then means I can't visit family easily, and would need a budget for public transport - something I'd rather not do unless/until I re-locate back to near my parents, which isn't going to be until 2012/13) or re-homing the dog (which I've been in touch with an organisation about, but they've said very few people are currently 'adopting' because of the economic climate although they have listed him on their site)

It's also hammering my 'work related' and 'anything else' budgets, as I'm having to buy smaller clothers in fairly rapid succession. Bought a set of works trousers in August (size 12) which had to be replaced in September (size 10). And this past weekend I've had to replace them again (size 8). I've been lucky with general clothes thus far, in that I managed not to fall out of my 14's until I could get into 10's and still had all my size 10's from 2003 (only needed underwear) - but I can see that this may soon become an area I have to have a significant spend in too

The worrying thing cost wise, is that I'm now in the smallest size Mr A make these trousers in - and at £5/pair they're good value trousers. I really can't afford to go smaller again, as I'll have to pay a lot more per pair from somewhere else - which almost certainly means buying less pairs for more money and doing more wash loads in a week (which then pushes up my water, electricity and 'toiletries & cleaning' budgets )

Mr T don't seem to sell anything smaller than a size 10, but I discovered last night that a 15-16 years olds school sweatshirt which was short in the arms when I bought in for my voluntary school work in Aug 09 (which was fine given the tasks I did) now swamps me - the sleeves are down to my thumbs with my arms out and cover my thumbs with my arms down - so I'm wondering if I might be able to get away with buying some casual items from the kids section

landregistrylass

Evening all. As a civil servant I am worried sick about the future - all organisations are looking to shed folk. But I am not going to think about it this week. I have my 3 DGS with me - a real treat. They are always ravenous, but have prepped by filling freezer with whoopsied stuff. Yesterday our roast dinner cost 37p for the chicken (whoopsied thighs and drumsticks which I roasted then took the meat off), roast potatoes, stuffing (free - local car boot sale dealer donated it as it had lost its packet) broccoli and carrots, then home made crumble with donated apples. Must have been less than £2 for 5 of us. And today they fancied baked potatoes with bacon (Mr T bacon pieces - £1.15 a pack) with beans and cheese. And we made biscuits (well, sort of cookies.......... long story) and more crumble, so all snoring now, very contented. Free activities by local council during the week, and home grown pleasures such as dominoes, colouring etc - we are having a (cheap!!) ball. Hope my feel good mood helps some, I know its difficult for everyone at times. When I miss the boys - and their Mum - sometimes it seems harder to cope with being frugal, as if there is no light at the end of the tunnel. but the light always comes on again. Honest.

NualaBuala

I hope that you escape the cuts landregistrylass, but from the sounds of it you will cope just fine no matter how tough things get. It's people like you who prove that you can eat well and have fun without spending a fortune. It is tough though and I feel for you ... try your best not to worry and remember all the good times you have had that didn't cost money. x

Erme

ChinaTea wrote: »

Not been around much the last couple of weeks. Been really stressful few weeks and health as usual suffers. Mother has been ill and she is not the most agreeable person at the best of times. That also means I’ve been travelling the 50+ miles to see here mainly for my Dad’s sake as he is not well either. Laptop had virus that took a week to sort and I’ve been lost without it. Made me realise that most of my life is on it and how much easier the internet makes life.

Breadmaker died on me after 3 years of faithful service. I haven’t bought bread for the best part of those 3 years but decided to make it by hand using the mixer to do the kneading. Why didn’t I do this before??? I’ve always just used the BM to make the dough and then baked it in the oven as I don’t like the shape oe texture in the BM but this takes an hour and half electricity plus the time spent measuring ingredients. It only takes 5 minutes to measure the ingredients, 10mins kneading and I have just covered the mixer bowl with a cloth until the dough has risen then another minute to knock it back and put it in the loaf tin, 20 minutes in the oven. This saves an hour’s worth of electric so can’t be bad and the bread is so much nicer.

Still trying to be as frugal as possible but have let filling in the spreadsheet slip but I have a full to bursting freezer and store cupboard and a small emergency fund that wouldn’t have happened without this challenge. For the first time ever I have Christmas sorted in October, I have all the pressies made mostly jams/marmalade for adults and snowman soup for children. I still have 4 Christmas puddings from last year I got a bit carried away with making them and gave 5 as presents and ate 2 with DS and DGS. Just need to make a couple of cakes but have all the ingredients bought and will do these after Nov 5th.

Had a phone call from the GPs surgery today that the blood tests I had done on Tuesday need to be repeated next week but they won’t say why over the phone. Hoping it’s nothing to be concerned about and not too worried about it.

Hope everyone is OK, I’ll go and catch up with some of the posts now.

I wouldn't be without my food processor now....I make bread in this...It's so much cheaper and quicker than the BM....(and smaller! ) I know the FP was yet another semi impulse buy in the summer but I'd tried out one I'd gotten from freecycle and went for it cos it was when I wasn't eating and it was like 'don't eat or FP' I chose FP cos I can disguise food in it - suddenly I was eating utter no nos of eggs and cheese that I hadn't eaten for years

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Hey all,
Thanks for all the sympathy. I think I'm starting to feel better now, and I have just eaten 1/2 a tub of Phish food lol.
I'm on a bit of a mission online tonight. I got lots of goodies from Lush for my birthday and looked at their website to order some more bits and was pretty shocked at the prices!! So I was looking up how to make your own bath bombs and it turns out that making them is pretty dear to, so I have moved onto reserching bath salts which are a massive bath time fave of mine and turns out they are simple and cheap to make.
So I'm on a mission to buy Epson salts tomo. They should be in boots or Tescos etc and trying a chocolate bath salts recipe.
Wish me luck

x x x x

I did find some recipes...I don't know where from? I find there's a really nice bubble bath I get from Mr S for about £2 or £3 that I just keep for bad hair days that smells just like a lush shop and is fab (it's kind of retro and has calendula in it)...then I use the cheap 20p stuff the rest of the time....

Anyhow an odd bath bomb 'aint going to break the bank so long as it's not every night but just for bad hair days....I had it on my recovery plan last year

With regards bath stuff...I'm still on the 13p soap for the shower (or however much it cost) that I started about may so that has been a worthwhile buy...

and I wouldn't be without my bulk buy bag of bicarb - it was aboBuut £3 or so from the chinese supermarket for a few kilos..... it's great at unblocking sinks

Sorry not been around....got a bit down about the comments the other week so took a break....But with regards the whoopsie I'm concentrating on free books and selling my library (the stuff I can get online) so I have more space in the house...

E

NualaBuala

Erme, I'm glad you posted. I am so so sorry the comments upset you. Just reading your post I was thinking that the FP was worth every single penny if it made it easier to eat. I'd say a lot of folk on the OS board wouldn't be without theirs. And I love the idea that bath bombs etc were put down as part of your recovery plan. Pay no attention to what I say chuck, you are making progress all the time and I am certainly noone to talk (Queen of the Takeaway, I should be booted off this board lol).
I meant to ask, how is it going with the storage heaters - it's been pretty nippy lately so I hope they're working!
Hugs,
Nuala x

mardatha

Bath bombs are a faff to make and very hit or miss. It takes a knack to make them ... took me years to find I havent got that knack and my OH has and his were perfect every time. :mad:
Bath salts are nice, bath teas are nice, and bath melts are nice. Teas are epsom salts or sea salt crystals, mixed with herbs like lavender/calendula/rosemary/mint (not too much mint or you'll hit the roof and maybe go through it):D Then add oatmeal to soften the water and some essential oils to relax you. Shove it all in a muslin or organza bag and dunk in the bath.
Melts are just cocoa butter melted and added to essential oils and poured into ice cube moulds, Need to be stored in a cool place until use. You can scatter lavender buds or heather buds over the tops to make them pretty.
All of these are nice for personal use to cheer you up, or for xmas

NualaBuala

It seems RV is a man of many talents! Hmmm, this is interesting cos I have a 6kg bucket of Epsom salts. I love them in my bath but it doesn't exactly look pretty. I like the idea of turning it into bath tea. Hmmm, I have a bit of muslin somewhere. Think I might have some lavender. Have porridge ... although I do not want to sit in a bath full of porridge. :rotfl: