Frugal Living 2010 - the final stretch

Erme

I definitely want the thread to continue and I'm prepared to help out with the admin where I can but I don't want it all on my shoulders because sometimes I'm not online for a week or more and like I'm not online on Sabbath....

Thanks redglass for the tip...How much do these chains cost (is this a really stupid question?) and are they heavy or light...and how will they stay up if I have them laden with coathanger and wet clothes? Still researching this idea but thinking now more about putting the lines in the hallway (across it) about headheight rather than the bathroom with the probs with the shower that would need a plumber to fix...or else still in the bathroom but lengthways sink to top of door....

Any input on this idea most appreciated...

Anyhow hope everyone is welll. Just checking in...

Blessings

E

BinkyTheHorse

*delurking*

I, also, would like the thread to continue. I have lurked on the old thread for the past couple of months and it's been very inspirational. I have plans to join in when next years challenge starts and am looking forward to it.

Thanks to Frugaldom for starting the original thread(s), and to cw18 for starting this one. Hope that the Frugaldom website / blog will continue as it is another of my lurking haunts

*back to lurking mode for now until the 2011 thread (hopefully) starts *

Kiwisaver_2

Thank you Cheryl for picking up the baton, I would love to see this challenge or something similar continued for 2011. You've ALL helped keep me on the straight and narrow with useful advise and tips over the past year and it spurs me on hearing how everyone else is doing.

Being as I am two seasons behind you all, I am tapping into inspiration and memories of the earlier posts in this challenge when you were all plotting and planning growing your own fruit and veggies. Am heavily into my garden at present, dashing out every evening to tend to my seedlings and do the watering. We've got strawberries coming along, raspberry cane in flower, runner beans and taters just planted out.

I was awfully brave and spent the weekend digging out my compost heap :eek: Scary biscuits, cos I was convinced there were rats in there. (Thankfully there wasn't)

On the budget front, it's getting very close now and with little room left for juggling and still quite a long list of things I need to get for Xmas, so I am going to have to be very strict with the remains. I have a list of the minimum requirements for presents, food etc down to the stamps for cards and that takes care of pretty much all I have left to spend.

My mantra is to be strong and not be at all tempted to deviate from the plan. :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Thanks, Cheryl.

Yes, I will be continuing my challenge as normal, just not on here. Many thanks to all who have taken part and enjoyed following the frugal lifestyle. No doubt I will pop in for a read now and again. My personal challenge remains unchanged, but the challenge on here took a completely different route when it moved from DFW. I had no intentions of upsetting anyone, I still don't know how I managed that, but I guess my interpretation of frugal living is just different from some others.

All the very best with your individual challenges, however you decide to meet them.

NYK Media / Frugaldom

grandma247

Kiwisaver meat attracts rats so don't put any in the compost and you should not get them I have found the odd mouse though including one that had got itself trapped. I could hear it squeaking and dug very carefully till I found it and freed it. It was just a field mouse so not scary at all.

xnatalie81x

Erne I bought some cheap yellow plastic washing line from mr m and hung it from my bathroom window on the handle, through to the handle on my bedroom window - this was my indoor washing line I now have an aluminium washing line that is brilliant - it is really light but a proper circle washing line. It is a caravan one. Got it on eBay and is brill for indoor use x Evay: portable rotary caravan washing x x

Still being frugal and slowly putting together next yrs budget. I have already decided that instead of paying car insurance in installments I am paying in full and using the monthly equivalent to pay back into savings. This will save me 140 in interest!

Going to have a lazy day - still have a cauli in the veg box to pick - have wrapped it's leaves around to keep the frost away - also need to plant more salad leaves. My food budget is going to be an area I cut drastically next yr. We are trialling 160 this mtg and on grocery challenge, this is a cut from 275 month usually!

thriftylass

Thanks FRugaldom for all the hard work over the last years :T and thanks to cw18 :T for keeping this thread going. I only just joined again and have not been on that often yet but I definitely would like to keep going.

Had a little go at BF yesterday. I'm four months pg but he still goes out once or twice a week. Fair enough if he wants to let off steam before the frugalmite comes and to be honest I quite miss drinking in the pub with mates. But anyway, he was never that great with money and he used borrow money off me before his payday (btw he does not have any other debt though apart from a car loan) but it's gotten a bit better lately I thought. Then he had quite a few unexpected repair on his car and was complaining about how costly the car now is and if he could borrow some money til payday AGAIN! I had to compose myself for a few minutes and then told him that he maybe shouldn't go out that often if he doesn't have the means and I was dissapointed that he still hasn't started to put money aside for these kind of eventualities :mad:. The baby is only 5 paycheques away, how is he gonna have money once I'm on maternity pay? Gggrrrrr...why can't men think of the future. I'm not worried financially because I have put enough money aside for the baby etc but it's a two way street.
I sometimes also suspect that money is the reason why he doesn't want to marry rather than it not making a difference to him (but he knows I'd like to), not that it has to cost a lot. Don't get me wrong I love that man and he's very excited about the baby and caring just sometimes ........maybe it's because as someone told me for man it's not quite real till the baby is born.

cake21

Heartfelt thanks to Frugaldom for setting up the original challenge and cw18 for taking up the baton. Between you (Frugaldom's thread and sage words of advice reminding us to distinguish between needs and wants, and cw18's spreadsheet reminding me when I've started to confuse the two) I have literally saved thousands of pounds this year which has gone to paying off debt :j

cake21

[Frugaldom, I have taken this from your original thread because I've found the links really useful in the past . If anyone objects I will remove the post]

For some it is initially about clearing debt, for others it's about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home mums or paying off the mortgage early. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds. Above all, this is a fun and supportive way to manage your budget so you have control of your own cost of living. It's about NEEDS, not WANTS.

Living on a budget = living within our means.
Frugal = thrifty, living without waste

Ideas to help you achieve and/or maintain debt free living
Spend within your means
Set a proper budget
Houseshare
Get a lodger
Shop via cashback sites but always price compare,
Buy reduced items in stores only if you need them,
Stockpile & bulk buy
Batch cooking,
Make the most of charity shops,
Join Freecycle or other similar waste awareness and recycling associations,
LETS trading - become active members of trading & exchange groups
bartering
Grow your own herbs, fruit & veg,
Preserving & winemaking
Card & gift making
Order splitting for better discounts & shared postal costs,
Landsharing, allotments & frugal garden systems
Free scratchcards,
Matched betting,
Free online bingo,
eBid and eBay trading
etc, etc, etc...

Sample Budget
Groceries - £1,095.00
Toiletries - £40.00
Cleaning & Laundry products - £10.00
Heat, power & hot water - £1,500.00
Mobiles, Internet & telephone - £400
TV Licence - £145
Clothing & footwear £50
Travel £240
Household Insurance £55
Gifts & everything else - £465

TOTAL £4,000

Monitoring and revising the budget is part of frugal living plan. Gifts & cards could all to be homemade, livestock needs to pay its own keep, anything else needs to be cash neutral. If you live with debt and are serious about clearing it, there's no space in the budget for luxuries.

Quote:
HANDY LINKS:
(I am neither endorsing nor recommending any of the links provided here, members of our extended frugal community have simply found them to contain helpful information.)

Approved Food - amazing bargains if you don't mind short dates or past sell by – save a fortune whilst saving it from landfill!
BigBrandsforless - even more amazing bargains on short or just past sell by dates
Bite Card - 20% off food at train stations (ideal for regular travellers)
Budgetbrain - MSE's free to use budget analysis tool - BRILLIANT!
Carrot recipes - loads of ways to use up those carrots
CASHBACK - The official MSE list of sites offering the best cashback deals
Cheryl's FREE spreadsheet - how to download & use it free
Complete (MSE) cooking collection - Loads and loads and loads of recipes
Cookingbynumbers - using up food you have in stock, free to use
Crafting for Christmas - homemade presents
Eggs, eggs, eggs - My '100 things to do with eggs' list
Electricity & Gas savings - monitor your electricity & gas with the MoneySaving Carbon Club
Flannel Cake making - unusual gifts
Food Bargains - Discounted food, short dated and past 'BBE' dates.
Foraging & Preserving - free foods, when, where, what to do with them
Free 2010 OS MSE calendar - download and print
Free crafts ideas - how to make papier mache banks etc
Freecycle - don't bin it, rehome it.
Freegle - Originally Freecycle in UK
Gift Baskets & Hampers - an index to the MSE relevant threads
Gifts in a jar - you don't need a canner for these
Greenfingered money saving - Gardening & growing your own food
Grocery bargains - Supermarket price reduction times
Hunger Site - Charity site where every click counts
i-Measure - log your meter readings and try to reduce your carbon footprint
Laundry Gloop and loads of other frugal cleaning related 'recipes'
Leftovers - don't bin them, get creative, make another meal.
LETS - Local Exchange Trading Schemes and alternative currencies within communities
Martin's mad moneysaver ads - a surprising new addition to the site - advertising offers!
Martin's current offers & discount codes - updated daily
Menu Planning - hundreds of options and suggestions
Nutrition and diet info, an excellent thread - thanks to Weezl74
Old Style indexed collection - Indexed collection of links, hints and tips for anything old style, moneysaving and frugal.
Preparing for winter the frugal way
Recipes part 1 - thanks to Rosieben on the Grocery Challenge
Recipes part 2 - thanks, again, to Rosieben
Remoska discussion - everything you need to know about Remoska ovens
Rural Moneysaving Hunt - official MSE discussion
Selling on eBid - decluttering and recycling for cash with no listing fees
Snowman Soup - always a favourite with frugallers during the festive season
Soapnuts - The frugal, eco-friendly alternative to soap powder or detergents (free samples)
Soapnuts thread on MSE - discuss, ask questions here
Spending Diary - excellent free resource for recording your spends
Start a cottage industry - the official MSE discussion
Veg Planner - free printable vegetable planting guide/calendar from the RHS
Weezl74's 50p per person per day eating healthily thread
Weezl74's frugal recipe testing thread - Phase 1
Will Power & Billy Can - part 1, part 2, part 3

pagangirl

Not posted for a while as nothing to report really. (lurking, still reading all posts tho)

Thanks for carrying on the thread CW

Frugaldom - thanks for your inspiration and for starting the thread, couldn't have managed the last 12 months without it. Sorry it took off in a different direction to what you wanted, but think it has been a lifesaver for many of us.

2011??? will have to be the same budget or slightly less, as still being mucked about by benefit people. Benefits is a scary place when you've worked all your life and don't understand the system.:eek::eek::eek:

cake21 - thanks for putting all the links up, really helps when thy're in one place.

Hugs to all
xx