Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

HelenPie

I've actually just remembered a website called Summer Naturals, which sells all sorts of natural cleaning products. I've just thrown together a basket of items (bicarb, vinegar, soapnuts, borax, etc.) and think that I should have enough for the year, and all for under £30 including shipping! It's possibly not the cheapest source, but with the petrol saved not searching around for it all, I think it probably works out ok.

I think I could get used to this money saving thing.....!

H x

Puddleglum

londonirish wrote: »

Originally Posted by CAROLYN


We were told that years ago, or we could sanitize them in the microwave no way if they aren't hygienic enough for children to use, they are going no where near my microwave!!!!!! As said it was proved to be a myth

It was only about 8 months ago when cm friend had Ofsted there and she saw animals made from toilet rolls. she was told you couldn't use them. unhygienic, to use kitchen roll......


so I don't no.

This is not meant to be serrious before I get flamed but wouldn't it only be hygenic if we microwaved the children when they came out of the loo?

londonirish_3

:rotfl:
:rotfl::D

cw18

cw18 wrote: »

Ad-hoc categories

• Groceries £1095 (£1309) reduced due to having one less person to feed, but not by as much as I'd hoped as I'm now having to eat a lot more than I was doing (due to my exercise regime). I'm hoping a lot of this will actually be 'spent' on stuff I have stock-piled in the house, and when I do this I'll put the money into a savings account as an emergency slush-fund

Well, it looks like I should have a pretty healthy 'emergency slush fund' by the end of 2011......

I've spent today doing a stock-take of my freezers (while I was defrosting/rejigging to get yesterdays batch cooking into them), and have then counted up how many portions of batch cooked meals, fish, chicken, pork, beef, pies, sausages, burgers etc I have in them

And it comes to a rather embarrasing total of 333 meals, though some will definitely be used for lunches rather than 'main' meals. But I reckon that's still about 300 main meals, even before I start on the tinned meats/pies I have (at least another 16 meals), packet veggie meatloafs (not sure how many I still have, but possibly another 8 meals there), tinned tuna (a lot of which will be used for lunches) and making my own pizzas

But if DS comes home for his Uni hols (like he's currently talking of doing for 4 weeks or so over Christmas) then I'll get through them in less days than that

NualaBuala

That's a pretty healthy store Cheryl, I reckon you could open your own supermarket with that lot!

Arctic_Sky

cw18 wrote: »

But if DS comes home for his Uni hols (like he's currently talking of doing for 4 weeks or so over Christmas) then I'll get through them in less days than that

Odin's beard, if you have a son home from uni then you'll be doing well to get a month's worth out of that

My OH is of that age - annoyingly skinny and hollow legs that are twice their visible length TRES unfair, but there is a certain 'housewifey' pleasure in feeding him up

kimbe34

hoping to join in just need to work out figures

cw18

kimbe34 - welcome aboard

Kerfuffle

Hi cw18,

Can I please join for 2011?

I did actually join last year, and religously filled in my ledger but only got as far as May before I fell off the wagon.

Hoping to try again for the coming year, but will drag myself into the 21st century and do a spread sheet instead.

I'll come back with a budget figure as soon as it's done.

Good luck everybody.

Erme

I'm still around but haven't been reading posts due to being unwell. A week on and barely overbudget :j unlike the summer where for the whole month I was £200 over usual spend and £300 over ideal spend. So quite chuffed with self....

I Haven't as yet put the contigency fund on my spreadsheet but I guess I should. I learnt about that the hard way last year...SO important to contribute regularly to a rainy day fund for unexpected things...saves you getting into more debt. By unexpected I mean things like the microwave dieing, etc...white goods. Or travel when a relative/close friend dies. Praise God for my cashback - that was my rainy day fund last year - phew.

That's the only tip I can give the newbies....Hope everyone is well....really have enjoyed making my new year cards. Only snag - not really budgeted for them (whoops)...but now all the north atlantic ones are done bar Uncle Jack's life should get easier. I was really annoyed when the postie tried to charge me over £5 to send Sarah Palin (as in the governor of Alaska I believe) one though....I know how much those calendars cost to post ...it's not over £5...(great tip here = surface, printed papers for calendars, a card etc)

Anyhow breakkie will be cold. Am going to join the lurker's list this next year...

E