Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

alec_eiffel

NualaBuala wrote: »

Hopefully the money you'll save from frugal food will make up for it!:D

I'm trying to eat as much veggie and vegan food as possible. The things I find hardest are the "hidden" things like in Worcestershire sauce, gelatine and certain e-numbers. And I have found it very hard when in company. But I have decided just to keep doing the best I can and not stress about my failures. Hopefully over time it will get easier.

I think that is one of the hardest/most annoying things., There are some things that you just can't believe aren't vegetarian. But it's a process not a single action and you'll get used to what is and what isn't. Veggie Worcestershire sauce is available but I never use that I use mushroom ketchup or marmite for a nice but of depth (doesn't matter if you don't like "raw" marmite, once it's cooked in it loses the tang and it just lovely). And it offers some Vit B12 which is always welcome.

I went to someone's house last winter and decided to read the ingredients of a very delicious looking gateau and saw it contained "pork powder". Put everyone off - meat eaters and veggies alike!

I've hoping to be able to rejiggle the budgets as the lady from the pet shop has just told me that prices are going up this week then again when VAT goes up in January... not fun.

NualaBuala

Thank you Alec Eiffel ... I will try those. Have heard good things about the mushroom ketchup.

Arctic_Sky

Crikey - that teaches me to go away for the weekend! Pages on from where I left and even more people!

Not really a frugal, nor a blowout weekend - rather 'meh', but increasingly excited for Christmas and the New Year:T

Hope all are warm and well, will catch up soon

xAx

jess444_2

Hi, I would like to join in if that's OK. Budget will be £8,000 for myself, OH and 3 grown up children. This includes everything except fixed bills such as Council tax, water rates and mortgage as I don't have any control over these. My plan is to use online spending diary to keep a track of spending.

Things that I need to tackle straight away are -
Gas and electric is £107 a month
Petrol - this has increased a lot lately - probably spending at least £160 month ( 2 cars)
Also plan to cancel Virgin after Christmas - but need to sort out cheaper internet access.
Jess xxx

Kiwisaver_2

NualaBuala wrote: »

Kiwi, just wanted to say Good Luck with the Olympic Challenge. I'm trying to do something similar and thanks to the Frugal Challenge I will have cleared my loan by the end of 2011 instead of March 2013. I could have done it a bit sooner but I diverted a bit of money into an emergency savings fund.

Thanks Nuala I don't know what it's like at your end of the world but I am having second thoughts about my budget having seen the price of petrol today, it seems to have taken a massive leap overnight and they're saying it will go up even more before Christmas. I thought I was doing well with a voucher for 10 cents a litre off (rarely get those) but it was still more than I have been paying of late and the highest it has been for two years.

Apparently, we're told it is due to the cold weather in Europe. Go figure, it takes six weeks for a ship to get here from Europe.

Erme

Well wasn't planning to post so soon again but just wanted to say Thanks so much Nuala for your tip on saving for the washer. I was thinking about getting one from the local credit union as recommended by the energy saving folk to see if I could get a good one cheap ..I was planning (when feeling a little better and the routine and energy levels are sorted) to investigate the CU for a friend who has very little in the way of white goods (not even a proper cooker) and then use that knowledge for self.

I got my first cold weather payment today :j....well chuffed cos like the electric bill is due next week (I will put in meter readings on friday) so will pay off extra this month. I have learnt the hard way from last winter that CWP is not to be spent on anything else unless you want a massive hike in your monthly payments (No thanks!!!). So yeah....lesson learnt there....

Also going back to the hospital today because they have cheap veg at 12 on a Wednesday so hoping to get a few soup bags for curries etc. for £1 (dv). as wasted a heap of veg on a complete hash of a veg curry at the weekend (serious major cooking disaster). The only thing that was positive were my peanut, oat and raisin oat bars (carb fix) for Sabbath which were yummy. In fact going to make them today (minus the peanuts. Can't get to Mr A due to the weather) for Dr. C (for being fab in a crisis last week) and the depot nurses (about 6 months over due there - it has a name - my reputation LOL).

Hope the sock book M is sending me comes soon. Looking forward to getting it now that I'm onto the foot of my sock...

Anyhow must skoot.....

E

Erme

PS. CW even though I'm a lurker I'd like to be added to the list for 2011....

E

NualaBuala

Kiwisaver wrote: »

Thanks Nuala I don't know what it's like at your end of the world but I am having second thoughts about my budget having seen the price of petrol today, it seems to have taken a massive leap overnight and they're saying it will go up even more before Christmas. I thought I was doing well with a voucher for 10 cents a litre off (rarely get those) but it was still more than I have been paying of late and the highest it has been for two years.

Apparently, we're told it is due to the cold weather in Europe. Go figure, it takes six weeks for a ship to get here from Europe.

Phew, am kind of glad I don't drive - I have heard petrol and heating oil are going up. I guess oil/petrol increases will push prices up generally since most goods have to be be transported. Good luck crunching your numbers Kiwi ... I am doing the same.

We had our Budget yesterday and I think I will be worse off by about €50 a month so trying to make my figures balance feels a little like hammering a square peg into a round hole. I will just have to manage somehow, I think I can do it but there are going to be sacrifices.

Erme - good luck with your socks. I am still on my first sock, on the foot of it too - for some reason I haven't picked it up in a while but I should finish them soon as they would be nice and warm in this cold weather! Am glad you liked the tip, I have got into the habit of putting money aside in all sorts of ways - jars, envelopes, bank accounts I can't easily withdraw from ... anything to keep it from getting spent on every day stuff! I'd be interested if anyone else has tips for managing their money and keeping it from being spent on the wrong stuff.

Hi Jess - I'm sure Cheryl (CW) will be along soon to officially welcome you. Hmm, haven't actually "seen" her in a few days - hope everything's ok Cheryl and you haven't been buried under 10 feet of snow!

Hope everyone is well and staying warm.

Hugs,
Nuala

cw18

jess444 wrote: »

Hi, I would like to join in if that's OK.

Welcome aboard

Erme wrote: »

PS. CW even though I'm a lurker I'd like to be added to the list for 2011....

Lurkers also welcome

NualaBuala wrote: »

Hmm, haven't actually "seen" her in a few days - hope everything's ok Cheryl and you haven't been buried under 10 feet of snow!

Still here

Not that much snow around us - though it was enough to mean I wasn't going to try dirving anywhere (even if I'd fancied going somewhere that means driving). It's partially melted, but where it's not in directly sunlight (such as the drive, and the section of footpath between the drive and the estate entry road) it's now turning into sheet ice

Had an early-ish (for me) night last night, but still stayed in bed 2 hours beyond my alarm this morning..... lucky I don't work on a Wednesday morning really

xnatalie81x

BinkyTheHorse wrote: »

Hello Natalie




Almost any tips that I can offer have been picked up on this site, lol! All the usual stuff such as cooking from scratch if it works out to cost less, bulk buying any special offers and avoiding buying as much junk as possible. I think that planning ahead has been very helpfull - I have a meal plan that covers several weeks and I try to stick to it, adapting it for any special offers and whoopsies that I come across.

We get our fruit and veg delivered weekly from G&S (a huge box for less than £20) and bulk this out with whoopsies, growing as much as possible, buying up and freezing a lot of the special offers in Lidl and Aldi and foraging.

I think that our biggest saving comes from our being vegetarian. Once a year a group of us put in an order from SUMA and through this I get a years worth of pulses and soya mince much, much cheaper than it would cost to buy from the shops - this saves us an absolute fortune! I try not to buy meat substitutes such as Quorn as they really bump the cost up.





Hand me downs! A couple of my friends in particular seem to spend a kings ransome on clothes for their children - buying far too many items so that most hardly get worn. Every now and then I get offered a bin liner full after they have had a clearout! I have boxes in the loft that are labeled boy/girl and the age and any clothes that don't fit at the time are put away in these boxes for when they will, adding my own childrens clothes as they grow out of them so that they can be passed on to the next one down. I keep a list of clothes needed in my bag and keep an eye on the charity shops for these items - trying to think a season or two ahead is really helpful with this.

We home educate four of the children, so I only have to buy school uniform for my son who attends school. I buy trainers at £5 a time from ASDA and these last a couple of months - the kids prefer to wear them, the last pair of shoes I bought for one of the children was for when he needed to dress formally - he only wore them the once



We have a Springer Spaniel. The above is for her boosters, worming and flea treatment etc. She isn't insured. She is a small Springer - half the size of Springers I've owned in the past and she eats half as much as well (I am suspicious that somewhere down her line there was another ingredient added! )

Looking at this figure, I do think that I should bump it up a little.

** OK, I stopped typing at this point and went off and found this last years worth of vet bills - I'm upping this part of my budget to £350! Thanks for drawing my attention to this as otherwise I would have been severely overbudget **


This is for activities within our local home ed group, such as ice-skating and swimming ( we book as a group and get school rates on these) My wonderful Uncle buys us a years membership to English Heritage each Christmas and we make sure we visit any free museums wherever we go - this keeps our Home ed costs quite low. I am paying for my 15 year olds exams in several subjects, but this comes out of our savings.


Yes, we have two ppl covered. I'm with the AA and last years quote was for around £240, but I found out that the RAC were offering a great discount for new customers (about £130 for a similar package) so I phoned the AA and they matched it. The lady who I spoke to advised me to do this every year as they would almost always try to keep people with long membership At the moment I can get the same cover with RAC for £131, So allowing £170 is quite generous for the time being (fingers crossed they keep the online discount so I have something to bargain with in April )

Thank you for your reply - it made me double check all the figures and got me to pick up a on a couple of things

I'm wondering if I should up the groceries budget by £5 a week........at the moment I know that I can manage on that with a lot of work, but there is little leeway and now that I've had another look at these figures, I'm thinking it might be best to allow for rising prices - everything seems to have gone up by so much this year..........

Sorry if I have messed up the quoting in this post - hope it isn't too confusing!:o

You sound like an amazing family!!! I do bulk cook and the like but we are higher budget than you and i don't have another adult to feed :eek: We do eat meat but not a massive amount. I would need to research lots more about protein alternatives to ensure my kids were getting everything they needed as when i was veggie i just used to eat tons of pasta lol.

Your dog sounds lovely - prob similar in size to what my pup will grow into..... about the size of a jack russell/pug..... i ordered his worming and flea treatments this month but to go on next months budget, and food for a couple months on medicanimal.com - just under £28 including delivery - he only needs half a worming tab once a month till he is one and small dose flea treatment

I have never met anyone within the UK who homee educates their children. I have looked into the subject a lot but was put off by the inspection type visits and the like. I am just being mega nosey and would love to know ALL about it Shame you don't live closer as i could do your swimming lessons specially in return for home grown veggies lol.

Also loving the idea of storing clothes in boxes in the loft. Must get a system in place!! I have tons of baby stuff i have been given as i got rid of it all - recently a carrier FULL of 3-6months boy stuff - was like xmas

How old are your children?? I love the sound of the way things run in your home and am in awe - have to stop now, my 2 week old needs his milk