Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

Kerry_Woman

Wishing everyone a safe and warm Christmas and all the best for 2011.

Kerfuffle

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

*snip

So he lets me open one of the smaller Christmas presents and it's a pack of spaghetti! Took me a minute to twig we're going to Italy! :j:j:j* snip

Lily_The_Legend, that's great news, something to really look forward and not too long to wait.:j

Kerry_Woman wrote: »

Wishing everyone a safe and warm Christmas and all the best for 2011.

Right back at cha, again Kerry Woman, are you taking a break from MSE and saying your goodbyes until after Christmas?

Toodles

NualaBuala

Kerry_Woman wrote: »

Wishing everyone a safe and warm Christmas and all the best for 2011.

Thanks Kerry Woman, wishing the same for you!

jess444_2

Christmas food shop has cost me a fortune :eek:- I will need to seriously look at this next year if I am to stay in budget.

Jess

Kerry_Woman

Kerfuffle - Am trying to use the computer less before Christmas to try and catch up with some baking and housework. Also to spend more time with my Mum.

jess444 - I also have to look at what was spent on the Christmas food shop. Went to M&S for some treats. Main shop was at Asd@. Everything brought will last until the New Year.

oldestgnome

Hey all

As a reasonably new but growingly OCD MSE fan I'd like to say hello to all of you on this thread and well done on your previously frugal years. As an attempt to get a handle on my pointless spending I was browsing and came across this thread - I would love to do half as well as all of you so I've drawn up a budget which I know I can probably cut down a little bit more in places but this is my starting point - please let me know if you think I've missed anything obvious!

Council Tax: £1,332.24
Contents/Building Insurance: £250
TV Licence: £144.50
Water:£180
Gas/Electric:£600
TV/Internet/Phone:£400
Mobile Phone: £130
Groceries:£960 includes toiletries/cleaning etc.
Dentist:£50
Car Tax/Services/MOT/Insurance: £125/£110/£50/£330 = £615
Petrol: £2000 (some for work that I get back)

Entertainment:£520
Birthdays: £150
Xmas:£150
Garden project for 2011:£200
Clothes/shoes:£200
General household maintenance £100

£7983.74 so lets say £8000 plus mortgage.

These figures seem huge just me but this is my first year! Here's to frugal living in 2011, merry christmas to all :-)

grandma247

Hi Oldestgnome
Council tax is not generally included because there is no control over it. You have to pay it.

londonirish_3

welcome to all the newcomers

well im back from Egypt , 3 days late lol.
never been so pleased to be home. am on budget for the christmas shop, bought my mums food and in total am £20 under!
saved £45 on gas last week as was away. already got some £coins in tin for next year.

and my soapnuts arrived, I have used them and am really really pleased, no more detergent for me, iv gt loads to catch up on here from the last 10 days, night all x

peony40

Hello, I'd like to join the 2011 challenge please. I need to work on a new budget for the year and will definitely be concentrating on meal planning and using up all the food that I currently have in the house. This year I will start using my local grocery store as then I will only buy what I can manage to carry, and hopefully this will avoid so much wastage. (I get carried away when doing internet shopping, and I believe that I can manage to trim quite a lot off my food budget in 2011 if I keep the internet shopping to a minimum.)

I will read through the earlier threads too for inspiration, but wished to make a post straight away to say hello having been reading this current thread over the last couple of days.

peony

jess444_2

Thank you LondonIrish, I have just ordered some soapnuts. With 5 adults in the house, (3 of whom think they have to wash their jeans every day), I use lots of soap powder, so I am hoping these will save me some money.
Jess