Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

pink_numbers

Well this year, I started with a £6k all in goal.

Unfortunately, February, June and July saw me very manic and over spent by a large amount. So I set a new target, of only spending what I had coming in (rather than dipping into savings) When that decision was made, I had spent £1300 OVER what I had coming in.

Something click though in August, and my outgoing has flat line for FIVE months at below £400. This has never happened before! With my bipolar, I would have 2 months of low spend, 2 or 3 months of spend spend spend, then back to low spend again. Never in my entire life, have I had 5 months of low spend in a row!! It's all thanks to this thread & the challenge it sets me.

So at the end of November, I realised that I will be able to achieve the goal of spend less than what came in, so I set myself a second challenge of keeping the total spend for this year down to £9k. Today (last day of shopping for me), I have totalled £8996.66 for the year! woot! :j

I had £9262.73, so that's also an underspend of £266.08 :j

Thank you ever so much to everyone on here, you really have made a huge difference to my life, and helped so much in dealing with my bipolar, which is no mean feat because even the doctors failed at it! I just hope that I can return the support and encouragements I have received to other people.

Onwards and upwards to next year!

oldestgnome

Good to see so many people making great suggestions and ideas

Pagangirl and pink_numbers your posts inspire me as a newbie! Keep up the good work

salski

cw18 wrote: »

At a very quick skim, I don't see water on your list?

We do it quarterly and nope - it seems I forgot nothing! Thank you anyway! We decided to tweak things a little by adding an extra £200 to savings, I shall update my previous thread!
Thanks again!

never_too_old

:money:Some advice is needed please, i have read through most of these threads and am shocked at how low somepeoples gas and electricity monthly payments are.
i always compare suppliers and have changed when necessary but am currently paying £ 95 month elec, £ 65 gas.
i live in a 4 bed semi with gsh and cook with gas. 3 of us at home now, heating not on all the time, water heatedtwice a day for an hour.and thermostate set at 21 degress.
am i doing something wrong and how do i cut it down,

cw18

l.m.hart wrote: »

i live in a 4 bed semi with gsh and cook with gas. 3 of us at home now, heating not on all the time, water heatedtwice a day for an hour.and thermostate set at 21 degress.
am i doing something wrong and how do i cut it down,

I'm in a 4 bed detached, and have recently negotiated a drop to £43/month (which covers both gas and electricity). I have GCH (no fire of any type to top up the heating) and a gas hob, with everything else being electric.

One big difference is that I live alone (apart from the dog), so can opt to layer up rather than run the heating if it gets a bit nippy. In the last month I've hung curtains on my external doors (what I'd call fairly thin curtains with equally thin lining, but I've hung them two curtains deep for extra insulation), and this has made a huge difference when it comes to keeping the heat in the kitchen, hall, stairway and landing at an acceptable level.

You don't say how old/well insulated your property is. Mine's just under 9 years old, so the insulation is also pretty good.... the only room that seems colder than the others is bedroom 2 (which is directly over the garage, so has no heat coming up from downstairs through the floorboards).

My thermostat is set to 17 degrees as a normal, but often dropped to 16 (and sometimes bumped up to 19 when it's especially cold out). I run the heating for about an hour in the morning and for a few hours (can't say how long without checking) in an evening.

My water is on for 20-30 mins in a morning, and that's it on the timer. I normally boost it for an hour or two once a week, and that's ample for me. I need to boost if again when I have a once-in-a-blue-moon bath, but I much prefer a shower and mine's a gravity fed one so uses hot water from the cylinder. A power shower is generally water and electricity hungry

Being on my own I also tend to use my combi-oven in it's 'conventional' mode rather than use my full size oven - that saves a considerable amount on the electricity too

itsallinthemind

oldestgnome wrote: »

Pagangirl and pink_numbers your posts inspire me as a newbie! Keep up the good work

Took the words right out of my mouth

Pagangirl, I think I will struggle this year not to overstock. I survive(more than that!) December on my stocks and whoopsies from the co-op and some very kind allotment owners. I'm not sure where the line is, threads on using up all your stock cupboard then ones on stockpiling. Maybe it is just about stockpiling the things you and and any family use regulary and are on a great offer. That said, I need to know my cupboards can last at least a week as if it snows in my village I am not going anywhere!

pink_numbers, I know a few people with bi-polar and I think it is often not understood how seriously it can affect spending as well as other areas. Five months is AMAZING, I have a great deal of admiration for you that you managed that stretch AND that you smashed your budget! I wish you the best of luck this year as obviously there is only a certain extent to which you can control your spending. Well done you! I look like this

---

>:D


Hello to everyone else I decided to do a meal plan for January today, I have an extra belly for February so thought it best to squirrel some cash(although Feb budget different, 2 months of the year will be) to have some treaty bits that month, not just the extra food quantities. Well, my mind is blank and I can't think what we normally eat! But I swear that we have not eaten(bar snacks) the same thing twice in the last month! So I'll look at it later again as I refuse to eat what is on my list as I'll get bored! More fog than usual upstairs today

Hope everyone else has been productive, even if theat just means you spent some of the money you saved last year on some treats in the sale :T

pink_numbers

l.m.hart wrote: »

:money:Some advice is needed please, i have read through most of these threads and am shocked at how low somepeoples gas and electricity monthly payments are.
i always compare suppliers and have changed when necessary but am currently paying £ 95 month elec, £ 65 gas.
i live in a 4 bed semi with gsh and cook with gas. 3 of us at home now, heating not on all the time, water heatedtwice a day for an hour.and thermostate set at 21 degress.
am i doing something wrong and how do i cut it down,

Do you have the radiator turned off on the rooms you don't use? (I can see at least one bedroom not being use if there's 3 of you in a 4 bedroom house)

Do you have all your curtains lined with thick thermal stuff?

pink_numbers

itsallinthemind wrote: »

pink_numbers, I know a few people with bi-polar and I think it is often not understood how seriously it can affect spending as well as other areas. Five months is AMAZING, I have a great deal of admiration for you that you managed that stretch AND that you smashed your budget! I wish you the best of luck this year as obviously there is only a certain extent to which you can control your spending. Well done you! I look like this

---

>:D

awww thank you isallinthemind, as exactly your name states, it's all in the mind, but it can sometimes be an awful battle!

I'm not sure exactly what has caused this flat line though, so I'm not sure when it'll all go haywire again I'll just have to keep going and try to claw back any overspend I do. At least this year has taught me that it IS possible to make up for the over spend!

itsallinthemind

l.m.hart wrote: »

£95 month elec, £65 gas.

Mine is slightly more, house is ancient, so freezing, totally not energy efficient. If your house is anything like this that it will eat gas and electric.

Mine thermostat is on 16 degrees(children still layered up) and I do not think the radiators would go off if I did not keep turning them off. 21 seems really high to me, could you not try turn it down a degree, then one more etc? I'd actually think 21 too high for any young children sleeping?

cw18

pink_numbers wrote: »

Do you have the radiator turned off on the rooms you don't use? (I can see at least one bedroom not being use if there's 3 of you in a 4 bedroom house)

Do you have all your curtains lined with thick thermal stuff?

I know these weren't aimed at me, but I have to admit I can answer 'no' to both of those.

With regard to the first Q, I don't like cold rooms even when they're not in use (though I have cranked the thermostats on the radiators in them down to a slightly lower setting than the rooms I use on a regular basis).

And with regard to the second Q, it's just something I've never gotten around to. I don't even close the curtains in the living room (:eek:) as I keep the blinds closed all day (living room is in the back of the house, and I back onto a main road - so if I leave the blinds open anyone on the top floor of a double decker bus can see right in !!)