Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

LolaLemon

Hello everyone.

Firstly i'd like to say - Good Luck to you all -

Can I be added, but I will more than likely be a lurker for the most parts, i've still got my head stuck firmly in the sand, but slowly the wind is blowing and i can move it up a little :rotfl:

Im single, with a £500pm mortgage, a 3 year old son (need to start getting ready for his birthday in april). Im a full time student, traveling an hour each way, mon - friday, paying £130 every month for the privalidge of sitting on manky trains if im lucky enough to get a seat! Also spend around £30 - £40 a month on diesel, i only drive to my sons nursery, park the car there, walk to the train station, get off at Glasgow and walk to the uni, and do the reverse to get home, at the weekends, i use the car to take son to swimming lessons and then go to tesco to stock up for the week (need 7 litre of goats milk, 5 for us 2, and 1 each for sons 2 nurseries, so christmas has been good in that its saved me buying soo much milk!) nursery fees are £420 every 2 weeks for the 2nd nursery, the 1st is gov funded place, thankfully the nursery have been fantastic about the fees as im waiting on saas and the uni discretionary fund to pay out! they wont pay it all but a big chunk ...
Bills i pay (that i remember of the top of my head is:
tv licence £145
tv, fone, broadband - £35
insurances - around £50
electricity for a 2 bed timber box house - £68pm - i dont hve ANYTHING left on except the fridge/freezer, and now a pump for a goldfish bowl. oh and 2 energy saving night lights, one outside the toilet, one outside the kitchen downstairs, it also doubles up as a rodent repellant, and works (i live in a semi rural area with a high school across the street, when it was pulled down, we got a lot of mice/rats looking for new homes, had mice for a few weeks, :mad: after i got that in, ive had none {touch wood} so i feel its a necissary payment)
mobile for me is £17.50 pm, but i have my younger sister (£25) and my mums (£5) as well, and sometimes getting money from them is HARD (we're all forgetful!)

sons activities - upto £50 pm
Toiletaries probably work out at £5 pm, mostly for toothpaste/thoothbrushes, i dont really buy much in the way of 'smellies' hair stuff as i have enough to last me a few life times haha

groceries is my down fall. im aiming for £20 pm for me and my son, not really going to include the milk in that


im also aiming to get myself sorted out paper work wise by time i go back to uni (in a few weeks -eek!) and then i might join this fully, but if i dont, i will be back, lurking a lot

LolaLemon

redglass wrote: »

There are some brands of deodorant that always give me sore armpits. Sure is one - it's OK for a week or so and then the itching and inflammation start....I've never had any problems like that with Sanex but don't always find it totally effective. Am currently using Dove and that seems fine, fingers x'd....

Try crystal rock, i got mine, the trial size - £4.99, think i paid £3.99 3 years ago, from holland and barrat, and im still using the same one, 3 years later! it is all 'natural' and doesnt contain man made chemicals, and more people are able to use it without side effects, although when i was last in H&B, i seen another type for those who couldnt use this one.
Thier is no smell from it, no scent, bit IT WORKS! ALL DAY LONG. im a naturally sweaty person, and at the end of the day (going to bed) i dont smell much, if ive been over active then their will be a faint wiff, but before, i used to get that faint wiff about an hour after getting washed.

LolaLemon

nannyboo1 wrote: »

He seems keen (he wants to save money) but seeming keen and doing it are two different things. Not a good start today as we spent on chocolate and cake as AF has come to visit with a vengeance and I needed chocolate and hubby knew better than to say no lol.

I've gone to WW to lose weight for health reasons so am going to try and find some cake recipes to freeze and keep in for when I need sweet stuff. I will save money and pay of some of our debts. Not much but if we keep on how we are they will only get worse.

quick to make.
100g flour, 100g butter, 50g sugar
mix together with hand to get crumbs, roll into a ball, then take 'pinches' off, roll into balls, and flatten, bake in low (180^) oven for approx 12-15 mins.
depending on how big u make those pinches will determin how many shortbread buscuits u get.
i add 1 teaspoon of powder with the flour for flavour (cinnamon or drinking chocolate)
or a few drops of vanilla essence
or handfull of sweets (tonight i used dolly mixture) chopped chocolate, smarties, hundreds and thousands etc etc

the dolly mixture was very sweet, so only had 2, the cinamon ones where brill, perfect with a cup of hot chocolate/tea/coffee/milk....

the mixture can be halved (50/50/25) or increased
the one i posted i normally half the big ball, and do 2 flavours

(the ball isnt massive, about the size of my palm, u should get between 6 and 12 biscuits, i have gotten 24 small ones one time)

the flour doesnt matter, ive used plain, SR, and wholemeal, just what ever i have to hand
and they go down a treat for those unexpected guests.



sorry for all the posts, i read page one, then posted then read up the way, then back to page 2... very backwards me :rotfl:

Georgiegirl2012

Can't sleep so having a browse and found this. I think I might have to be joining in to get myself on track. I've joined various other challenges/threads, but it all boils down to living within my means.

I think I really should try and sleep so I'll subscribe and come back and read it all properly later on today.

I have seen a few names that I'm beginning to recognise, so that makes me feel at home.

I have a coat I need to return to TK Maxx (some will know the saga of the coat) but because it was paid for via Paypal I can only get store credit. That means I will have £120 to spend in there. Will have to shop wisely I think.

never_too_old

these are figures for 2 adults and 1 16 yr old.i pay the mobile for my dd who is estranged from her dad and doesnt live at home(and is on c**p money) it means i can keep in contact with her.
mbna 200
car 336
council tax 140
water 38
elec 30
gas 47
van ins 48
h insurance 36.93
mortgage 636
boiler s 14.37
food 400
petrol 320
diesel 400
sky 75 (includes phone,tv and unlimited broadband)
jade gym 10.3
m 28 mobile
y 20 mobile
j 20 mobile
l 40 mobile
tv licence 15
this doesnt include car costs ,joint breakdown cover, or van costs.
these are all the costs that come directly out of the bank,
these figures are shocking and need to be worked on, dh is in building trade and money is totally irregular,we really need to reduce our outgoings so we can have a life,( this is the 3rd recession we have been through you really would have thought we would have learnt our lesson by now.
i am going to try every frugal thing possible to reduce some of the things i have control over and hopefully next month can post lower figures.:eek:

viv0147

Happy New Year everyone first a little about myself I am a 62 year old male and I live alone and my income is pension credit. (Looking back on 2010) I achieved quite a lot especially with all the help I had from the forums, I have become a happy shopper when I spot a bargain I buy as many as I can afford providing it will keep or can be frozen, my stock has built up so much at the moment I only need to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and milk which enables me to buy more if I spot a bargain I can use.

Over this last year I have made all my bread in my trusty bread machine, saving money and having a free air freshener, during the summer I learned how to make Jam and it was great my children and grandchildren loved it, as they loved my pickle cabbage and pickles that they had for Christmas, and over the year I have been doing batch cooking which again has proved a money saver not bad for someone who couldn’t boil an egg a while ago.

On the last day of 2010 I finally got the hang of my desktop steam press, ironing I couldn’t do, so the steam press which I have had for a year seemed the best option but I wasn’t having to much success with that, but yesterday changed all that and I did 8 shirts and they were as I would have had them from the cleaners so that saved me £15. So all in all a very productive year, and after my Christmas spending I ended up with a surplus of £600 and no debt. So I am looking forward to 2011 and the challenges it will bring. So money savers have a wonderful year. Viv

cw18

Just wanted to say a huge welcome to everyone - whether you've taken part in this challenge before or not :beer:

I now have [strike]51[/strike] 60 names on the list (having processed all posts to here - please let me know if I've missed you off or spelt your name wrong ), and it still seems to be growing which is great news

I know a few of you have said you're more likely to be lurking than actively participating, but it'll still be nice to know how you're getting on - and if 'lurkers' are reading the thread regularly it's also extra folks who may have an answer for a query/problem someone has

And you're more than welcome (as ever) to ask for ideas for cheap solutions etc - even if you class yourself as a lurker. It's always nice to help anyone

cw18

dizzy_lizzie wrote: »

Please can you add me to this thread cw if it's not too late

Never too late

itsallinthemind

HELLOOOO :j

Still working on my exact budget till the end of January, as it will not be till then that certain income and outgoings are confirmed annoyingly.

However my budget for groceries is my main one to watch, also my most complex! It is overall £1,900.00 for the year, but this is not split monthly. It is £25.00 per week for 44 weeks of the year(1 adult 2 children) and £100.00 per week for 8 weeks of the year(up to 4 adults 2 children).

Even then it will not spent on those exact weeks. For instance I have 4 of those weeks coming up very soon, so I will do some purchasing for non perishables and freezer filling over the next few weeks(HUGE AP & Tesco orders) so that it is less to shop for locally at the time. Therefore my spend over the next month may well look like I have spent a 3rd of my budget! It is the overall for the year that counts though obviously!

If it were not for those 8 weeks, my 52 week budget for 1 adult 2 children would be £1300.00 for the year - just to give myself some sort of perspective!

Cheryl, can you just put me down for a groceries only budget of £1,900.00 please? I will pop my complete one up in red as soon as I have the info, I wish I could say it were £1,300.00 but I suppose I can't refuse relatives

itsallinthemind

Been busy already, NSD yesterday and did 3 bin bags yesterday, 2 carriers need to go to the charity shop, childrens bits that really are not great now so not ebayable. That is not a word is it? Never mind! Had a very cheap day meal wise yesterday, but was still lovely. Porridge all round, then homemade minestrone for lunch(sainsburys fussilini great for this)out of stuff that needed using,
Moroccan Vegetable Tagine with chickpeas with minted cous cous for dinner. Whole of yesterdays bits would have cost about £1.36 by my calculations, or about 45p each(they eat more than me!)they could have done with a yoghurt nutrition wise, but did not want one. We do not do desserts really, only my youngest has a sweet tooth! I managed to only drink water(children only have that or fresh juice/milk)yesterday.

Today I am going to try make bread that my eldest will eat-drives me mad with bread, only likes synthetic stuff. Still they eat anything other than that so it MUST be my bread which is horrible. Not that I am a fan of my bread

Good luck with NSD today people I WILL if I can keep off of the grabbit board!