Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

rubytuesday

Minnie wishing you well. Good Housekeeping have a campaign to end hospital parking charges you may be interested in joining if you haven't already.

seriouslyfrugal

Hi everyone

Just a quick update from me

Today was a spend day for me went to Mr A's to get a few items & noticed the following which maybe useful to some of you


Pepsi 2Ltr bottles ( all varieties) £1.00 each

Wholefoods bread flour 1.5 kg £ 1.00 ( although I think Lidl is cheaper they did have wholemeal at Mr A)


Domestos 2 Litre £2.00

Dried Dates / Apricots (250g) £1.00



Esme : I'm sending you hugs at this time & as the other's have said don't worry about your spending the other day i'm sure it will work out in the end


Hope everyone is ok and have a frugal day tomorrow

Lily_The_Legend

rubytuesday wrote: »

Hope the 'young man' gets better soon Cheryl!
Just spent the 20 pound note I found in Lidl, well 19.5o and gave 50p to the man outside who looked at me as if I was mad and was that it! I said a ''Thank you would be nice'', I couldn't help it!

:rotfl: I don't blame you, the ungrateful person! Did he say thank you after that?

rubytuesday

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

:rotfl: I don't blame you, the ungrateful person! Did he say thank you after that?

:rotfl:Yes he did Lily! Too be honest he wasn't a hundred per cent the full ticket but even so!

Lily_The_Legend

rubytuesday wrote: »

:rotfl:Yes he did Lily! Too be honest he wasn't a hundred per cent the full ticket but even so!

:eek::rotfl: He should still know some manners! He could get something nice for 50p in Lidl. :money:

I've just looked up their offers, he could buy a cucumber and still get a penny's change!

seriouslyfrugal

Hi

I'm sorry I made a mistake the dried dates / apricots were 500g for £1.00 :j:j


have a frugal day everyone

grandma247

Erme I just checked and the site I looked at says 7 minutes for lentils but be careful or they can go mushy.This is the site.

NualaBuala

HI everyone :wave:

I haven't as much time for reading these days but I've had a really fast skim through. I'm sorry if I've missed anything important that I should reply to.

(((((Erme))))) - big hugs to you pet, sorry you haven't been well. No doubt it'll pass and in the meantime don't beat yourself up for any unplanned spends, just keep doing your best - you can do no more than that. Are you due to see any of your healthcare team - hope they can support you now at this tough time and help you get back on your feet. x

Belated Happy Birthday Alec Eiffel - glad you had a nice one!
Minnie - so sorry to hear about your loss and glad you got to meet with a friend. I think it was worth every penny and being frugal means you can do things like that when the need arises. Also sorry to hear about your tumour but glad you are getting on better with the meds.

Itsallinthemind - thanks a mill for your recipe help offer. I'll eat most things really. I like just about all veggies but not overly keen on courgettes - will still eat them though. Am not too keen on fruit in savoury meals but if a recipe calls for them I often just leave them out. I love rice, grains, nuts and seeds but since I often don't know what to do with them, I often stick to boring but yummy pasta. The emphasis at the moment is on low-fat food that won't aggravate reflux (I guess that means laying off my old friend Cheese!:D)

redglass wrote: »

I also struggle about whether to buy 'green' kitchen products. So far I have followed my conscience because in the long term it's got to be better, but it's a lot more expensive than getting a big bottle of Stardrops, which used to be my favourite cleaner, and I wonder how much longer I will hold out. I suppose the next thing is to investigate home-made cleaning products, vinegar etc... I do love my Orange Mate spray on cleaner, though! It comes as a concentrate, saving on packaging, it smells nice and you can wipe up with a bit of kitchen roll then chuck the whole lot on the compost, totally safe because the cleaner is just plant essences, no nasties in it at all.

I'm a fan of bicarb and vinegar for most things. In fact a microfibre cloth and water does the job most of the time. I don't know Orange Mate but you might be interested in this very frugal and green homemade cleaner that Ceridwen linked to over on the Really Old Style thread.
http://happyhomemaker88.com/2009/05/02/recipe-for-homemade-citrus-enzyme-a-natural-cheap-effective-all-purpose-cleaner/

cw18 wrote: »

I have the same 'problem', and am actually considering updating my own personal version (which has heaps more columns on the monthly pages, as it also rounds all spends up to the next 10p with the change going into my sealed pot fund - and also keeps track of vouchers and staff discount, moving those to my sealed pot as well) so I can also enter what I'd have bought as an equivalent.

In some cases this would actually be cheaper than what I paid for the Whoopsied item, but would also be a much lower quality item - however it would give me a much clearer picture of what I'd need to spend without access to Whoopsies. (Would also mean I'd see what I spent on 'treats', as they'd all get a big fat zero as the equivalent cost )

I like your method of saving Cheryl - am trying to figure out how I could do something similar. I'm using my own spreadsheet that has evolved over the years and has a lot of ideas "borrowed" from yours - this could be another!
Hope your "young man" is ok. You did splendidly as an angel of mercy!



I'm already over-budget in my Misc Health category as I am suffering really badly from some kind of non-heartburny reflux. I need special toothpaste, mouthwash as well as prescriptions. Also need to get a plumber out to sort a toilet. But there is no point fretting about the money, will just have to bite the bullet.

Hope everyone is doing ok and sending hugs to anyone who'd like one.

23rdspiral

LollopyBear wrote: »

My husband and I are going to see the Levellers in March with a load of people

:j I love the Levellers!! i've seen them sooo many times. i work at their festival Beautiful Days and it's such a good festie. they are really nice people too, which helps. have a great time! :j

Kiwisaver wrote: »

Hi Spiral, what I did was inserted some extra columns on the REG pages, especially for petrol and a few other bills I pay fortnightly. If you insert extra columns before the amount column and then enter the formula to add cells together in the Amount column it will transfer to your totals without any problems.

thanks - that's a really good idea. :T

cw18 wrote: »

Apologies - I missed this one last night/this morning when I got in

no worries - i do waffle on a bit!
that's great thanks - it's adding them up like magic! i didnt know you could do that with excell. i'm learning lots - i might have to update my CV for the dreaded job hunting at this rate!:T

cw18 wrote: »

I have the same 'problem', and am actually considering updating my own personal version (which has heaps more columns on the monthly pages, as it also rounds all spends up to the next 10p with the change going into my sealed pot fund - and also keeps track of vouchers and staff discount, moving those to my sealed pot as well) so I can also enter what I'd have bought as an equivalent.

In some cases this would actually be cheaper than what I paid for the Whoopsied item, but would also be a much lower quality item - however it would give me a much clearer picture of what I'd need to spend without access to Whoopsies. (Would also mean I'd see what I spent on 'treats', as they'd all get a big fat zero as the equivalent cost )

wow! the spreasheet of wonder has a big brother!! (gosh that's some organisation! i'm impressed and slightly scared by it!)

i'm totally with you on getting better quality items on whoopsie - we'd have had Mr M own brand fishcakes if the fresh haddock hadn't been on whoopsie! (actually the haddock is freezered for when i have a Fish & Chip shop craving, and we're having normal cod fishcakes with tai sauce, whoppsied veg & noodles tonight)

humm... about that 'zero' for treats... whoopsied cake/biscuits are my biggest weakness... maybe i should highlight them in green for evil!?

rubytuesday wrote: »

I didn't know Lidl did organic milk and I got 4 pints for 1.50.

i travel around my county for work and pass 4 different lidl's and they all have different stock... i hate to say it but it really depends on the neighbourhood IFSWIM. i'll still look as Organice milk is one thing we try to stick to.

midwinter

mama67 wrote: »

Mr M is literally up the road, as it was just gone 7pm and they close at 8pm thought I'd see if there were any bargain whoopsies etc

I'm fortunate that I an walk to Mr M's, so do so several times a week to get their very reduced bread etc etc

But also succumb to the nice things of cakes/biscuits reduced.... but just can't resist Belgian white Chocolate Chip Cookies!