Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

jess444_2

Hi All,

Just having a look at my spending diary. Food shop definately down :T £209 instead of the usual £250.
Shocked by the amount spent on petrol - £140 so far, (for two cars) with still over a week to the end of the month. At this rate we will be spending more on petrol than food.:eek:
Spotted a bargain at Morrisons - a pack of two pork joints for £8. One will be used for a roast tomorrow and then sliced for sandwiches. The other I have cut up to use for meals (curry, sweet and sour, etc) Also started to get all fruit and veg in Lidl. I usually just get everything in Mr T's, but shopping around seems to be saving money.

Jess

HowlinWolf

If anyone is in need of a new kettle or toaster Mr S has breville ones that should be £40 for £16.99 or ones that should be £60 for £25 also bargain steamers, slow cookers and a few other bits and bobs, limit is 6 discount items per customer. Co-oooop are doing 2 x 9 packs of andrex for £6 and are going the 54 wash persil for £5 (the offer in Mr S is £5.50 so better at the coooooop). Also 3 meats for £10 in Mr s and in Coooooop

Couldn't get bargain fish at Mr S yesterday for love nor money, apparently the HFW programme has made it all a bit too popular so we had tandoori haddock instead of the pollock/pouting korma I had planned - not paid for out of my flb budget though this came out of my own money as a treat for DP who has made/bought dinner every evening this week as I've not been feeling too good.

elly68

well saturday update only saved £10 this week dont know where i went wrong and this week i have razors, butcher meat ,soap powder and toothpaste to get in hubby is impressed with bank account kids are having the odd school dinner but on average i'm saving £21 a week on that alone .thanks for this thread i'm doing well and it really is reigning me in

apple_mint

kezlou wrote: »

Hi everyone!

How are you all?

Well not sure how i'm going to do this challenge now. Been keeping track but we've had some unexpected turn of events.

OH lost his job today, basically there's been no plumbing work. so his boss has to let him go. so were using this weekend to decide whether to go self employed or sign on the dole.

I also managed to do myself in again, i collapsed on Wednesday and ended damaging my knee cap again. so now my leg is in a splint and i'm back on crutches. So no hope of me finding a job for the next few weeks.

kezlou big (((hugs))) Your OH may be able to get some good advice / training help if he signs on whilst he is thinking about going self employed. I'm thinking about free courses on how to deal with tax, book keeping, setting up a business, etc. Might be worth looking into? Just popping into the jobcentre for a chat may throw up some useful information? There have been one or two useful one day courses around us and OH went on one.

Happy Birthday to 23rd Spiral and Cheryl

Wish me well, I have to fill up the car today (the first time this year). I may well just pass out on the forecourt

Having part worked our way through the mammoth supply of Scotch Broth (made 18 portions last week), I'm going to make some more soup today in a different variety. OH will be pleased to be offered a variety :rotfl:This will bring us back up to having at least 2 weeks worth of lunches in the freezer. OH has made some loaves, sliced them and bagged them up in two slice portions. I only have to grab a soup and bread from the freezer and some portions of fruit and I've a packed lunch for work. I've noticed that more and more people are taking soup or leftovers into work. I've actually had to queue for the microwave!

I'm also going to look at some more batch cooking. I have some main meals in the freezer but could do with some more. I need to rummage through the freezer to consider my options.

On the subject of PAYG phones. OH and I gave up our contract phones a few years ago as we worked out they were costing us £600 a year for the two. We worked out we only needed the phones to ring immediate family and to send a few texts so we went down the PAYG route. I stuck to getting a basic phone off Amazon and OH was passed on phones from youngest DD as she upgraded. The last time we each bought a basic Nokia from Amazon. I only spend £20 on a phone and top up as and when needed. We found that we were using the phones far less than we thought we did and are saving. We are a pair of old dinosaurs as far as mobile technology is concerned though I'd much rather use my laptop.

We take the same approach with washing machines, microwaves etc. We work out exactly what functions we use and then buy a machine that does just that .. no extra bells and whistles. Less to try and learn and less to go wrong.

cw18

jess444 wrote: »

Shocked by the amount spent on petrol - £140 so far, (for two cars) with still over a week to the end of the month. At this rate we will be spending more on petrol than food.:eek:

And the bad news is that we're looking at a rise of 4p/litre in April :mad:

Erme

rubytuesday wrote: »

Well shoot me now as I have had a spendy day today although really it has been spendy spavy!
I went to a new shop called Tiger and bought some more glass jars to stop the moths getting at my provisions like they did last year. I also bought an elephant teddy cushion as I bought one for an upcoming birthday present for a four year old girl and my daughter loved it - never mind that she is eighteen but it is really chic, so a present for her but a want, a bargain at two quid though. I also bought a lovely photo frame for three quid - a need really as one of mine is broken.
I popped into Wilkinsons which I have never been to here (it's huge!) and bought a half price storage box (want, need?) some cheap men's socks for Valentines day to cause embarrassment,(spaving) some new placemats (a need really) and some cheap loo roll (need soon:rotfl:) and then I popped into Smiths for some files ( I will stop stuffing paperwork haphazardly in the drawer -need) some blank cards reduced (spave) and an Encyclopedia Of The Sea And Wildlife rrp fifty quid reduced to four for OH's birthday (spav) so not too bad once I'd assessed the damage.
'Home Alone Dinner' will be bubble made with left over mash and a fried egg so nothing spent on food today.

Ruby hun....I envy the people that are perfectly satisfied with bricks that came out of the days of Noah for phones..so don't beat yourself up hun...

DV a NSD or a LSD (might just get some coffeee whitner from Mr L for sos) and the house is stinking of cigs cos following thurs I'm behind with the housework and the ashtray is full to overflowing.....so I guess I'm doing passive smoking with finesse LOL

Not that that is to be advised either...only good bit of news on the smoking front is that the pouch lasted an extra day so that's a wee bit of progress and an encouragement to keep trying to use the e-cig as much as possible and reduce...:T - only downside with new e-cig kit is that value carts are called value carts for a reason - they only last max 2 days :eek: so not so value really @ £9 for 10 ...would have been better off paying £6 for 5 or going messy and using a combo of attys and carts (I appreciate no one is going to understand the e-cig lingo...it's like when I speak - no one understands that either LOL - not offended - just remember to hit the thanks button and scroll down to the next post ). However the batteries are fine but with the current cartomiser being so rubbish half the time I don't know if it's the battery that's flat or the cartomiser

Anyhow looking forward to veg garden later...they'll be lots of clearing to do no doubt

Thanks SO much to whoever (I forget now) found the pics for ever site...it's seriously brilliant...I just initially saved it to my desktop but just had a browse of the first few pages and there's heaps of smileys on it

E

natnat13

Opened friends breadmaker she gave me, she said she had dropped it down the stairs when she moved but it was all packaged up so it should be fine, but it wasn't big crack in the bottom and one on either side of where the lid comes down and the lid won't shut properly, gutted
Am going to try and make bread without breadmaker I have decided, as I have bought flour and yeast I may as well!
Hope everyone has a good weekend

goldrush1984

Hi Ive been lurking on this thread for a while now and think it's time I started doing something about our situation..the credit crunch has finally hit us..hard! Im soooo shocked with my diesel consumption!!

So ive just got my breadmaker down and cleared it of dust, got my basic ingredients last night from Mr T's along with a couple of reduced sandwiches for OH s lunch and 2 takeaway meals for tonight- not ideal I know but a damn sight cheaper than our usual £15 takeaway a week!(not done that in a while though!)

So getting back on to subject...can I bake a small basic loaf WITHOUT the skimmed powdered milk?? I am really keen on getting it done...there's always a stumbling block! In the meantime I'll make pizzas & freeze!
Thankyou!!

alec_eiffel

goldrush1984 wrote: »

Hi Ive been lurking on this thread for a while now and think it's time I started doing something about our situation..the credit crunch has finally hit us..hard! Im soooo shocked with my diesel consumption!!

So ive just got my breadmaker down and cleared it of dust, got my basic ingredients last night from Mr T's along with a couple of reduced sandwiches for OH s lunch and 2 takeaway meals for tonight- not ideal I know but a damn sight cheaper than our usual £15 takeaway a week!(not done that in a while though!)

So getting back on to subject...can I bake a small basic loaf WITHOUT the skimmed powdered milk?? I am really keen on getting it done...there's always a stumbling block! In the meantime I'll make pizzas & freeze!
Thankyou!!

Hi,

If it makes you feel any better our bread is far nicer made by hand than in the breadmaker, we didn't get on with it at all. DH is the bread maker in our house and he has just looked over my shoulder and said he never uses milk or milk powder in his loaves so you should be ok to crack on without!

JayneC

Just popping in

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERYL and to 23rd spiral for yesterday xx

Had a big spendy day yesterday - I work in 2 different teams and there's a person leaving from each, at lunchtime yesterday we went for a goodbye lunch £6.65 and last night went out for a meal and into town spent £20.00!!! Had a good time tho Just updated my spreadsheet and have spent nearly a quarter of my personal leisure budget already!! I do pay termly for my drama groups tho so that accounts for quite a lot, will have to keep a close eye on it.

Anyways off to the shops for F&V and milk, may be back later xx