Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

slscarborough

Right today I spent £10.00 on hair clippers as OH has decided to save the money he normally spends at the hairdressers. He will also save money on the hair products he normally buys and time in the mornings.

On the other hand just spent £30 on a haircut!! I really needed it though. However I have asked around and am looking into a mobile hairdresser who could cut mine and the 2 kids hair for alot less. I wont be spending that sort of money again.

lynzpower

Hiya everyone just checking in, havent had time over the last few days :eek:

happy belated birthdays to Cheryl & Spiral, hope you had lovely days.
Kez- hideous about your leg, if you have a slow cooker you could make a batch of "stuff" and it willse you through the week without too much standing up.

So sorry to hear about those with job problems/ redundancies. I know it is small comfort, but at the least you are already frugalites so you are "one step ahead" . These inflationary pressures are not good though and Im concerned for everyone. At least we are in the 25% of households without a car, ( we dont need one here in the capital we are so lucky to have such a great transport system. although we are also suffering rising prices.

Went out to do the food/ household shop this morning. (We are going from stores altough I mgiht be tempted to make a trip to M&S and use the last 5er off voucher for meat this week to freeze) I did a full recce last night ( friday night in the fast lane lol) and meal planned it looks like this:

Sat Brown stew chicken & rice from the reggae reggae book ( hopefully some leftovers to freeze)
Sun: roast beef, yorkshires, peas carrots snips and roasties
Mon: Chicken peices chips and salad
Tue: Snackie for me as OH is out- whatever I can find
Wed: Slow beef chilli from the freezer with rice and Sour cream
Thurs: Meat pie ( filling from the freezer, carrots, mash and peas
Fri: Chicken burgers salad etc

So went out and bought the bare minimum
cereal ( this has all gone up, accross the board :eek:)
Lemon juice, a garlic, some scotch bonnets ( bought loose and paid less obviously!
Peppers ( bowl for £1)
Sweet pots (bowl for £1)
Box ( yes, a whole box!) of pasnips for £1
Some parnsips (before I saw the whole box fo £1 ) 1.50
A deoderant for me, feather duster, squeegie for cleaning the bathroom, lightbulbs,
Xmas wrapping papers and bows x 4 10p adn Bargain ringbinders in wilkos 3.00 for 6 ( butterfly design- reduced) (its 3 quid for one in smiths) spent 9.60 in there ( anything else budget)
A4 paper in £1 land for my course
Ironing board- we had gift vouchers s o free, our old one was so far beyond repair

So all in all not a bad effort. Have spent less than 10.00 of the fod budget and we may need milk and brea but going to stretch it out and see how we go. Spent about 20,00 today but of this only about 11 was food.

I have made jamie olivers spicy parnip soup with some of the parnips and peeled and froze aload more there is still LOADS left. they have started to go "wet" on the outside and coloured, I am going to put them in newspaper in a cold dark cupbaord to allow the rest of them to last. Am running out of freezer space so need to think creatively!

Whatever we save from the food budget is going towards our ( absolutely unfrugal) holiday. We were given Xmas moneyfor flights and im about to book them today. We have some money towards the hotels, but each weeks underspend will be spent on that, some of the rooms we are looking to book are about 20.00 per night so I think we can comfortably saved this. Once the holiday is over, I wil reduce the food budget adn it will go into something else ( ie just savings) So this week, even allowing for bread and milk I will save 30.00 as long as OH and I do not fritter on lunches.

I a about 3 days behind on my spreadsheet of wonder so that is todays task along with looking again at sorting out my mobile (time confuming minefield)

Anyway, hope everyone is well!

L x

cw18

not belated for me - mine's tomorrow

probably won't be around a great deal from about an hours time until tomorrow evening / Monday morning - visitor on the way

lynzpower

Doh Cheryl I did actually read that as well! Hope you have a lovely time with your visitor

I got so confused between reading up on everyone an thinking about my parnsip stash I quite forgot what I was on about lol

hope confusion will not continue as I am about to enter "THESPREADSHEET REALM"

:rotfl:

Have a free cake from me:bdaycake: ( dont forget the save the candles for next year )

cw18

lynzpower wrote: »

Hope you have a lovely time with your visitor

should be fun - starting with a dash to the shops for safety pins (lost the ones from my running kit, and need them for tomorrows race!), then trying to sort out his laptop - won't display pages via his dongle, so going to try it on my home network. will at least identify if the problem is the laptop or the dongle.....

hope confusion will not continue as I am about to enter "THESPREADSHEET REALM"

:rotfl:

how long before we send out a search party

Have a free cake from me:bdaycake:

yum, yum thanks;)

( dont forget the save the candles for next year )

or a power cut in the meantime :rotfl:

seriouslyfrugal

Hi everyone


I hope you are all well - thinking of everyone who's having a rough time


today is a spend day for me as i've been into town


happy belated birthday to those who had their birthday's over the weekend :bdaycake:

have a good frugal weekend everyone

never_too_old

Happy birthday cw18 for tomorrow and good luck with the run, your braver than me.

another NSD for me again,

rising_from_the_ashes

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.

On the plus siide, i found a sewing / quilting group which is once a week, and the woman who runs it has offered to show me how to use my sewing machine. I'm so chuffed , so if i;m well enough i go back on Monday for a workshop. It costs £2.50 for a 3 hour session, but it includes drink, biscuits, instructions, discounts of material and free workshops. I'm the youngest one there by about 30 years but the people who go are lovely and so helpful.

Awwww, what a terrible week for you both, hugs from the lily household. Good luck with the sewing group, wish there was one me (got the machine but can only really manage to hem a curtain!)

HowlinWolf wrote: »

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.

Thanks! Off to look at their website in a mo (65 mile round trip to Mr S but need a few bits & pieces at Pets @ Home etc so may well go tomorrow).

lynzpower wrote: »

meal planned it looks like this:

Sat Brown stew chicken & rice from the reggae reggae book ( hopefully some leftovers to freeze)
Sun: roast beef, yorkshires, peas carrots snips and roasties
Mon: Chicken peices chips and salad
Tue: Snackie for me as OH is out- whatever I can find
Wed: Slow beef chilli from the freezer with rice and Sour cream
Thurs: Meat pie ( filling from the freezer, carrots, mash and peas
Fri: Chicken burgers salad etc

Peppers ( bowl for £1)
Sweet pots (bowl for £1)
Box ( yes, a whole box!) of pasnips for £1

Wow, can I come to your house! That's soooooo much more exciting than me, I really need to buck up and start planning/making better meals!

Where did you get your veg at that price!!????


Trying to be good and not waste things like I used to. I do struggle with fruit & veg though. DM & (how do you do Dad as D is daughter?:o) have given me their old freezer!!!!

Really chuffed as I've only got a small fridge/freezer so I'll now be able to make/freeze so much more!

Struggling to keep up with the number of posts during the week - this thread's great!

rubytuesday

Another NSD for me today and lots more clearing up done. A friend of mine who does removals has just dropped off a fantastic Chesterfield arm chair he was given by a family he knows. He kept one, it's too big for my back room which is stuffed with piano, desk and spare bed so I am going to put it on ebay and split the proceeds with him. The other day I found a brand new front door! (too short for me) and a pine shelving unit dumped. Not sure if I'll be able to sell the door but I've passed the shelves on to his girlfriend who is in need of them.

lynzpower

I get my veg from the market, I am so thankful for it. :T

i think everyone should use thier market even if they do have to go a bit out of thier way as the prices are so blimmin keen!

If Id have fancied I could have had a whole box of lychees, 4 pineapples or 6 melons for a quid as well :rotfl:

Sometimes the stuff is tending towards the end of its life, but with some careful storage and processing and freezing I can get my moneys worth!