Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

never_too_old

lilylass wrote: »

Decided not to visit supermarket this week - I've got a pretty good stock of things in and should only need veg so will pop to the farm shop to see how it compares price wise.

Now having 2nd thoughts on that - there's a market near me on a Sunday and there's def a veg stall - may just hang on and try that tomorrow instead. Assuming it will be cheaper?

Have a good day everyone.

I have a small fruit and veg box delivered to me in the early hours of sat morning every week, its enough fruit and veg for up to 3 people.costs me £12 week but it means i dont have to go to supermarket after i have done my weekly shop for more fruit and veg ( normally shop on a tues) and thus preventing me putting all those little extras in my trolley.:D

mumtoomany

Hi all, have not posted for a while, had a rather busy month, but have been trying to keep up with the thread when I have a minute.

January has turned out to be a more expensive month than I had hoped!

Spends are:
Diesel £52.81
Phone landline/mobile £26.26/£20.00
Clothes/shoes (inc DD4 school shoes) £37.98
Xmas/birthday/gifts £4.14
Gas/electric £27.00/£46.00
Water £33.58
Council tax £139.00
TV licence £12.43
Dog food etc £22.52
School trip £110.00
Deposit for new sofa covers £470.00
Money towards DD1's wedding £1000.00

Grand total £2001.72 Ahhhhh


Food and toiletries etc: I started with £100.00 christmas money plus various coupons and some money on my Asda card, have added £116.16 cash back from CC, £75.00 tax return, and £1.69 collected from of the floor, down the chair back etc. I have spent £124.15, plus various coupons and some of the Asda money.

I have left (if my maths is ok! ) £168.70 plus £15.00 morrisons vouchers plus £6.07 still on Asda card.

I wonder how long I can make this last? I still have money to claim from Game duell and have won over £10 on mystic Meg to be claimed.

Both freezers are still full! and the cupboards are still groaning under the weight of food. In fact I don't really seemed to have made much of a dent in them! Must try harder this month.


Hugs to all those who need them, good luck all,

Mumtoomany.

Erme

Kerry_Woman wrote: »

Erme - Sending you hugs.

Thanks guys...it's been one of those weeks

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

What website have you got Erme?

Just one that's been nabbed by the germans before me....daren't say for fear of upsetting the mods it's just j*creations.com and there's hardly anything on it right now...might put a blog up though at some point and a link to a folksy store or something? Right now I'm crazily knitting my final sock for the time being (done almost 1/2 in 3 days) so I can't start on making stock :j

Had another spend day yesterday. Got my card stock off ebay/amazon and it wasn't quite right so set about getting it locally...cheapest place was HC of all places £4.99 for 50 inc envelopes (C6 I think? They have various packs) and then somehow spent over £9 on things in the sale and some decent sellotape..(cheap stuff is impossible I've discovered) though at some point need to source the best priced thin (as in 3mm max) DS tape (HC is about £3 a roll ...hmmm) for putting toppers on cards...(I have photos on the pc I cut out)....also need a another small auto rewind tape measure - again HC = about £3 so will go to D when I go to Aldi for one or does anyone know if they have them in the £shop?

As always in my bad weeks/months there's stuff that carrys me through and this week it's been reading in bed with midget gems ....works almost as good as meds; sometimes listening to the world service (old DAB radio gotten from charity shop. Think they thought it was just a bog standard radio alarm - it was less than £5 last year I think or the year before? I have a pure mini in my lounge).

Anyhow pottering day....might go to the PO next to Mr S for an envelope for Uncle K letter and cards (think it's going to need a C5) and some more midget gems as I'm on my last packet and right now I need them (note guys Mr A has midget gems @ 29p packet - but only 175g - Mr S has them for 33p a packet but 25g extra...you do the maths....that's worth it I think?)

I'll catch up on posts in between chores...

How is Nuala...any word on your DA? I keep praying - daily

E

redglass_2

mumtoomany wrote: »

Hi all, have not posted for a while, had a rather busy month, but have been trying to keep up with the thread when I have a minute.

January has turned out to be a more expensive month than I had hoped!

Spends are:
Diesel £52.81
Phone landline/mobile £26.26/£20.00
Clothes/shoes (inc DD4 school shoes) £37.98
Xmas/birthday/gifts £4.14
Gas/electric £27.00/£46.00
Water £33.58
Council tax £139.00
TV licence £12.43
Dog food etc £22.52
School trip £110.00
Deposit for new sofa covers £470.00
Money towards DD1's wedding £1000.00

Grand total £2001.72 Ahhhhh


Food and toiletries etc: I started with £100.00 christmas money plus various coupons and some money on my Asda card, have added £116.16 cash back from CC, £75.00 tax return, and £1.69 collected from of the floor, down the chair back etc. I have spent £124.15, plus various coupons and some of the Asda money.

I have left (if my maths is ok! ) £168.70 plus £15.00 morrisons vouchers plus £6.07 still on Asda card.

I wonder how long I can make this last? I still have money to claim from Game duell and have won over £10 on mystic Meg to be claimed.

Both freezers are still full! and the cupboards are still groaning under the weight of food. In fact I don't really seemed to have made much of a dent in them! Must try harder this month.


Hugs to all those who need them, good luck all,

Mumtoomany.

Know how you feel, Mumtoomany, when you think you're doing well and then find you've run over budget, but these things do happen. Good luck...it's the long term effort that counts and that really empowers us.

minnie2

hubbys car has also given up - and yes we were going to go to one car but not quite so soon!!! its a bit of a faff and i have no car today - which i hate - feel like im trapped! silly i know.

anyway - things are very confusing at the minute and up in the air so playing it one day at a time.got money going everywhere at the min so itll be 2weeks i think until ive got more of an idea!

slowlyfading

I'm so glad it's the weekend Me and OH are going to the cinema later, then out for tea so it should be a great day So we're obviously spending today

minnie2

argh!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am going to have to get out of the house today - and spend money on junk food - going to walk to local shop and buy sweets and a can of coke!! hate being without my car!!!!!!!!! i know i will have to get use to it but its my first day and i am going insane!!

twiglet98

natnat13 wrote: »

Just rang BT to get rid of my £5 a month daytime call package as I don't use it. They went through my phone and broadband and I saved £12 a month I know there are probaby cheaper providers but I have never had any probs with BT so am happy to stay with them.

I've left BT a few times, seduced by cheaper offers, and always go back. I wouldn't use another firm now. We're too far out in the sticks for anything modern (max broadband speed for us is 512kbps - half a meg, though down in the village they can get at least 2Mbps, and there was talk of 8!). BT own the hardware outside, the telegraph poles and wires, and when I was with Tesco Broadband, or TalkTalk, whenever there was a problem with the broadband I'd ring them, they'd say they'd have to get BT to deal with it, I'd say I'd ring BT myself, they'd say no, you can't, it's BT Wholesale and only WE can talk to them, you're retail, you can't. Often tempted to set up a three way conference call so I could listen in! Anyway, I took out the fullest BT broadband package, then rang them after a few months to say I thought it was providing more usage than I needed, and a wonderful lad reduced it by more than half, effective immediately, and sorted out my online access to the broadband account, which had always come up with an error message. We routinely have wiring between the exchange and the village stolen by the '!!!!!!', and BT are very good about sorting it out as quickly as they can. Next door have theirs through Virgin and have no end of problems, and they can't report line faults to them either, for the same reasons I was given. Thumbs up for BT, they've been doing it a long time and I think they're the best.

23rdspiral

hi CW, thank you SO MUCH for the instructions on Conditional Formatting. OH is out, i'm bored and trying not to go to the shops just for distraction, to decided to take a look myself, and i figured it out! and i even think i understand what i'm doing!!!

i'm using an older version of excel but found what you were talking about. I think it turns out that when i was trying to add rows for other stuff (clothes, opticians, dentist) that i somehow managed to get all the Cell Value bits out of sink, so eg C 19 was recording the adding up of C19 (i could check that on the top line thing) but the conditional value rules were commenting on C18 !!!

Oh and i'm starting to think i could change my CV from Basic Excell to Working Knowledge !!!! (ie, i can make it do what i need to if they show me how first!) THANKS A MILLION!!

NualaBuala

(((((23rdSpiral))))), sorry I missed your bad news re your job as I skimmed through. I admire how strong you are being and that attitude will get you through the tough times .. and we are here to rally you on too.

Erme wrote: »

How is Nuala...any word on your DA? I keep praying - daily

E

Thank you Erme :A, that means a lot to me. I have just posted off the letter from the consultant who wrote a strongly worded letter of support, not sure how long it will take for them to deal with it - it was over 6 months before they dealt with my original application so not holding my breath. I wish they had their own medical examination so they could see for themselves but they don't do that anymore, guess it is cutbacks. I can't complain really, there are people far far worse than I am and they are waiting too. I have decided to forget about it until I hear back. I am managing on the interim emergency payment but it's not easy and would like some stability. The main thing though is that I want to forget about being sick and make being as well as possible my main focus. Would rather concentrate on what I can do than feeling upset that I can't do things I used to take in my stride.
I used to have a slight addiction to midget gems - the Mr T value ones were very cheap and tasty! When you have your website set up you could put a link on your profile, there is a section for your homepage URL. I hope next week is better for you hon but glad you seem to be coping well. xxx


I haven't made a firm plan for today yet - possibly go for a walk to the shops or else some house tidying.

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