Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

midwinter

natnat13 wrote: »

I went to the book swap and it was great, I went with a bag of books and came back with the same bag full of different books, it was really busy and everyone was saying how good it was.

I also cancelled hubbies mag subscription and our BT vision as we rarely use that, so I have saved over £20 a month today :j

An excellent day natnat, well done, and pleased that the book swap was such a huge success with everyone

I got some pretty wool in a sale (to crochet a ascarf for a friends birthday later on in the year) and some seeds ready to grow salad bowl lettuce, and mixed cornflowers, that I love, and remind me of my childhood Only a few weeks to wait, before I can plant them

Hope everyone has a nice evening!

minnie2

natnat13 wrote: »

If you log into ebay and do a search, if you click on advanced at the end of the search toolbar you can click to search for completed listings. This will give you an idea of what things are being sold for. Amazon is ok, and will give you an idea of what to charge but some things go for 1p and they charge the seller a flat rate (thing it's £2.80) for postage so if you have a heavy book you could lose money! There is a site for selling books called green metropolis but I've never used it so can't really comment what it's like. I ebay all sorts, we've just sold our broken PS3 and all the games, I sell clothes, brands like M&S, next, gap go quite well, cosmetics, anything really, just do your research.

I went to the book swap and it was great, I went with a bag of books and came back with the same bag full of different books, it was really busy and everyone was saying how good it was.

I also cancelled hubbies mag subscription and our BT vision as we rarely use that, so I have saved over £20 a month today :j

thank you!!! I have just joined green metropolis to sell some books! i dont have such a great feeling about Amazon - so wanted to see what people thought, think i may have a hunt about tomorrow see if i can find anything else for ebay!!

rising_from_the_ashes

minnie2 wrote: »

ok so what sorts of things do people put on ebay? and amazon? not sure i have anything left that are appropriate for ebay anyway! and not sure i have any perfumes left that can go now! Ive suggested the PS3 to go, but the hubby wasnt in agreement!!

I've sold loads of stuff over the years - books, clothes, unwanted presents etc.

When I ran out, I bought stuff off the clearance section and resold in individual lots. Best one was 250 pairs of slipper socks for £10. Sold for £1.50 each - all profits went to my debt! Yes it took time to package/post/list each one but when you're stuck in the house as you can't afford to do anything, it fills in time! (You have to be careful that people aren't selling it as it's damaged or that it won't sell though).

Puddleglum wrote: »

DH has said that the new TV will be bought out of his savings though so all that we will need to find is the extra £10 pm for sky HD.

Are Sky giving away free HD boxes? (Fancy one myself as have an HD telly (thanks to DM+DF)

Puddleglum

lilylass wrote: »

I've sold loads of stuff over the years - books, clothes, unwanted presents etc.

When I ran out, I bought stuff off the clearance section and resold in individual lots. Best one was 250 pairs of slipper socks for £10. Sold for £1.50 each - all profits went to my debt! Yes it took time to package/post/list each one but when you're stuck in the house as you can't afford to do anything, it fills in time! (You have to be careful that people aren't selling it as it's damaged or that it won't sell though).



Are Sky giving away free HD boxes? (Fancy one myself as have an HD telly (thanks to DM+DF)

AFAIK if you have the sky package then you can get a free upgrade but there may be a package deal that you have to take in order to qualify. Some retailers are doing a deal with sky whereby they equip th TV with sky for£30 and you get £50 "cash back" off of your subscription. Sorry I can't be more help. Need to do more research!

cw18

SandraScarlett wrote: »

They were all New Zealanders and apparently it's a National Holiday there, something like "Why-kee-kee Day", perhaps someone can enlighten me please.

I've found reference to a Waitangi Day, which is actually tomorrow (6th Feb)

youngmummy

NSD for us yesterday(sat):j. have got to pay mobile bill and get a few things monday but hopefully wont be spending anythink today either :j. how is everyone else doing we havent got off too a very good start but hopefully we wont come too far over our target y the end of the year .
on a good note i brought some eco balls last year but MIL forgot i used them instead of washing powder and summer last year brought me aload of washing powder ect so have been using the last of that then i will go back to my eco balls . i also havent used my tumble dryer since i posted about not using it any more and for some reason i have kept on top of the washing alot better. i actually felt lost last week when on wednesday i didnt have anythink apart from our PJ's to put in the wash as i had done it all and had to wait till yesterday morning before i had 1/2 a white load and 1 coloured load. but the stuff that was in my white load to be washed can wait till i have a full load.

also this is a ? so a friend. she wants to use cloth nappies when her baby is born due may. but doesnt have a tumble dryer. does anyone know the best ones that dont take ages to dry on the airer, i do know there are some that virtually come out of the washing machine dry but cant find them any where on the net and they were birth to potty :embarasse confused ?!

natnat13

youngmummy wrote: »

NSD for us yesterday(sat):j. have got to pay mobile bill and get a few things monday but hopefully wont be spending anythink today either :j. how is everyone else doing we havent got off too a very good start but hopefully we wont come too far over our target y the end of the year .
on a good note i brought some eco balls last year but MIL forgot i used them instead of washing powder and summer last year brought me aload of washing powder ect so have been using the last of that then i will go back to my eco balls . i also havent used my tumble dryer since i posted about not using it any more and for some reason i have kept on top of the washing alot better. i actually felt lost last week when on wednesday i didnt have anythink apart from our PJ's to put in the wash as i had done it all and had to wait till yesterday morning before i had 1/2 a white load and 1 coloured load. but the stuff that was in my white load to be washed can wait till i have a full load.

also this is a ? so a friend. she wants to use cloth nappies when her baby is born due may. but doesnt have a tumble dryer. does anyone know the best ones that dont take ages to dry on the airer, i do know there are some that virtually come out of the washing machine dry but cant find them any where on the net and they were birth to potty :embarasse confused ?!

She wants to get microfibre ones, they dry really quickly and are still absorbent. Bamboo are the opposite, they takes ages to dry. I used little lambs, or tots bots do microfibre. In fact they probably all do by now, this was 3 years ago. Motherease do the best wraps, I found the little lamb ones rubbed. Tell her to google the nappy site, there's loads of 2nd hand ones on there. Nat xx

jade86123

Hi all, I'm just joining this thread (hope its not too late?)
Really want to tighten our belts this year and think about what we spend.. we already have an allotment and are planning on sourcing most our veg from here and a little fruit if we can manage..
Going to have a go at the spreadsheet and see what our budget is for the rest of the year..

We have our second sprog on the way so would be good to get into the swing of this before he/she arrives!

mooomin

I was so close to a NSD yesterday but spent 50p on chocolate at work :rotfl:

I also had my next Graze payment come off my credit card, so have paid that as well.

Today I'm going to the movies at least once - to see a Disney film with a friend in the afternoon and to see The Fighter with Mr Fresian tonight. I also need to fit in a trip to the supermarket so that I have plenty of fresh fruit and veg, although that's going to require a meal-plan I think.

My mobile bill appears to have gone up by about 35p which I think is the VAT rise. It's still within my budget for the month though. I previously had a "bolt-on" with extra internet as I was travelling a lot through work but suspect that I'll get to the end of the next billing period and won't have used the extra so can remove that - £5 per month saved I hope!

cw18

jade86123 wrote: »

Hi all, I'm just joining this thread (hope its not too late?)

Welcome aboard