Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

Ellidee

midwinter wrote: »

The only saving grace is that the money is still in my purse, but desperately hoping they'll still have them when I can next get to the shop on Friday!

Midwinter you could try ringing the CS first thing in the morning and ask them if they will keep them for you til Friday - they might !

mooomin

redglass wrote: »

Cheryl, when I look at the Spent column of my Totals page on the SoW, the total at the bottom is just red hash signs (yes, I'm over target) although when i run the cursor over it I am able to read the totals figures. Previously I could read the total 'Spent so far' without problems. Any idea why is this happening? (Do the # signs mean that the SoW is swearing at me, as in 'It's #### over target, idiot!' ?)

I think that means that the figure is bigger than the column width will let you view....expand the column and you should be able to see it.

(I might be wrong )

rising_from_the_ashes

flying_fresian wrote: »

Morning folks

Not a lot of frugalism to report in Fresian Towers so far this week. Yesterday was a spend day and today was meant to be a NSD but Mr Fresian has announced that we need catfood. Bah! Still, have found bags of Go Cat for £3 in Asda - they're normally nearer £5 - so will go there for that. It's only one flavour, untested on the cats, but they will eat it if I deem it to be cheap enough! Given the price of their food, I'm going to be looking into the cheapest way to feed them - it's time for them to go down a brand methinks. They're old cats though so I don't want to upset them - last time I changed their biscuit brand there were dirty protests :eek: :rotfl:

Fresian We've got a farm/tractor place nearby which sells dog food & I popped in the other day to see if they had the dog's food cheaper than the pet shop - unfortunately not. They did however have 10kg bags of cat food (why is cat food so much more expensive than dog food!) so I bought a bag (£17.30). It's been out since Saturday and neither of the wee "lovelies" has even tried it yet. Hope they do or it'll be a total waste of money (the cat shelter will be happy though)!

Midwinter I was going to say try giving them a ring & they might keep them but Ellidee beat me to it!

Artichoke welcome to the thread!

redglass wrote: »

Cheryl, when I look at the Spent column of my Totals page on the SoW, the total at the bottom is just red hash signs (yes, I'm over target) although when i run the cursor over it I am able to read the totals figures. Previously I could read the total 'Spent so far' without problems. Any idea why is this happening? (Do the # signs mean that the SoW is swearing at me, as in 'It's #### over target, idiot!' ?)

Redglass it could be that the column isn't wide enough to show all the figures. If you hover over the line at the right of the column & double click it should widen it (if that's the problem)!


Anyway, it's lilylass here - I had to change my user name as it was the same as my email & discovered DF uses the boards :eek: and much as I adore him, don't really want him knowing what I'm up to (and how much my OD is). I may still refer to myself as lily as I've used it for many years on forums, so hope you don't get too confused!

Had a NSD today - unfortunately forgot to go to Mr T at lunchtime so don't have any potatoes to go with my tea. Not sure what else will go with mince:(:(

minnie2

l.m.hart wrote: »

dont forget you can also print a 50p off coupon from the velvet site,so this would bring them down to £1.79:eek:bargain

oh pants completely forgot about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i bought 9 packets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

slowlyfading

:hello: artichoke and welcome to the thread!

cw18

redglass wrote: »

Cheryl, when I look at the Spent column of my Totals page on the SoW, the total at the bottom is just red hash signs (yes, I'm over target) although when i run the cursor over it I am able to read the totals figures. Previously I could read the total 'Spent so far' without problems. Any idea why is this happening? (Do the # signs mean that the SoW is swearing at me, as in 'It's #### over target, idiot!' ?)

probably means the figure is too long to be displayed in the cell - you just need to resize the column (either by using a function to do so, or by dragging the right hand side of the column further to the right in the bit above the column headings - where they're labelled A, B, C etc)

cw18

artichoke wrote: »

but do people generally set themselves a budget for the year, month, week and then tally up how they get on ? and tally up the amount of no spend days?

Are NSD just no cash spend? or do you count if say a direct debit has gone out that day?

Not everyone on this challenge counts their NSDs (I don't think), but there is a separate NSD challenge that some of us also take part in. Over there an NSD is different for different people..... very few folks count a D/Debit as a spend (I'm one of the few who do!), and at least one doesn't count her groceries either (as she accounts for that on the Grocery Challenge threads)


As to budgets..... I have annual budgets for all cetgories of my expenditure, and my spreadsheet 'allows' me 1/12th of each budget each month. But if I spend less than 1/12th in January, I can then spend what was left plus the 1/12th it allows me for February before it starts turning red to tell me I'm over budget (and so on through the year).

But some of my areas show red from some point of Jan until 1st December, as a couple of annual expenses - namely Road Tax and Car Breakdown - get paid in January

seriouslyfrugal

Hi Everyone,

Welcome Artichoke :hello:

I had a NSD today but was treated to dinner out which was nice ( I did drive )

I have found out that I will be starting at montisfont on the 21.02.11 so when I know my monthly incomming I will update things here of course this is just a 6 month contract but it's work in this current climate i'm not complaining !! I think I will be going to a monthly budget from march onwards

Erme : you take care hun and if you need me - just say


I've been reading the poems - they are fab - well done everyone :T:T


Have a good frugal wednesday everyone

midwinter

Ellidee wrote: »

Midwinter you could try ringing the CS first thing in the morning and ask them if they will keep them for you til Friday - they might !

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Midwinter I was going to say try giving them a ring & they might keep them but Ellidee beat me to it!

Thankyou both, excellent idea :T , will look up their phone number and take it to work with me! First time I've done a multiple quote, so hope this works!

23rdspiral

hi everyone, just popping in to confess another spendy day... 4 in tescos... 2 in Dunelm (needed ink), and 18!! in a fabric shop! BUT it is to reupholster a sofa, so not buying a new sofa and its retail value was 110!!!! (could not have afforded it at that price!) AND I LOVE IT!!

oh, and the cheese scones from TESCOS were reduced but mouldy by the time i got them home! 1 hour later! not impressed.