Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

HowlinWolf

miss_empty_piggy wrote: »

Am so fed up nothing I do seems to work at the moment. I tried out the fire and it is just as bad as ever. Me and my 2DDs sat in a room full of smoke with the patio doors open freezing with a quilt wrapped around us. Just been up stairs to put little one to bed and eldests bedroom stinks now from the fumes through the chimney breast wall. I just don't know what else to do. Why does everything have to cost the earth. We had the fire opened up to cut down on costs and it has ended up costing a fortune and looks like it will cost me even more trying to get it right eventually. I give up. I'm so sick of struggling. Sorry guys just venting, I am grateful for what I do have, I just really wanted this to go right but it never. x

It sounds like you might need a flue liner. If smoke is leaking through brickwork upstairs then there is a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Having your chimney tested to see whether this is the issue will cost about £25. Fitting a flue will be a few hundred but the company who test the flue should knock the test fee off the price if you then use them to fit the flue.

never_too_old

Erme


group hug.

hope things pick up soon, hopefully with spring and summer on the way the extra sunlight might make things a bit easier for you,

minnie2

Big hugs to everyone who needs them!!!!!! Keep on going!!! I feel this is going to be a very long and difficult year but im sure it will be worth it in hte end!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to make some extra cash!!!!!!! and have no idea how at the minute!! We need to buy car insurance by the 1st £500 (would have been £955 if we werent getting rid if a car) and i really want to pay it all off in one go as i refuse to pay an extra £50 for paying direct debit. So could do with making £200 really! We are not going to get anything for Hubbys car as its old.We buy any caaaaar said £120 if the body work was good and then after fees itd be £60!! erm no body work is not good - so we would be virtually paying them! plus at the minute it wont even start as it needs new spark plugs etc and battery charged. Argh!!

None of my books so far are selling on green metropolis. My house is full of someone elses things and has been for months so its hard to know if i have got anything for a car boot either!! Not sure we have anything appropriate for ebay. And i dont seem to have the time to think about anything at the minute to get things sorted. Work is hectic and trying to organise one car daily at minute is stressful!! Working today too and also trying to fit in family got so many things swirling round my head! Cant wait for pay day!!

gillst_2

flying_fresian wrote: »

Morning all

Frugalish day planned today - meeting a friend for lunch so there will be spending there but nothing I'm not willing to spend.

For anyone who hasn't heard of these sites, Wotnix and Snazal do an offer of a "free" book a day, paying £2.65 for postage. Snazal has a lovely crafting book today so I thought I would mention it http://snazal.com/freebook

I've been following this thread for a little while now, so thought it was about time I said hi and thank you to everyone for their posts - very helpful.
Thank you so much for this link - I have just ordered this book for my niece's birthday pressie - will also be able to get some beads etc to go with it for her.
I went to a jumble sale yesterday and got myself a fantastic bargain - a brand new large bottle of estee lauder "Beautiful" eau de parfum for just 20p - checked on line and it's retail price is over £50.00. Lovely pressie to myself

sarah0404

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

It's really frustrating as there is a bit of land behind my house (called a bund). It was part of the planning conditions of the estate being built as a buffer between this street and the next one. It's totally enclosed by houses on every side and is just lying unused and overgrown.

It's owned equally by the 60 houses in our street but none of us are allowed to do anything with it - I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought of chickens/veg plot and with the lack of allotments I wish there was something that could be done as it just seems such a waste.

That is such a waste! There must be something you can do. Maybe get together with a group of neighbour and discuss what could be done with it. Seems mad that it belongs to you but you aren't allowed to use it!

I am planning to do some gardening this year. My house is rented so I'm mostly going to be growing stuff in containers. I saw this "Ladder Allotment" in the Organic Gardening catalogue that was £67.50 - basically its sort of ladder-like, allowing you to put pots on each step of the ladder. I sent the picture of it to my dad and now he is building me one out of some scrap wood he has I plan to have it near my back door with pots of herbs on it. I don't suppose I am really going to save much money by growing some fruit and veg, but it will be fun anyway.

rubytuesday wrote: »

Hello everyone. A beautiful day here. I went to a jumble sale today just before it was ending and bought five items for a pound. I am really pleased with them. A lovely portfolio dress, a beautiful top from Urban Behaviour, which is a Canadian label, a top from Kushi (a bit tight at the moment but I am still losing weight) a top from Oasis and a dress from Primark which unfortunately doesn't suit me which is a shame as it's a lovely floral print.

Could you turn the primark dress into something else? Maybe turn it into a skirt or a top? I often buy something in the charity shop just because I like the fabric then cut it up and sew it into something else. My brother has just given me a whole load of XL sized t.shirts that he doesn't want any more. I'm going to cut them up and make them into long sleeved tops for my boys.

My January car bills were topped off by a gas bill that said I owed over £200 :eek: I am with EDF and I remember reading somewhere in the t&c's that if you owe more than £150 when they come to do your review they will just debit it from your account :eek::eek::eek: I scraped together £100 to send them and hope to send a bit extra this month too.

This month has been much better. I joined TopCashBack and already have £15 from that. My OH has £20 in his TopCashBack account. He is getting a bonus of £300 this month from work. I sold some old gold jewellery to a shop in the high street for £150, got £67 in game trade ins through Amazon and made £95 in ebay sales. All this is going in a pot together with £80 xmas money and £50 I have saved up. We plan to do a trip to Ikea to buy some new drawers for the boys room and some household bits and bobs. We moved in 6 months ago and still don't have curtains in some of the rooms, and I only have two kitchen knives - both of them blunt!!!

Then... I think my OH got "gold fever" after I sold the gold I had! He has this gold chain that his mum gave him when he was about 18. She loves jewellery. He couldn't care less about jewellery, but has worn it everyday for the last 10+ years, just because she gave it to him. He weighed it and found it was worth £268 (at Hatton Garden Metals as recommeded by MSE :money:) He sent it off on Friday... He is feeling a bit guilty about it, but we had been hoping to get a bed for the boys and he says we need a bed more than he needs a gold chain. Hope his mum doesn't ask him about the chain

We also came up with an idea for using his 13th pay. He is paid 4 weekly, but our budget is monthly, so their is an unaccounted for pay every year. We are going to use it to pay for our car insurance, home and pet insurance and TV licence up front so we will have a bit of spare money every month. I might pay some to the council tax, since ours is very high. It would be nice to pay less every month.

Having a good month so far, and I think next month will be even better since I am getting used to budgetting and tracking everything on my speadsheets.

HowlinWolf

Faced with nothing for lunch i've made a really rather nice soup from a box of mr s basic chopped tomatoes. Quite pleased with myself really as dh normally moans about home-made soup but will be taking the leftovers to work tomorrow

2wildthing2

Just been and done a shop at Mr S, they have branded washing powder Bold & Aerial at half price for the big box of 6.4KG that's the 80 wash size box. The other half swears by Aerial Powder so no chance of using the frugal alterantives. This is a bargain reduced from £20 to £10....stock up whilst you can.

That said we're running out of sapce as I took advantage of the 3 4 2 offer on petfood at Mr T.

Happy fruggling...............

NualaBuala

HI all,

Miss Empty Piggy - I'm not expert but I would worry that there might be a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning if the fireplace isn't working properly. Really hope your heat gets sorted soon - sounds like the other ladies here know what they're talking about so won't offer any advice! Have my fingers crossed for you hon. x

chika wrote: »

Nuala try ebay for clothes. You can get really good stuff for pennies. In october I managed to totally sort out my work wardrobe for hardly any cash. Best bargain was a pair of brand new trousers with a £38 tag for 4 including postage.

rubytuesday wrote: »

Naula I am losing weight slowly but surely too and if I see something I like in a charity shop that is a little small I buy it anyway as I'm sure I will fit into it eventually.

Thanks for the suggestion ladies! I think I will keep an eye on ebay and try to scout the charity shops more. If I don't spend too much then I won't mind donating any cast offs to charity when I hopefully shrink out of them! I haven't spotted anything I like yet and ideally I'd like to have tried the thing on in a shop, it can be so hard to tell.

Chika - good luck with WW! Don't beat yourself up for gaining weight, it's amazing how it can creep up on you. At least you're doing something about it, something that is good for you and your health - yay for you! I lost weight twice with WW. I did really well and found the points easy to work with. My friend tells me that the new propoints are a pain but I don't know. I'm trying to do something a bit different this time - the good old "lifestyle change" and taking it slowly but surely because with WW I went back to my old ways as soon as I lost weight and regained it. So I need to make permanent changes ... it's slow going but I am going to keep trying!

Erme, sorry you're feeling so bad pet ... but you did well to get yourself help when you needed it. And you even went prepared with crochet, great idea as I think keeping occupied can be a help. I'm thinking of you and hope you will be well enough to come home soon. x

I'm having a quiet day today, am supposed to go out later to a meditation thing, not sure I am up to it.

I made a lovely homemade deodorant the other day: coconut oil, bicarb, cornflour and a bit of aloe vera gel. I fragranced it with a mixture of essential oils, mainly lavender. Didn't cost much to make at all and saved me money as I'd been considering buying one from the health food shop. My armpits feel so nice and soft and I keep lifting my arms to sniff them as the essential oils smell gorgeous!

twiglet98

This month is going so terribly wrong, spending FAR too much and had three days off last week (one day holiday, two sick after falling and cracking my head open, needing stitches, still have a huge bruise on my chin). I'm paid hourly and usually do a lot of overtime, so being paid only the basic 8 hours for a day off is very difficult. Week's wages were £70 down on the previous week.

Youngest DD won a car on eBay, £750, she has saved enough but couldn't withdraw that much from her ISA without giving notice, so I got the surplus £150 out of my account, and I'd paid a £100 deposit on it when the auction ended. She has to tax it. Sorted out the insurance online and I've paid that on my BCard, DD will pay me back over four months. I agreed to help her get a car when she had her birthday last month, but didn't suggest a figure. Ex has given her £100, but he bought the older kids' first vehicles AND paid for their lessons, neither of which he has done for youngest. I know his financial situation is worse now, but it's probably more hurtful for her than she lets on.

We used elder DD's car to go and collect the latest one, so I put £20 petrol in hers, then another £20 in the one we picked up, mine's almost on reserve and needs £30 diesel for the week, which I'll get when I go out to Mr T shortly. Shame we ran out of time to shop yesterday, we passed our nearest L!dl, 20 miles away, on the way to get DD's car, and they've some good offers this week. I'm never sure how much I'll save by shopping there, and if the saving will outweigh the cost of getting there. Probably not.

Also have to pay for 500 litres of oil, £298.75, and the broadband package has to be increased as DDs have now got iPhones and a laptop, so the internet use has increased since Christmas and we're going over the 10Gb allowed on the minimum package. They are earning enough to pay a fair amount for their keep, but they get paid (and pay me) monthly, and the end of the month seems a long way away.

I've done an inventory this morning of the freezer contents, found some surprises at the bottom, including a whole salmon from Mr T's whoopsies in December 2009. Anyone know if it will still be ok? I've got a whole lamb coming from the farm at the end of the month and needed to defrost and rearrange before then. Must work out what to do with the whole liver still in the freezer from the last one - pat! to "feed the five thousand"?

natnat13

It's free listing on ebay this weekend, sorry if this has been mentioned already, I haven't had chance to read the last couple of pages xx