Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

slowlyfading

miss_empty_piggy wrote: »

Am so glad that it is the end of term - I am exhausted and half of my classes have been away on work experience - but feel like i've been busier than ever as everyone's been giving me "extra" jobs to do as I've got so much time on my hands!! Can't wait for a lay in!!! and actually get to spend some time with MY kids istead of someone elses! Enjoy the week slowlyfading and everyone else. x:rotfl:

Oh my gosh, I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to having a lie in on Saturday!

chika

Half term tomorrow here too. Thrilled I'm quite amazed that we are over halfway through the year. I'm really looking forward to the two weeks off we have in May. Hope everyone is well.

enjoyfinancialchallenges

chukka which year are you half way through? where I live its still only two months into the New Year! :rotfl:

I bought some toiletries today but used B**** points so no money exchanged hands. Still have plenty of meals left in the freezer I'm surprised there isn't a world shortage of food because of my stockpiling tendencies.
Making lots of veggy soups also because some of the stuff has been frozen for months/years and probably lacks flavour now but at least it isn't being wasted and tastes very good in a soup.
At the moment I'm waiting for my little bag of pips to cool before I give it a good squeeze to complete a batch of marmalade.
XX to all.

slowlyfading

I think she means the school year - it's half way through when you reach Feb half term!

chika

slowlyfading wrote: »

I think she means the school year - it's half way through when you reach Feb half term!

Haha spot on, I think of years from September to September!

JayneC

Hi everybody,

Grandma congrats again. And I'm loving the baby poems, so, so true...Makes me a little teary, my 'baby' is 12 now Have DGS tho who is 3 and a little star, tho very feisty

Have a meeting tomorrow morning to discuss my job, am seconded to my current job running 2 supported accommodation schemes for Care Leavers and not sure the council will continue with them as there are not statutory provision. May have to move back to my previous position which will mean a fairly significant drop in income - oh well...Went to AGM of the union and it was quite depressing - council is changing terms and conditions of the workforce and needs union to agree, basically we've been told if we don't agree then that's 150 jobs going!!! There's a protest march in London next month against the public sector cuts and was considering going but have heard some horror stories of trouble that can happen in demonstrations, so not so sure now...Will just run a way instead and live in a field with my chickens, it'll be fine:p

Did a bit of spaving this week, bought pop and crisps (which I don't usually do) from poundland as I'm performing at a festival this weekend and DS will probably end up coming with me as he's getting involved with some of the activities that are on, and I'm sure he'll be pestering for snacks so I'm going prepared Actually only went into poundland for sugar but they don't seem to be doing the 1.5k bags anymore, anyway ended up spending £6. Still well under budget on groceries tho so that's good.

DD2 made tea tonight. I've got her doing it on a Thurs as I usually get home and she, her boyfriend and DS are sitting waiting for me to get in from work to cook for them!! So got her on the case and she made burgers (from scratch) which were very nice, didn't eat til nearly 7pm tho cos she was faffing about! DD3 and DS are on tea duty on a Monday too, so we'll see what they decide to make... DS was planning on burgers too so we may be having them again!! Got him to help me make tea on Tues which he reluctantly agreed to and I think quite enjoyed when he got into it, we made meatballs which were very nice.

Anyways bedtime now.

night night. x

cw18

cw18 wrote: »

Also working a lot of extra hours at the moment. One of my colleagues is off following an operation, so they're pulling me in to cover some of her hours. First week was an extra 10 hours (the most they'll let me do, as I go onto 1.5x pay after that), last week was an extra 8, this week is an extra 8 (5 down, 3 to go tomorrow), and I've at least 3.5 extra next week (though that's a close and clean shift, covering someone else's annual leave).

Well, it's a good job I've outgrown the 'spend the overtime money because you know it's coming in' stage..... Management have decided the manpower bill is too high at the store, so are seriously cutting back on overtime - effective immediately.

Half an hour after getting into work today I was told 2 of the 3 hours approved for tomorrow had been withdrawn, and 2 hours after that was told that the 3rd had gone as well.

Was also told at that point that they don't want to pay me extra for next week, so are cutting my shift on Tuesday short to cover most of the extra they need me for on Wednesday!!! Bit narked as this means I also lose a 15 minute paid break on Tuesday (due to not working for long enough to qualify for it), but won't be working for long enough on Wednesday to gain it back..... so they effectively get an extra 15 mins work out of me for no extra pay :mad:

Still a bit confused by next weeks adjustments though, as I was told that making my 7-4 shift on Tuesday into a 7-2 covered 2 of the 3.5 hours on Wednesday - but after coming home I realised it doesn't, as I'm not entitled to a lunch break on a 7-2 shift. So as it stands at the moment I'm working 7 hours (rather than the 6 they've calculated it to) instead of 8 that day and will still be working 3.5 hours late on Wednesday, which means an hour 'owed' from Tuesday plus 2.5 hours overtime. Will have to query it tomorrow, as there's no way I'm taking an hours unpaid break from noon until 1pm just to have to go back for a single hour.... especially when I often don't get away for lunch until 12:15!!! And I'm not working the extra on Wednesday until I know I'm being paid for it all (if they claim it wasn't all authorised, then they don't have to pay me for the unauthorised part)

Barros

Bit down this week.

Circumstances have changed at home and although I don't have a time frame may have to move out and bring forward the plan of my first flat.

Gutted - bringing it forward means less savings and I'm not where I want to be for a mortgage (although I do have a good deposit if push came to shove)

I just hate the feeling of having no control and something (this) unexpected happening grrrr

enjoyfinancialchallenges

chika wrote: »

Aha spot on, I think of years from September to September!

Aha! now Ive got it, school year. I was starting to wonder which world you lived in.

cw18 and JayneC the changes you write about seem complicated let's hope you are not going to be to short on payday.

Life is going to get really tough from now on me thinks as all the councils seem to be sorting out their budgets. I went on the bus today and there was a inspector on board looking to see where buses could be withdrawn and it appears likely that my village wont even have a bus at all. Unfortunately I was the only one from this village today usually there are four or five others.
I wonder just how far we can be squeezed, after all if people cant get into town the shops are going to feel it and then the knock on effect begins. I feel quite frightened at times if I start to think too deeply about it all and I suppose those of us on this thread are more equipped than many to cope with living frugally. As Barros has just said about her problems its all about being out of control and thats exactly what I think it is for me but this is where I really start to fight for survival. Back to the marmalade now. XX

apple_mint

:wave: Good morning everyone. Big hugs (((hugs))) to those who need one and are feeling down. As enjoyingfinancialchallenges says, a lot of this is out of our control. It's hard when the rules keep getting changed and you can no longer be certain of a steady income.

I have to say, it's bringing out the squirrel in me. I've stocked up on fairy liquid, washing powder, toilet rolls, toothpaste etc. My shopping isn't quite as frugal as it could be because I'm spaving ... and also making sure I could manage for a few weeks if I had to divert the majority of my food money to other budgets.

Did the second half of my weekly shop in Lidl last night and spent £16.79. So we've spent £30.75 in total on food this week. A little more than I intended but some of it was for my storecupboard stash. Still well within budget though.

I've slipped off the bandwagon for energy tracking. I keep forgetting to read the meter when I go out to get things out of the freezer in the garage. I'll bring that up to date at the weekend.