Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

SandraScarlett

I've spent several hours trying to fathom this out, and I admit defeat! Could you kindly explain this please:

Cheryl
Sealed Pot #439; Frugal Living 2010 (£6729/£8k); GC (£1253 £1151); NSDs (173/132)
GC Budget / Spent / Whoopsie spend / Whoopsie 'real' value
'09 : £1327 / £1327.79 / £429.65 / £1573.09 (129 NSDs)
to 30th Nov '10 : £1139 £1037 / £1181.70 / £470.90 / £2434.74
Dec : £114 / £87.70 / £39.20 / £140.27 to 15th (4/10 NSDs)


What's a Sealed Pot? What's GC? And, the most fascinating, what's a Whoopsie and a Whoopsie real value? I'm assuming an NSD is a No Spend Day?

If so, I last went shopping on the Tuesday before Christmas, so, until today, I had 14 NSDs in a row!!! :T:T

xx

mooomin

SandraScarlett wrote: »

I've spent several hours trying to fathom this out, and I admit defeat! Could you kindly explain this please:

Cheryl
Sealed Pot #439; Frugal Living 2010 (£6729/£8k); GC (£1253 £1151); NSDs (173/132)
GC Budget / Spent / Whoopsie spend / Whoopsie 'real' value
'09 : £1327 / £1327.79 / £429.65 / £1573.09 (129 NSDs)
to 30th Nov '10 : £1139 £1037 / £1181.70 / £470.90 / £2434.74
Dec : £114 / £87.70 / £39.20 / £140.27 to 15th (4/10 NSDs)


What's a Sealed Pot? What's GC? And, the most fascinating, what's a Whoopsie and a Whoopsie real value? I'm assuming an NSD is a No Spend Day?

Ooh I can help!!

GC is (I think) the Grocery Challenge on the Old Style (also known as OS) board

Sealed Pot is the Sealed Pot Challenge - you essentially seal up a piggy bank and put in all your change then count it up on the 1st of December every year. I do that challenge too

Whoopsies are items in the supermarket that are reduced - yellow sticker things normally! Cheryl has a Spreadsheet Of Wonder that allows you to input the price you paid for the item versus what it should have cost so her sig means:

GC Budget / Spent / Whoopsie spend / Whoopsie 'real' value
'09 : £1327 / £1327.79 / £429.65 / £1573.09 (129 NSDs)

Her budget for the Grocery Challenge was £1327, she spent £1327.79. Of this, she spent £429.65 on "whoopsies" in the supermarket, but these would have cost her a whopping £1573.09 if she had paid full price.

Cheryl, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!!

NualaBuala

:rotfl: at "Spreadsheet of Wonder" ... so true!


Edit: fingers crossed about the job 23rdSpiral, hope you escape the axe or get something better. And that goes for anyone with job worries. x

mooomin

NualaBuala wrote: »

:rotfl: at "Spreadsheet of Wonder" ... so true!

That's how I think of it!!

I used it religiously for the first few months of last year until I fell off the wagon. I need to get in the habit of completing it as soon as I get home. It's easy on "milk and bread" days but more daunting when you've done a full shop

I've just redeemed at B!ngoport for a £5 Amazon voucher, so that will be part of my treats stash and have plans in place to slow-cook some chilli tomorrow as I bought 2.3kg of mince at Costco (!!) and need to portion it up in the freezer too.

dizzy_lizzie

Love reading everyone's posts and the thread moves so fast, it's exciting to be a part of it
Spent £8.47p yesterday and nothing today so 2 out of 3 NSD. Pretty sure I've never managed that before! Not back in work till Wednesday, then only till Thursday but I've made leek and potato soup for those two days and an extra 2 lots for the following week. This was one of my personal challenges to take my own food in everday.
SandraScarlett Sealed Pot is a challenge on another thread were you save as much as you can in a sealed pot so you can't take it out, until it's full, I think and GC is a thread for the Grocery Challenge were you try and spend only a certain amount on groceries every week/month, you can subscribe to both threads if you like. (sorry I can't do links) A whoopsie is a reduced item but I don't know what a whoopsie real value is? NSD is a no spend day.
Probs be lots of answers to your questions by the time I've typed this
Hope that helps.
Luvz Dizzy x

Edited to say thanks flying_fresian you explained it much better than me
x

NualaBuala

I am not hardcore enough to put in all my grocery spends - I have a simpler spreadsheet with a lot that I "borrowed" from Cheryl's but I just put in my grocery totals. I think I tried to put in grocery spends but only lasted a week!

mooomin

23rdspiral wrote: »

I often get my clothes, toiletries ect on special offer too... whilst not technically Whoopsies, is there any way i can allow for this in the other pages of the spread sheet? eg, my only spend yesterday was 2.48 on a necklace orginally 8.00 in Accessorise... i wouldnt have paid full price but am dead chuffed with it... any ideas??? (can i just copy the boxes accross, would that work?)

I want to note down things like this too. I have decided that I will treat my special offers as whoopsies. For example, today I bought hairdye (comes from my groceries budget anyway as I lump food, cat stuff, cleaning gubbins and toiletries together)

The hairdye is normally £4.79 per box but was on two for £7. I then used my £5 No7 voucher to get facewipes that would normally be £7 for £2. Here's how that looked in my spreadsheet:



I also got earrings today at 70% off but put them in my Other Spends tab and just noted beside them that I had saved £6. I don't have the technical skills to mess with the Spreadsheet of Wonder though

Kiwisaver_2

Kia Ora, just popping in to wish you all a Happy and Frugal New Year and a big welcome to the newbies. :j

I've nothing much to report really and have to do some catching up with this thread later today as it's already running away from me. So far so good, 4 days into the new year and I haven't been near a shop since NYE. My meal planning this week is all around the Christmas and New Year leftovers as I seem to still have a fridge full of food, so I'm not planning on spending very much other than basic essentials over the next week or so.

Thanks Cheryl for the new thread, please add me to the list.

Kia kaha!!

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Wow, everyone is posting like crazy at the moment, its just taken me about 45mins to get up to date and thats skim reading some of them. NuBu the idea about the cardboard over the touchpad wasn't mine but the computer expert I discussed my laptop problem online with ....and yes its working fine now, such a simple solution really but one I would never have thought of. Some other person on this site was interested to find a solution to this problem also so I hope she/he has seen mine....message to other person, sorry I have forgotten who you are

Thanks all those who wished my cat better, her eye is looking much better now but I'm still having to give her antibiotics x2 daily. eye ointment x3 daily and anti-inflamatories every evening so its back to full time nursing for me.

I was given a single person size slow cooker on freecycle today, I'm hoping to make some yoghurt in it. I always used to make my own when I had night storage heaters but fortunately really I dont have NSH I can't do that anymore so will try a slow cooker. I seem to remember I used to add a teaspoonful of powdered milk so I shall have to buy some tomorrow as I don't think I have any in my larder at the mo. Note to myself look before you buy.

I've been sleeping so late recently that I must start setting my alarm then I might be ready to sleep at a reasonable time and have longer days not nights.

lynzpower

Blairweech wrote: »

Lynz - Well, I want to stay on PAYG so have narrowed it down to...

Tesco Mobile -£10/month 30 day SIM. 500 minutes, unlimited texts/internet.

GiffGaff -£5/month goodybag. Unlimited texts, free unlimited internet until 28th Feb (then 50p/day)

GiffGaff -£5/month 'hokey cokey'. 60 minutes (plus 1 free minute for every minute you are called), 300 texts, free unlimited internet until 28th Feb

The GiffGaff deals look pretty good, but I do need the internet so thinking Tesco might be better for me, and its no hassle as am already with them

There was also ChitterChatter £6/month sim but would need to get my phone unlocked for that so no good for me really

Blair thank you so much for taking the time to post this, it is a life saver thank you. I have an iphone- Im well out of contract, and "cut back" from the 35 package i was on- only to find the new flexi o2 thing sees me spending 32 on a lot less minutes.

I wonder if I can find someone to unlock the iphone- then i could get the tesco one? We do need calls as we are on virgin with a 7p connection for starters. I am going to wander about there are loads of phone unlocking places around here.

Up very early this morning, I think I must have had a dream about failing my exams! So Im up revising as exams next week!