Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

theonlynuttytart

evening everyone!
im now on week 3 of making all my own lunches for work which is a miracle for me! not one subway
im cooking more and making more time for my crafts including making some bath bombs for my gifts and maybe eventually a craft fair!
making myself dizzy with no buying toilietries, sealed pot challenge, being frugal, using everything out of the cupboards..... im driving past supermarkets, ignoring deals and going in shops and coming out empty handed!! where will it all end! :rotfl:

23rdspiral

hey everyone, i'm just doing a little catching up. am too shattered to do anything else and at least this feels productive. i spent 2quid on 2 brand new DVDs from the market, hope they're not dodgy but she had hundreds, and 1.90 on a huge bottle of tai chilli sauce from the chinease supermarket (Mr M wanted 1.30 for a bottle 1/4 of the size!

Barros - at least you underspent in Jan lets you overspend in Feb. that's really a good thing.

Erme - rats? fabulous!:D i love rats, they are cute with such interesting and different personalities. (and they are NOT the dirty sewer rats they are a differnt breed altogether.) I'm pleased you're able to plan for hospital and when you are away. And i think it will be nice and maybe even quite healing for you to have them to look after. :T

Sandra - just read about your roof! eek! :eek: we had a similar soggy feeling when our neighbours tank leaked and it flooded down into our living room. GOOD LUCK with the work and the william for it. you have my sympathy.

silvasava

Hi All

Not a very frugal day today - I had 2 MS to do so I did some grocery shopping in Mr M's while I was out (less petrol) that's about it!:)
23rdspiral - I always buy my sweet chilli sauce in the Chinese SM - as you have found you can get really big bottles there for much less than the UK SMs. Its well worth having a look round I get black peppercorns there in 1lb bags and they also do cornflour by the kilo (can always split with a friend) - but I can manage to use it in soups, stews & gravies as I prefer it to flour. I also buy DH the veg spring rolls as they do a big box of the little thin ones for about £2.50 - perfect for dipping in the SWS!:D

rubytuesday

cw18 wrote: »

done

please accept my most humble apologies for missing you when you joined us I thought I'd picked everyone up when they first said 'hello', so not sure what happened there

No worries Cheryl I was lurking for a while but posted so maybe that was it. Thanks x

maid_in_cornwall

I added up all the times I went to the corner shop, asd@, mr T, mr s etc in the last month and was :eek: to discover I had spent a fortune and had really very little to show for it. I can easily spend £15 when the kids are with me at the local shop and I need to find a way of stopping them eating all the packed lunch stuff before wednesday each week!
So this weekend, I am baking stuff for their lunches and freezing some, and will bake again in the middle of the week to foil their little plans!

This will stop me going anywhere and should therefore save me a lot of money

rubytuesday

There was only smilies no text when I logged in earlier - very weird so I logged out and logged back in again!

I bought the M and S meal deal today. I usually only buy it when it's a whole chicken but today I thought I would try the sea bass as I've never had it before. It was delicious! The dessert and wine will do for another day.

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Hi Nyk good to hear from you again, I was about to send out a search party because I hadn't seen you around. Cheryl is doing well looking after us all but its good to hear from our threads originator.

I've decided my name should be Penny as in Penny wise and pound foolish, I seem to do well for ages them whoosh! I spend a fortune. Well probably not a fortune but I really must stay away from Lakeland, those of you who have visited or seen their lovely leaflets will realize how difficult it is to resist 'stuff' whilst you are there. I haven't yet worked out my days total as I also bought petrol and more sugar to continue my marmalade marathon, as we talk I have another prepared bowl of grapefruit and lemons soaking ready to cook up tomorrow. The sugar wasn't for me to eat but for sale so I am still counting my none food spend days and really am shocked how long I've managed. I used to joke that I could last for weeks without buying any food but I honestly didn't know just how many weeks I would last. My DDIL is appalled.

Hope you are all well most of you ticking along nicely, apart from things like leaky roofs, useless chimneys and the rest, I keep having to remind myself I'm a human being and as such don't always achieve what I set out to do, things change and I change with them. The fact is I am flawed.

Love and hugs to you all XX XX

youngmummy

cw18 wrote: »

but of course it's allowed
10 months of budgetting is 10 months better than none

thanks will re do my budget now and post when i know
thanks again and sorry that i lost track
will definatley try harder
xxxxxx

youngmummy

my new total is to be less than £11,000
not very frugal but am not too disheartend as its my first year, will hopefully come under budget

here it is broken down ::

outgoings

petrol £1760
elec £880
gas £440
garage rent £255.20
tv licence £158
food £2349
life insurance £220
water £339
sky tv £330
intenet and house phone £484
mobiles £577
xmas £1300
birthdays £270
bike insurance mot and tax £400
loan £380
bacci £440
clothes and other £387.80p
total outgoings £11,000.00p:mad: :eek::eek::eek::eek::(:(:(:(:(

Erme

I was too tired to go to P'head yesterday so I phoned round the charity shops and got another hamster cage for £3 (it was £5 but it had a crack in it that I fixed with strong pva. So far no rat probs)....Then spent 90 mins making holes to tie it to the bottom cage and a hole in the bottom for them to get through..

Eating wasn't so frugal yesterday (hasn't been for a few days)...

Today I'm off to a charity sale and then doing housework etc....and I got the most loveliest present from Aunt D (who passed away in December) possessions. A needle case, her embroidery scissors (both will come in v. useful) and a wee bag....wasn't expecting anything so thrilled..was happy with my vintage watch I got the day of the funeral (and I got more than PS - psycho sibling - but I guess that's cos unlike PS I kept in touch for 10 years and so they knew what I was into :j)

anyhow today's rattie news

I don't know - call it me being funny but I had this thought that maybe Bob (the smaller one) had injured his tail being sat on by Milo so I extended the cage yesterday (pics to follow)...they now have two cages which are on top of each other that they jump from. (took me 90 mins to saw holes for the ties and like a hole in the bottom of the top one because it's all plastic but the good news is they can stand up in it)...

I also got that dog rope (£shop) yesterday mainly for them to chew but they are not very impressed with it..

I'm still cleaning Bob's tail twice a day with warm salt water. He has a small lump just below the scab but I registered them yesterday@ the vet and he's going for a check up on Monday. Will let you know how he gets on

And after the vets (and maybe whilst @ the vets) he's getting banana chips. I just happened to phone Nature's Larder up and they're only 35p per 125g. The boys were very impressed. In fact Milo has put on weight what with wee pieces of sugar cinnamon burnt pancake etc yesterday (he woolfed them down and came looking for more). I haven't got them a ladder cos like they don't need it. The bottom cage is only 6 inches high so they can jump.

I can also now multi task ..hold Bob (whilst wriggling but I have certain commands I am teaching them like 'calm the beans' which means stay still for 2 secs said it a school teacher's voice) and prepare his salt water at the same time.

Milo has a one track mind - food and food and more food - Bob is not so fortunate...at this rate Milo will get renamed hoover LOL....but they are so funny. They play fight quite a bit and love classic fm for nap times. I think it makes them feel secure

They have also (as of last night) discovered my sleeves...so maybe I'll leave it a week before putting them in the fabric/crocheted cross body bag to train them for walks outside.

Today is clean out day and possibly bath..I have the baby bath (got it cheap)..how often do I need to bath them and I just put them in the bathtub with luke warm water right? and a little baby bath and they will come out handsome chappies...

I think I'm going to clean them out twice a week. They also prefer water cold so I will put ice cubes in in the summer (it gets quite hot in my lounge in the summer)

So yeah I'm beginning to feel like a mommy (praise God I'm mid thirties with no kids and broody). Milo is getting better at not bolting out of the cage as soon as you open the door and waiting whilst I put Bob back in (I'm careful with his tail) which is good.

Blessings

E
ps. Anyone know where you can get timed feeder for them from? Have done a search to no avail...maybe I'll have to go on rat forums? Just for when I'm sick/hospitalised