Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

mumtoomany

Hi all,
tried this challenge last year and gave up half way through! However I have cut everything down to the cheapest I can find. This year I would like to join but with no budget if that's allowed. I will still tally all my spends and see how cheaply we can live.

I am trying a small challenge for myself along this. I am trying to live for as long as we can without spending any "real" money on groceries. I have 12 cupboards full of food in the kitchen and utility rooms! (and more piled on top, and more in the cellar!). Two big chest freezers both full! and a large fridge also full!

I have £6 Tesc0 vouchers left, £10 M00ris0ns, £91.86 left from my mum for Christmas. I also have about £100 to come from cash back CC this month, and about £60 to come back from Game duell (all free money, don't pay to play).

Spends so far (since Christmas, started challenging myself then) £8.14 cash, £5 nectar, £5 Tesc0, £2 voucher.

I think maybe I should call it the "no such thing as a free lunch" challenge.

Happy New year to you all and good luck, Now how do I change my Sig?

Mumtoomany.

Kerfuffle

lowspend2011 wrote: »

I spent on Petrol and groceries today so have broken my 3 day NS. I also had a non essential spend on Fish and Chips at the beach with dh for my last day of my holiday, we went halves and I used a few coins I had leftover from last year. Should be my last NES spend for at least the rest of the week.

How do you subscribe to this thread please? I can't find a button to click on.

Hi lowspend2011

Click on 'Thread Tools' and there's a drop down,click on 'subscribe to this thread'.

It will automatically go into a folder, click on 'subscribe'.

Once you've subscribed to a few thread you can organise your folders.

Have a play around.

Toodles

Lily_The_Legend

Well I'm back at work today. I was going to go for a walk at lunchtime but I forgot to bring my coat! :rotfl: So I'm tagging along with my friend and going to Tesco. She's driving, so that saves me petrol. Now, how am I going to resist buying anything once we're there! :eek:

itsallinthemind

ceridwen wrote: »

So - the "half solution of vinegar and water" - would that be 50/50 white vinegar and water made up and then just wiped over on a cloth? What did you use for re-waxing - and did you just do the damaged bit (ie the top only in my case) or did you re-wax the lot?

EDIT: Just been and checked. Defo not varnished. Its rather "unfinished" type appearance, bit rough-ish to touch. Think that means it HAS been waxed? - but not any other treatment?

It sounds like it just has a wax finish to me? Hard to tell, if it just looks almost like what I would think of as kitchen pine chances are it is just waxed. Can you test the 50/50 white vinegar and water solution on an area like at the back of the unit or under the lip of the top? It took a few days to fully dry out for me, not that you use a lot of it. You can use the beeswax furniture polish in a tin(polish on with one cloth, then off with the other, bit of elbow grease needed) although I get mine yearly from a friend who makes it(beeswax, turps, lavender oil). I then re waxed the little area and then did over the whole unit. My mother uses olive oil and lemon for her furnture, hers is treated, again one cloth for putting on, the other for taking off. If you are not sure then I would er on the side of caution. Sorry for being vague, can't say much without seeing it as I would not want to make it worse!

mumtoomany wrote: »

Now how do I change my Sig?

Top green bar, third from right is the User Control Panel or CP.
On the left hand bar.menu, under settings, is Edit Signature.
I think

Lily_The_Legend

Just found some vouchers in the kitchen which they must have got out of the bag of work tea. I took the one which I know I'll use - 40p off herbal teas. That'll do for the peppermint or lemon and ginger tea I have in my drawer at work.

itsallinthemind

ceridwen wrote: »

So - if anyone knows how to and can put it in VERY simple language indeed (as I know so little about computer use....) 'twould be appreciated please.

Googlesharing add on for firefox, if you use that, should sort the IP sharing/cookies etc out https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60333/ needs a restart afterwards probably.

Little bit of info on it first to read http://www.googlesharing.net/

I do not use that firefox add on as I sometimes find it useful for searching. But I use others which are great. Video wise if you mean google videos - that should sort it out. If you mean youtube I should imagine that if going via google after d/l googlesharing does not work for you, that it would mean accessing videos say, uploaded by vevo, through a proxy.

Give it a whirl as it is easy to unistall should you not like it

Lily_The_Legend

NualaBuala wrote: »

If you have a fundraising site or Paypal, could you PM it to me - can't promise anything but if I manage to sell anything would like to make a tiny contribution.

Could you PM it to me too please Itsallinthemind if you have a fundraising site?

ETA: Whoops, have just carried on reading back and saw that you can't share it!

itsallinthemind

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

Could you PM it to me too please Itsallinthemind if you have a fundraising site?

ETA: Whoops, have just carried on reading back and saw that you can't share it!

Thank you anyway though :):)

never_too_old

Ooh my soapnuts have just arrived, tried to get some soda chrystals this morning when i went to mr t but she said they hadnt had any for a few weeks.
i do hope these work,
my £10 voucher has also just arrived for sports direct from a comp i won with barclays. so this will buy the tracksuit bottoms my dh needs for work,so less to come out of the bank.
have just made the pie filling for tonights dinner 6 for dinner tonight instead of 3 but going to put a bit less filling in and see if i can make two extra pies to freeze. spent £ 59 shopping today so total this year is now £59.33 i am so hoping that this will last a week as this would be a drastic reduction in how much i spend and my local council will be pleased as less to landfill lol, we waste soo much.im going to mr m b4 school to take a dvd back that i purchased b4 christmas when i thought my amazon order wouldnt arrive. normally this would just be left indoors but dd needs some pens for art so i will use this money. i am going to do a mixed version of padding and sealed pot, im going to put my £1 and £2 coins in a jar and once a week pay it towards a debt, dont know if the companies will appreciate the odd £10 here and there but who cares.:D

cw18

Erme wrote: »

Well catching up on the o/n posts and I usually (when well) am like CW? who goes to bed around 9.30 to get up no later than 6 or 7 cos I'm more a morning person and love my am routine...

Not me - I'm rarely in bed before 11pm, even on a Sunday & Monday when I have to be up at 5:30am the next morning !! Always aim for 10pm those nights, but think I've made it about 4 or 5 times in the 14 months I've had the job

When I don't have to be up in the morning it's more likely to be midnight or later - and I set alarms for 6:30am Wed/Thur/Fri and 7am Sat/Sun !!