Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

23rdspiral

hello everyone, gosh lots of posts and info flying around.

i'm all in a muddle as i had a bad day at work - end of FYear reports, winding up before funding ends, HR winging about redeployment meetings - err let me get my job done first! so my diary is spiriling out of control and i'm so very confused about how to salvage it. Today is suposed to be more OT but the manager wasnt in yesterday to give me more like we'd arranged.:mad: so i'm torn between going in a trying to figure it out myself but poss getting it wrong and wasting petrol. OR going in the opposite direction to Asda to pick up my glasses that have come in early. ooh, writing it down makes it feel like the getting the glasses is the better option. interesting. thanks!

still, thanks to someones Fly lady advice the other day i did sort
through a bag and two curver boxes of clothes that i shouldnt move with as they are now too small - sorting for chairty shop/ clothes bin / dress agency and cut-up-for-fabric piles.

alec_eiffel wrote: »

I've noticed we're being penny wise and pound foolish.

good luck with your new journey Alec, best wishes... thou can someone please explain what that phrase means?

l.m.hart wrote: »

gosh no thats just groceries( did i read it wrong i thought thats what was asked)
if i put down what is spent every month on everything you would turn grey, when i put it all on my sow i turned grey then a puce colour it was that frightening.:eek:

even without rent ect i'm impressed. lol re the Sow - it's a fab tool isnt' it!

silvasava wrote: »

Sorry 23rdspiral - I weakened!! An oddment of beige vynyl for £4 that will be enough to cover my office chair that DH got from a skip and a little stool. Big staplegun here I come!

sounds like you had a great trip! and no apologies needed - that sounds like a fantastic spave / investement... well done you for finding what you needed cheaply! and for skip diving in the first place!!:T if only i could be so restrained - i'm only restrained if i dont actually go in the shop, or actualy anywhere near the town its in!


inspirespirit - good luck with your resolution. you'll find all sorts of frienly random hints and tips here (have you checked out the links on page 1?) i'd second what EFC and SS ect have said about your bill problem.

lizzie - that pie looks lush, totally not a waste of pastry! :T

CW - your 3pounds a day sounds like a reasonable total. i'll try to think of it like that... though there's two of us so maybe not quite double. maybe 5pounds? humm...

FF - Thank you!! and thank you to your friend! :T i'm going to print that out and stick it in my pretty but hardly used recipie book, oh and make it too . Your cards are lovely, as usual. i esp love the dog with sausages! my OH would love that one! have i showed you the thank you cards i made for my 30th? i can't remember... http://www.flickr.com/photos/23rdspiral/5488527824/ (eek! looking at the pic now i've remembered i still have 2 to post! doh!)

Erme

cw18 wrote: »

The weeds are about the only thing that grow quickly in mine :rotfl:

I'm growing my spuds in flower buckets again this year (bought from Mr M last year - 99p for 6). Make it sooooo much easier to harvest them, as all I have to do is up-end the buckets and then grub around in the soil

Any pics of these...so need to get these for my garden in a one bed high rise flat.....but not been well enough lately to get any gardening done...though did get some window boxes from Mr L for £4 each (self watering) last week and got my T&M pots through the other day

tumptyteapot wrote: »

http://www.geocaching.com/
free fun - as long as you have either a gps or a phone which has google maps :-)
You get clues to co-ordinates where a box of swapables will be hiding - typically small toys so it is great for 7 years olds like my son. Tiny geocaches are magnetic and just have a strip of paper so you can log your visit but bigger ones are usually sandwich boxes full of goodies - the last one we did was a dvd swap. They are all over the world and geocaching is a great way to find new places.

This sounds great fun for days I just need to get out of the flat and there's loads in Aberdeen...THANKS SO MUCH

LolaLemon wrote: »

hello... feel as though ive been away for ages.. but ive been reading and running as im trying to limit my time on MSE
My fone also died recently, have no numbers, cant check facebook etc... and i was feeling better for it, only thing i missed, well 2 things i missed was the alarm clock and torch. i had to go out and buy an alarm clock, so went to tesco (clubcard points n nearest) have u seen the price of a plain alarm that doesnt even have a radio? £10ish! i did manage to find one that was on sale for £4, its very childish looking, got it in red and it can go in my sons room when im finished with it, altho the alarm goes off abt 30 mins before the time its set for! The torch i use for getting up the stairs after i turn out the lights, and checking on son when i go to bed. really missing that.
My sister has given me a loan of her old (but still sellable) blackberry, still have a very few numbers (just family and nurseries) i can go on facebook but its a bit of a faf so i dont go on as much.
My depression is bad at the moment, but not outwardly, its more at my home... its a tip... really bad. its partly to do with being ill with the flu and having no energy to do anything during feb, then when i started getting up and about again, im trying to catch up with uni, i have no one to take my son just now as my parents are on holiday - had to get someone to do my shifts in the pub this week, thats me £90odd down and things with my sons dad and me are at an all time low... ive been repeatedly asking them to change their washing powder as my son has allergies and he ends up with rashes, itchiness, etc... well abt 2 weeks ago he stayed and came back covered in spots, he picked a few on his face... they did look more like blisters this time, and he went to their house on the friday after nursery as normal, (we had been to the Drs 3 times taht week, always told its not contagous and is ok to be at nursery and babys - his dad has a 3 month old) came home on firday night, dad all 'im sorry, we'll get it changed this week'.... nothing i hadnt heard before... he was suposed to stay on the sat as it was his brothers christening on the sunday, sat his dad says hes not staying and hes not going to the christening looking like that. told him to f**k off and go to a solicitor as im not putting up with it anymore, my son is always being cancelled on (made him tell my son, as i was not going to be the parent who says no).. and shes not much better.... so its not a very good part of our lives just now. (he did come and take him to the christening, and i only allowed him to go, as i dont want him to miss out on being with his brother, not that that matters to him n her! grrr....) ended up taking my son to the carnival to cheer him up, cost me £2 entrance fee for us, and £10 for 10 tickets... biggest rip off ever! and it was money i really didnt have, couldnt go to uni one day as i spent my train fare at the carnival! But he enjoyed himself, and that was what mattered.
Anyways, what i need is time to get stuck into my house, but no one takes my son for full days. that will change as the sun comes, but til then i need to make a start on the house.
Nearly finished uni for the year.. just have 2 essays to do and 1 exam in april and im done for the year! woohoo! long summer cant wait! picnics n fun days here we come!
was even looking at camping stuff in halfords today, went in to price bikes, its sons 4th birthday at start of april and he's mentioned a bike, and id really like one too... but at £150 for me and £60 for him, its a bit expensive, and im not too sure if i would actually use it though, as much as i would like to.

Also, to help me, i have been going to see the disability departmenta t uni, and they have sent of a request for a proper working pc, with all the help needed pre installed (dont know if its an acutall computer or a laptop, hope its the later so i can use it when on the trains as im o their 2 hours a day) im alos getting a voice recorder and something else, cant rememebr what, but its all to help my dyslexia and depression,a s when that gets really bad, i dont sleep, and then i have no concentration in lectures n stuff (found myself falling asleep in a few, and it was ones im interested in!) so im looking forward to that, should find out in next week or 2


Thanks for letting me ramble.

Hope everyone is ok, hugs where needed, and smiles all round

Sorry to hear of your bad day...yes fly lady is a possibility. Remind yourself your house is a tip because of the depression and even if all you can do is potter it's better than nothing. Try not to beat yourself up hun...it's only a house...

Also a tactic I learnt from the psychologist the other year is say 'I would like to tidy the house but I don't have to....that takes the pressure off and it's amazing how much you get done....there's no pressure then...Same with uni - I would like to get this essay done early and revise but if I don't the end is not nigh...

With regards to backing up mobile phones...when I had the basic samsung something I backed up all my txts using MobileEdit...it's a trial then a free download with limited features...but maybe worth it for folk scared of losing numbers...it works with pretty much every phone...

Torch wise...local camping shop or £shop...or ebay...same with alarm clock...or charity shop...the other year (before they knew what they were) I picked up a DAB clock radio (doesn't always have that many channels but works) for about £5..... or jumble sale....

Sorry...I blew about £100 being paranoid about windas @ the weekend and now I think the ram is useless (will have to get it and see) but even if it means I have a spare pc it'll be worth it...thought this acer was on it's last legs (and it's still not fab cos stuff like shockwave is a no go zone) so was semi happy I'd gotten it (it's a refurbished ibook g3...cos including postage about £90 off ebay. Needs possibly airport card at about £15 and more importantly it might need more ram if it can take it which is about £50 - guy @ chaplaincy will fit for free . It only has 256 ram...sorry if I'm confusing the socks off some folk. Just proves how cheap pc's can be...the only thing I'm concerned about is the ram...and it has no cdrw on it but my external should fit it)... but after defragging it now not so sure (it kept crashing for no reason...but then it had 10% fragmentation...does that explain it?).....

So yeah not very frugal and the OD is way too high so no extra monies on Loan this next dla but monies on OD...If I can just MENU PLAN ...my outgoings will go down SIGNIFICANTLY...

e

Lesley_Gaye

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Now, I know what is the right thing to do here, but I'm really stuggling as my heart is wanting to take over......

As some of you may know, I'm trying to work out ways of raising £1800 to pay next years' Uni fees - thought I'd found a way to raise part of this by helping out with the elections as I'm on hols then (what a way to spend my precious time off - but needs must).

Have signed up and hope to make around £300 which is fantastic (could they not hold these every month & I'd be sorted)!

However, my head is telling me that I should actually put this money towards my OD (which is coming down but VERY slowly). I know that you should always pay off debts first and the thought of having it go down by that much in one go is fantastic but .......

I think I might pay any extra money I could lay my hands on, and all pennies I could squeeze from the budget, to pay down the overdraft (I'm assuming it is the costliest debt) and really concentrate on that one

then when it came time to pay the Uni fees, draw out again what I needed at that time. By paying any extra money off the OD, you are effectively getting a much higher return than if you saved it into an interest paying account. You could then also pay off the OD the extra bit of what it would have cost in interest. So, if you saved £10 in interest payments in a month, that's another £10 'earned'

Have you considered doing anything like Weezl's £100 a month plan? If you did that for, say, 3 months, that would be a total of £25 for each month for food, freeing up whatever you would have spent over and above that, to be siphoned off to pay off the OD

do you have a spare room you could let out for a while, that would generate quite large amounts of cash
or a driveway that could be rented
or a car that could have advertising on it
I read somewhere recently about a chap who had had all his personal details removed from advertisers - and then resold them back to various companies that he was interested in. I'll try and find the details

Edit - I found the site here https://secure.i-allow.com/members/home but can't find anywhere that earns you any money, other than inviting friends to join which is £1 for each one that signs up

never_too_old

rising from the ashes
i am by no means an expert on financial matters( i wouldnt be paying debts off if i were)
but if everything else is up to date i would put any extra into the od,banks can take away od's, because our income dropped last year we had ours reduced than withdrawn, spent 6 months paying it off which was a nightmare, we now dont have an overdraft and its nice to be in credit even if it sometimes only pence.:D
i agree with above post, if you do have a spare room have you thought of overseas students this is only short term so less intrusive,

Erme

So a wee update on me....(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((for those who need them))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))


Had a really bad few days over the weekend......was really down and sleeping a lot and now have a few aches and pains from either a virus (has some strange sort of nausea on monday....thought it was anxiety as it kept coming and going) but feeling better today and going to try and pop out to Mr A on the bike and pets rip off - to get claw clippers for the boys - small animal will be ok right? -

Also got fleeced by purchasing too many knives off quidco and now trying to get a refund (the deal looks good.....£12 for 5 professional knives but they take ages to come...you just have to beware of everything else they try to sell you :eek:) which is easier said than done...

(google gears and shockwave just crashed on gmail what is wrong with my pc?)

So yeah if I can't get menu planning (this is crucial to mental health) done in the next few weeks my Penumbra worker is going to do it with me...fortunately I have eggs and flour and a little milk (you just can't beat a late night vanilla milkshake with the whiskey aerolatte type thing ) so I can make pancakes in a mo.....but I know eating out when not eating is not frugal and not good for me cos it's just usually carby junk from the bakers.......If worse comes to worse I'm going to see if the council still do community meals or if not go private (what's the point in paying £3 for supermarket junk of a micro meal when you could pay £3.50 or£4 for a decent nutritionally balanced meal from WFF? I kid ye not these meals kept me out of hospital the other year...they are worth every penny when sick though not very frugal)

So yeah.....I feel really bad about the OD being near the £400 mark but I know if I get well it'll fit into place and 2-3 weeks of skinny budget and it'll be way down (by about £200)

I'm also trying to get back to routine which helps and potter round the house..

Yes I do craft and I have 3-4 hats to sell on folksy/ebay and a heap of cheap leather handbags but they'll have to wait till after my Inverness trip...

Blessings

E
PS. Seeing Dr. C on April fool's day dv....praise God for prank apps on android tee hee.......poor man..he'd expect nothing less ...Nurses on ward idea

cw18

Erme wrote: »

Any pics of these...so need to get these for my garden in a one bed high rise flat.....but not been well enough lately to get any gardening done...though did get some window boxes from Mr L for £4 each (self watering) last week and got my T&M pots through the other day

They're literally black, lightweight, and handle-less buckets. The cut flowers for selling in store arrive in them, and they're non-returnable so we have to get rid of them one way or another. So the store packages them up and sells them at 99p for 8 before resorting to throwing them into the skip. We actually get two different sizes, and I 've started to try and make sure I always get the larger ones as they also seem a bit stronger.

I then drill holes through the bottom (one in the centre, about 8 towards the edge of the bottom, and another 6 between the middle and the 8 - but I have to be careful doing this (on a very slow speed) as the plastic is thin, and just drilling can cause them to split.....

[Deleted User]

inspirespirit wrote: »

Cheryl. JackieO. How exciting getting a new car. What did you get?

Vauxhall Zafira. I did the school run this morning and told my little grandsons that I was going to get a new car and the smallest one Mikey said 'Oh good Granny I will feel very grown-up riding in your new car in September'.He goes into the juniors then, and will take it in turn to sit in the front seat as his elder brother is off to secondary school, so I will be down to only two small boys instead of three.Only four more years then I will be redundant in the mornings :)
No shopping for me today I have found a couple of lamb chops in the freezer which I will have for dinner tonight and I seem to have a bit of a glut of spuds so I have dug out some leeks from the freezer and I'm going to make a big pot of leek & tattie soup which should last me for a few days lunches with some crusty rolls also found in the freezer.

23rdspiral

Erme wrote: »

Also a tactic I learnt from the psychologist the other year is say 'I would like to tidy the house but I don't have to....that takes the pressure off and it's amazing how much you get done....there's no pressure then...Same with uni - I would like to get this essay done early and revise but if I don't the end is not nigh...

hey erme, thanks for this. very timely bit of advice.

rubytuesday

23rdspiral wrote: »

hey erme, thanks for this. very timely bit of advice.

Yes indeed Erme - thanks for that!
I planned to get a lot done today but was in a lot of pain last night and had a terrible night, so all I have done is read and come on here for a bit! I may even go back to bed in a minute and the house is a tip!

Hoping I can cobble something together for dinner, if not I'll pop out for carrots and potatoes and do a lentil and veg soup.

tumptyteapot

69p spent today, on flowers :-) reduced from £1.99