Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

jammydodgersandrhl

Hi everyone,

I have been sifting my way through all of these pages and I am totally inspired by all of your ideas. I have had a look at my budget and jiggled it to be less costly and am hopign that i am going to stick with it...just need to stop the OH from spending so much and i will be onto a winner. I have 3 adults and 1 child to feed so am looking forward to the challenges ahead. I have some debt to pay off and have been putting them off for a few years and been paying the bank the priviledge of keeping it going so not paying the interest would save me £252 a year!!

I look forward to sharing any new tips with you all as I work my way through the year. It is amazing how well all of you are doing - it puts me to shame.

Speak soon

seriouslyfrugal

Hi

Lesley : thanks for the recipes - they sound lovely


I personally use the thanks button for things that have been useful to me / made me smile and sometimes as a marker.


went out yesterday for dinner but used tesco vouchers :j very frugal


Budget on wednesday - guess its wait and see :eek:


I hope everyone has a frugal week this week

inspirespirit

Just been perusing other threads and have noticed people seem to be doing really well on this double the difference scheme run by Tescos. However, I can't get to grips with how they are doing it. Anyone know a really simple way of explaining it please?

cw18

jammydodgersandrhl wrote: »

Hi everyone,

......

I look forward to sharing any new tips with you all as I work my way through the year. It is amazing how well all of you are doing - it puts me to shame.

Speak soon

Welcome aboard :T

chika

Erme love are you starting to get unwell again. Please don't be offended by that but you have said in the past that your illness can manifest itself online before you start to get aware of it. Please try and contact your Dr and look after yourself. The only conspiracy on here is to work together and try and avoid spending too much money! Take care!

In other frugal news, went to the supermarket yesterday to do a big shop and almost fainted at some of the price rises. My fav squash has gone up from £1.25 to £1.55 and the prices of meat and cheese is scandalous. I find it hard and I only support myself. Hats off to those with families. I am in awe!

Just a quick ebay question. I know this weekend is free listing but do you find it makes a big difference to your final prices. My mate insists that on free listing weekends it is swamped and as a result the prices are much lower. Have any of you found any truth in this?

enjoyfinancialchallenges

:money:Erme there is no conspiracy we are all going about our own business and trying to make our money go round. Just because you don't agree with a poster doesn't mean its about you, its just the other persons opinion.
I agree with the previous poster I think its now you need to seek professional help, then you will be able to understand what I'm trying to say and realize that others have opinions they want to share and none of us can go around being scared to speak in case we offend somebody else. As sure as eggs are eggs somebody may think Oh! was that about me but then realize its a general comment as all are here unless actually directed to one person. Please look after yourself and go get the help you need. XX

Re the thanks button, I use it for useful information, for thanking others who have shared, for saying thanks if I've had a good laugh, for supporting others and just when I find the topic a bit touchy or something I might have said but somebody else has beaten me to it. Also occasionally as a marker, to save me trawling through posts. I don't give thanks when its a conversation between others or a bit controversial unless I have strong views about it. Generally I'm easy going and take the view we all have our own opinions which we and are entitled to express and just proves what an exciting mixture of people we have on this thread. Love you all whether I agree with you or not cause together we are all a great force. Whoohoo! up the frugalites.

On the frugal side I made some soup last night from a recipe kindly posted on this thread using vegs, lentils and cauliflowers. Well my recipe is a variation of the original because I use the bits left from when the supermarket tidies up the cauliflowers and sells the big bag of bits as animal food for 20p!. Am I taking being frugal too far? Anyway with the addition of paprika its delicious and I made enough for 9 portions. Tastes lovely.

slowlyfading

Currently got some HM bread in the oven - I'm hoping it turns out okay as it smells gorgeous!

glendam

I realise this post is not going to go down well but I think the time has come for someone to say that we must realise that Erme is a very troubled person who with all the will in the world can not be supported by us on an open forum. Most of us are ordinary people who for whatever reason need to reign in the spending. We do not have the training to handle the problem and we are ending up feeling as if we have failed her.

I know there is not enough help for people who suffer like Erme does and my sympathy goes out to anyone in the same situation.

Without face to face dialogue whatever is written can be read over so many times with emphasis on different words that it will alter the meaning of the message. We can all do this depending on our mood at the time. Not saying that I have an answer to the problem, part of her problem does seem to manifest itself in spending and maybe we can help there.


Erme if you have read this I hope you can get the help you so desperately need.

Glenda

redglass_2

inspirespirit wrote: »

What is AF Redglass?d

Sorry, don't think i replied to this. It's Approved Foods, a site where you can buy food that is near to or past its 'best before' date - all fit for human consumption, though. And if you're not completely happy about that, there's also household stuff like soap, loo roll, etc. It just depends what's going, no two weeks are alike, and some of it isn't that cheap (do a check elsewhere if in doubt) but from time to time there are brilliant bargains. You pay a fixed amount for delivery (priced in bands, that is) so it makes sense to fill up your box to the weight limit, always provided you're buying stuff that's a bargain and that you would use anyway. They will send you weekly emails of what's new in store if you want.

BTW I've given up disguising names by writing Appr0ved Foods or whatever, because I suspect that if we can work out ways to disguise them, anyone who does trawls for a living can quickly get up to speed on that and search for all the variants. So now I mostly use just abbreviations for speed, like AF...

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

:money:Erme there is no conspiracy we are all going about our own business and trying to make our money go round. Just because you don't agree with a poster doesn't mean its about you, its just the other persons opinion.
I agree with the previous poster I think its now you need to seek professional help, then you will be able to understand what I'm trying to say and realize that others have opinions they want to share and none of us can go around being scared to speak in case we offend somebody else. As sure as eggs are eggs somebody may think Oh! was that about me but then realize its a general comment as all are here unless actually directed to one person. Please look after yourself and go get the help you need. XX

I agree, Erme, and even though I recently addressed you personally, it was my own message and there was no conspiracy about it. It must be very distressing to think everyone is ganging up on you but we're just a bunch of people trying to save money, and we sometimes disagree with one another and sometimes agree. That's not the same as a conspiracy. Please do seek help. x

redglass_2

glendam wrote: »

I realise this post is not going to go down well but I think the time has come for someone to say that we must realise that Erme is a very troubled person who with all the will in the world can not be supported by us on an open forum. Most of us are ordinary people who for whatever reason need to reign in the spending. We do not have the training to handle the problem and we are ending up feeling as if we have failed her.

I know there is not enough help for people who suffer like Erme does and my sympathy goes out to anyone in the same situation.

Without face to face dialogue whatever is written can be read over so many times with emphasis on different words that it will alter the meaning of the message. We can all do this depending on our mood at the time. Not saying that I have an answer to the problem, part of her problem does seem to manifest itself in spending and maybe we can help there.

I know there is a rule about giving advise on medical matters on the forums and maybe the rest of the illness should be thought of in that way.

Erme if you have read this I hope you can get the help you so desperately need. Glenda

Glenda, I've just read your post above and I'm not sure how to respond except to say you've been brave to raise the question. I imagine most people will be in the same situation and that there won't be any easy agreement. What is the rule about giving advice on medical matters? Everyone has said 'seek your doctor's help' so I can't imagine that would be thought irresponsible or dangerous...?