Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

Kerfuffle

chika wrote: »

Re the phones for Lynzpower and Kerfuffle. My phone was once on O2 and took the Tesco sim card without issue. Just called my mate to check and his O2 iphone didn't need unlocking either, however his sister's one did... Are they all different?

http://forum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=328581 this link has some more info, seems that it only costs £15 to get in unlocked anycase. HTH

Thanks for this chika, every little helps

2wildthing2 wrote: »

*snip...., this budgeting lark is proving more difficult than I thought.

2wildthing2, this budgeting lark is a real eye-opener!

slowlyfading wrote: »

I noticed today that the petrol station that I drive past on the way to work has put the price of unleaded up to 128.9p! :eek: :eek: :eek: I'm so glad I filled up yesterday, as that's insane! Really am going to have to watch how much petrol is costing us on an monthly basis, as I suspect it's going to push the expenses up quickly.

Hi slowlyfading, just out of interest how much was the unleaded yesterday?

Well done on the insurance renewal :T

Toodles

summertea

Greetings All from a happy and slightly late lurker

I had the budget in place and have been sticking to it but got lost on the preparation thread :rotfl:

Here is The Budget :dance:

Rent 4020
Bills & Council Tax 1260
Household Expenses 40
Food 1300
Charity Donations 120
Clothing & Footwear 120
Dvd's & Books 200
Gifts 200
Gym 540
Haircuts 60
Holidays/Trips 200
Insurance 30
Miscellaneous 250
Mobile 240
Socialising/Entertainment 240
Toiletries 30
Travel 150
Totals 9000

I have learnt my lesson from last year, if i am too restrictive i break budget and "blow out" if i can have more i want to spend less. Mildly disturbing that i am manipulating my own mind this early in the year but looking forward to the fun of frugaldom:D

That said got some Special K from Mr T today on offer at £1.45 so cheap breakfasts for me for the next 2 weeks.

elly68

well i was very frugal at shops with kids no mcd's and they didn't mind .i bought myself a purse from a charity shop for a whole £2.40 lost mine christmas shopping so good buy for me plan for the rest of the week as nsd lets see hoping to bank my £23 lol

Blairweech

Hi everyone,

Managed a NSD today. Also remembered that I get an extra bursary in feb, which will give me a bit more breathing room - my figures were just not adding up when I took my digs into account. Phew! Still going to try and live on 4k though, and use the bursary money for hopefully a road trip to Italy with OH in the summer, I say hopefully as it depends how flush I am feeling at the time!

Finally managed to push my @rcherfish account above £12 as well, so asked for a Paypal payout from them.

Was v.pleased yesterday. Looked on Amazon for what I wanted for OHs birthday - £40 :mad:, then looked at my weekly email from Lidl and they had exactly the same thing for £19.99. So, toddled along there and purchased it! How very timely

The cost of fuel makes me soooooo cross. Would not mind the government taxing people off the road if there was an alternative. There isn't though - public transport is diabolical (and usually more expensive) and most people need their cars because all the actual shops are out of town now amd people have to travel for work! Must admit I am not looking forward to 2011 finance wise - I think it is going to get a lot worse for so many people I am more worried about my money than ever. Thank heavens for MSE - I know this is going to sound silly, but I do hope that Martin gets an accolade for public services at some point in his lifetime, he has truly helped (and continues to help) many many people

mooomin

Ooh couriers drive me mad. Today I had a card through the door with "Parcel in brown bin" on it. This is the garden waste bin and rarely full, but our green bin got nicked and we're waiting on a replacement so they have put the parcel in on top of our normal rubbish :eek:

This is the same company that I have asked to stop leaving parcels in my bins in case they get nicked - last time it was a new Xbox :eek::eek::eek::eek: Another courier left a printer (in the printer box, not even a brown box) "in the greenhouse" which confused the bejeesuz out of me as I don't have a greenhouse.....got it thankfully though. *sheesh*

Frugal things today

Only spent £1.80 in the pub

Bought microwavable tub of a suitable size for soup so I'll make my own soup and take it to work.

Made slow-cooked chilli. Must have only used a small amount of mince though as there wasn't as much there compared to when I normally make it. I didn't have any peppers to bulk it out though...there was enough for dinner tonight (for two), a portion for two to freeze, my lunch tomorrow and some for Mr Fresian's dinner tomorrow too.

Portioned up remaining Costco mince into six parcels for the freezer. This means I'm getting larger portions than I could have made, but will use them for batch cooking only so extra value in theory.

Returned trousers to Sainsbury's as I didn't need them really. These were bought in December so are an extra £10 into my purse. £6 of this went into one of my Sealed Pots though as I don't spend £2 coins and got three of them in my change.

Nothing happened today that I would consider particularly spendy which is always good to hear!

enjoyfinancialchallenges

I'm quite envious at some of you at all the NSD you seem to be having. I had another appointment to take my cat to the vets today and so far my bill is over £120, I didnt pay because the vet said if she is OK dont take her back anymore but if I think I need to just make another appoinment for her . Poppy is due for her jab anyway and Iv'e been advised to get it done about a week after she seems OK. So by then my bill is going to be huge :eek:.but at least it will be put on next months C/C bill.

I went and bought a T**** Mobile PAYG sim card for 99p, my neighbour told me the one she has is buy £10 worth of calls and T**** make it up to £30, which sounded like a v good deal but I think it means I shall have to spend £10 a month on it and I usually make £20 last me 3-4 months. I need to read all the small print first before I do anything. One thing I did wonder is if I only paid BT for my line instead of 'free calls anytime' and then only use my mobile would it work out cheaper I shall have to give time to consider that also. I think it depends on how long my contract has to go with BT. I need Bt though because they are my service providers for my laptop.....the one without the curser that has a mind of its own now, ha ha. Anyway today was a LSD apart from what the vet has added to my bill that I have yet to find out.

I posted back a jacket I had bought from C*****T****** before Christmas I did love it but didn't need it really, just wanted it to be honest. Anyway thats £30 that will returned to my account and that will help buy my fruit and vegs for a couple of weeks or so.

Thanks ERME for reminding me to look at your earlier post about making yoghurt I will try and find it tomorrow.

This thread is still galloping ahead I was out for about 3 hours today and when I looked again it had moved 3 pages.

I can't believe fish finger is 9 months already it seems like only yesterday she was born. Re; not giving her cows milk yet, the reason is as suggested by others the low iron content. Baby milk is fortified and being as her iron store will be going down now she still needs baby milk to help keep it up until she is 12 months old and she is eating more solid food.

Georgiegirl2012

I'm with the others who have said "wow, how fast does this move" so I'll just say that today (well yesterday) was my first NSD of the year.

I was also fairly frugal - had weetabix out of the cupboard for my breakfast, christmas cake for my lunch, and made a curry with chicken breasts which I took out of the freezer last night and a curry sauce out of the cupboad.

Tomorrow, I will eat more weetabix, cook the turkey crown that I bought a couple of weeks ago, and make a quiche.

I even managed to clean the kitchen. And do a bit of crafting. But still no ebay listings.

Will spend part of tomorrow updating my budget and do my signature

liloandstitch

youngmummy wrote: »

im also trying to get DP to cancel the movie package on sky as its just a waste of money and just have the basic. we cant pick up normal tele or freeview where we live !!! x

Hi youngmummy - I dont know if you know, but you can cancel sky altogether, and still receive a signal through your sky box. Basically you own the equiptment, and can still receive what sky have to transmit for free (You can buy this package as Freesat, or a sky specific version) Therefore you still receive MOST of the freeview channels, but through your sky box iyswim. A few of the channels you cant get, but not many. Certainly all the BBC/ITVs etc, CITV CBEEBIES etc.

We cancelled our sky subs about 3 years ago, and still use our equipment to receive our TV, as we cant get freeview either. There is a possibility that sky can ask you to buy a new card (£20) if they upgrade them for some reason - but we didnt and apart from reseting a message that came on the screen sometimes, we never bought it and nothing happened. The message hasnt come up in over a year.

Hope this helps, we were paying appx £600+ per year, so in the 3 years have saved £2000 updating to todays current price!!!!!!!!

I cant say weve missed it.

HTH lilo

youngmummy

itsallinthemind wrote: »

In case you missed, Boots own carry packs 2 for £7
http://www.boots.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?storeId=10052&st=specificPromo&promoName=2+for+%26%23163%3B7+on+selected+Boots+Super+Dry+carry+packs&langId=-1&catalogId=11051
Buy 6 = £21
There is a parenting code for £5 off
Delivery to store free
Cheaped I've seen in ages

If you did not miss, oops!

thanks hun will go there tommorrow and have a look x

youngmummy

youngmummy wrote: »

hi i would love to join my budget is :
electricity £780
gas £200
water £468
tv licence £150
loan £520
bacci £470
garage rent £288.60
food and household £2800 including pet food and toiletries/nappies
xmas and birthdays ect £1800
mobiles £600
sky £560
petrol £2080
bike insurace,mot and tax £400
Total= £11,116.60p (for 2011) :eek:

this is for 2 adults 1 toddler in nappies 1 cat 1 dog 1 rabbit

hi all this was my perivious budget but have just worked out sky if we just had our internet and line rental through them and this is how much it would be instead
sky will be £26 pmth = £312 p/yr = £10 internet and £11 line rental and £5 unlimited calls
total saving of £248 per year going to have a serious talk with DP and try and convince him will let you know how i get on x