Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

Kerfuffle

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

dizzy L

when ex-live out lover was around I usually made him heart shaped biscuits and decorated them. He didnt say much being the strong silent sort that he was but usually smiled and seemed to enjoy them, I only used a every day type recipe so not expensive.......I hope he misses them this year.:mad:

This is the kind of opening line that after a long day I have trouble getting my head around :rotfl:. I really hope he misses the biscuits too EFC, he didn't deserve you. Your posts always make me smile.

Toodles

enjoyfinancialchallenges

itsallinthemind wrote: »

It's still not been conceived, Mr Freecycle and Mr Argos are not playing ball, I'll get lucky with one, but who is anyones guess. At this rate it may even be Mr Currys.

Annoying as I have already named it *sigh*

Try freecycle first. I often see them on offer in my area although I didnt get mine from there because I wanted a small chest....well a bit bigger than the one I have got would be nice. :rotfl:

redglass_2

I've come home late and had to skip over posts in order to write this -will catch up tomorrow. Cheryl, I've been grappling with the spread sheet and it's now totally clear...that I don't understand it! I've changed the categories on the TOTALS pages to reflect my own spending and have allotted a budget to each, but:
a) is there any way to get the Jan, Feb, sheets to match the altered categories, or do I have to type them all in by hand? At present they have some of my new categories on, but not others (???)
b) why isn't it updating on the totals page after i fill in my spends, say, for 'anything else' or 'Jan groc'? What am I failing to do?

Erme

SandraScarlett wrote: »

You are all doing sooooooooooo well! A special and huge congratulations to those of you who are sticking to a budget/making soup/ditching prepared meals for the first time.

If anyone has fallen by the wayside, bigtime or slightly, don't beat yourselves up about it. The very fact you are trying to succeed is wonderful. It's no good other people tut-tutting if you've got debts to tackle, because of how you lived in the past. It's what you do now that counts.

I went to the market today, to get the dog's treats - much cheaper than buying packets of these - and bought fruit and veg, as I had my Granny Trolley with me. Again, much cheaper than the supermarket. I was struck by how empty a lot of the stores were, apart from M & S, where there was a mile long queue at Customer Services, with people returning stuff!

I bought 3 of the Sainsbury annuals online, reduced to £1 each, including postage, which'll do nicely for gifts for the grandchildren at Easter, and they have already arrived. As they were £7.99 each originally, I reckon that's a Very Good Deal!!!

xx

Thanks for this because I am older and wiser than last year on the budget....I should be in bed (does sleep count as frugal living? It should do cos it's so important for me ) but fell asleep listening to a podcast last night on the sofa LOL and now am half awake; wanting an espresso and a shower/knit...tee hee. Sleep pattern is majorly kerfunked at the moment..

Anyhow I've named my new vacuum (I'm trying to pay off in 3 weeks plus the espresso machine and the whoopsie one from ebay I'm hoping they don't send so I can get a refund I think? via Ebay buyer protection. The girl was horrid - not just one bad email but 2 so I reported her and didn't reply to the last one - made sense. I can be horrid too) - he's Boris the Bosch cos any white goods over £100 (or even free white good worth more than £100 - my last machine was free and worth £300) get named here..so I now have 'Marg the Magimix' and 'Boris the Bosch' LOL.

So obviously first thing keeping me awake is check online banking on debts with all these extra payments I've been making lately - finally woken up to the fact the OD is not to be dipped into willy nilly when you go over weekly budget so yeah OD should (if I'd not made the extra payments) be well over -300 and it's now -109 - Know I can shift 90 of that before next big giro day - tis just the other 20-30 but looking at regular accounts (that I have with another bank with no OD facilities) I think I might have a spare £10 from this week - but part of that really needs to go on insurance and paying for calendars from new year (must have spent £60 in dribs and drabs on cards and calendars this year - never mind postage - if not more if you count the big ones @ £5 each that got sent to the states including governor sarah palin. Sending them surface someone doesn't make them frugal methinks :eek:x 100. The cards worked out about 50p ea - homemade and the calendars average about 60p plus 51p postage; though I still have a little card stock left - it was £!2 for 100 cards off ebay inc postage)

So yeah - guys don't worry about the thread - loads quit at some point or lurk so it does quieten down...I think I joined in February last year and it was still a little manic but by about May/June it had slowed right down...

talking of 2012 (is this something I should get paranoid about fishcake?) I'm restarting my sewing class on a tuesday am on the 25th - can't wait ...I don't really need much help but I doneed to know which stitch leaves a neat finish (I think it's overcasting) and how to finish my seams. I refuse to buy patterns. I already have books with loads in .... and at one time (like a few months ago) you could get a really good pattern for a shopping tote from Hobbycraft for free (anyone know if they still have it?) which I can make out of coffee sacks that I sat on when I used to busk (when I had the DMP)..

So yeah tis me...erme...le whatever..

Didn't get anything put on ebay last night as planned ...took me till 7pm to realise I'd worn self out spring cleaning on Monday then exercising (cycling to Mr A for the first time in months) on tues tee hee....explained a lot of the misimprovement of time yesterday

Hope this post isn't too long guys...

E

itsallinthemind

Kerfuffle wrote: »

What name have you chosen already?
I think I'll call mine 'in-t'-freezer' It's an old fashioned Yorkshire name!

PM'd you but your box is full.

I name everything worth a lot of dosh Freddie. Naturally. What else would he be called?

Yes, So far the ones on freecycle have slight rust on the outside from being outside in a garage or are too big. As Freddie can only live in the playroom or the boudoir, he is coming in with me as my youngest will constantly be in it otherwise, so I am being slightly fussy as the boudoir of course my santuary. Not worried about the hum of it. I can sleep through anything.

Inbox has room now

School starts today, up early to make packed lunch and get everything ready as I could not be bothered last night, have a feeling I may regret that later when my eyes fall out.

apple_mint

Hello everyone. Thank you for the interesting information and the recipes. The parsnip soup one has been copied out and will be added to the file

It will be a spend day today as I'm going shopping. I'm limiting my spend as payday is mid-month. I have two shopping lists - one for this week which is all those things we have run out of and NEED and a second for next week when I get paid and will be re-stocking.

I went onto mysupermarket last night and typed in 'value' to peruse through the value items available at Tescos. I have some of these on my lists to try out. The kitchen pan scourers are on the list at 12p for 5.

We have one or two things to do in town, so I'll be taking a note pad with me to note our spends so that I can keep track of them.

lowspend2011

NSD for me today.

HowlinWolf

xnatalie81x wrote: »

Thanks nannyboo !!! Gonna try those biscuits with a finger poke in the middle and some jam in them, and also some cooled with a blob of coloured icing. Will take photos for you all xxxxxxx lol. May need to increase amounts though as my 3 kids LOVE home made biscuits and cakes, and i would like a few left for their packed lunchboxes when they go back to school on Wednesday

I have been investigating recipes for home made pasta. I found a pasta machine lurking in one of my mums stuffed cupboards yesterday (whilst cleaning) BUT i have really sensitive taste buds to egg and don't like fresh pasts because it tastes so EGGY. I also reduce eggs in cake recipes and put milk in instead because again - just taste too EGGY lol. However, and eggless pasta can be made with semolina flour and water. This shall be being road tested in my breadmaker within the next 2-3 weeks (when i get time)

Back to work next Sat so i have lots to do! Plenty of admin to keep me busy PLUS baby has creche trial on Tue and i am back to my classes Wed and Thu and therefore this 6 weeks of no routine shall be coming to a long awaited end PHEW My days will again be filled with school runs - gym - afternoon school run - swim school work - more school run - dinners/baths/housework and here Weekends will be filled with working

I need to get my hands on some sort of weekly calendar for plotting activities as i love routine and want to get some time aside for garden 3-4 times a week (around 45mins a time) for sowing/growing..... anyone know where to look?? I have a diary but i want something i can put on the wall so we can all see what we should be doing at certain times during the day

Catch up with you all soon. I am off to root out my foraging book today and start having a look into that........ nettle pesto and home made pasta springs to mind

Try Paul Merrit's USing the Plot, written by the chef he and his wife tried a year of living off their own allotment and he constructed a detailed plan of what they needed to do and when. Should be available from the library.

cw18

redglass wrote: »

I've changed the categories on the TOTALS pages to reflect my own spending and have allotted a budget to each, but:
a) is there any way to get the Jan, Feb, sheets to match the altered categories, or do I have to type them all in by hand? At present they have some of my new categories on, but not others (???)
b) why isn't it updating on the totals page after i fill in my spends, say, for 'anything else' or 'Jan groc'? What am I failing to do?

It should be doing all that for you automatically! Which version did you download?

The only thing it can't change automatically is the names of the sheets - so if you were to decide to use the T+C pages for something different, you'll still have pages called Jan T+C, Feb T+C etc.

About to send you a PM

lynzpower

Morning all, morning Cheryl:

Cherly just wondering also about thr spreadsheet, its seem to be read-only - so when I put a new spend in - it goes you cannot save this you need to do a "save as" so I save it as a new version. Im ok to kep doing this but I sense this will lead to problems as time ticks on.

Any ideas?

Anyway likely to be a spend day, no veg in the house and the market is on today, so I will pop out later and get some bits. Not likely to spend much though, tonight its chicken from M&S (last years obv!) HM wraps, lettuce, peppers mushrooms onions in a spicy sauce made out of chopped t's, I have some made up already in the freezer.

Ill get a bag of potatoes then I can make a leek and pot soup with the very sad looking leek in the fridge and potatoes for dinner with mince from the freezer into HM burgers and HM oven chips for tomorrow.

Lunch for me will be leftover pie from last night.

Will be a spend but no more than 10 I should think.

Heating will go off as soon as OH has finished in the bathroom, I cant bear it being on!

Bit worrying as we have to have the lights on more because of dogs sight now, hopefully it wont impact too much on the bills.

Anyway other than that ( which is my lunchtime break bit of shopping) I am going to be revising revising revising.

For a small break I will fill out my tax form

Hope everyone has a frugal day

L xx