Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

mommyof4

Ignore request for link to sealed pot challenge, found it!Thanks guys

Kiwisaver_2

I had a far busier day than I had originally planned.:rotfl:

Washed one doormat and gave it a haircut to get rid of all the bally scraggy bits that the cats kindly created. Dried off quickly in the sun and now it looks pretty good for something that was destined for the bin.

Made a lemon cheesecake to use up a lemon and cream cheese that I bought for Christmas. Made fajitas and salsa to use up some near to wrinkling peppers, onions and tomatoes bought pre-Christmas. Cooked a joint of corned beef in the slow cooker for tomorrow's sandwiches and dinner.

Got another haul of frugal books from the library including this little gem:

'How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with an Ill-fitting Lid) and no Fancy Gadgets – Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher...'

Tidied up my veggies and potted on some herbs, picked one lonely courgette and sowed some more peas, coriander and lettuce seeds.

Followed by a pile of ironing before dinner.

Now for bath and bedtime reading!!

apple_mint

Kiwisaver wrote: »

I had a far busier day than I had originally planned.:rotfl:

Washed one doormat and gave it a haircut to get rid of all the bally scraggy bits that the cats kindly created. Dried off quickly in the sun and now it looks pretty good for something that was destined for the bin.

Made a lemon cheesecake to use up a lemon and cream cheese that I bought for Christmas. Made fajitas and salsa to use up some near to wrinkling peppers, onions and tomatoes bought pre-Christmas. Cooked a joint of corned beef in the slow cooker for tomorrow's sandwiches and dinner.

Got another haul of frugal books from the library including this little gem:

'How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with an Ill-fitting Lid) and no Fancy Gadgets – Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher...'

Tidied up my veggies and potted on some herbs, picked one lonely courgette and sowed some more peas, coriander and lettuce seeds.

Followed by a pile of ironing before dinner.

Now for bath and bedtime reading!!

And you've done all that while most of the rest of us have been asleep :eek:

I feel tired just reading about all the things you've done and my day hasn't started yet :rotfl:

HelenPie

Does anyone know another link to the cookingbynumbers website, or something similar? The one in the intro post/in the OS board doesn't seem to work and searching for it doesn't seem to turn up anything....

Thanks,

H x

grandma247

Erme I found a pictorial how to here for french seams and some others.

minnie2

right so ive had a bit more spend!

39p for washing up liquid from co-op (which i regretted until i saw tescos cheapest was 61p)
20p for baby wipes at tescos

and then shamefully £4 two cokes at the pub and £6 on food!!! it wasnt going to happen but I lost someone i care about yesterday so needed to get out and see my best friend who lives miles away after work!! so i am feeling less guilty about it today.


if any of you use soda crystals like me for cleaning and laundry they are 85p in co-op for 1kg, I have been paying 92p in tescos


oh missed off - 71p for coke i fell off that wagon too!!
also co-op has current buns 6 for 50p I dont actually eat tehm but thought theyd be good for packed lunches.

mooomin

SandraScarlett wrote: »

Noticed a few negative comments drifting in, like people saying they've spent £27.64 on food, even though they could feed the 5,000 with their frugal cooking! We all have to spend some money sometime! I'm a great believer in saving as much as you can, so you can have a blowout now and then.

I always figure that we all work to different budgets here and support each other where we can. I'm conscious of the fact that my budget for myself and Mr Fresian's mobile bills would probably feed a determined Frunchkin for a year, but I choose to cut back in other places to cover it.

Your upmarket wee made me laugh a lot

I've just received an iPod in the post from Mama Fresian (Gawd bless her!) as she doesn't use hers often, so I won't have to buy one right away *phew*

I'm about to get dressed then brave the snow to go to the local shopping centre and return my sales purchases and pick up something from the Post Office. I'm going to have a quick run to Morrisons as well to see what their deals are, but all we really need is bread so if the deals aren't there that's all I'm buying!!

Have a good day all. Stay warm!

mooomin

Forgot to add, my spend yesterday was an additional £3.50 for icecream at the cinema

A quick frugal laugh though...

Mr Fresian and his sister (who lives with us) are huge fans of heating and leaving it on all the time. It drives me nuts. I wear big jumpers and get into bed with the laptop if it's really cold.

Last night before I went to the pictures I sneakily turned the heating off as the control switch is in the living room and they were in their respective rooms. When I came back it was still off A small saving but a good one nonetheless :money: They didn't notice a thing :rotfl:

cw18

HelenPie wrote: »

Does anyone know another link to the cookingbynumbers website, or something similar? The one in the intro post/in the OS board doesn't seem to work and searching for it doesn't seem to turn up anything....

Thanks,

H x

I copied the links over from last years challenge, but didn't have time/energy to test them all.

Just been to look at that one (in case I messed up somewhere), but like you can't find anything. G00gle just turns up other sites with links to it - and none of their links to it work either so it looks like the site has disappeared or been totally renamed

As such I've removed it from the index in the first post, but if an alternative gets suggested I'll add that in

cw18

minnie2 wrote: »

and then shamefully £4 two cokes at the pub and £6 on food!!! it wasnt going to happen but I lost someone i care about yesterday so needed to get out and see my best friend who lives miles away after work!! so i am feeling less guilty about it today.

Absolutely no need to feel guilty about the spend - it's at times like that we all need to relax the purse strings a little to help us through it.

Take care of yourself, and remember we're all here for you despite the spends