Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

minnie2

cw18 wrote: »

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

thanx - well it was very unexpected got told at work. my best friend lives a way from me so we arranged to meet for just!! a drink so i could talk about it. But when i got there she said her dinner wasnt done as her mum was unwell so she was going to eat at pub! i bought us a coke each - was very good and said no ill eat when i get home but she insisted that she bought me dinner - i felt guilty - so i bought her a dessert. i had a wonderful evening though - feel refreshed a bit. but still feeling guilty!! id to text hubby and say fend for yourself too.

cw18

minnie2 wrote: »

id to text hubby and say fend for yourself too.

Pah! Does them good to be made to fend for themselves once in a while

HelenPie

cw18 wrote: »

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

Thanks for trying for me

landregistrylass

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.

Today I met a friend in London and we went to the new shopping centre, One New Change, by St Pauls. We'd both used our Freedom Passes, so it cost nothing to get there. Then we bought Boots Meal Deals with points, and once the rain had stopped, spread our Boots bags on a seat outside and ate our lunch.

We visited loads of shops, not that we could afford a thing, but it costs nothing to mooch. Then we took the lift to the 6th floor, where there is a viewing deck, and you're on a level with St Pauls, and the view is fabulous.

Then we treated ourselves to a coffee and a cake-to-die-for. The bill came to £9 each :eek: but as that was all we'd spent, and it was our New Year meet up, it didn't matter too much. We then got a bus to The Strand, and went in the newly refurbished Savoy (£220 million to do it up!!!!) where we had a very upmarket wee. :T

There's a little shop there selling hand made choccies, but if you hover long enough, they give you a sample - or 2. We walked to Trafalgar Square and watched the world go by. Then we got a bus back to Liverpool Street, picked up our free Evening Standards, were given free samples of Chanel No 5, and parted company, having had a great day.

So our coffee and cakes were our only expense, and a lovely day out for under a tenner. :T I don't feel the least bit guilty!

Have a nice weekend everyone.

xx

i l love this philosophy. we are all here doing our best, most times for other people more than ourselves, and we need to think of "us" too. Thanks SS

itsallinthemind

flying_fresian wrote: »

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.

Spot on, mine is £25 per week for groceries and I refuse to go over it! EVERY treat is a step further from getting my sunshine's safespace I can not get it lower as children need a good diet and I will not cut their fruit down, mine yes, theirs no

Done my shopping for the week now, loads in the store cupboards and freezer, could have gone lower but there were some bits I fancied stocking up on that I normally pay full price for

£20.41 spent, will last till next Sat hopefully! So £4.59 in kitty if I NEED it

Got 4 x bread, 12 yoghurts, 4 x I can't believe it's not butter (64p each), 2 x pesto (£2 for 2), 4 x Batchelors condensed mushroom soup(36p!!! I love these, make super quick pasta sauce or base to a pie filling for days where you have nutty children doing your head in!)6 cumberland sausages (60p!) plus two MASSIVE carriers of whoopsied fruit, salad and veg. Would have been aprox £55 worth full price I could hardly walk:T

Then I popped into the charity shop, as they said they would put any glass lemon juicers/flan dishes by as I broke mine £1 juicer brand new, mason and cash flan dish £2, standard pyrex flan dish £1 and a wooden toy she thought my eldest may like at £2.50 brand new and boxed(elc £16 sticker on it!). Just as I was paying a lady bought in a brand new gorgeous sofa throw from The Futon Company-unwanted present-they charged me £5. £29.95 on the ticket!!! It is simply STUNNING! Be gone evil green sofa! So that is £2.50 out of eldest's piggy bank and £9 out of the home repairs/replacements budget. But £9 well spent I think Robert Dyas wanted £11 for a flan dish alone:j

Charity shop was FULL of unwanted Christmas presents and people bringing them in, seems people are having a good clear out, so may be worth popping in to your local

Decorating awaits-yuk!

itsallinthemind

minnie2 I am really sorry for your loss, I hope meeting up with your friend yesterday helped you a little

grandma247

CW I tried the cooking by number site a while ago and it has gone. I found it on the wayback machines archives but nothing worked on it unlike some sites I looked for.

seriouslyfrugal

Hi


Lynzpower : thanks for providing the link to the hmrc website :A I think I was half asleep last night !!


Applemint: many thanks for the link to delia's recipe you really carnt go wrong with a delia recipe - i find :T

Minnie 2 : We have a shop called savers where i live who sell soda crystals ( i'll find out the price for you when i'm next in there) we also use them to put down the kitchen sink to get rid of the grease ect you do need to use hot water with them though :)


Dishwasher update : well our family friend Gav came round yesterday i don't know what he did but it seams to have done the trick as it's working :j:j:j we have put a strong dishwasher cleaner ( finish) through it this morning and no problems so we are hopeful it's done the trick which as saved mum some considerable cash outlay!!!

Have a frugal saturday everyone

rising_from_the_ashes

Hey guys, after some help.... Does this look realistic?

I've tried to include EVERYTHING which is why the totals are quite high (catalogue and overdraft are current balances which I want to clear this year).

Groceries includes pet stuff (dog/cat food, litter etc) which is why it's quite high. I've really no idea what I spent last year so don't know if it's realistic!

What have I missed!

1

Budget

Bud 2 dt

Spent

Council Tax

1128.00

94.00

94.00

Mortgage

4000.00

333.33

328.00

Gas/Electricity

750.00

62.50

61.00

C/H Cover

210.00

17.50

17.33

Bldgs/Cont Ins

205.00

17.08

16.94

Phone & B/band

312.00

26.00

25.99

TV Licence

145.50

12.13

12.12

Mobile Phone

25.00

2.08

Mortgage Protection

240.00

20.00

20.66

Estate maintenance

140.00

11.67

11.00

Sky

255.00

21.25

21.00

Catalogue

120.00

10.00

18.18

Presents

50.00

4.17

Car Insurance

230.00

19.17

Breakdown Cover

30.00

2.50

Road Tax

30.00

2.50

30.00

Service

150.00

12.50

Petrol

850.00

70.83

23.50

Pets (insurance)

125.00

10.42

10.01

Overdraft

1000.00

83.33

50.00

Spare 3

0.00

0.00

Spare 4

0.00

0.00

Groceries

1500.00

125.00

58.46

Toiletries/Cleaning

120.00

10.00

Anything Else

500.00

41.67

40.69

TOTALS

12115.50

1009.62

838.88

Thanks:beer:

minnie2

itsallinthemind wrote: »

minnie2 I am really sorry for your loss, I hope meeting up with your friend yesterday helped you a little

thanx it did! yeah it hit me hard - unexpected!! it hit a lot of people hard!