Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

midwinter

I keep telling myself, that 1/5 of what I spend (excluding vat rated food) goes straight to the government. It does keep me focussed on whether I really need what I'm thinking of buying. I give the government enough on pay day!

Thankfully, charity shop purchases are zero rated

Ellidee

de-lurking to tell you about these http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/green-fresh-bags-veg-lasts-ages-20-/847509

also tinned toms - if you use them chopped for soup try using passata instead - 39p at Aldi the last time I bought some. HTH

jess444_2

Updated my sig for week 1. A bit of a strange week budgetwise. Managed to only shop for 'bits' £23 as still had lots of stuff in the freezer from Christmas. On the other hand I have has DD birthday and also car MOT to pay for. Pleased that car only needed £25 in repairs to get through.
I have also been making veg and lentil soup for lunch everyday which has saved a bit and is part of my effort to make sure I have 5 a day even on a budget.
Decided to stay with Virgin for my phone / internet / TV. Rang and reduced the package saving £17 a month.
I have been using Spendingdiary.com to keep track of everyday spending, I will add DD to total when they come out of the bank.

Well done on your NSD Salski and good luck with the smoking.

Jess

wornoutmumoftwo

Need to play catch up with all the posts at some point today. My total is now up to £399.08.
Went to Costco yesterday and stocked up on a lot of things, have a freezer full of meat and a cupboard full of flour and essentials for baking.
Only gave the government an extra 5p in VAT yesterday too

The rolls I made with plain flour (as suggested by someone on here) were lovely. Used milk to brush them and they were a tad pale on top so going to use egg next, but the rolls themselves were the best I've made so far.
(Shame about the croissant mix).

So thank you for the tip with the flour. Might encourage me to use the breadmaker more.

redglass_2

lynzpower wrote: »

red glass dont know how useful this is, but they have ECOVER mult liquid (the one you dilute) in poundstretcher for 99p. I know Ive paid a lot more for this in the past.

OOOOHHH!!!! Will get down there asap! Thank you! :T

redglass_2

Thank you also to LoisLane & Lynzpower for your suggestions! :T Think I should get onto this but I'll also check out the Poundstretcher deal and try everything....

landregistrylass

Morning all. My day so far? Made a big carrot/swede mash, a broccoli and stilton soup, and a sausage roll thingy. All from reduced stuff except the stilton which was left over from the Xmas cheese board. An odd combination of stuff, but wont be eating it all together LOL. I am not a baker, so may need a little help with this. I am a bit scared of it to be honest. Because I dont do it regularly I think I CANT do it. Need to put my mind to it.

midwinter

Ellidee wrote: »

de-lurking to tell you about these http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/green-fresh-bags-veg-lasts-ages-20-/847509

Thanks for this, had a look on hotukdeals, and the green bags are definitely worth investigating, glad to see they're at Home bargains as well as Poundland! (can get to a HB, but not poundland!)

I get fed up of trying to think of ways to use up overripe bananas, as eldest son wont eat them when they get past a certain stage of ripeness, but need them in the house, as he would eat one per day if right ripeness!

midwinter

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skint_chick

apple_mint - I gave up on Mr T value vanilla because it has that weird aftertaste but I'm hooked on Mr T soft scoop vanilla -although I think it's made of some weird combination of non milk ingredients? Still a lot cheaper than Ben & Jerry's vanilla though!

Instead of tinned tomatoes I use Asda smart price passata it's only 25p for 500g. I used to get value chopped tomatoes but kept getting weird end bits and strange yellowed ones:eek:

I've been very frugal - had a work social this weekend which I'd already paid £10 deposit for it only cost me another £3.30 for a pint, the other drinks and food were paid for and I made the last bus home instead of a taxi saving me £4.50:T
Been checking out my favourite band's websites for free downloads and discovered Urban Outfitters new music Mondays - 5 tracks each week from up and coming bands on their website for free download - so I've updated my ipod for free:)

I started using soapnuts last year and they're great. OH gets excema from all washing powders except Fairy but soapnuts are fine - I don't use any essential oils and haven't had a problem with weird smelling clothes. My £7 bag of soapnuts is still going and should make it to June-ish.