Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 2

LolaLemon

Happy Birthday everyone.
spent a fortune this week, sons birthday! a lot was pre planned/saved for but some like today wasnt, we went to xscape and played bowling, 1 game, 2 adults n 1 child, £15ish!!! my sis the paid for dinner in nando's (my 1st time ever in their) £29 exact for 2 adult meals and 1 childs meal. !!!!!!!
im ooh soo tired so apologies for not reading back posts, im going to finish watching raising hope then go to bed. night all

oh p.s. EVERYONE loved the owls at the party. they where fantastic!!!

tumptyteapot

Does anyone know if there is a Menu planner like the SOW that I can download? I've been doing mine on bits of paper but it would make sense to do it on the computer.
just answered my own question - http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/meal-planner.html

grandma247

finaniciallyfitforfortys wrote: »

hi all, i ve been a lurker for a while. love all the ideas. really need help for this months grocery- we only have £25/week for this wk once all bills paid. but needs healthy as well as DD (14) just had major surgery 4daYS ago.

any help / ideas would be great.
thanks

have a look HERE for more ideas.

redglass_2

Welcome Lesley, it'll be interesting to get the view from behind the scenes and some of those wines sound like a very good idea...:D

miss_empty_piggy

Trallwm_Farm wrote: »

Hi Im Lesley
Im not sure if Im too frugal so off putting on here or if its because I have land and how dare I but I thought Id come and say hello to hopefully like minded people !
I actually run an animal sanctuary called Trallwm farm hence the land. It does give me the opportunity of foraging but the farm is the animals. Channel 4 have put my website link on their site but not made it clear.
I really do have to be a Frugal Dougal because there isnt a profit in animal rescue !
The hand cream does work well as I often make it for people with excema but the shot on TV wasnt the best one and I used palm oil which was yellow. Its obviously best to use white hard oils.
The bees wax comes from friends with bees not my " sock drawer ".
I noticed a lady on here on part 1 interested in wine making and that is something I am asked to make a lot. Ive just put a recipe for banana wine ( Asda seem to sell them for 10p for a ton last thing ) on my scrimping and scrumping blog and channel4 are putting the recipe up to.
Ive got a brilliant recipe for japanese knot weed wine. How frugals that ! I love the sponge bread recipe and will be trying that out.
I collect ancient books with old traditional recipes in and they just always seem to work on the principle of waste not want not. Things like Potato and barley wine which comes out like a German wine.
Im hoping Im welcome here as TV shows you as it chooses to. Ive still got several weeks to go onit ...Cant wait !

Welcome Lesley, thanks for taking the time to come onto the website. As far as I am concerned no-one can be "too frugal" and I for one would love as many of your tips as possible, as you obviously are a pro.

My comment about the "sock drawer" was me just being flippant and I apologise if any offence was caused, it was not meant. By the way, where do you get palm oil as I have no idea? Also, forgive me for being ignorant but I don't know what Japanese knot weed is either!!! (see why you're so needed!)

It was also me who was interested in the wine making. I would love to be able to do this and am intending on getting the demi johns etc as soon as possible. Any recipes and tips on this would be gratefully received. Also, my DD1 and intented to make the pasta this weekend (never thought my child would be interested in stinging nettles - so you are even inspiring the young.)

In my opinion, superscrimpers is ok, but more of your great tips and the other ladies are what I am most interested in. Miss moneypenny seems like a nice lady and the idea is a great one, as not everyone has a clue where to start with frugality, but its the little tips that make the difference to me.

You are much more than welcome, You are VERY welcome. Thanks for taking the time to come and share with us, I know that everyone will appreciate it.

Miss empty piggy x

tumptyteapot

I wonder if Scrimpersavers are going to focus on a family in poverty. The last 2 have been earners and earn more than enough to live on. I'm wondering what advice they would give a family on benefits. From my point of view (and I think that technically we are well below the poverty line) we are ok living on very little because no matter how little I earn, I save something - this means that I can save money overall by buying in bulk because I have a cash reserve. I've saved since I was 5 so it is a pretty ingrained habit now :-) I'd find frugal living really difficult if I had to do little shops with little bits of money and I'd love to see what advice they give to people in desparate situations.

ceridwen

Hi Leslie

..and welcome.

You are allowed to put your blog that you have as your MSE homepage under the rules - though I found it anyways by googling - and then went onto finding out what Gateway 303 is after that...:cool:

I'm sure everyone will be glad of all frugal tips here...

tumptyteapot

grandma247 wrote: »

have a look HERE for more ideas.

That is such a brilliant resource! thank you!

knithappens

Welcome leslely - great to see you here, your knowledge will come in most useful to us all here, and as hasbeen said you can never be too frugal.

rubytuesday

Thank you so much for my kind birthday wishes everyone and welcome to all the newbies. I had a lovely NSD with some lovely presents and was treated to a Thai meal.

Tumpty have you tried Cognitive therapy at all for the panic attacks? My daughter started getting them when she was doing her Gcses and ended taking a year off school just after starting sixth form. Eventually she was able to work and then she went back to finish her A levels. She found cognitive therapy very helpful and has not had an attack for over a year now I think.