Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 2

saorsie

Sorry to hear that SF ~ take care of yourself

-s- x

silvasava

Virtual Hug SF

tumptyteapot

there is a series about make do and mend on 40d - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/make-do-mend/4od#3182968 just watching the first one now :-)

rising_from_the_ashes

So sorry to hear that SF :sad:

miss_empty_piggy

SandraScarlett wrote: »

Buckets of good luck to you miss empty piggy re your Ofsted report. I remember when I was being Ofsteded - I'd rather have had a baby, or ate my own liver. :eek:

vi
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

SandraScarlett that made me laugh out loud!!! Totally true.

Just read through and I couldn't agree more about how lovely this thread is compared to some of the others. It really does feel horrible when somone virtually attacks you. Not nice at all, and as rising from the ashes said "there's more to life!!"

Welcome to LJC79 :wave:

Well done rising from the ashes for getting through today, it can't have been easy, and big hugs to anyone who needs one, but especially to you slowlyfading. We're here for you fellow frugaler.:grouphug:

SandraScarlett

A huge welcome to um, er, can't remember but it was made up of letters, so I'll just call you ABC, and a huge welcome again. A big hug of relief to someone who had a nasty ol' scan today, and a virtual hug and kiss to someone who has had a really rough day.

My heart's in the right place but my memory cells have dropped to my feet, I think! Oh the nasty folk that are out there, really makes my blood boil. Heaven help a newbie who posts a link, they are immersed in boiling oil for doing that, and if someone has the temerity to disagree with someone else, it's awful. The words are carefully chosen to be as cutting as possible - rotten ol' lot they are! :mad:

Going to vote tomorrow and then DH wants to go to another garden centre tomorrow, so that'll be Mean May turning into Multi-generous May, and it's only the 4th!

xx

apple_mint

Good morning everyone :wave: I've not been around for a little while and I either need to a) lock myself in a darkened room for a few hours to catch up with the posts or b) to simply just start again from here. Given that I've started gardening in order to grow more of our own food (which is therapeutic but takes hours with the amount of digging to do), I think it will be have to be b).

I have continued to be frugal and the spreadsheets are up to date

April came in under budget across the total budget although my food spends were £100 over budget :eek: In my defence I have been doing a lot of spaving. The storecupboard stocks are now very healthy and I'm now shopping by 'special offer'. Last night I stocked up on orange juice (3 for 2) and tinned pink salmon (buy one get one free) - both at T*sco.

In the garden, we had two small vegetable beds last year and I've just dug a third. If the weather stays fine, I'll be working on another next weekend. I've sown salad leaves, raddishes etc., popped in some strawberry plants and the potatoes are in. It won't keep us with a constant supply but more as 'fresh food treats'. I spotted a tip to put the bottom of a celery back into the soil. I've done this with two and they've both sprouted leaves and are re-growing. Apparently you can do this with spring onions too, so I'm trying that as well this week (just the bottom inch, the white part with the roots).

On the recipe front, I tried a quick banana bread recipe I found here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bananabread

I normally use a recipe from one of my old cookery books, but have to report that this one works very well and - though I changed it a little (used olive spread rather than butter) and also I cooked it in a 2lb loaf tin at 170c and it took 50 minutes. Next time I'll try it in my remoska to cut down the cost. This has been going into our packed lunches this week.

mooomin

Morning folks,

I've also been around but not posting as I've been trying to be as frugal as I can but still enjoy life

I'm under budget for the year so far, and even came in £25 under budget when I went on holiday last week (Not included in the frugal budget, but entirely paid for with last month's overtime).

I'm doing well with food shopping, but am going to have to make some extra money this month as I've already spent £24 from my "Other" budget which is normally less than £90 :eek: It's because I've used voucher websites to buy a meal out for myself and Mr Fresian (£12) and a haircut for myself (also £12) which were both really good deals. I've also found out that I can earn Quidco on each deal which is very good news

I'm doing pretty well on groceries. I have a lot of food in the freezer and cupboards, so May is going to be about reducing these stocks I think! My exciting news of recent days is that I have bought some furniture which has allowed me to set up an area in my flat for my crafting. I'm already finding that it's inspiring me to sit down and make cards, so it's money well spent. There's pictures on my homepage if anyone fancies a look

I'm really impressed with how well everyone else is doing :T

Slowlyfading, hope you're ok *hug*

patentgirl

Morning all
Havent posted much lately but try to have a little catch up every now and again must get more motivated to post more often
Still trying to be frugal not always managing it but so much better than I used to be

applemint thanks for banana bread recipe looks easy and yummy
Slowly fading hope you ok have a virtual hug from me
Welcome LJC79
got plenty of seeds on the go aubergines, sweetcorn, peppers and courgettes almost ready to go to allotment DH has been working hard down there plenty of potatoes, onions and broad beans in, bit slow on salad stuff will have to concentrate on that this weekend!

Looks like i wont get my redundancy notice till Nov now which is good as quite a few more months salary plus will all help bump up my redundancy feel like in limbo at moment as too early to start looking for other jobs but atmostphere very down at work with everyone wondering about their future
NSD for me hoping the first of many in May

minnie2

tumptyteapot wrote: »

I know what you mean about energy - but I saved my self the cost of a new laptop by googling it - I just typed in the problem and the make of the computer into google and it turned out loads of forums had people writing about the same problem and it was easy to fix. My laptop has been fine ever since. I agree there is no point in sending it in, I had the same problem with a mobile phone, totally pointless sending it to be fixed because they could say what they wanted and I had no right to reply.

Good luck!

thank you!!!

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Ohhhhh Minnie what a mega stressful 2 weeks you've had - I'm exhausted just reading about it! Happy Belated Birthday!

Re the laptop, I was also going to suggest trying a search to see if it's a common problem.

Could you not just plug in the internet/tel line & use it?

thank you!! yes another year older!!!! time flies!! we dont have a landline, so we have a dongle.

kittiej wrote: »

Aw minnie, if you need to get it off your chest then there'salways someone here to listen, you seem to be rushing here there and everywhere.

I have been shocked tonight by my DH. He turned round to me and said "we need to stick to just spending £50 pw week on food" Hello I thought, I've been telling him this for the past few years! I'd given up on him ever thinking my way, let's see what happens. Ideally I would love to be able to live on his wage and put mine to paying debts off but that really is a pipe dream.

thank you!!!! yes but now he thinks its his new idea!! hehe!!!! good luck with that!! we are similar, i have several jobs nd hoping that my extra jobs can be put towards our debts but that doesnt seem to be happening!! life is so expensive!!