Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 2

rictus123

Well last night was productive!!! I set up a budget for myself for the rest of the year. So a 6 month budget/forecast spends.

If i stick to it i will be absolutly delighted! Frugal times ahead for me! I am currently checking forum before i double check figures then il maybe post a bit about it!!!

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j
It's been a bit of a spendy day here at Gnat Bottomed Towers but all necessary- the small person has outgrown his PE shorts and has a hole in his school shoes so both items have been replaced:eek: However, I will buy him new socks from the supermarket as they will be cheaper than some other places I think

Frugal things achieved today- whoopsie sausages [sounds very dodgy:D] for supper, library books returned on time aswell as the OS maps we borrowed for our holiday [much cheaper than buying them new], opened both ends of the coffee packet to make sure all of it got decanted into the cannister [do the same with loose tea aswell] and enjoyed a cup of tea with a pal and she treated me this time.

Can't believe it's going to be June tomorrow- I'm still waiting for my official notification of redundancy [will hear for sure by 10th June] but will draw up a proper budget and have got my spend book ready. It's going to be a more expensive month as we've got to pay for the car's service and renew our insurance but we'll price check that first. I've also got two birthdays to pay for but am hoping to make a card for my sister.
Until tomorrow....
Aril

xnatalie81x

tumptyteapot wrote: »

urgh, letter from lecki and gas supplier telling me that my rate ends soon and I'll have to go through the process of finding another cheaper one....... gloom and doom

Have just liked ur fb page! am very pro bf and a couple of my friends have just had babies n we were saying about going out together and feeding in public!!!!!!! we are all very outspoken individuals - i think i may have ordered from u in the past lol. a few yrs ago xxxx had completely forgotten about site

ps - i do still lurk here and am doing very well in my frugal challenge lol

gingerandrubarb

:j Hi,
I'm new to this thread and really want to be apart of this challenge for the lifestyle. Also the extra money and reduced stress doesn't go amiss :rotfl:

I plan to do my spreadsheet tomorrow :cool: Which is scary as i honestly don't know how i can reduce anymore than we do?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated... Here's how it's difficult for me.

Were on benefits :mad: not ideal but i am disabled which i hate. My husband had to give up his job to help care for me and my 3 sons when my youngest was just about to be born.

Anyhow here's the difficult part.
*All of my sons are 5 years and under. Toilet training, still in nappies, drinking nearly a whole cow a day :rotfl: and ridiculously fussy eaters (that's if they even eat)
*My husband is also a ridic fussy eater. (Strawberry mullerlights, scottish plain bread or hovis brown, hp brown sauce, potatoes, pastry,heinz spring onion soup, roast beef or homemade steak pie or roast chicken with only potatoes is ALL he eats)

*We buy the basics just now. foods as above and nappies, milk, yoghurts, juice etc..pay for our gas and electric by meter which weve found alot easier and cheaper and use milk tokens or any other tokens where possible.
*We switch off lights and plugs to save energy and get as many freebies off the internet as possible.
*I always use amazon for books and then re-sell huge bundles on Ebay making nearly my money back, everything gets Ebay'd or Carbooted :rotfl::rotfl:
*I don't buy clothes (charity shop vintage chic :rotfl: or Ebay or Primark)
*Same goes for hubby he hardly buys any clothes, aftershaves etc...
I do smoke but none of us drink. Hubby doesn't smoke or drink coffee or tea etc..

We are still struggling to get by. Really struggling Any ideas what we should do to become Frugal??? xx

youngmummy

i think i joined this last year but i lost you (i think ) but i found you again yeahhhy... hope everyone is well :j take care x

apple_mint

Hello everyone :hello: I haven't been around for a while but I'm just popping in to update on my progress. I'm still tracking my spends and popping on here to update at the end of the month helps to keep my motivation going

A lot better month in the apple_mint household. Spent £62.55 under budget on my food, so the spaving of the last month has made a difference (pasta, rice etc.). On the overall budget we have spent less. So we are very pleased. We are moving house in June so there will be a number of additional bills but we do gain a large garden so I'm hoping to expand on my veg and fruit growing and supplement our food budget some more over the coming months. I'm hoping to get some grow bags and transplant some of the plants I've managed to get going in the current garden. We are currently working our way through our freezer ready for the move but I'll start to restock in July.

On the vehicle front, fuel costs are horrendous and we've had a couple of small maintenance jobs done but careful driving and making sure we do several jobs for each journey is helping. Luckily the two supermarkets I use are next door to each other, and importantly, I go past them on my way home from work.

Kerry_Woman

Have been doing alright this week with getting bargains. Got a few reduced to clear items with my weekly food shopping. At a health shop got 30ml of Lavender Oil for £5.49 was half price, cheaper than B00ts(£8.15 for 20ml). Used a 10% off Rymans voucher to use against purchase of ink cartridges - £6.30 saved. Managed to get £5 off my monthly contract for my mobile, so should be roughly £10 monthly. Got hairspray - deal 2 for £6 so saved roughly £2. Did resist buying any more hair conditioner at the weekend, so saved roughly £5. Still got some hair conditioner to use up first. Cannot believe we are halfway through the year.

tumptyteapot

gingerandrubarb wrote: »

We are still struggling to get by. Really struggling Any ideas what we should do to become Frugal??? xx

Have you thought about washable nappies? You can save hundreds, especially with 2 kids as you can pass the nappies down. There might be an incentive for where you live - http://www.naturalnursery.co.uk/real-nappy-incentive-schemes.html this list is being added to all the time (I work for them and it's my job to add them ) Depending on where you live there might be a section of the council working on promoting cloth nappies and they can tallk you through them and sometimes even lend you some to try.

paidinchickens

Morning peeps!

Spent last night with hubby writing down the contents of both the freezers. Have come to realise I must have a fear of running out of sausages as I found 5 packs:rotfl:

I have decided that there will be not shopping done apart from packed lunch and milk until everything has been used up and then we will start again.

Also found 5 large bags of blackberries and four large packs of rhubarb so when i finally get the demijohns clean I will be sorting the wine going to try a kit first though lol

Sat and sorted my bills out the other day and apart from a gym membership I can not get out of until November there is nothing much I can do. I have a credit card but it has some mortgage on it when I needed 40% equity in the house to get a super duper rate (so it is a debt but not a shopping debt its a mortgage debt) going to chip away a bit quicker before the 0% runs out. Nothing unexpected.

Then sat and worked hubbys debts/bill:eek: (we rent my house out and live in his)

Took all night but finally have every bill - amount - and when term/deal runs out for each thing.

Gas and Electric we get £100 back once a year which is due anytime so will be sat tonight going through the cheapest deal for us (understand your pain Tumpty) I think you need a degree to understand your usage or they make it that complicated you do not bother to change. I used to work in accounts and still can't get my head round the figures:rotfl:


Water £45 a month:eek::eek::eek: we are on a meter, try really hard not to waist. Have two showers one bath and three loos. Three children and two adults, Can't see how we can get it down any further. We have two large water buts for the garden, a grade appliances, shower saver thingy, and block things in the loo. Have been battling with Anglian Water for years as our water tastes of chlorine and have had it tested several thousand times, had a chlorine filter fitted and there answer "run the tap for a few minutes before drinking":mad:
Sat and thought how glad i am there are three boys in the house who do not like washing or brushing their teeth:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Virgin media (we are on the lowest pack) quidco have £150 cashback and £50 off your first bill so trying to decide if it is worth taking out of hubbys name and putting into mine. They said I could but maybe without service in between for a little while, need internet for ebaying stuff.

TV licence. apparently if you do not watch live feed and only watch on demand, dvds, and play games with no INTENT of watching live feed tv you do not need a licence. Well I never watch anything live as I always forget when things are on and end up watching catch up! so could possibly save £12 a month there.

Mobiles we pay £28 a month for two contracts and three sim cards through virgin. We can ring each other and ring the kids for free. Get loads of mins and the kids get £5 a month free as long as they have a little credit on their phones. I can not find a better deal but still have 6 months left of contract.

On a plus side I have not spent a single penny for days as my toe is still poorly and I can't get my shoes on :rotfl:


The water bill is getting to me as we have the highest bill in the street!!! apart from using buckets of bath water to flush the loos I do not know what else to do. Maybe the neighbours have wired up to our water supply??????

Not going on holiday this year, have told the kids I do not want to get stranded because of the volcano :T;)

Sorry for the exceptionally long post but hubby fed up with listening to me after all night of going through bills

Help I need ideas 2yrs 5mth 3 wks til hubby comes out:eek:

23rdspiral

went to Mr T on bhmonday to place an Extra order... oh's new desk and some other needed bits. i carefully worked out how much to spend to get the extra money off from the in store vouchers, taking into account the 25% off homeware... BUT it didnt add up... turns out the desk he wanted was on 50% off! so 65 NOT 130!! :j With the 25% of homeware and the other voucher, i essentially got the new knife set we wanted/needed for free! woop! :j

cloud_cuckoo_land wrote: »

Maybe just write down everything you did yesterday to help with frugal living, for my benefit - and you may be surprised at how much you are actually doing (or not doing!! lol).

hi cloud cuckoo... you're so right. my main learning from this challenge has been to not treat lunch breaks as 'shopping time', and to make sure everything is used up in the fridge.
- yesterday i made a barm brack tea loaf as i had eggs going south instead of buying cake to take to my friends this afternoon... its not perfect but hey i can blame the new houses' oven right?:rotfl:
- adding some oats to mince to bulk gets me 2 more meals from a 500g pack.
- finding that i can use up practically all leftovers if i give it a name! ~ cold cooked potatoes and any cooked veg in mayonaise and call it 'russian salad' ~ reheat any meat/veg chopped small with rice and chilli sauce and call it 'jambalaya'.:T

redglass wrote: »

Have a store cupboard (well, nooks and crannies all over the house, really)that I fill up when things are cheap. The only problem with this is that sometimes I get so carried away with stockpiling that I forget you're supposed to use the stuff as well as stash it.

humm, me too... i found 2 cartons of 2yr old cranberry juice in the move... the got put out for the 'party' and devoured without a second thought.