Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 2

seriouslyfrugal

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all well - welcome to everyone new :wave:

Busy time at Mottisfont ( rose season) so i've not had much time to post - but i'm still frugalling away

flying_fresian wrote: »

Couldn't agree more with this one. There's only myself and Mr Fresian, and when fresh things are on BOGOF they're no use to us. He doesn't like a lot of the same fresh veg as I do and vice versa! I would be happier with half price too - surely an offer like that would entice more people too?

I totally agree with this I to would prefer things half price

Lookingtothefuture wrote: »

minnie2 wrote: »

Hello there!!


I am also struggling to not drink cans of coke!!!! us buying bottled drink like that when we are out has crept back and we are spending loads.I told hubby thats it no more but i keep buying myself some while i am at work. So i need to start cutting down - tried going cold turkey but it didnt work. Would it be more cost effective to save one of the small bottles and fill it up from a 2 litre bottle? Is this "proper" coke or own brand? Would you be able to down grade to own brand? or limit yourself to one proper coke a week (60p a can) and then down graded coke (50p for 2 litres?)... Where I live a box of 18 cans of proper coke is on offer at the local shop at the moment for £6 which seems like a good deal. But I dont drink it so its not a bargain for me! Good Luck... hope this helps... if not just ignore me! lol!:D

QUOTE]

I fill up a smaller bottle from a bigger bottle ( 2 Litre) to take to work

not got the car today as its having its service / mot so i'm waiting to see if everything is ok _pale_

i've already put the slow cooker on today it that sort of weather down here in Hampshire.

have a good weekend everyone

chika

Hi everyone. not posted much lately as nothing ever seems to happen. I'm on holiday in Cyprus at the moment which is lovely and hot but we are self catering. The food here is really really expensive. I moaned at english prices but the prices in the supermarket here makes Waitrose look like Iceland!

Just a thought for the diet coke addicts. One of the ladies I work with started drinking iced tea intead of coke. Not sure how she made it but there should be reciepes online. I think the tea gave her the caffeine fix and she sometimes added sparkling water for some fizz.

rubytuesday

Hello everyone - got treated to the best lentil soup in the world in the Turkish today.

Bought myself some Rochester Ginger Wine as a treat and then took the girlie to Tesco to stock up for the flat but paid in vouchers.

She really hasn't got a clue about prices and will get such a shock when she goes to Uni if she doesn't start coming shopping with me. She needs to start cooking more too to build up a repertoire!

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j

Had a most successful couple of days here at Gnat Bottomed Towers- picked up 4kg strawberries for a fiver from the market yesterday. These have now been processed and will make 2 demijohns of vino:D Sainsburys was awash with reduced priced burgers and kebabs [each pack of 12 burgers were down from £4 to 50p]- well it would have been rude not to buy them....erm so our dear little freezer is now groaning:D

Not so good on the frugal front today as got confirmation though of my impending redundancy- I finish on 31st July so shall have to make those pennies stretch even further!

Aril

never_too_old

Havent quite caught up yet,my frugal living is plodding along.Im winning in some areas and loosing in others.
I posted on one thread about my dh van catching fire on Friday 13th, well insurance paid up about 2 weeks after but our mechanic is having problems finding a suitable replacement.This has resulted in me running everyone around, picking ds up dropping ds and dh off at work, dd to school for exams picking up afterwards, getting her to work and trying to work myself.
Petrol is now working out at about £20 a day:eek: and all the extra driving is driving me bonkers, especially when it rains and im called to pick them up at the drop of a hat.Shopping is going really well,between couponing rtd, apg, my bills have dropped. Raised beds in garden are coming along a treat ,looking forward to harvest time.
I have cut back drastically this year on my energy consumption but my bills are going up:(
I religiously fill in my sow ,must be doing something right though as managing to reduce our debts,
Hope this thread remains friendly as its been a life saver for me.
hugs to all that need them

slowlyfading

Still plodding along Made some HM chocolate chip cookies for the first time this evening; the house smells amazing! Not that good for my diet though

youngmummy

everything is going ok so far i think. the problem is i keep loosing track going to get a notebook tommorrow and start writing down all my spends, how ever little it may seem,

got aload of bills to pay next week but have put the money aslide for them all so its all good. im getting more organised slowly, :money:

hope everyone is ok. im still making my own bread, and pizza too. :j

too be honest, we're trying to save money every where we can.
im also in the middle of sorting out stuff to sell, to help the savings fund at the moment we're consentrating more on the garden fund than general savings. after the garden it will be saving for xmas.
we live 12 miles away from DP's parents and were going the 2/3 times aweek as they couldnt afford to come too us, but have decided that with petrol prices increasing we cant afford to go there 3 times a week, and skint ourselves out, so from next week will only be going there once a week, sounds harsh but we just ant afford it and we've been doing it since we moved here about 18 months ago. they have been here 4 maybe 5 times since we moved here. am i being unreasonable ?

seriouslyfrugal

Hi


well I got the car back with no extra work need :j and m.o.t passed with flying colours :T what a relief !

youngmummy : I keep a note book with all my spends in I update it daily ( I do keep a journal so I just combined the two) I like the paperchase spirl notebooks so I just put them on my birthday & christmas lists & I normally get them :j( I have spirl books because they are easier for me but they do sell these things in £ land ) if it helps

have a good weekend

Erme

redglass wrote: »

I have a hot bedroom in summer too, and hate it. Some low-tech tips, which you may already be using: don't let any sunlight into the room during the day - once it's in there, you're stuck with the heat. If the curtains are dark they will just get hotter and transfer that heat into the room - have you tried either very pale curtains or putting up a sheet on the window side to reflect the light back out again? Also, you can put a BIG bottle or bucket or whatever (or several!) of very cold water in the room (preferably on the sill between the window pane and the curtain, if you can fit it in - you could use several smaller bottles if space is limited), let the water absorb warmth and heat up, then empty it/use it for dishwashing, whatever. I've seen people who had a real system going, cooling down a room by capturing heat in this way. If you re-use the water it doesn't even have to be wasteful...

Containers: Oxfam online have got some big multi-purpose containers with spigots for about £6, I think. I sometimes buy plastic sweet jars (from old-fashioned sweet shops) and use them for storage. They don't last forever, but they are very cheap. Or you could 'repurpose' something. I have some huge containers that originally carried sauces and soups from Approved Foods.

I was amused by Tumpty's link to the Telegraph and the pensioner who used flannels instead of towels. My mum brought us up to scrape all excess water off our bodies with a flannel before using the towel - this was her way of avoiding sopping wet towels in a house with no heating in the bathroom, not even a hot towel rail. I gave up the habit as soon as I left home, glad to escape what I saw as pinching and nagging, but it's interesting to see it surface again. I can confirm that it does save on drying and laundry, but of course it doesn't go with the image of bathing promoted by advertisers (gallons of scalding water, shelves full of luxurious potions, mountains of thick new towels). I often wonder how many 'folk-ways' of coping on very little our ancestors would have known about. Just living within your income was a highly skilled occupation for most of them.

Thanks so much for that. Ma and I are going youth hosteling (and easyhotel LOL....nothing - not even free coffee in those rooms - should be suitably expensive but we have a credit note so intend to use it up:)) end of July for 10 days so will remember this tip...I like to shower every day but there's no way I can take 2-3 towels for a 10 day trip . I also use flannels for home made sanitary wear - far comfier than disposables (flannels and safety pins basically. Nothing is 100% leak proof like nothing is 100% leak proof with wee ones nappies - unless you use tampons etc)

LolaLemon wrote: »

23rd, u should be able to take a no handset deal with ur provider. They prefer it, as it costs them around £300 for the cheaper handsets, whereas a don only contract, they only lose out around £120-200
If they don't give u a good deal, tell them u are cancelling and going to take out a don only contract (check all companies to see who is giving what u want for the best price) even if its for the same company that has the best offer, as it costs them at least £80 for each new line they get.(used to work in the mobile industry, worked my way around the many different departments)
It's in their interest to keep u on the existing number, not just with the company.

Erme, good luck with trying to live on jsa, it is hard, and is in no way easy money. Please remember that not everyone on jsa got help with housing, and any other freebies.
I "lived" on if for a year, and only that, even tho I am a single parent with a (then) 3 year old. I did not get help with housing (was actually told to come back when we where homeless, and then they would help.) I got off of paying council tax as I was a student, but because I was a student, I wasn't entitled to any other benefits, yet as I was a single parent, I was not entitled to any burseries or student grants as I HAD to go on IS. Worst year of my life financially, and it whas spiralled ever since as I can't catch up with myself.

Haven't catches up with all the pages, still on this phone which is playing up.
Best wishes to everyone

Och I am just fed up of folk nearby being jealous of the amount of monies I get in benefits. I mentioned it to sloth (the revised budget pre mobile phone contract which worked out fine for JSA with a few quid spare each week) who is on JSA cos he didn't get his act together re benefits. He said there was no way he could live on £20 a week for food. I can even do that at the expensive shops like Mr M...it's not difficult. It just needs menu planning etc.

And also when folk remember I aim to spend about 1/2 of just under on debts I really don't have that much to live on. I mean, I don't know how long I'll get these really good benefits for and jobs are scarce so I'm trying to get debt free (sometimes I do better than others).. DLA for life really isn't DLA for life these days but more like till 2014 when it all changes

minnie2 wrote: »

Hello there!!

Wow I was expecting loads of pages to catch up on but there was only two!

So I am searching for ideas on how to make a bit of money.I was wondering about selling my cakes at work - but I am wondering if that is a bit cheeky!! as up until now I have been baking them all for free.

I am also struggling to not drink cans of coke!!!! us buying bottled drink like that when we are out has crept back and we are spending loads.I told hubby thats it no more but i keep buying myself some while i am at work. So i need to start cutting down - tried going cold turkey but it didnt work.

Right so my goals for this month is save save save!!!!!!!!!! Things are very tight at minute (again) £1000 spent on vets bills and new laptop. So we must be good!!! So I am going to go round house tonight and work out whats what, thats if i dont nod off first. And I really must do a car boot!!! but i work all weekend!!! I seem to work all the time.

Need to revise my budget also.I have worked out that each month we only have £200 left out of our wages for the month for food and petrol and our petrol is £400 a month so we are not doing well at all.

Anyway I now have to make a carrot cake for my father in law.So I better get cooking!

Catch up with you all later

I think it's been said before somewhere on here but if you're selling home cooking for a business you have to get checked by Health and Safety. Great idea (could do it bar the H& S bit) but not for everyone.

Have you considered crafts? Like I said I don't know if you'll be affected if you are just doing it low key but worth considering


Anyhow still mega tired and still trying to work on cig reduction. Got it down to 2/3 with ease (smoking half of week reducing half of week) so here's hoping. This still means I save £15 a week though in tobacco .... So yeah bloods for the tiredness though don't quite know what I've whoopsied on lately but know it's a fair bit judging by the height of the poor OD.... and I have holidays to save for :eek:

Also reducing my daily doughnuts down to 1 a day which is helping and like I got a fleecy jacket and a body warmer (okay they're mens but they're huge so should help if I put on weight) for the winter free last night from the local charity .

Business wise I ordered my biz cards the other night so they should come end of month. Ebay is not going well but I have my wildfire to put on which I should get £100 for ... And like I found somewhere that does a ream of a A4 card for £3 the other day and it's only £12 to join for the year (recycled place) and with envelopes @£6 for 250 from Mr S I'm made so long as I put on the back they're recycled..

Everyone have a good day...

I'm also tallying the Payment a Day thread right now that I'm loving ...really fun...I can be so obsessive sometimes LOL (sometimes that can be negative tee hee)

Hugs

E

rising_from_the_ashes

IMHart - sorry to hear about all your running around:eek: - you'd think finding a van would be pretty easy with sales falling!

Seriouslyfrugal - give your car a hug for passing it's MOT!!!!:j


Just really popped in to say that I can't believe it's June - 11 deg outside (bbbrrrrrrr) and pouring with rain. Have resorted to putting the gas fire on :eek:for 10 mins to try to warm the house a bit as I'm really cold (already had 2 baths to try to warm up today). Have been in bed most of the day as feeling pretty rotten.

Supposed to be going to a BBQ later:( - only 4 doors down so not sure how I can "avoid it" but really don't want to stand around in the freezing cold getting wet (only just getting over a chest infection and still on antibiotics).

Thinking of popping over with a bottle of wine & saying I'm not feeling well but I'm sure they'll think it's just an excuse.:(


Ohhh, where is the summer! (Obviously in Queens, been watching the tennis and it looks gorgeous down there)!

Hope everyone's a bit warmer than me!!!