Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - Part 3.

Cherryjack

2 pots of ben and jerrys at asda for £4.00 :-) lol hope that can be classed as frugal?? my usual way of gettin this was with a take away pizza £5.00 for one .. so a little improvement from me (did also buy it out of my budget money)..i would offer but im being frugal.. hiding from OH should help aswell hehe

Good luck purple orchid.. let us know how you get on x

purpleorchid

Evening all, hope everyone has had a frugal day. :cool:

tesco shop £27.34, reduced to £21.91 with coupons:D
although had some trouble getting them through till.
also had 3 print outs with receipt for £4 off £30 spend:D (which mum kindly puts through on her weekly shop and gives me the £4 cash. love ya mum xxx)

gutted they dont sell innocent veg pots or modern milk in my shop:mad:

also had trout with 1 of my coupons, bogof spam, on offer for £1.50 atm. it wouldnt scan, and their computer said that coupon was not ready yet. sa said "i cant scan it OK" and went to walk away, i had already been there ages holding up the queue, I said "sorry but i cant afford them then so you will have to take them off". a friend of mine was in queue behind me and asked how much did i need and she was going to pay for them, with that the sa said "i will put it through as non coupon OK". with a look of disgust on her face. the cheek of it, i bet if it was her she would have wanted it as well.

finally managed to get free hovis bakes, had another bag of mccains home chips for 50p, baby shampoo 9p, will have to use this as i have run out and cant afford anything else, free innocent smoothie, not that nice and i would not pay £1.79 for it lol.

i have a nice chicken broth ready now. home made mind lol.
be back in bit to write my shopping list on here and see if anyone can advice me different. :money:

slowlyfading

Just to let you know, in case you are wondering - PLEASE continue to post on here until the end of the year! If we post on the 2012 thread before then, it just gets really confusing.

Hope everyone is doing well

purpleorchid

omg that chicken broth didnt touch the sides, its been ages since i cooked from scratch.

my version of chicken broth. lol

2 chicken breasts
2 chicken stock cubes
2 pints hot water
potatoes
salt/pepper
carrots
peas
swede
large onion
sprouts
parsnip
olive oil

heat the oil, salt and pepper in large saucepan, add diced chicken and cook until white on outside, add chopped onion, cook for 4 mins add stock and bring to boil, add all other ingedients, bring back to boil then simmer until cooked.

goes lovely with a tiger roll haha. this will do another 4 meals for me and have just had 1. only things i had to buy today for this was an onion as i had everything else here. quite pleased with myself.

purpleorchid

well not new really but they are to me. a friend of mine cleared out her wardrobe and gave me.....


2 pairs of joggers with tags on
3 pairs of jeans
1 hoodie
5 t-shirts
2 pj tops with tags on
pair trousers
crop pj with vest top


how lucky am i, im in dire need of clothes as i dont intend spending any money on new ones for quite sometime. :j

prepareathome

I know the year is almost over and I have already signed up for next years thread but can I join this one now please to keep me on the straight and narrow. I joined this forum years ago but then never seemed to get round to coming back till last month and now really, really trying to cut back to keep out of debt and actually have some savings, thanks

purpleorchid

ok guys i have a challenge and that is to feed myself and 3 cats on what i now have in the house for 3 weeks.

cats
25 tins cat food £10.60 amazon but used an evoucher so cost me £0, i had 1 tin here.)
2 kg bisuits £2.18

bought today
chicken fillets (approx 6) half price £2.99)
chasseur mix 33p
curry sauce mix 68p
value tin mushrooms 41p
2 large onions 40p

the above should make at least 8 meals.(rice (here), pasta (here), potatoes £1.49).

4 fish fillets in batter £2.00
parsley sauce £1.05

the above will make 4 meals. ( potatoes £1.49, peas (here), chips 50p with voucher.)

2 tins of spam with bacon in, bogof, offer £1.50

I will get 6-8 meals out of these. (6 eggs 69p,value tinned tomatoes 31p, pasta (here), potatoes £1.49)

so with the chicken broth i just made as well i seem to be ok for main meals.

also bought
3 x 4 pints of milk £3
small bottle concentrated squash 34p
value tea cakes 9p
shampoo 9p
sugar 82p
coffee £1.75
value yogurts 29p
food bags 60p (which i use to empty the cats mess in litter box)

total = 21.91

i have in my cupboards and freezer, bread,rolls,some veg, plenty of potatoes, 2 tins of soup, 1 tin spagetti, block of cheese, plenty of butter, low on condiments but will have to manage, 14 weetabix, 1/4 box shreddies, 12 packets of hula hoops, 30 tea bags, 3 packets of fruitella, 2 batter mix which only needs 1 egg so can make some pancakes and use up the maple syrup, tin of tuna, tortilla wraps, 4 slices of ham,6 x dairylea triangles, rice, pasta, 1/2 pack lard, 1/2 bag of plain flour, 1/2 cucmber and half a large bag of stuffing.

any suggestions on how i can maybe make this last longer than i need or some recipes out of what i have would be fab.

and lastly
had nice taxi driver on way home from shopping. i only had £2 in my purse and said i would have to go in house and get the other 60p and he told me its ok lol. good day being frugal i think.xxxx:j

purpleorchid

electric and gas

i have a large flask and fill it about twice a day. i live alone so dont need much hot water, so see no point in boiling the kettle everytime i need it, plus if i want to cook something then i already have hot water.

i made some draught excluders out of some old curtains and stuffing out of some old pillows, what was left from that was recycled with the weekly rubbish.

i have a small fan heater that i use downstairs, only need to put it on for 15 mins and the place is roasting. by doing this i am only heating the room i am in plus it is not on for long so works out much cheaper than gas.

also turned off all radiators in rooms i dont use and turned all my radiators down to 4.

about 4`o`clock i close all doors and put draught excluders in place as the temperature tends to drop then.

when im using the oven i will always try and use it for more than one thing to save on gas.

all my appliances are now A or A+A standard, so very energy efficient.

always do my washing on a 30 degree wash.

when my freezer is looking bare i put empty boxes inside of empty boxes as the more that is in there the less electric the freezer will use.

i dont use my hot water to wash my hands as it takes so long to warm up anyway, i just figured im wasting gas.

everything else

for your cats use a magazine or paper at the bottom of the tray and use shredded paper instead of litter, i am now saving £6-8 a month.:D

if you like your air freshners then try using incense instead as this is much cheaper and lasts much longer plus there more choice of fragrances.:money:

like luxury toilet paper?
pack of 9 nicky toilet rolls (home bargains) £2.00
these are really thick and fragranced, fab.:D

anything i buy food wise i always separate into food bags and then freeze as most often it would go to waste other wise. you can freeze mostly anything, e.g fresh veg, i peel and cut them then freeze them, meats, cheese, milk, bread, pastries (but not fresh cream, unless already frozen).

make a point of looking on updated and printable vouchers on here as this is where i find most of my coupons.

also sign up for magic freebies and tumble tots as you can get coupons and freebies, shop and scan, my say pays, my surveys. these pay out good rewards. i tend to use them as an evoucher for amazon, but they can be used for ebay, paypal, argos and loads of others.

if i can think of anything else will add it on

hth:D

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi everyone, really behind but hope everyone is well.

Been a terrible week as lost my beloved Ben on Tuesday night and really struggling TBH. Love the cats to pieces but they come for a quick cuddle & booger off and do "cat things" whereas Ben was with me all the time..... house feels awful and empty.

Haven't a clue what to do to fill in the time - up at 5am every morning and there is a limit to how early I can go into work. I really need to go for a walk as it does help my back a lot (arthritis) but just feels awful without him. This weekend has been the longest ever and only Sun am .....

Sorry for the depressing post - will be around reading but may not be posting as much for a while.

tumptyteapot

Hugs Rising