Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - Part 3.

SandraScarlett

Welcome to any newbies, and hallo to the oldies. Tumpty, we took our children to all the holiday camps from the late 1960s, to the mid 1980s. They were cheap, compared to hotels, farms etc, and had excellent entertainment for the children.

If you are self catering, then I suggest you wash your crockery and utensils first, and then flit around with a packet of baby wipes, removing dirt/grot etc. I used to do that when we arrived, and then I knew any dirt or grot was our dirt and grot, and quite healthy and hygienic!!

A lot of people write bad reviews on the basis of "I'm paying £10 oer night and it's not The Ritz"!! I agree with Silvasava, and let's hope you are pleasantly surprised.

xx

redglass_2

Mooloo wrote: »

I am still rather scared to get a grip on my budget. I know that that is a terrible confession on here! But I just have left it since March, and now dont think I can face going back over all the bank accounts, and knowing that I have overspent on things by a very long margin.
The fact that its burying my head in the sand at the precisely wrong time, is daft, but I just cannot seem to bring myself to face it.!!
I am not in any new debts or anything. Except the same old Fuel bills.
I do still have money in my bank accounts, and no overdrafts, with a small amount in savings of £500. But I know that that will not be enough. As I was paying my bills as they came in. So car insurance, and things like that all paid annually. That saying its now only a month away from my car insurance. So I think I have just realised reading your post that I have left it a bit late, and that I am going to have to face the music. EEEEKK

Mooloo - the last time you posted I replied saying I was in the same situation (ie fallen behind with record keeping) and I still am. My working life has changed so that from doing (more or less) the same each week, I now have huge peaks and troughs and the warmer months are peak time. I have to work as much as possible to make money for when the troughs come, and as a result some things have 'fallen off the table' - counting up my bills being one of them. I vowed that from July onwards I would keep records faithfully again, but at the moment I'm juggling jobs fast and furious and it's as much as I can do to get the washing up done - it doesn't make sense to be spending a long time adding up bills when I could use that time to earn money, IYSWIM. (Before anyone jumps on me, I do realise it would be better if I found time for both.) I've decided not to punish myself for this - I am still being frugal, still spending much less than I used to. There's nothing to be done about the past months, whether you record them or not: that spending is over and done with. What do you really need to do for the rest of the year? Is it essential, or only desirable, to keep count of every last penny? Your situation with the fuel bills won't necessarily improve if you add up all the previous bills. You might be better off channeling the effort into raising some money towards the future ones. Hope this helps....I know how guilty and sick it can feel not to be keeping up with something.

tumptyteapot

LolaLemon wrote: »

Been dying to share this with u all, and remembered that I had a bucket account that could upload from the mobile, so here she is; Miss Turtle. She is only 1 day old, and hasn't opened her eyes yet.
(She is a present for my cousins 6 week olds christening.)
I am very proud of her.

wow, that is so cool! my granny made me one about 40 years ago, I still have it :-) you made it so neatly too!

rising_from_the_ashes

23rdspiral wrote: »

Tried to go to a car boot but it was off due to wet ground, so drove home a different way and spotted a new 'tipshop' in a small village... And they had a Tupperware set that I've been wanting for years:D, and a water butt!!:) They also had a little cupboard from the 1930s that amazingly enough matches one a friend gave me that was her mums! Plus 2canvases i can give as baby presents and two plates all for £15.00. I'm very happy!:j:j

Ps. I definitely have my head in the sand over my car insurance.

Ohhhhhh wish they had things like that here.

I'd love a water butt but they're so expensive to buy new -
- currently using an old dustbin but it'd be lovely to have a proper one.

I must admit that I'm not that frugal in my water use but TBH until we are charged fairly then I'm not going to worry about it.

It annoys me intensely that I pay the same in water rates as the family with 2 adults & 3 teenagers a couple of doors down but must use a fraction of the water they do - single people don't even get 25% discount off water rates like we do for council tax.


I've had one of the most expensive days I can remember:(.

Had to get fuel, dog food and then popped to Mr A (for a couple of things - came out £50 poorer:().

Over £120:eek::eek::eek: in total.

I really wish I could get my milk somewhere other than Mr A so I could try to avoid it for a while! However, I'd probably still need to go every week as the only alternative is the local store which is extortionate (eg pack of ham to make sandwiches is over £3.50:eek:).

Saying that, there were loads of cleaning products for £1 so stocked up big time and think I should have just about enough anti-bacterial surface sprays, washing up liquid, floor cleaning fluid, fabric conditioner and handwash etc etc to last until the end of the year!:D

JIL

ikati5 wrote: »

Do you know that V media have been bought out by Sky, so prices will be very similar.

I dont really understand this I thought that Sky had bought the TV channels only and VIRGIN still owned the telecommunications packages. I would like to understand how it works though as we currently have both. The TV downstairs has sky and we have a package from virgin media that includes broadband, a phone and a tv package upstairs. I do want to cut back in this area but persuading the other half is something i need help with.

23rdspiral

sophsnan wrote: »

sorry what is a "tipshop" never heard of it before but am very intrested

The council used to let the men at the tips sell on anythignthey thought salvageable from the skips... Anything from wine making kit, bikes to furniture. The public would leave out what they knew was usable too. It was really ad hock, variable prices, things kept in a lorry container thing. But that wasn't good enough when all the tips became 'recycling centers' and were made fancy. Now a separate company takes away what they deem viable, to a shop somewhere. In one town it's the old woolworths, which is great as it's easy to get to, but the one nearer me is out of the way on an industrial site. These shops are good as they test electricals but they sell less of the odd or repairable stuff, and for me some of the soul is gone, and of course there is transport and rent and separate staff so prices have increased.
Sorry for the essay.... It's a bit of a bone of contention round here.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Ohhhhhh wish they had things like that here.

I'd love a water butt but they're so expensive to buy new -
- currently using an old dustbin but it'd be lovely to have a proper one.

What do they have instead? Theres got tot be a system for keeping usable stuff out of landfill if only to help the council meet its targets?

We were hoping to get a 'recycled wheelie bin off a mate but that didn't happen. This one is oddly dumpy shaped, but a full size one wouldnt have fit in my micra! They are soo expensive, found wilkinsons had cheapest, if used bricks instead of plastic base. We're on a water meter for first time ever and also now have a garden since moving... So I've had buckets, cans, curver boxes and tubs out collecting water... I'm glad our garden will hopefully look less like an explosion in a tip shop!!

tumptyteapot

going strawberry picking today :-)

23rdspiral

Oh and I took that handbag back to Accessorize yesterday. Just couldn't justify it, despite it being a great color, shape and size, I just didn't NEED it. That really shows how much this thread has helped me.

Thank you everyone!

Kitchenbunny

Hi there, just popped on to say that I'm loving the new thread and that I'm lurking. Thanks for the inspiring posts.

KB xx

paidinchickens

Will catch up on posts later

Just been clearing the waste land at the end of our street and as we have cut the grass, picked up litter and cut the brambles back from the road for the past 12 years (well DH has) we may be able to adopt the land and could possibly use it for growing veg not counting chickens or anything but it would be fab if we could.

Will catch up tomorrow when a little quieter in the house.

Have a great rest of the weekend peeps xxxx