Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - Part 3.

alec_eiffel

MrsB31 wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the advice sandra, minnie2 and alec eiffel!!

Things have improved with DH this past week! We had a long chat and he told me he felt that because he has a good job with a good salary he feels like he should be able to buy a shirt, pizza, DVD when he wants to but he understands that we have problems. I had to point out to him that his BMW costs us over £350 a month not including petrol!! and he smokes!! so any money for treats is gone with that! I think he gets it now ........ish or at least is trying!

Have had a frugal/not frugal week. It was DS 1st birthday last friday so we celebrated with a very unfrugal £15 chocolate monkey birthday cake from Asda. It was yummy tho :P

Had family for lunch on saturday and could have spent a fortune but used up bits and bobs from freezer and cupboard and did a buffet style lunch. Only thing I did buy was some good ham from farm shop and fresh salad stuff so spent £5 which is not bad considering I fed 10 adults and 4 kids!!

Had kids at soft play on sunday morning for first time in weeks but used 2 vouchers DS got for his birthday and brought our own snacks and drinks

Also started buying bargains to put away for christmas! 2 really lovely hardback books for £10 and I'll maybe aim to spend £10 a week if I spot any good buys!!

Pumpkins are coming on nicely and DD is delighted!! Is there anything I can plant now or have I missed the veggie boat this year??

That's great, glad you've managed to communicate with each other. It's exactly the same conversation myself and DH had after the scotch egg episode. He said it was easy for me as I was at home all day and if I didn't want to do something I didn't have to. And he was totally right! It takes time but once the lightbulb is on it's on and it can't be switched off again!

Hope things continue to go well.

SandraScarlett

MrsB31 wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the advice sandra, minnie2 and alec eiffel!!

Things have improved with DH this past week! We had a long chat and he told me he felt that because he has a good job with a good salary he feels like he should be able to buy a shirt, pizza, DVD when he wants to but he understands that we have problems. I had to point out to him that his BMW costs us over £350 a month not including petrol!! and he smokes!! so any money for treats is gone with that! I think he gets it now ........ish or at least is trying!

The most important thing is that you had a long chat. And the second is that he gets it now (ish) and is trying. Men are a strange breed, and need careful training. If he is trying, and for instance, says that he didn't buy a particular DVD, praise him, praise him, zillions of times, even if he still buys the pizza! Just one step at a time, might mean it takes a l-o-n-g time, but you'll get there in the end.

xx

tumptyteapot

yay! £56 on ebay sales, including one massive profit on a £2 skirt sold for £16, think that is my best yet!

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j
Great news on the savings Tumpty!!

We had a frugalish weekend here at Gnat Bottomed Towers although I'm not sure that Chinese takeaway comes into that category somehow;)- did however use a 10% off voucher:D
Plans for today are a whoopsie hunt in Waitrose shortly and then to finish my hm birthday card tonight.

For those wanting a bit of free and daft entertainment- google pointless websites. I have been amusing myself today with a site dedicated to Elizabethan expletives- insults were just so much more colourful in those days:rotfl::rotfl:
Arilx

Lookingtothefuture

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to come out of lurking to say 'Hi'! I am still reading with interest and think that you are all doing so well!

MrsB31... Hello! I saw that your hubbie isn't as on board as you. I think this is normal. My hubbie also isnt as on board as me, however since I sat him down and showed him how much impact the overpayments were making and how much money we were saving by doing it he seemed to be a lot more 'on board'. I must say he even said once that he wish that he had sat down and worked it out himself before but it just confused him too much. We now make savings where we can and I squirrel away as much as I can, without forcing it down his throat the whole time. My hubbie now gives me a little notice of something that he would like (not asking permission just mentions it in passing) and so I make sure there is the money there for his treats too. I also like to make a point of letting him know how much I make on ebay. Although he wouldnt ebay himself he is impressed by my achievements. My mother in law, thinks I am tight.:rotfl: She thinks that I make us live hand to mouth and that I am not normal by wanting to pay off the mortgage before I am 55! :eek: Luckily my hubbie doesn't agree and we can have a little giggle about it. Anyway Good luck!

Also I think Tumpty was looking for things to do in the holidays with an 8 year old. Do you have a woods close by? or a park? could you do a nature trail? or a picnic. Or how about junk modelling? collect boxes and newspapers and make robots and cars etc. Or the library? friends around for afternoon tea, sandwiches etc. If its hot you could have a water fight with him. Or gardening? then there is painting and drawing maybe. I hope that this helps.

Keep up the good work everyone, you are all very inspirational! :money:

*creeps back to my comfy lurking position!*

redglass_2

MrsB31 wrote: »

Pumpkins are coming on nicely and DD is delighted!! Is there anything I can plant now or have I missed the veggie boat this year??

You can plant garlic later this year - it stays in the ground over winter. Also broad beans for spring. There are winter lettuces and other leaf veg that you can plant - they grow slowly but some of them will put up with amazingly low temperatures. It partly depends where you live, whether you have a greenhouse, etc. SALAD LEAVES FOR ALL SEASONS by Charles Dowding is very informative and gives loads of advice on winter leaf crops. There are things you can still sow in August and September (that is, sow not plant out), or if you don't get round to it you can plant and dig in a green manure to give next year's crops a boost.

BTW Charles D is very keen on planting lots of lettuces and picking a few leaves from each rather than pulling them up. I've tried his method this year and have had huge bagfuls of fresh green salad and my two rows of lettuces are still there - even if some of them do look like shorn sheep, the leaves soon grow back and I can pick them all again. So I'm very taken with his advice and recommend it to frugal veggie-growers!

Edited to add: Welcome newbies/lurkers popping up!

tumptyteapot

Lookingtothefuture wrote: »

Also I think Tumpty was looking for things to do in the holidays with an 8 year old. Do you have a woods close by? or a park? could you do a nature trail? or a picnic. Or how about junk modelling? collect boxes and newspapers and make robots and cars etc. Or the library? friends around for afternoon tea, sandwiches etc. If its hot you could have a water fight with him. Or gardening? then there is painting and drawing maybe. I hope that this helps.

Thanks for all those ideas, we do a lot of that allready - we have 2 boxes full of little bits of paper with ideas on - one for rainy days, one for sunny days, I can add yours to the boxes. I'm just worried that I won't have the energy to play with him, I am wiped out with work and summer means little childcare. When I do get childcare I need to recharge rather than work. I've tried timetabling myself to make sure I get things done rather than fritter time away playing computer games and that helps a lot - more timetables needed!

tumptyteapot

Went to Mr A today to stock up on fish - I'm sure I've said this before but I'm never going to buy 3 for a tenner pre packed things of salmon ever again - a whole side of salmon cost just £6 - that's 5 meals for 2 people! I portion it up and freeze it. Tonight sprog and I had home made fish fingers from £3 worth of cod cos I splashed out (after saving so much on salmon) and home made potato wedges - I got him to cook all of it! And he ate it all! The trick to making fish fingers is the order of dipping - flour, egg then breadcrumbs - I oven baked them with the wedges (chop up potato, put in a plastic bag with salt and oil then get 8 year old to squish it around until it's all covered in oil, put on baking tray at 200 ish and cook for 20 mins) We decided it was such a posh way to eat fish fingers we had dinner by candlelight :-)

I have so much food in the house now, I'm trying to make sure I don't have to go to a supermarket over the summer, we are stocked up for 6 weeks apart from the odd top up and the fortnightly veg box.

MrsB31

Morning all!!

Alec- our scotch egg episode will be the TK Maxx Blazer episode!! The clash of wills that forced us to have a proper talk!

Sandra - it will take a long time!! but at least we are heading in the right direction this time

Looking - thankfully my MIL is lovely and quite frugal herself! Im off to ebay after posting this to list some of the kids old clothes. Thats the only thing I ever sell on ebay but it always does quite well. Last time I miscalculated postage tho and undercharged for every package! GRR!

Redglass - thanks for the advice! Trip to the library tonight is in order and I will look out the book you recommended. We have no greenhouse and quite a small garden so our options are limited! Although I love growing things in pots and bags! Just as well really!

We found out this week that DH requires surgery on his L6 herniated disc and will be recovering for 6-7 weeks out of work! We will have to start putting money aside for that time now as surgery could be anytime in the next 6 months. He will get full pay for 4 weeks so at least thats one thing but there is no way we could cope without his wage for even 1 month we have no savings whatsoever and until last month we were going deeper and deeper into our overdraft every month. I was planning on just concentrating on making it from one payday to the next without having to rely on credit cards or overdraft which is proving to be easier that I thought! We were just silly spending constantly!

Cant believe what a mess we have got ourselves into! But I know we will make it out the other side with some hard work!

Hope everyone has a lovely day x

paidinchickens

MrsB What are savings? :rotfl:

Not much going on here. Popped to Mr Ts before going to pick DGD up from school yesterday and got some reduced ready meals down to 19p :T so we all had those for tea with some bread and butter. We don't usually have ready meals and the kids got excited but when they ate them they really was not that keen. I think they prefer my cooking after all :rotfl::rotfl:

Also in the reduced section I bought some square wraps (never seen before) so they are having cheese and lettuce wraps for pack lunch til thursday :rotfl: I thought Mr Ts usually marked things down at night not at 2pm...............maybe they are trying to confuse me (does not take much )

I think we will be having home made chips and egg tonight if it is not raining ( I use the fryer in the garden as I hate the smell in the house )

I am having a night at the theatre tomorrow ( DSS school play) He has a main part as Merlin the wizard. Costume made by Auntie C and helped by me (I passed the pins and made the beard lol ) I really am looking forward to it as he is quite the little comedian and loves being in the spot light. I just hope he does not forget there are people watching and do one of those embarrassing boy things like picking his nose :rotfl::rotfl:

DH is still having a hard time off the Mega Beast at work which is getting him down at the mo. It really is upsetting as there is nothing I can do

Going to take some pics for Ebay to see if we can all retire early :rotfl::rotfl:

Hope there is sunshine where you are

Luv

PIC x