Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - Part 3.

Savvy_sewing

With only a week to go before my holiday, I have been keeping out of the shops. I have been very lucky, with a freezer still well stocked from meats and some frozen vegetables. But I have to say even luckier that when my eldest daughter popped by for me to babysit her new baby, she noticed I was out of squash and brought me two varieties in a bigger container then I usually have.
Then my friend Molly has brought us over some fruit, milk portions, fresh milk and cheese things for DGD. Then last weekend we were visiting DGD's Mum and she gave us some lollies and biscuits. Then BF came over on the weekend, he brought the bread and the wine, and then Molly brought us over some cakes she had made, biscuits, and milk again. So we have not spent anything on food in 2 weeks plus now. I think that is.
I havent had a proper food shop since the beginning of July, and the biggest spend was more to buy ink cartridges and get cash out, from my Tesco shopping. Food actually only totalled about £45.
I have to rreally get the rest of the budget back on track, after catching up with CW18's spreadsheet, I was already overspent on quite a few catogories, so I have had to re thing the budget, and now the Council tax and housing benefit have a QUEIRY and I have to pay back over £1,000 so we are in a bit of a dilemma. I have changed my fuel supplier, my phone, my broadband, my TV package. So we are to really look at the rest of it when I get back. In a way I wish I had not got the holiday, but its been booked, and we do need a break. We are self catering, so I can budget as best I can while away.

paidinchickens

lola I am so sorry your kitty has wondered off, I would be crying my eyes out!! We have had a few go missing near us lately and all have been found in peoples garages or shed. Our Mummy cat got stuck in our next door neighbours garage while she was preggers!!! He is new to the street and did not know you have to check your garage and shed EVERY time you use them as we are all cat lovers in our cul de sac lol (he is young he will learn Mwahhhhhhhh) Our cat did go a lot further than normal when she was dating!!! an old run down stately home the tramp lol.

Finished the boys bedroom (well DH is up there just hoovering) and have donated all their old quilt covers, curtains and lamp shade (from Next) on freecycle. I think the lady is very lucky as they are in good nic but sadly the boys have grown out of toy planes. I had to laugh how things have changed as now their curtains are 20p from jumble £5 carpet from ebay and paint left from sons bedroom ohh and a 50p lampshade from B&Q that was dinted (we turned it round so you can't see lol)

Have got a visit from Mother tomorrow :eek::eek::eek: So I wonder what faults she will find grrrrrrrrrrrr

Nite peeps

PIC xxxx

dizzy_lizzie

Lola I hope and pray MalleyCat comes prancing through the door asap. You must be sick with worry.
I couldn't have a cat for this reason, They're lovely animals but I'd be on pins everytime they went out!

paidinchicks hope all goes well with mum's visit.

Hi landregistrylass. I'm the same. Thinking about Christmas already and I've bought a couple of small Christmas x stitch kits to make into cards. I want to start getting organised for the Festive Season. It'll soon be here :eek:
Mooloo I bet you have a lovely and when you get back you'll be all refreshed and ready to tackle anything.
Love and hugs to you all
Dizzy x

chika

Hello frugal lads and lasses.

I've been reading but not posting lately as I've been really busy. Although it's the school holidays I've been moonlighting as a nanny which has been fun and earned some much needed extra cash to boost the bank balance. Well I say that but its all been spent moving house. I moved from a fancy city centre flat to a place in a not so desirable area. However the rent and bills have gone from approx £1000 a month to £180 a month so I'm pleased and can cope with the looks of pity that my new postcode brings. It's still only 1.5 miles from the city centre and a ten minute commute so all is good. What I didn't count on was furnishing the place. I've bought almost everything second hand and saved a fortune. I bought a new mattress as I didn't fancy a 2nd hand one but still spent less than £400 for a full house of good quality and almost matching furniture. I bought two lovely habitat sofa (one is a sofa bed) for £70 a full Laura Ashley bedroom set with triple wardrobe, double chest of drawers, bed, dressing table, 2 bedside cabinets and ottoman for £150 I'm painting some of it for a shabby chic look but it still looks good as is. Freecycle has proved useful too. I managed to get a big TV and stand and a DVD player which is fab and cost the price of a bottle of wine for the person who offered it.

Off out to the garage now. Some (*&^(*&(& drove into my (brand new) car the other day and knocked off the mirror. They then proceeded to drive off down a residential street at about 80mph!!! I couldn't catch them or get their reg number so I'm going to have to pay for it. It's held on with sellotape now but it needs to be fixed before it really damages the car. My local garage have quoted £140 to fix which is much better than VW's £320! I hope and pray that karma will catch those people!

dizzy_lizzie

Wow chika. Some amazing bargains there! And it all sounds so country chic. Lovely. Hope you make lots of lovely memories in your new home

Luv dizzy x

slowlyfading

chika - sounding good hope you like your new place!

I've not done a lot today, I've been to the library to get 3 books out, I've walked the dog and cooked a stir fry for tea and that's about it. I also tried some wedding shoes on, but not bought them. I'll have a think

dizzy_lizzie

slowlyfading wrote: »

chika - sounding good hope you like your new place!

I've not done a lot today, I've been to the library to get 3 books out, I've walked the dog and cooked a stir fry for tea and that's about it. I also tried some wedding shoes on, but not bought them. I'll have a think

Hi slowly. I have on order the new magazine 'vintage life' and up to now each month there has been a real vintage wedding in. Like people getting married in woods with bunting and gramophones for the music etc. With vintage tea sets for the buffet, you get the drift All looks so dreamy. Makes me want to get married all over again, though there is only me in our house who thinks vintage chic is lovely
Luv dizzy x
Just found this...just what I was saying
http://thevintagelassies.blogspot.com/2011/07/oh-sew-vintage-real-life-wedding-yellow.html

slowlyfading

lizzie - thanks for that link! i'm getting excited about ours now, I just want it to be here!

dizzy_lizzie

You're welcome
I've just found this as well which may come in handy

http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2010/09/vintage-chic-wedding-fair-2nd-october-worcester-uk.html

When OH and I got married we arranged it all in 6 weeks! He worked away at the time and we were moving to the area so to allow everyone to come to the wedding we arranged it pretty quickly.
In a registry office, I always wanted a church wedding.
No photographer, never even thought about it, though we still have lovely photos.
No honeymoon. I was mum to OH's toddlers from his first marriage and they lived with us, plus we also had our first born by that time, so a honeymoon wasn't an option.
We did have a reception and DJ though.
Hmmmmm I think it's dawning on me why I dream of white weddings
But we will be celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary this year! So maybe not the wedding I wanted but our married life has more than made up for it
And we ended up not moving after all. I couldn't leave my family when it came to it so OH got a job nearer home.
Luv Dizzy x

slowlyfading

Don't live anywhere near there unfortunately thanks for the link though! and it might not have been the wedding you wanted, but it was definitely to the right person by the sounds of it