Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - Part 3.

hattifattener

:wave: Hi there,

I'm considering joining this thread as a way to keep tracks on my attempts to save money. Basically, hubby-to-be and I have been budgetting the last 4 months, and we are pretty much breaking even, which is ok as I'm on mat leave and we're happy to tighten our belts while we start our family. On December 31st our income will go down by £500 odd a month as my MA ends, so we will definitely need to decrease our spending by £500 or possibly more.

I love MSE, but sometimes I find all the tips overwhelming and don't know where to start!

We meal plan, although we're not strict about it at the moment, and we don't do really MSE things like eating mince 3 days in a row for example.
I used to be a vegetarian, so we only eat meat maybe once a week, sometimes less. We eat fish usually once or twice a week.
Fiance cycles to work every day. We don't have a car.
We buy (and have always bought) 95% of our clothing from charity shops, and pretty much all of our books, household nicknacks, furniture etc from there.
Baba is fully breastfed and we are lucky enough to have been given almost everything he needs for his first few months 2nd hand.
We cloth nappy.
We use a breadmaker.

There's 2 adults, and one baby in our happy family. We don't spend a great deal on going out drinking or for meals out, or on clothes, dvds etc, so we do enjoy buying and cooking nice food. OH thinks value food isn't worth buying because he doesn't like most of it.

Can anyone think of any tips to get us started on saving money? The only thing I can really think of atm is that we spend over £200 a month on supermarket shop on average, which sounds quite steep to me!

Thankyou for any help - I'm enjoying reading all your previous posts.

paidinchickens

hattifattener wrote: »

:wave: Hi there,

I'm considering joining this thread as a way to keep tracks on my attempts to save money. Basically, hubby-to-be and I have been budgetting the last 4 months, and we are pretty much breaking even, which is ok as I'm on mat leave and we're happy to tighten our belts while we start our family. On December 31st our income will go down by £500 odd a month as my MA ends, so we will definitely need to decrease our spending by £500 or possibly more.

I love MSE, but sometimes I find all the tips overwhelming and don't know where to start!

We meal plan, although we're not strict about it at the moment, and we don't do really MSE things like eating mince 3 days in a row for example.
I used to be a vegetarian, so we only eat meat maybe once a week, sometimes less. We eat fish usually once or twice a week.
Fiance cycles to work every day. We don't have a car.
We buy (and have always bought) 95% of our clothing from charity shops, and pretty much all of our books, household nicknacks, furniture etc from there.
Baba is fully breastfed and we are lucky enough to have been given almost everything he needs for his first few months 2nd hand.
We cloth nappy.
We use a breadmaker.

There's 2 adults, and one baby in our happy family. We don't spend a great deal on going out drinking or for meals out, or on clothes, dvds etc, so we do enjoy buying and cooking nice food. OH thinks value food isn't worth buying because he doesn't like most of it.

Can anyone think of any tips to get us started on saving money? The only thing I can really think of atm is that we spend over £200 a month on supermarket shop on average, which sounds quite steep to me!

Thankyou for any help - I'm enjoying reading all your previous posts.

Big welcome :T

As for tips on saving money it has taken us a couple of years to get to the point we are at now. After going through all the bills and major things with a fine tooth comb we then started on the little things. People on here are so full of inspiration and I pick out the things that work for me so just keep reading!!!

My favourite thing of cutting back on was the TV licence :T and finding the joys of jumble sales Charity shops are too expensive for me.

While sat here pondering on what I missed most giving up I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing I miss giving up if it does not spring to mind in five minutes :rotfl: We do not go without we just make sure we can do/buy/find or beg as cheaply as possible.

I was in much the same position as you, packing in work last year and having to find ways to cut back.

As for the shopping bill we spend £200 month for two adults three growing boys and five cats!!! We do use a lot of blue stripy label food though :rotfl:

Good luck

PIC xxxx

paidinchickens

Forgot to say I refuse to use cheap toilet roll, drink cheap coffee or eat cheap breakfast cereal


Everyone has their limits

redglass_2

Welcome, Hattifattener!

If you don't eat meat very often then you needn't worry about not having mince 3 days in a row: you're probably doing cheaper already.

I don't have an OH myself but I know some MSE-ers have sneakily introduced budget lines without letting on and their fussy partners never noticed. Shhhhhhh....

slowlyfading

Sandra - your day sounds fab

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi Hattie :j

i found just take baby steps, and before you know it, all those pennies you save here there and everywhere will add up..

Does this sound ok to you, i forgot to use the chicken carcass las night to make chicken stock ..( ok i own up, i didnt forget i was too cosy on the sofa with my blanket watching tv:cool::rotfl:) so tonight i was thinking of boiling some potatoes and leeks,( potato aand leek soup) and putting in the bones of the chicken legs, and then take htem out before i pulp it all up..so basically a quick fix chicken stock..? will have this for lunch tomorrow..

tonight we are having a sausage and mash dinner

ceridwen

paidinchickens wrote: »

Forgot to say I refuse to use cheap toilet roll, drink cheap coffee or eat cheap breakfast cereal


Everyone has their limits

I think many of us have "Do not pass there" signs on some things that are strictly non-negotiable when it comes to cost savings.

Its just going to vary as to our own personal priorities - and, in my case, healthy food and "real" coffee are non-negotiables - whilst I'm quite prepared to (and feel "good" about) doing things like using old rags as cleaning cloths/bartering for food I want/making sure I dont overpay on bills. I know, for instance, that a lot of people make running a car a high priority item. Sometimes they live "in the back of beyond" and its difficult to see how they could manage at all without a car (so thats understandable in those circumstances). On the other hand - there are those who absolutely INSIST on carrying on running a car regardless and that I personally dont understand.
I've watched a lot of people insist that a "luxury"/non-necessity expense is an absolute necessity and go ahead anyway on the one hand. Other people might think my "real" coffee is a luxury on the other hand - though the reason for that is I hate tea/hate most herbal teas/find instant coffee undrinkable - so its down to "fussy tastebuds".

Things WILL vary from person to person as to what is non-negotiable and why....

natnat13

I can't eat "cheap" tomato ketchup, I would rather go without (but the kids wouldn't!) Coffee has to be good quality too. I then buy a lot of "blue label" to balance it out. I hate having to have a car but I live in a rural area so it is a necessity. I think it is all about cutting down where YOU feel you can, it's a personal lifestyle choice thing.

SandraScarlett

Welcome hattifattener to this lovely thread. Having read your post, you seem to be making some great savings already, and could probably teach us a few things!

You must be a busy Mummy with a bubba who depends on you for all nourishment, via your boobies, so you need to eat well anyway, at this time, and you've recently had a lot of hard work, growing your lovely baby and giving birth!

So you make sure you look after yourself sweetie, and I hope you find lots of tips from the great crowd on here. :beer: BTW, I froze a lot of my Tesco bonanza on Saturday so today I defrosted some and we had Macaroni Cheesepots for lunch (20p each) and then Stone Baked Pizza (50p) with Mushroom Burgers (27p) and salad for dinner, followed by Apple Pie (15p) and custard. :j And my £1 chicken lasted for 3 days!!

Out for a pub lunch with a friend tomorrow . We have tap water, which they grandly serve to us with slices of lemon and lime, and Pensioner Meals, £5 for 2, things like jacket potato and salad, or egg and chips, then we go mad and have a coffee for £1.20.

Have managed to get my Frugal Four Months off to a great start, thanks to all these bargains!!

xx

tumptyteapot

urgh - tax credits want me to proove the hours I have worked for the first quarter of the year, since a lot of it is unpaid, still trying to get the business to pay me I haven't written down the hours. I'm short of time to squeeze everything in anyway so this is a right pita.
has anyone had this from tax credits?