Hard Times: How to cope with everyday living.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

great thread! Thanks for kicking it off! I have been living frugally for a few year snow and it is 'normal' for us as a family. The kid soften say, 'dont waste your money mum' when I iffer to buy them something but they get it 2nd hand anyay and are happy with it as they have lots of clothes.

- PAYG mobile, no contract
-grow my own veg
-no wastage of anything especially food
-rubber chicken, roast on sunday, risotto monday, soup tuesday, chicken carbonara wed
-bake my own bread
-save breadcrumbs for puddings and stuffing
-I'm having a frugal xmas this year, no point spending a fortune on snacks and rubbish that makes you fat and feel bad, although we will have nice things
-got rid of 2nd car a few years ago and got a bike, dont miss it really
-only but stardrops, zoflora, washup liquid, bleach and wash powder to clean and use old rags as cloths
-charity shops, jumble sales and car boots...think long term for things eg winter coat in summer and stock pile non perishables when cheap to save money, I think putting money into food when cheap gives a better return than the bank!
- make things last longer,
-packed lunches and flasks for everyone
-look after what you have

EDIT: I cook stews and curries in an insulated cardboard box to save on energy costs and it works better than a slow cooker! Boil it up till piping hot then put in the box all day and its ready for tea!

ragz_2

Karen_of_Sussex wrote: »

Please can we have a thread that addresses the extremely difficult financial times we are living in at the moment and how people are adjusting their lifestyle to cope?

haven't we already got quite a few of those?

Some good tips though so I'll keep reading I do love these sorts of threads!

EDIT: I cook stews and curries in an insulated cardboard box to save on energy costs and it works better than a slow cooker! Boil it up till piping hot then put in the box all day and its ready for tea!

Really? What kind of box, how is it insulated? I'm intrigued?

empy

Hi, love the idea of this thread and have got some fab ideas from it already, thank you for me the things I currently do include:
- Switching everything off at the plug i.e the mircrowave, cooker, tv etc- apparently the same amount of electricity is used if something is on standby.
- Taking a set amount of money out each month for grocerys and dividing it equally between the 4-5 weeks of the month, thus reducing the amount of money I waste when using my debit card and knowing I've a large overdraft to cover my spending! This is a mindset I'm trying to get out of
- Menu planning and writing a strict shopping list and only taking enough cash with me for the items on my list.
- Drying everything on my airers and not using my TD at all- I'm not sure how much it costs to run a TD but I guess quite a lot.

That's all I can think of right now- I hope there are other things I do, but I'm still a novice old styler

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

ragz wrote: »

haven't we already got quite a few of those?

Some good tips though so I'll keep reading I do love these sorts of threads!



Really? What kind of box, how is it insulated? I'm intrigued?

Its just a cardboard box with polystyrene liner that I can fit a pan into. I was lucky because my hubby found it at work that something got delivered in. There are more expensive set ups around but I did it on the cheap

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi all i can add is that as well as doing lots of the mentioned i think all the time think before i buy before i throw away before i turn on heat tec always thinking and trying to buy out of season for cheaper eg summer stuff in winter x

msb5262

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

Its just a cardboard box with polystyrene liner that I can fit a pan into. I was lucky because my hubby found it at work that something got delivered in. There are more expensive set ups around but I did it on the cheap

Some friends of mine use a box like this but we live in the country and theirs is the old-fashioned version...it's a haybox - a sturdy cardboard box, lined with newspapers, then stuffed with hay! It works extremely well and of course is a very eco-friendly way of cooking, not least because if any food is spilled on the hay, it goes in the compost and is easily replaced.
I was wondering how anyone could use this cooking method if they lived in the city without easy access to hay, but now my question is answered!

MsB

candygirl

msb5262 wrote: »

Some friends of mine use a box like this but we live in the country and theirs is the old-fashioned version...it's a haybox - a sturdy cardboard box, lined with newspapers, then stuffed with hay! It works extremely well and of course is a very eco-friendly way of cooking, not least because if any food is spilled on the hay, it goes in the compost and is easily replaced.
I was wondering how anyone could use this cooking method if they lived in the city without easy access to hay, but now my question is answered!

MsB

Ooooh i've never heard of this:D:D
Am thinking of what ideas I use, and will come back to you all:DOne of the things I have cut down on is having my hair done.Now I colour it at home, and have a friend cut it every few months:D:D
Also when my jeans fade I dye them, as a dye only cost £3 and does 2 pairs at a time:)

Aarons_mummy

I buy nothing gift wise or even clothes wise at full price anymore, I buy shoes when I need them and also cheaply (my winter boots cost me £10 and my other pair cost me £5) both excellent quality just cheap at the time of purchase. I buy all gifts in the sales (family has expensive tastes, homemade would just not do!).

I mend things as much as possible in order to make them stretch.

I have a stock pile that is truly mention worthy, I have premium toiletries and make up bought at stupid prices thanks to glitches, sales etc and have cost little more than pennies each.

I make a lot of vegetarian meals during the week and have stopped the takeaway at the weekend.

I make a winter box of essentials all year round so that I just have to buy a little more than regular at Christmas, this year there won't be as much treats etc we will have nice things but just not as much as what we would normally.

I try not to go into town more than once a week (bus fares) unless I have an appointment to get to or whatever as it means I am much less likely to spend.

I have had a spare duvet on the couch since September, makes it much less likely for me to go and switch the heating on. We also have a couple of blankets down here too.

A cup of smartprice hot chocolate warms up the wee ones tum while snuggling under the blanket and he see's it as a treat.

I've downgraded my coffee to Asda gold roast, half the cost of Nescafe, Kenco etc and I don't see much difference.

Making cakes etc from scratch instead of buying them.

Downgrading the Virgin package to the lowest possible, along with the contract mobile which will be cancelled when the time is up on it.

Doing cheap activities with my little boy instead of taking him to soft play etc costing money each week.

I can't really think of anything else at the moment, I do try and do as much as possible and I have found that if you have the funds to buy when things are cheap and on offer you end up spending much less overall on products of any sort.

Lavandula

Some great ideas here:T. We have not had the heating on this Autumn yet. Still quite mild down here on the South Coast.

Have just bought a cooking apple tree (half price £12) and will plant that today.

Am planning on starting to make some plum wine this week...

thrifty-gal26

I have a big list that we have done over the past 2 years but the main things are:

Got rid of sky
Stopped going out unless very cheap ( like with a voucher )
Stopped smoking
Started cooking loads and batch cooking
Changed to cheaper insurance, gas, electric, phones etc
Eat very little meat
Only buy clothes when really, really need and ask for clothes for bday and xmas for step son
Stopped buying magazines
Stopped buying DVDs / renting DVDs
Stopped gym membership

Basically, stopped everything )