2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

COOLTRIKERCHICK

good luck with the run... i REALLY do need to lose weight, as i have ballooned over the last 18 - 24 months...maybe just try and walk more first i think:D

going to make a beef dinner today with the whoopsied beef joint in the freezer ( down from £9.14 to £2.20) and use the veg from one of the whoopsied stew packs

also going to make cawl...( yum i could honestly live off this) using one of the lamb shoulder shanks that were in a pack of 5 reduced to £1.60 ( so it works out at 32p per shank) a whoopsied stew pack (15p) reduced leaks ( 10p) and about a kg of potatoes ( works out at 22p per kg, bought a 25kg sack for £5.50)

soooooooooo all in all our sunday dinner will cost approx £2.85 ( extra to cover the frozen peas etc) for the 4 of us ......so works out 71p each:T.

then a large pot( its one of those large stock pot type of pans) of cawl will work out 79p:rotfl::T and flip knows how many bowl fulls we will get out of that:D

a frugmental bargin:beer:

edit...... wow i feel rather smug now at those prices.... sorry but it is bringing a proper cheeky grin on my face.... I think i have just found the solution ( for me anyway) to keep on track with the frugal meals

rubytuesday

Well I acquired two faux fur coats for the girlie on the way to get the dinner today.

I did knock on the door to make sure they were intent on disposing of them as their was a big holdall on the doorstep too.

If she's not keen I'm sure one of her friends will want them

SandraScarlett

It's great to read so many positive posts about NSDs, but please don't underestimate your wonderful achievements. So many of you have included the phrase (or similar) "it may not seem much, but I'm dead chuffed with myself" - but it is much!! If you've never tackled a budget before, or stuck to a shopping list, being frugal is like learning a foreign language, or building a house, single-handed.

Each saving is like laying a brick, and though one might not seem much, it takes thousands to build the house, and each brick is important. So keep laying those bricks and before you know it, you'll have a wall!

Thank you for all your good wishes - I had a wonderful day yesterday. Last year I composed, for my friend, a letter to the DHSS, who seemed to have made a mega error, regarding Attendance Allowance for my friends' 90 plus year old parents, and when we met up yesterday, she announced they'd finally admitted their mistake, to the tune of over £500, and lunch was on her! :j

So we dined in splendour at The Strand Palace Hotel, then had a great mooch in Covent Garden, before seeing, for the umpteenth time, Dreamboats and Petticoats. My DSIL met me at the station, armed with choccies and flowers from the family, and DH was fine when I got home, having microwaved for himself, one of the many frozen turkey dinners I'd prepared!

So the first week of January is now over, and let's hope everyone has made some savings, no matter how small. Thank goodness the weather is still mild, well, tropical compared with last year, so the heating bills should be Little Willies, and not King Williams!! :beer:

xx

happycrafter_2

Please can you add me to the list please.

This year we (as in all the family) are going to be more organised and less wasteful.

so my plans are:

- switch over gas and electric (done)
- switch over telephone and internet (have to wait till march for contract to end)
- asked kids about crisps and biscuits in lunchboxes and they would prefer to have homemade cakes, sausage rolls etc instead
- make all meals from scratch
- use local butcher and try different, cheaper cuts of meat
- stick to budget of £250 for food shopping
- prepare lunches for OH and I for work instead of buying from shops
- meal plan
- cancel sky movies (25th Jan) from over Christmas


I know there will be more and I am still working on my budget sheet

immie

Can i join the challenge still?
I've stocked up for january with an approved foods delivery and fruit and veg from rosspa. Got 10 tins of cream style sweetcorn for £2, to make chicken and sweetcorn soup cheaply, but i opened the first tin and the contents have all separated and looked a bit pale/ discoloured, i cooked it anyway and it does taste a bit odd... Do they do returns? probably not worth the hassle hmmm

seriouslyfrugal

Hi

hope everyone is ok went into town today went into m&s I got £5.50 worth of xmas cards for £1.00 :j

going swimming tomorrow first time in ages but I can get a weekly swim ticket which is for monday - friday 1 swim per day between 7am - 5pm for £ 5.00 brill :T as I need to shift that xmas weight gain

Edit:
( the leisure centre operates a passort to leisure scheme which is open to certain groups of the community ie disabled, retired people, and certain benefit claimants )


welcome to everyone new

hope everyone has a good frugal monday

rubytuesday

I went to M and S to buy a chicken today and I had a £5 off a £25 spend voucher so I had a think about what else I could get.

I was tempted by the any three for £10 on the meat and fish but have no space in my freezer at the moment.

So I just stuck to my chicken, some biscuits for cheese and a pot of cream and spent just £6 instead!

natnat13

Wow, wow, wow went to Mr M's today. I got lots of offers and used lots of coupons. I worked out that my shop should have been £93.09, that would have been me paying full retail on everything so 2 full prices on BOGOFs and half price items which to be fair I wouldn't have bought some things like 3 bottles of tom ket and 2 packs of beans! But anyway it came to £62.28 with BOGOF and half price offers then after vouchers £36.57!!!! That did include a £10 gift voucher for complaining about them not taking a coupon before Christmas. I was armed with the e-mail they sent me stating they do accept vouchers but got no problems today! The man on the till just said "Interesting" :rotfl:
So very good shop, cupboard now full and we have had whoopsied fresh pizza and 5p reduced to clear yoghurts for tea! DH was very impressed and even helped me unload the shopping (he never usually takes any interest in shopping)
Off to ebay, ebay, ebay now!

Squinky_McFeet

Yay My first nsd of the year :j

Changed to a cheap supermarket yesterday and spent around £15 for the weeks shop. I'm going to use stuff I have in and freeze extra meals

Squinky_McFeet

natnat13 wrote: »

Wow, wow, wow went to Mr M's today. I got lots of offers and used lots of coupons. I worked out that my shop should have been £93.09, that would have been me paying full retail on everything so 2 full prices on BOGOFs and half price items which to be fair I wouldn't have bought some things like 3 bottles of tom ket and 2 packs of beans! But anyway it came to £62.28 with BOGOF and half price offers then after vouchers £36.57!!!!

Wow thats so impressive! Did you use all vouchers from the voucher thread (which i really must look at) or did you find them in other places too?