2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

moneybear123

Having a great day!! I work part time for a wholesale company but haven't worked in months. I had to take some time off because we were having some trouble with our oldest daughter, and then things got slow at work and I could not go back as soon as I wanted to. I just got the call today that I can return to work Monday. :T So I called my hubby right away with the news, and he tells me he has gotten a pay raise!!!! :T:T:T I'm so excited I can't wait to start saving toward our savings goal and pay off our cc debt.
♥ Have a happy frugal day ♥

purpleorchid

JayneC wrote: »

SS we crossed posts, lol What a coincidence that we were both talking about the kettle!! I know some people make a flask of tea to avoid keep boiling the kettle. I don't do this but I might start!

i tend to fill my kettle only about twice a day and i have a large flask which i then fill, keeps it warm for at least 6hrs and if i need to do cooking then it dont take so long to boil, saving on gas as well as electric

Luv P
xx

Frivolous

SandraScarlett thank you for a fabulous receipe:T, I'll give it a go!!

LolaLemon

PIC I noticed the delay in reducing prices too, and not just in tesco.

DIZZY you are on! I was looking at Lucy's scarf from attic 24 , although she spent £55ish, I'm thinking of doing it with what I have here.

Or their is this one from red heart free patterns.... this.

Didn't spend a penny today, woohoo! But will be tomorrow :-(
Decided on getting my sister a nice top from new look, along with some vouchers for getting pampered...

I'm going to purchase a new top n jeans for me, it will be the last clothing purchase for me til summer and I'll hopefully need new skirts n shorts at least one size smaller than I am now! Plus last years and all the old stuff has either been donated or has to be donated as its too big. Yippeeee. is the one that has been on my to do list since I learned to crochet

twiglet98

maryb wrote: »

Go for it! You can get monitors which show you how much electricity you are using at any one point in time, though it doesn't tell you how much any individual appliance is using. You can get them free from some utility suppliers. The novelty wears off after a while so I wouldn't recommend buying one. But to start with it's quite compulsive going round the house to try and turn things off so that the number on the display is as low as possible. And once you get into the habit of doing that, it tends to stay with you even if you don't bother with the monitor

I agree, they can be a bit obsessive! I got one free from my electricity supplier (E0N). The display updates every 10 seconds and shows the present wattage being used, and the cost per day/month/year or something, which is confusing when it refreshes so quickly. The fridge and freezers kicking in make a big difference and of course they're never switched off. They're pretty old and not very efficient.

Unfortunately the grown up offspring here don't want to know how much electricity they waste, selective deafness ensues when I raise the subject. I refused to replace the tumble dryer when the old one broke, so they can no longer put their DRY work clothes in for half an hour just to warm them up before dressing... yes, really...:eek:...but they still go to sleep with their bedroom TVs on, use the electric oven to cook a rasher of bacon or heat one mince pie, and I've been off work today with this rotten bug, I went downstairs at 8am after they had all gone to work, to find every downstairs light switched on - that's NINE bulbs. The cats don't need lights to eat their breakfast! I'm going to take some bulbs out of their sockets, we have wall lights so one switch controls multiple lights, and (presumably) if a bulb is removed, the light socket would be 'live' but won't be using electricity?

If I cough and sneeze as much tonight as I did last night I'll stay home again tomorrow rather than irritate everyone at work, not to mention sharing my germs. I can count on one hand the sick days I've had in the last few years so I don't think there will be any snide remarks about skiving.

Hot lemon and honey nightcap with flu capsules - 'night all.

LolaLemon

twiglet98 wrote: »

I agree, they can be a bit obsessive! I got one free from my electricity supplier (E0N). The display updates every 10 seconds and shows the present wattage being used, and the cost per day/month/year or something, which is confusing when it refreshes so quickly. The fridge and freezers kicking in make a big difference and of course they're never switched off. They're pretty old and not very efficient.

Unfortunately the grown up offspring here don't want to know how much electricity they waste, selective deafness ensues when I raise the subject. I refused to replace the tumble dryer when the old one broke, so they can no longer put their DRY work clothes in for half an hour just to warm them up before dressing... yes, really...:eek:...but they still go to sleep with their bedroom TVs on, use the electric oven to cook a rasher of bacon or heat one mince pie, and I've been off work today with this rotten bug, I went downstairs at 8am after they had all gone to work, to find every downstairs light switched on - that's NINE bulbs. The cats don't need lights to eat their breakfast! I'm going to take some bulbs out of their sockets, we have wall lights so one switch controls multiple lights, and (presumably) if a bulb is removed, the light socket would be 'live' but won't be using electricity?

If I cough and sneeze as much tonight as I did last night I'll stay home again tomorrow rather than irritate everyone at work, not to mention sharing my germs. I can count on one hand the sick days I've had in the last few years so I don't think there will be any snide remarks about skiving.

Hot lemon and honey nightcap with flu capsules - 'night all.

My dad used to come in and turn off my TV at the sockets when he was going to bed, not for money saving, but cause my room was a mess, he was worried about a fire starting! (Must point out, their was more than just me in the room, I shared, and their wasn't much room to put anything anywhere.... ) was a pain having to tune everything back in.... but when I moved into my own place, I pull all my plugs out too...I hate that the fridge n freezer are plugged in lol.
BW - I would be absolutely fumming with the flat mate!

happycrafter_2

apart from buying my bus pass to get to work, it was a NSD and it will be the same today. Spent last night in the kitchen baking for lunchboxes and making the filling for my chicken and bacon pie for tea tonight.

Really need to finish off meal plan and work on shopping list, as its payday on Monday and we go shopping straight after I finish work.

After reading posts on electric I went round and checked if things really needed to be switched on at the plug socket.

Also need to look at this months milk and more offer, my to do list gets bigger everyday...

kittiej

Morning everyone

Just a fleeting visit because I've got a case study to do for uni.

I popped into Mr M's this morning and they are selling selection boxes for 50p, this is in S Wales.

6 bars of chocolate for 50p will keep the children happy for a while

(sorry if anyone else has already posted this)

quintwins

Frugaldom wrote: »

Welcome on board the good ship 'Frugaldom', username Happy but skint now added to the challenger list.

Quintwins, I'd recheck the figures for your computer and electricity as £54 per month is way too much to be attributed to just a single computer. That would work out at over 500w per hour burning 24/7 and even the top desktop computers with extra large monitors don't consume that much power. Maybe I misread your post, will go and re-read it, just in case.

Edit: Back again. I'm Guessing your computer must be some sort of monster, as my oil-filled radiator doesn't even use that amount a month. Wow! Glad there are no serious gamers in this household. :eek:

it really is and yeah it has a 500w power supply, we didnt even take into account the monitor, we output it to the tv at times aswell so i worked that out and the t.v costs 3pish an hr i was suprised our computer uses more elec than our massive t.v just goes to show, oh and my dryer costs £1.50ish a load :eek: saying that ive still got it on

i used to have an oil filled radiator there acually not as bad on elec as people think

pretty frugal day today, food from stores, lots of cleaning and phoning my landlord to come fix my heating, i put my cheap ikea fleeces on my bed last night and it was so warm and cosy we splet in even tho theres been no heat on for 3 day

Linz4383

quintwins wrote: »

it really is and yeah it has a 500w power supply, we didnt even take into account the monitor, we output it to the tv at times aswell so i worked that out and the t.v costs 3pish an hr i was suprised our computer uses more elec than our massive t.v just goes to show, oh and my dryer costs £1.50ish a load :eek: saying that ive still got it on

i used to have an oil filled radiator there acually not as bad on elec as people think

pretty frugal day today, food from stores, lots of cleaning and phoning my landlord to come fix my heating, i put my cheap ikea fleeces on my bed last night and it was so warm and cosy we splet in even tho theres been no heat on for 3 day

my electric is economy 7 so its a lot cheaper at nite (11.30pm-6.30am) in the day the tumble dryer takes my monitor up to around 36p :O an hour in the day and takes it to around 9/10p an hr at nite although i only do around 1-2 loads a week i would dread to think wot my bill would b if i had it on in the day!!!