📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

1116117119121122334

Comments

  • rubytuesday
    rubytuesday Posts: 22,383 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Good Morning everyone.

    Dizzy so sorry to hear you are unwell again -may be you could take something to strengthen the immune system?

    When my daughter was constantly unwell she was recommended floradix and also elderberry extract and it seemed to help her.

    I am doing very well with this no spending lark at the moment inspired by Spookybuffy's thread.

    I have managed to stay out of the charity shops although I have had palpitations seeing the heaving racks through the windows!

    I have sold some things on eBay although I found the packing and addressing stressful!

    I'm also going to treat myself to some Butterfly prints with some Christmas money I received so I won't feel too deprived.
    Here dead we lie because we did not choose
    To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
    Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose,
    But young men think it is,
    And we were young.
    A E Housman
  • natnat13
    natnat13 Posts: 646 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Morning all.
    Full of cough and cold here but ok.
    Been walknig to school, not spent anything but 30p on the sun for the holiday tokens!
    Got quite a bit of work on atm as well which is good.
    I have started this food plan whenever I make a stew, cottage pie, whatever, I double up and make 2 and put it in the freezer. Then I always have meals at hand and don't resort to takeaways.
    Having said that it's DH birthday tomorrow so we are going to the pub for lunch but they have a 2 for £12 menu so it won't be a bit spend.
    Hugs to those who need them.
    Mum to 2 DSs, dog mum, wife full-time worker.
    Keen to live a healthly lifestyle and save money
  • I have sold some things on eBay although I found the packing and addressing stressful!

    If any of you are selling, I wondered if you'd tried FACEBAY, it's a page you can sell your unwanted things on (no business sells though).

    My friend got rid of loads of stuff and made a small fortune. THere are no fees, and like freecycle, the buyer is expected to collect.

    It's on facebook, but if you do a search for facebay (your town), you should be able to find your local one.


    Other than that, pup is doing a lot better. He still has a sore leg and has excess energy, but he is a lot brighter.

    I bought a loaf pan out of MR T (a whopping 4.50), but it's a long one and I haven't seen any others around. Going to do a dough in the breadmaker and try and bake in the oven (I keep trying to do bread and never happy with the results).

    Besides that, I've bought some tomato seeds and going to pot them and grow in the house as I'm minus a greenhouse right now (storm flattened it). OH is going to build me a bigger one :jand all the broken frames and plastic are going to be used to make a row of cold frames, so expect a very productive garden this year.
    Payment a day challenge: £236.69
    Jan Shopping Challenge: £202.09/£250
    Frugal Living Challenge: £534.64/15000
  • rubytuesday
    rubytuesday Posts: 22,383 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Thanks for that wornoutmum - I have heard of people selling on FB but didn't know it was called face bay so I will have a look.

    I always get stressed wrapping Christmas presents too and usually have two pairs of scissors and two Sellotapes on the go as it's inevitable one will get buried under something sending me into a frenzy!
    Here dead we lie because we did not choose
    To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
    Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose,
    But young men think it is,
    And we were young.
    A E Housman
  • taka
    taka Posts: 3,483 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    :hello:

    Hello! I've not been on MSE in ages! I used to do this challenge a couple of years ago and was wondering...

    could I join this challenge again please?

    I was made redundant in the summer and managed to get another job a wee bit later but this has meant a 20% pay cut. Things are a bit tighter than before so I need to keep a decent eye on my outgoings...

    cw18 - The student exemption applies to water / sewage costs too so she should have nothing to pay. She will need to check with her academic institution / local council as soon as she finds somewhere to stay in order to ensure she is listed as a student for council tax purposes - the way of doing this varies between councils and between colleges / Unis. Local info will probably be on her Uni / college website - probably on the student union website if there is one and on her local council website.
    Mortgage free as of 12/08/20!
    MFiT-5 no 45
    You can't fly with one foot on the ground!
  • twiglet98
    twiglet98 Posts: 886 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    gigglybug wrote: »
    (to those of you who want to make extra money, if you think it is something you might like it might be worth looking into your local hospital nursing bank (as an NA) It is a lovely job (yes there are some unpleasant jobs, but if you've had kids you've already covered the basics)and so flexible, mine only asks for 4 shifts a month and you get to choose what days and shifts you work, the money is quite good and you meet some lovely characters)

    I did care work at nights in hospitals and nursing homes, for agencies, when the two eldest children were small, I slept when they were at school and playgroup. Stopped when pregnant with 3rd and have often thought I'd love to go back to it, but all the ads around here demand NVQ qualifications - no such thing existed 20 years ago, and the agency I used to work for closed long ago so I can't even get a reference now. Gigglybug did you approach the hospital directly or were they advertising?
  • I always get stressed wrapping Christmas presents too and usually have two pairs of scissors and two Sellotapes on the go as it's inevitable one will get buried under something sending me into a frenzy!

    :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

    xx
  • Hi All. Haven't updated in a while, well done to everyone in making great progress. I have been keeping track of my monthly totals - just the 2 mobile phone bills to come off now and I need to put petrol in the car tonight. Have managed to put £30 into savings that was not needed for mortgage and £11.18 fom amazon sales so far. Rest of amazon sales will be used to fund a wee holiday for me and OH in Feb (well, it will fund our food bill).
  • Hi all. Just had an Interesting Experience with Mr Waitrose. ;) I use home delivery from all the supermarkets, when, and if, they are seducing me with offers of money-off my shopping, or great savings on heavy things that I use, like packs of dog food this week - thank you Mr Tesco!

    I use Ocado when they send me a money-off voucher, but before Christmas Waitrose sent me one (even though it's the same company!), so I ordered all my Christmas fruit and veg from them, plus some other things to make up the minimum cost.

    Also they could deliver on the Wednesday before Christmas, which none of the other companies could do. So when my things were delivered and I had some very short sell by dates on some of the veg, I sent a complaint email, which resulted in them promising me £4.50 credit.

    The following week, I saw that instead of £4.50 credit, they had charged me another £4.40!!! Not even the same amount. I have therefore sent daily emails to Customer Service, who have been far from helpful, saying it's down to the individual store manager (??) even refusing to give me their CEO's name (which I eventually got from a link on this site, and he didn't even bother to reply), so today I phoned the store.

    Anyway, the Manager said "what a bl**dy c*ck-up! No wonder we're losing sales. I'll credit £25 to your card, is that OK?" :j:j:j I told him it was men like him who put the Great into Great Britain, which, no doubt, he'll tell all his friends!

    So another frugal tip is, complain and don't put up with shoddy stuff. I never used to complain about the odd manky strawberry or grotty banana, from my weekly shop, but now I take the offending article back in its original packing, together with my receipt, and I always get refunded for the whole pack.

    xx
  • twiglet98
    twiglet98 Posts: 886 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    If any of you are selling, I wondered if you'd tried FACEBAY, it's a page you can sell your unwanted things on (no business sells though).

    My friend got rid of loads of stuff and made a small fortune. THere are no fees, and like freecycle, the buyer is expected to collect.

    It's on facebook, but if you do a search for facebay (your town), you should be able to find your local one.

    http://zoey24.hubpages.com/hub/Facebay-The-Good-The-Bad-And-The-Ugly-Truth

    There's a lot to like about facebook and its spin-offs... but an awful lot that I don't like, and there are some pretty weird folk out there. Do remember to be very, very careful, and don't invite people you know nothing about to come to your home if you are there alone.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.8K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.4K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.1K Life & Family
  • 257.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.