2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

happycrafter_2

not sure where the last 2 days have gone! I and OH had 2 days off together and they have flown by. We went to Birmingham and I bought some material to make some skirts and popped in to the Chinese supermarket to pick up a few ingredients. Then today we did our monthly shop and have only spent £157 out of £250, I still need to go to the butcher but he is only open at the weekend.

have just cancelled npower switch over due to the IGT fees and gone with OVO (fingers crossed no problems now) I have been reading up and no body has posted any major issues with them.

Sandra beautiful ode which is now printed and stuck to my fridge for the days when I get tired and low (hopefully not too many of them will appear).

off to make flapjacks for the kids lunch boxes and a nice big mug of tea and snuggle with my dogs.

letsdothis

jo.mo wrote: »

cagneuk, we will be thrilled to have you. Can you please send a private message to frugaldom asking to join, then he'll add you to the challenger list.

sandra, i am so loving your poems! They are inspired!

I have had a super frugal week, making my own bread (yuuuuuuuum) and my own yoghurt (yuuuuuuuuuuuk... Oh well, can't win them all )

wornoutmumoftwo, if you just want a 'chuck it together' recipe, the one in the river cottage family cookbook is fantastic (the whole book is brill), if you really want to get into breadmaking i can really recommend the river cottage bread book, it's absolutely great.

i've had a huge breakthrough this week... After 15 months of moneysaving, i'm now debt free (except the house) with a grand in the bank for emergencies! My financial situation has never been this stable. It was worth the hard work ten times over. I'm now building up a £10k emergency fund. Onwards and upwards!

well done everyone, i'm loving this thread. Jo xxx

omg this is amazing - well done !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:t

seriouslyfrugal

If anyone is interested in swimming as thier form of exercise ( with it being new year )


http://www.swimming.org/

letsdothis

PHEW what a start to the week...... started off Monday AM took kids to school and off I went to work I start at 9.30 .....but we have just moved offices and dont have keys yet .....boss wasnt in cue me sitting in car....phoned boss - he will be 15 min ...........40 min later comes in (at least I didnt spend in the local cafe !) finally get into office at 10.30 .....make a cup of tea....settle down to do some work (bearing in mind I only work till12) .....and then get a phone call from the school ....boiler has broken so can you collect your children.....so had to leave .....Monday was just a wipe out....lol

anyhoooos I now have to juggle getting kids to my mums in the AM then try and fit work in somehow

but on a positive note when I was on the treadmill had a meeting with myself and because I am so fired up at the minute i want it ALL - decided to take my foot off the pedal or I will risk burnout and either be ratty with myself because Im not achieving all I want or Ill be ratty with the family because Im trying to fit it all in. - so areas to concentrate on are Diet&Exercise/Budget/Allotment which luckily are all interlinked....Diet will be stuck to by meal planning which will help the budget...Digging on the allotment will help with the exercise and planting own will help on the diet/budgeting etc so keeping these goals in mind means that when they are achieved means that we can 'relax' a bit more and start to introduce some luxuries

purpleorchid

hi aril

i had to use flea treatment about 6 times in the end, the cats where so fed up of me lol. the normal frontline seemed to have no affect at all.
i used the frontline combo twice and it worked (prescribed by the vet), they have not had any fleas for about 3 months now. also bought off amazon a flea spray called RIP FLEAS. it worked within 2 days, but i also had to hoover everyday for about 2 wks. my mother cat and kittens had fleas for about 5-6 months, so in the end i also bought a dyson hoover (£300 :mad:) but is doing a fab job of keeping any fleas at bay.

hth

Luv P
xx

rubytuesday

seriouslyfrugal wrote: »

If anyone is interested in swimming as thier form of exercise ( with it being new year )


http://www.swimming.org/

I usually swim at least a couple of times a week in the outdoor pool but have only been once since Christmas due to feeling under the weather.

I've noticed a couple of pounds creeping on!

moneybear123

Hello everyone, It's been a few days since I last posted. I'm now back to work and didn't make time for you all. I had a few spend days but still well within our budget. Work is going well and I am really glad to be back. I'm hoping we will be able to start saving soon our goal is $10,000 or more.
♥ Have good night ♥

ailz95

SandraScarlett wrote: »

Wow!!!! What a weight loss! That's over 3 stone in old money!! You're fantastic!!:j:j Please share your amazing tips! I know cutting out carbs is good for weight loss, but are you including all carbs, ie bread, rice, pasta, potatoes? If I cut out carbs completely, I find myself yearning for a slice of toast. Then, when I succumb, one slice is never enough.:o

Anyway, well done you!!

xx

I don't eat: bread, potatoes, rice, pasta or flour. I deep to high fat (60%), medium protein (30%) and low carb (10%) or there abouts. I have about 50 grams of carbs as fruit & veg - no root veg - a day. You could if you wanted have your carbs as bread now and again - I love prunes so my carbs are usually taken up mainly by them. I have oatcakes occasionally when I want some 'crunch'.

I find I'm not hungry on this eating regime - I eat lots of no added sugar peanut butter, almonds and other nuts. When I ate low fat I hated giving up cheese, now I haven't needed to. If you look up William Banting (the first successful diet in the 19th century) you'll find out why we're all so much heavier since low fat became the pactice.

Igamogam

Sorry cant be frugal today as car needs tyres - got a good deal from a one man local business and he is going to move tyres round and general wot not. Cant scrimp on tyres as I drive over 500 miles a week so need some decent rubber. Main dealer and national chains where quoting me almost 50% more than I am getting them for and also they said I needed to replace all of them. Would rather give my hard earned money to another hard working local business!

LolaLemon

dizzy_lizzie wrote: »

Ooh Ruby you get yourself off to the docs. Sounds exactly like what I had...go on now what you waiting for...Hope it soon clears up.
Hope you feel better soon Lola.
Haven't followed a pattern as such. Tweaked a flower pattern somewhere off utube I think just so I could remember it. Hang on I'll get camera out

I've just draped it around one of my favourite Summer jackets. I don't think I'll wear it but I enjoyed making it and I'll definately make one with smaller spring type flowers.
x

That is beautiful! I am sure I seen something similar in accessorize.. I only ever go in their to see what the new scarf fashion is, wouldn't pay for it from their tho...£35+ for an itchy scratchy scarf - no thanks!

I'm making a start on my living room today... hopefully it is 'livable' by tomorrow.. also going out to friends later, promised her a dress of two for her trip to Egypt this week, plus we are watching our video of the darts, as she was unable to come ...