2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

mumwithamission

Hi All,

just been trying to catch up on posts cause I've been so busy over the last few days. Moneysaving still at the forefront of my mind though. Am turning into a real tightar*e though - had lovely Indian meal out last night thanks to Living Social Voucher purchase last year, but resented paying out pub prices for a drink beforehand - when you strive hard to earn and save those pennies shelling out £6 for 2 drinks seems madness. Made up for it on the way home though - getting 2 pecan danish pastries as whoopsies from the garage at 18p each - for our dessert! That was more like it :rotfl:

Habibiboo

Thank you Scrappie, will pop along there and suss it out after me bath (a heavily bubbled one with lashings of body-scrub ready to go, obviously)!

twiglet98

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

The other night we had a fox take out some of our chickes and ducks:mad::mad::mad:

so we went pricing a humaine trap £160:eek::eek::eek:

so going to do the frugal thing and try and borrow one, we have a friend who can do the rest once its caught, sorry but my chickens and ducks are my priority, and i cant let the fox feast on my girls

Sorry to hear this CTChick, one of ours was taken last week too. Five silly crossbred bantams that hatched last summer insist on roosting high in the leylandii hedge, and the fox got one about 4am. Their mother was a screechy nutcase who was given to us precisely because she refused to go to bed at her last home. If they are low enough to lift them down when it's dark, and I put them in the shed with the others, they fly over the electric netting as soon as they're let out, and almost all our fox casualties have been in the afternoons before we get home, rather than at night. My neighbour is experienced and accurate with a shotgun, and has shot a great many foxes, but he is out all day too and they rarely come when he's ready with the gun.

Horribly expensive week, it was DD's birthday, and I paid for her car's MoT on Saturday too. It failed and she, her father and/orher b/f will pay for the repairs. DS wanted his last birthday money, which he'd asked me to hold back until he needed it, so the budget isn't looking good. There's plenty in the freezer, oddments of leftovers in the fridge, lamb defrosting for tomorrow, pasta will do for Tuesday and fish pie on Weds. I got fruit and veg at the farm shop but forgot milk, and we'll need cat food by Wednesday, but £6 in my purse will cover that. I'll pay over the odds at the Co-0p but it saves driving 8 miles each way to Te$co.

Long long day at work tomorrow and I was going to bed at 10pm. Whoops.

purpleorchid

twiglet98 wrote: »

Sorry to hear this CTChick, one of ours was taken last week too. Five silly crossbred bantams that hatched last summer insist on roosting high in the leylandii hedge, and the fox got one about 4am. Their mother was a screechy nutcase who was given to us precisely because she refused to go to bed at her last home. If they are low enough to lift them down when it's dark, and I put them in the shed with the others, they fly over the electric netting as soon as they're let out, and almost all our fox casualties have been in the afternoons before we get home, rather than at night. My neighbour is experienced and accurate with a shotgun, and has shot a great many foxes, but he is out all day too and they rarely come when he's ready with the gun.



Horribly expensive week, it was DD's birthday, and I paid for her car's MoT on Saturday too. It failed and she, her father and/orher b/f will pay for the repairs. DS wanted his last birthday money, which he'd asked me to hold back until he needed it, so the budget isn't looking good. There's plenty in the freezer, oddments of leftovers in the fridge, lamb defrosting for tomorrow, pasta will do for Tuesday and fish pie on Weds. I got fruit and veg at the farm shop but forgot milk, and we'll need cat food by Wednesday, but £6 in my purse will cover that. I'll pay over the odds at the Co-0p but it saves driving 8 miles each way to Te$co.

Long long day at work tomorrow and I was going to bed at 10pm. Whoops.

hi hun

have you thought about getting your cat food on amazon, i pay £10.60 for 24 cans of jelly cat food (kitekat) and its free delivery. will save on petrol, plus you can bulk order if needed.

hth

Luv P
xx

stitching_witch

stitching_witch wrote: »

I've had chance to go through my budget for next year and it's really scary! Just basic bills and absolutely no luxuries (haircuts, gifts etc) gives me a deficit of £196pcm. This should be fun then....

If I take off the figures for rent, council tax, water rates and debt repayments, the total minimum spend for the year totals £5400. Either DH has got to find a job fairly sharpish or my business needs to grow and return a profit very, very soon!

Remember this from 1st December? Well, joy of joys, DH's JSA runs out next month too. In theory, that means I have to start paying his bills too. I've spent the weekend trying to shave more off the budget, but there's nowhere else to cut down. There are many times that I scrawl 'IHML' (I Hate My Life) over every available surface and now seems like one of those

patentgirl

Been MIA all weekend no unexpected spends havent really done anything apart from food shopping within budget and had all family round yesterday for dinner only had shepherds pie and ve ggies and leftover pudding from xmas love having everyone round especially two grandchildren they are so funny together
Sorry Blairweech and Moneybear on your sad losses
Sandra your odes are beautiful feeling very tearful reading them
very envious of your trip out sounds fab just my kind of thing
Just of to balance books again seem to be ever doing this but makes me feel good knowing havent gone over budget so have to keep looking at it in black and white lol

Have good day everyone hugs to poorlies

freedom2011

Hello :wave: I have followed this thread a few years back (it has been a real inspiration) but want to try & have a go properly this year myself.

Last year I managed to get rid of all my debt (I achieved my first dream freedom in 2011) & I have a dream to one day own a small forever home & escape renting. There is not much spare at the end of the month, but really want to try my hardest to save every penny.

Please could you add me frugaldom - freedom2011

Thanks for all you share here.

quintwins

must pull my belt in, just went threw my spending dairy and not including food i'm pushing the £1k mark already, so no shopping this week other than essentials, off to the farm shop for spuds, gonna park at the kids school and walk to the post office parking is a nightmare on a monday so atleast i'll def get a space doing this

my elec bill is £177 which is for 8 weeks i had expected as much but it's still not nice

findingmyfeet

morning all

lovely day here sun is shining and got my day started with a walk down the local country lanes.More exercise was on my 'to do' this year list so finally made a start!

Frugal weekend spent absolutely zero stayed at home and got some garden and household tasks sorted instead. sold my stuff on ebay so money made and in the emergency spends pot.

hm chicken casserole for tonight with whats left of the veggies from the garden, and washing about to go outside for free drying. not a bad start to a new frugal week. I f only they all went so well.

looked at my gas/electric direct debits and they are too high for what we are using at present so going to ask for a refund after mid march when the winter bill is paid, DH estimated we will be owed around £300 if we keep being careful with the usage. so hope hes rite and we can get it back for the savings fund.

hugs to all people with animal troubles-lost my dear dog a year ago and cant bear to talk about her even now.

SANDRA- keep the poems/odes coming they are lovely and brightens up everyones day.

onwards and upwards -loads of chores to get done today.

Jo.Mo

Hello all!

Purpleorchid, I was so impressed by your first date! He sounds like an incredibly thoughtful guy. And imagine how much money you could save together

SandraScarlett, thanks for sharing your beautiful poetry and hugs to those who are struggling especially Blairweech, Wornoutmumoftwo and moneybear.

Icontinuetodream, massive congratulations for a brilliant start to the year!

Cooltrikerchick, thanks so much for the tip on stocking up on stamps. WH Smith have 5% off all their stamps until the end of Jan (that's online, I'm not sure about instore), they're showing availability of 1st class but saying 4 weeks + wait for second class, I might go ahead and place the order as even if they can't fulfil the order, I'll still have til April to get sorted.

Habibiboo, I use my toiletries forever I think the whole 6 / 12 month thing is a scam by toiletries companies!

Freedom2011, welcome! Can you please send a private message to Frugaldom asking him to add you to the challengers list.

Happycrafter, do you have a food processor or mini chopper? Because Lidl often have milk chocolate in their half price weekend offers - 17p for 100g!! It's definitely fine for baking with.

Phew!

Love Jo xx