2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

rubytuesday

I had a lovely but rather spendy day yesterday.

I went to Leeds University open day with the girlie.

Afterwards we went to Strada but even with a voucher it came to a lot as I treated us to extras.

Also had to pay for a couple of cabs.

I did get given a free pen when we arrived at the station and a free orange kitkat on the way home and exchanged a couple of old mascaras for the clinique samples at Boots in Kings Cross

findingmyfeet

winchelsea-so sorry for your loss, thinking of you and sending more hugs, glad your not alone and have a lovely family. remember you have friends on here too.



did my shop at aldi and got the £5 off and used several of the 30 % off several items too. bought 2 newspapers so have another £5 coupon for next week and stocking up on ll milk, cereals, meat for the freezer etc. should manage a few cheap weeks then.

Have to spend money tomorrow on the opticians but hoping i only need reading specs and can get away with cheaper ones that wont be seen by other people much.

tonight its allsorts lasagne- filled with lots of stray bits of veg and left over chicken.

quintwins

got lots of lovely yellow stickers, got enought meat for 6 dinners and 3 lunchs, aswell as some plums, mushrooms and yogurts, problem is my freezers now full again i will run it down eventually, but i can't resist looking for whoopsies when i know thats stores so good for them

having a reduced lasagne for tea, who pays £7.50 for a lasagne? anyway i paid £1.88 gonna serve it with a 50p bag of chips so pretty cheap (but unhealthy) tea considering it's for 5

SAVVYJADE

Today I got 3 packs of l'oreal face wipes and 2 toners and one cleanser for free, and two pots of Garnier day cream for £1 each! All with coupons! Fab! Got lots of fruit and veg on offer too ready for the weekend

I love that even though I'm being frugal I'm not missing out on the stuff I used to buy!

purpleorchid

evening all

i dont know if this will be of help to anyone, but im on a site callled your say pays. i redeemed £20 last year and i had only joined aug. i have already got £6.90 in my account from jan alone.

if anyone wants a referal then PM me. may not be much but its something.

Luv P
xx

rubytuesday

Hope you feel brighter now Purple.

Paidin I forgot to say that really made me laugh about the butterfly table!

NSD for me today.

I walked along the canal to a course today but couldn't remember where to exit so ended up in another borough!

Oh and missed the course!

purpleorchid

good day for couponing
afternoon all

just got home from shopping and used a fair few coupons

my list

bodyform 2 x75P off. they are on offer in tesco for £1=25p each
dragon hot shots free tesco
andrex washlets 90p off coupon=10p tesco
philadelphia free tesco
total=60p

asda huggies starter pack free
baby oil free asda
nair hair removal free asda
total=0

(did have a problem trying to get the full voucher for the huggies starter pack due to the fact that they have a baby event in asda so technically speaking they are only supposed to let you have the £3 off not £5 as the coupon states. but as i know the woman that works there and i did make a point of saying that the store will still get £5 back, she went to see the manager and he let me off this time lol.)

the other coupon i used was the aquafresh ulimate 50p off in wilkinsons so got it for £1.48 instead of £1.98.
also on sale in wilkinsons are the glade candles @£1.84

so for all of the above i spent £3.92 :j:j:j

luv P
xx

purpleorchid

oh and just remembered that i redeemed £10 off shop and scan so that paid for my cat food.
also had £3 in voucher in post as i made a complaint to bisto few weeks back due to the fact that i bought parlsey sauce but there was no parsley in it haha. so i asked for a voucher to replace the one that i have and they sent me 2 vouchers for £1.50 each. can be used on many different brands not just bisto, wish my post came early though, because i could have used one off the vouchers for atora today and had the rest of my shopping, ah well nevermind cant win them all

Luv P
xx

Erme

findingmyfeet wrote: »

morning all,

well just popped in to say im such a proud/impressed/delighted mum this morning. Had an email from DD first year uni student telling me she had been working out all her money for the coming term. long story short she has gone through all her cupboard/freezer stock and worked out she has enough for 27 days worth of meals-and listed them, made a list of a few bits she still needs, deducted the weekend shes at home and budgeted for going out -laundry and a couple of up coming events.

WOW im just so impressed i have always tried to get across that a good disciplined budget is the best thing she could learn(unlike her mother whos only just getting to grips with it after years of struggling) to help her along the way in life.............looks like she did actually listen at some point, and this all came at almost three o clock in the morning!

glad i did the washing yesterday pouring with rain today, off to town to bargin hunt shortly and pay into the savings!!!!!!!! first deposit of the year.

Och you must be sooo proud :T

rubytuesday wrote: »

Sorry you feel that way again Erme - perhaps a little rest from here would help then come back refreshed?

Good luck with the move happy but skint.

Well I wanted to cry during my physio - also had a major hot flush!

Still it will help in the long run.

Yeah the prob with the rest of the board is sorted.....(just came off that thread) but finding frugal living quite hard right now and have bad thoughts about all you frugal peeps so finding it hard to come on here...Even today which is one of my better days

Winchelsea wrote: »

This has not been my best month, to put it mildly. My DH of 50 years, Bill, died on the 7th of bronchopneumonia. The best news though is that I have a wonderful family, and we've all been supporting each other. It seems a strange thing to say, but the funeral last Friday was a lovely occasion - a couple of people said it was the best they had ever been to.

It's taken me a while to tell you folks, even though I know just how supportive frugallers can be. The good news is that while I've unavoidably spent loads of money this month I'm now right back on the frugal bandwagon.

Went to L*DL testerday with DD4, and we each bought a trolleyfull of food etc, but stayed on budget - DD spent £60, and my smaller but still substantial shop was £40. Bill would have been proud of me. Went to the one in Frome (about 12 miles away I guess), and DD treated me to lunch out as I'd done the driving.

Today I started my own storecupboard challenge, as I do have a fair bit in the cupboards and fridge and freezer that ought to be used. Maybe I should not have bought the trolley full, but it was all things I was going to need, even though some of them could have waited a while. It doesn't matter anyway, as importantly, we both really enjoyed ourselves - we both needed that, and shopping in a less familiar store is always good, but particularly so when you get a lot of bargains!

I cooked a big pot of fridge soup tonight, with the end of an elderly lump of cheese grated over the top - delicious, and some left over for tomorrow's lunch. Will probably do a variation on rice and beans for tomorrow evening. The only proviso with my cooking, apart from being frugal, is that I nourish myself well. So I always have at least my 5 a day, usually more, and vary the protein and carb sources from day to day. Seems to work well, without costing a fortune.

Best of luck everyone else!

Och so sorry to hear of your sad news. They say one of the most stressful things is losing a spouse...I don't know what to say but prayers....50 years is a long time...What can I say? I'm lost for words.

hugs

E

rising_from_the_ashes

Winchelsea, I am so sorry to hear your sad news (((hugs))) and glad you've family around at such a difficult time xxx

SF wow, your lunch sounds fab & I was starving before I read your post!

PIC I did have a weeeee chuckle (sorry)!


Can't believe it's nearly the end of Jan already!

Well done to the "newbies" for sticking it out - how are you finding it?

Car budget not looking good (as expected) and slightly over on groceries but as I'm running this as an annual budget rather than monthly not too worried. I have lunch stuff for the next fortnight, toiletries etc for at least a month and enough food in the house to last ..... quite a while!:o

Must start to have a hunt around for offers on the cats' dry food - I have enough to last a couple of months, but I usually start looking around this time so I can take advantage when the offers are on.

Wee cat is due her booster absolutely dreading the trip - she's "unwell" (both ends) in the car and turns into an absolutely unhandleable monster in the vet .... very stressful for all concerned. Think I can maybe put off for another couple of weeks but will def need it done before the end of Feb .....:eek: