2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

SAVVYJADE

Been looking at finances and not good

I've decided to try and do a no spend month in February and just buy the essentials I run out of, it'll be hard but I really need to focus! I'm stocked up enough on most things from glitches and coupons so I should be fine!

Any tips much appreciated!

Hope all is well!
x

slowlyfading

Jade - the first thing I'd do is look through all of the cupboards and see what food you have in stock, as well as the freezer then, try and do a vague meal plan from what you have in and go from there! I'm often surprised at what I can make from the cupboard

enjoyfinancialchallenges

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

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:

rising f t ashes
Have you thought about asking the vet for something to calm your cat with before you attempt the journey to the vets? I'm sure your cat is not the only one to hate going so there must be something available.

Winchelsea

So sorry to hear your news, it will get easier eventually so hang on in there.

rising_from_the_ashes

I've also posted this in my grocery challenge update so apologies to anyone who also reads that .... but really need as many thoughts as poss so hope you don't all mind:

I'm well into Feb's allocation of the budget (grocery wise) - not an issue in itself as annual budgets always have over/underspends and I have been stockpiling things whilst they're on offer which will last several months & therefore balance out the budget.

However........ there's a good chance I may be made redundant in a couple of months:( (if I do survive it is an almost certainty it will happen within a few months).

This has, naturally, put me into panic mode - esp being single, there's no one else to fall back on.

Looking at it from a worst case point of view, I'm wondering if I should build stocks as much as poss just now - with the hope that if it does happen, I'll have food / household cleaning stuff / toiletries etc to tide me over a few months so I've only the mortgage/other bills to worry about ..... but it'll blow the budget altogether (but would hopefully be recouped later in the year as I won't need to buy stuff then and could life off the stocks I've built up)...... but again, I'd probably still want to hold reasonable stocks for the inevitable early next year.

So .... I'm thinking I should increase the annual budget this year to help with this but ...... mmmmm any thoughts would be most appreciated.:)


EFC - thanks, I'll give the vets a ring on Monday and ask ....:)

slowlyfading

rising - if I were you, I'd try and stock up on things that we use often - tinned toms, oats, baked beans and then things like washing powder, washing up liquid, shampoo/conditioner - all things that won't go off any time soon I'm sorry to hear about the possibility of redundancy, workplaces are just not nice places at the moment

quintwins

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I've also posted this in my grocery challenge update so apologies to anyone who also reads that .... but really need as many thoughts as poss so hope you don't all mind:

I'm well into Feb's allocation of the budget (grocery wise) - not an issue in itself as annual budgets always have over/underspends and I have been stockpiling things whilst they're on offer which will last several months & therefore balance out the budget.

However........ there's a good chance I may be made redundant in a couple of months:( (if I do survive it is an almost certainty it will happen within a few months).

This has, naturally, put me into panic mode - esp being single, there's no one else to fall back on.

Looking at it from a worst case point of view, I'm wondering if I should build stocks as much as poss just now - with the hope that if it does happen, I'll have food / household cleaning stuff / toiletries etc to tide me over a few months so I've only the mortgage/other bills to worry about ..... but it'll blow the budget altogether (but would hopefully be recouped later in the year as I won't need to buy stuff then and could life off the stocks I've built up)...... but again, I'd probably still want to hold reasonable stocks for the inevitable early next year.

So .... I'm thinking I should increase the annual budget this year to help with this but ...... mmmmm any thoughts would be most appreciated.:)


EFC - thanks, I'll give the vets a ring on Monday and ask ....:)

i personally would stock up and keep an inventory and update it as and when you buy stuff so you know exackly what you have, i'd be keeping an eye out of good cleaning and toilet roll offers aswell, but i wouldn't up your monthly budget, if you do manage to keep your job start using stuff up and savings pennies incase it happens again, hopefully it will balance out during the year and you won't go over budget

purpleorchid

to all that need them. (especially winchelsea)

sorry if i have not been involved so much but im struggling big time with my illnesses, so have only been on to add what i have managed to achieve this week.

hope you all have a nice wk end.

Luv P
xx

rising_from_the_ashes

slowlyfading wrote: »

rising - if I were you, I'd try and stock up on things that we use often - tinned toms, oats, baked beans and then things like washing powder, washing up liquid, shampoo/conditioner - all things that won't go off any time soon I'm sorry to hear about the possibility of redundancy, workplaces are just not nice places at the moment

quintwins wrote: »

i personally would stock up and keep an inventory and update it as and when you buy stuff so you know exackly what you have, i'd be keeping an eye out of good cleaning and toilet roll offers aswell, but i wouldn't up your monthly budget, if you do manage to keep your job start using stuff up and savings pennies incase it happens again, hopefully it will balance out during the year and you won't go over budget

Thanks .... having a bit of a panic this morning (it's not come as a total surprise but you kind of always hope it'll go away).

Great advice from you both (and I've just seen a very similar suggestion on the GC:)).

I will leave my budget alone but will start stockpiling things you've suggested so it will probably be a overspent for the next 2-3 months - but I can live with that if it makes things easier if it does happen.

I did pop into the Co*op this morning as they have Persil on offer (1/2 price) so now have around a years' supply of that already!:)

I do have an income protection thing but it's not for my full monthly outgoings (too expensive as it was going to cost £65/month which is a lot of money....). It will cover the mortgage, gas & elec, tv licence, landline and my insurance policies (it's amazing how much these add up to - car, house, income protection, cats, boiler = £75/month:eek: but can't get them any lower....). I did look to switching the income protection at renewal this year but decided it wouldn't be a good move as there's a new exclusion period & they could reasonably refuse to pay as there have already been redundancies where I work (T&Cs say you must not be aware of any impending redundancies where you work) - so I'm stuck with it.....

So, trying to be positve .... it could be worse as at least I've got the above covered - the job market here is dire, there were only 2 jobs in the whole county in the paper this week.....

Will start stocking up when I see good offers.....:)

determined_new_ms

fingers crossed for this to work out for you RFTA. Easy for me to say but try not to worry too much, whatever happens you will be ok and life rarely sends us more than we can cope with. I don't know as such but you are a resourceful woman and tougher than most x

dizzy_lizzie

Rising I would definately stock up on tinned items too. Things like baked beans, tinned tomatoes, mixed beans which can be thrown into veggie casseroles, and tinned potatoes. Try and think of non perishables that you can make decent meals with and try and get them when they're on offer. Also prepare and freeze as much as you can. That way at least you can always pull a meal out of the freezer. I hope it doesn't happen rising. Times are getting hard as it is.

Purple hugs to you. Hope you start to feel better soon.

x