2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

the_frugal_frog

Thanks Erme, I rent so will have most rent paid, I am in advance with my rent by a few weeks. I have found the cheapest coffee in this city is £2.00 shocking, though I never noticed the price before, I havent noticed the price of a lot of things before, now I am arguing the costs of pints of milk! I have some scratchcards I won which I will cash in to buy treats if I meet up with friends for coffee, tho I am quite a private person (or a loner if you like lol ) so that will be a rareity. I am reading up on all the tips and am buying only reduced food, reusing towes and jumpers etc before washing them, using less of everything and cooking from scratch and in batches. Using the library internet as much as possible, I am not liking being in the jobcentre, I am either asked what I am doing by the guard or asked for fags or fifyt p by the people that hang around its doors. I am sticking to library!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Still playing around with my budgets .... (glad I started now!)

Have decided to remove the savings ones and keep track of them in a separate spreadsheet along with my budgeting pots (which I'm determined to use properly in 2012:o)

Not sure if I can remove the "spare" rows as don't want to muck up the formulas etc (not an Excel expert in any shape or form).

So .... overall budget has fallen to just under £11,800 including mortgage & council tax (which there's little I can do about). However, this figure drops to just over £7k if these are excluded.

For my own records, I will be keeping them in the SoW as I like to keep track of all the household expenditure in the one place.

I've lumped breakdown cover & tax together as only come to £70 in total and both payable in January (so the budget shows as overspent all year!)

stitching_witch

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!

seriouslyfrugal

Hi everyone


Rising : you could take out those spare lines but personally I would leave them incase you want to add in anything ( ie emergency spend like a car repair)

Frugaldom

New names added, welcome on board.

StitchingWitch, your deficit looks rather scary, am I guessing correctly that you could run the risk of increasing any existing debt at that rate each month? Is there anything, anywhere in the budget that you could cancel to help reduce the deficit while also trying to raise a few extra pounds each month? Depending on what your DH does, there may be online work available to him (or you) through the freelancing sites. I set myself a 3 month challenge (Oct/Nov/Dec) to see how much extra I could earn and it has been brilliant! (Extra £500+ so far and 4 weeks remaining of my mini-challenge.)

2012 is looking particularly difficult, as so much has increased in price by ridiculous amounts. Electricity, telephone line rental, coal (went up 11.3% this month), food and anything else you can think of!

Anyhow, I'm off to have a cuppa before watching the cutting edge 'pennypinchers' at 8pm, although I just know I'll be in awe of the incomes on that, as well. :shock:

purpleruby

Hi can I join? I am a complete newbie for this and need to sort out my budget etc, but love the idea of frugal living :T

silaren

I'm £3.02 down today:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=49003671&postcount=190

dizzy_lizzie

SandraScarlett wrote: »

I know with things being "up in the air" at the moment, I'm losing track of the days, but when I found this thread, up to page 9, I thought I'd really lost my marbles! I thought it must be the 1st January and not December, and I was sure I'd have remembered Christmas! xx

Aw Sandra, you're a love

Really looking forward to when this thread starts in all earnest in 2012 and getting to 'know' everyone. If it's anything like the Frugal Living thread 2011 which some of us are still posting on, it will be one of the most wonderfully supportive threads on mse. I've learnt so much from other posters knowledge, enthusiasm, links to interesting sites and sharing in each others ups and downs.

phoenix-dragon sending lots of best wishes for the very soon to be birth of your little one

the frugal frog fingers crossed for you that something turns up very soon. At least by joining this thread you'll feel like you're doing something positive about it.

Warm hugs to everyone and onwards and upwards for 2012
:A
x

stitching_witch

Frugaldom wrote: »

StitchingWitch, your deficit looks rather scary, am I guessing correctly that you could run the risk of increasing any existing debt at that rate each month? Is there anything, anywhere in the budget that you could cancel to help reduce the deficit while also trying to raise a few extra pounds each month? Depending on what your DH does, there may be online work available to him (or you) through the freelancing sites. I set myself a 3 month challenge (Oct/Nov/Dec) to see how much extra I could earn and it has been brilliant! (Extra £500+ so far and 4 weeks remaining of my mini-challenge.)

Yes, I do risk getting further into debt each month but can't see what else I can do. DH is a pipefitter/welder so difficult to do on line. He's just returning to the job market after being seriously ill for 3 years and JSA is less than the ESA he was getting. I've shaved £20 off the budget last night so the deficit is now *only* £176 a month :rotfl:

Time to do some serious selling of redundant stuff aound the house, and for me to get a few more orders in.

stitchy x

Erme

the_frugal_frog wrote: »

Thanks Erme, I rent so will have most rent paid, I am in advance with my rent by a few weeks. I have found the cheapest coffee in this city is £2.00 shocking, though I never noticed the price before, I havent noticed the price of a lot of things before, now I am arguing the costs of pints of milk! I have some scratchcards I won which I will cash in to buy treats if I meet up with friends for coffee, tho I am quite a private person (or a loner if you like lol ) so that will be a rareity. I am reading up on all the tips and am buying only reduced food, reusing towes and jumpers etc before washing them, using less of everything and cooking from scratch and in batches. Using the library internet as much as possible, I am not liking being in the jobcentre, I am either asked what I am doing by the guard or asked for fags or fifyt p by the people that hang around its doors. I am sticking to library!!

Och I'm so glad I don't have to go to the job centre. Sounds horrid..Hugs. hun...

I hate it when people who obviously get more money than me tap.

The library might also be good for job search online....tell me you already know this and I'll apologise but the job centre does have a website where you can look for jobs. I'm just trying to keep your visits down to that horrid place to a minimum....

I also make and wash my own sanitary wear. It's on the kindle store but I'll pm you the details for free hun (about £5 a year cost rather than £2 or so a month)...no sew required. I don't have the e-book on this computer but I know how to make them (really easy when you get the hang of it)...Let me know if you'd be interested . Did it first month of FL challenge the other year and find them a lot comfier than disposables.

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!

Och I'm seriously thinking of joining FL..so encouraged by everyone's budgets. Even if it's just till debt is paid off... (which unless I fall off the wagon is 6 months away or just over :T)

Done spreadsheets till March. And mobile gets carried over till March or April as like I get 4 weekly giro payments and it's due monthly ...

Really don't have many DD's so this is quite exciting . About as exciting as padding...

E
PS. For those that remember the 'misunderstanding' of earlier this year the costs have gone down. I've had a few whoopsies and am still trying to budget £30 a week for it (and sos) but it's really going well. 12 weeks now. Now if only I could get off the nasal spray :j...E