2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

JayneC

Hi all,

had a big change about today and moved the furniture about in the living/dining room - mainly because I had the computer desk under the back window and it was freezing there. Was going to move it into the living room area but sometimes DD/DS watch things online whilst the TV is on so that wouldn't work. Have just moved it closer to that end of the room (nearer to the log burner:)) and it's much better now. Moved some other things about too and think it works a bit better now. Put my 'reclaimed' mirror on top of a tall drawer unit I have and put a couple of nice big candles and a glass lantern in front of it - looks quite posh now!

Spent a £25 B&Q voucher that ex OH gave me at Christmas, bought really exciting stuff - replacement blades for my bow saw, a coal shovel, some gardening wire and fixings and some gardening gloves, I know how to spoil myself don't I, lol:p

Rising sorry to hear about your experience, hope you feel better soon. I do wonder about so called 'professionals' sometimes!!

Which reminds me actually a policeman nearly caused me to have a car crash yesterday. There was a gas leak on the main road at the end of my street and so the main road was closed to traffic and the top end was blocked by police cars however I was going back up it the other way from home and went to turn left onto the road at the top (traffic lights on green, no police there) when a car coming from the right whizzed past me and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it. When I looked the police officer was merrily waving cars through a red light!!!! I shouted at him!!!

JayneC

Forgot to say I've joined the make £10 a day challenge - wish me luck!

Frugaldom

Quick hello to all and appropriate responses to posts, which I have now read.

Welcome to our newest frugaler, kerri_dfw, I hope you enjoy being part of the frugal living fraternity.

Week one of my £1 per person per day meal analysis went well, showing an average cost of 95p per person per day including some of the cooking costs. (It was too difficult to split them up after doing original costings.) I'm updating daily in my own challenge thread, if anyone needs to find out more about it - it's more a case of finding out how the prices have changed over the years since I started doing meal budgets.

When I first started recording the meal costs in 1999, meat was far cheaper but there weren't the bargains we have available nowadays, so the swings and roundabouts approach means the budget is still possible but the eating habits change to adapt to what's hot and what's not by way of reductions, bulk buys and batch cooking. As a prime example - corned beef was an essential in every frugalers kitchen cupboard at a cost of 39p, now it's fast becoming a luxury item at around £2 for the exact same tin! :eek: And I'm sure they have devalued the pound a couple of times since the 80s, when my frugaling first began.

Adaptability and an open mind about meal planning are two things that benefit frugal living. And as someone said elsewhere, the 3-second rule for 'accidentally dropped on the floor' items has now been extended to 10 seconds, to keep up with inflation. :rotfl:

SandraScarlett

Oh you poor thing Rising. It's so irritating when the Powers That Be knew of your problems in advance. Hope you get a good rest.

Frugaldom, I had to laugh over your comments about the 3 second rule, and was also interested in those about the price of corned beef. My Mum bought a book from the Daily Mirror, in the late 1940s, early 50s, called Patsy's Recipe Book. It was packed full of cheap recipes in cartoon form - in fact I think I still have it in the loft somewhere.

Nearly half the savoury section was devoted to either dishes with offal, or corned beef - and as you rightly say, the cost has shot up of late. But I think you're fantastic to still keep your costs so low.

May I also thank you for being Captain Frugal and keeping our frugal craft afloat, even when the seas are choppy!:beer:

xx

LolaLemon

2 pics from yesterdays little creative spurt. I've put a little bit on my blog but not much.

Sorry I have been AWOL, I don't even have time just now to catch up properly.... hope everyone is well, will post better tomorrow

miss_empty_piggy

Sorry to hear about your bad experience Rising. Hope things go better next time.

Tried to have a frugal day and made a big batch of meatballs from mince and bacon herbs and Parmesan cheese. Made a meatball pasta bake with HM garlic bread in bread maker feeling well smug with myself that I hadn't "shopped" at all but it wasn't fab so was really disappointed. Darling OH And kids said it was nice but I didn't! Oh well back to work tomorrow. Hate this blummin weather! See you all tomorrow x going to bed as been unwell all weekend and need sleep x

Winchelsea

Sorry you had a horrible time Rising. Makes my experience with the ovarian scan (the internal sort) yesterday morning seem less horrendous.

silvasava - the photos sound lovely. Reminds me of the pictures at my DH's funeral a couple of weeks ago. Our 5 offspring spent hours putting together all the best photos of their dad. At the wake after the funeral they had two laptops going on continuous slide shows, different pics on each, but plenty to make you laugh or cry, and we needed to do both of those things. So many people told us it was the best funeral they had ever been to.

SandraScarlett - my mum had the Patsy's book - I'd forgotten all about it! And she had the Stork cookery book as well - I had that until it fell to bits. I always used its lemon meringue pie recipe - the best ever, and I developed quite a reputation for it. Unfortunately as I no longer have it, I don't remember the proportions exactly. Have tried other recipes, but none so far are up to the mark!

Frugaldom

SandraScarlett, that's a 'must find' book, wondering if my gran has a copy of it, as that's where I got my latest winemaking paperback.

Non-frugal month here, as car needs taxed then insurance due. Managed to get DS's insurance down, plus 1000 Nectar points, but no cashback available anywhere that had low quotes. M0rethan was certainly more than anywhere else, that's for sure! :eek:

Expecting a ROSSPA order today, as I took advantage of their £5 off voucher code. The tinned margarine (5 x 450g for £1) is excellent for baking, pastry etc, so I've ordered 5 x processed cheese for £1 to see what it's like.

Hope everyone's feeling better and still fighting the good fight against debts. The miserable weather can't last forever, even if it might seem that way right now. Still no snow here but the rain's back.

quintwins

kids are still not great so not much going on here, and next to no money spending i'm gonna make tea tonight for the first time this week, i got milk to feed dh and our youngest yesterday as i felt bad he hadn't had a proper tea since sunday just quicky stuff, gonna do sausages beans and mash for tea, theres 2 reasons for this it's easy incase i'm not feeling great and if were not up to eating it i can turn it into a sausage pie and stick it in the freezer for another day.


i'm been using my heat a shocking amount and while i was ill the electric saving mission went down hill, i'm prob gonna have to use the dryer to catch up on my washing aswell. Roll on the summer


We've only had to put £10 of desil in this week rather than our usual £30

Thrifty_Sister

If any of you have not tried a company called Approved foods I can recommend them. they do short dated (although not always so short dated) food items and do some great special offers. They do charge for postage but even with this added cost it still works out quite well - I usually do an order with family and split the cost. So far we have not been disappointed and we have been using them for a couple of years or so. HTH someone.