2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

2wildthing2

minnie2 wrote: »

In our house no one can mention christmas till atleast the 1st of December!! takes a lot to get me in the mood for christmas these days!! i was not impressed to hear how many days till christmas we had left especially as i am still paying for the last!


Right so I had an awful ordeal with car insurance last night which i really didnt need after the week i have had at work!! Im working all weekend too so could have done with a night off. Anyway i received an email saying thank you for renewing with us and that they were assuming everything was correct in the renewal pack i received.Firstly i never received a renewal pack and secondly when i went onto their website i got a quote that was £100 cheaper!!!!!!! So i dont have a landline and the freephone number is not free on a mobile so i put £10 credit in phone to ring them so i had £12 of credit. It took me an hour and 40mins to sort out. I was on hold for hour and 15mins id to swap phone as i was running out of credit and eventually even during our conversation i was put on hold again!! They were doing a sneaky of answering the phone then cutting me off id be on hold for 20mins then everytime someone would got to answer and then cut me off!! To top it off i moaned to the guy i spoke to and he said hed ring me back! that was gone 7pm last night and i am still waiting!!!! nightmare - and apparently i received the renewal pack to an online account i dodnt even know i had!! anyway after 1hr 40mins i applied online for the cheaper 1 with the same company.and that one was the cheapest quote i found.how can they be so different! so instead of paying £492 i paid £397. put i am down about £15 on phone credit!

Also had a little thing with scottish power, i rang to say that i was leaving while i was on the phone she went on a comparrison site and said that according to her results that i would only be saving £12 a year and was it really worth hte swap - but when i compared the result was actually £92 but she then told me i had done it wrong and that she done it according to actually figures (which i had done). then she wanted me to hang on even longer because she couldnt even find the plan i was moving to - so i had to quite firmly say i need to go i just rang to let you know bye bye!!! even if it was going to be £12 thats still £12. phew!!! hoping i dont have to change again for a while!! and now npower are telling me i cant have the plan i applied for another thing to sort!!

If you have a smart phone (iphone/Samsung etc) you can download a free app 0800wizzard that will give you an alternative number to the 0800 number, you call this number and use up your "included" minutes rather than paying 30p/min.

minnie2

2wildthing2 wrote: »

If you have a smart phone (iphone/Samsung etc) you can download a free app 0800wizzard that will give you an alternative number to the 0800 number, you call this number and use up your "included" minutes rather than paying 30p/min.

thanks - its amazing the apps they are coming out with - i work with ipads and ipods and iphones etc - but dont own any. no smart phone in this house just a standard pay as you go.it was birthday present so i didnt even buy it.

silvasava

Heavy rain today that turned to sleet!!! Didn't venture out so my first NSD. Dinner was a beef & veg casserole from the freezer with HM dumplings - yum. So full up we hav'n't had any pudding
Had a good day yesterday - pottered in the garden & planted my potatoes in tubs & went for a lovely walk with DH by the sea although the tide was out so just mudflats. Had T**co curry for tea & I've decided I could (should) make them myself & freeze so I'm flicking through my recipes for a simple chicken and beef or lamb dish. Any recommendations welcome

Igamogam

minnie2 wrote: »

thanks - its amazing the apps they are coming out with - i work with ipads and ipods and iphones etc - but dont own any. no smart phone in this house just a standard pay as you go.it was birthday present so i didnt even buy it.

http://www.saynoto0870.com/ try this I use it all the time

Thrifty_Sister

Morning all - glad your pamper session helped to lift you Purple - its good to have some me time now and again.

Hope everyone else is well and enjoying being frugal - 4th nsd in a row but alas I think I will have to break my run today:(:(

mcculloch29

Some lovely recent posts there - especially the frugal funeral, what a wonderful experience to share.

Last year I was very smug as I'd paid off my credit cards. Pride came before a fall in Dec and January this year when payment of an invoice was delayed; then I got a whacking great tax bill due to a miscalculation on my part. Not a happy time.

I paid for my new front door with a credit card, which I hadn't planned to do, and the tax bill with a card too, cursing myself.
I braced myself for heavy interest payments and hoped I could pay it off within a year... and then Capital One offered me 0% interest on balance transfers for 9 months.

(This offer is open until March 7th.). I had to pay a 3% transfer fee but the interest in just two months on the old balances would have been more than the fees.

I've also re-mortgaged.
I was on an interest only mortgage (endowment victim) and last year my accounts were decent enough to enable a switch to a repayment mortgage last month. That came with £150 cash back and changing insurances came with £50 cash back. Hooray! I never ever thought I could re-mortgage at a decent rate - my income didn't seem up to it.

On the more basic frugal front, I've still not bought clothes this year at all - I don't need them - or toiletries, same there, and I am a pamperer. But I built up a stash of toiletries with impulse buys - and then got sent loads of freebies, got gifts etc so the stash never went down.

I've not been on any out of my little town shopping trips so impulse purchases are out.

purpleorchid

morning all

sun is shining again but i wont be going out today as my bp wont allow it
anyway on the upside i wont be spending so not complaining.
hope you all have a good frugal day

Luv P
xx

Barbeduk

Hi all, would you mind if I pop in for a quick cuppa. Better make it a sugary one as I have finally found the courage to do the Budget Brain listed on the front page.:eek:

Holy macaroni, I have put in most things, but not home insurance, clothes spends and holidays. With these out, we have a £34 per month underspend which means that really, we are massively overspending. Hence the credit card debt. Yikes. And that is using the current figures, goodness knows how bad it was before we changed our ways.:o

So a real eye opener for me and I am going to carry on cutting back wherever I can. Just charging up my old blackberry to see if I can sell it in working order. Every little helps!

On a much more positive note, my poorly son has just told me he loves me! Now things like that are totally priceless.

rising_from_the_ashes

2wildthing2 wrote: »

If you have a smart phone (iphone/Samsung etc) you can download a free app 0800wizzard that will give you an alternative number to the 0800 number, you call this number and use up your "included" minutes rather than paying 30p/min.

minnie2 wrote: »

thanks - its amazing the apps they are coming out with - i work with ipads and ipods and iphones etc - but dont own any. no smart phone in this house just a standard pay as you go.it was birthday present so i didnt even buy it.

Ohhhhhhh ta:D my new phone arrived on Friday (great deal tho' - I get cashback every few months which brings the monthly cost down to £8.50:j & £40 cashback on Quid*co).

Barbeduk wrote: »

Holy macaroni, I have put in most things, but not home insurance, clothes spends and holidays. With these out, we have a £34 per month underspend which means that really, we are massively overspending. Hence the credit card debt. Yikes. And that is using the current figures, goodness knows how bad it was before we changed our ways.:o

Ohhhh I'll make mine a hot choc as it's baltic out there:eek: Sleety/snow stuff yesterday and had to scrape the car this morning.

It's the wee things that we tend to "take for granted" that all add up unfortunately but on the positive side - at least you do show an underspend!:T

Barbeduk wrote: »

On a much more positive note, my poorly son has just told me he loves me! Now things like that are totally priceless.

Yup ..... some things are priceless:D

determined_new_ms

Hi guys :wave: has been a couple of weeks since I posted on here, have been following the frugal adventures just not posting (so many threads to keep up with, there's only so much time!)

Minnie really sorry to hear about your health problems, and you seem so positive you are a marvel :A

ruby sorry to hear about your cat x

So still been frugalling away and quiet proud of my efforts. These include:

getting my car ins £20 less than last year & £40 less than the renewal. Then today the new ins called me to see if u they could insure both our cars for less than our quotes and they can, so we have saved another £53 :beer:

my son has moved out so while I lose CB (he's 19 but at college so I still get it) food costs will reduce considerably, as well as energy costs & no doubt over the summer we will have students in the spare room

Had a very cheap "take away" when my friend came round for dinner on Friday. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a "Indian meal for 2" reduced down to £2.50 which I froze, and then purchsed the same for 1 so an indian takeaway for 3 for £5.87 :beer:

need to stock up on deodorant (oh only likes Dove invisible) so have researched they are currently 2 x 250ml for £4.99, so will stock up for the rest of the year tomorrow in my lunch break

Also purchased a digital camera off of the grabbit board (£25 reduced from £75) its really nice, a real bargain so its stored away for xmas :T

And no food has been thrown away so feeling pretty impressed with my efforts.

Weather here is like Siberia, hope its warmer wherever you are!!! x