2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

debbiedeejay

Blairweech wrote: »

Hi everyone, not sure if this has been posted yet but I have only just found it The Jam Labeliser - its free, you can design labels for jars and stuff (I have not actually used it yet though so dont know what they come out like)

Sorry I am not updating, my exams start on Friday and I am STRESSED!

Ooo love the labels - thanks for posting the linky. Hope the exams go smoothly - am sure they will but they are soooo stressful at the time.

Well have given the freegled next of tables another lick of paint yesterday - need to do it once more and then they should be done.
Still looking for a second hand window for my poor car(it was broken into last week probably by either joy riders or someone who didn't have taxi fare home - only for them to realise I had no petrol!) So at the moment am driving round with the whole passenger side rear window covered in thick black plastic and gaffer tape - very classy. In fact police asked if I was going to replace it with a bit o'pine cladding - doesn't seem such a bad idea at moment (oh the car is a 10 year old thing - nowt flash believe me,but she just keeps plodding on) but I keep looking for a scrapyard part.
I can't park in town as it would not be safe to leave so at least I am having a few extra Nsd's.
Have three close family birthdays this month so have to buy for them but hopefully will be in budget as they all know I am reigning in the purse strings.

At lunch today a colleague was just saying her Dad who worked for a very well known bespoke gentleman's outfitters many years ago, always said that those with the money(and he was talking about the rich & famous as many went into his shop ) who wanted a present for someone would buy a small item for less amount and those who had very little,who would always spend a lot more money on a gift.

More4Less

mcculloch29 wrote: »

Superscrimpers reminds me a bit of India Knight's The Thrift Book - a few too many well-heeled people who have never HAD to be frugal parading what they perceive as being thrifty to fit with the spirit of the times.
Though really it bears no relation to true frugaldom. I got a book to review from Amazon Vine a couple of years ago called Supper for a Song, that had much the same outlook - Parma ham and Valrhona chocolate were included as ingredients, and 'a song' seemed to be a meal that came in under £10 a head. Give me The Pauper's Cookbook any day.

I've been feeling so cross about this week's Superscrimpers programme - quite apart from those BRAND NEW JEANS being destroyed to construct a rather dubious bag. What about that friendship bracelet? It was described as a 'wonderful gift for a friend'! You are supposed to go round, chopping the ribbons out of all your clothes..... Cue entire contents of my wardrobe falling to the floor!!!!! Not even vaguely practical ...And that bracelet was just not nice, well maybe a three year old would find it chic:)

determined_new_ms

happy with today's frugalism. Bought The telegraphy on Sunday and there happened to be a voucher for a hand cream from Crabtree & Evelyn, Today I went and picked it up, was thinking it could go towards a Mother's Day gift but its lovely enough to be the whole gift :T that copies of the Adele cds she mentioned last week and a hm lunch should hit the spot - show how much I love her and keep within the frugal budget :money:

Igamogam

I bought 6 boxes of that cat food that was on offer on Monday night - well stocked then! They must have thought I was the mad cat woman as that is all I had in the trolley - as I went through self serve I also wombled some reciepts Couldnt bring myself to ask the man who was standing in front of a VERY LONG receipt just by the main entrance if he would shift so I could reach it :rotfl: :rotfl:

purpleorchid

hi all

if you look on updated coupon thread you will see on the last page a post from dr who who, tells you all about how to get a free £5 off yo use on ebay before 12pm tonight.
this is what i got...

6x£5 off andrex = £30
andrex packs of 9 in tesco are 2 for £7.50
8 packs makes £30 and 72 rolls
i paid £8.54 divide that by 72 and each roll will cost 11p
the vouchers should have cost £14 ( £5 off and 56p in paypal)

phew i knew i should have paid attention in maths haha
hope that makes sense

hth
luv p
xx

Blairweech

Just been and purchased the glossy mags with the free products in this weeks email...and I had a Mr T giftcard so 3 mags plus products only cost me £2.88 :martin: £3.50 for one of the clinique moisture surge 30ml moisturisers is an absolute bargain, cheaper than anything available on Ebay...was tempted to buy more than one but did not want to be greedy or stuck with a load of C0smo mags which I detest (and would be wasteful of paper)!

twiglet98

purpleorchid wrote: »

hi all

if you look on updated coupon thread you will see on the last page a post from dr who who, tells you all about how to get a free £5 off yo use on ebay before 12pm tonight.
this is what i got...

6x£5 off andrex = £30
andrex packs of 9 in tesco are 2 for £7.50
8 packs makes £30 and 72 rolls
i paid £8.54 divide that by 72 and each roll will cost 11p
the vouchers should have cost £14 ( £5 off and 56p in paypal)

phew i knew i should have paid attention in maths haha
hope that makes sense

hth
luv p
xx

Dammit, too late for that midnight deadline. I must remember to go on the Coupons thread before my next shopping trip.

However, I went to Mr T earlier for the offers ending today and did fairly well. There in time for the big reductions, got £22.40 worth of pork chops, stir fry pork strips, Ken Hom rice, fresh beef stock, cream and a couple of 1 portion ready meals for DD's lunches, for £3.15!

Only found one pack of Whiskas pouches at half price, in the wrong place on the shelf. Cathedral City was on BOGOF ending today, shelf was empty on Friday but I got 6 blocks today. Hair colour was on offer, I think 1/3 off, and I had a £2 coupon in the last Clubcard mailing, with £1 coupons for Millicano, DD's favourite, which has been reduced since I last looked, and Ariel, on offer at £4 for the 25 wash powder, ended today - sorry, yesterday (6th).

Also had a great wombling session last week, finding coupons on the floor for £7 off a £50 spend (used tonight, so I had £11.50 in coupons altogether) and £12 off an £80 spend, and wombled a load of receipts with a grand total of 118 unclaimed Clubcard points!

cw18

the eB@y coupon wasn't supposed to be active until this morning - so I sat up until midnight after a friend on another forum posted about it. as there were only 50,000 available (if I remember correctly) I didn't rate my chances of being able to use the code after getting up this morning, and I'm told they posted on FB at 2am that there were only 'a few' left !!!!!

got myself another 4 'for Dvmmies' books for £9.03 (including £3.60 postage). I could have got just 2 of them for 73p (plus £1.65 postage, rather than £13.70 with free postage from elsewhere), but of the other two 1 is out of print (so not easily available) and the other was over £5 cheaper than elsewhere.

So I now have 1 almost finished, 1 half read (courtesy of the library before I ordered my own copy), 8 to get started, and another 4 to come...... but I'm still eyeing up another 21 (:eek:) titles on Am@zon !!!!

Kerry_Woman

Still plodding along. Have been keeping the food shopping at a reasonable amount. Still doing the Asd@ price guarantee and have managed to get 4 vouchers for over a £1. Also have wombled a few vouchers and managed to get some more vouchers. Every bit helps.

Went for a course a few weeks ago, which was funded and found out today that I passed the assessment. This course was for my voluntary work. Am waiting for my certificate to come through.

Not having alot of temp work at the moment. Am planning to go to some other agencies.

Managed to get a free ticket for 2 event shows that I have previously attended. So will only have to pay for my train fare and am going to bring my own lunch.

Hugs for those who need them.

SAVVYJADE

hi all

Looking forward to payday (Friday) this month has been really hard! I have about 20p till then, petrol is on red, I'm hoping it'll stretch to work tomorrow! I'm even looking forward to paying the bills which is a first!

Hoping march will be a better month!