2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Kerfuffle

Have a lovely Saturday SlowlyFading, and all the best for a happy life together.

Kerry_Woman

SlowlyFading - Wishing you and your OH all the best for Saturday. Enjoy your day and honeymoon.

Erme - Wishing you all the best for your job search.

rubytuesday

Have a wonderful wonderful day Slowly.

And good luck Erme.

Good news from me - my graduation ceremony was on Monday and I am now a qualified Mental Health Trainer!

mcculloch29

What a fantastic poem Sandra :T :A - wonderful wishes and I hope the day matches them, Slowlyfading.

Fingers crossed Erme - I hope the job has your name on it.

I just paid a whacking great chunk off a credit card bill. Feeling poorer, but more settled.

I badly messed up in working out my tax last year and happily coasted along thinking I had enough put by when I didn't. I got landed with an unexpected massive tax bill in December _pale_ (great timing!) and having paid off all my credit cards some time ago, found myself needing one badly as the only possible short term solution.

I moved the debt to a card with zero interest for nine months at the start of the month, before the first interest was due on Card No. 1. Now the challenge is to pay it all off before the nine months is up - and not to miscalculate any tax payments for this year. Needless to say, the very day after I got the 9 mo. interest free deal I spotted one for 18 mo. on MSE . Hence my frugality.

Thrifty_Sister

Fell off course again for a wee while but trying despeartely to get back now.:(

Congrats SF on your wedding:j:j

Erme - how did the job interview go?

Congrats Ruby - big well done:T:T

seriouslyfrugal

rubytuesday wrote: »

Good news from me - my graduation ceremony was on Monday and I am now a qualified Mental Health Trainer!

well done ruby - thats great news :j :T :j


I carn't believe that we are nearly in april already

have a good weekend everyone

silvasava

Slowlyfading - Very Best wishes & hope the weather holds for you. Look forward to 'seeing' you in a few weeks & some piccy's please.
Sandra - you've done it again - what a lovely ode. Its so nice I'm going to print it out as there is such a lot of wisdom in your words that we could all use, no matter how long we've been married!
Ruby - Congratulations, well done! (I think there may be one or two of us who could do with some Mental training lol)
Erme - Good luck with the job - keeping fingers crossed for you

rubytuesday

Ooh how exciting thinking of Slowlyfading!

Savvy_sewing

Congratulations to Slowlyfading on your wedding, I hope everything goes well for you both. xx

rising_from_the_ashes

Well, here goes:



Groceries: Overspent but not as bad as it looks! Part of that is my April "stock up" of toiletries/cleaning stuff but as I was in town last weekend (where there is a Home Bar*gains where a lot of it comes from) it seemed silly not to do it whilst there & therefore save a 60 mile round trip again next week. Total spend for Jan - March is £469/£420 which is over but Jan's stock up did include a lot of stuff that will last all year (but hadn't thought of splitting the figures out over the year at that point:o)

Clothes: did have to buy a few things this month - my last pair of jeans gave up life (patches had patches!) & as we have a "dress down day" at work each week, I did really need something (also trying to get through visiting friends, general wear with 1 pair was a bit ridiculous). Managed to get 2 pairs (£10 and £14) and 2 tops (both £10 reduced to £5) and a lovely t-shirt (£8) which will do for my night out in May and a couple of bits of underwear so not too unhappy.

Mobile phone: Will show as quite a big overspend for a few months & should hopefully balance out a bit as I get to claim my cashback throughout the contract (get £50 back ever 4 months or so).

New contract works out at £8.50 / month (after cashback taken off) so quite pleased with that - although there will still be a small overspend compared to what I'd budgeted when I had the PAYG.

Landline: Going to have to look at this as my bill has jumped from £15 / month to £23.50 / month :eek:. Partly down to being housebound for 9 weeks after surgery last year (I was careful but there were still some daytime calls that aren't incl in my contract so did have a small overspend) and partly down to a rise in prices. Will have to have a shop around .....

Fuel: This is killing me at the minute Have cut 3k / year off my mileage in the last 2 years and just can't get it any lower. Record the p / litre on the spreadsheet and it's gone up another 6p this month:eek: When I got Dinky (who only takes 35L), it cost £35 to fill her .... now it's £49:eek: and that only lasts around 10 days ...... Think this budget will def be over this year.:(