2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Longships

I have been led astray recently by the 11+ thread and various glitches but have decided that it really isn't the place for me and I feel much more at home on this thread - so you're stuck with me :wave:

[Deleted User]

Welcome back longships. Great to see the thread busy again. Nothing particularly frugal going on here today. Thankfully its warm enough today so no heating on.

I have had to use the tumble drier yesterday. It was beautiful weather when I woke so stripped the bed. By the time the bedding had been washed it was pouring down outside!

dizzy_lizzie

Longships wrote: »

......and I feel much more at home on this thread - so you're stuck with me :wave:

Aw that's lovely
x

Longships

What do other people find difficult about living a frugal life? The main thing I miss at the moment is a long hot soak in the bath with my favourite bath creme. A quick shower just doesn't do it for me - plus I am always nearly sliding over despite non-slip stickers on the bottom of the bath.

tumptyteapot

spent £11.2yesterday on a boat trip and picnic, I'm pleased with that, normally I would have had a Saturday paper, ice cream, coffee etc and it would have been more like thirty quid for a day out. plan for today is go for a long walk with my son, get some rotting leaves for our pet beetles and possibly do some geocacheing. lunch is soup for me, toasted sandwich for him and home made fish fingers for tea. tescos do fillets of white fish in a pack of 6 for under £2 and its nice steamed too.

freedom2011

Thank you for the warm welcome back!

Very frugal month for me ahead with some big bills to pay off. We may have to live off my AP stash of couscous again. I have let everything slipped so I am starting by going back to writing down every spend once again. One bit of good news however is that the electric and water have written to say they are reducing our monthly DD so we are reaping our previous years econimising:T

We can't afford to run 2 cars anymore so we have to look into how we are going tackle that.

This afternoon I am making a huge pile to start ebaying once again, mainly clothes and toys, any tips welcome!

I should also start some menu ideas to give a fresh start - any tips welcome.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.xx

[Deleted User]

Longships wrote: »

What do other people find difficult about living a frugal life? The main thing I miss at the moment is a long hot soak in the bath with my favourite bath creme. A quick shower just doesn't do it for me - plus I am always nearly sliding over despite non-slip stickers on the bottom of the bath.

The thing I find hardest is being consistent. I can go for so long and then just have a big blow out.

There are some things that have now become a way fo life though - some of the MSE things I have been doing for years such as shopping around for best deals when renewing insurances, always haggling with AA before renewing my breakdown cover, using coupons where I can (although I am not great at supermarket coupons - most of them seem to be for branded stuff I wouldn't buy), shop regularly in Lidl, use supermarket own brand, cooking from scratch, food plan and smaller things like reusing the tea bag until I can get no more from it!

I do miss having a bath too. I only have a shower in the house as our bathroom is so small.

tumptyteapot

£2.20 spent today
£1 parking, £1 ice cream for son, 20p lolipop, 20p on 2 frames at dog show!

I'm going out with only a couple of quid and no cashcard! Scary stuff.
Dinner today is home made fishfingers and home made potato and butternut squash wedges with treacle tart for pudding! I had a bit of frozen pasty to use up! Hooray for treacle tart!
Tomorrow is a more difficult leftover day, we have gnocci for one meal and a load of bread dough for another so it will probably be home made pitta bread and houmous for lunch and gnocchi and vegi sausages with cheese for tea. Shopping on Tuesday, must write a decent list!

dizzy_lizzie

Longships wrote: »

What do other people find difficult about living a frugal life?

I'm the same as allie. I can do it for so long and be reeeeally good and then go daft!!
If I've set myself a challenge I can usually stick to it but then I can go the total opposite and sabotage all my good work!
I've bought material today from Abakhan to make GD a tv snuggle quilt but to make up for it I've written a menu for this week and have a shopping list.
We don't really go out that often, don't smoke or drink (aside from the odd liquer) so my hobbies are my treats in a way.
Can't believe it's the 3rd September already tomorrow. Hope we get a late Summer.
Here's to a frugal first week for us all :beer:
x

Nargleblast

Well, having to have a new shower put in, plus stocking up on new school uniform for DS (keep meaning to chop his legs off when I get round to it) means things very tight till next payday. However, I did stock up the freezer last week and have made meal plans for every day till next payday, so let's hope we can stick to the cunning plan!