2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

dizzy_lizzie

[Deleted User] wrote:

Thanks SF. At the moment it is just for 4 to 5 weeks but its a good start.

Hope it works out well for you. Well done
x

freedom2011

Really struggling with everything at the moment. Seem to have lost a grip on things lately. Bills are piling in (some expected & accounted for, some naughty snakey ones tho) & Christmas round the corner and feel I just don't know where to start. We have lost £90pw of our income so I am trying to work out plan B, well probably plan J to be honest! No money to buy oil for heating so a wee bit chilly at mo. Need to start an afford to have heating on challenge. I have a blank piece of paper in front of me but for the first time ever not sure where to start on making a list.

silvasava

Oooh Freedom - really feel for you & everyone else in similar situations. Just take a deep breath & remember ITS NOT A SIN TO HAVE NO MONEY I've started my Christmas Bag - a large carrier that I've put all the bits collected through the year & will sort out who gets what - its looking quite healthy at the moment even if it did cause me to fall off the NSD challenge Other than that nothing much else to report - Oh - I did make the Twinks recipe & they went down a storm, only trouble is I'll have to make some more now - lol

freedom2011

silvasava wrote: »

Oooh Freedom - really feel for you & everyone else in similar situations. Just take a deep breath & remember ITS NOT A SIN TO HAVE NO MONEY I've started my Christmas Bag - a large carrier that I've put all the bits collected through the year & will sort out who gets what - its looking quite healthy at the moment even if it did cause me to fall off the NSD challenge Other than that nothing much else to report - Oh - I did make the Twinks recipe & they went down a storm, only trouble is I'll have to make some more now - lol

Aw, thanks. Still got nowhere with my list but cleared out a huge pile of bits to sell which will help a little. Good to have something to focus on.

rising_from_the_ashes

*waves* hi all

Sorry not around much ..... things a bit tough (as they seem to be for so many just now) and had a few unplanned / unbudgeted for expenses which have put a big dent in things - mainly having to replace my car which was totally unforseen:eek: (and shouldn't have needed done until 2015!) and some household emergency repairs that weren't supposed to be needed until next year!

Managed to get through without resorting to loans / outstanding amounts on cc's but carrying a bit of an OD again unfortunately so need to pull the belt in ever tighter to get shot of that ASAP!

On the positive front - have finally given up smoking! Again not planned & ended up cold turkey due to emergency hospital admission ..... getting there and hopefully now on the road to recovery as well.


Still keeping track in the SOW (love that spreadsheet;)).

Started to do a bit of work on next years figures and see if there's room to make some cuts. Have been managing to reduce the various insurance policies a wee bit here & there which should hopefully all add up.

Doing quite well with bulk buying on the pets front and having their budgeting pots up and running helps hugely with being able to make purchases when the offers are on :T so need to get that practice up and running for everything else ......

Keep up the good work everyone.

[Deleted User]

slowlyfading wrote: »

Fantastic I got a supply contract before for 6 weeks, and it ended up being 10 months! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

Just been asked to stay in the job until June 2013! Great to have some more money coming in:j:j

slowlyfading

[Deleted User] wrote:

Just been asked to stay in the job until June 2013! Great to have some more money coming in:j:j

Fantastic news :j :j

silvasava

Well I made some more Twinks on Wednesday - totally forgot about Halloween so gave them out instead of sweeties that I'd forgotten to get - all gone, have to make some more - seemed like a good idea at the time.....! Minor panic - new PC installed about 6 weeks ago so lost all my reminders on my calendar - including reminder for MOT - EEEEK. Should have been done on 1st Nov but it'll be done on Tuesday - just can't think why I thought to check in the first place - spoooky.
Weather here turning very cold - hope everyone has a good weekend

debbiedeejay

Not had much to post about frugally recently - doing all the right (normal)things,but I think I may have gone a bit too far in some peoples eyes:o - let me know what you think its a bit of a long post sorry but something to mull over me thinks

On my normal dog walk last week I noticed 4 huge thick bin bags sat up on a grass verge near a horse field down a locally known country lane- didn't think anything of them to start with

Over the past week one of them has been ripped into by either wild life or cats,starting to spew its paper contents -its starting to look messy now.

So I thought if I saw them again when I had a car I would in my mind collect them and correctly throw the lot away,if they did belong to someone surly after a week they would have collected them. So yesterday on my way home they were still there so I put them in back of car.
This morning I get them out and realise I will have to carefully with gloves on mind and using a stick to sort through them to put stuff in recycle etc (plus I admittedly was curious and p££ved off at the person who had dumped rubbish) and yes I found the following all dry and in good condition,but obviously someone wanted rid of them

1 pair of huge muslim material black curtains (about 6ft)
2 pairs of equity shoes(going to shoe recycle bin)
1 green deben£ns T shirt - fine no stains rips etc
2 huge black loop rugs (type for bathrooms)
2 mens checked shirts M &S
1 ladies skirt
1 lambswool mans zipped cardi in a lovely mink colour (just needs a darn in one area and defuzzing)hardly worn
crushed shoe boxes and cardboard packaging (recycle bin)
Plus a huge amount of now wet envelopes and personal documents which are now in my recycle bin.

oh and a new penny!:rotfl:

From the documents I now know 3 occupants of the same family living at an address about 5 miles away, relatives addresses,receipts from am1$on bills,medical leaflets(one member of family had a cataract op recently) and to top it all one of them is apparently a Doctor!(but not a med/GP type - yeah I checked that too!) I googled the address and the house it is is one that for years the type you look at and think wow that is beautiful,nice area etc.

So you guessed it I am not totally impressed with them "dumping on my doorstep"- now don't get me wrong ,the bags may have fallen off back of trailer etc but somehow I doubt it - anyway the persoanl/paper stuff is safely got rid off now-it's not spewed across the countryside and yes you guessed it:o...............

The rugs are now in washing machine,will do as spare ones for my bathroom- curtains are going in afterwards,the clothing will be washed and probably use the material to makes bunting with, the cardi is too big for me but rather than waste it I'll either pass it on (shhh dont tell where I got it from)or I might use it during winter inside when it's cold or make a nice cushion from it.

The penny I have put to my arty collection on my mantel piece and have written "would you throw me away?" in tiny writing on side as a reminder to me to be more frugal.

So my question to you all is - was this a bit of extreme frugaling? I was very careful to check contents etc or should I have just left the bags and put them in the nearest bin/taken to tip?What else have people found "dumped" and taken back and found them useful?

Frugaldom

Good morning frugalers. I thought I'd pop over here and see how things are going, find out how everyone's doing and make sure there is still a thread going. I keep an eye on the daily emails to make sure we don't reach the MSE limits but it has been exceptionally quiet here this year. I hope everyone is OK?

Life continues as normal here in Frugaldom, despite being 3 members of the family down over the past year or so, one exected and two sudden. But as they say, life carries on regardless.

With this less than cheery thought, I'll add another reminder that this month is Will Aid month, so anyone who can afford to who hasn't already done so can get thir will done via various participting solicitors. Detaisl can be found at http://www.willaid.org.uk/ but, in true frugal fashion, don't assume this to be the cheapest option - it's more about solicitors donating fees to good causes.

My personal challenge continues and I'm still managing to stay on my £4,000 per year living plan despite current living conditions and on-going renovation work. Apart from that, nothing's changed and I'm now number crunching for 2013 to see if I can stretch yet another year out of this level of budget. 'Adaptability' seems to be the key word to succeeding as does the constant need to expect the unexpected at all times.

Before I go, I'd just like to say another thank you to slowlyfading for keeping up this thread in between everything else she's been up to over the past year.