2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

natnat13

Some great ideas on here.
I am going to:
Write down all spends
Meal plan
Bulk buy
Walk more (kids to school)
See if it's cheaper for me to get the bus into town than drive
Grow a few veggies
Take advantage of offers of meals etc more!!
Try and do more surveys etc to get vouchers for presents and keep entering competitions
Start overpaying the mortgage
Ebay / car boot all unwanted items
And most importantly, don't buy things I don't need!!!!!

So nothing that different really!
My dad (and usually my gran) give me christmas money, not sure what to do with it yet.

LolaLemon

Cherryjack wrote: »

Morning Everyone

Remember money does not equal love.. stop putting pressure on myself to please people.:o

Soo correct! No amount of money equals love.
My friend and her 18 month old, who died in April, well her partner recently became a millionaire due to their life policies and his mums, who died a month after the funeral, says he would rather be penniless and happy with his family than have all that money and not have his wife to be and son around.
Since April, I have re-evaluated a lot of my life, I make more time to see my friends, we see each other in the houses, to save on pub/cafe prices.

seriouslyfrugal

LolaLemon wrote: »

Soo correct! No amount of money equals love.
My friend and her 18 month old, who died in April, well her partner recently became a millionaire due to their life policies and his mums, who died a month after the funeral, says he would rather be penniless and happy with his family than have all that money and not have his wife to be and son around.
Since April, I have re-evaluated a lot of my life, I make more time to see my friends, we see each other in the houses, to save on pub/cafe prices.

I think family is so important I agree I would be penniless if it ment that I could have lost family members back & on occasions I have given " homemade" pressies when things have been tight money wise no one bat an eyelid

letsdothis

Hi, Long term lurker, first time poster - be gentle - would love to be added to this thread for 2012, will go into more detail on what I intend to do later - but its late now - so off to bedski - just wanted to say hi - and will be back soon - thanks for all the fantastic advice x

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Please add ENJOYFINANCIALCHALLENGES to the list of members for 2012, I recently posted a few days ago and wondered why the forum was so quiet then I realized that everybody had moved to this new one. Anyway I now have time to join in being as its winter once more, my summer was spent cooking and selling but once the cold weather comes thats it, I hibernate because I cant cope with the very cold weather

I did very well over the year making more money from my preserves and baking, some of you may remember that I started it all off by making marmalade to sell, then things expanded as time went on and I ended up also making jam as well as marmalade and lemon curd. Then I started scone making, both cheese and fruit and they were very popular. By the time I got to the end of the year I had also added shortbread, cakes and biscuits to the list. This meant the year passed very quickly as it seemed like I was cooking every day in order produce enough to sell to all my customers at the weekend.

I haven't yet formulated my intension's for the coming year so will need to think about how I shall save money during 2012.

findingmyfeet

morning everyone,

loving reading everyones ideas so far keep them coming please.

well today i will be spending money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!aaghhh. off to fetch my lovely DD back from uni for xmas which im so excited about, get her to myself for a month, but the downside is the £60 it will cost me for petrol. Hoping to cut a few other little areas over the next few weeks to try and make the money up . but shes worth it.
have made a leek and potatoe soup from home grown veggies for when we get home tonight and have snacks, flask etc for the journey. cant bare to pay prices at services almost makes me cry.

see you all later keep frugaling

System

i really need to cut down on my tumble dryer usage. I was thinking of buying a smaller unit when the one i have packs in but i am wondering if its going to be a false economy if its going to be used twice as much.

Kerfuffle

Judi wrote: »

i really need to cut down on my tumble dryer usage. I was thinking of buying a smaller unit when the one i have packs in but i am wondering if its going to be a false economy if its going to be used twice as much.

Hi Judi,

I suppose it will depend on the kw usage. Assuming it's exactly half, if you have 2 wash loads but only dry the heavy stuff in the dryer and the lighter stuff on a clothes horse or outside so that you're only using the maching once instead of twice, then you'll save some money.

I think :rotfl:

Cherryjack

Judi wrote: »

i really need to cut down on my tumble dryer usage. I was thinking of buying a smaller unit when the one i have packs in but i am wondering if its going to be a false economy if its going to be used twice as much.

Hi Judi,

My tumble dryer broke a few weeks ago.. i did everything in there. I havent replaced it and i bought some radiator brackets from poundland to help dry things along with 2 airers and its going really well. Think im gunna ditch the tumble drying.. will save loads and the clothes will be better off for it x

stitching_witch

I gave my tumble dryer away this summer as I hadn't used it for over 18 months. Everything goes outside in the good weather and on airers when it's grotty outside. I'm hoping to get an old fashioned pulley airer when the Rayburn goes in, but that's on my list for "one day".