2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Frugaldom

Re the paper log maker - I have one and you can make logs out of anything that's safe to burn, so yes to your shredded scrap paper. Trouble with the logmaker is that the logs take a long, long time to dry out, so you either need airy drying space or else long summer days of sunshine. If the logs aren't completely dried, they can smell. Somewhere in the past, I have posted quite a bit about this, so I'd suggest using the search facility on MSE forums and look for logmaker.

I use Open Office for the spreadsheets, the link is in 'HANDY LINKS' at the start of this challenge thread.

11 new challengers about to be added, apologies for not being here very often but it#s impossible for me to keep up with everyone. You know where I am if you need to ask anything that hasn't already been answered.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Myrtle - honestly, don't be disheartened ... mine's £12,500 and there's only me! :eek:

Some things there's little we can do about - mortgage, council tax etc (and these amounts would be very similar even if there were say 2 of us living here but there's nothing I can do about that either unfortunately:)) so it's trying to look at where savings can be made and making sure there's no unnecessary "waste"

A couple of things leapt out at me ... (I'm on the DFW boards a lot so see a lot of SOAs!) - I haven't added the totals, just general thoughts:

• Mobile phones - £60 between the 2 is a lot each month. Is there any way hubby can reduce his package? Could either/both of you switch to PAYG and use your mobiles for emergencies only? Honestly, it's not that bad once you get out the habit of phoning/texting everyone all the time - I used to be very attached to my mobile and I've managed to cut back huge amounts by adopting this - I can use the landline for free in the house in, so why pay during the day? I topped up my mobile in Dec '10 with £40 .... I will have to do it soon as down to my last £3 but not bad going!:)
• Gym - as others have said, that's a pretty whopping amount each month... if you use it to the full & it's one of the things that you enjoy & would be very hard to give up, then that's fine but something to think about (eg can you use during the day for a reduced fee, how many times do you go/week & could you do this cheaper without the membership etc)
• Business - again, not sure why this would be in your household expenditure?
• Insurances - shop around at renewal times to see if you can get lower
• Gas / Elec - a bit on the high side - try comparison sites
• Entertainment / clothes / anything else - I can't see anything down for these?

HTH:)

slowlyfading

Glad to see so many people posting and pondering budgets - it's not long until 2012 now! I will be posting my totals in the next day or two, when I've thought about them and finalised it myself. Things are going to be very tight in the SF for the time being, and although it's a scary thought, I know we'll manage and get through the times.

That said, I'm going to miss being able to buy clothes if I want

dizzybee

Just caught up on all the post,now that Christmas is over i am planing to get my frugal live in order,my plan of action is
To always carry a shopping list and stick to it,also look for money off coupons for any think i plan to buy,
send for all useable freebies on the net,
use cash back sites,
do all surveys that are sent to my email,
stop smoking,
de clutter the house and sell anything that is decent on e bay,
when needing to replace anything check charity shops and free cycle first,
dust down the cook books and start using them,
grow own fruit and veg,

quintwins

with regards to a paper log maker, there fab if you have a green house so you can just leave them in there to dry, they take several months to dry properly tho, also try get intouch with a local printer (my hubbys a printer) there more than happy to give you paper cut offs, my hubby mainly prints cards which make longer to break down, another tip is to set a board over the handles and stand on it it's much easier on your hands

and you can make firelighters from tumble dryer fluff and toilet roll inners......i wish i had a real fire

nearly new year and time to start a new budget hers to a frugal new year :beer:

cw18

I've spent a fair while today listing freezer contents - 7 drawers down, 2 (and the ice cube tray shelf) to go tomorrow.

I've decided one of my main mantras for next year (if not THE main one) has to be 'must not buy meat / pies / fish until the Christmas Eve reductions'..... I can make 263 main meals for me from what I've listed so far, and that's not counting a few things that are definites for snack meals rather than the makings of the main meal of the day :eek: The only exception (once I've freed up some space) will be salmon if I find it on a good deal - only got a dozen portions, and it's something I enjoy (plus I know that my chap won't say 'no' to it if offered).

I know I have a load of cod portions and chicken breast fillets in the other 2 drawers, plus fish fingers.... and I'm pretty certain there's a good sized piece of rib-eye steak plus a few pork steaks on the ice cube tray shelf (took the tray out long ago to make space for other things). I've also got a pack of lean mince to go in, which will make 5 or 6 portions of bolognese or chille (once I've used up the portions I already have in there made up - which is rather more than I realised!). Not sure what else is in them, but can see me having enough for me for the whole year the way things are looking.

It also doesn't include any of the the turkey crown I've cooked this evening, but the plan when buying that was always to slice it to make sandwich meat which means it won't count as main meals anyway.

zafiro1984

May I join in as I've been lurking on the sidelines for quite a while.
I did my budget from Oct 2011 to the end Sept 2012, - don't know why - I think it was the time I realised I had to stop spending.
I've included everything for day to day living, council tax, fuel, food, insurances, mobiles. Fortunately I don't have a morgage and the car is run under the business. I work on a 'daily spend' amount but at the moment I'm £1046.43 over my alloted budget. So in order to pull it back before it gets too far out of hand I've set myself a target of £20 on food per week, £20 on everything else. The freezers are full but I'm not too sure exactly what is in them. However, I aim to live off them for several months, I need to free up space for this coming years fruit and vegs and I aim to grow more, especially the veg I can freeze.

I'm not really looking forward to 2012 as I think it will be a hard year for us.

System

cw18 wrote: »

I noticed a 'business' line. I would assume this is either refunded (if it's an 'in employment' cost) or can be claimed against tax bills (if self employed), so wouldn't really expect to see that in your list.

Most people exclude mortgage/rent and loans. Several also exclude Council Tax.

I can't actually get your monthly and annual figures to tally up.
There are 3 months you don't pay council tax, so it'll be lower those months.
Your groceries line looks like you've multiplied the monthly figure by 13 - do you work on a 4 weekly cycle for that? And the same again for your diesel and loan - the loan being the one that has confused me, as I could understand the others being 4 weekly, but not that.....

EDIT : Just had another quick scan over your list, and realised there's nothing there for water - whether that be water rates or a water meter. Your profile doesn't say where you live, but if you're in England or Wales it looks like an omission. I believe Scotland don't pay (in with council tax?) based on posts I've read in previous years, but don't know about Ireland.

Business Line - this is a bill we pay each month, but do put through on our tax return at the end of the year, however since we have to pay it each month then imo I should add it, because it needs to get paid.

Council Tax - we pay £166 over a 9 month year, maybe I should have split the total payable over 12 months for the record so it was more true?

The diesel and food - for the monthly part I have done £45 x 4 - however for the yearly I have done £45 x 52 - maybe a bit confusing again, sorry.

The loan - that has been an error on my part - I've obviously copied the formulas down in excel from the cells above, my error.

Water - I've included this in the council tax amount.

Maybe i should redo this, and average the costs out over the year rather than a true months costs?

System

natnat13 wrote: »

Hi Myrtle, my budget looks similar, it's quite frightening writing it all down. Have you looked at your insurances to see if you have the cheapest? Martin has lots of good info on here and I saved quite a lot when I switched mine last year. Even the F.A who did our mortgage was impressed!!!

Thanks for the advice. We recently changed cars so this car insurance is defo the cheapest we could get. The life and content insurance were only just done in august, and the buildings and contents was only just renewed around about that time too.

System

LolaLemon wrote: »

The gym membership - is it being fully utilized, is it really needed? Would walking/running be any good to the person who uses it?
I don't understand the business purpose? If that makes any sense.

Instead of buying the toilets n cleaning stuff, have a go at making them... many of the items we have in our kitchen cupboards work brilliantly for both purposes. Sugar in some bodycream, liquid soap or olive oil is a good body scrub. Vinegar, lemon juice n bi carb soda have their uses for cleaning. Many threads available on these... try a brand lower to what u currently pay... or as I do, I pick a price range for, say a tin of chopped toms, say 50p, I then compare the ingredients and the one with less chemicals gets my vote... Tesco one up from blue white stripes normally wins this one, their blue white stripes fish fingers win at a pound for 10 (I think) compared to the big brands.... so I get more fish for my money, and also the added bonus of very little unwanted extras.

The gym membership does get used, and since we are wanting to lose a bit of weight next year, it defo will be getting used more. Maybe once we have shed a few pounds we can think about exercise outwith a gym. Thanks for the suggestion though.