2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

rubytuesday

Ooh I see lots of lovely new folk have joined us!

Welcome to you all and I will have a catch up later today!

Cherryjack

Happy NEW YEAR everyone :-) xx good luck with yr frugal plans.. we will all help each other and it will make a difference :-) xx

Frivolous

Happy New Year to you all!:j

Wishing we all achieve our goals in 2012!:)

silvasava

Hi All - I joined last year & found this thread so supportive and informative. DH & I retired about 4 years ago so our incomes have plummeted and the b*** B*** Bankers have plundered the small pension pots we had saved so I'm joining again this year. We do have the luxury of having paid off the mortgage & dont have any CC debts or loans - but like so many people on this thread the cost of living is rising faster than our incomes and we're all struggling in some way. I'm trying not to feel down about it so I'm going for a cuppa (only a cupful in the kettle - good start!)

So - suit up, helmet on and face the battle for another year!

rictus123

Happy new year folks, hope you all stick to this thread like glue so we can carry each other threw some frugal times. 6,000 budget for me this year...do able but a bit less than what I'm used to! Good luck folks, may 2012 bring some of your hopes and dreams.

Cherryjack

i must set a budget tonight.. where to start? xx

natnat13

Sounds great flying, let me know how it goes.
I love all the ideas actually, thank you all.
The downside is I live in rural Devon and my nearest big town is an hour away and ikea is 2 hours, but my SIL works at our local garden centre so I might ask her (I think she gets discount!)
I looked at the SOW last night and couldn't face filling it in so am going to stick to paper. My budget for absolutely everything is £17,000 which sounds loads but does include mort, CT, etc, etc. I showed DH today, he said "have you been back through the old bank statements to see where it all goes then?" We should have a surplus £500 a month!! I said no but from now on we're writing every penny we spend down so we'll soon know!!
We were going to go out somewhere today, but don't really need to aimlesly drive around so might go for a walk later but I think the kids are happy playing with their toys.
DS's birthday was a great success yesterday, he got lots of lovely toys, a couple of things he already had so I have squirelled them for re-gifting!

Ches

Happy New Year to you all and all the best for a frugal 2012. :beer:

kittiej

Hi Everybody.

I've just realised that I should 'in theory' end up with a little bit more left over than the £1388 I declared previously as i forgot that my payrise kicks in this month.

(We had 2.75% and very grateful i am too since I know that many have had pay freezes and not only for this year either - please don't think I'm bragging it's just a bit extra I had forgotten about)

I joined the 'make £2012 in 2012' thread on the up your income board and I have £12 put towards it from my pennies jar (no laughing :rotfl:).

My new surplus total without selling anything is now a predicted £1592, as long as my job doesn't disappear.

wornoutmumoftwo

I'm going to do my budget this afternoon using Martin's spreadsheet and then see if I can stick to it Definately going to have a NSD today but will probably be the one and only.