2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

LolaLemon

natnat13 wrote: »

So that's why my MSE crashed :rotfl:

I did wonder when I seen martins fb update l ;-)

quintwins wrote: »

oh crochet dinosaurs, i'd like to try that how hard are they? bearing in mind i'm a beginer i'm going to try a few cheap xmas pressies this year, i'm doing ss with my family and for my kids i plan to do wee hampers from poundland either colour or character themed as they get far too much and we will prob be down sizing so don't wanna spend too much, i was also thinking of making them sock monkeys aswell plenty of time to decide and get going tho

I don't find them hard, just a little fiddly, and use a different colour of wool to use as ur marker, count ur rounds continuously. Only thing I am struggling with is french knots for eyes, as i am giving to small children I won't use beads, just to be on the safe side.

dizzy_lizzie wrote: »

Hi Lola. You take care huni and happy crocheting. I made a few crochet flowers last night. No idea what I'm going to do with them though.
Ruby hope you're feeling a lot better. The sleep would have done you the world of good. You must have needed it.
Cherryjack just read your post. So sorry you're going through this. What a rotten thing to happen. I'm sure you'll be more than relieved when it's all sorted out.
Aril thanks for the info re £land. Will let OH know.

What a miserable day today. The rain is relentless here.
Went out today and had a lovely catch up with friends. I did end up having a bit of a spend, a lovely soya roasted hazelnut latte in c*sta c*ffee but it was worth every penny to me. ( I rarely treat myself like this these days so it was overdue )
I also bought a smoothies health juice book from the charity shop. I usually google recipes but wanted some recipes to hand and it was only 50p which I thought was a bargain!
Plan tonight to have a long hot bath then watch the film mamma mia which I've recorded. Not seen it yet and heard mixed reviews but I'll have a watch anyway.
Hope everyone is well.
x

Dizzy, are your flowers flat or 3d, if 3d u could make stems and put in a vase. If flat, u could sew to hair clips. A shop near me sells them for £1.50 for one!

Couldn't find my hooks, then remembered my hook bag is in the car, as i took some wool to Mr F's before Christmas to make some cupcakes for his neice. And their is no way I'm going out there, I'll be blown to who knows where haha so watching a film on Sony TV called 'about last night, oldie but never seen it before.

JayneC

Here you are... Please can I join again this year?I didn't post much last year but did (mostly) complete my spreadsheet and ended the year about on budget - if you don't count my massive splurge on a wood burning boiler stovebut in my defence the central heating boiler died last winter and I had to do something - at least I can gather free wood to burn now... I had cleared my credit card balance but had to pay for the stove with it - have 0% until around May so may have to look at a tranfser then.

Anyhoo...last spring I changed my hours to part time and so my income has more than halved (as I also returned from a secondment which was a better paid post)so budget this year is very very frugal...
£5023.60 to be prescise - this doesn't include fixed essentials such as mortgage, council tax, water, debt repayments or car costs (i'm an essential car user for work so need my car) which come to £10321.04.
I tried to copy my spreadsheet but it's not playing so I might write it out at some point ...
At home there's me, DS aged 13, DD aged 20 and her son aged 3, also regular visitor is DD's BF and I have another DD away at uni who technically still lives at home, plus another 2 grown up kids who have left home. Pets are 1 dog 1 cat and 2 chickens. DD has her own income and pays for her own and DGS needs and gives me board of £50 per week towards food and bills, I'm currently using this as grocery money and mostly am able to keep shopping to £50 per week including toiletries, cleaning stuff, pet food, etc...

Well that's about it for now. Will try to pop in more often this year. Good Luck everybody xx

rubytuesday

Thank you Dizzy.

I'm still feeling absolutely shattered so I'm going to away to my bed.

I hope you are feeling better now too!

I did manage to rustle up enough potatoes for dinner so stuck at a no spend day today.

brizzledfw

Hi there

Please can I join? Really need to start living more frugally and this seems a lovely supportive thread. Not sure yet what the budget will be for the 4 of us plus cat and 4 bantams, won't be £4k I am afraid but it'd be good to work to an annual budget.. Will get onto it later this week

Thanks Frugaldom and Co

Brizzle

arrowlili

i've managed 3 NSD's so far, made my first ever sourdough loaves (from my brand new starter), made a litre of yogurt and jam tarts for the kids
eating way better at the mo and i can't remember the last time i spent so little on groceries :j:D

patentgirl

Morning fellow frugallers
Weather bit better this morning strong winds alnight kept me awake felt like house was going to take off!

CherryJack hope your situation gets sorted soon what a worry for you at least you have alot of support and friends on here

Aril thanks for that will pop to our local one today recently taken over an allotment and eager to get started on it

Brought a few essential food bits yesterday bringing end to NSDs and looks like will be popping to Pland today still havent finalised yearly budget nearly there found one SO which dont know what it is at all so will be ringing them later to see what it is and if I still need it that will be saving off £13 a month

theonlynuttytart

arrowlili wrote: »

i've managed 3 NSD's so far, made my first ever sourdough loaves (from my brand new starter), made a litre of yogurt and jam tarts for the kids
eating way better at the mo and i can't remember the last time i spent so little on groceries :j:D

could you tell me how you made your sourdough loaves and yogurt? its something ive always wanted to make and have never known how!

Savvy_sewing

I have just looked at my bankbalance and think somewhere I have made a maths calculation wrong. Eek. I am below the £100 in my account, which is so scarey. I do not have, and cannot have a bank overdraft. Looks like I am going to have to take my savings out, which is annoying, as I was saving to have the car serviced, that it really needs!. So back to the drawing board and see where I have gone wrong.! As an old bankrupt I cannot get overdrawn, and I cannot get credit. Eek.
It will be a meagre existance for the next month afterall, when i thought I was coming into the new year with plenty in the bank.! Grr.

quintwins

lola i might have a wee google and see if i can find any video's to walk me threw, i could just use big buttons for eyes because my kids are grown up

i'm so tired todayit's unreal i swear my whole family are against the idea of me sleep if it's not the kids it's hubby snoring, anyway today is a nsd i've liberated some food from my freezer, it's gonna take along time to run down but i will do it

arrowlili

theonlynuttytart wrote: »

could you tell me how you made your sourdough loaves and yogurt? its something ive always wanted to make and have never known how!

i used a lakeland yogurt maker (although i've used others in the past and i know some of the old stylers use a thermos)
1 litre (or how much your yogurt maker holds) semi-(skimmed or whole if you prefer) skimmed milk boiled in a pan. add 1-2 heaped tbsp skimmed milk powder, if you want a thicker yogurt.
when it hits boiling point take off the heat & leave to cool (i cheat and put it in a sink of cold water to speed things up )
once at only slightly warm temperature pass through a sieve into the yogurt making container (makesure everything is steralised)
add a couple of tbsp of live yogurt (i used a nice bio one) stir it all then pop into the yogurt maker and leave for 6 hrs... job done :j (i find anymore than 7 hrs can lead to seperation)
it will settle more on chilling too. hth, haven't had a bad batch yet and i've been making yogurt on and off for near 10 years :j