2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

seriouslyfrugal

Hi everyone


I had my routine hospital appointment today - all is fine which is good and a weight off my shoulders

2 spend days since the begining of the year :j life is quiet at the moment

not sure what i'm doing the weekend yet - this is good as it sounds like a weekend to chill :T

have a good weekend & a frugal one

SandraScarlett

Erme, I echo what Blairweech (I think) said, about taking your bike wheel off. Last year, with the aid of Youtube, I managed to successfully:

(1) Bandage and straighten a bunion

(2) Fit a towel rail

(3) Cut down a 24 feet Cordyline tree and didn't damage a single leaf! :j

The lumberjack in the Youtube video was somewhere manly, like Canada, and his tree was about 100 feet, but the method was the same.

Someone (here I go again!), I think Rae, mentioned small savings, but from little acorns big oak trees grow. It's great when you can see a real difference in your expenses, but lots of tiny differences soon add up.

Good luck with your bike Erme - perhaps you might be demonstrating its reliability in the Olympics!

xx

natnat13

I was looking at my DDs and realised I was paying £7.99 a month mobile phone insurance! It was one of those things I took out when I got my contract last year and thought I'll change or cancel that and never did. Anyway, just found a good policy for £1.49 a month instead. I have quite an expensive phone so don't want no insurance and it's not all covered by my house policy, so pleased in one way and annoyed I left it so many months!
Got £10 voucher from Mr M's today for complaining about them not taking my coupons!
Been charged late payment charges by New look account card today when I shouldn't of, so just e-mailed them. The only reason I took the thing out was because they had 20% off and I was buying 2 pairs of shoes, grrr! Hopefully they'll sort it.

Mrs_midd

Hi can i please join?

Last night i punched in the details of four A**a receipts from over xmas on the A**a Price Guarantee site and got vouchers totaling nearly £10, i couldn't believe it. I always normally throw my receipts away but not anymore. Found another one this morning and got a voucher for £1.68. Obviously as i'm becoming more aware of my spending these vouchers will get smaller but i couldn't be happier with the start. I never thought watching the pennies would be so exciting.

I also cancelled my mobile phone voice mail facility this morning. Sounds daft but i get charged every time i pick up my voice mail and most of the time the message is 'can you call me back', the missed call is enough to get that message across. I tried to cancel my phone insurance too but was talked out of it grrrr. I will call again tomorrow to do it.

Thank you all for inspiring me to start living frugally and good luck for 2012.

moneybear123

Hello Everyone, I have my budget plan done. I'm now ready for this challenge. My goal is set to not spend over $5,200 but I'm going to try my best to spend less. I have 4/5 nsd so far and today will be another nsd. My savings goal $10,000 or more. The only reason I have a spend day is because my bathroom faucet was dripping, and we decided to fix it right away rather than pay a high priced water bill.

Catslovelycats

seriously: glad the appt went well

re youtube: I learned how to change my fridge thermostat from youtube!:A It saved me £40+ repairman. :AOr did it? :oSince I fitted it, the fridge still hasn't worked and now the light won't work either.:(:o And I still have to fork out £40+ repairman! :mad:Oh well. At least I tried! :T

dizzy_lizzie

Hi Lola. Thanks for the ideas for the flowers. I crocheted some more last night and even adapted a pattern so I'd remember it more easily. Have seen some crochet flower scarves that look quite nice so we'll see.
Rae18 what a great start to the new year. Well done.
Silvasava sorry to hear about your run of bad luck at the moment. Hope things start to take a turn for better soon.
seriouslyfrugal good to hear the medical went well. I bet that was a relief for you.
natnat well done on the vouchers and the phone insurance.
And hello to all the new posters

Just got to pop into town with dd but otherwise not much else planned.
Hoping to find a receipt for a game we bought for over Christmas but we didn't get a chance to use. It's still cellophaned so all being well that will be £9.99 back in my purse.
Have also got a couple of overdue library books that need returning. I'm cross with myself about this as I could easily have renewed them online, I just forgot about them with it being over Christmas. Shouldn't be more than a couple of pounds though hopefully.
Hugs
x

slowlyfading

Afternoon everyone

I've not done much today, watched another Harry P DVD from my boxset, done some tidying up and not much else! My mum came round for a cuppa this morning and we talked wedding stuff and that's it.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend

ASG_2

Erme wrote: »

Anyone know how to take a wheel off a bike so I can fix the slow puncture? I have the tools just not sure how to take the back wheel off (it has all the gears etc on it. Could be interesting)....

Just can't afford taking it to the bike shop and the Becycle place is closed right now which could help me and aid me to do it for free :A....

So yeah...maybe I'll text a friend who might be able to help? I don't know...

E

I don't suppose you're anywhere near Derbyshire? Our transition group recently organised some cycle mechanic workshops, they were really popular - twice as many people as we expected! So we will be doing some more. It may be worth looking if you have a transition group near you www.transitionnetwork.org as this is the kind of thing they may do.
(we also do skill share workshops in chicken keeping)

I've saved myself £27 today by eventually getting y denture repaired at the dental laboratory £20 rather than the dentist£47. Kinda makes up for overspending on my petrol. If I wasn't working this weekend I'd be ok, but need the car for work. hey ho, I've only spent £3.72 on food this week. And the freezer's STILL full.

wornoutmumoftwo

catslovelycats wrote: »

seriously: glad the appt went well

re youtube: I learned how to change my fridge thermostat from youtube!:A It saved me £40+ repairman. :AOr did it? :oSince I fitted it, the fridge still hasn't worked and now the light won't work either.:(:o And I still have to fork out £40+ repairman! :mad:Oh well. At least I tried! :T

The lid of my laptop feel half off and I used you tube to learn how to put it back on.