2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

scrappie_2

Went and did my shopping today - only bought what was on my list, nothing else.

Have decided that as of Feb I will withdraw cash at the beginning of each month to use on food budget. Was going to start now - but want to sort out the freezer, batch cook, stock up etc and I know this will cost over my intended budget. So rather than think I 'have failed' at the first attempt, I'm just going to get organised and start a month later. Daft I know - but will make me feel better about the whole thing!!

Re Ebay - I have bought a few things off here, but never sold anything. Is the 'free listing' open to everyone?? I have several handbags/ giftsets/ makeup that I could do to sell. Also, how do I work out postage charges? Don't want to be unrealistic about it, but it always seems to cost more than I think it will when I post stuff to friends.

I'm sure there is an ebay thread on here - I wil go and see what info is on there.

It's my friends bye-bye party tomorrow night - shes off to new zeland for a year (not jel at all LOL) so will end up spending cash on drinks, but have taxi booked to be sure I come home early and I WILL NOT GO CLUBBING UNTILL 4AM AND PRETEND TO BE 18 AGAIN!

rising_from_the_ashes

Blairweech wrote: »

My main issue is with the car - currently he is 'ok-ish', will need £300 spending on him definantly at some point. But then, something else could break, which I will not be able to afford/have time to fix when I am on placement next year. Do I just bite the bullet and purchase a new vehicle (new to me that is!) which will be reliable or do I chance it and hope he does not need any repairs...

Blair .... I think I have a vague recollection of you talking about replacing your car last year (?).... is it still the same one? If so, it's maybe time to "bite the bullet" rather than risk more costly repairs.

I got a new one (nearly 2 years ago now) as worked out the old one was going to cost a min of £1k to £1.5k to get through the next few months & MOT - I'd never have seen that money again - or got extra when I sold it .... so it seemed better to put the money to the new one.

Mrs_midd wrote: »

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.

The thing to watch when you're putting your shopping through is for things on offer - as the price guarantee is done on the overall price (rather than individual items) I've found that everything in the basket can be cheaper elsewhere but if I've had one item which has a great reduction (eg washing gel with £3+ off & I bought 3!) it means the overall bill is lower & you don't get anything!:mad:

I now put such things through separately .... beating 'em at their own game!:)


Bit of an unexpected laid up day for me ... had my post surgery check up this morning & ended up having to have a steroid injection into my foot again:( (honestly, they are agony.... I've had them in my ankle too and would rather have 5 at once in there than one in the foot .....). Hopefully it'll do the trick tho' - was told to stay off it for 24 hours & for once have heeded advice .... have been tucked up in bed since reading a book!:) Bloomin painful now tho':( - it can take up to a week for the effects to kick in - fingers crossed it's a bit quicker than that!

Car tax (£30) and Breakdown cover (£38) reminders arrived today .... that's the start of my very expensive car month! Wish everything didn't fall in Jan as the budget's overspent for the rest of the year!!!!

System

Well Mr Judi is going to be impressed with my efforts at saving him some money this weekend. My usual shopping bill of £100 has been slashed to £68. This was mainly done by swapping brands and meal planning round the offers that were on site.

cw18

scrappie wrote: »

Re Ebay - I have bought a few things off here, but never sold anything. Is the 'free listing' open to everyone?? I have several handbags/ giftsets/ makeup that I could do to sell. Also, how do I work out postage charges? Don't want to be unrealistic about it, but it always seems to cost more than I think it will when I post stuff to friends.

I find packaging suitable for the item, pack it up (short of taping), pop it onto my kitchen scales and use the R0yal Mail website to find out the cost. (I'm lucky in that my kitchen scales are never more than a couple of grammes out to the scales at my local PO - they used to think it funny that I'd present a parcel and inform them I wanted to send it 'first class recorded at a cost of £xxxx' and invariably came in right )

If it's right on the boundary of a weight change, then I quote the higher price

The important thing to remember is that if you don't send it by a trackable method (ie. recorded rather than proof of postage) eB@y will almost certainly side with the buyer if they claim it didn't arrive - so don't offer any non-trackable postage options!!

When I used to sell I always offered to combine postage - so if someone bought more than one item I then had to repack and calculate before I could invoice them a lower total price.

scrappie_2

Thanks cw18 - all advice is much appreciated!

Thrifty85

I'd like to be a late addition, if possible! I've actually been reading this thread a while but it's taken me all week to read all the posts!

I am aiming for a frugal year ahead. I don't have any debts as such but do have a mortgage. I'm single too so all the bills are my sole responsibility, which I'm finding kind of tough at the moment so want to try and reign in my spending so hopefully I won't end up with credit card debts.

Thanks so much to the poster who did the SOW - it's amazing! I've done my budget for the year and despite being on my own my total is wayyyyyy higher than everyone else's - £17,000!!! :eek:

But that includes my mortgage and council tax, water rates, utilities etc. I've also budgeted for lots of other things, including a holiday, food and litter for my cats, presents, days out etc. so I'm hoping I won't actually spend that amount.

Here's to a more frugal way of living, cheers everyone! :beer:

brizzledfw

Hi all

Wow this thread moves fast..scrappie love the comment about road kill...have to say has crossed my mind:rotfl:

Thrifty..excellent start.if I put in all the housing costs etc my estimated budget for 2012 would be huge. The point is to make a budget and try and stick to it..yeah...do as I say not as I have been doing

Today has not been a particularly frugal day thanks to the lovely locksmith but looking forward to a quiet weekend..and seeing if we can get some stuff listed on eBay..

Cheers all

natnat13

Rising - that sounds painful, hope it feels better soon x

I am officially turning into a mad couponing woman, got vouchers for free clover, crisps, stir-fry stuff and walls products and lots of money off other things BUT I'm only going to use them if it's cheaper than own brands and if it's stuff I will actually use. Great thread on here about it all.

Just told hubbie off for making a phone call before 7pm (cut BT package down to basic) he just gave me a look :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Welcome on board, Thrifty85, thanks for the PM, I've now added your name to the list.

rubytuesday

Another NSD for me today although goodness knows what I will cobble together for dinner!