Meet the frugal's, 365 day challenge of buying nothing.

Mortgagefreeforme

Hi Lauren, do you have any friends with slightly older children so that you could "borrow" some clothes for DS till your challenge is over? Either that or do you have a good car boot nearby, we get some great stuff from our local one, my kids have been dressed in second hand and hand me downs for 3 years and they are none the wiser!

Janeryan

Hi Lauren

How's it going-do you have an update on how much you have saved so far?

sophiesmum_2

nu1isit? wrote: »

Hello everyone!!!

Don't know if this is the place, but here it goes anyway...I've also read Judith Levine's book, 'Not Buying It', I wasn't to keen on it in parts. Does anyone know of any books, in a similar vein, but that are more geared towards a practical realistic angle; much like this thread and other parts of the website???

Oh, congratulations Lauren with your ongoing challenge. :beer: I'm now consciously trying to spend even less, and trying not to buy for buyings sake, due to this thread; my weakness is car boot and charity shop bargains...

Good luck for the rest of the challenge.:D

Hi i recently read "Living the good life" by Linda Cockburn and found it a really enjoyable read. They did the frugal challenge with their young son in tow and did the whole thing from growing food to generating electricity even keeping chickens and a goat.I found it much more down to earth than the Judith Levine book, at the end of their experiment the family had saved 44% of their income and had a better quality of life. Really interesting.
sophiesmum

nu1isit?

Thanks sophiesmum, i'll have a look for it in the library...:D

Hello lauren, how are you getting on with the challenge-is there any chance of an update?

tiddles

Thank you sophiesmum. I've already bought a copy of this book, so I'll make sure it's at the top of the pile of books to read next!

Tiddles

Mortgagefreeforme

Hi Lauren, How are you getting on? I was worried in case your silence meant you had had a slip in willpower, but don't worry if you have as you are doing fantastically well so far. Just think how much you've saved, and no doubt already changed your spending habits for the better. We're all thinking off you, and hope you're doing well.

lauren_1

We are still here, just been very busy.

We have been making the most of the nice weather and also making the biggest stockpile of cloth nappies i have ever seen.

Moneywise its not been too bad, we went to a carboot yesterday and got my dd some school dresses for 50p and 3 next hoodies for £1! :T there was not much baby stuff there but we are going to do our carboot soon so will have another rummage, my mum had both of the children so we has some quality time together :j it was very quiet but very much needed.

OH treat me to a vanity case one of those large ANTLER travel ones to put my oils in to, it was brandnew and still has the tags and stuff on it not bad for £3.

I have lost track of how much we have saved as it still flies straight out the window as soon as we get it i will update the sig soon.

JET34

HI Lauren,
Glad to hear everything is well with you and yours..... I was missing your thread and hearing how you were getting on..

Janeryan

Well done for your perseverance in keeping up with your challenge-you are an inspiration to us all!

lauren_1

Hello its me again, sorry i keep drifting in and out but we were offered a lot of extra work and it would have been silly to turn it down.

Ok i have updated our sig and we have managed to shift a massive £1000 off of the overdraft and cut the loan to almost half (should be able to pay it off very soon)

Now i have a real bad dilema, i have 4 options to choose from in september

option 1

Give up my work so we would be eligable for help with nursery fee's so i could go to college part time (its only 2 days but its classed as full time so i get a c/tax discount), again dp would be earning below the threshold so i would only have to pay minimal for the course and we would only be loosing £50 a month due to the extra tax credits gained by dp.

The course is about £700 and the childcare would be £55 a week, and by giving up work i am losing around £2-300 depending on the amount of overtime on offer.

Option 2
Same as above but do a few sly shifts a month at the pub for cash in hand, :beer:

Option 3

Do my course and cut back on my hours at work BUT buy myself a car and do mobile massage therapy treatments during the week to raise extra cash and pay for the car (need to spend it to make it apparently) and continue to live the frugal way obviously i think we wll be doing it like this at least until the kids leave home!:rotfl:

I have seen a good deal on this
http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/borrowing/car_buying/cb_specials.shtml

scroll to the panda and at 2.9% i think its really good and i can easilly fit my massage table in the boot

Option 4

Just stay as we are then look in to getting our life back after we have paid of the debts?

Like i said its not until september but i have applied for a nursey place just in case.

We did a car boot and raised a good amount and will be doing another one on sunday.:T