2013 Frugal Living Challenge

tessie_bear

hello...hope everyone is staying positive...i feel very positive at the moment long may it last :j i feel as if i should be busy doing summat but cant decide what so i am on the 'puter....i think i have decided not to set a formal budget but will live as frugally as possible...i have made a good start but early days

all the best tessa

quintwins

I'm feeling really positive aswell altho i'm annoyed i've lost my tin opener but i'll get a cheapy smart price one to replace it

tessie_bear

quintwins wrote: »

I'm feeling really positive aswell altho i'm annoyed i've lost my tin opener but i'll get a cheapy smart price one to replace it

im glad to hear u feeling grand...tinopeners are such a pain we keep breaking them and are now wrestling with a flywheel that cost 30p and does as good a job as the dearer ones we have had...frugal tinopeners the way forward for us:j
are u better now ?? hope so

quintwins

tessie_bear wrote: »

im glad to hear u feeling grand...tinopeners are such a pain we keep breaking them and are now wrestling with a flywheel that cost 30p and does as good a job as the dearer ones we have had...frugal tinopeners the way forward for us:j
are u better now ?? hope so

Thats what i'm gonna get the one i had came with a bunch of other stuff as a wedding gift 6 1/2 years ago so lasted well, it was starting to go anyway so no huge lose just a pita, i couldn't find it yesterday and gave up looking but i had a proper looking today and really can't find it, i just know when i buy one i'll find it.

Yeah i'm far from 100% better but i am a good bit better i'm acually off to bed now for a wee rest, nothing makes me feel better than snuggling in bed dozying off between 3 lovely boys, it makes me sad one day they'll be too old for cuddles in bed for mummy!!! what on earth will i do when i'm ill!!!:rotfl::rotfl:

chika

Hello Frugallers. I've joined this challenge for the last couple of years and then lost my way during the first part of the year. No more though, I think I've finally had my lightbulb moment and in order to have the life I want eventually, I need to live a much more simpler frugal life now to achieve that. I have spent years living beyond my means, buying things I thought I wanted but because of it I don't have the things I really want (financial stability and my own home.)

I'm not going to set a budget, I am just going to have some aims which are basically spend as little as possible. I'm not going to deny myself new clothes but conversely I'm not going shopping because I'm bored or buy some insanely priced snake oil cream because of good advertising. *crosses fingers*

I've been to Mr T today and picked up my new glasses. If you are in the market for a new pair I strongly recommend their optician. The eye test was free and I bought a pair of glasses with frame and lenses for just £10! Total bargain considering a similar pair from a high street optician would have cost £460.

ostrichnomore_2

hi chika, wow that's a great price for glasses, will remember that. I went to optical express last time and ended up spending about £250 - first time to optician so didn't really think about it properly beforehand.

I'd recommend setting a budget though - it's only been a few days but it's already changing my whole way of thinking. I've tried the vague 'spend less' in the past and it didn't work. But maybe you are made of sterner stuff than me, :-)

"Worked out today last year I spent £1715 to go to work, just on parking and buying a lunch. £1715! It didn't seem like much day by day but omg. That's about 15% of my take home. Discraceful! Now determined to bring in lunches and park for free most days. I've left a bit in budget to allow for a few lazy days a month and my total for this year should be £404 maximum. That's saving me £1311 a year just for a few minutes walking, and a few minutes grabbing a lunch from home. That's another £1311 that can go into my savings for something much more important to me than being lazy. Still can't believe how much I used to spend on this...

never_too_old

I have added up all our outgoings,mortgage all normal bills.everything apart from presents and saving for tax bills:eek:
and the yearly figure comes to 27,500:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
thats with spending £70 a week on food.It does cover 1 debt repayment of $200 a month but that will be going in the summer.Why is life so expensive.
Will be able to reduce home insurance soon that will make a tiny difference and hopefully are real fire will have made a difference to consumption so that direct debit can be reduced.
I have no credit cards have 1 small payment to make on my car so i havent even included that in the totals.:(

skintwellie

Hi Guys,

Thank you for adding me to the list. Really want to cut down on waste, live a simpler lifestyle, pay off remaining debts and save money for a decent holiday next year!
I'm amazed at what other peeps have achieved already! - Well done, you have inspired me.
Today I decided not to go shopping (I rarely manage to leave with just the two items that I went in for!) and used up the veg lurking in the bottom of the fridge plus a handful of brown rice to make a tasty vegetable stew. I didn't have any butter or marg but made some muffin thingies by mixing wholemeal flour (s/r), olive oil, left over plain greek yogurt, pinch of herbs, seasoning with the grated ends of cheese from the Christmas cheeseboard and chopped up the leftover half tub of sundried tomatoes - surprisingly delicious. Extended the half a bottle of milk bty mixing with dried milk.
Result - NSD for me!
Cleared out small bedroom/office and put loads of books on Amazon and some stuff on local Freebie paper website.
Thanks for all your ideas everyone and good luck to all - here's to a G8 Money Saving Year!
x

rising_from_the_ashes

Well .... I've spent the past couple of days making a home management binder!

It started out as a way to try to replace the several notebooks I carry around with me everywhere (A7 diary which is my spending diary, A6 spiral notebook marked up day to page which is my to do notebook and an A6 day to page diary for appointments) - they're quite heavy combined!:o

So .... managed to come up with something to combine everything into an A5 page

Looks very like this but it's been tweaked now!



Then I decided that I needed to do Meal Planning separately - really need to get a grip with this to keep my grocery spends under control ..... so they're going everywhere with me.

Working on the full home management binder (which will stay in the house ) just now .... this is addictive!:)

dizzy_lizzie

tessie_bear wrote: »

i feel as if i should be busy doing summat but cant decide what so i am on the 'puter...

That's just how I feel tessie. I do need to finish a cushion cover off though but can't get motivated enough to get off the sofa!

chika wrote: »

Hello Frugallers. I've joined this challenge for the last couple of years and then lost my way during the first part of the year.

:wave: Hiya chika. Nice to see you again.

Well I've joined the No Spend Day and Grocery Challenge thread and loving them. It's been fairly easy these last 3 days as I'm still on holiday till Monday. That's when the real temptation will start.
I was so good at taking my lunches to work, then had a phase were nothing tempted me when I was thinking what to take in, so ended up driving to the chippy a few times and buying from the school canteen! So taking healthy lunches in will be top of my agenda.
These dark cold nights are grim. Roll on Spring...
x