2013 Frugal Living Challenge

dizzy_lizzie

Baking_Mad wrote: »

Hi, yes, they will be backdating it to 1st of July 2012!!! So we'll be getting a nice little cheque in the post soon. :j I must admit the appeal was hellish and not fun at all. My OH did all the work, if it wasn't for him we would never have won.

Excellent news. What a good start to the new year. Well done :T

Went out with OH and had a pub tea. Really need to get to bed but I'm not tired!
x

skintwellie

Happy Saturday Everyone,

Everyone seems to be doing really well on this challenge - well done and thanks for inspriring me! I was very naughty yesterday and put £5 e/w on a horse (something I rarely do!) that a dear friend said was a sure bet! Have just added £10.00 to my 'savings pot' after taking back original stake, although I don't think that I'll be banking on this method to get myself out of debt!
Went to Sainsburys for a couple of tins of basics dog food, noodles, few mushrooms and porridge but ended up adding large Lenor at £3.25 as it was half price and should last ages. Total spend £7.68 but I paid £0.44 as I used my Nectar points and a lovely lady in front of me gave me her Brand Match coupon for £2.24. What a result - have added £7.24 to my savings pot so now equals £17.24.
Have lots of scraps of cheese to use up today so going to make Homity Pie and oven roasted veg (still have loads left in fridge) for lunch and will make a veg soup and soda bread for supper.
Have a fab money saving weekend x
ps. Thnx to whoever mentioned Swagbucks!

xnatalie81x

Skint wellie - what an awesome day and such kindness from someone else must have put a lovely smile on your face

I also have an "additional earnings" pot that I keep adding to but as lots of it is ISA interest that although comes monthly I think I I take out I don't get interest the next month? So ill take it all back in march so far I have
Isa interest dec - £10.88
Extra work earnings - £75.00
Interest 1 - 8p
Interest 2 - 13p (now upgraded to higher interet but still crap)
Isa Interest jan - £12.46 (at max now so will stay like this until April when I transfer it all plus the New Years amount into a new higher rate isa as my current one drops after a year so total £98.55 so far

skintwellie

[Deleted User] wrote:

Oh well, frugal plans out of the window this weekend. OHs car has broken down for the second time in a month - same problem we think. This is the third time since May 2012 it has done this.

Think we are going to have to get a new one asap. We need a car each due to OH working shifts and working a bit further away/. Just when I was starting to get a little savings pot together too!

Hi allie23,

Just a thought - if you have a FE college near you that runs Motor Vehicle courses they might be glad of the chance for the students to work on your car (under strict supervision, of course) for free or a nominal sum apart from parts. This has saved me thousands over the years!

Have a good weekend. x

mummy2threeboys

Barkingmad yeah well done the back dated! Ive often found fighting the council is a lot worse than normal companys!

Yogurt slow cooker? Does that mean you cook the yogurt lol..ive got an easyyo yogurt maker, which reminds me i have 4 packs in the cupboard so could make 4 litres of it yum. (but i tend to break mine up into half so its easyier to get through) job for tonight

Does anyone use the co-op reward card? Is it worth it?

Todays job..list everything in the store cupboard, im doing an approved food order..this is to come out of my "others" money ..my others money includes to pay from

£270 holiday fee
£55 baby passport and pics
£57 (estimate) family travel insurance
£25 train tickets
£12 Family rail card (when it comes free from daily mail in may)

Also have to pay for any activitys the children do (currently £2 for eldest to go to beevers, a week but not in term time ..but keep the £2 surplus for camping trips)
Approved food order approx every 3 months (i do a big one!) approx £40
birthdays, christmas , smal househod repairs, ink lightbulbs, small top up shops (if reduced)

£28 a week approx ..so what im going to do is withdraw £30 a week and use that in my purse to pay for things keep a spending diary..any surplus left over each week to go into a pot of unexpected expenses, at the end of the year i hope fingers crossed i might have some left over.
Make more "others" money from ebay sales ..only treat the chidren to outings from thier own given birthday money/christmas money or "ebay sales"

Phew that was long winded sorry!!

MadamMim2013

mummy2threeboys wrote: »

Does anyone use the co-op reward card? Is it worth it?

I've had a reward card for quite a while now as most of my local little shops are now co-ops.. I don't rely on it but make sure I hand it over every time I buy something, even a paper! It has given me over £15 back in the last 2 years that they pay directly into my bank! so not bad really.

vintagebrighton

Morning everyone

The co-op reward card builds up very slowly for me mummy2threeboys cos we don't use it for a main shop. What is good though is if you have a bank account with them you get points. Also, they do gas and electricity and they're not putting their prices up at all (unlike all the other suppliers) and you get bonus points for having energy supplies with them. All those things make the coop points card worth it. It'll build up over the year

Baking_Mad

slscarborough wrote: »

Can I ask for the slow cooker yoghurt recipe please - sounds fab!! I am trying to cut back on my grocery budget. I have set a budget of £350.00 a month but I would like to cut back a little further if possible. This is for 2 adults and 2 young children.

http://crockpot365.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html?m=1

Here it is. It was very easy to make. The consistency is a bit thinner than that of a normal yoghurt but it tastes like a very good quality probiotic yoghurt. So far we've tried it with some honey and also mixed with some leftover homemade cranberry sauce from Xmas. Seriously, don't laugh, btw this one was delicious!

natnat13

Hi all
Went to Mr M's and only spent £16 today for my weeks shop. Really pleased.
Came home and my landlords were doing some work and gave me £20 for electric, (they have a garage out the back which runs off my electric but they're hardly ever there) they're lovely people.
What's everyones opinion on approved foods? I did an order yesterday for about £40 and postage was going to be £7.50! I suppose I should just do a massive order up to the postage weight limit but I don't need the stuff so I didn't put it through! Think I'll wait for a free delivery code.

[Deleted User]

skintwellie wrote: »

Hi allie23,

Just a thought - if you have a FE college near you that runs Motor Vehicle courses they might be glad of the chance for the students to work on your car (under strict supervision, of course) for free or a nominal sum apart from parts. This has saved me thousands over the years!

Have a good weekend. x

Wow, what a great idea skintwellie. Wish I had seen your post sooner!! The garage could not find anything wrong with the car today after doing loads of checks and diagnostics but the engine light was on yesterday. This happened before only about 4 weeks ago and OH ended up having to be towed home from work!! We have gone ahead and bought a new (to us) car which we got a good deal on a the dealership knows us. Need to be mega frugal now to get this paid off - luckily no interest to pay as we had savings but still!!

I am going to try out the local college for pampering buts like facials and massage and possibly hair cuts. Anyone else done this?

Just back from Mr T where I used some of the vouchers from Supersavvyme. Got lenor infusions fabric softener for 68p as it is already reduced to £1.68 in the shop. Also got some other fabric softeners for 99p. I usually shop in Lidl for this stuff but only use these brands when on offer + voucher.

However, it did get me to thinking about using vinegar as fabric softener and when these ones are used up (in several months) I am going to do this. A 500(ish)ml of white vinegar in Asda is 48p and I have plenty of essential oils I can add to it for a nice smell. Have tried the mix of soapnuts and vinegar before and was quite happy with it. OH on the other hand was aghast and made such a fuss I stopped using them. Time to shock him again then!