2013 Frugal Living Challenge

MummyRivett

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Ohhh with you on that one Cheryl - I'm lactose intolerant and my milk costs come in at around a staggering £400+ / year :eek: when you think you can get fresh "normal" milk for 43p / litre and the lacto*free stuff is around £1.30 / litre :eek::eek: it quickly adds up.

!:o

When I had bowel problems the bowel ward and Stoma nurse told me that the special diet foods were available on perscription, worth a trip to the GP

skintwellie

Good Morning fellow Frugalers,
Didn't spend ANY money yesterday so feel very pleased with myself! Noticed that there are free tickets in 'The Mail on Sunday' today for Les Miserables so will be phoning my sister for the code later, which can be redeemed online.
Spent yesterday cooking and baking to fill freezer with last of Christmas foods. Bit of a potato fest as had nearly half a sack of spuds left - make tons of gnocchi and individually froze them so will bag them up into portions this morning. Used the tireder looking veg to make soup. (Comp to win a soupmaker on the CO-OP website). Will make cheese and potato pie for lunch with baked beans, which will help make a dent in the cheese mountain.
Taking Christmas decs down today which will give me a chance to look in the loft for items to sell.
Have a good (moneysaving) day everyone!
X

miss_empty_piggy

Goodness Skintwellie, that's amazing.
I've managed to made carrot and coriander soup this morning but forgot that I no longer have a blender! Had to throw a packet of mince away though this morning as I had taken my eye off the ball and it went out of date. I was intending to make a batch load of meatballs to freeze but forgot I don't have a blender. Must borrow mother's this afternoon.

Have made a meal plan for the week (until Friday anyway) will be off shopping as frugally as possible after my run. See you all later. Have a great day. x

miss_empty_piggy

Forgot to say, have emailed a lovely person on freecycle about a single bed. My dd and d-step-daughter are currently sharing a king size bed so we are trying to get hold of 2 single beds for them, but at no cost if possible. If this comes through then hopefully I will be half way there. Fingers crossed. x

xnatalie81x

Quiet day here today last day of freedom before school runs start again tomorrow hate having to be up an out by 8 mon/wed/Thu/fri and 7 on a tue. Having to get 4 sleepy kids and myself ready sucks! But at least no more packed lunches to stress about school dinners all the way!

My only large saucepan gave up yesterday and the handle snapped on one side. I only have 1 small and 1 large so I'm using it till I find an alternative. It means being creative and making use of my lowly cath kidston oven gloves but it went well

2 yr old asleep has been since 9 but as he woke at 4.30!!! I'm not suprised! Breakfast down, 2 school shirts bleaches and rinsed, washing up from dinner and breakfast done and a brief tidy up completes now chilling with a cappuccino. Hoovering to do when bubba wakes up and then lunch to plan

vintagebrighton

Baking_Mad wrote: »

Oh, forgot to mention. Quintwins recommended using a small pot of yeo yoghurt, £0.50 one. So 2 litres of milk and a pot of yoghurt is all you need.

We were spending a fortune on soya yoghurt till I bought a yoghurt maker (half price at £7) from Lakeland. I don't use any of their starters cos they're all milk based and I think it defeats the object of saving money! Found a recipe on the internet using a pot of live soya yoghurt as a starter for the first batch and a litre of soya milk. Took a couple of goes to get right but I'm in the swing now Loads of lovely fresh live soya yoghurt for use in cooking, smoothies and just on it's own.

Also, if anyone likes homemade smoothies Lidl are the best value for huge bags of frozen berries..... yum

On the frugalling front, found a code on here for 5 issues of the magazine I bought for the cost of one. :T I just need to remember to cancel the DD before it goes up the to full cost but it's noted in my diary!

A no spend day yesterday. Went to buy fresh veg, eggs and cheese but these were all out of the shopping money ~ We keep a separate jar for food/household money which has £300 at the beginning of the month.. it usually lasts the whole month and we eat very well.

Will be another NSD today but will be going out for a long walk later.... up to the Downs and down to the sea.. Lovely

vintagebrighton

I have taken the £5 for the magazines off my Fripperies budget... it's at £32.56 already with only half of January gone

mummy2threeboys

Morning all!..Has anyone ever used a printers? my ink has died and dried up only need 12 sheets printed off and then i can bin my printer its toatlly unrepeairable..thankfully mums giving me her old one..but i only have what i need printing off on a file/email will they do that? Thanks for the free les mis ticket lookout..will have to see if i can find it (for mams birthday perhaps?) Will have to try normal yogurt again, i tried one of those easyyo packet ones..tastes fine but has the cosistancy of pva glue lol. I used to just make it with whole milk and a starter. Sometimes simple is the best!
Free duck today (shot wild) ..home made cake with dried eggs from last af order and oil instead of butter/marg ..works out loads cheaper than fresh eggs and butter and tastes just fine!

i use large dessert spoon of sunflower oil to replace per oz of butter but im sure theres a better equation somewhere!

taking boys bowling at working mans club £7.50 for 3 games, they did put a notice up they took vouchers from cearal boxes for free games, will have to look into it, i know it was branded ones but if you spend even £2.99 for a box of cearel you wil get a £2.50 game and ceral for just an extra 49p right? So taking £10 out of boys christmas fund to buy them a emonade and crisps each (well the older ones). Have a good week xx

vintagebrighton

mummy2threeboys wrote: »

home made cake with dried eggs from last af order and oil instead of butter/marg ..works out loads cheaper than fresh eggs and butter and tastes just fine!

i use large dessert spoon of sunflower oil to replace per oz of butter but im sure theres a better equation somewhere!

Little tip.... if you look for vegan cake recipes none of them use butter or eggs. The proportions will be good and moneysaving too

I use this site a lot http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/vegan_recipes.php

HTH xx

wuvvies

im feeling a little despondant (sp?)
went to sainsbugs yesterday
i have 100 per week for 4 of us sometimes 6. i try to use about 80 on food so that i have a few pennies for extra food and stuff i need during the week. last week i spent 60 at A@da and put 40 away towards my daughters 18th birthday meal next week. i went to sain and the total came to 92 pounds. now i have not a lot for the week. i get my money out on a saturday and it has to last til next saturday. i know that many of you can last on less than that but i find that quite hard.92 pounds is a massive spend. yes i have a fair bit but im really dissapointed with this. ok i should say well its come in under budget.
onwards and upwards