2013 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

Wow lola, it sound like a nightmare with so much going on at once. I hope you manage to get the washing machine and oven sorted soon as a start.

natnat13

Oh Lola u sound like you're having a nightmare! Can u not use a friends or neighbours washing machine and put it on a rinse cycle first to flush out any powder? x

natnat13

Phew, just waiting for a phone call but think I've got a new job, flexible hours, good ish money, v happy and relieved! x

Olderbutnotwiser

Well done on the new job no mean feat at the moment

quintwins

Well done on the job nat.

Aww lola your having a rough time of it

We've been really sick for 2 weeks, i always said i'd never say i had the flu again after being pregnant so when hubby said last week that he thought we needed antibiotics and i said no we don't they don't work on colds i now relise that i was being stuborn and infact i do think we all had the flu as it made us all bedbound for over a week and even now on the mend i can hardly breath, but we are on the mend so no point getting antibiotics now, it has however been an expensive few weeks, so back to getting things done here.

I lifted some pork chops out of the freezer for dinner, which i will serve with brocolli cheese, carrots, cabbage, mash, roasties, yorkshires and gravy for a yummy comforting dinner i will make extra mash and veg and make bubble and squeak with tomorrow for the kids lunch, i will have leftover brocolli cheese cause it's yummy

Then we have free tickets to a mickey mouse show tomorrow afternoon Sat there is a easter trail for 50p but i'm not sure our chests are up to being out in the cold, sunday we're off to the inlaws for lunch , mon and tue hubby is off work if we are better i'm hoping to finally get the bathroom painted. Wed we have a hospital appointment and then i'll decide what to do after that.

I will be doing a meal plan for next month and i will be doing some of next weeks shopping on sat to take advantage of the lidl's deals.

Kerry_Woman

Hoping that everyone has an enjoyable Easter weekend.

Hugs to those who need them.

[Deleted User]

Well done on the new job natnat13. That's great news.

Happy Easter everyone. :easter_os I hope you are all having a good day.

cw18

End of another month, and my spreadsheet currently look like this



Had to change the budget for a few categories. Council Tax bill arrived this week and was slightly higher than I'd allowed for.

Gym will come in as more over the year, as they waived my month notice and let me work just a week - meaning I had to pay for an additional 3 weeks membership. They'd also changed joining offers which meant I had to pay a small admin fee, but the manager did an override on the minimum membership requirement for me (as I pointed out to him, I'd been a member for 2 years before I started working there).
The increases to these mean my 'Other' had come down slightly.

The only categories I'm showing an overspend for this month are Gym (which show as such all year as I didn't start paying until month 3 but the average budget is split over 12 months) and 'Other'.

I really need to get a grip on the 'Other' category, especially as I actually spent £40 more than shows this month (I had an unexpected £40 income, so used that to offset some of this spend). This months spend does include £123 for a new exhaust on my car, but that still leaves me with an additional spend of £91.37! I bought a few bits for the garden, some of the cookware items currently on offer with vouchers in Mr T, and a couple of items of clothing - but a quick scan through the spreadsheet says most of the spend has once again been books and magazines :eek:

But my overall monthly spend is less than I've allowed for a month for all categories (£524.30 from £875), which means that for the year to date I've spent £2512.33 of £2625 - so at least I'm not 'in the red' there.

I don't expect it's going to be easy to come in on budget over the year, but I'm going to work really hard at it. I think it helps that I have full freezers and kitchen cupboards (been that way since before the start of the year), so I've currently underspent the grocery budget by a whopping £163.46 in just 3 months :T I expect that to shift a bit over the next couple of months though, as I'm taking my GDs away 8th-12th of this month and haven't allowed anything extra for feeding those 3 mouths. Then at the start of May it's time for the first food festival of the year, which means I'll be starting to restock the freezers (space permitting now I'm eating through them) with high quality sausages and meat we discovered (but could only buy small quantities of due to lack of storage space) last year.

lbnblbnb

It is still very cold here but at least the sun has come out. I have been having a lovely, frugal day. I mended my son's school trousers, mended my daughter's coat, put her trainers and walking boots to soak and then they will get washed (got so muddy she hasn't been using them, crazy!). I am about to make some of Mortgage Free in Threes fridge bread. I am really enjoying having the time to pootle about, sadly I can't wait for retirement! I may make the blind for the kitchen this afternoon that I bought the fabric for at least a year ago....
I hope everyone else is having a good day.

miss_empty_piggy

Me too lbnblbnb, been trying to not spend any money but trying to make the best of what we've got. We've got the kids in the bedrooms (they've got one each) and DOH and I are downstairs in the spare living room. It's beautifully decorated but we have no wardrobe space. We are using two thirds of DD1s bedroom (the master bedroom) and I have been trying to find space downstairs for everyday stuff like work clothes and PJs etc. Done ok after having a good shift around of stuff and clearing out. My mum thinks that I am mad as she says the kids should be made to share, and I agree to a certain point. We did think about buying a bigger house or extending this one but neither are really possible at the minute and I don't really want to get any further into debt. If we buy it will cost about £45k extra debt, to extend will probably be less but can't imagine it would come in under £15k. Just not sure I'm ready for that right yet. Not sure what to do just yet, so just going to do nothing for the time being. Keep racking my brains for an alternative less-expensive option. I might see if I can make the master bedroom into two smaller rooms and then we'll have the attic room. Whatever we decide it'll have to be as inexpensive as possible.

Anyway sorry for waffling on, hope you've all had a good day too. x