2013 Frugal Living Challenge

miss_empty_piggy

Good luck pixiehouse - thinking of you and your family

[Deleted User]

Sorry to hear about your OH pixiehouse.

pixiehouse

Thank you
Hopefully he will be back to work on Monday doing light duties
Will still take a few weeks now to sort everything out and we go on holiday on the 19th!!!
Done well this week thou and only spent £8 on food- still plenty of food in freezer and cupboards to keep us going

[Deleted User]

Glad to hear the good news Pixiehouse. I hope things get better from now on.

Just back from a week away and the house is in turmoil - OH been here all week and he has not thought to do a food shop. Fridge is empty and I have had to chuck some stuff out as it is growing mould!! Freezer almost empty. I sometimes wonder how much he eats when I am away.

So a food shop for me today but I aim to spend as little as possible. I will be having salad mostly with fruit, eggs and meat. Weather good here so far so I am gong to chance walking to the shops with my shopping trolley which will also mean I am not using any petrol and I will be getting some exercise.

To boost my frugal motivation I have joined the July NSD thread. So although today is a spend day in terms of food I won't be buying any 'incidentals'. The link to the thread is

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4661639

Other frugal happenings today - I will get OH to wash the cars when he gets home. Entertainment will be a walk in our local country park or a swim (and we will actually be using our pool membership!!).

Have a good day folks.

LolaLemon

i am making pulled pork for this weekends dinner and snacks/lunch, threw it all in the slow cooker alst night, when i go home -soon hopefully!- i will shred it then put it back in slow cooker with bbq spices, leave for an hour and make some colslaw... heading to lidl first to get some nice rolls and i will put on a tin of spicy beans... left overs will be coming with us to linlithgow castle tomorrow, and any left will go in the freezer or fridge to pick on

skintwellie

Hi Everyone,

Hope that you are all enjoying the lovely sunshine. Loves to Pixiehouse, hope things improve soon. It is amazing what we can do to get through - then look back on it months or even years later and wonder how on earth we managed!

Did a Boot Sale yesterday as really need to offload stuff before two households become one! Sold everything at £1 or 50p and came home after just an hour and a half with one small box and £120 in my pocket!!! :j- Result. Pile it high, sell it cheap is def the way to go. Going to do one a week for the next few weeks which should free up a lot of room in my cluttered home and make me a bit of cash towards spending money for holiday later in the year.

Very frugal on the food front at the moment as using home-grown veg and salad and we are cutting down on carbs to lose a bit of weight. Made Broad Bean and Mint fritters yesterday with huge salad from garden. I hate Broad Beans but fritters were actually okay.

Going to see what needs picking for veg stew today and make some wholemeal cheese scones to use up left over bit of cheese.

Hope you all have a wonderful (frugal) day. x

pixiehouse

Morning
Hubby gone back to work on strict instructions for light duties only
But still pulling in the purse strings. Salad 2 days running, its easy in this hot weather no one wants to eat its too hot!!
Only bill to come out of the bank this week is for our mobiles ( Step daughter paying hers now)
Hard serving on £64 a week. Glad the freezer and cupboards are full
Have a good day everyone

mummy2threeboys

hi just checking in..cant beleive a whole half year has gone already! SKINTWELLIE ..sorry can i go on the list please and thankyou very much
I am almost well in about 2 months 50% off my debt ..hopefully now it will go faster as im paying less interest..cant beleive i was paying about £80 a month! ..Have sent off child tax credits and as hubby earned an extra 5k last year (although was taxed a lot more!) im going to lose around £130 a month in child beneifts, considering we survive on 23k all in for everything fotr 5 of us..it will be so much better when im debt free..ironically we get just 1500 a year more than not working not including jsa or petrol to get to work. Self sufficecny and debt free is the future i tell you!
Next goal after debt free..is i have 2 one to pay off mortage by the time im 40 (so 5 years) its 8 when we renew next year. And also i want..whould like please universe a much bigger kitchen, you cant swing a kitten about mine (no remortage or loan thanks!!) so shall be continuing to save and save.
OOhh my mum has taken a load of chicken wire and fencing so i shall soon be having chickens And as a naughty thing ive taken up rsh horticultural course. All busy here.

Does anyone have more than 1 compost bin? Mines almost full so am thinking of getting another whilst my current one sits.

joedenise

My sister has 3 compost bins - although that's on her allotment so she uses loads.

Denise

Frugaldom

Hi to all from Frugaldom Can someone please give me a summary version of how everyone is doing, who is still taking part, who has achieved what and how progress on the thread is, in general?

Haven't spotted SFT for a bit, is everything OK?

Still very busy here with the challenges, still living on my £4,000 a year and still staying one step ahead of any debts. Self sufficiency is impossible - too many people want cash for stuff and the weather conspires against us in the gardening stakes but after 4 days of no electricity and about a metre of snow (in March). Scottish Power eventually settled with £108 compensation... which I blew on a poly tunnel (£79.99 inc P&P) and other bits & pieces for the microholding.

Still envious of all the bargains you guys can pick up in supermarkets but I think I'd rather live here without access to them than move closer to a town.

Anyways, I hope everyone here is doing OK and came through the first half of the 2013 challenge relatively unscathed.

Keep on frugaling! It's well worth it.