2014 Frugal Living Challenge

sparrer

How cheapskate am I? Went into mr m and bought a perfect plant rtc at £1.50 and two cream slices rtc at 55p, sell by date tomorrow, and took them when I went to a friend for coffee this morning. They were both very gratefully accepted but I've never done anything like that before and feel guilty . Would you, and would you?
Forgot to say, I did remove the labels before I got to her house

pm2326

Evening everyone

Another NSD for me :j

I'm another one who always hangs washing outside if its dry even if its freezing cold, I cant stand the smell of indoor dried clothes.

Even if the washing is only out for 2 hours it changes the smell of your clothes. If you have a indoor drier and its sturdy you could always stand it outside your back door for a bit (I did this last weekend as it didn't stop raining until late afternoon).

I came home to a letter from the waterboard today, I have a meter and they've reduced my monthly payments to £11.01, lowest they've ever been :j:j:j

skintygerlinky

Evening all - it's Friday yeeha!

Some good and some not so good today! Took sandwiches into work (salad and tinned salmon - approx. 4 tins of tinned salmon in this house. Why?!)and a banana. Kept me nicely full all afternoon so no snacking. Just made maccaroni and cheese for tea with some broccoli chucked in along with a tin of sweetcorn and some cauli from the freezer. Was lovely!
Went to Arseda for cheese and dessicated coconut as am making a cake in a mo. Also bought a couple of other bits, went the cashpoint to get £20 out to 'tide me over the weekend'....and just got a grip on myself!
I'm staying in tomorrow to study, then my friend is picking me up to go to hers for nice meal (with coconut cake!) and am staying over. Sunday I need to study all day. I don't need to be 'tided over'!! So didn't take the money out.

Couple of things: I don't use a dryer either, I find I can get by without.
Also, can I please have the Thrifty Lesley dhal recipe from someone?!

DawnW

sparrer wrote: »

How cheapskate am I? Went into mr m and bought a perfect plant rtc at £1.50 and two cream slices rtc at 55p, sell by date tomorrow, and took them when I went to a friend for coffee this morning. They were both very gratefully accepted but I've never done anything like that before and feel guilty . Would you, and would you?
Forgot to say, I did remove the labels before I got to her house

Yes, I would do that, and no, I wouldn't feel guilty

DawnW

ellie-g wrote: »

No Using the Tumble Dryer in 2014 Challenge: Frugal January

Going to get my washing done tonight ready to hang out after the shower at 9 am in the morning. Apparently it's dry all day after that. I've always resorted to the tumble dryer in January before. Anyone else going to give it a go? Monday looks good too.

Yes, but not really a challenge for me. I have never actually owned a tumble dryer

Friday at last (thank goodness!!!). Blow this 5 day week lark :rotfl:

Short weekend for me as well as I have to head off for a work trip on Sunday after lunch :mad:

But, a NSD again for me, as I take my lunch with me to work, and am there so much I don't have much time to go anywhere to spend!

We had liver, bacon and onions (OH's favourite) with mash and kale for dinner. The liver and bacon were from the freezer and other items from stores.

Hairdressers for me tomorrow, so I will have to spend then I hate going as it is so boring but it really needs doing. OH will do the shopping (with a list which he will mainly stick to :rotfl:) while I am there, and then I will babysit for DD and her OH for their first evening out since baby arrived And I will get to see her have her bath too (baby that is, not DD :rotfl:)

SarahB1989_2

Went for a swim this evening, normally costs me £2.20 but the receptionist told me if I waited twenty mins it'd only be 50p as they have a 'happy hour'! And had a movie night with the flatmates yesterday, watched a film one of us already owned on DVD and got YS snacks - paid 87p for 4 muffins, a big bar of cadbury chocolate, and a mini box of quality street!

Most frugal of all, I got back from my swim to discover I forgot to defrost dinner... So made a spicy soup with what was in the cupboard - bit of onion, half a chilli, garlic, red lentils, and stock, plus a bit of goats cheese going out of date. Utterly gorgeous and cost pennies! And another portion in the fridge for tomorrows lunch. Feeling quite proud of myself

thepennyfarthings

Evening!
I love this thread:j:j

OH filled his car today £30.00.
Spent £19.76 @ MrS, half price beef and pork at the moment! Used another double points
coupon. My points total is starting to look rather healthy:).

I love the gloves, :)I might learn to knit:).

Thanks to everyone for helping me to stay on track:T:T:T

Stay safe everyone,
tpf.

happycrafter_2

Started off a good day but got home and son was dumped by gf other son had his phone knocked out his hand at school and the screen is smashed (not an expensive phone but still annoyed) OH sat down and the couch went crunch. So I've been crafting tonight to destress. Dinner was all homemade fish chips and mushy peas. Hoping tomorrow will be better and a possible nsd though I may need eggs for baking.

Coulddobetter

Lots of miles in the car today. I had a sandwich made from home but popped into supermarket and bought 2 selection boxes with 6 chocolate bars priced at £1 each. Didn't need them but enjoyed one in the car. DS & GF came round so gave them one each, they were very happy. I loaned them some money to buy sofas for their home as they were in the sale until tonight and it saved them over £1k. So a spending day

Had fish pie and carrots for dinner with the second one in the fridge ready for freezing. Was given 2 partridges so need to look at cooking them this weekend. Never cooked them before so who know what it will be like. Anyone any clues?

CBD x

zafiro1984

ellie-g wrote: »

No Using the Tumble Dryer in 2014 Challenge: Frugal January

Going to get my washing done tonight ready to hang out after the shower at 9 am in the morning. Apparently it's dry all day after that. I've always resorted to the tumble dryer in January before. Anyone else going to give it a go? Monday looks good too.

I can't remember the last time I used the tumble dryer. I put the clothes on an airer and stand them outside under an overhang if its not raining or stand them near the woodburner overnight. My DH hates to see washing on the radiators.

I am trying to make the 'energy' go further this year, spent over 2.5k last year on electric and oil, want to try and reduce that by half this year. So, no tumble dryer used, new woodburner with attached oven installed for heating the kitchen/living area as well as cooking, fire in lounge lit every morning - wood costs nothing. Washing machine has to have a full load before I turn it on, same with dishwasher. Heating doesn't kick in unless the house is 17degrees or lower as I've turned the thermostat down and no central heating at all from 10am until 4pm. I try to keep below 20 units of electric per day.
So far so good, The oil consumption has gone right down and hopefully the one tank full will last until June/July which will be 12 months since the last fill up. My average usage of electric is 17 units per day and that should go down a little in the summer.
However, the house is still very warm and cosy all day, both my DH and myself spend many hours of the day outside so to come into a warm house is lovely particularly at the moment as we tend to be rather wet as well.