2014 Frugal Living Challenge

hollieinbloom

nat21luv wrote: »

Its my sons 10th bday on sunday and Ive bought him a few books in the Tesco sale that were £1.50 for 4 and a dvd for 75p, a toy from argos paid for with vouchers and im making him a cake, making a treasure chest piñata, the decorations, buying the party food with£25 morrisons vouchers and making most of it myself, and finally, taking him and 2 friends to a climbing centre. All this for £50 maximum hopefully! The Climbing centre looks to be £6-7 each so that's maximum £21 leaving me £29 to play with for decorations and gifts.

looking at superscrimpers website now

Pinterest will have loads of ideas on there. Even some printable stuff if you search. I did a funfair party for my DD and got loads of ideas and print off stuff on there x

nat21luv

hollieinbloom wrote: »

Pinterest will have loads of ideas on there. Even some printable stuff if you search. I did a funfair party for my DD and got loads of ideas and print off stuff on there x

Thanks for that, Im doing a minecraft theme and I can see some good bits on there already, ill take a closer look later.

SarahB1989_2

Definitely not a frugal week... Trying to reassure myself that it's all ok in the long term though, next month is going to be much cheaper as working 1 weekend, away for 1 (all expenses paid), and 3 days less food to pay for! Down to £28 for food for rest of this month though and have the boyfriend coming to stay for a weekend before then - hoping Tesco will come up with a YS joint that I can roast as he def won't suffer the mostly lentil based stuff I'm eating.
Paid nearly £50 for contact lenses but that's six months supply so no more needed til I get paid, yay! £130 on travel but that's for a conference and will hopefully get some of that refunded by grants, and £100 for conference ticket (massively reduced from original price!). Still need to book somewhere to stay but have found a hostel at £15/night that looks bearable. Argh, so much money for just 3 days away - looks good on the cv though so hopefully worth it. Paid for trains through a deal link that should get me a £5 voucher for next journey though, and have a collection of delay repay vouchers to use too so hopefully no more travel costs til summer.

What's the lowest anyone'll stoop for food? Saw my flatmate throw out a perfectly good chocolate tart (in its foil tray inside a box) so may have 'rescued' it from the bin moments later...

Florenceem

No problem with that.

nannygladys

Just popping in quick.


Not doing so well or so bad, depends how you look at it. Had a few outgoings but needed, I think that's the way forward, because I buy things I want sometimes, but if its needed I need it!!!anyway went out with DD3 today and bought new Knickers that were needed as I have lost quite a bit of weight and my normal ones keeping creeping down lol so they were a definite need!!


Food wise I don't think its so bad as I don't seem to have spent very much at all, I had a lot of food left after Xmas and Im still using some of that. I had salmon and noodles for tea, the salmon was bought (not by me) by guests and not eaten so I divided up into 12 pieces and froze it, and very nice it is!!


So my frugal ways can still improve I feel, but its a learning journey, hopefully I will be able to overpay my CC at the end of the month and that will make me very happy. Oh and Im working a days OT tomorrow so that will go towards the overpayment as well
nannyg

DawnW

Free lunch at work meeting today, and I brought some leftovers home with me (they would otherwise have been thrown away).

We had macaroni cheese with ham and leeks again (we don't mind eating something two days running if it is nice ) and there is enough for my lunch for work tomorrow, so no sandwiches to make

Spent £5.23 on bread, eggs and veg in Aldis. Other spends, OH filled my car up with fuel. An expensive beast my car this week, what with its service yesterday :eek: (you wouldn't think so to look at it :rotfl:)

23rdspiral

Had some unplanned spends today as got to my training course to find no supplies were included, despite what I was told on the phone!
I hadn't expected things for free, hence me checking, but their admin mess up was embarrassing as I only had £10 on me.

Anyway, the course was brilliant and I was glad to go.

Goldiegirl

A pleasing day today.

Last night I met my friend for coffee and a cake. I sell things on eBay on her behalf and we share the profits. She had a few bits and pieces to give me, with a promise of a lot more to come. She's not exactly a shopaholic, but does buy quite a few things, and gets bored of things quickly. So could be busy on eBay soon.

This morning, I prepared the things she gave me for listing over the weekend. I like to work in advance if I can. Everything is photoed and descriptions typed up in Word.

It is Mr GG's day off today. While I was working on eBay, he was busy adjusting the cistern. He fitted a new siphon a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't flushing properly. All sorted now.

I've made my first wholemeal loaf in the bread maker (well 70% wholemeal 30% white). I baked a pineapple upside down pudding, had half for dessert, and half in the freezer for another time. Main course was pizza - dough for the base made in the bread maker.

So all in all,I think some real progress was made today.

Also, as we were busy, we had no chance to spend any money, so a NSD has been chalked up.

watermelon-noodles

Hi can I join determined this year to sort finances out, some small debts to pay off, and determined to go on holiday, plus make a real start on the mortgage deposit! Ive always hated spending money so its not too difficult, its the other half that needs training! Decided ill be telling a white lie about savings so he cant overspend and think thw savings can be there as a back up.

Im setting a strict budget for groceries and when it doesnt all get spent its being transferred into savings. Also putting any cash from gifts or cleaning jobs I do into a sealed tin, normally it'd get left in purse and end up disappearing in the local shop on rubbish!

Quite proud of myself today, made a soup from a few carrots and some celery that I knew wouldn't get used soon so would end up getting thrown out! Made enough for 4 lunches for me and daughter so worth the small effort! Must make sure keep doing it - have a havit of forgetting about things in fridge and just chucking it!

Will keep reading everyone's posts for ideas and support

mummy2threeboys

Goodness cant keep up here
Not such a frugal day, spent about £22 in poundland and 99p shop for various schooling equipment. and cheap foods we can not get elsewhere
£20 on other sons after school club but its £2 for an hour of extra childcare and fun for him so a bargain really.and its only once a week.
and i spent £16 on boots gifts in the 70% sale..orginal costs where £56 have started saving for christmas and birthdays, so whilst a big spend out this month, its saved us loads.
How on earth is it thursday again already?
I also got the £15 off tescos via my old email account i forgot about so i will be using that..bad girl! That £28 off my shopping so far and my house is still rammed with food from monday! Seem to be making our weeks shopping last 10 days with careful meal planning and using up dry goods .