2014 Frugal Living Challenge

littleskintdragon

Been for a lovely walk this morning with ds. Took an hour, and got what we needed from the shop at the same time, so thats exercise & shopping all ticked off todays list

Tidied downstairs as a friend was meant to call, but then she text to say she couldnt make it. Need to tidy upstairs next, trying to work out how the house gets in such a mess EVERY day!!

Shortie

Afternoon all

A mixed frugalling day here for me - depsite bringing in lunch to work I've just been to the local food vans with some of the guys in work and had THE most satisfying falafel wrap (falafel, salad, hummous, chilli) and it cost me £3. Not a huge amount I know, but not 'free' from home either, whoops

The kind freegle lady dropped the plastic off for the chook run roof today and Mr Shortie has been clearing space for and moving the poly tunnel frame across to the shed ready to start building the cover/roof and then sides. The plastic she gave us has saved a lot of money and I'm really greatful!:A

I need to take the cash out for the fencing today to so that I don't forget at the last minute

Next goal is getting my Dad paid off which will take another 2 months (put back a month due to the tax) which will be nice to menatlly tick that one off, then I'm moving into saving money instead

Mrs_Cheshire

I've had a good morning this morning, walked eldest to school, took youngest in his buggy to Ald* to do the weekly shop. I meal plan and write a shopping list, manage to keep it under £30 then walked to our toddler group and home again. Should only need to buy 1 more milk this week so should still be under £30 although I give myself £40!

mummy2threeboys

Afternoon, low spend today just 19p for some painkillers woke up with a stonking headache, bought some on way to school but took bottle of water from home to save buying one lol.

Anyone with a mortgage with abbey /santander? Our term is due to run out in november, if im correct and i heard right the man on the phone said we can renew our terms (ie set the rate) up to six months in advance before our term finishes..is this correct or did i imagine it..i plan on checking once a month to see what the current rates are to see if we can get a deal we are happy with rather than just going in last minute. Thankfully last time the apr had dropped by almost 2% from our then current rate and we wiped off 2 years from our moratge by keeping the monthly payments the same
2nd question does santander publish its renewal apr or are they all personal to each indiviual mortage owner? I can never seem to find the current mortage rates online, only for new moratge owners..thanks! Have a good day all x

Frugalsod

I have had a NSD, and only have to get milk tomorrow, and will be paying £51 in loose change in to the bank to pay into my credit card. I will need to get some cream next week as well as the weekly milk, but will get that next week. Food cupboards are full or will be next week, so I am on a cleaning binge for a day or two at least. So am using up any products that I can need to rather than throwing away.

his_missus

Chinese takeaway leftovers from Friday night for lunch. I know it seems a long time to have kept it but it's been in the fridge, I nuked it and I feel ok after eating it

Tea at my friend's tonight, free food!:T

Also just saved mum £100 a month by cancelling V!rg!n package my dad had and getting rid of the landline (in her words she has no need for that internet stuff!) as she barely uses the phone anyway. She has a mobile phone (and dad's) so I'm buying her one of those old-person-big-button-emrgency phone to put her payg sim in for a house phone. Frugal living for my mum

skintygerlinky

Afternoon Fellow Frugalites xx

I've got a day off today! Self-imposed - I finally gave my uni essay in yesterday which is a weight off my mind.
Funny day yesterday from a frugal point of view - was in a mad rush to get to uni so only had chance to heat some soup up and stick it in my flask but then legged it to Subwaytooexpensive for a sandwich. Why?? I was stressed out and that old tune of 'you're stressed, you've worked hard, you deserve it' was going round and round in my head.
Then at uni I suggested we go out for something to eat on Thurs to reward ourselves for our hard work. Why?! I can't afford to do this! May have to cancel
On the way home I wandered into the train station shop, looking to buy myself a treat and got a slightly-larger-bag-than-normal-size of crisp and they cost £1!!! Hahahaaaaa! Since when did crisp cost a quid??!! Was knackered when I got home so went for a nap, woke up hours later and remembered I hadn't eaten my soup and it had gone cold. What a waste :mad:

The whole day made me sit up and realise once and for all that feeling tired, stressed, excited...all of these emotions seem to trigger a 'treat yourself...spend money' response in me that needs to be addressed NOW. Can anyone relate to this??

Today is better. Cooked a huge, gorgeous risotto from scratch using ingredients that were already in plus I just made a batch of rocky road which will be my treats for the rest of the week - will let you know how they taste! Also got enough in to make a carrot and lentil soup which will do weekday lunches for rest of week and hopefully some leftover to freeze.
No spending today or tomorrow hopefully.

Goldiegirl

mummy2threeboys wrote: »

Afternoon, low spend today just 19p for some painkillers woke up with a stonking headache, bought some on way to school but took bottle of water from home to save buying one lol.

Anyone with a mortgage with abbey /santander? Our term is due to run out in november, if im correct and i heard right the man on the phone said we can renew our terms (ie set the rate) up to six months in advance before our term finishes..is this correct or did i imagine it..i plan on checking once a month to see what the current rates are to see if we can get a deal we are happy with rather than just going in last minute. Thankfully last time the apr had dropped by almost 2% from our then current rate and we wiped off 2 years from our moratge by keeping the monthly payments the same
2nd question does santander publish its renewal apr or are they all personal to each indiviual mortage owner? I can never seem to find the current mortage rates online, only for new moratge owners..thanks! Have a good day all x

I'm not with Santander, but I used to work in the mortgage department of a large lender!

It's quite surprising that they'd let you pick an interest product six months in advance - where I used to work, a couple,of months was the max . Might be worth ringing again to double check.

As for the APR, that varies depending what interest product you have, so, it wouldn't be published on the website as general info. Again, you'd need to ask them about that one


Well I've unleashed the next part of my frugality plans.

We eat a lot of yogurt in this house, so I've ordered a yogurt maker.

We normally eat Muller corners or Yoplait. I've calculated that the cost of a pot of yoghurt would be cheaper using the sachets, and if we 'grew our own' from a spoonful of yogurt, it'd be even cheaper.

Apart from that, this yoghurt maker will help enable me to switch having my grocery delivery to every 2 -3 weeks. There no way I could keep three weeks worth of muller corners in my fridge, there'd be no room for anything else! I've read that it's possible to freeze yogurt, but even so, I haven't got the freezer room.

So making my own seems to be the way to go, and that'll help me wait until my grocery order is over £100' meaning I can get free delivery on certain days.

The frugal life is a bit like setting up a business. You have to invest money in it at first, in order to reap the benefits later.

KazLA

Feeling rather ill from eating far too big a slice of rocky road, thanks mum2one!

Was sooo tempted by the 95p square in Greg's, but 70p of chocolate later, with some old biscuits, and even older, almost solid, mini marshamallows, I have about 12 squares! Delicious!

chirpycheap

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Afternoon Fellow Frugalites xx

The whole day made me sit up and realise once and for all that feeling tired, stressed, excited...all of these emotions seem to trigger a 'treat yourself...spend money' response in me that needs to be addressed NOW. Can anyone relate to this??

.

I know exactly what you mean. Treating myself equals spending money. I need to find ways to treat myself that doesn't cost money. I also think that a lot of spending is about bad habits. You do what you've always done without thinking. Hopefully good habits once practised will stick!