2014 Frugal Living Challenge

mum2one

A frugal day - if anyone has a Cineworld cinema - they do a TAKE 2 offer on a Thursday daytime, - be a film that been out a month or so.

(If you subscribe to the mycineworld link - which is free - can use anytime prebook tickets and you save 10%)

1 ticket normal price, or you can get 2 adult tickets for £10 (with my cineworld discount / if not £11.10) and this gets you 2 small drinks and small popcorn.

I took dad to see Philomenia - brilliant film, we worked out to do it as individual prices would be about £25... thou had cramp in leg at one stage and leg flinched and chucked 1/4bag of popcorn over the floor! x

Frugalsod

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Grocery money for January ran out today, eating into Feb's budget instead now. Had a cheap shop this evening though, lamb chops down from £4 to 90p, half dozen eggs for a pound, and 4 croissants for 19p. Must stop seeing bakery YS items as frugal, might be cheap but if I wouldn't buy it at full price then all I'm gaining is pounds on my hips!

Need to be more organised about lunches, twice this week have bought lunch from hospital shop instead of popping home (live across the street, very convenient). Cost of those lunches saved would have meant getting to Feb with budget intact!! Probably should take a packed lunch in case I don't have time to go home, but remembering the night before is the challenge.

What I found is that if you have a local/express store then work out what its mark down times are. My local T Express is around 5pm. Then again around 9 or 10pm when they drop them again. There might be nothing left that late but there is always more temptation to get something else rather than have a wasted journey. Going earlier might mean more choice even if the discount is not as great
so you are less likely to buy something else full price instead.

Frugalsod

vw_campervan_mum wrote: »

Thanks Frugalsod I am trying to batch cook but only have small in-fridge freezer which is limiting. Make a big batch of something that does 2 evening meals and my lunches which works well. My DD is not keen on many soups/dahl cheap recipes which marks up a few meals. I have made bread but my low level of will power means I eat it immediately so it is not MSE and I am putting on lbs

Probably have enough to get me at least half way through Feb with only a £15 a week shop on fresh stuff so should manage to catch up on the budget.

Feeling very inspired and am far more frugal even though I have been trying to be frugal for nearly 4 years now - keep peeling back the layers to an inner core of frugalism :T

Yes freshly made bread is very nice so maybe the solution is to make it when you will use it. So when the bread is finished and cool you can make sandwiches etc. I do it when I know I will be having soup, then the remains will be eaten over a couple of days after that.

The thing I have discovered is that what works for someone else might not work for you, but they might inspire a solution for you that does work very well. What might be good is for you to take an evening to work out what meals you need. Only you will know what is liked and what ratios of soups etc you can get away with. What can be produced in smaller amounts so that the inability to freeze large amounts is not a problem. I have on my computer a recipe program and then I rewrite any imported recipes to cut out the superfluous ingredients. For example when I found a recipe for Cream of Tomato soup it had bay leaves, garlic and something else in the recipe. I discarded those and the soup it makes is even cheaper and still tastes just as good.

Then in your case you could say half the recipe so you do not have too much, or double it to make it even easier to make. I started with every ready meal I used to eat. The fact that it is processed creates an opportunity for the store to add margin. So the more processed it is the more savings you can make if you can make it yourself. For example a store trifle might cost £3 but a lot less if you make it yourself, and you get a lot more. So you can buy ready made trifle sponges and then add jelly and fruit. Then when that has cooled add the custard and decorations. I am taking it another step and making my own Victoria sponge to use as the base and then that saves me buying a pack of trifle sponges. Break the problems down into steps and solve each step one at a time then gradually you will have a chain of steps to make something far more complex. I did that when I started making bread. First few weeks making bread from bread mixes to iron out problems with the oven, mixer etc, then replaced the bread mix with flour and yeast etc, then as I resolved problems with the yeast so that was prepared separately. Each time the costs dropped and I started to save money.

You might work out that you can get away with a two week menu plan and that will allow you to drastically simplify your shopping. First set of savings. Then you might find that you can start to bulk buy just the items you need so more savings potential. It might just take an evening to work out a solution. Good luck.

TM6

sparrer wrote: »

Not a lot to report as I've not been out for a couple of days but at least it's two nsd/npd's.

What's a NPD please?

tatabubbly

Being frugal this friday! Usually after my tutoring I go to the shops but today I've stayed at home!

trying to put away some pennies aside so I can get rid of our last bill and put all our money into saving for the wedding. thanks mummyto3boys for putting up the link to hobbycraft. I was going to get some stuff sent to my aunt in scotland but because its an Irish bank card, they wouldn't accept it! Back to ebaying then I doubt!

happybird71

Hi everyone. It's been rather a busy week. Trying to catch up. My boys were in contact with a friend who now has chicken pox so been staying away from other children in case they spread it. Day 9 and no spots so here's hoping! It's meant I've had to be frugal cos haven't been out!

It's a really busy and special week. DS1 turned 2 yesterday. Took him to a National Trust park which he loved. Our third NT visit in 2 weeks so working towards the value of the membership (which was a gift but I hate to waste it). Baked him a 'Thomas' cake. I would have been cheaper getting him a bought one! Had to buy number & letter icing cutters, icing sugar, butter etc, food colouring but it'll pay itself off after a couple of years of birthdays! Paul Hollywood & Mary Berry would have been shocked by the standard of the cake ie almost a biscuit texture! However with a newbie & a toddler to run after I was glad to have any cake and it was made with love The 2 year old judge loved it Just got hubby's birthday tomorrow & DS2's dedication on Sunday now as well as hosting in-laws til Monday!

Asda rewarded for being a bad customer Free delivery so I thought I'd jump at the chance to order a few bulk items & essentials. The app is really handy anyway. It came last night. One item missing, several substitutions, a couple of bashed tins, a bag of someone else's shopping and most of the order covered in orange juice By the time we checked all the items off the list, cleaned it up and called customer services I'd have been quicker popping to the shops after the boys were in bed! First call I got cut off but the person had a very strong foreign accent and couldn't understand me anyway. 2nd person was also foreign, took the details then informed me they were experiencing technical difficulties and would call me back. Still waiting.

Sorry to sound like a moan! On the plus side - have been eating from supplies all week, DS1 has become less fussy as eating the same as us. Got a baby carrier from Gumtree yesterday for £20 and I 'd been outbid the night before on eBay at £33! Very chuffed.

happybird71

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[/QUOTE]

We were with Santander but had such a terrible time with them. I'd suggest seeing a good independent financial adviser. They give impartial advice because their pay comes from commission if you take out a product. We ended up changing companies which included leaving & arrangement fees but we are on a better rate and MUCH better service. FA did all the sorting out.

happybird71

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

Oops - sorry! The above reply was for you!

skintygerlinky

Morning Frugalites,

Just a quickie before I go to work.

Frugalsod: cheers for the info re: biking instead of bus and train-ing - my uni is too far to bike, but my sessions up there are dwindling as time goes on so I'm choosing to work at home and to take advantage of the online library (which has miles more books than the physical library. This blows my tiny mind). To be fair I probably could bike to work! I don't own a bike but it's something I'm considering as it's fab exercise too - maybe over the summer?

I've had two bank accounts for a number of years - one where wages are put in/bills going out (including food shopping) and a standing order into another account for 'monthly spends'. Well I'm a skinty person right now, so I've cancelled the standing order and the 2nd account is now to be used for saving towards birthday and Xmas gifts for family and friends.
My main account is now, in my eyes, my ONLY account which means I can set a proper budget starting next month. Feel like I'm slowly, steadily starting to see my bigger financial picture. It ain't pretty but so what! Feel better for being realistic and much more courageous when checking account balances!

afoolwithmoney

Fire was ok it was the gas bottle so that's been replaced. Toilet seat bought with arg*s voucher. Most customers remembered Avon delivery so monies banked & I collected OH from work did a small shop which he then paid for! So yippee another NSD