2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Shortie

OOohhhh, and Mr Shortie and I just remembered £140 that I was given as part of an 'event' that I was supposed to have bought myself something with. I would feel awful to just waste it as it was given in good faith that it would be spent on me, but it's great to remember it is in the safe waiting. I was going to put it towards a tattoo but will see what happens as I'm being very guarded with money now, lol...

OOooh and I'm going to get a rebate from the school for DS2's school dinners too. We gave a week's notice today and they'll refund the rest from next week to the end of term. We were hoping that school dinners would increase what he ate (he loves chilli, bolognaise, curry, haggis, cottage pie, etc... but give him a lump of meat and he'll pick around the veggies only...). Anyway, we realised that many days he was just eating the veg at £2.10 a day for the privilege.

So, we asked if he'd rather be on packed lunches (as I think it stresses him out to be faced with a plate of something he doesn't like) and he jumped at the chance. We're now on the look out for a kids lunch box thermos flask so that he can sometimes have warm baked beans, pasta or cocktail sausages instead of a sandwich. Not managing to find one under a fiver though...

abby1234519

I've just realised that I genuinely have no idea how many nappies we go through a month.

I've never really counted!!! I have a 2.5 year old boy and how am I supposed to budget effectively if I don't know :S

My aim for next month is only to buy nappies, wipes, lemon curd, butter, spreadable/margarine,milk, bread, eggs, tinned tomatoes, big bag of cumin from amazon, fruit and veg (but to be honest as little as I can. Don't plan to buy potatoes as I have a lot of pasta etc left.

If I see any good bargains on Approved Food I might be tempted but I'm talking VERY good. So my problem is, do I buy all the nappies etc all at once or do I give myself a weekly budget and buy the nappies I need each week. I worry that if I have my monthly money of £130 and I go and buy a load of nappies that I then obviously am left with a small amount to split. What if I panic!

InClover

his_missus wrote: »

InClover, on the plus side you already have £200 towards the car instead of having to find £300... ?

This is true. Just a bit disheartening .... Thank you though, and kb-soba too

Frugalsod

abby1234519 wrote: »

I've just realised that I genuinely have no idea how many nappies we go through a month.

I've never really counted!!! I have a 2.5 year old boy and how am I supposed to budget effectively if I don't know :S

My aim for next month is only to buy nappies, wipes, lemon curd, butter, spreadable/margarine,milk, bread, eggs, tinned tomatoes, big bag of cumin from amazon, fruit and veg (but to be honest as little as I can. Don't plan to buy potatoes as I have a lot of pasta etc left.

It might be too late but terry nappies can save a fortune over the long run if you only need to buy disposable nappy liners. They take more work with washing but can be cheaper very rapidly.

I get my spices from Buywholefoodsonline, it helps that I get some of my flour from there so that helps me get the free delivery with spends of £30 or more. I got spices and 00 flour and spelt flour to get me to the £30 limit.

pm2326

I've just been online and made a payment to catalogue...they've only gone and increased my credit limit by £500 and they're telling me this is fantastic news!!!!!

I've never had a balance of more than £200 and by March I'm hoping to have cleared the debt and closed the account so they can shove their fantastic news up their bum!

alja

Hello, I've just caught up on everyone's posts

Most weekdays (I believe all of last week's?!) have been NSDs which is great. I live at home so I don't need to do any top-up grocery shopping etc. The weekend is the only time I really spend my money.

This weekend just gone I went to a local garden centre with friends and had lunch there. Just checked my receipts to see how much this all cost and it came to £8.60 for soup with bread, a bottle of juice and a millionaire shortbread cake. We then had dominos in the evening, eeek! But I was good and opted for the personal pizza and one dip, which came to a total of £6.50. So with these meals and a little bit of driving to get to my friends house (about £2), this all came to about £17.10.

Sunday we did our usual pub quiz. My friend drove there which was lovely, so all I had to pay for was my drink and entry fee money. Total = £3.10

So About £20.20 was spent this weekend, which I don't feel is too bad...I'm glad I stayed away from the shops!!

I decided not to go to my usual fitness class tonight (costs £5 plus £2 petrol) I will make sure I do some exercise at home to make up for it. So today is a NSD

Coulddobetter

Had a very expensive weekend, broke my ipad and had to buy a new one, grrrr:mad: totally my fault apparently they don't bounce on kitchen tiles. Had a little success with 2 items on EBay so I need to sell enough to replace money into my savings. Might be able to get old ipad repaired but A***e wanted £140 plus to just look at it then they wanted to charge handling and shipping. A friend may have found someone who can fix it so waiting to see what the cost is. I did consider just getting it repaired but I use it everyday and it was out of warranty.

Will have to be very frugal this month however I think we have a couple of months without council tax. Didn't buy any food this weekend so this thread is helping keep me focused.

Will start counting NSD from February.

CDB x

sparrer

This weeks shopping cost £13.39, £1.61p under the weekly budget. So far this month I'm £29.51 under budget of £65 - first 2 weeks allowance £17.50 then cut that back to £15 a week as it was well under every time. I can live on the ff and larder for at least another month so will be interesting to see what I can save by the end of Feb. I shop twice a week but with unforeseen extras I've had 15 nsd's.

However, I've had to fill the car twice due to unexpected journeys which shouldn't happen again, making fuel £94, well over my £50 budget. So all in all I'm £35 down this month . Belt pulling in time.

abby1234519

Frugalsod wrote: »

It might be too late but terry nappies can save a fortune over the long run if you only need to buy disposable nappy liners. They take more work with washing but can be cheaper very rapidly.

I get my spices from Buywholefoodsonline, it helps that I get some of my flour from there so that helps me get the free delivery with spends of £30 or more. I got spices and 00 flour and spelt flour to get me to the £30 limit.

I tried Bambino Mios when he was born but he was the wrong shape. I'd like to try Terry's for the next baby.

I will have a look at that website, I usually buy spices at Costco (I have enough coriander to last a lifetime) but they don't do everything I need! I refuse to buy tiny jars of spices, I just fill up jam jars

abby1234519

Oh In my attempt to cook the weeks meals I've had a disaster. I've just made a pie filling from some frozen pork, left over leek, gravy and thyme. I reckon I can fit that in the freezer. However....I've just made so much bolognese that I really don't know what I can do with it.There just isn't the room for it in the freezer. It wasn't mean to be so big it was only a small packet of mince however I might have chopped a lot of onion, carrot and a bit of brocolli. Two cartons of passata and some water later and there is a few litres of the stuff. No idea how long it will keep in the fridge.

I hate to see food go to waste so my other half will be having bolognese EVERY day when he comes home for lunch