2014 Frugal Living Challenge

tatabubbly

Hey all! first of February at last, thank god!! Planning on starting off Feb with a NSD.. Nearly managed one yesterday bt I though it would be a good idea to get out of the house so I went to our local cinema and spent €7. Nice for a little treat!

Planning on totting up my totals of spends this month so today is a good day to start!

mummy2threeboys

Morning all happy 1st of feb!

New month..got another week till money in my account..feels like a long time! NOthing exciting to report other than aquired a free knitting machine ..just had to buy a part that was £9 but hope to whip up a few jumpers cheaply..seem to find lots of cones in charity shops here rather than balls of yarn so works out cheaper! Have a good week xx

Nicki_Sue

Chuffed with how Jan has gone. A combo of extra work for me and lots of frugal living / clever budgeting means we go into Feb looking healthy with money moved into savings and a pantry full.

I was given a £50 Amazon voucher this week and spent it on meat (one of the online butchers I use lists via Amazon too for extra exposure so I've lots of extra meat coming to portion up which is a great start on Feb.

A couple of birthdays in Feb but nothing major so all is going good.

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello,


I don't think I have been here for about two weeks! but am still up for the challenge.


I bought a car which has cleared me out savings wise and I had to put the insurance on my credit card. It is ridiculous as I had the money saved but that seems to have covered the tax and my credit card bill which was massive, 550 pounds. Need to have a good look at the bill as I know some of it is petrol, vets (!) and a couple of birthday presents but really the rest is a mystery. And how that can be when I am supposed to be watching what I spend is nuts!


The actual car insurance is on 0% 650........


On the one hand I feel grim about increasing the debt. On the other hand I couldn't keep driving my beloved car who's doors didn't always open and who overheated and made interesting noises. Also it cost me £30 in petrol every week and I wasn't going far. so far I have filled the new car once - when I got it and Thursday, two weeks later - filling the tank cost me 30 quid and seems to last about two weeks. Plus the tax went from 225 to 120 which is better.


I should be able to pay off the insurance over February and March but really I need to pay off the main credit card bill - which currently stands at 4400 as that 0% deal


The dog has just come up on the sofa and put his head on my arm, typing is difficult! They love me being home on weekends but don't like me being on the laptop at all. the other one will sit in front of me whining till I move the laptop and then he will jump on my lap!


Ahem doggie now asleep (the other one is looking at me tho!)


back to the point!


Which is that I have no money! well I can afford February. I am being super tight (for me) and giving myself 500 pounds to pay for petrol, food, my mate's birthday present and a couple of nights out. This should mean when I get paid in Feb I will be back on an even keel and able to pay off a decent amount. Oh I have to find the money for a tyre - I did get a flat! However I have the money for that.


I really want to close some of my "pot accounts" and tidy up my finances. I need to sort out the new amounts for the car savings (mot/tax) and just not have so many. All the banks shut so early!


am really rambling now! best go get on with something


XXX

[Deleted User]

Happy February everyone. Fairly frugal day for me today. Its wet and wild outside today so no plans to go out much. I did pop out to the shops earlier and I ended up chasing my hat up the street as the wind blew it off!!

Rest of today will be spent indoors watching The Waltons and chilling out.

I will need to do a food plan and shop for next week but that can wait until tomorrow.

happybird71

Hi everyone. Well it's crunch time! Going to start recording everything we spend this month. I don't think it'll be pretty. We have quite a large mortgage but we're in our 'forever' home. I'll probably start getting just my statutory maternity pay which is less than half my usual pay. We bought a £200 rug yesterday and they knocked £10 off, got 2 playmats for DS1 rather than a new rug which came to £24. Decided to get him a toddler bed rather than a single which is much cheaper & he can use his current cot bed mattress. We were going to buy a new one for DS2 when he goes into the cot bed soon. But...that was January & this is now February

Predicting less spending this week as DS1 has chicken pox - and DS2 will probably now catch them - at 3 months so we're a bit house bound. Planning on looking out stuff to sell on gumtree, Facebook or eBay. Have also advertised for a bed on Facebook but £69 if we can't get one so not too bad.

DH and I have as joint account so no secrets. I'm generally in charge of the finances tho. I grew up in a 'if you want it save, get it for Christmas or birthdays' home. They were skint as Dad had own business & Mum stayed at home with us. We lived in an almost derelict home that they fully renovated & are now mortgage free as Dad couldn't get one in the 70's. They visit the charity shops every week & get loads of bargains. Great examples to me.

SiroGarmr

calleyw wrote: »

Well that saved a plumbers bill but was very gross.

I have had a slow draining bathroom sink for ages. Bought some drainer cleaner finally today. Put it down twice made no difference.

So decided to take apart the u-bend underneath the sink. OMG it was minging. Black gunge and hair was impacted under neath the basin waste bit. No wonder the drain cleaner did not budge it.

Not sure why so much hair gets in it. I brush my hair in front of the sink. But that is that. I wonder if the water going down is not hot enough causing the gunge!!!!

Will do that on a monthly basis now I think. I feel a bit sick as that was so gross.

Yours

Calley

did this with a blocked kitchen sink recently -- with ours it was oil I chucked in without thinking!

Living_proof

Well it's a lovely sunny day here and I am going to walk to the shops and take the trolley with me. I don't need much and have checked out the best offers on mysoopermarket so have planned my route accordingly. I'm trying to strictly buy what I need, and what is on the list although I do try and ensure I have one in reserve of most things so I can always buy at a good price.

My employment prospects are looking very poor currently and I will need to conserve as much as I can in case the evil day arrives when I no longer have a job. I am trying to balance positivity and pragmatism and work out a viable Plan B .... and C etc.

My treats in January were a £40ish meal out (my turn to pay) and having hair re-streaked about £50. These are of course things I could either cut out completely or do less regularly in the future if things get tougher. I lost 7lb as well last month, so would like to keep the progress up.

Good luck everyone for February. If you think thrice for each spend you'll probably go off the idea half the time - it does work!

OverRated

Mind if I join in?

Got paid yesterday and managed to pay off one of our four credit cards so the target for this year is to pay off the other three. Having reviewed our budget in painstaking detail it is clear the only areas we have flexibility to reduce are:

Food Shopping, Fuel, Dog Food (other related expenses) and drinks/snacks when travelling with work.

Obviously we are working to keep our Gas/Electric bills down (sat here in a very warm hoodie rather than crank the heating up) and don't have monthly mobiles phones (love you Ovivo) or Sky/Virgin etc

So for us the frugal living really is our best way to get every last penny heading in the direction of credit cards! We cancelled a rather significant home improvement recently that we pretend we could afford so feeling positive.

calleyw

SiroGarmr wrote: »

did this with a blocked kitchen sink recently -- with ours it was oil I chucked in without thinking!

Yep a killer for kitchen sinks fat.

Yours

Calley