2014 Frugal Living Challenge

lovefullshelves

calleyw - I'd love to shop without OH but I'm not allowed to drive for a while (hysterectomy, apendectomy and hernia!) and not allowed to lift too much!

abby1234519

My challenge for February is to pay for a birthday meal and to only spend £100 on food. Technically I've already spent £25 on nappies and wipes and I did spend £5 today as I am rundown and realised I have no paracetamol and comfort chocolate or ginger beer. I need those when I feel ill and to be honest I get a cold about once a year

My other half has decided he wants actimel drinks, he's had 1 every day for 6 days and thinks they are helping his digestive system. I am loathe to pay extortionate amounts however so I am thinking of looking for the good bacteria in tablet form or whether to buy a yoghurt maker. Not sure what works out cheapest!

Pips_Mum

abby Aldi sell Actimel type drinks, Ive been having them for a couple of weeks and cant really tell a difference

alja

Hello all! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend and a good start to February

Today wasn't a NSD unfortunately, but I didn't go overboard. This morning I drove to our nearest big Mr T as I had a £10 clothing voucher to use up, so I got myself a nice big-ish size bag ready to use as my hand luggage for my holiday. The bag was exactly £10, so this didn't cost me any real cash. Had to buy some petrol though! But thankfully the price of that has gone down a bit lately.

The only other things I bought in there were some blueberries and a bag of spinach. I'm going on a health kick this week, so spending a little here and there on healthy food is a lot better than other rubbish I don't need!!

A few hours later I walked into our local town and found a set of 3 workout dvds in a charity shop (£3.00 for the lot). Then a friend wanted to go into town to get her mum a present, so I walked down again with her and thankfully only came back with some seaweed peanut crackers and a box of nakd bars so at least the spending was on healthier foods and all the walking has done me some good!

All in all I spent £36.76 on petrol, £4.50 for spinach and blueberries, £3.61 on the peanut crackers & nakd bars and about £4 on petrol to get to Mr T! = £48.87

Damn petrol!! I have a few events coming up for the next two months, so I'll have to write a proper list to see what money I may need...

pm2326

Afternoon everyone

NSD for me today and tomorrow, which is very unusual on a weekend, so unusual in fact that I cant remember the last time I didn't spend money on a weekend

It appears this frugal living is starting to make me think before spending money. I realised on the way home last night that I 'needed' to buy fresh bread buns for lunch today but before I got to my bus stop I convinced myself to just defrost some Aldi bread buns from the freezer!

Now this may seem like a small thing but had this been December I would have went to the shop in the freezing cold, wet and wind and bought the buns plus a whole load more stuff that I thought I 'needed' and at least £20 would have disappeared from my purse!

So I'm sitting here feeling quite chuffed with myself!! :rotfl:

cw18

ALJA wrote: »

All in all I spent £36.76 on petrol, £4.50 for spinach and blueberries, £3.61 on the peanut crackers & nakd bars and about £4 on petrol to get to Mr T! = £48.87

Am I getting confused, or are you double counting your petrol? I know your 'to Tesco' was from a previous fill-up, but if you counted that fill-up as an expense (as you have this one) then you'd already spent that £4 back whenever.

afoolwithmoney

Feeling so positive this month after finishing January with pennies in my pocket Determined this year is going to be different. February does tend to be a bit of a downer for me & the black dog does nip at my heels. When it catches me I just want to take to my bed & avoid one & all. This year Im ready (I think) freezer full of meals to cover when I don't want to cook (saves all the take aways) Ive saved a fab waterproof coat from the tip. ( no excuse not to walk the dogs & exercise is fab for me in many ways) Locally two groups have started one knitting one sewing for a nominal charge...cheaper than a bottle of wine or visit to the pub. All this forward thinking....Do you think Im maybe taking notice of all you lovely organised people

mum2one

Strating my frugal Feb...
So far spent £9 on Ebay... brought some pom pom makers and a 3 sets of make up brushes and sponges (there from an ex BS rep) so there going in prezzie pile

£10 petrol - needed more but that do for this week

Off out 2ngt for a meal and a ghost hunt - free as should have gone last year but we got snowed out..

Positive £20 Boots vouchers (ready for sales) and my cinema card - so works out as bogof - xxxx

Goldiegirl

Abby we've recently bought a yoghurt maker, as we eat a lot of yoghurt, and we like Actimel.

We've got the Easi Yo yoghurt maker. To start with we are using the sachets to make the yoghurt. I've priced it up, and it works out a few pence cheaper per pot using the Easi Yo, compared to the yoghurt we were buying. However, we will also move on to 'growing our own', using a spoonful of live yoghurt and a litre of UHT milk, which will be a lot cheaper.

We have been buying Actimels, at £4 for 12. Easi Yo do a range of yoghurt smoothies, which we are going to have as a replacement to Actimels. This works out at 3p less per Actimel size portion.

We put in our meter readings for the bill due next week.

Compared to the same quarter last year we have used 134 less units this year for the gas, and even though prices have gone up, we will pay less. We've not had the heating on during the day, so this seems to have worked. Although, it has been mild. I don't mind putting a jumper on, but I don't want to be cold - if we get snow, I will put the heating on if required.

Electric - we have used 69 more units than this time last year. Mr GG puts it down to bread making and more cooking,:rotfl:

I will have to make further efforts in this area. I have cut down use of the tumble drier, but I will now attempt to stop using it altogether. Also, I like to wash Mr GG's work shirts on a Friday - I'll now wait until I get a full load. Hopefully I can make a reduction next quarter.

calleyw

lovefullshelves wrote: »

calleyw - I'd love to shop without OH but I'm not allowed to drive for a while (hysterectomy, apendectomy and hernia!) and not allowed to lift too much!

That does make sense. As said if you don't them to drive or carry best not take them LOL!!!!

Yours


Calley