2014 Frugal Living Challenge

calleyw

NSD day for me apart from the fuel to go to my mums,

I have started hypermiling try not to be so heavy on the old right foot LOL!!!!It is sort of working as I worked out how much I had got mpg since hypermiling.Offical 39MPG my figures 38.4MPG!!!!!According to some on the website they are getting over the offical figures.

Not feeling well have made lunches for work. 18 of them. Just need veg or salad to go with them. Saves me cooking when I get in from work and can have a snack.

Brakes need doing so there goes close to £60 tomorrow!!!!Never mind got to be done.

Yours

Calley

chirpycheap

We are really enjoying our Frugal challenge.None of the guilt over unnecessary, impulse purchases. I have started thinking of purchases in terms of my hourly wage. So that the Chinese meal I fancy is 2 hours at work and the gorgeous pair of boots is half a day! and if I buy it on credit I am going to have to work even longer to pay for it.

Have been doing lots of cooking this weekend and stocking up the freezer. Bought a huge bag of brown bananas for 49p and have made a huge batch of Flapjacks. Does anyone know if I can freeze some of them?

Sorted out some old phones and traded them in at Cex so that was a nice little bundle of money that has been cluttering up a drawer for some time.

Frugalsod

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Picked up a big bag of mushrooms on YS yesterday for 20p so they went in there too! The heart risk (as with the cancer risk etc) is mainly from processed red meat so I doubt it'll make a great deal of difference.

There is a recommended daily limit for red meat, even unprocessed meats, but I cannot remember what it is. I know that my chillis were a fraction of that so I could eat it every meal and still not get close to the limit. I think that the limit for processed meats is lower still and I suspect many pizzas could get close to the limit.

mum2one

Been a frugalish weekend.

Went out last ngt - meal and Ghost hunt - should have gone last yr but got snowed off, lovely meal at the Hotel (all in)

Wet for lunch today, my friend who I went with last ngt, took my DD and her hubby, (he was left in a local hotel last ngt). We did pig out, I had 16oz gammon that stuffed that I brought half of it home for the dogs tea....

£35 spend for food.... (budgeted £50 for weekend spends - relief to have some virtual money left) xx

nat21luv

Had an excellent day yesterday, did a car boot and made £84 after fees cleared a LOT of clutter and finally it feels like I'm getting somewhere with the house. My aim is for every cupboard/drawer in the house to be clutter free and organised!

Today brings a new week and month so I need to sit and write meal plans, finances for the week, shopping list and to do lists.

I threw out some old pillows and a duvet, they had been sat in the bottom of my wardrobe for 2 years and will never be used, the duvet was about 10 yrs old and the pillows were flat as pancakes. I still have a pillow I use for stuffing so I can't even keep them for that excuse! Throwing them out started a chain; I had enough space to put my shoes in from under the bed that then freed enough space to put a box under, that then made space for a blanket box in my room, that then made space in my drawers once blankets were removed...and so on so my bedroom is looking organised

happybird71

'It's just another manic Monday!'

Have been faithfully filling out my 'Spending' app info. Day 3. Deep breath...

Income £5 (sold a baby bath)
Expenditure £2145.41

Eek! That's all the monthly DD plus 2 loads of Diesel which will hopefully last the month and we both get paid at the end of the month. The mortgage is about half of it.

Sky was £92.39! Any suggestions please? Phone, internet & TV. My iphone was £36.99 with O2. We had a Chinese take away on Saturday that was £17. Nice not to cook but not really worth it.

Got my bread maker on so we'll see how that goes

his_missus

skintygerlinky wrote: »

PS forgot to add - my signature is from a song called 'Nothin' Going On But The Rent' by Gwen Guthrie. Definitely my theme tune and was giggling as I heard it being played in the card shop today!!

I hum that song eveytime I see your sig.:D

Plodding our way through the ham from MIL - ham n chips for Sat lunch, hame toasties for Sun lunch, I've got leftovers from roast dinners for lunch with ham, DH has ham butties for next two days, making ham, leek and stilton bake for tea and a ham quiche to go in the freezer.

Also, mum gave us 3 portions of leftover curry on Saturday, more free food:D

[Deleted User]

Frugalsod wrote: »

I get a similar ratio of meals for the amount of meat by bulking up with kidney beans, carrots, mushrooms potatoes and lentils. It is also a great way of cutting down the red meat in your diet which can increase heart risks. So is healthier as well.

I need to have a go at this. I have 500g mince in the freezer. I which I will plan to cook at the weekend. I will look to add some carrots and lentils to see if I can bulk it out. I would like to get maybe 12 portions for meals out of it - say 6 spag bol and 6 chilli. Is that too optimistic? How much lentils should I be adding?

[Deleted User]

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Evening Frugalites xx

Well my Full On Full Force Feb has begun! Got paid yesterday and was pleased to see all bar one of my DDs has gone out of my account. So I know where I'm at, money wise. So went shopping today with intention of buying enough food to last all month.

So here goes:
£25 in Aldini - biggest expense being bag of frozen tuna steaks
£3 Farm of Foods - bags of frozen veg
£3 in greengrocers, buying lots of fresh veg that was reduced to 49p as it was apparently past it's best - looked fine to me!!
£4 in card factory - bought vast majority of birthday cards for friends and family for this year, taking full advantage of the '5 for £1' offer!
Recorded everything in my cash book.

Unpacked everything and sat down to make lists of options for all brekkies, dinners, teas, snacks and even sweet treats for Feb. On reflection I think I've got more than enough so am already thinking 'let's see how far we can get into March without shopping!'

This will mean plenty of batch cooking too but that's no prob, I enjoy cooking.
Texted my gang of mates tonight to say that nights out just won't be an option this month. Meet-ups in each others' houses will be lovely but can't manage pubs, gigs, meals out, cinema etc!

But so what? It's not going to kill me. So I'm making Feb my month of well being! Calm, peaceful, early nights, concentrate on uni work, go swimming (which I love), reading, catching up with friends in ways that don't rely on spending dosh!!

Hope this approach works....let's see haha!!

I love this post, it is really inspiring. Thanks for posting Skinty. I have been pretty lax recently with recording spends in my cash book - I need to get back to it right now!

I really must try and get into town and visit the card factory. I would like to bulk buy my birthday cards for the rest of the year so I am not running at the last minute.

The on-going saga of me not sleeping has finally beat me. I have signed myself off work this week with stress and I am seriously thinking I should just resign - we could probably afford to live off OHs wage as long as I put all my frugal skills into place. I need to have a long think about this. I have an appt with the doctor tomorrow so will have a chat with him and then see how I feel at the end of the week. OH is happy to support me whatever decision I make. One thing is for sure - I cannot cope as a full time teacher. I did ask for part time but have to wait until April/May for an answer which will probably be no. I am crying alot so I am going to distract myself by being on the forum more than I usually have time for and getting lots of inspiration and positive vibes and maybe taking some time to do some cooking and baking.

Goldiegirl

Afternoon!

I felt a bit lost yesterday - I normally do my grocery order online on Sunday mornings, but I've switched to doing my order every 2 -3 weeks, so there'll be no delivery this evening. But my little freezer is still full, so I'd have no room to put anything anyway!

The bread maker and yoghurt maker is doing brilliantly. It's so nice not to feel,as reliant on the supermarkets for these things.

For February, my next project was going to be soup making, but I've decided on something else instead.

I realised yesterday what I needed to do next.

On a Sunday, for our desert, we have a little treat. Typically a small individual desert each, something like a small steamed pudding or a little apple crumble.

But, obviously, I can do this myself. I do make apple crumbles myself, but always in a big dish. So I'm going to buy some nice second hand ramekins (such as Denby) and make individual puddings. I've seen a nice little recipe on MSE for individual baked puddings, such as treacle or jam. I'll also make up some crumble topping and keep it in the freezer. I'll have to look out for little containers ( take away containers probably) so I can freeze the right amount of apple or rhubarb etc. I'm really keen to only do small dishes as it's good for portion control. I love a project!:rotfl:

Plus, I'm committed to reducing the electric bill. I was a bit disappointed that our electric consumption had gone up this quarter compared to this time last year. So, it's now no use of the tumble drier EVER, and only use the washing machine when there's a full load.