2014 Frugal Living Challenge

his_missus

nat21 - that was a lovely thing to do even though the woman turned out to be an ungrateful moo. I'm a firm believer in karma and your kindness will be paid back to you somehow x

kb_soma

his_missus wrote: »

nat21 - that was a lovely thing to do even though the woman turned out to be an ungrateful moo. I'm a firm believer in karma and your kindness will be paid back to you somehow x

Owning my agree here, Nat, that was very kind of you, she was probably just in a fluster. your kindness will be remembered.x

tatabubbly

Hey all, NSD here in our house and another NSD tomorrow and sunday if I can stick it!

So me and my OH are abroad and we are returning home for the week on sunday night! Yay! Free flights from OH work so it should be a nice surprise for our parents.

A return ticket on the bus is €66 for the two of us, so we decided to hire a car for a week €75 plus €28 airport charge. works out that we would of had to pay for a taxi to take us from the bus station to our homes anyway so it's working out roughly the same! :O Its scandalous!

Planning for that to be our only major frivious spend at home. I plan to try and buy one or two bags of groceries in Aldio to say thanks to our mums for letting us crash on the floor. But I plan to keep a very very keen eye on our spending and any extra can go into the savings pot..

[Deleted User]

Got some cooking done today - I did a couple of things while the oven was on - Baked potato for my lunch (with cottage cheese) and HM quiche which will do our dinner for the next couple of days. I also made some sweet pastries with jam to use up the left over pastry. OH and I are currently enjoying a sweet pastry each with a cup of tea.

OH is off this weekend which is really unusual as he works shifts so I want to make the most of the weekend together. That said we want it to be frugal. I was thinking we could put a picnic together and then use our Historic Scotland pass to visit Stirling Castle or similar. It really depends on the weather mostly.

SarahB1989_2

Inflicting the frugal ways on my flatmates today - washing up liquid has gone from Fairy to Tesco Value!

I'm liking the concept of LSD's, if I spend on a planned NSD I feel really bad, but this week one of those days was literally just a 40p library fine so not going to do any damage to the bank account! Another failed NSD today as went to post an eBay item and had to buy an envelope for it, and 'just an envelope' became 'eye cream, oats and cookies'. First two were on next week's shopping list so not an increased spend overall but could have waited.

DawnW

nat21luv wrote: »

I bought some petrol in the garage and there was a woman in front of me holding up a huge queue. She was quite distressed and speaking in hushed tones but I gathered, from what the SA was saying, that she had forgotten her purse and had no money. The SA was refusing to help, said there was nothing he could do. She started to flap and moved to the side to let SA serve me. I paid for her fuel As I walked out the SA told the woman what I had done and I heard her say 'good, so I can go now?' My heart sank as I realised that I had helped a moron and quickly scuttled to my car. She drove off pretty fast and didn't even acknowledge me. I didn't expect a thank you as I had no intention of telling her what I did, but if the shoe was on the other foot and I had found out, I would of at least waved or something.

Oh well. lesson learned and £20 down

That was really kind of you Nat :A

Be aware though, there are some dodgy people who hang around service stations.... we were in a motorway services a few months back, and I had popped to get coffees leaving OH and the dog by the car. As I was coming back, I noticed a middle aged, well dressed woman speaking to OH, but she scuttled off to her car and drove off fast as I approached. I thought it really odd behaviour.

It turned out that she had spun him a sob story about having been to visit her dying father and left her bag with all her money etc and her phone in the hospital. She was running out of fuel, and could not get home. She asked OH for £20 for petrol. Being a bit of a softie, OH gave her the £20 (not sure why it had to be that exact amount). She insisted she would pay the money back but did not want his contact details, or offer hers, so I am not sure how she would have done that. After all this, she didn't go to the petrol station at all, just drove off back on to the main road with the money :mad:

She obviously made a point / living of hanging around this service station looking for sympathetic looking people. I never mind helping someone out, but this was dodgy. For a start, had it been me in her position, I, as a woman on my own, would have been wary of approaching a lone man for help, but given the choice would choose a woman or a couple, and there were plenty of those about, as it was crowded and in the middle of a pleasant afternoon. She also wouldn't allow him to go the cashier and simply pay for fuel for her, or accept his offer to make a call to the RAC or family on his mobile phone, just insisted on having the £20.

The woman you helped might just have been a rude and ungrateful numpty, but it is equally possible that she makes a habit of this kind of thing :mad:

cw18

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Inflicting the frugal ways on my flatmates today - washing up liquid has gone from Fairy to Tesco Value!

That's one move I made years ago - and moved back from. Had to use soooo much more of it it really wasn't worth the few pennies it saved.

Could manage with the s/m own label (non value), but tend to stock up on F@iry when it's on offer and stay with that

[Deleted User]

DawnW that is a really sad as well as worrying tale. It is such a shame that some people feel the need to do stuff like this. And yet everyday there are probably hundred's more good hearted people doing good deeds. Its the small things that make all the difference.

Last week I was in our local corner shop and I had around 4 or 5 items to pay for. Behind me in the queue were two kids - probably around 9 years old - who only had a pack of meat to pay for so I let them jump in front of me in the queue. They were so polite and made a point of saying thank you several times before they left the shop and the again as we walked up towards our houses on the way home.

SarahB1989_2

Just realised it's a friend's birthday very soon and I need to get her a gift. Didn't budget for this very well and need to spend on postage too as we live many miles apart. Any suggestions for small gifts that look more expensive than they are?

cw18 wrote: »

That's one move I made years ago - and moved back from. Had to use soooo much more of it it really wasn't worth the few pennies it saved.

Could manage with the s/m own label (non value), but tend to stock up on F@iry when it's on offer and stay with that

We're only in this flat another few weeks so didn't want to waste pennies on not finishing the bottle and thought it was worth trying - will take your suggestion of Fairy on offer next time as think I've seen it in £land.

LisaJane

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Inflicting the frugal ways on my flatmates today - washing up liquid has gone from Fairy to Tesco Value!

I'm liking the concept of LSD's, if I spend on a planned NSD I feel really bad, but this week one of those days was literally just a 40p library fine so not going to do any damage to the bank account! Another failed NSD today as went to post an eBay item and had to buy an envelope for it, and 'just an envelope' became 'eye cream, oats and cookies'. First two were on next week's shopping list so not an increased spend overall but could have waited.

F*iry all the way! I have tried this in the past and you will honestly spend more in the long run with a cheaper alternative. Stock up on big bottles when they are on offer. OH and i literally only go through one big one about every 6 months and we wash up all day every day!