2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Coulddobetter

A NSD today and should be one tomorrow. :j

Had homemade chicken curry last night which was yummy with enough left for another day. Had the remaining meat balls with gravy and veg tonight which was lovely. I have been eating my supplies and it shocking how much I seem to have. I watched the food networks programme about food hoarding last night wow those people have a real problem. One woman had something in her freezer for the 1990's :eek: I am not that bad.

Paid an additional 102.97 off our mortgage today:T

I would have stopped by now if it wasn't for this threads encouragement, thank you.

CDB x

sparrer

a nsd/npd today, and dinner from the freezer was ribeye steak with all the usual trimmings. DS bought the steak for me at Christmas, it was big enough to cut into 3 so two more treats to go

mum2one

a no spend day.... thou owe my DD £10 as she had her mole cut off her neck... told her give it her when she has stitches out....

Got 2 birthdays this week - presents and cards brought in sales. xx

TM6

You know you're a shopaholic when......

you spend an extra £50 to get 5 more points on your reward card!




Good morning Frugalites,

Yesterday was a very humbling day.

Our daughters had a stall at a local 'alternative market' held at our local Community Centre. They were selling books with their Dad and the profit was split 3 ways.

After the £5 table fee was taken, they made £12 and my 18 year old DD2 was really happy with that.

At first, my thought was, was it REALLY worth it and then I got to thinking
* We ran the stall as a family and had a great family time together
* We have made more room on our book shelves
* I caught up with old acquaintances that I haven't seen for ages
* I bought a hand carved/turned wooden bowl and the seller was ecstatic. It was the first item that he had ever sold and he had our picture taken together for prosperity :rotfl:
* My DH's £4 were in £2 coins so that went straight into our £2 savings pot

and finally being a true Frugalite, I started to wonder just how many meals you can make out of £4?

So, are you up for a Sunday challenge? What are the most number of meals that you can make out of £4 and what are they?

Antwerpen

Good morning Sunday

Yesterday we went out with my granddad. Hit the charity shops, my daughter had birthday money left over. I didn't spend a penny . She bought a pac man board game, power rangers pinball game, some books, oh a disney board game too. She also got a build a bear bunny for £2.50!Very happy lil girl!It was very windy yesterday, she got blown over at one point , going round a corner.

NSP today. I think we'll stay in today, or see if it brightens up a lil bit, might pop to the local park. I don't mind wind or rain but not together, the wind is very strong.

We're having chicken casserole for dinner. I have lots of tidying up to do later.

I hope everyone has a good day!!

pm2326

pm2326 wrote: »

I'm loving this challenge, it's really making me consider every single penny I spend. I'm curious to know how much I can reduce the food bill this year so although I don't have any receipts for last year I'm going to trawl through the bank statements this weekend and add up the shopping bought by debit card and credit card. This wont provide the true cost as I cant count cash transactions but at least I'll have something to compare this year to.

I suspect I'm going to get a big shock when I add up last years food bill! :rotfl:

Well I added up the debit & credit card transactions for food shopping and the grand total for 2013 was........................£1,438.57! Or an average of £28 a week!

This makes me _pale_ as it doesn't include any cash transactions and that was for me and 2 cats! No wonder I'm 5 stone overweight!

Compared to last year I'm currently spending at the same level due to the bulk shop I bought at the beginning of Jan, however, this means I will soon start to come in under 2013 figures as I'm only going shopping every 2 weeks and it's been under £25 each time.

Have done a load of washing and its on the line but it keeps coming over very black and next minute it's sunny...think I'm going to be on edge of my seat all day waiting for the rain until the washing dries :rotfl: Dont want to bring it indoors yet as I've turned heating off as I'm too warm, so washing wont dry properly.

Have a pork goulash in the slow cooker for tea, going to make some dumplings to go with it ..... cant wait!

OverRated

NSD planned - going to pop over the in-laws for a cup of tea with the OH. They only live down the road but just a little too far to walk - shame!

Have some left over ham (cooked in the slow cooker) that is on its last legs so OH is planning to make a cheese pasta bake with it. Plus have dough left over from yesterday to make a garlic bread - yummy!

Whilst I usually work from home I will be in the office Tuesday to Friday. A 30 mile round trip each time so not too far plus free parking at the office thankfully.

mrsinvisible

This week has been high spend for me, Food £18.19, Petrol £43.45, Picture £25, Dress for Wedding £13 (paid with credit note, so no cash spend). The picture was for my living room and was paid for from Christmas voucher, and £5 cash, and will last years. Yesterday I emptied the Christmas present cupboard and worked out that I have 17 Christmas, and 11 birthdays sorted out for this year, and 'gave' myself two lovely Clair Stoner mugs from there as a reward. lol.
Today I have a piece of belly pork to make Sunday dinner around, and some apples to use up in a pudding. NSD no 1 I hope for this week.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I'm still here reading.....


I must admit... I have lost the plot a bit the last 2 weeks...work and personal life has been totally manic, which has not helped..


In all honesty I have enough meat in my freezers to last the whole year ( mainly down to us taking 3 of our pigs to the abotoir a few weeks ago).


Soooo today I am going to sort out the kitchen, and do some batch cooking ( now I have a little bit of space in the house fridge/freezer) it will be the usual, spag bol and pasta twists, was thinking of also making sauasage and mash with onion gravy and freeze in the Chinese takeaway cartons, for dinners for work...


All I will need today is milk, onions, eggs,

Living_proof

I spent most of yesterday shopping which is a foil for my weekday activities - I work from home and seldom pass the front door. I am lucky in that most of my needs are in a small two mile area so I can nip into Sainsburys just for a tub or flora, or Asda just for toothpaste, etc. Food shopping at around £20 included enough long life milk for the month and several tins of fish which are useful for storage as their use-by dates are 2018.
The extravagance was a planned one - a ticket for the Royal Philharmonic concert coming up at £25. It's one of the few cultural events in the area and I probably spend around £150 a year on this kind of entertainment.
I also had to buy a couple of cookery books at two for £1 and a couple of bars of 49p chocolate from Aldi, £5 of garden stuff from Poundland which should hopefully pay their way over time, but all other purchases were basic and fairly parsimonious. I have a couple of household jobs on the horizon later this month which will deplete my bank balance somewhat, but they need doing and will save in the long run.