2014 Frugal Living Challenge

SarahB1989_2

Had a frugal brainwave today about hotels for next months conference, and cancelled one night to book into a youth hostel in a different city - will now get to take my sister for birthday drinks, get to sleep in later before my return flight, and saved £20 in the process!

skintygerlinky

Evening Frugalites xx

NSD yipp-bloody-pee!! Hopefully tomorrow will be too.

mrscheshire - I visited the museum of Liverpool and the maritime museum, both of which are on the Albert Dock. The Titanic exhibition had me in bits - they have items salvaged from the sunken wreckage, including 4 tie pins. It was those that really got to me - thinking of those who wore them getting dressed up, looking smart
Also heard Meshell Ndegeocello in an exhibition at the slavery museum and thought she sounded amazing! Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVvqtMFsuPc&list=RDfojla_ZnPwE

Made a lovely 'throw it in the pan, see what happens' store cupboard curry tonight with spring onions, garlic, lazy chilli in a jar and frozen ginger and coriander. Added carrots, cauliflower, chickpeas, cooked leftover quinoa from last night, tofu that's been staring at me accusingly in the cupboard, curry paste and coconut milk.

Gorgeous!! Anyone any ideas what to do with half a block of leftover tofu??

onewhoasks

Hi...Great to see a thread like this.. great for ideas on saving money.

Delia's "Frugal Food" recipe book is excellent for those wanting to produce quality meals on a budget - I keep turning to it time and time again and can highly recommend! I have even used a couple of the recipes for entertaining.

Our family national trust card (cost us £75 with their online deal) is good value we think for a whole year of potential days out. In our first month as members our 3 visits to NT places would have cost us more than that alone and we had great days out.

Frugalsod

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Had a frugal brainwave today about hotels for next months conference, and cancelled one night to book into a youth hostel in a different city - will now get to take my sister for birthday drinks, get to sleep in later before my return flight, and saved £20 in the process!

Have you considered something like AirBnb?

Goldiegirl

onewhoasks wrote: »

Hi...Great to see a thread like this.. great for ideas on saving money.

Delia's "Frugal Food" recipe book is excellent for those wanting to produce quality meals on a budget - I keep turning to it time and time again and can highly recommend! I have even used a couple of the recipes for entertaining.

Our family national trust card (cost us £75 with their online deal) is good value we think for a whole year of potential days out. In our first month as members our 3 visits to NT places would have cost us more than that alone and we had great days out.

I'm a member of the National Trust jointly with my husband. As he's over 60 he gets a reduction on the price of his membership. If I'm honest, we haven't used our membership that much over the last couple of years, but that will change when we stop work.

Just wanted to say well done to Shortie, in making a decision to go ahead with the home improvements. Life is to be enjoyed, so if it makes you more comfortable to get everything done sooner rather than later, then I say, go for it. This challenge will help you find the money to pay everything more quickly

Nothing much to report here. I made a Victoria sandwich cake, this time with 3 eggs and 6oz of ingredients, and it was just like the ones I used to make years ago, so I've found the right recipe again. For dinner we had the other half of a chicken and chorizo stew I made a couple of weeks ago.

Mrs_Cheshire

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Evening Frugalites xx

NSD yipp-bloody-pee!! Hopefully tomorrow will be too.

mrscheshire - I visited the museum of Liverpool and the maritime museum, both of which are on the Albert Dock. The Titanic exhibition had me in bits - they have items salvaged from the sunken wreckage, including 4 tie pins. It was those that really got to me - thinking of those who wore them getting dressed up, looking smart
Also heard Meshell Ndegeocello in an exhibition at the slavery museum and thought she sounded amazing! Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVvqtMFsuPc&list=RDfojla_ZnPwE

Made a lovely 'throw it in the pan, see what happens' store cupboard curry tonight with spring onions, garlic, lazy chilli in a jar and frozen ginger and coriander. Added carrots, cauliflower, chickpeas, cooked leftover quinoa from last night, tofu that's been staring at me accusingly in the cupboard, curry paste and coconut milk.

Gorgeous!! Anyone any ideas what to do with half a block of leftover tofu??

we live in Manchester so Liverpool is a nice distance for a day trip.


Marinate the tofu in pesto and serve with pasta!

Shortie

Again, thanks for the support everyone xxx


CoolTrikerChick - sorry to hear it's been an expensive weekly, but thank goodness the MOT wasn't so bad!

I'm starting my one-day-a-week-odd-shift tomorrow, where I will work from 6pm to 2am from home (and then be back up and out of the house for 7am on Thursday for work again :rotfl:) but I'm looking forward to it as I can do the school run once a week and have a day in daylight to get stuff done (be that shopping or work in the garden etc) Tomorrow's plan is to go to a local school open day after the school drop off (we're thinking of changing schools for our youngest) and I'm *thinking* of going to a big nearby town to check out party bag el cheapo bits for my eldest's birthday in March, without boring the kids to tears (and in turn us all arguing our way round the shops :rotfl:) Either that or I turn to the bog-marsh that was previously called the garden, but that's a very unappealing alternative

Hugs to all that need them xxx

Buffythedebtslayer

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Anyone any ideas what to do with half a block of leftover tofu??

A door stop?

Busymumofthreeplusdog

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Nothing much to report here. I made a Victoria sandwich cake, this time with 3 eggs and 6oz of ingredients, and it was just like the ones I used to make years ago, so I've found the right recipe again. For dinner we had the other half of a chicken and chorizo stew I made a couple of weeks ago.

My favourite Victoria sandwich recipe involves weighing the eggs and using the same amount of butter, flour & sugar. So easy! DS1 had 3 friends over at the weekend so I made a giant Victoria sponge with jam& cream, it got demolished in no time!:)

Shortie

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

A door stop?

Lol :rotfl::rotfl:

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG :D I feel like I've just won the lottery!

Many, many years ago I fell in love with a Swarovski pendant that a colleague in work had but it was discontinued. Anyway, about 6 years ago I found a second hand one on eBay and loved it - but lost it about a month later (I think it got caught up in a load of recycling and didn't realise until the recycling had been collected ). I found another but it was the larger sized version and didn't like it (they made 2 sizes and I liked the small pendant) so I gave that to my Mum.

Anyway, I've intermittently stalked eBay for another one for the last 6 years - and guess what I just found (new and still in the cellophane seal!) and bought?? One super happy Shortie

Mind you, it goes to show how my attitude has changed... before I wouldn't have thought twice about spending the money on something I wanted half as much. And yet, I just sat there arguing with myself whether to buy it (and then dragged Mr Shortie into the conflict, lol)