2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Shortie

Evening all.. a mixed day today in terms of frugality and diet. I'm doing my 'late' shift tonight so had the day free to get stuff done.

DS2 had a blood test, we then went to a soft play (free as I bought annual membership last year). We popped to the nearby market and cheap shops and got £24 of fruit, veg and dried chickpeas. Sounds like a lot of money I know but we walked away with tonnes of food. Then spent anout £11 in Home Bargains on dried things like egg noodles, some mug shots for my work drawer, sweetner, honey... I get paid tomorrow but it was all paid on card so will come out after payday anyway.

Spent £15 on pure toot in a pound shop for the boys, plus also got the last of the party bag bits in there. That was the shop I wasn't so happy with to be honest - they boys were happy with 2 treats each from there, and I got them a travel pillow each for when we do long journeys, but how did I spend £15 in a pound shop?? Oh my...

Kicked off the mortgage advance today so I should hopefully have that money by the end of next week - it's not much but will definately help us to sort some things out in the house.

Had the 2nd qoute for the building work. All I can say is :eek::eek: I'm now starting to doubt what I remember the first quote being as it was so totally different (and utterly unaffordable). Am waiting to hear back from the first builder to remind me the qoute he gave us (we know both builders and trust both of their work so that's not a factor in the cheaper price for us. It is making me wonder if I'll be able to affors to get the house sorted though. That'll be a HUGE knock back to us if we can't

afoolwithmoney

Three year old twin niece & nephew would like the Peppa Pig jumper (although he would want a George) pattern in this weeks WW. Just cant believe it works out at around £40 each!!!

Shortie

£40 for the wool each? Wowsers....

mum2one

afoolwithmoney wrote: »

Three year old twin niece & nephew would like the Peppa Pig jumper (although he would want a George) pattern in this weeks WW. Just cant believe it works out at around £40 each!!!

I hven't seen the pattern that is in WW - just a photo as I do knit and a lady asked could I do one for her - I would throw the wool in a paddy...

But I def wouldn't pay £40 for the wool they recommend.... if it is DK, then shop around, theres plenty of places that you can get DK for aroud £1.50 for 100grams

Frugal day of cooking treats
Austrian Crunchie (gorgeous)
Cherry Scones
sultana Scones
White Choc Chip mini muffins......

Dont think there make it to the freezer thou ! xxx

afoolwithmoney

Ok they have done it in 100% wool but even so 6 balls of main colour 6 balls of various other colours plus oddments. Its going to work out expensive whatever you use

afoolwithmoney

Im trawling the internet etc as we speak..fear that it could take longer to source wool & knit. Than their interest in dear old Peppa & George

mum2one

Thinking quickly -
Wilkinsons
£1world
B+M
The Range

Online-
Amazon
Ebay (thou p+p can be a pain unless you can sourse from 1 seller) xx

skintygerlinky

Evening Frugalites xx

It's the last week of the month aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh :eek: !!!!!

Quite a spendy day today. Hmmmm. Went to the cinema with friend (Cuban Fury - pretty damn funny! Great soundtrack too) so spent just under £5 on bus getting there, then met friend for a quick coffee beforehand - a coffee and a Diet Coke in local Francis and Benjamin's came to nearly £6!!!!!!!

We went to 2-4-1 on tickets special offer Wednesday and I bought a drink (took my own sweets ) -another £6 odd should have been spent - but my friend paid for it, saying "you get the next one". Love my lovely friend.

Finally stopped off at Arseda and spent £7 on yellow sticker veggies and two portions of fish, which had two fillets in each. So should see me through next week!

Lovely day though. Bit down with being so skinty today - but felt OK feeling bit vulnerable in safe company of lovely friend. Didn't have to explain myself.

I'll just get the next one, that's all

Here's to friendship :beer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBDF04fQKtQ

happybird71

Pizza was yummyyyyy Had to laugh though. I picked DS1 up from playgroup and he'd made pizza. Very impressive for a 2 year old. So he had a slice of pizza for lunch and a mini pizza for dinner! Put two dough balls in the freezer for another time. Thanks for the advice.

cw18

Just been taking a look at my budget spreadsheet, and realised I hadn't shared my figures on here like I have in previous years

So here it is as it was for the start of the year, showing how I've allocated my spending



Many of the categories are self-explanatory :

Council Tax
Water (metered)
Gas/Electricity (dual fuel tariff)
C/H breakdown cover (estimated as price increases every year)
Blgd/Contents Insurance (due in December, estimated as price increases every year)
Phone & B/Band (allowed for minimal calls, as I rarely pay for any)
Gym
Mobile Phone (based on current contract price)
Window Cleaner (allows for small annual increase)
Presents (may struggle to stick to this)
Car Insurance (due by 1st Aug, estimated as price increases every year)
Breakdown Cover (estimate based on last year, due in January)
Road Tax (based on on-line look-up, due in January)
MOT (due by end July, estimate)
Car Service (done at same time as MOT, estimate)
Petrol (based on 9,000/year, 9 miles per litre, and £1.27/litre)
From DJ (keep from son - adjusted through year as necessary, but was reworked in Dec)
Wu@ki (streaming service - I don't have a TV licence, so use this plus son's Netf1ix or watch DVDs)
Contact Lenses (on a pay monthly contract with B00ts as I find it hard to exercise in glasses)
Groceries (based on £5/day for me, £3/meal for DS who I feed 7 days a fortnight, and £4/day for OH who's here 5 days every 3 weeks)
Toiletries/Cleaning (rough estimate based on what I have recorded from last few years)
Anything else (real guess here. covers clothes, shoes, books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, household items - and absolutely everything else not covered anywhere else)

The one that's unlikely to be on anyone else's list is the 'Camino' entry. This is to cover any kit I buy for a walk (between 525 and 800 miles) across Northern Spain (definitely includes a backpack and a passport), travel out and home, and also the costs incurred while out there (food and accommodation for 5-8 weeks depending on how far I walk).