2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Nargleblast

It has been a bit cold to dry washing outside, but I have still been hanging it out anyway, and some bits were dry enough to iron whilst others needed half an hour or so in the dryer to finish off. It still meant the dryer was on for about a quarter of the normal time, and I was able to get 3 loads done instead of one, so it's worth putting it outside.
Roll on warmer weather so I can get planting stuff!

pm2326

pm2326 wrote: »

Evening all

It's the start of a new month for me tomorrow as it's payday :T

I'm truly stunned that with careful planning and frugalness I managed to finish the month having paid an additional £315 off my debts. I appreciate this would be even better if I didn't have any debts and this was savings but I cant honestly remember the last time I had money left at the end of the month

So tomorrow is a new month. I've decided I'm going to set 4 mini challenges for myself each month just to keep me motivated. So between now and 24th March I'm going to:

1. Clear my overdraft, currently -£334

2. Go grocery shopping twice and no more :eek:. My freezer is full with batch cooked meals, milk, bread, meat, veg etc and store cupboard still looking healthy.

3. Try two new low cost foods. I get bored eating the same thing all the time and I'm very limited in what veg/pulses I will eat, so this month it's chickpeas as never tried them in any form before and smoked mackeral..love fish but not normally a fan of smoked.

4. Treat myself to 2 days/nights out for as little money as possible.



Should be fun!

Quick update

1. I 'technically' paid the overdraft off last night :T, by this I mean I've transferred the funds over so the balance of the account is £0.00 however I haven't pressed the 'cancel overdraft' button yet.....I'm going to wait until the day before payday before doing that to be on the safe side!

2. It's 8 days since I got paid and still haven't been food shopping :T freezer and cupboards are still well stocked but the fridge is looking a bit empty so probably have to go shopping this weekend to stock up on fresh food. Hopefully that should last another 2 weeks.

3. Haven't tried the new foods yet but mackeral needs using by Sunday so will have to eat it soon.

4. Haven't been out yet for the day or evening working 6 days a week and in bed by 9.30 each night.....

SarahB1989_2

Frugal B&B trip is going well! Used the kettle to make mug-pasta and heated a value pasty on the microwave. Looking forward to proper cooked breakfast in the morning though.

DawnW

No NSD for me today - £4.24 spent on allergy tablets and some fresh ginger for something I want to make tomorrow.

Packed lunch to work, as usual, and some smoked salmon from the freezer (brought back from my last trip to Scotland, so really nice) with some nice bread, butter and lemon slices, followed by a HM apple pie and cream tonight. As a bonus, there is enough salmon left for my sandwich tomorrow

Lovely day today, fantastic sunset spotted from the train window, and (as the flippin bus didn't turn up AGAIN) I walked back from the station and encountered a big toad on the footpath, who obviously thought that spring had sprung I moved him to the verge, as it was getting dark and I was worried someone might not see him, and accidently step on him.

Hope the weather stays nice - looking forward to getting out in the garden at the weekend Shallots, garlic and broad beans to go in. I shall wait on the rest, as the soil is still too wet and cold.

Shortie

Evening all. Working my late shift tonight and am flagging - but then I realise that I sit at my machine solely focussing on it for hours on end. In the office we chat sometimes, I get up to go to the loo / make tea. I have a lunchbreak. Here of an evening Mr Shortie kindly makes me cuppas until he flakes on the sofa and I hardly get up from the laptop at all. No wonder I have dry eyes and irritable feet

Mr Shortie has been sparko on the sofa for a while now and I've just brewed myself a fresh (decaff) cuppa. I think it's time for a quick break...


I didn't do a recap of Feb as my head thinks in terms of pay months, but here goes...

Gosh, I find it hard to remember my months by calendar month - is that really bad? Does anyone mind if I switch to pay month reviews?


So far this pay month (since 20th Feb)

I scrapped through Feb by the skin of my teeth with not much left before I would have hit my overdraft. But I managed it which means no O/D fee and I didn't start the month with less than my full pay packet available

I spent even more on kids pressies in a sale in Mr T, but it was fab to get such bargains and the main bulk of both boy's birthdays, and one of them for Christmas is now sorted - Lego.... never goes out of fashion in this house so it's a pretty safe bet!

I put down a deposit for a kitchen, which has hopefully given Mr Shortie and I more impotus to save

I've bought DS1's party food already out of this month's general food budget. His party is end of March. It got it out of the way and I don't have to faff/stress about it nearer the time


For (the rest of) March

Pay day being on 20th...

- I have put aside a chunk of SA tax money in prep for April's tax return. I want to get it paid for and out of the way as soon as I can. I still have a few month's of saving still to go until I have all the money I need, then I can save in earnest for building work etc

- After things last week that I was destined to go into my buffer the the end of the month, my budgetting spread sheet seems to have settled down today to show that I have a not bad amount left in there (spare) at the moment

- I have a medical bill due which is sizable. Not sure if it's going to hit this pay month or next - I have most of that aside already but it may eat up the rest of the money in my account if it comes out this month it will wipe the above mentioned spare money

- If I don't need to use up the spare money on medical bills, I'll do my hardest to save as much of it as possible and shove it into my tax return fund - the quicker that is filled, the quicker I can settle and the quicker I can turn my attention to saving for other things

- We'll hopefully get the boiler sorted this month - the plumber has ordered the parts so now just a case of how quickly it turns up vs how soon he is available

- We're trying to spend no more than £43 on food shopping for the rest of the (pay) month as this is all that's left in the budget. It's not as bad as it sounds though as we have lots of food in the freezer and a decent store cupboard supply. So it will just be fruit and veg, bread and dairy(And we have a fair few bottles of milk in the freezer at the mo ready and waiting)

- Have a flap about the building quote when it comes through. I don't want to flap about it, I'm just realistic enought to know I will, so I may as well write it down so that it's more 'controlled' :rotfl::rotfl:


Plans so far for next pay month

- Try darned hard to reduce the food budget to £150, just for the one month. Using stuff up and shopping carefully

- Try out a meat pack from a local butchers we've recently found. This will depend on how much meat we have left in the freezer as next pay month goes along, but they have what sound to me like massive family meat packs for under £45 (I say that meaning that I've never been good at visualising a weight of food, whoops)

- Buy last bits in for DS1's party

- Try and pay more than already budgetted for towards the tax return fund

tatabubbly

Frugalling along... Didn't have any pancakes this week as I am watching my figure (lol) but OH has asked for them at the weekend.

Annoyed one or two of my tutoring classes was cancelled. Perfectly okay but just means I have less to play about with.. Feeling happy that it's been a week since payday and I haven't touched our savings yet! lol!
My CC has been paid and doesn't need using again so I might steal the idea of a CC free lent. Totally doable as I can't forsee any major spends anytime soon!

Also for lent, I do SW so I've been doing it alone without classes and hoping to keep that up for the whole of lent!

icontinuetodream

abby1234519 wrote: »

I ask this because I am ignorant....is it right to plant seeds now? What if it snows.

I don't know when to plant mine!

I have only done indoor sowings....everything is safely in my frost-free greenhouse When to plant depends on a variety of things...where you live, what you are sowing, where it's positioned etc but the generic guidelines on the back of seed packets are a good start.... if you have obtained 'free' seeds from others the best thing to do is to ask their advice....

I tend to put things in when I think its the right time...not always successfully, but despite the occasional disaster, you do get a feel for it eventually and with our very unpredictable weather now, its working out well for me!!

lhead123

Just made 2 lasagnas with one pack of mince It would normally only make one, but I took the tips from you lovely people and added lentils and grated carrot as well as using an extra carton of passatta and have 2 very yummy lasagnas bubbling away in the oven. Can't wait to eat some for dinner :j x

Just_be_2

Today I spent £2 on toddler group, £2 on a sausage baguette for breakfast which LO and I share on a Thursday as its usually a rush to get breakfast at home before toddler group (LO wouldn't miss this if we stopped- it's purely convenience- so I am to stop this expense next week). And then I did something silly and spent £31.98 on something utterly extravagant and unnecessary! I'm going to return it first thing tomorrow morning! So today's spend is (will be) £4. Because I envelope my weekly cash for fresh shopping and toddler groups I usually keep my debit card at home. This means its not so easy for me to use as its not in my purse.

Just_be_2

The debit card didn't get left home today- hence the blip! That's a lesson for me!