2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Kerry_Woman

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

xnatalie81x

Merry xmas to all Will post my budget a bit closer to the new year. Outgoings all finalised just waiting on a change from tax credits (youngest child now gets free childcare as he was 3 in november) to finalise my excess after outgoings

Will clear my debt in 2014 - about 12k left but i cannot rememberr what my starting amount was now about 5 years ago. Could prob go through on here somehow and find it.......

MERRY XMAS to all. Me and the kids are at the parents today. Came Monday and home Friday so a lovely frugal day. Mine and two of my 4 kiddies have a lentil and vegetable bake in the fridge ready to be reheated and served with the veggies rest of family having

Enjoy your day xx

WantToBeSE

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I am sitting down with a glass of wine later and going through my budget for 2014. I know, that sounds like a sad thing to do on Christmas Day, but i enjoy it

I'll do it month by month. My 1st aim is to save £600 in January..eeek! I also have my sons birthday in January, so it'll be a tight month!

[Deleted User]

I enjoy doing things like going through my budgets too WanttoBeSE. It can keep me happily occupied for hours.

I was talking to OH last night about how we are doing financially. He leaves it all to me and thinks I am great at it. I know I have made lots of mistakes over the years but last night it was nice to look back and consider our successes:

• We paid off all out debts. Never again will I have a credit card. I have learned my lesson that they are just too tempting to me.

• We paid off our mortgage before we were both 40:j. We have been mortgage free for around 18 months now.

• We are well on the way to establishing a healthy emergency fund. I have never had am emergency pot of money ever. That used to be the credit cards:eek:.
• I have started a separate savings account setting money aside for 'new' cars. Both our cars died in 2013 and we had to but new (to us) ones. This used up all our initial emergency fund. Now I have a separate fund for the cars and am adding to it slowly so we can also keep our emergency fund intact.

• Probably the biggest thing is the change in mind-set. I am much more a saver now and enjoy setting myself mini challenges. It feels good to be building a stable financial future for myself and OH. Like many others I just wish I had seen the light a wee bit earlier but I am glad nonetheless.

That said, there are still several areas where I know I can improve:

I can get fed up making lunches everyday for work and struggle to think what to have sometimes so end up going to the shop for a ready made sandwich.

I always go overboard when on holiday!

I can lose focus and track of my food budget if I am not careful. Coming on here and doing the Grocery Challenge really help.

I still have too many takeaways at weekends.

Overall though I am happy with my progress and want to aim to reduce my outgoings again this year.

[Deleted User]

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

allie23 I hate that as some people automatically assume other people can afford it, or want to do those things... Just say that you will only be doing one thing, and which one she would prefer you to go to...or say you would rather do something more personal, and make a meal with VERY close family, you can say you want her all to yourself for one day...etc..

Thanks for the advice. Yes, going to just one thing or having a smaller family doo would be good. I will see nearer to the time what she is planning and decide from there.

nannygladys

Hi everyone just popping in to wish everyone a happy Christmas day, we will be eating in about half an hour and then the rest of the family will be here for tea. Love it all
Nannyg

Shortie

Merry Christmas all

allie23, I did that the other day too. Normally I just berate myself for everything I haven't achied but this time I wrote down what we'd managed this year and what I'd like to achieve by the end of next, felt a much more positive way to do it

So, dinner and dessert eaten here, most of the washing up done and we've shredded the chicken and pork hand. Left over chicken bagged with some of the leftover veggiea to make 2 bags for curry dinners, and some ahredded for pizza topping. Shredded ham ia in the fridge waiting to see what is eaten tonight before it's divided up and frozen

Also grabbed some chicken and veg for a wrap on Friday when I'm in work - yum!

catshark88

I'd like to join this too please. :-)

I want to make extra payments off my mortgage, but mainly, I just don't want to be wasteful or spend without thinking.

I'm cooking from scratch and doing lots of batches, both for convenience and to hide extra veggies in the kids' meals!

I read all the posts in the 2013 challenge, inspiring stuff!

Mrs_Cheshire

My aims for January are
Spend no more than £240 on food/household stuff ( we've got a full freezer and quite a lot of tinned and packet goods
Create a spreedsheet for birthdays and christmas and allocate presents that I already have to the list
Look out for vouchers and offers for days out!

Will add anything else as I think of it

amber03

Three bags of turkey just gone in the freezer,does anyone know if you can freeze pork as well.If so there will be two bags of pork going in the freezer as well. Going to make sure we use up all the food before I do a big shop. As I will be saving money by not doing any food shopping this week I will put the money in my savings account.

I don't have to watch what I spend cos weekly food bill is around £80,my problem is that I don't use up all the food before I do another shop,so will concentrate on this.

At least today was a NSD.:)x