2014 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I was thinking £35 would be realistic considering the amount of meat we have.... maybe I should use £50 as a starting point, and try and work back from that, as I really do need to watch every penny

My grocery budget is £5/day (so £35/week) just for me! Then an additional £3/day for the days I provide a main meal to DS1 (7 days a fortnight), and £4/day for the days OH is here (5 days every 3 weeks).

That gave me budgets of £244.18 for Jan and £220.55 for Feb, of which I spent £133.31 and £188.43 respectively - but during both months I was also using a lot of stuff I already had in.

For March it's given me a budget of £244.18, of which I've only yet spent £118.38. But this month I've also been tracking how much old-old food I've been using (as in out-of-date long life stuff, or things that have been lurking in my freezers for longer than they probably should - and all of which was bought long before the start of this year). So far that equates to a further £67.19, meaning that if I replaced like-for-like I'd have spent £185.57. That leaves £58.61 of my budget, and it's quite feasible I've already used that much from things I've already bought this year, or had bought at the back end of last year that still have plenty of life on them.

There's no way I'd dare try feeding a family on as little as you mention, and am always Wowed when I see people manage it :beer:

pm2326

Evening all

Well it's payday today so have been adding up my spends for March.

My food bill for the month came in at £66 :j it's £11 more than February but I bulk bought t-bags when they were offer and bought some cakes for work so I'm happy to accept the increase for the month.

My one off spends reduced from £62 in February to £31 in March.....a 50% drop!

Overall I'm quite pleased with how things are progressing, my spending has been reined in considerably and I've cleared another debt :T

Actually enjoy not spending money now :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Thanks Skinty, I love that poem too. One of my favourites is Ode to Autumn by Keats which I have put on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr1qiKoMyQ8

cydney65

[Deleted User] wrote:

Thanks Skinty, I love that poem too. One of my favourites is Ode to Autumn by Keats which I have put on the link below.

Oh I love Keats and Ode to Autumn is also my favourite poem.

Have put frugalness on the back burner for a little while as March has been pretty horrible and I need to concentrate on me for a while. I had a spell on a psych ward a couple of years ago and don't want to go back!

I'm still trying to save and log how much we spend on food but I'm trying not to get too worried if things don't seem to be working out how I planned. I do love to read everyone's posts though. I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

nat21luv

Hugs to you cydney, hope things get better for you soon xxx

I'm going to frugal extremes, I'm making the kids 'bolognese' tomorrow night...what I'm not going to mention is that it's actually made from chicken livers it's a recipe from agirlcalledjack.com so hopefully with a lashing of Parmesan on top they won't notice it's about 49p a portion but I'll make it cheaper than that

sparrer

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I am soooo struggling to try and get all my shopping for the 4 of us for £35 per week
I feel such a failure, that I haven't got the will power to stick to a flipping shopping list while going round a supermarket....

I don't think you're a failure at all, but I do think you've set yourself a low target. As you said, perhaps start at £50 and see how you go from there, much kinder to yourself than feeling as though you've failed. I spend approx £15 a week for me and the dog so a £50 start point for 4 of you is reasonable.

nat21luv wrote: »

I'm going to frugal extremes, I'm making the kids 'bolognese' tomorrow night...what I'm not going to mention is that it's actually made from chicken livers it's a recipe from agirlcalledjack.com so hopefully with a lashing of Parmesan on top they won't notice it's about 49p a portion but I'll make it cheaper than that

I've made this bol and the advantage of using chicken livers is that they're not as strong as pigs/lambs liver. Good luck with the disguise!

A nsd/npd for me, did a small shop yesterday and had forgotten I'd already bought bread, milk etc before I went away for the week, so I have enough for about 2 weeks. I've got the small plate out to cut down on portion sizes for the foreseeable future, having spent the last week eating unlimited hotel food and home cooked meals with DS and family. I have 5 meat/fish meals and 2 veggies meals a week, I'm cutting that to 4 and 3 to save money, and calories!

Frugalsod

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I am lucky as I do have a freezer full of pork, ( which the price of feeding the pigs and the abotior costs are not included in the £35)


I do have some reduced meat in the freezer too, to use up...


When I say its for 4, there is 4 of us here, but our 2 boys 18 &19yrs eat out a lot as there are never here, but I think they have cottoned on now how much they are spending on food out, so they are starting to eat more in house now... lol..


I was thinking £35 would be realistic considering the amount of meat we have.... maybe I should use £50 as a starting point, and try and work back from that, as I really do need to watch every penny

If you have meat already then that makes it a lot easier. One thing that can help is making as much as possible from scratch. A home made pizza can be a fraction of the cost of a ready cooked one from a takeaway and taste just as good. They can even rival the best premium supermarket pizzas again at a fraction of the cost. Batch cooking can help a lot as well, as it reduces the cost of cooking. Though I have a microwave and reheat meals daily that I have in the freezer. Buying from a market is cheaper than supermarkets if you have one close.

I will confess that while my budget has not dropped a lot, I have made significant improvements in the quality of my food, by making from scratch. So out go all the ready meals and I now eat as healthily as possible. Though my objectives were to eliminate the junk in my diet. My salt, sugar and other additive intakes are significantly lower.

Shortie

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Do any of you have a fave poem?? Let's hear them please Frugalites xxxx

I'm can't easily so a linky as I'm on a train but my two faves are a bit mellow but I love them: Louis MacNeice - The Sunlight on the Garden & London Rain

Oh and a poem calles Johnny by Auden:

http://m.poemhunter.com/poem/johnny/

Hope the link works.. will look for the other two now

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Frugalsod..... I think its those 'add ons' that I buy when I go to the supermarket.. that is doing it..lol I have a chest freezer in work, where all our pork is, and I have a fridge freezer at home... which is crammed full of reduced meat, reduced 500gms packs of lurpak and anchor butter and some packs of frozen veg, mushroons, casserole mix, peas, I am slowly using up the meat in the that freezer, so I have room again to batch cook..But I have been thinking of buying another chest freezer ( you lot kindly worked out how much it would cost to run per week for me).. so then I can really batch cook big time.. plus hopefully in the summer we will have veg from the garden to blanch and freeze..The pet food is not included in the budget..

Frugalsod

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Frugalsod..... I think its those 'add ons' that I buy when I go to the supermarket.. that is doing it..lol I have a chest freezer in work, where all our pork is, and I have a fridge freezer at home... which is crammed full of reduced meat, reduced 500gms packs of lurpak and anchor butter and some packs of frozen veg, mushroons, casserole mix, peas, I am slowly using up the meat in the that freezer, so I have room again to batch cook..But I have been thinking of buying another chest freezer ( you lot kindly worked out how much it would cost to run per week for me).. so then I can really batch cook big time.. plus hopefully in the summer we will have veg from the garden to blanch and freeze..The pet food is not included in the budget..

I have the same problem when raiding the bargain bin. I see other things in there and have to get another bargain. Last week it was two loaves of soda bread. Which were getting very dry by the time they were on YS.

I think getting another freezer could be a mistake. It is a big outlay and as you already have access to two freezers do you need a third? I would try and use up what you already have. The equation can be altered if you get regular supplies of carcasses. Then you could easily justify another freezer.

One trick I found to dealing with extras when shopping was to do it online. You can see what you are spending and then swap out the over priced items. I found that when I started making my own bread I was not needing to go to the supermarkets that often. I could easily go a week between top up shops for milk. When I had my milk delivered I could go weeks without needing to shop. So my current online shopping list is for £120 or so but I have not shopped online for nearly 5 months, and so what is on it could last me for 6 months. yet I am still not near to needing to shop. It is mainly condiments and other long life items. My meat is from a local butcher, and veg from an online organic veg delivery service. So all I really need to get is milk and dairy items. Yet I still get YS veg and other items. Though the effect is to stretch out when I need to do an online shop. What will work for you is up to you, ultimately you should find a system that works for you though getting ideas on what might work and then tweaking it to fit your circumstances might help a lot.