2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

sparrer wrote: »

The mop bucket - I wipe down the radiators and window sills before the skirting boards get mopped then do the bathroom and kitchen floors, using a quarter bucket of water with a tiny squirt of washing up liquid and about a tablespoon of soda crystals.

Great tip will try this when I next mop and will use what you recommend when I run out of my current products

abby1234519

My April plan -

Cancel gym membership, had it 3 months. and been 3 times. I hate it and I'm enjoying working out at home. That will save £47 but I've already factored that into my budget ie deleted it off YNAB from May onwards.

Minimum debt repayments - Unfortunately I won't be able to overpay until September because of August wedding, need to save everything for wedding.

£63.13 left for food. We spent £176 at Costco at the weekend which I need to take out of our next 4 monthly shops (ie put £50 back into wedding money every month). I worked out that the equivalent at Asda would have cost £230+. For instance toilet rolls bulk buy and were on offer, lots of chicken etc etc. The £63.13 needs to pay for milk/bread/fruit and veg. We don't need anything else.

Plant all of my seeds, need to get plant pots from Freegle as I have collected loads of herb seeds, carrots and have some potato things to plant. I also want to go to Poundworld tomorrow as they had blackberry bush things for £1 which would go nicely at the back of the garden,

Then I have petrol money which I know I will be overspending on.

YNAB says I will be £79 short this month so I need to sell £79 worth of crap and not overspend at all.

lovefullshelves

Hello everyone
cw18 - I remember Worzel and his thinking head! And Aunt Sally!:) i liked Follyfoot Farm:) And the original Tomorrow People:)
Well I'm liking this here april challenge, shopping cost me £9.44! Just for fresh bits. Everything else has come from the freezer or the shelves.
And I'm figuring out what the most useful things to buy will be in the summer when I get more hours:) Meat! And sugar.
Planted some radishes, and theyre just poking their heads out, got some lettuces coming on and salad leaves in little pots. Everything should be edible by May.
I'm trying my hardest to run down my freezer stocks and turn off second freezer, but I swear it self replacing! My mom offered to fill the freezer for my birthday but I had to refuse..I think I could only fit a bag of peas in there!!
Doing well on not spending this week thank goodness, and a parcel from mommy has provided new to me recipe books:)
Hope everyone is well x

DawnW

macwah97 wrote: »

Now budget is haywire - anyway. Have to admit the family have been very good at sampling different meals including macaroni cheese, toad in the hole and various other concoctions :T

Gave in today and bought A Girl named J book from Sinsbob - have read it cover to cover and there will be a few tests carried out over next month.

Macaroni cheese etc sound ok to me! I succumbed to the Girl called J book as well, and love it. I have only made the tomato and haricot bean soup as yet , but that was very nice

Shortie wrote: »

Then, last week we all had meetings in work to start on our 'Personal Development Plans' which I found really hard as I've lost motivation in my job - I've been in this field on and off for over 10 years now. The lady who held the meeting (not my boss) suggested I have a nose around to see what I want to do - and that got me really thinking. A lot. So.... I took a step out there and yesterday contacted another team at my workplace to see if they have any roles going that I would suit - and I am having a chat with 2 people from the department on Friday :j Which really is something for me as, while I'm confident in my work and can chip into lots of things and train people, etc, etc... I've never been good at standing up and pushing myself forward. Fingers crossed!

Good luck, hope it works out for you

ALJA wrote: »

Finally, after being ill, I started my new job today and that went okay. The team seem very nice. I just want payday to come so I can save more money! I wish I was retiring, but seeing as I'm only in my mid twenties, I have a little while to go yet unfortunately!!

I'm just glad I've already started to put money away and got into the saving frame of mind already.

Ooh don't wish your life away pet - I wish I was in my 20s again I am 60 now, still, it makes me feel young when HR go on about 'early' retirement :rotfl:

At least if you are already in a saving frame of mind now you will have a bit of choice about when you retire, too

OH caught some trout yesterday, and smoked them, so we had smoked trout, sprouting broccoli stuff from the garden and new spuds from Lidls for supper tonight. I think I will look for a recipe and make the rest of the smoked fish into a pate.

Still haven't done my March totals, and still getting loads of year end carp at work :mad: Honestly last year we were underspent and there was a panic, and this year we are overspent, and there is a worse panic :eek: Not sensible like us, are they? :rotfl:

I have spent the evening sorting out some items for my small business, as the shop owner said she has a dealer coming tomorrow looking for specific things. Hope they buy some of mine - though that depends on whether they are willing to pay what they are worth :cool:

alja

DawnW wrote: »

Ooh don't wish your life away pet - I wish I was in my 20s again I am 60 now, still, it makes me feel young when HR go on about 'early' retirement :rotfl:

At least if you are already in a saving frame of mind now you will have a bit of choice about when you retire, too

Hehe! Don't worry! I definitely won't, I really do enjoy life I'm just in a very fortunate position to not have many bills and have a decent wage at the moment, so I'm making the most of it while I can! Let's hope I will be in the position to have a bit of choice over it when I get there!

Sorted out my friend's birthday present this evening. I've got a lovely travel toiletries bag to give her and I've put some left over sweets I had in a pretty bag tied up with a ribbon, which I will place inside the bag along with a pretty peach nail polish.
The bag cost me about £3 as it was in the clearance at boots, the sweets are from a big multipack, so maybe about 50p there? And the nail polish just 33p from a set of 3 from Poundland. So all in all it's not cost me very much to put it all together ..ohh and the birthday card cost 10p!

*edit* It was also another NSD for me today

sparrer

Very little to report other than a nsd/npd today and kind neighbour sent his 18 y/o son to mow my lawn for me, for which I gave him £5. I've considered getting someone in to help once a week or so but my other neighbour's 14 y/o daughter wants to help me in the holidays. Mum has given her approval and I'll pay her of course but it won't be the £15 an hour they charge locally. I'm blessed with amazing neighbours

icontinuetodream

Aaargh!!! :eek: It's all gone hideously wrong recently - some unexpected expenses over which I have had no control, but huge amount of spending on alcohol, cigarettes and other unnecessary things that I have to stop!!

My grocery budget has gone to poo already and we are only 4 days into the month.....I have no idea how much has been spent but hope to have the figures from dh tonight so that I can declare and hang my head in shame then tomorrow I will do another full food inventory of cupboards, fridge and freezer and do a proper meal plan around that....I normally do a massive meal plan for a month and then totally ignore it after the first week as I get bored with it! Honestly, there is no hope for me!!:rotfl:

its been a truly chaotic couple of weeks and I have become very complacent about the finances but am starting my new job next week and want to make the most of having an income again - which is not going to happen if I keep behaving like a spoilt teenager!

Washing machine died this week so have put it on the cc - along with the clothes I have bought for the job the balance is looking decidedly scary and its going to take a couple of months to pay it off I normally pay the balance in full every month (if there is one ) so this is not a happy state of affairs for me...oh well, life just gets in the way of my frugal struggle at times!

Anyhoo, upshot is, I am going to make sure that I get back into the mindset and be a better frugalite from now on....kick me if I'm not!! :rotfl:

afoolwithmoney

March has gone out like a lion spending wise & it looks as though its not going to get any better in the next couple of weeks. Damage limitation is the name of the game at the moment which meant cancellation of the holiday (been feeling so off wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. Bl@@dy virus) Trawling spare room for things to sell so the cc debt doesn't triple over night. But even though they say one woman tat etc I really cant see anyone wanting this womans rubbish :rotfl:
At least this time it appears OH is on side yippee :T Target is to finish the month on a far more positive note

icontinuetodream

Hope you feel better soon

alja

Even if we fall off the wagon a little bit, at least we have good intentions of getting back on it. Every little thing we do to make things better is better than doing nothing at all I would say

Today is a NSD for me, I make sure I don't take my purse to work as there's a shop just across the road!

Tomorrow I plan to go shopping, I have written down a list of what I need to buy clothing wise and will try my best to stick to it! I'm going to head over to our nearest big primark, which also has a couple of other stores near it and an asda (with george clothing) too. I hope I'm fruitful and find what I need!

I will be getting the bus instead of driving, it takes a lot longer to get there but it works out cheaper than driving. I will get a day pass which also means I can stop off at a different shopping area on the way back if I don't find what I need at the first lot of shops!

Right, I'm off to prepare my things for tomorrow as I'll be heading out bright and early