2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Kantankrus_Mare

Laughing at Frugalsod just casually mentioning there may be bears :eek:

macwah97

Hi everyone.

Been having a eugh couple of weeks. Tooth abscess giving me grief.. saw emergency dentist yesterday more antibiotics. GP concerned that I am going to run into bother re loads of antibiotics but it could be six months before I see an orthodontist.:eek:

DD left @ 05.30 for a 4 day school trip to Scarborough. ....first ever trip away without us. Boat and bus England look out! ! Hopefully things will settle for her as there has been some secret bullying going on but she went anyway with her notebook/diary/storywriting book determined not to be annoyed........She is having a poem published under the Young Writers group so heaven knows what will come out of this trip.......

so what will I do? Took week off work......going to dump out her room redecorate it......have most of the stuff anyway.......fleabay what is no longer suitable or wearable.......defrost freezer and eat whats left in there........DH and DS will have random meals.........take a hammer to my tooth ......read and relax......maybe :rotfl:

Hugs and happiness to all. We have all awakened from our sleep so thats a plus :T

Shortie

Afternoon all. Super busy in work and the boss is in a 'flappy' mood so only really just had time to stop for lunch

I've updated my budgets after ANOTHER spendy weekend, and to include skip hire for this weekend (we're going to also clear out our sheds and loft while we have it)

I'm only 1 week into my current pay month and things are not looking good at all :eek:. I'm about to move money back out of savings again for the skip hire (but we are in a mindset that we are fed up of the mess and want to properly enjoy the garden, so let's just get it out of the way) and I'm also moving another £50 over for food shopping as we're going to seriously struggle this month on a reduced spending budget.

So, looking back at what happened and how to progress this forward (Hope nobody minds a 'thinking out loud' post?)

- We got cracking on the garden. There is still more to come butwith money spent so far we have landscaped around the pond and built and area for a trampoline plus the base for it to sit on (the are was not grassed so we put down bark chippings) as well as buying the weed supressing membrane and the trampoline itself. We also relocated the chooks to a new area of the garden
- I have had absolutely no will power with food and have been 'treating' everyone to take out. A lot. Looking at my budgetting sheet, it's not good for my bank balance OR my waistline. This has got to stop. Now
- I had extra travel costs as I was on a training course for two days

So, I'm about to move some more money out of the savings for the skip hire. I have nowt left in my account at the moment so I'm going to transfer £20 extra over and take that out as cash in a moment. Then my card is coming out of my purse and £5 oer week is going in it. I plan to spend none (except I will need to buy team milk next and I will have another turn later this month) but other than that we have some of my monthly allowance for petrol aside still, and Mr Shortie still has all of his aside. We have some money aside for food shopping and will have to make that last

Still to come:

- The weekend in Paris in a couple of weeks time, spending money already aside.
- Not sure if the car I am buying will be ready in this pay month or next at the moment but I'm borrowing that money out of another savings pot and will spend the next few months topping that back up before moving back onto the building work savings
- We may be doing another job in the garden, but that requires a fair bit of work upfront to build a frame for a shed and decking to go on. We need to clear the said shed before we can move it and then buy the decking. Mr Shortie was going to price up the timber for the frame and the decking but I think I need to nudge him again so that I know when we can afford to do that. Again, hoping we can do that before the summer..

Frugalsod

skintygerlinky wrote: »

Wow frugalsod!!!


If I'm not being too nosey, how come you're doing this trip? Is it 'trip of a lifetime' (deffo sounds it!) is it something you've done before, do you spend lots of time in the US etc?


Sounds fab!

It has been years since I was there and this will be a trip to get some camping kit. I will be getting some custom hammocks and quilts so thought of making a road trip of it. Then the parks will be the test run of it all. It is also to collect airmiles for a future dream trip. So this trip will be to get camping gear for my european trips and the next big US trip which will cover 8 national parks.

Ches

I am also looking at booking our 2015 holiday as well as saving for the one this year. We have chosen a coach holiday this year so I will book that later in May and pay the balance in August as we don't go until September. I have just posted a cheque to one of the two CC's I have for £1000 which is half ish the present balance so thats good and I am aiming to pay it all off by June/July and then it will be cancelled. The other CC is a working one so goes up and down all the time. It also gives us travel insurance up to 80 years old so I intend to keep that one as it works well for me and I do use it for shopping on-line.
We are also having a fair bit of work done on the house this year so it is imperative that I keep to budget for the next 18 months.

My overspend in April must be the last or the holiday in 2015 will be a no go and I will lose my deposit.

I do love a challenge.

DawnW

Exciting holiday plans today

I might have time to think about a holiday in a week or three - work manic today, business and family things too :eek:
Payday tomorrow - last one :eek:
Finish on Wednesday, and won't get away early as team want to go out - but also got the dentist :doh:

Too many things going on atm :eek:
Once I get my breath back, I will need to look at April totals - I know I haven't kept to the 4k target from 1 Jan - OH's vehicle needed more than £1k spent on it this month :eek:
Oh well, onwards and upwards - positives today (borrowed from Greying Pilgrim on her diary thread)

Hmm, well I didn't get TOO wet :rotfl:

Spent nothing except car park and train to get to work - had to take the car today as I had a laptop that weighed the same as a small car to return.

Minimal cooking as it was simply a matter of warming up the sweet and sour turkey I made yesterday, and cooking some noodles to go with it. There are even leftovers for lunch tomorrow

OH did some housework and picked up all the business stuff from the auction house :T
He has been driving me nuts since though :mad: :rotfl:

optimistic-mummy

I have a holiday booked for sept .. went through the sun .. I'm excited as it's our first ever family holiday ... can't belive we are at the end of April already .. I need to update my spreadsheet

lovefullshelves

DawnW - hope the last days of work have been fun x
Thankfully I've mainly been busy busy planting things
This week we're doing the live below the line challenge, and I decided were gonna do it for the entire month. DS says I enjoy the challenges too much and should challenge myself to not do a challenge!!
So, old achey and taking ages to catch up on all the posts I've missed reading xx

skintygerlinky

Evening Frugalites xxxx


NSD! Working on uni assignment all day so at home with many books. Friend came round for tea which was homemade leek and potato soup and garlic bread. Was lovely! Enough leftover for friend to take a portion home, portion for my freezer and for dins tomorrow!


Today's song is for Dawn W - hope you've caught your breath! Breathe....Breathe....It wont be long now.....! xxxxx http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMiW7FxBa88

alja

DawnW wrote: »

so stick with it guys, pay off the debts, add to the savings, it really is worth it, and helps you to be able to do what you want to do, whether it is buy a house, go on a world trip or whatever

Thanks for saying that Dawn, it's really inspiring and makes me want to save more! I'm not near to retiring (turning 25 on sunday!), but thanks to working hard and saving hard I have a good savings pot and was able to pay for a holiday to Italy with my friends yesterday. I love the idea of owning my own home and have had this goal ever since I had money to save! I would love to travel some more and retire early if possible one day...so to hear you have achieved this makes me realise that some of these dreams are possible if you put your mind to it


Had a busy weekend with friends, spent a little money here and there, but nothing crazy. Managed to get two bottles of shower gel from B00ts for just 51p each. Their fruity gel was on offer and there was an extra offer from the points machine to use on top


I'm really hoping to be more frugal in may if possible. I don't *need* much, if anything, so I will try to keep away from the shops!