2014 Frugal Living Challenge

lynnejk

Hello one and all :hello: and a warm welcome to all the newbies


I know it's not much but saved 68p paying my talk-a-lot bill early and made 66p on nec*ar points for my rail tickets for a weekend away for DH's birthday in July


I also checked and the two return tickets would cost £181.40 :eek: if bought the same week of travel and they cost me £66.40 :money: bought as advance tickets saving £115 :T Unbelievable eh.


Hope you all having a great week
Lx

sparrer

Quite pleased with my spending today, I 'bought' a travel kettle and surge protected extension lead in homebase with nectar points - did you know when you spend nectar points they give you nectar points on what you've bought?!
Morries had a potentilla for £2, I've been wanting one for a long time so snapped it up
Providing a meal for three on a flight next week, I bought the dry goods today. I can fit two sandwich thins (ham and cheese), a packet of cheeselets, a health bar and a WW mini cake in an ice cream tub, so three of those to make up, and will take empty water bottles so we can fill them up from the water fountain when we get air-side.
Bought travel insurance through a cashback site, after I'd declared my health probs I paid very little more than a 'normal person' would
Very pleased with my water bill, they owe me £48 and have brought it down from £13 to £9 a month.

cw18

lynnejk wrote: »

I know it's not much but saved 68p paying my talk-a-lot bill early

I only save just over 50p month doing this, but I've still decided I'd rather lose an NSD and make the saving than claim and NSD and pay the money

I've paid my line rental up front for the year, and am on the cheapest deal they do - so no inclusive calls or TV (no use to me without a TV licence :rotfl:). I make all calls apart from those to DD - also on TT so calls between us are free - and 08?? from my mobile as I have way more included minutes than I ever use, and look for an alternative to any 084? / 087? type numbers before giving in and calling those from my landline. As such I rarely have any call charges on my bill

DawnW

Ooh, new posters :j Hello :wave:
Frugal things for me today:

Young's cod in breadcrumbs was on offer in Mr S today - 3 packs of 4 for £10. I bought 3, as I didn't think that 12 pieces of cod for £10 was at all bad, and if I want to use them without the breadcrumbs, it is not hard to scrape them off! OH and I had a piece each for supper, with a few chips and some peas - I left the breadcrumbs on for that

The other 10 portions have been packaged in twos and frozen.

Made my standard bacon and veg soup for lunch as DD was coming round, and after feeding 3 of us, there is plenty left for another meal. Think a handful of basics bacon pieces, whatever vegetables you have around, a tin of tomatoes and some stock or water. Today I added a potato, a couple of sticks of celery, half a left over pepper, a carrot, an onion, some lentils and pearl barley, some soaked dried courgettes - and the rest of the salad left over from yesterday. That sounds a bit odd, but there was no dressing, and to be honest the salad veg just boil down with the rest and nobody notices You can use whatever you have lying around, and it doesn't matter if the veg are a bit bendy. I make it in a big stockpot, just chop up the veg and bacon and soften gently in a little oil, or with none if the bacon is quite fatty. Mine today was very lean. Then add a tin of tomatoes and stock or water, and cook for about 30 minutes till the veg are soft. It is much nicer than tinned, and as good, if not better, than the expensive cartons you find in the chiller cabinet at the sm. Just what was needed on a cold wet day like today I used to take it to work for lunch, to heat up in the microwave.

Apart from a very little work for my business, that was about it for today - a bit of a lazy day Wish the weather would cheer up, so I could get out in the garden

Frizzle_2

Ooh! DawnW!
That is exactly what we had for dinner tonight. Except I did far too many peas! Probably enough to Serve another 2 people. I am doing a chilli tomorrow so might bung them in with that. I now make the chilli in the slow cooker in the morning (adding porridge, red lentils) and it makes 3 or 4 meals. I freeze the leftovers so on a work night I can take it out of the freezer and just warm it up quickly. Saves time, mess and heating costs!
Everyone loves chilli in this house!

kb_soma

Good morning all. Planning on paying an extra £500 off to stepchange this weekend - this is from all frugalling this year. I did plan on paying more, but I've had a fair few birthdays and weddings this year. As of next month I'm planning on squirrelling away at least £200 per month. Hope you all have a good day. Xxx

icontinuetodream

I had some great news yesterday which will make a huge difference to paying off my mortgage so will be in super-frugal mode for the next 10-18 months!!

I have been a bit lax over the past few months, sort of dipping in and out of frugal living, but I am back on the wagon big time from today!!

Plans so far are to stick to meal plans, turn off all appliances/lights etc that aren't being used, utilise the washing line at every given opportunity, minimise car journeys where possible, only buy alcohol from my persie spend money and to make sure that the rest of the clan are on the same page!!! Additional ideas more than welcome!!

sparrer

nsd/npd
Dug a few potatoes to have with dinner and gave some to neighbour
Booked one hold luggage between my friend and myself for our holiday which will save a fair bit - managed to get almost all my packing in my hand luggage
Made a tray of dog biscuits to take to the dog sitter while I'm away. Her dog and mine love them, they're full of goodness, no rubbish and so inexpensive to make
Heating off, lights still off, television off, treadmill on so off I trot - it saves me a fortune in gym fees

lynnejk

Thanks Dawn - hadn't thought of putting bacon into 'bottom of the fridge soup'. I do keep odds and ends of stews and casseroles to do the same but that will make a nice change. One of the best I find is making oxtail stew in the S/C and using the LO for soup - yummy :T

cw18 wrote: »

I only save just over 50p month doing this, but I've still decided I'd rather lose an NSD and make the saving than claim and NSD and pay the money

I've paid my line rental up front for the year, and am on the cheapest deal they do - so no inclusive calls or TV (no use to me without a TV licence :rotfl:). I make all calls apart from those to DD - also on TT so calls between us are free - and 08?? from my mobile as I have way more included minutes than I ever use, and look for an alternative to any 084? / 087? type numbers before giving in and calling those from my landline. As such I rarely have any call charges on my bill

I'm much the same. Line rental yearly and cheap deal - was £2.50, now £3.50, a month for broadband. Mobile is £11.50 with unlimited texts/100 mins/1GB data which is more than enough for me. Best thing I use is 'Whatsapp' to stay in touch with people as free if on WIFI

icontinuetodream wrote: »

Plans so far are to stick to meal plans, turn off all appliances/lights etc that aren't being used, utilise the washing line at every given opportunity, minimise car journeys where possible, only buy alcohol from my persie spend money and to make sure that the rest of the clan are on the same page!!! Additional ideas more than welcome!!

Shopping list and stick to it ?!


Applied for a local green deal in November and an assessor duly arrived and did an assessment. Hadn't hear anything back until this week and then had a visit Monday. Long and short an 'electrician' turned up today and duly fitted LED bulbs to the entire apartment including the bedside lamps. Apparently would have cost me about £150 to replace myself with same quality (guaranteed for 10 years !) Very pleased :money:


Also, despite the cr*p weather here all my lettuce, rocket and beetroot now up and braving the windy weather :j


Hope you all have a fantastic Friday
Lx

Shortie

Morning all. Still reading each day but we've just been cruising along.

Have managed to start making nice additions to some of our larger savings, and finally had my P60 and P11D through so that I can complete my tax return. Have started it already but got stuck waiting for those two bits of paperwork to come from work. Hopefully I'll get time to sit and do it this weekend as I want to get it out of the way but this is due to be a busy weekend with family over

Have managed a few wins in the food dept too which feels good. After inspiration from Greying Pilgrim I've managed to make natural yoghurt, I'm on a roll with the tortillas and am doing a test to see how the dough will freeze and defrost ready to be rolled another day AND we used up some excess spaghetti from last night's dinner to make a garlicky breadcrumb concoction that I have with me for lunch today

Feels good!