2014 Frugal Living Challenge

System

Hi, I've been a lurker on this thread for quite a while and am loving reading all your posts and tips Can I join in please:o I'm a very frugal mum with two kids doing my best to get by.

I've been interested in your posts about not having Sky as this is something I've been considering for a while - for the cost and also because I think it's too tempting for the kids (both in junior school) to just come home and knock it on, then sit there "zombied". Call me old-fashioned but I hark back to the good old days when we only had four channels and viewing was limited

Imo they could get by with watching some cartoons on the tablet/DVDs etc but family have said to keep Sky because it is cheap entertainment.

Just wondering what other peeps do in this situation.....borrowed Apple TV to try that but the streaming was too slow, our TV being old and "inherited"

Tia and sorry for long post.

cw18

I don't even have a TV signal - never mind Sky or Cable!

To be fair, I don't have youngsters in the house, but when I had my GDs before and after school (on and off between the ages of around 3 and 7, and at the time I did have a licence) we played a box game together, or they played with toys I had here for them, or we read books together (often their school ones to get homework out of the way to make life easier for DD). They often had cartoons on in the morning (only here for about 20-30 mins), but the TV rarely went on in the evening when I had them for between 2 and 3 hours - possibly once a week for a DVD. I have a mountain of DVDs (and VHS tapes), and whilst many are films I also have loads that are short cartoon episodes that could have been used in the mornings - everything from B@gpuss and Cl@ngers through to Postman P@at, R0sie & Jim and D0ra the Explorer.

DS1 (25) sometimes moans about lack of TV, but the couple of things he'd want are on Sky. I've told him that if he wants a TV signal he can pay for a licence and I'll hook the aerial back up (and I expect to be allowed to use it, in return for him using the broadband he pays nothing for), but I'm not having a dish on the outside of my house so he's not having Sky. (And cable isn't laid to my estate, so that's not even an option to be discussed.)

I'm hoping to become a foster parent next year, and want to only take pre-school children (I'd rather be able to go away during term times and for long weekends whenever the fancy takes rather than have a few hours free time on school days) and don't plan on reinstating the TV licence for that - but I would get some more up-to-date short episode DVDs for 'just before bed' (I personally love Mr Tvmble as I think the concept of kids learning sign language by default is great).

I also have access to Wu@ki (signed up when it was launching, so only costs me £2.99/month for life as long as I never miss a payment) which is more than adequate for me, and DS1 has signed my TV into his Netfl!x account (don't tend to use that as often). I'm also about half-way though a 3 month free trial of N0w TV (to access Sky's film content, but I don't use the live stream as I'd need a TV licence for that) which I don't plan to extend as (IMO) it's not worth £8.99/month (I'd sooner pay the £12+ for a TV licence ).

My DVDs and Wu@ki subscription are mostly paid for by the £145/year I save by not having a TV licence, but there are a couple of box sets I'd like that most certainly won't fit into that budget

quidsy

Shortie wrote: »

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

If it is anything like hm pizza dough it freezes great. Due to general time consumtion of making pizza dough I tend to make up 8 postions & freeze 5 for later use, I defrost it in the fridge, roll it then prove it for 30mins of so to re-rise. They always come out exactly the same.

Shortie

Thanks Quidsy, that's encouraging to know x

Agree with pizza dough as it's quite time heavy with proving time etc. I actually go one further with pizza dough and roll it out and part bake ot, then freeze it in a huge tuppawear box we have. I thought about that with the wraps too but not sure if they'd remain pliable that way, if they didn't get broken that is!

Sounds like freezing them as balls shoumlld work just fine in that case, ta

lhead123

Hi All!

Not posted for a while as I've been busy with new baby boy 'S'

Trying to be frugal whilst getting used to having 2 children in the house to deal with is not easy, but luckily I got a lot sorted before S was born.

We had a water meter fitted back in march as we thought £58 per month was a bit steep! They did a reading in May, and surprise surprise, gave us £60 back and dropped our payment to £19 per month! If only we'd done it 3.5 years ago when we moved in, we could have saved so much money!!

Also been ebaying like a trooper - so far made £150! though half of that was from my old phone. Got OH's old phone to sell too, so hopefully that's another £70/80.

We are also doing a car boot on Sunday - We had kept all of J's girl clothes from when she was born until now (4 years worth!) so that when we had another child we would have everything if it was a girl! Needless to say we've had a boy, so we are trying to sell everything now!

Trying to get back to meal planning, though it's not that easy when you have a newborn who inevitably wants to eat when you want to cook! There have been a lot of later dinners recently! Speaking of which, time to go raid the freezer

Frizzle_2

We have had a NSD today.
Made a vegetable pasta bake for tea. Doubled it up and made two extra portions of sauce.
Bought some courgette from aldi as it was pert of their super 6, hubby turned up his nose and asked what the green things were! Typical! I thought is was delicious, much better than shop bought, hubby said it was ok. I hope he realises we are having it for another two meals!! Ds1 wasn't keen on the courgettes either! Neither of them like mushrooms so I had already missed them out!

skintygerlinky

Morning Frugalites!! xxxxxx


Long time no post - been up to my eyes in uni work but I'm done assignment-wise for this year, just got lots of reading and research to do for next year but the pressure's off at the mo meaning I can really enjoy the background reading.


Frugal wise....Oh dear! May has been pretty disastrous. Lots of money to pay out on travel, some big events socially speaking and I'm about to celebrate my lovely dad's 70th birthday.


But!! As of tomorrow, things ease off a little. I have my nephew's 18th later in the summer, a week in the sun and a mini break with friends next weekend. Need to save for nephew's birthday but the hols are taken care of as I've saved for those. All other birthdays this year are 'normal' milestone free ones...and then its Christmas yiyiyiyyyyiiiiiii!!!


So what can we do...here's whats happening:


Travel to uni - this has now been pared right down to at the most once a week


Food shopping - back on budget. LOVING the current Aldini Super6! Back to cooking from scratch tomorrow


Socially - budgeted for this big events, lots of staying in over the World Cup!


Income - would love more hours in work or second job - now got time to investigate this


Bonuses - maybe PPI claim - could do with putting this into minute, tiny savings


Clothes - still in budget for the year, stocked up on underwear and socks!!


Pension - need to sort out...some pension from new job, some from old. Can I combine??


But I've got time to think now so lets get back on track. Will try to catch up on posts here, hope everyone is doing OK in the meantime. Have missed you! xxxx


Theme tune at the mo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESy-Z8vqMrE&feature=kp

Frizzle_2

Not very frugal but bought a Panasonic bread maker today! Very excited! I have been making bread and hm pizzas for a few months so hubby thought this would help to save time! Fingers crossed!
Used up some of my tesco vouchers today. Most of the activities are now 5 times the amount so got a day pass to our local soft play centre and tickets for Woburn Safari. Some of the vouchers heeded using up today so glad I didn't let them go to waste! Don't get many now as I do our weekly shop at aldi so just get petrol and a few top up shops from tesco!

DawnW

Hello :j
I have been awol for a couple of days, helping out in one of the shops I rent a unit in on Thursday, and out to a regional event yesterday. Nice to 'hear from' some posters who haven't been on for a while, and some new ones And a new baby :jHow exciting! Congratulations lhead


NSD on Thurs but a bit spendy yesterday :eek: Still, we had complementary tickets, so it wasn't as expensive as it might have been. I bought some nice foody things back, cheeses, meat etc, and we have been eating some of those. I went into Mr S today and bought just the 3 things on my list; a cabbage, a packet of stuffing mix and a loaf of bread. Is that everything? the checkout assistant said :rotfl:I probably won't need to do a 'proper' shop for a couple more days

Spent this morning doing some work for my business (aka carting boxes around) and a teeny bit of gardening. Seeds aren't germinating well this year - I wish the rain would stop
Boot sale in the morning hopefully, more gardening and a roast dinner tomorrow I think it was Shortie mentioned tax returns? :eek: I nearly have mine and OH's ready for the accountant to work her magic. MUST get this sorted out for early next week!

Becky_2

Frugally wise I have done really well this week. Didn't need to buy a bus pass this week since I was working in a different location and I can walk there. 5 NSD's in row. Also, when we went to the fast track till at S-bury's to pay we found a Brand match voucher for £6 that someone had forgotten to use and then we also got another brand match voucher for £5 for next week.

The plan for next week is to tranfer the money in my savings account that has just matured after a year in to a 0.10% interest account (was over 3%). This will be transferred in to my ISA account.