2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Mamma85

Thanks Frugalsod, I cut our plan down a while ago, but dh was off work for a while so he added on the bits he likes to watch, now he's off again I'll cut it down again. I'll have to see what prices sky give and work out what's better for us. ( we only go the cinema for the kids club at £2.50 a ticket:D)
I try to be as thrifty as possible but dh isn't always so keen, and takeaways are never worth the money, and Takeaway pizza prices :eek: I'd rather buy them from aldi for 99p:D
I'll have a look at the frugal fast.

Frugalsod

If DH is not keen on being thrifty try and find out why? It could be trying to keep up with Joneses and you could do that far more cheaply.

I think that a few months or even a year being super frugal while you clear your debts is well worth it. If you are no longer paying off debts and interest you will have more disposable income. Though if necessary allow the odd treat to help keep you on your path.

Mamma85

Dh just likes the finer things in life, he had a lot of debt when I met him, store cards and credit cards, (all paid off now) he sees things and has to have them. He's a lot better than he was though. I'm sure he's angling for a new phone when his contract is up this year, but I'm having none of it.
Reduced sky bills , we have a 50% off deal ending soon,but can't cancel as dh is the account holder and isn't home till September, might need to find a man to impersonate him

On a more frugal note, got dd1 a box set of books off an fb selling page for Christmas for £3 rrp claimed to be £17.99:eek: and made a lovely cake wth some wrinkly apples and pears, Herman/German Apple cake, someone mentioned it on here but can't remember who, sorry!

Merrylegs1

Hello!

Sorry its been a while, life has been pretty full on.

CW18 - sorry to hear you've been injured, healing vibes for you.

Nicki_Sue - hope Dh is soon back in employment & the pay he's owed is quick to come.

Had a bit of a blip here, cats caught fleas (despite being reg. treated with frontline). Ended up having to buy super duper strong flea stuff from the vets (more expensive than frontline), I also did some research on-line and apparently if you put salt on the carpet it dehydrates any eggs ect so they die. However hoovering this up destroyed my already iffy hoover & did not seem to cure the flea problem In the end needed very toxic flea spray from the vets (expensive!) & a new hoover. Fleas now seem to be gone, so it was worth it. I will try and pick up an extra shift this week to help pay for it.

Need to get back to saving, started by making a MASSIVE pan of chilli to last me the rest of the week & hopefully I won't need to buy much else apart from some fresh fruit & milk for he rest of the week.

Merry

littleskintdragon

Hi everyone,
I havent posted in a long time! Still read everyday though.

I've been back in work a month after maternity leave and things are getting better finanically. Whilst i was off things were really tight and we used up all of our savings and overdraft etc. It was worth it for time with my son, but now we have lots of things to pay off
The first of which is my overdraft which im pleased to say will be paid off by august 1st so i can see we're getting there!
We've been living a very frugal lifestyle all year and only really shop for food or petrol, and some weeks i dont bother with the food shopping, just grab some bits as we go along.
I had been selling some things on 3-bay, but found that fees are so much that it wasnt worth it.

A month or two back we considered downsizing, to save on our mortgage, but realised that our credit score is so poor after maternity leave that its not an option currently. We live in a 4 bed detached, but ive seen a lovely semi that we'd be more than happy with.

Anyway thats enough rambling, well done everyone on keeping up the good work x

Frugalsod

Mamma85 wrote: »

Dh just likes the finer things in life, he had a lot of debt when I met him, store cards and credit cards, (all paid off now) he sees things and has to have them. He's a lot better than he was though. I'm sure he's angling for a new phone when his contract is up this year, but I'm having none of it.
Reduced sky bills , we have a 50% off deal ending soon,but can't cancel as dh is the account holder and isn't home till September, might need to find a man to impersonate him

Get him to ring in and cancel it. If he is paying for something that he is not benefiting from he might be willing to suspend it. If the savings could be used for that phone he wants. I will admit that I am the same wanting nice shiny new things but I am still rapidly paying off debts and will be only replacing my phone when it is worth while. My last smart phone I had for nearly 8 years and only replaced it when the battery failed to hold its charge.

[Deleted User]

cw18 really sorry to hear about your broken wrist. I hope it heals quickly and no pin needed.

[Deleted User]

Right, its time for me to get back on the frugal wagon once and for all. This year has been the worst year for me frugal wise as I just can't seem to get my mind-set right.

Going to start with 2 things - food and car. The plans are:
1. Car - when going to somewhere local I must walk. No excuses. I can only use the car if the destination is not local to my home town. Aim to cut petrol useage by £10 at least in August.
2. Food - Use up what's in the cupboards first. Take only cash with me and make a note of costs as I go round the shop/supermarket etc.
3. One other thing is no more buying books until I have read/studied all the ones I currently have. Use local library more.

This will all start when I get back from my hols. I am heading off to Skye tomorrow for 10 days. Looking to minimise unnecessary costs here too while still having a fun and relaxing holiday.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi ALL, things here have got to the point where I need to be Frugal, not Want to be Frugal. I am trying various supermarkets to try and keep food shopping budget down, BUT I have come to the conclusion.. it doesn't matter what supermarket you use, food shopping is still expensive.. I don't go for brands anyway... But I do like quality meat. I have tried online shopping too, I think good old cash in the purse, with no cards in sight, including my bank debit card is def the way to go..as it is so easy to put more bits in the trolley when you have your cards in your purse.. Still think we are no where near the end of those recession.. and prices are still going to go up and up over the next few years... going to grow anther row of peas, and put some the pots that are sprouting in the kitchen into pots etc... might get a late small crop out of them, fingers crossed

Frugalsod

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Hi ALL, things here have got to the point where I need to be Frugal, not Want to be Frugal. I am trying various supermarkets to try and keep food shopping budget down, BUT I have come to the conclusion.. it doesn't matter what supermarket you use, food shopping is still expensive.. I don't go for brands anyway... But I do like quality meat. I have tried online shopping too, I think good old cash in the purse, with no cards in sight, including my bank debit card is def the way to go..as it is so easy to put more bits in the trolley when you have your cards in your purse.. Still think we are no where near the end of those recession.. and prices are still going to go up and up over the next few years... going to grow anther row of peas, and put some the pots that are sprouting in the kitchen into pots etc... might get a late small crop out of them, fingers crossed

I get my meat and veg from local stores as I need them. Veg I use immediately but the meat I buy in bulk from a butcher. Everything else I hunt around for bargains and do online or walk to the stores for specific top ups.

If you are not a brand snob then life is a lot easier. I do shop around but I also do online shopping. What I have found works for me is to keep a shopping list of what I use on mysupermarket. Then use that as a price monitoring service. I add things as I need them to the list, but do not buy unless I have enough to justify a big online shop.

So if I run out of something I will write my shopping list out if things that I need this week, then look on the website and then make out the prices and which shop is cheapest. I will then go to which ever supermarket is in the area and look for those items on my list and see if I can get that price. Only get the items at the lowest price and go to the next supermarket. I will also take it off the online shopping list so I do not order it inadvertently with the next order.

I will save up a lot of long life and frozen products on my online shopping list and will eventually buy them, though I now only shop online infrequently and get items that will get me through many months. That way my online shop has only cost me £3 for delivery and I might have 10 or more crates of items that will last me a year.

Another way is to split that online shopping list. MSM has an order splitting facility so you can split the items that way and have the cheapest items from two stores. The last time I did that was manually and then delayed the second shop by a few weeks so it acted as a top up shop as well.