2014 Frugal Living Challenge

mummy2threeboys

I love christmas. I do a lot of comp entering and last year won most of the kids pressies. But either way we only spend about £40 for each child, but i make a lot of things for them. This year eldest has decided he wants me to collect all the mens freebie samples and pop them in a hamper lol..middle son 6, loves baking so im going to make him a cooking hamper using some of those cake, bread and biscuits sand art style mixes..must save some jam jars. plus nice for a bit of a group family fun activity x
Lots of fun hats, and clothes to make and crochet this year as well. Eldest even asked me to knit him a hoodie with some £1 wool we found. Oh and he's just started to knit so i got some childrens knitting needles (free as i got a sign up voucher) and a few of my odd upused wool, and ill add a few more balls to the stash when i see the fun ones reduced at my shop..need to see if i can find a very cheap kids knitting book. No idea what main hamper to do for hubby and 3 year old.

Dragged out the boys and our thicker duvets yesterday so beds are half prepared for winter..ill put the thinner ones under the fitted sheet to keep it toasty, ive discovered wool socks are much warmer than normal shop bought ones. Oh and found a lovely floor lamp that someone was binning, it needed rewiring, and a lampshade all in it was £8 to fix and put a shade on.!

All bills paid, a few treats and birthday pressies sorted, I now have £20 fun money to last 3 weeks. i do have much more but only trying to not use any child tax credits, if i can manage that then il stay way in my od and maybe get somewhere back on track with what my sig says!
Have a great day all x

Shortie

Afternoon all, I need to catch up with this thread - we have been on holiday for two weeks and my first week back in work has been frantic (very much looking forward to having the Bank Holiday Monday off!)

Managed to get through last pay month (I get paid on 20th each month) just about, and have some big things to pay this month again (switch over the car insurance on my Dad's car to me as I've now bought it off him and it's my station car; take out and put aside spending money for our Sun £9.50 Holiday in the October half term, and someone is leaving our work place today so there have been a few team lunches and a leaving card/contribution to fund)

Ooohh, I'm starting to feel all Christmassy now after reading some of the posts on this page - whoops!!

Frugalsod

I am planning for Christmas but it is never really expensive as the family never spend too much on pressies. The food might be the biggest expense, with meat being the most expensive single item.

Nicki_Sue

We had a Lidl Xmas dinner last year and it was fab! We had one of their three bird roasts which did Xmas dinner and Boxing day and if I remember right the next day for sandwiches too. Great value and easy to cook. We'll do similar this year.

Frugaldom

Falling way behind with updates on here but still as frugal as ever. Finally managed to get our little bit of land to set up the real Frugaldom project and have already had several meet ups with members, which has been brilliant fun.

Christmas not even thought about yet, but the budget is bang on schedule to stay within my £4,000 for the year. Still cycling, still reading when I can and still running the challenges.

Hope everyone is well, pm or email me anything I need to know and keep on frugaling.

Frugaldom

cw18 wrote: »

Actually in hospital - had an operation on my arm yesterday afternoon. So it"s back to Day 1 of recovery :eek:

Hope you recover quickly, C, get well soon.

Frugaldom

hollieinbloom wrote: »

Good luck with it! Apparently the first week is the hardest so you're coming past that stage I am a smoker still and struggle to quit! I have no will power whatsoever so that's probably why!! :rotfl:

If you fancy trying the challenge, check back over the old threads as several of us quit a few years back and have saved every penny since then... look for the billy can challenge, not sure exact name, it should have the basics to make it fun and achieveable to break the habit and save an absolute fortune.

mummy2threeboys

Billy cans a fab idea..you can allways take a baby food tin .or simular old spice jar? With you when out..and write how much you where going to spend on those new shoes/dress or whatever you do not actually need.add to the jar.a virtual savings jar as it where.

Im off to pick a load of blackberrys again, and elderberrys to make syrup and chutney .and flavouring for ice cream.oh and walk the legs off my 3 boys.
Made pancakes this morning from buttermilk, with the butter we made, and one of our chickens eggs..:D..sadly the hand blender has broken and doesnt go around so im going to pull it apart to see if it can be fixed , its out of warentee and only a £4 one ..but still worth ago.
My first approved food order of the year (i get 4 from aug-nov) then meal plan from those to help lower food bills..i have 2500g gram of french onion soup coming lol
Double hang our dining room curtains and closed them..was actually sweaty last night!
Have a good weekend all x

tatabubbly

Beginning my planning for a very frugal Xmas, making a list tonight!

We will be going home to Ireland (yay!!!!) so I plan to help mum with the Xmas dinner... She's doing up our house at home and I know her and my stepdad have put by some curtains in the store my friend works at so I will be paying them off as their pressie... Other than that, everyone else will be getting pressies bought on offer!

mrsinvisible

Yes, Christmas, my favourite time of year, and my biggest frugal challenge. I got lots of gift sets in the B**ts 75% off sale so most of the 'outliers' are done, just family now.
Still enjoying the home grown harvest frugally, but 2/3rds of the year gone and more than 3/4 of the budget is gone, but better than last year as the savings pot has a healthy reserve in it.