2014 Frugal Living Challenge

mama67

mummy2threeboys wrote: »

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

don't know if can still get it but ladybird used to do a kids "learn to knit" book hth

sparrer

Thank you for your kindness

Ending the month on a low note, not able to do a car boot tomorrow or next weekend, so hoping the promised Indian Summer arrives and I can do one later next month. I've been clearing DM's home with DB, we've got quite a bit to sell and car boot, the proceeds of the car booting will go to her favourite charity, the british Legion, the proceeds of the bigger items will go into our savings. There was such a lot I brought back which DB didn't want and didn't understand why I did. Loo rolls, cleaning materials, washing powder, dusters etc., etc. It's fine for him with his huge house and fancy income to turn them down, he doesn't realise they're going to save me a small fortune!

I'm away next weekend to Sussex with friends, a short holiday which has already been paid for then in a few weeks going to visit a friend in Yorkshire. A lot of holidays I know, but lovely to be able to visit family and friends.

Nicki_Sue

Frugaldom wrote: »

Well done getting back up to date Nicki_Sue, hope OH is happy in his new job.

Thanks! That is the best of all, he loves his new role. This next month will take some juggling, getting to grips with weekly wages, rather than monthly etc but all in all we are doing well and staying frugal. Our next challenge is to build those rainy day savings.

MyHappinessProject

sparrer wrote: »

Ending the month on a low note....... I've been clearing DM's home with DB,....... There was such a lot I brought back which DB didn't want and didn't understand why I did. Loo rolls, cleaning materials, washing powder, dusters etc., etc. It's fine for him with his huge house and fancy income to turn them down, he doesn't realise they're going to save me a small fortune!

I was so sorry to read about you Mum....Well done Sparrar for tackling a very difficult job. You are doing great. And everyone here understands why you are keeping all these things -it would be stupid to just throw them away and then have to buy new. Hope you can get through the rest of the 'summer' and the clearing ok . It is just one of those jobs that has to be done and it sounds like DB and you are managing it between you just fine. Enjoy your break if you can, we will all be thinking of you.

mummy2threeboys

Loads of love Sparrer, must be really difficult to have to empty her house, i too would keep anything like that, i know my mum would hate me to waste it xx

New Month all, Im starting this week on a detox, feel so bloated, so just drinking soup and fruit, plus ive put on half a stone in just a few months, due to not walking 2 hours to school and back every day
Right this month..hang up 4 door curtains (we only have 2 doors but 2 areas that need "curtaining off" top of stair well and back utility room..as the kitchen is a single skin lean too (very very cold!) I cant wait until we have enough money to take a sledge hammer to that!
Do window films and foam tape the bottom of windows , to stop cold, put tin foil onto cardboard to prop behind raditors.
No drinking till sundays , to save money and good for me.
Make slow cooker meal at least 3 times a week.
Make 8 christmas pressies...yikes.

Thats all i can think of lol..anyway Happy september all xx

cw18

I'm back - and hoping to stay up-to-date from here on.


((hugs)) to Sparrer (and anyone else who needs/wants one)

:beer: to those with good news on finance/job front

:wave: to new (and returning) posters



I've just finished my July accounts (after 21st), so now I need to get stuck into the entire month of August!!!

After my operation on 11th Aug, I was back in hospital overnight on 18th due to a 'change in sensation'... it's looking like I may now have carpal tunnel syndrome, which one doctor tried to tell me was in no way linked to having just had an operation on the wrist in question !!!

Orthopedics signed me off last Thursday, and referred me to physio. Went to make an appt for that, and was so shell-shocked at being told there wasn't an opening until 7th November (10 weeks wait) that it wasn't until I got home that I realised I'd not been given any instructions with regard to care of the wound and the dressing that was on it. Phoned the hospital on Friday, and spoke to the consultants secretary who was horrified I was in that situation with a dressing on. She checked my records and the appointment system, and found me a slot for THIS Friday instead :T

I was told no weight-bearing, but I should be OK with small pans - so I'm trying to cook from scratch again, whilst being careful when I decide what to cook! I've put on too much weight in my 8 weeks of inactivity (ready meals leave me feeling hungry, so I've eaten rather too much junk - and my blood sugar reading this morning was sky high this morning as a result), so today sees me back to calorie counting and trying to sort out an exercise regime. I was going to head to the gym for an aerobics class today, but I couldn't find my membership card - so I'm off out for a slow trot later instead, and will spend some time over the next few days looking for that to try and save having to pay for a replacement. I'm hoping they'll let me start swimming again soon, as that's one of the best all-round exercises going and I'm missing it badly. (Need to try gettig costume on and off at home first though, as I still don't have full mobility in my arm.)


Hopefully back with up-to-date accounts in the next few days, but I know I've spent waaaaaay to much from my 'everything else' budget during August :eek;

Frugaldom

Glad to hear you are recovering, Cheryl. I do try my hardest to keep up here but it isn't easy with everything else. I am trying my best to post more often as we career ever closer to the end of this year's challenge and plan on carrying on regardless. 2015 will be year 8 of having this challenge on here.


Still as frugal as ever and now that we've completed our Active Austerity August challenge we are into the Simple Savings September challenge. Savings are always needing recouped but I did manage to complete my list of 'things to do before I'm 50' barring one thing - I have yet to see the Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights. No matter, switched it onto my 'Things to do before 55' list now.


Don't forget this is national 'Zero Waste Week' when we pledge to do one more thing to help save. My one more thing is rather than think twice before buying or binning anything I will think 3 times and make extra effort to reuse the dratted plastics that seem to come with everything.

Shortie

Afternoon all. A fairly frugal weekend for me (except spending extra on petrol to get to an event that was going on - but entrance was free and we took food with us)

However, I took my Mini up there and it looks like she's got a gas leak on the drivers side suspension. There is still a chunk of clearance but at times when I steer in one direction I think the tyre must be catching the wheel trim and it grinds. I know where to get the kit to re-gas it myself, it's just an expense I could do without as my other daily car has had an MOT-advisory on tyres 2 weeks ago so I want to try and get those done asap.

Oh, and I think my phone's taken another turn and is draining it's battery super fast so I will have to see how it goes. I've backed up my contacts and photos just in case, but I can't justify buying another at the moment so I will have to root around for a spare if my phone does die. I could restart my contact even thought I'm part way through my currently one (I've checked) but I was really hoping to go down to onto a rolling 1 month contract at £10 a month and not carry on with a more expensive tied-in contract

So, on the good news front ...

- We have a pre-planning appopintment today to go over the building plans we want to submit. Fingers crossed that goes uneventfully

- While spending time with the chooks on Saturday I saw a lovely crop of plums overhanging our garden from a neighbour which I forgot all about. We know they're fine about us helping ourselves (though i also now that as the over-hang our garden we can have them regardless..) so I'm hopeing we can get some ladders out to pick them tonight. I need to look up some plum recipies in a mo :drool: I'm not sure we'll all eat that many between us as we're not huge plum fans but I'm not having them go to waste either! Any that are super soft can go to the chooks so everyone's a winner

sparrer

Thank you for the info Frugaldom , just signed up for the newsletter. Btw I love your sig

I don't have a lot of waste, my black bin might have a carrier bag of rubbish every fortnight but there's always something we can do to make a difference.

For my first day of zero waste, I used all the peelings from the veg, the scrapings off the chicken and the jelly it produced in the sc, added some flour and egg and turned it into dog biscuits. I'd normally buy liver for that but thought I'd make use of the bits I often throw away. Muttley has just had a test taste and is very happy . I'll try every day to make food go further, which will be a real challenge as I don't waste a bean now!

I've just been through the bag of bags - carrier, veg, the ones magazines come in etc., - and have whole bag of good bags in the car to take to the charity shop next time I go that way, they're always grateful for them

I've lined a drawer with ice cream and margarine tubs covered in pretty paper, one for make-up, one for perfumes, another for brushes and combs, etc., etc. It puts the tubs to use and is much easier to find what I need now.

Frugaldom

Zero waste here has me knittin some more string into a cloth so I use less kitchen roll, which is a luxury in itself here.

Still using coffee beans from last year's App Food order and the grinds go in the blueberry patch.

Fir those who know me, you will be delighted to hear that A$da are running a trial delivery service all the way out to our corner of SW Scotland, so quite a number of us are taking part. At long last, we have access to supermarket prices!

Made a new batch of laundry gloop, it has saved me an absolutr fortune over the past few years.

Weekend wild camp was brilliant with a total spend of absolute zero, as we cycled there and back. Highly recommended as a fun and frugal break.