2014 Frugal Living Challenge

alja

Just popping in to show my face. LED bulbs sound interesting, I noticed they had some dimmer type ones in H0mebase the other day. I'm yet to need to buy bulbs, but will keep an eye on them for future reference


Still selling the odd thing on the fb selling groups. I've managed to make £47 on there in the last few weeks, so I'm very pleased with that. It seems to be much more successful for me than car boots or eB*y! Considering I want to buy my first home in the not so distant future, it's great to be decluttering how much "stuff" I have whilst making a little bit of money to put towards it

lynnejk

Frugaldom wrote: »

Did everyone know about the sugar offer in 'Poundies'? 49p per kilo, 6 bags per customer. Finally, I have managed to get hold of a relative who is visiting this month and they have visited their local store on my behalf.

It seems to be 48p now at our £s-t-r-e-t-c-h :rotfl:

Frugaldom wrote: »

It's £ streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetcher

And I got my demijohns in the charity shop for £1 each

LED lights - you can get LED strip lights, but not sure if they are available online for delivery, so I'm contemplating switching my kitchen strip light to ordinary bulbs and just having a couple of 5w instead of the current 2 x 58w.

In an attempt to lower the heating bills I have also fitted an infrared bulb in the kitchen, where there's no heating. This makes a huge difference, especially as it's suspended over the dining area, making that a very cosy place to sit. Saves lighting the fire and costs less than 4p per hour to run.

We have one of those heated towel rails in the kitchen (and one in the bathroom) and have wall-mounted them. They cost about 1p a day and double up to dry towels and back-ground heat :money:


Re kitchen lighting - we had two strip lights and took them out. We replaced one of them with a ceiling multi-light (one with two arms and four adjustable directional lights) and have put LEDs in them. Much better lighting as well.


Am now on the beginnings of my 18 month zero interest c/c so hoping to start making some savings :j


Hope you all keeping happy and enjoying the unusually warm weather
Lx

Frugaldom

lynnejk wrote: »

We have one of those heated towel rails in the kitchen (and one in the bathroom) and have wall-mounted them. They cost about 1p a day and double up to dry towels and back-ground heat

Can you post a link to an example of towel rails that cost 1p per day to run? I suspect this is a typo, as a 5w LED bulb costs more than a penny a day to run, but I live in hope of miracle finds in the winter warmth department.

As per Cooltrikerchick, my infrared lamp is the 250w version of the ones posted in her links, supposed to be for brooding the chicks but now brooding the cat, whenever she gets the chance.:rotfl:

teabody

Just to let you know that on my visit to asd@ yesterday I popped into the pharmacy and found that all asd@s are giving vitamin D tablets for children FREE! It is a promotion they have on with no purchase necessary.

optimistic-mummy

8 weeks till new years eve !

its scarily fast how quick this year has gone !

i have an action plan ready and waiting for me for 2015 regarding frugal living i really hope we do it!

i have a budget and a few things i hope to buy before this year is out to cut costs next year. one of our biggest expenses after bills and food is fuel. but my car is a life line with a disability so will not be getting rid anytime soon
like most unexpected expenses have occurred this year and with no savings has left the debt fluctuating ... we do well pay a good amount off and then something crops up and we are back to square one. im hoping i can change this next yr ... it may be the first time since moving out i have savings in my account and the first time in 3 years we wont have any debt hopefully !

i've always been 'careful' with money but its time i try even harder

having a plan is one thing putting it in place is another ... we are using the next few weeks as a trial run ... i think DP is on board too which is good ...

we plan to do the garden next year ... for as cheap as possible .. and hopefully be able to source some stuff for free ...

its about time this place started feeling like a home but im determined i wont be getting into debt or spending a fortune doing it.

food shop is really the only place i will be able to cut back occasionally but wise to allow for 'treats' ...

i have it all planned and ways to source things for cheap including days out and i want to prove it is doable

Frugaldom

Thanks for the Vit D info, teabody, will pass that on to anyone interested.

Good luck, optimistic_mummy, your 2015 plans sound good to me. Being prepared seems to be the easiest solution to juggling finances, so forward planning can help prevent us from falling off the frugal bandwagon.

Very quiet in here these days, isn't it? Hope everyone is well. Cheryl, you still not tempted to move further north? Property prices staying pretty low here, but the weather for past month has been awful.

cw18

Too much to keep me round here at the moment! The main thing is that neither of my parents is in the best of health, and at the moment they're less than 40 miles up the road so (aside from extreme weather conditions or DS1 being out with my car) I can be there in less than an hour from a phone call.

I also have to think of OH who likes being close to his family (he lives within walking distance of his Mum and his sister, and they're all very close) and has his job to think about. But every time we go to the Lakes we do some window shopping in estate agents ready for when we win the lottery jackpot

cw18

Ouch! Just had the window cleaner call round for payment.

And he informed me the cost has gone up from £4.60 (every 2 weeks) to £5!! Apparently it went up 'a while back', but I last paid in July (for 4 months) so wasn't aware of it.

It last went up April of last year, which was another 40p increase - so that's £4.20 to £5 in 18 months. This is fast becoming a "luxury" I may have to reconsider - the only problem being I hate heights, so can't do upstairs myself as they can't be done from inside.

My parents have a tilt and turn style which can be, and if I ever replace windows again it's something I'll certainly consider as any extra cost can be offset against the savings made by not needing a window cleaner!!

teabody

My window cleaner charges £7.50 and I have him round every 4 weeks purely due to cost. I have a karcher window thingymebob that I use in between for downstairs and inside windows. They are approx £50 but I got it on a deal for around £40 some time ago and it is a wonderful device for quick cleaning as my windows tend to have small hand prints constantly!!! I too will look into turn and tilt if the windows need changing.

cw18

I have a fantastic squeegy (courtesy of my window cleaners) which I use for inside, and could use for outside the downstairs. Just wish I could figure out a (minimal outlay and no ladders required) way of tackling the outside of upstairs.

I can reduce my window cleaner to once every 4 weeks, but I know that makes each visit more expensive - though I don't know how much by as they were really good and waived the extra when I dropped frequency (for about 6 months) when late hubby was being treated for cancer and I was off work on incapacity benefit due to back problems. Guess I shall have to ask the question next time they come round with a view to dropping next year.