2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Bobarella

Frugalsod - how do you make crisps? Would love to know. I don't buy much. But all savings are good.

Frugaldom - wow I had no idea they did that with the rate rises. Horrible. Can understand why people would hold a grudge. You sound like you've been through a lot. What did you mean the real Frugaldom?

Well done to all those cutting down on booze, crisps etc. And I agree that a 2nd hand bathroom suite is fine.
A point I have heard made before is its fine to be frugal but not to be cheap at others expense. I see that as pure frugality a good example of the latter is friends of friends who will turn up to a dinner party with exactly the amount of booze they plan to drink and if they don't use it will take it home again!! Now that is a bit much. Feel free to disagree )

Frugalsod

Bobarella wrote: »

Frugalsod - how do you make crisps? Would love to know. I don't buy much. But all savings are good.

Here is a simple recipe. There are plenty more out there on the internet.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Potato-Chips/

Bobarella

Thank you I will definately try this out and report back.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

there is no way I would have thought you could make crisps in the microwave, def going to have a go at this too...

Frugaldom

Well done buying the smallholding and sticking to your guns on the secondhand bathroom suite. Our frugal ecorenovation depends on such bargains.

Bobarella, see my homepage linked to my username for details, I tend to get reported for discussing anything about it if I post links. Basically, did challenge (it is on mse) to buy house for cash, got a renovation project but need to live in it while we renovate and then blew the budgeted savings on 12 acres of land and a barn to turn into a project for fellow frugalers visiting. It is now just in the frugal forums, as I no longer have time to post it all here, as well. HTH

Frugaldom

PS Microwave crisps are good.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Frugaldom wrote: »

Well done buying the smallholding and sticking to your guns on the secondhand bathroom suite. Our frugal ecorenovation depends on such bargains.

Bobarella, see my homepage linked to my username for details, I tend to get reported for discussing anything about it if I post links. Basically, did challenge (it is on mse) to buy house for cash, got a renovation project but need to live in it while we renovate and then blew the budgeted savings on 12 acres of land and a barn to turn into a project for fellow frugalers visiting. It is now just in the frugal forums, as I no longer have time to post it all here, as well. HTH

THANKS Frugaldom, I think saving/getting the money to buy the place was the easy part lol... it will be 3 years march that we won it at auction.... and still mega loads of work to be done... which all costs silly amounts of money.


WON.. the bathroom suit, I was the only bidder, so had it for the starting bid of a £100. so as long as they don't damage it when its removed It is a good frugal buy....


Is that your page? it loos bril, haven't got the time at mo to have a proper look now, but will sit down later with a cuppa and read through it...

Frugaldom

Hi CTC, we bought this house 3.5 years ago and it will probably take another 3.5 years to complete it. Once debt free, the easy part is saving. As the years tick past, you get to wondering if it is too late to start new projects, but then another one comes along. It is all online, every challenge and project since 2007, I think. Looking back at it, it's like a comedy of errors mixed with an intimations column in a newspaper. We have had a couple of frugal meets this year and I am definitly llooking forward to many more in the future.

Good luck with the bathroom suite. There is a tale of one of those lurking online from around 2009, when I got one on freecycle for the fixy up we then failed to get.

First_Trouble

Wow, I have just caught up reading. I signed up at the beginning but my laptop died and only got a new one a few months ago.

I have tried being frugal but think I could still find some new ideas.
for instance I have minimised waste from buying
- quality meat from our local butcher. I get it delivered which is £100 min order for this although this amount of meat lasts us 3 months
- majority of our fruit and veg from a local f&v stall as and when we need it.
- Making my own homemade cleaner
- using mr t v washing powder and stretching with soda crystals
- using vinegar and essential oils in place of fabric conditioner
- have started bulk buying non-perishables when on offer
- making more use of my slow cooker
- making sure we switch all lights and plugs off when not in use
- cleared area of the garden for a reasonably big veg patch

Also we rent and the landlord has just put in a whole new heating system which we can now preset timings and our hot water is heated up as and when we need it. This will be the first winter testing so fingers crossed it makes a significant improvement. Before we used to have the hot water on constantly resorting in some rather pricey bills.

Plus today makes 3 NSD in a row!!

Bobarella

Well I'm not entirely sure if I'm posting the right things on here yet, but something frugal we have done is to go without a car since ours died in August. We finally scrapped it today for £100 having twice failed to sell it for £350 on ebay. Since choosing not to replace it immediately (which would mean debt) we have managed by walking a lot (4 to up to 10 miles per day) in all winds & weather's & taking the bus when necessary.
I would say we've saved about £200 a month in petrol, & so far my husband & I have both lost a stone in weight. We hope to hold out on car buying till our finances improve, & I don't see why we can't.