2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Bobarella

Hi All
Tommorow is pay day for my family. I have an extra £13 to allocate towards a CC this month as our annual contents insurance has ended but were covered till Jan anyway. I think with that and my first wages from the job I may end up paying down almost £500 this month! That is the first time this year we've had any sort of lump sum to do something with so I am feeling very grateful right now.
I also found a £1 coin first thing this morning (and a penny) which I used to buy a few bits to go with dinner. Amazing how it gives you a little boost these things.
Have a great week all.
Bob

alja

[Deleted User] wrote:

Congratulations Alja. Brilliant news:T:T:T

Thank you! Very pleased and grateful for the opportunity


...all this talk of food is making me hungry and excited for Christmas!

Mrs_Cheshire

Alja, congratulations on the job.

I'm really looking forward to christmas, starts officially for us tomorrow as our it's our local area's christmas lights switch on then lots of christmas things planned for the next few weeks.

cw18

I realised last night that our town clearly isn't getting Christmas lights this year !!

Had to wander down to order a prescription, and on the way I spotted 3 businesses had trees on their outside walls - which lead me to check between lamp posts, and there's nothing been strung up by the council

Doesn't overly bother me as I'm totally "bah! humbug!" about the whole season (apart from the music which goes on from next Monday and gets put away again on 2nd Jan - must remember to load my iP0d up over the weekend - and a few DVDs I always watch), but I bet the main towns still have them and our council tax hasn't gone down any more than theirs has gone up to reflect the fact ours are missing and theirs aren't

Frugaldom

CW, The lights in my hometown (village) aren't paid for by the council, the community needs to pay for them. Back home, where I was last week, the lights are paid for by an individual member of the local business community. We have none on the street where I live now but several of us will decorate the front of our houses.

cw18

I've never seen any fundraising for them in the 13 years I've lived here, so have always assumed they come from council tax (definitely council workers put them up).

But like I say, it doesn't bother me. I really don't feel the need to decorate, and all my house gets is a display of the few cards I receive up on a shelf :-o

Went to see family yesterday - late birthday visit for GD4 and early birthday visit for DD. That's it until just after Christmas now, when we exchange presents for that and I also pass over my Dad's birthday bits (28th).

Picklepot

cw18 wrote: »

You might want to take a look at Stardrops. A lot of people use that for everything, much like a multi-surface cleaner. Also suitable for hand laundry.

Thank you CW18 and bigmummaF I have just found stardrops and managed to clean bathroom sinks and shower scum from the tray without the tight chest and gasping out the window!

Bobarella

Hi All
I dont know if I mentioned this here but I rang Thames Water in the week & they've agreed to reduce our water bills to £15 a month! Im so pleased. In the time we've been in our home (3 years) we have gone from £39 to £26 & now to £15. It is a small 3 bed house, but it seems to be very efficient on water. So thats a good & frugal thing.
I had a night crunching the figures & updating spreadsheets on tuesday which was enlightening. We are in a funny situation. We have both always worked for big corporations with generous pensions, until I went self employed 3 years ago. Anyway, although we are in debt, we have £100,000 in pension savings already (Im 36 & OH is 44) which would pay off half our mortgage if we still owed it by then. It feels sad and worrying to think that we cant pay more into our short term savings pot, & struggle along month to move but our long term is doing ok due to company contributions. So we can clearly see where we need to beef things up, but its just finding ways to do it. Which makes me even more determined to find ways to live frugally.
Bob

cw18

While looking for challenges to join in with next year (especially ones to help me use up or resist spending on my zero budgets) I happened across the Crazy Clothes one. That then got me thinking what I was likely to need next year, so that I could set myself some kind of upper limit. Having determined that a couple of pairs of leggings, a couple of sweatshirts (or similar) and a pair of slippers are the things I'm most in need of I took myself off to the Mr T website to check if the prices I was estimating were realistic or not.

An hour or so later I checked out 2 pairs of leggings, 1 sweatshirt and 1 sweater. They're currently offering 25% off everything (I guess part of their Black Friday offers) which brought it down from £44 to £33, and then I realised that clothing is included in the double up of vouchers at the moment - so I exchanged £15 of those (almost totally earned from my mobile contract and by completing surveys) for £30 off my bill. Thus I've only had to pay £3 from my own money

Frugaldom

Congratulations ALJA and well done, CW18

Bob, frugal living can be especially hard when fighting against the surge of debt-inducing opportunities in the city. It is brilliant that you got your water reduced by so much - do they ever refund the entire over payments, I wonder? Hope the longterm plans leave enough room for fitting in a bit of living life at the same time.

I crunched my numbers yesterday, after having to rejig my budget, and am pleased to say that 2015 is shaping up to be every bit as challenging as previous years. Being debt free now means sticking within the £4000 per year with just council tax (about £1000) to pay, so every penny beyond that gets worked into the longterm plans. I started my plan of action in 1999, age 35, and am now 50. It takes time, patience and outright stubbornness to succeed and if I die trying, so be it... I'll can say I had some fun along the way.