2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Kerry_Woman

Over the years since I have been doing the frugal challenge, I know that my spending has gone down bit by bit. I still want to reduce the amount I am spending and am now looking to justify every spend and if I really need certain things. I know this will be an ongoing process until I get to the level that I happy with. At times I find it hard and get stressed about the amount of money spent.


Am still trying to reduce the amount of things I have, seems never ending. My handcreams etc are slowing going down. Trying to use as much of them up before the end of the year. I know that this will be carried over to next year.


Am trying to sort out my budget for next year. Some items I know the amount towards the end of the year. The council tax I will not know until next year, so will put a rough estimate. Can always adjust the amount in other items when I know this.

cw18

I've added 1.98% on to my council tax.

I did some G00gling, which brought back various pages saying there's still a government scheme in place to try and convince English councils to freeze it again for 2015-16. But I'm not prepared to assume mine will do.

I also found a Beeb news page which said "Any authority wanting to increase bills by more than 2% will also have to put their plans to a local referendum", which continued by saying that in order to avoid the need to do this (with a high chance they'll lose) they're likely to not increase by more than 1.99%

I've used 1.98% as a starting point purely because it rounded better for my spreadsheet



I need to contact my council as soon as my January payment has gone through. When I recently had a dig through their website to find out how to change my payment date (which I managed) I also discovered that we can now pay over 12 months instead of 10. As this means I hold on to more of my money for longer (and don't have to mess around with my spreadsheet for payment holiday months) I plan to switch from 10 to 12 from the start of the next CT year.

Bobarella

Interesting point on the council tax. I like the payment break for our household budget but I was very glad when they started to allow businesses to pay their rates over 12 months as this really helps small businesses.

lynnejk

carbootcrazy wrote: »

I read this Frugal Living one avidly but am still revving up to join it:o. Maybe in January.
Thanks to you I've now discovered the Grocery Challenge:T and am blown away by the range of advice and help available from such friendly posters. I'll possibly be joining that one in the new year but might just read and post without committing to anything. Oh, and I forgot, I recently joined the new £1000 Emergency Fund Challenge but funds in there are currently zero:o. Money is so tight that I know if I join too many challenges I'm setting myself up to fail big-time:eek:.
Have a good day.

Thanks so much for your kind words. It was so thoughtful of you I have benefited so much from this site that it's great to see other people finding it and getting involved - hopefully helping them live a happier and cheaper life !!


Hope you join this and the GC in the new year as they are both very supportive and helpful.


I understand that you don't want to take on too much so just do what you feel you can achieve for the year coming and try to choose things you will find useful. You can always join/leave later on if you have different ideas/needs.


Good luck and keeping saving money :j
Lx


:xmassign:

Kerry_Woman

Managed to get some M&S vouchers from doing surveys, so this will help with buying food for Christmas and save on the food bill. We have a list for there, so plan to stick to it.


Made of list of all the hand cream etc, so I know exactly what I have and not buy any more until they are all used up, and will save money.


Got Mark Boyle's The Moneyless Man with vouchers I got for doing surveys. Just started reading it. He is doing an event in London in which I am hoping to attend in January.


For my budget and a record of what is spent I prefer to use a notebook. Have several free notebooks which I got at either events I attended or were sent ones, so have enough to last for a long time. I look back in previous years to see how I can improve.

quidsy

I have a work scheme called wow points so bought some boots gift cards for Christmas presents & had enough wow points for a £10 M&S reloadable card, also had 7.80 in TCB points so had that put onto M&S gift card too, am hoping to get myself something nice in the sales with it or at least part of.

Next year my mission is to do as much TCB as possible, I often forget for the little things but these are the ones I spend most over the whole year on so really need to go through TCB to maximize on the spends.

Bobarella

They used to do Wows when I worked at AXA I'm sure. Enjoy yours Quidsy.

natnat13

I am a serial lurker on this thread. I have become a lot more frugal generally with the odd slip! I ordered 2 new dresses in a sale last week, they came yesterday, still £35 though and I don't need them so they are going back. I then bought a nice dress and jacket for £6 off a fb selling page to feed my shopping habit!


I have started my own business and ploughed my savings into it which is quite scary financially. I am still working as well to cover my living expenses but as a single parent its still a big leap.


Re TV - I stream showbox from my laptop through an hdmi cable it has lots of films and TV series on it and is free. They have a fb page or google it.


Next year I plan to post a lot more on here because it keeps me motivated, I am going to try and get organised now for growing veg, bulk buying, selling etc. I think a lot of frugal living is being organised.

[Deleted User]

Kerry_Woman wrote: »

Got Mark Boyle's The Moneyless Man with vouchers I got for doing surveys. Just started reading it. He is doing an event in London in which I am hoping to attend in January.


For my budget and a record of what is spent I prefer to use a notebook. Have several free notebooks which I got at either events I attended or were sent ones, so have enough to last for a long time. I look back in previous years to see how I can improve.

Thanks for the recommendation Kerry, I will have a look at that book.

I too like to use notebooks, although I ask for them as Christmas gifts. I am hoping this year my mum has bought me at least 2:).

Kerry_Woman

allie23 - Still reading the book, so not sure how he managed for the year living with no money. I just thought it would be an interesting read. Am sure someone on this thread got the book from the library, but could be wrong.