2014 Frugal Living Challenge

cyberthrifty

Sorry to appear from nowhere but thought I would share, I bought 3 lynx gift sets from Wilko, £3.75 each but in the 3 for 2 gift offer so more like £2.50 each. Hope this helps.

I'm lurking in the wings waiting for the 2015 challenge!

macwah97

Hi everyone,

Think I will run away for 2015:)

2015 is looking like a very frugal year. As of next Wednesday I now drop to working 3 days a week - out of necessity.

OH is recently diagnosed with diabetes on top of everything else- he is straight onto two tablets a day but it is very uncontrolled at present - has come very close to lapsing into a coma twice so far, therefore I have decided to reduce hours to 3 days per week and claim Carer's allowance - panic sets in when I look at budget - but I was stressing about OH when I was not close by.

Our eating habits have changed dramatically already and I have found it to be quite expensive and time consuming 'examining' everything on the supermarket shelves but on the plus I have also discovered that I can make reasonable homemade bread so a saving there.

Enough of the whining - just have to knuckle down and get on with it

Merry Christmas to everyone.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

cyberthrifty wrote: »

Sorry to appear from nowhere but thought I would share, I bought 3 lynx gift sets from Wilko, £3.75 each but in the 3 for 2 gift offer so more like £2.50 each. Hope this helps.

I'm lurking in the wings waiting for the 2015 challenge!

thanks for the heads up,


went on line, and they are advertising the 3 for 2, but the discount isn't coming off??


might go into town later and pic some up

youngmummy

hi all i have made some good and not so good progress over the last month or so.
i have been living off the same amount we will be budgeting for in 2015 we have had some weeks where we have overspent and others where we have underspent so hopefully it will even out


quick question. im looking into trying soap nuts as a laundry powder alternative ... does anyone know if they are safe to use for cloth nappies ? i dont fancy still having to buy laundry powder just to wash the nappies
TIA

natnat13

I bought "The Money-Less Man" book from amazon for 1p so £2.81 with postage. I'm about a third of the way through and although there's no way I could do it, it really makes you think about wants v needs. We don't actually need a lot.
I think in the last few years loosely following this challenge I have got a lot better but 2015 is the year to really go for it.
I think I may start a blog, purely to keep me on track and also explain to friends. I think sometimes peer pressure is very hard. I'm out for a meal tomorrow night, its £25 set menu plus taxies and drinks. Ok I could drive but included is wine with each course so I want to take advantage of that. I wasn't going to go but my friends all nagged me into it.

cw18

natnat13 wrote: »

Ok I could drive but included is wine with each course so I want to take advantage of that. I wasn't going to go but my friends all nagged me into it.

For me it would depend on how close I was to the friends - I'm really not a fan of eating out I wasn't even when I had a good income and no food intolerances, and now find myself looking at menus and working out how many days I could feed myself for instead of spending on just one meal :eek: I guess I'm lucky that OH doesn't push it, and has backed off on the take-away suggestions (which were only every few months anyway, and while he generally paid I still hated seeing the money being handed over)

I'd also hope they have the option of soft drinks instead of alcohol. There's bound to be some people who eat there who are driving - and then there are people like me who don't drink at all. If they didn't offer an alternative I'd refuse to put any money into their tills however good the friends.




I think my budgets (and ways of funding zero budget categories) are now all set for next year, having increased my water D/Debit this week (could see me ending up owing them after their recent downward adjustment), dropped my present budgets for a number of people (my kids and I have agreed we're no longer doing Christmas for each other, so I've dropped those to £5 each to allow for a novelty item to give them something to unwrap), and decided I'm definitely dropping the window cleaner from fortnightly to 4-weekly (only saves me £52 over the year, but that covers the cost of the MOT that I can't get away from without getting rid of the car).

I'm going to cast a final eye over it tomorrow and Monday, then I can hopefully put it to bed until 1st Jan

[Deleted User]

I had a bit of a skim thorugh The Moneyless Man on amazon and had a look at the website. In theory I like the idea and I will get involved in my local timebank in the New Year to swap skills.

On the other hand there are a few things where I felt he still has to use 'money'. For example he says on his website that he aims to walk, cycle or hitch-hike to events and talks. Well surely the people he hitchhikes from have paid money for their car/insurance and fuel. So it may be free to him but not free really. Somene still has to spend money so he can get it for free, or gift something to them etc.

I have thought about opening up the option to my complementary therapy clients that they can skill swap or 'gift' something instead of paying cash and I will probably offer this but there are many of my clients who would rather pay cash than have the 'hassle' of skill swapping or looking for a box of teabags to give me in return.

Kerry_Woman

Have let myself down by buying more toiletries this week just to add to my collection. I blame myself for having got the shop's card to get a discount on each sale and a free gift 4th and 8th stamp.


I have now set myself a challenge to not to buy anything for the rest of the year, accept the food shopping and what is on the list and to plan the food shop according.

Frugaldom

Hi fruguys and gals, apologies for being AWOL again for a bit, time has been in very short supply.


I Will get the new thread/challenge set up as soon as possible so you can start preparing for 2015.


Living without money is impossible - imagine if everyone did it in today's society? I just wonder what these book-type people do with all the money that they aren't spending? I'll bet they aren't giving it all away to avoid having it.


Sticking with exact same budget here as it suits my purposes, but I'm still crunching numbers to make sure holidays are included in my £4k, as well as gifts and 'other stuff'. It's amazing how much the other stuff costs but then again, out here in the sticks while working from home means no £25 meals out, takeaways, pubs, amenities or shops.

Frugaldom

I have set up the 2015 challenge thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5138351


For some reason, I can't create text links on here any more, sorry.