2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Kantankrus_Mare

Another little bonus just arrived through the post.

£12 off a £60 shop at sainsburys for the next 6 weeks :j

Now I need to decide whether to do on line where it is easier to spot the bargains but pay for delivery. Or if I make it up to £100 delivery is free.

Or.....go to the store itself and spend just the £60.

Hmm ......I think I will do the £100 for free delivery and do some stocking up. In theory this should make the following weeks cheaper shops.

tatabubbly

Just did some food shopping for the week and stocked up on a few tins of food.. Came in at €70 but there should be loadsa food there now to do me until the 14th when the OH comes back from his trip. We bought as per usual this week and when I came home, I realised that OH was going away for a week on the 5th!

All meat has been divided up and put in the freezer.. Bought some fresh herbs too, can you freeze coriander leaves??

yukkibear

Need to do a little bit of shopping today, just bits and pieces though so will write a list and only buy what is on the list.

I am taking advantage of the weather today and have washed the living room curtains. They are in the sunniest window too which will hopefully help the drying. I found a free sample of washing liquid in the cupboard so have used that to declutter a little bit too.

his_missus

tatabubbly wrote: »

Bought some fresh herbs too, can you freeze coriander leaves??

I have done but you'll have to use them straight from frozen as they go soggy if you allow them to defrost. I usually chop the herbs up, put in freezer bags and just spoon out however I much I need for a recipe.

thepennyfarthings

Morning All, hope everyone is well.

Will be having home made soup from the freezer for lunch, served with hm bread.
Not sure what the soup is, not labelled . I think it's soup!!!!!!!
Going to make the most of the sunshine today, going to walk Sharpenhoe Clappers with children & dog!!!
OH will be picking up dog wormer on his way home from work, so spending day today.

mum2one. Baked the biccies yesterday, added dark chocolate chips & vanilla extract to mine. Yummy, thankyou!!!
For next batch I am going to add dark chocolate chips and orange zest.
Going to have a look at Approved Foods today, any comments/advice about this site most welcome!
Have a great day everyone!
tpf.

Caseymoo

Count me in. Have just had quite an expensive Christmas with all the family here and then a trip to London to meet up with friends from all across the Uk and from abroad too. We had £390 in our moneybox we had saved over the last few months and used it as spending money in London and we now have £240 left which I am hoping will be enough for the next 8 weeks worth of shopping for 2of us.

We are 22 and 23 and both students we are getting married in Cyprus in July and really need to save we have a small business on the side which helps us too. But need to have £6000 for the wedding saved then an extra £2000 to live on hopefully we will be able to manage by cutting back and earning x

Lina_T

Glad to hear everybody is off to a flying start! :j

My frugal activities so far have been:

Getting all my Christmas cards and wrapping paper for next year half price in the card f@ctory sale.

Using my crimping scissors to cut out gift tags from cards

Signing up to the January Dryathlon, should save some money by not drinking for a month :money:

zafiro1984

Agree with bulk cooking and freezing, saves money as the cooker is full so no energy wasted, freeze in portions but I tend to reheat the portions in the microwave, Also saves loads on time when you need something quick.

I'm not doing a meal plan for this week/month as there's enough in the freezers to last a couple of months and quite a lot of it is already cooked and portioned up. I have more than one freezer and use one of them for items I have bulked cooked plus opened pks like ice-cream so this month I have decided to just eat out of this freezer.

Both of us are on a diet from today but all I'm going to do this month is to eat off smaller plates. What can't be fitted onto the plate can't be eaten. I know this is the 'frugal thread' so I'm hoping to make a frugal saving by eating off smaller plates.

Someone mentioned OVO energy somewhere in the last few pages. I use OVO and have had no problem at all with them and you can actually get to talk to a human quite easily. The cost I pay per unit is 12.1p which I think is pretty good.

Out of interest how many units of electric do you use in a day?
We are both at home all day, I have two woodburners one of which has an oven and hotplates, oil central heating and a well insulated house and I still use approx 20 units a day. I want to cut it to about 16/17 per day, any ideas?

nomi76

I have just been doing minimal spending and thinking about what I am buying.

Seems so easy but it is really really hard. Have stopped carrying cash on me which helps with little impulse buys as I wouldn't be bothered paying with card.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Mrs_Cheshire wrote: »

Was thinking the same thing, will have to have a wander next time I go into town! I also need to wait till DH has sorted my shelving as that will depend on how tall the space between the shelves are!

you can get smaller ones... but I don't know the measurements