2014 Frugal Living Challenge

hollieinbloom

Evening all! Spendy day for me but not too bad

First stop was boots:
5 x fructis hair gel (half price £1.52 each)
2 x boots bubble bath (89p each)
1 x fcuk gift set (70% off £2.40)
= £10.45 (got staff discount)

Got a good stock of hair stuff for OH now and that's all the toiletries we need for a while. Gift set is for my dad for fathers day.

Then went off to wilkinsons and got:
1 x guinea pig water bottle £1.65
2 x wooden spatula (mine were starting to smell funny ) 28p each
2 x make your own christmas crackers sets. £1.50 halfprice each.
= £5.21

Home bargains:
3 x birthday cards 29p each (these are actually really good cards!)
1 x storage boxes for OH's screws etc 99p
1 x coffee whitener 99p
1 x nescafe international roast coffee 200g £2.39
2 x roberstons ketchup 85p each
other stuff that has slipped my mind now!
= £10.71

I have saved up almost £5 just from transferring the odd pence over every time I spend on my card or if a DD comes out.

Went to morrisons and spend £24.50 too. Got some more of the curver storage boxes half price. There wasn't many left which was annoying as I wanted quite a few! boo.

SarahB1989_2

Fed up of uni making life more expensive than it needs to be. Essay due in holidays = pay to post it even though no-ones there to read it til next week. Moved to another site for two months = having to stock the kitchen cupboard from scratch (and buy a roasting dish for the oven as our entire cooking supplies are a frying pan, two saucepans, and a kettle between four of us). Food bill would normally be £15 for the week, just spent nearly £30 in tesco - all the bloody little bits like oil and tea and canned stuff that are sat in my flat cupboard over a hundred miles away needed buying again as can't carry that plus the rest of my life in a suitcase on the train...

Either way have made a note of exactly how much I spent and subtracted it from this month's food budget so I know what I've got left til Feb. Few little treats in there I probably could have gone without but it's exam week, will try harder next week!

Walked both ways to/from the train station where normally would have got a taxi so that's at least £12 saved...

butter-fly8

Got my first idea from this thread on how I'm going to start getting our finances in order. I've been reading that many of you meal plan which sounds really good to me as I think this is definitely an area I could save some (or a lot rather) money.


Loving reading all your ideas and getting great inspiration too.


Got to start somewhere I suppose!!

quidsy

Oh and I worked out our meal plan for next week and I went to mr moris sons and spent 57 quid, that included some bits that will make my own bread, pizza bases and at least 3 curries worth of sauce, mango chutney etc. Compared to normal weekly shop im already down 30 to 40 quid. Got home and made 4 pizza bases, 2 for dinner tonight and 2 for the freezer. Got a whole chicken which will make 2 dinners and 4 lunches ( 2 each for me and oh) a pork leg which will feed us 3 for one dinner and oh will eat whats left for snacks, and a piece of beef to make curry on friday.

The pizzas have come out amazing, plus I got a work out neading the dough for 15mins, lol. Ds and oh are very impressed and as a pizza hut would normally run to 20+ quid and these cost approx 3 quid for both pizzas I am suitably impressed with the saving.

Also signed up and did a 40 quid including delivery shop of pantry items from approved foods. I have no issue with past value dried and tinted goods, I actually agree with the use the use by is only a suggestion after all. this order should cover us for at least 3 months.

quidsy

Oh and I have some ropey looking parsnips and carrots which will be turned into soups for next weeks lunches too

nat21luv

I've had a super frugal day today, it's a friends bday tomorrow and I decided rather than getting him a present, I would make him a cake he doesn't have any family that would do this so though it would be a nice gesture. Hunted through the cupboards and found a lot of ingredients, used the kids Xmas smarties to decorate with lots of other bits of glitter and sprinkles, had buttercream in the cupboard and found a packet of brownie topping mixture that I made up and splatted on the top it looks great so I hope he likes it. I only needed eggs so had to buy those and found a new bday card in the draw so used that my budget was £5 for his bday so I'm happy I only spent £1 on eggs never mind that I'm going to the cinema with him and out for dinner tomo...!

Kantankrus_Mare

On the plus side I have cut some christmas cards up to make a few gift tags for next year.

Bottled some homemade wine that was sitting in two demi johns in the cupboard. Its only a white kit wine and I tend to use this for cooking as I hate spending £4 - £5 for a wine to cook with.

Have some elderberries and brambles in outside freezer which I will defrost over next few days and make red wine. Now this is initially only good for cooking but some years matures into a lovely drinkable red wine!

Downside? Had a chinese for tea which was yummy

chirpycheap

Have had a good think today about what I need to do to become more frugal. I am really thrifty in a lot of areas but then waste money in others. If it’s only a few pounds, or it’s at a reduced price then I kid myself it doesn’t count.
I need to get more savvy comparing prices. I don’t know if its laziness but I know I should do some research before purchasing stuff but I generally don't. I must admit to getting confused and overwhelmed by price comparison websites and never have the confidence to buy something online because I worry that I will be conned. I do however need to stop paying full price for every purchase that I make. The world has changed but my shopping habits haven’t!
On that note a really good declutter is needed. No more buying until I’ve used up what we’ve got. Anything we don’t use is going to the tip, the charity shop, a car boot or I might even be brave enough to try selling on an online auction site! Hopefully we might make a little extra cash and whilst I am at it I need to look at other ways to make some money.
I can cook and know how to be thrifty in the supermarket. My challenge is portion control and avoiding the temptation to eat out!
Hopefully I can stay on the straight and narrow. I don’t like overspending and kick myself when I do it and avoiding shopping because it makes me temporarily feel better will be my biggest challenge.

DawnW

Chirpycheap, I would sell some of the unwanted hobby equipment on ebay. It is easy to get started

bmma

:beer:January:Tbag of fresh veg for casseroles, was £1.50, reduced to 50p x
:Tgift of a box of biscuits today as a first foot present from friend x
:Tmade bread today-nice crusty bread for less than 40p x
:TBenny (the goldfish) was given a new box of food today-a gift x
:Tcauliflower reduced from £1.49 to 60p.:T,bag of fresh veg for soup/casseroles-reduced from £1.50 to 50p.x
:T 1-lb jar of mincemeat reduced from £1.00p to 50p.x

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week ending 12/1/14
SPC-not known
20p challenge = £3.40p:j50p challenge = £6.50p:j£2.00p = £8.00p:j
:T3/14 projects completed:j

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