2015 Frugal Living Challenge

rubiesr4eva

Hi, I'm definitely signing up for this. I do my best to be frugal, where home, food and cosmetics are concerned. Two reasons for this, 1, I hate wasting money, especially on big companies, and more importantly, 2, I have 2 boys who have expensive hobbies (1 wall climbing and piano and the other street dancing, which takes us all over UK), and while I don't begrudge a penny spent on them, I do need to be frugal in all other aspects of living.


So the main action taken so far is completing next years diary, making sure I have everyone's birthday (no last minute expensive dashes to shops for expensive card and/or present, and making at note of when all insurances (vehicle, home or business) run out, contracts (phone, elec, roadside etc) so that I have plenty of time to shop around for best offer.


Already stock up on meat etc, and daughter, 18, loves to do meal plans, so that's a big help. And any peelings, scraps etc go to feed our chickens, so nothing goes to waste, even potato peelings get boiled, then cooled for them


Apart from shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and deodorant(which I stock buy when on sale) I don't buy other cosmetics as use what I get for Christmas and birthday. And that goes for my Tia Maria supply and clothes too (b'day in July so evenly spread out), this way I never feel as though I go without

Nicki_Sue

Where do you get birthday / anniversary cards from?
Around here is SO expensive and I'm planning in advance. We've agreed to do cards for siblings etc as opposed to gifts and just do gifts for the kids (and by mutual agreement Mum and Dad).
Is there anywhere online that do nice ones cheaply enough?

cw18

Nicki_Sue wrote: »

Where do you get birthday / anniversary cards from?

C@rd Warehouse. Last year I stocked up, paying £1 for 10 for most, and £1 for 5 for some.

Nicki_Sue

cw18 wrote: »

C@rd Warehouse. Last year I stocked up, paying £1 for 10 for most, and £1 for 5 for some.

That's not bad. I'll have to wait until I go through somewhere that has a Card W@rehouse though as we don't have one one nearby.

rubiesr4eva

homemade-gifts-made-easy and crazylittleprojects are good sites to look at for cheap ideas for cards and presents and give the extra personal touch. I also stock up on cards for all occasions at car boot sales

COOLTRIKERCHICK

blackberrycurved wrote: »

COOLTRICKERCHICK
buy your pork lamb from hugh fern witty thingies website direct and organic from a farmer half a pig is about £65 - £70 same with lamb. It comes direct by courier all cut up although I obviously cut it smaller or batch cook. That is our meat bill for all year. It lasts about 10 months. All I add to that is minced beef and some steak when it's on offer and the odd chicken saves me about £400 a year.

that is soooo cheap for half a pig pig, we breed and rear our own and I cant even get it killed and butchered for that..( including sausages, burgers etc) they are losing big time on their pigs lol..


I normally buy a whole lamb ( butchered and vac packed and labelled) BUT I haven't got room in the freezers as its full of pork lol..


was thinking once part of our big garden par of our land is fenced off in having a couple of lambs to bring on for the freezer, maybe next year..


here is a pic of some of our piglets, when we sold them at the fatstock auction, they came second... and brought more money than the first price winners lol

DawnW

Love the piggy picture CTC

quidsy

Any link pleasetl buying half pig direct? Have tried googling but nothing obvious coming up

viv0147

Hi everyone and a Happy New Year to you all! Just to tell you a little about myself I am a divorced male and I am retired on a state pension so as you can imagine I have to be careful regarding spending. I have recently got myself a cat for some company
I would like to join this forum please
I started using coupons and voucher’s 2 years ago and prior to doing that the amount of cash I had left by my next pension day would only be a few pounds so my car had to go plus other things
I have a free bus pass and plenty of time to go to most of the supermarkets so I basically follow the bargains and coupons free samples etc. Providing I have use for them.

I bought a large chest freezer to go with my split fridge freezer to enable me to batch cook meals and buy some items in bulk and freeze sometimes I find bread reduced to 19p so I will by 5 loaves or milk reduced and freeze them so at the moment they are both full.

The amount of money I have saved over the past 2 years has amazed me I now have no debt and a few thousand in savings what a turn around! And the bonus is on top of that is I am eating like a King and trying loads of different types of food.

When I go shopping I will go to a supermarket with a list and armed with my coupons etc. Making sure I only get what I went for unless I come across some Woopsies! So quite often I may only spend £5 or on times less but I will do this in a number of places Lidl, Aldi, Morrison’s, Tesco, Sainsbury, as I said I have a bus pass and time.

I have now turned this into a hobby and I just love it when I get some things for free or for pence using cashback sites etc. There have been times when I am at the checkout and have 2 bags of shopping for a few pounds it’s just amazing if I had done this throughout my life I would be a very rich man now.
So thank you all for the tips I have already received and if anyone can give me some more tips please do so, as they say in Tesco every little helps
A few months ago I bought myself a cheap car out of money saved and the insurance and tax all cash upfront not just the savings from food but all other household expenses as well because I tend to buy in bulk carrying the bags to the bus stop and then to the house I was finding quite a strain so it’s nice to have a car again although there are still some journeys I take using my bus pass
I will be doing very little shopping for the next few months It’s time to run my stocks down I’ve been doing a weekly menu on my computer then printing it out and sticking it on my fridge then by doing so I will only buy what I need to complete my meals. Sorry if I rambled on a bit but I get so excited lol.

imapoet

rubiesr4eva wrote: »

homemade-gifts-made-easy and crazylittleprojects are good sites to look at for cheap ideas for cards and presents and give the extra personal touch. I also stock up on cards for all occasions at car boot sales

There was an enormous amount of brown paper packed with a parcel I received in the post so I've ironed it ready for wrapping gifts next year - a nice twine bow and my little home made gifts will look great! I've also got brown card blanks and will use the fronts from cards received to make new cards. I'm not being cheap I'm being creative!