2015 Frugal Living Challenge

nicedream_2

Frugaldom wrote: »

Shampoo... 20p per bottle and infuse it with either rosemary, lavender or sweet gale. Does me just fine.

I am doing my £1 per person per day for all meals again this year, so every penny needs to be accounted for at all times. The plus side is that we eat in a healthy manner while affording to save, hopefully, £1 a day extra into the fun funds.

Where do you find Shampoo for 20p per bottle?! I like the idea of infusing/making my own.... I will do some online research.

Good luck with the £1 a day! What kind of meal plan do you have? Did you manage to do it last year?

Nicki_Sue

An update on my weekly butcher's box. I am thrilled!
I got the first one delivered yesterday and the value is unbelieveable (me being me I weighed everything and each package was over what it shod be, in some cases well over).
I'll see how I get on with this week's however it could well be that I knock Asd@ online orders on the nose unless I need a stock up of tins and what not that I can't get elsewhere and will use the greengrocer or Lidl for fresh veg (etc)

It's the little things that please me

In other news I've just transferred £18 from Quidco which will be split between my sealed pot and the savings account when it arrives.

maria3104

Morning all,

Yesterday a friend called in with some free food. Trays of veg were being sold off at a wholesalers for £1 a tray, DD and DS home so we were delighted and spent the next 2 hours blanching sprouts, making 8 pints of brocolli and stilton soup and 8 pints of mushroom soup. I hope they freeze well. I will put portion size bags in freezer for lunches. Really pleased. 16 at least free lunches and 16 lunches with sprouts, Kind friend.

Am getting to grips with another NSD. Hope I can maintain this going forward.
Did not declutter yesterday as was on veg. Hope to restart this tonight.

Have a good day everyone.

mummy2threeboys

Morning all, Yesterday was not a Nsd for me..I spent £50 on new clothes..although I spend about £20 a year on basics and thats it. These where all slobby unflattering clothes. Now I have a stack of new to me lovely vintage ones..I may need some summer capris and maybe some cork wedges. But I feel fine..I cut and colour my hair myself and cut the familys too so really this year £100 ish on new clothes and basics is not bad! Best of all I bought a stunning Hell bunny dress for just £7 ..Back into entering comps to treat the family. Won a few resturant vouchers and stunning dress so anniversary will be nearly free! (We don't exchange gifts anymore)
Humm think that's it.. Been catching up on washing oh heard co op os doing one of its nice wash powders for half price. This years debts have been accounted and adjusted now over half way..hoping I can get rid of the sant*nd*r Credit card currently £1100 ish..just paid off £150 which felt great only have 3 debts now..only!!

Do have 2 x camping trips Possibly 3
1 trip round from brighton to cornwall and home..was thinking of hiring a campervan may have to be just a car
and 1 sun holiday

Off to sort out monthly budgets..Have a great week all x

cw18

A week into the year, and I hope I've finally finished tweaking and debugging my new spreadsheet.... having discovered a few spots where it was double counting things ( :eek: ) or not giving me accurate breakdowns of some things I wanted to keep an eye on easily ( )

At the moment my zero budgets have gained £151.75 :T This is

• £100 from Christmas (wanted time to decide how to spend it, so put it into my 2015 income)
• £10 monthly 'pay' from DS1 for doing his laundry
• 10p from my presents stock (card for GD3 later this month)
• 59p from using up toiletry/cleaning stocks that won't be replaced
• £30 from doing surveys (most of this earned in the last 3 months, and claimed as Amazon vouchers as I spend a fair bit on there each year)
• 1p roadkill
• £10.12 from my grocery, toiletry and cleaning budgets (half the replacement value of items used from stock which will be replaced, plus half the savings from using vouchers, and half the savings from multi-buys / special offers / whoopsies / cashback )
• 2p loose change from direct debit payments
• 83p loose change from grocery purchases (from stock or shops)
• 8p loose change from toiletry purchases (from stock or shops)

I know I won't add on this much on a regular monthly basis, but it's great to have kickstarted with such a healthy amount


From that I've already spent £22.99 on a pair of much needed knock-around trainers, and 73p postage on a pass-it-forward item.

icontinuetodream

Doing pretty well on the food front - still haven't shopped since solstice!! Admittedly, if ds hadn't gone out and bought milk, I definitely would have had to purchase some by now, but I am still counting it as a victory!!

dd is going away for a week next week so it will be an easy week for food - dh and I both eat erratically and will just get what we want from the freezer and I have given up trying to accommodate ds's eating habits...we have come to an agreement where I don't make enough for him unless he specifically tells me he intends to eat - there is only so much room in my freezer for leftovers and he is reliably unreliable! :rotfl:

I still haven't sorted out the sewing machine - I just keep putting it off I think it's because my (almost non-existent!!) creative streak is firmly anchored in food - not sewing or other types of craft......however, I am going to deffo sort it by the end of this month - if I hate it, then I shall just give it back to my friend and see if I can donate all my fabric/old clothing to her too!!

I am hoping to make candles and firelighters over the weekend - I now have enough tumble dryer fluff and egg boxes to make enough firelighters for whole of next winter and I am running short of candles so I may as well get them done while I am sorting the wax for the firelighters.....saves energy!!

Hope everyone else is doing well!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

afternoon all,


what carp weather we are having, and it supposed to get worse!!


talking about the lack of beef etc in A$DA some people over on the SHTF thread are saying they are having problems with lack of wholemeal/flour on the shelves of certain supermarkets...


surely there isn't a HUGE surge in bread making this week lol..


spending has been EXTREMELY minimal this week so far, run out of cooking oil a day or so ago, so going to dry fry the pork chops I will be cooking for tea, will have them with mash potatoes and baked beans....


Got one of our Pigs booked into the abbotoir next week, so will pick up pork, sausages and pork burgers next Thursday, and then pick the bacon and gammon up in a few weeks after its been cured..so with what pork we still have in the chest freezer, we should be ok for pork for another year lol..

Nicki_Sue

A code came through this morning for a free Kindle book (I love to read, I don't pay for Kindle books though if I can help it!). I've Adele Park's The State We're In downloaded now and ready for me to enjoy (for free) this weekend, saving 3.00.

Got some gifts for my Dad's birthday yesterday too, all 50% off from the the Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research online charity shop (sale stuff is dotted about a bit in some sections but worth looking if you do have someone to buy for).

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

I have been asked to do extra work on my second job this week, which is all extra money but its been hard going. I have been working late every night so havent had time to post on here.

I am pleased that I have managed to avoid online sales which is hard for me. One thing I have discovered about this frugal living business is that it makes you appreciate what you have already. I have been wearing clothes that were shoved into the back of the wardrobe. Its a bit like having new stuff without spending money!

Right, got to run, got to get ready for job no. 1!

quidsy

Well so far my meal plan is working. OH is on board & as long as he knows what is going in the oven that day he is fine.

This week I made a gammon joint which provided 2 dinners, slow cooker shepherds pie & have frozen 2 portions, tonight ds & I are having tinned pie & beans & I was going to prep a lasagna in the sc for oh to re heat tomorrow with a loaf of ys garlic ciabiatta but ds is now going to a friends for tea so I will push it forward to Saturday.

The planned saturday dinner of beef noodle soup will be added to the end of the list, thus giving me another day:)

I will eat a tin of soup for tea tomorrow with a cheese sandwich & oh will eat his own food as per usual.

I find having the list on the wall really helps. I can check a couple of days in advance if I need to defrost, slow cook or shop for anything, then have it ready in the fridge for oh to either reheat in micro or put in the oven to cook. I really hope I can maintain it.