2015 Frugal Living Challenge

maria3104

Hi

Thank you bambywamby and others for your kind words. Definitely made me feel better. Not sure what set me off.

Amazing wind here, absolutely howling hope those of you with polytunnels still have them tomorrow.
Maria

rising_from_the_ashes

Good news today I sent a parcel with a Christmas present in by courier in mid November (to miss the rush as I had one take nearly 5 weeks to arrive last year!) and it got lost

After much (and I really do mean much) too-ing and fro-ing, countless emails, rejections, complaints, more emails, etc etc etc - they've today accepted my claim and I should get a refund of the postage & compensation for the lost items in the next 10 days :j

Just under £45 in total so well pleased as I'd had to buy an emergency Amazon voucher when it didn't turn up so it had been a really expensive present until now!

It can go towards the big vet bill I have for the cat!

lynnejk

Hiya everyone

Been really bad here this week. Snow, ice, freezing cold. Then today lashings of rain and a howling wind. Glad we are half way through January !!


Think I have sorted my budget for the year. These are all monthly amounts. They are paid yearly if it's cheaper or else monthly if there is no penalty.


Rent 3360
Council tax 1140
Electric 864
Petrol 1200
Car maint 520
Car tax 130
Car insure 195
Car breakdown 36
Travel ins (year) 104
House ins 110
TV Licence 144
Family 100
Telephone line 186
Broadband 39
Mobiles (2) 360
Wine 830
Household 2400


So that makes a total of £12,818 for everything to pay for the household. All the monies are kept in bank accounts and bills paid for by direct debits (monthlies) or by card (yearlies)


We also have a personal budget of £150 a month each. This covers everything from clothes and presents to haircuts. When we go out we take it in turn to buy drinks, usually twice a month. If we go out for a meal I will either get a voucher or a discount from somewhere and then we split the bill, usually once a month.


All the rest of our monies are saved in accounts earning interest and used for emergencies, savings and holidays.


We have three credit cards.
One is zero-interest for another 15 months and is maxed out, the money sitting in one of our accounts earning interest, although at present we are £1200 short to repay due to horrendous car bills. This should be corrected by the end of March.

One credit card is kept to use abroad on holidays, as it is interest free for purchases abroad, and repaid immediately it's due.

The third card is a total emergency card and we haven't used it yet - touch wood.




Sorry it's a bit of a long post. Please feel free to comment or please point out anything you think I might have missed.

Stay warm and safe
Lx

dizzytina

morning peeps,
managed to bag some bargains last night in the Boots sale. So got 1 Birthday gift plus half a gift each for another 2 people for just £10 altogether. Lovely Ted Baker nail varnishes and other bits.
Tesco had Hollands pies on offer this week so i got 3 of those for 50p each and will get DH to call at the chip shop for 2 portions of chips for us and DD for our tea tonight.... a takeaway (sort of) tea for 3 of us for £3.30.

Apparently snow is going to hit us tomorrow so that means i won't be tempted to venture out and spend any money:rotfl:

LolaLemon

LolaLemon wrote: »

I make the powder - based on 6/3/1.5 ratio

6 cups of - edit - soap FLAKES, not soap powder! , 3 cups of soda crystals and 1.5 cups of borax (i buy real borax through the net)
Im not exact i 'eye' it using a glass jar, i half fill with soap flakes (soemtimes i grate a bar of soap other i buy the box from the ironmongers) then half fill the space with soda crystals and then half fill the remaining space with borax, give a good shake before using and put 2 - 4 teaspoonfulls in with the clothes in the drum. make sure its not full to bursting or it doesnt get a chance to mix properly with the water.
I use vinegar and essential oils instead of fabric softner.
if i dont use any essential oils the washing comes out with no smell, which is strange to get used to.

Ive edited this, sorry if anyone has made this with soap powder. its soap flakes or grated bars of soap.
Really sorry x

his_missus

We had an unexpected snow storm this morning and more is predicted for tomorrow so I'm doing my supermarket shop on my way home from work but I also I found out that my local market do home deliveries so I've done an online market shop too with £10 off as it was my first order.


They don't offer fruit and veg individually though, only as various fruit/veg boxes so I've ordered a £10 seasonal veg box. It will make a change from me always just picking the same veg and will make me try something different.

Frugaldom

Chika
I still make my own laundry 'gloop' every year, so here's link to an old post at http://frugaldom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/saving-on-annual-costs-of-laundry.html I have saved a small fortune over the years by not buying any laundry or cleaning products bar washing soda, basics soap, lemon juice, vinegar and it hasn't done me any harm along the way unless you count having more money for other things as harmful. Hope this helps.


More power cuts here during high winds and we had a little bit of snow earlier. Still not very winter-like for Scotland but I do now live about as far south as you can go in this country and have the sea nearby, so that helps. Sometimes, though, I'd prefer the white winters from life further north.


Stay warm and keep on frugaling, folks.

naturaljazz

lynnejk Your budget list was very useful, thank you. How do you max the credit card (cash I am assuming) and not pay interest? I have interest-free on purchases, but not cash. So I am interested if a card can give me interest-free cash to put in an account and earn interest... sweet

maria3104

Hi All

Have managed to basically stick to frugal programme so far in Jan. Very difficult resisting all the email offers, apparently they are giving away stuff in shops it is so cheap! LOL,
Just cleaned downstairs, def poorly DS2 soup and changed to dry clothes. My cleaning is like a workout!

vw_campervan_mum

Hi just a quick update. All on target so far budget wise. sadly unexpected garage bill is going to test the yearly campervan budget of £1200 as Ive just forked out £591 :eek::eek::eek:

Even more motivation to keep on budget with everything else :rotfl: