2015 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

Having a good frugal weekend. I made some HM Baileys last night and OH was delighted with it. This was a practice as I want to do HM gifts this year as much as possible.

One big issue just now is heating. I seem to want it on all the time but am trying to cut back. It is bitterly cold here but having the heating on will cost a fortune. I am going to try and minimise its use and use a hot water bottle when I am sitting watching TV.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

wombatchops... last year we had lay off a member of staff, but a few weeks later work picked up and we re-employed him..


we have an accountant that does all our payslips, tax, vat etc , anyway cut along story short, there was a new way of doing tax, introduced last year, which , by all accounts was duplicating employees work details, as the member of staff left, and came back, and was told it wasn't a continuation of the first employment, it ignored it, so it looked as though he had 2 jobs with the same company... by all accounts this 'real time' system has had some blips, so it might be worth contacting them to find out, as it might have done a blip re- setting up his tax account.




have had a bit of a shight week, which instead of being upset and piddled off, I have turned that energy into getting a shift on in getting out of this house, and getting our smallholding ready to move into..


you can see pictures of what we have been doing here


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=67491358&postcount=1573




phoned up sky to cancel our tv package, they tried the usual, and said this time of the year a lot of people go through their finances and want to cancel sky, they did try offering me a 'great deal' if I stayed, but I did tell them we are moving in may, so I need every penny, they then asked me if I wanted to keep my phone message thing??? which was a £1 a month, didn't even know I had that, as our landline now only there for our broadband... so in total that is a saving of £29 a month....including the £1

cw18

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

they then asked me if I wanted to keep my phone message thing??? which was a £1 a month, didn't even know I had that, as our landline now only there for our broadband

I remember OH saying that both BT and Sky were starting charging for voice messaging a few months ago. As soon as he got the notification from Sky he replaced his home phone to one with an answer machine and cancelled vm with Sky (his home phone was due changing anyway, so this just determined the model he got).

When I last changed home phones (2007) the best deal I could find for a triple handset one (suited our family needs at the time) was one with an answer machine, so I've never had vm with TT - but theirs was still free when I last looked.

Needhelpsaving

Hi all,


I love the house Cooltrickerchick, I would love to do a renovation like that (just need to get this mortgage paid off and convince OH - although that's more of a long term plan).


Still on budget here and through various savings here and there have managed to send an extra £45 to the mortgage this month.


I have called British Gas and have negotiated a reduction on our boiler cover (they were charging us as existing customers £5 more than 'new customers'!) and have moved from virgin to BT for broadband, which saves us £18.50 p/m, with a £100 voucher & £80 cashback through quidco.


I must say that joining this thread has certainly begun to focus the mind in terms of finances!

rubiesr4eva

Feeling very smug with myself, next 3 weeks are to be very expensive, as I need to pay £88 tomorrow for DS2 dance exam and competition and an extra £336 by 4th Feb for another dance competition. As this is a big chunk I've just sat down and worked out all finances and this leaves me with the grand sum of £207 to last me till 5th Feb for groceries and I just know this is very doable with my new found mse ways.


So reason I am smug is for the first time ever, I've not had to go into my savings account, which I do actually save for such things, but can do out of my current account and still stay afloat. This means I won't have to struggle for DD's birthday in March or mothers day so happy happy happy!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

NeedHelpSaving ... the dream has always been to have an old property with land.... very romantic living the good life etc... we would have had the property 3 years march/april, and after the honeymoon period of the first few months, dreaming of what we were going to do there etc, reality set in, its HARD, VERY HARD, especially trying to juggle work, money etc.. we knew there was a lot of work, but once we started peeling back the layers of the house, it gave us some very nasty suprises.. all do-able with money, but when money is practically non-existant, due to the general price of living going up, trying to run the house we live in etc... while doing up the smallholding has taken its toll on us.. emotionally and physically, and somethings has to give, so this is why we are selling up the house we live in, and just trying to get some sort of basics, if it was just hubby and I we would carry on living in the caravan on site, but with 2 adult kids,, it just wouldn't work..


so the next few months are going to be very stressful trying to get very penny in ..lol..




were we can, we are/will be using salvaged/reclaimed stuff, including using reclaimed wood from pallets for doing a pallet wall, instead of tong and groove.. a bit like this,
was thinking of diluting white paint down and doing a sort of white wash look to it, but we will do a sample patch on the wall first, if we cant get enough pallets then maybe old floor boards,


https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pallet+wall&biw=1138&bih=561&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=tdK7VInKGovtUrnogLgM&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#imgdii=_

COOLTRIKERCHICK

here we go, a bit like this,


should look good with the other walls being all stone


http://elbfoto.com/1411/innovative-diy-wooden-pallet-wall-decoration-ideas/neutral-white-wooden-pallet-wall-decorating-with-cool-small-painting-frame-idea/

Needhelpsaving

Love the idea of using pallets on the walls - isn't it amazing how some people have the imagination to make something like that out of them, whereas my first inclination would be that it wouldn't have a use.


I can appreciate that renovation must be challenging, but I would imagine that it would be very satisfying when it's all done and you can sit back and think 'we did this'

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Needhelpsaving wrote: »

Love the idea of using pallets on the walls - isn't it amazing how some people have the imagination to make something like that out of them, whereas my first inclination would be that it wouldn't have a use.


I can appreciate that renovation must be challenging, but I would imagine that it would be very satisfying when it's all done and you can sit back and think 'we did this'

Definitely...when we first bought the place it had concrete render over the front, but we held our breath and crossed everything we could, hoping that the stonework underneath hadn't been messed around with..


it went from this



to this, after the stonemason done the repairs and repointing in lime mortar



even though I am ( have been) a bit of a spender, I do have always tried to get bargains, like this old range we had for free, so this is waiting to go into the place, lol it should look good with a bit of a clean up


even though I have priced up floor tiles ( that look like flagstones) I am still on the look out for old flagstones..to go with the ones we already have...( these had been taken out of the house years ago, and h been used for a path alongside the house).. so fingers crossed I might be able to pick some up for free or cheap, if not, I might even consider putting the floor boards we had to pull up from upstairs down on the kitchen floor, but we will see lol

dizzytina

[Deleted User] wrote:

Having a good frugal weekend. I made some HM Baileys last night and OH was delighted with it. This was a practice as I want to do HM gifts this year as much as possible.

Oooooo HM Baileys sounds yummy how do you make that if you don't mind me asking?