2015 Frugal Living Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, still moving along nicely here. Loving all the tips and advice. We're planning on growing more of our own fruit and vegetables this year. Should save us a bit if it's successful as we spend the majority of our weekly grocery spends on it.

nannygladys

Still keeping to my frugal ways, and budgets.

I have been working out when I can possibly retire and I have come up with the end of October. I will have still implement frugal ways so I can do what I want to, but I'm getting so used to them now I quite enjoy it all. I do feel that I can,still improve so I will looking into growing more veggies, composting, revamping my furniture and decorating at very low cost levels. It will all need serious thinking about, as its a matter of cheap paint or decent? It may make more sense to go for decent but again I will have to compare prices on everything and the revamping, well am I up to it or will I spoil the stuff I have (it's all too dark and I want to lighten the place up) but I won't be starting yet as I need to have a think of how I want the place to look, so mood boards or something like that will be started.

Anyway off for a think to get going
Nannyg

naturaljazz

nannygladys wrote: »

Still keeping to my frugal ways, and budgets.

I have been working out when I can possibly retire and I have come up with the end of October. I will have still implement frugal ways so I can do what I want to, but I'm getting so used to them now I quite enjoy it all. I do feel that I can,still improve so I will looking into growing more veggies, composting, revamping my furniture and decorating at very low cost levels. It will all need serious thinking about, as its a matter of cheap paint or decent? It may make more sense to go for decent but again I will have to compare prices on everything and the revamping, well am I up to it or will I spoil the stuff I have (it's all too dark and I want to lighten the place up) but I won't be starting yet as I need to have a think of how I want the place to look, so mood boards or something like that will be started.

Anyway off for a think to get going
Nannyg

Don't know if you have or know about the community paint recycling schemes around the UK?
Google it and see if maybe there is something near you?
I had half tins and some unused paint and varnish from our local paint re-use scheme. Worth looking into

happybird71

Hi everyone. Well it has been an insanely expensive month so far with a few very big unavoidable expenses. However, we have definitely improved our spending in the areas we do have control over like food.

So...my experiment on eBay to find out if you can sell absolutely anything was a hilarious success! My old, leaky boots which I was completely honest about generated a bidding war and sold for £7.99! That means that my replacement pair costing £24.99 combined with student discount, cash back and minus the eBay sale cost me £12! That was fun!

I am currently selling a whole load of things for a family member on eBay. The listing was free but can anyone please tell me all the charges from eBay & paypal so that I can deduct it from their earnings and not have to pay for it myself. Thanks.

Paint scheme sounds great We're going to re-decorate in a few years once we're over the drawing on the walls season of life! Not that it's happened yet!

cw18

If you're a free listing (and no optional add-ons when using free listings), then eBay will charge you a 10% final selling fee - which includes 10% on the postage charge. They apply the 10% of the item bid as soon as the auction closes, then the 10% of postage when the buyer pays (which gives you chance to amend an invoice for a lower combined postage). But it's different if you list under Motor or Classified Ads (never investigated either of these).

PayPal is roughly 20p + 3.4% - as long as the buyer is in this country. But if you regularly sell more than £1500 in a month you can apply for lower rates.

mummy2threeboys

Morning all. Haven't been on in a few days. Thank fully not too much to catch up on! COOLTRICKERCHICK Your house looks beautiful, it is exactly how I would choose! We are saving to have the kitchen converted its a tiny victorian thing with no room to swing a mouse. Not going daftly big s it would cost to much, but just knocking down the outside loo and making use of the extra sace, and leveling it all will be ahuge boost. Nice of all for me Is i will be having my sink moved so it over looks the garden rather than it looking over neighbours window! There have been a few ewww moments over the years!
So all wardrobe sorted.
Washing machine has dumped all the water on the floor , stop spinning etc ect, 2 weeks this was going on thought we had to get a new one, in the end i discovered a massive block up and so with tlc cleared it. Alas it has murdered my stick on tile floor (used to cover up broken floor tiles under neath) needs to dry out, thankfully only from poundland but still another £15 spend.
And also my microwave just died, It still works but doesnt heat at all, just stopped, I looked online and it would seem its not repairable or repairable but costly. So we spent £30 on a new one.
Will be looking to see if i can get a 0% interest cc as mines deal has ended. Sadly think not as i am unemployed. I do have a new paper round i just started , does that count And need to look at banks this morning after not caring for the past couple of weeks
Have reigned in a lot of days out/weekend off trips .
Oh and I won £50 of resturant vouchers, and a cinema ticket, so our anniversary will be cheap!
Have a great week all xx

Bambywamby

naturaljazz wrote: »

Don't know if you have or know about the community paint recycling schemes around the UK?
Google it and see if maybe there is something near you?
I had half tins and some unused paint and varnish from our local paint re-use scheme. Worth looking into

This is a free Ebay fee calculator (includes paypal too)

I can't post the link - it's called Ecal. Just put Ecal UK into Google. It's very easy to use. x

Bambywamby

Received free chitting potatoes in the post today from 'Grow Your Own Potatoes.'


The little one and I shall be growing some more spuds in the very near future.

Wombatchops

Not posted for a few days. On the 19th I gave birth to DD2, who is now one week old. So it's been kind of a frugal week by default. At the moment she is being breastfed, so her meals are free. I was in hospital until the 21st (caesarean) so I was fed there, and whilst in hospital, because DH doesn't drive for medical reasons, we didn't spend on petrol cos we got lifts from family, plus my in-laws looked after DD1 and DS, which meant feeding them, and did our clothes washing at their house, so no spends there either. And since we've been home, apart from the naughty take away we ordered the night we came home (we didn't know when we'd be discharged, so couldn't prepare dinner in advance), we've either been eating what we already had in, or people brought food in for us. Finally, both my DM and MIL have bought nappies for DD2, and she's either been wearing her older siblings' old clothes or stuff bought for her.

OK, so that's by no means a typical week, plus it's frugality by default, so I'm sure it's cheating, but it has saved us a fair bit of money, I'm sure, which we are definitely going to need since becoming a family of five.

I hope everyone had a good week last week, and enjoys the rest of their January.

mummy2threeboys

Oh massive congrats to you and yours! I had a crash section with my first i was in 5 days it was awful, i was climbing the walls. Sounds like you have a great supportive family. Re nappys have you tried cloth? They saved us so much money! Enjoy your precious cuddles xx