2015 Frugal Living Challenge

happybird71

Hi everyone.

Maria - that sounds great and where I'd like to be in a few years. I was told recently to treat children like dogs (sort of!) - love them, feed them, sleep then and walk (exercise) them. I'm inclined to agree. I'm only at the start of my kids activity journey. DS1 started nursery yesterday and will start swimming lessons next week. I am in no hurry to do other activities. I see learning to swim as a priority.

Huge congrats wombatchops. I'm in total agreement with the nappy idea. I do as much as I can to reuse and recycle but I'm squeamish and find I'm running around enough without adding washing nappies to the list! I use Asda or Amazon monthly pampers (bonus is they get delivered!)

Thank you cw18 and bambywamby for the ebay info. Much appreciated.

We have spent over £6000 this month - told you it was insane Now we need an outside wall repaired as the living room wall got damp, dishwasher has broken - again and hubby needs new glasses and sunglasses. Can anyone recommend a good integrated dishwasher and where to get one as cheaply as possible? Hubby going to the dentist on Fri - might be £3000 Still, that should end all the massive spending and we will be absolutely on 0. Roll on February!!

happybird71

Just a wee question I'm pondering. We need a new family car soon. We will get a few thousand for our car but not enough to buy a newish (within 2 years old) car. Is it better to buy a newish car which will hopefully be reliable with some finance we hope to pay off sooner, or an older car we can buy outright? Thanks.

cw18

I don't think anyone can give a definitive answer on that one.

Even a newish car can develop problems - only have to ask one of my neighbours about that. It was in and out of the garage until she hit a point where she insisted they took it back / reported them to various places.

I wouldn't personally buy privately, as you don't get any kind of warranty. Most garages give at least 6 months, which at least gives you a chance to give it a good try out to find problems.

On the whole I've been fairly lucky.

My very first car was an old private buy, but it was never expected to last for long (low insurance while I got my first couple of years NCD). Had her for 3 years.

2nd car was probably 2 years old, but only lasted 4 years before it wasn't worth fixing to get it through an MOT (especially as we needed a larger car by then anyway).

3rd car was a year old, and had no problems in the year I had it (was best available as we bought, but got a great deal on exactly what we wanted a year later).

4th car was brand new, and I had her until she became unrepairable 13 years later. I had a repair bill ever 2 or 3 months for the last 18 months, but it was still cheaper than finance on a replacement and I didn't need her for work commutes so it didn't matter if she was regularly off the road for a day. Also had a couple of major teething problems with her at new - one of which wasn't sorted until she was just over a year old and I took her to a different dealership (who knew exactly what the problem was, said mine should have, and charged the work to them as a warranty fault )

Current car was almost 4 years old when I got her, and that was 8.5 years ago. I've needed the routine tyres, brakes, wiper blades, light bulbs and an exhaust for her, but the only 'out of the ordinary' thing that I can think of was something to do with the electronic ignition system (think that's what they called it - I had to limp her to a garage to have an 'under bonnet box' replaced when I'd had her about 18 months).

All but my first have been purchased from dealers, with only the current one being a dealer who didn't also sell new cars. If I were to change again (not sure I'll be able to afford to replace) I'd ask around for dealer recommendations / warnings before I handed over any of my money after the problems my neighbour had.

miss_try_to_save

hi all having a very frugal day today not spent a penny however our surround sound gave up the ghost early in week it had been free so hadn't cost us anything but it needed replacing looked at prices and lowest was £99 new but I went into the local dog charity shop up the road to have a browse and saw one for £40 the man assured me it had been tested so I got it and it works brilliantly oh is paying for it so im very happy as none comes out the bank

rubiesr4eva

Frugaldon and Maria, yes they are lucky, and we do cut back on a lot, so kid can have things. I know not everyone would agree with this, but it makes us happy. We do however make them earn money too.


DS1 does a lot around the farm with animals etc, and DS2 does help in the house (he's not a fan of the cold or the smell of the farm haha)


DS1 does wall climbing and DS2 does street dance, they are the complete opposites, but both get exercise. DS2 comes with me to take DS1 climbing every week, but sits there and does homework for 2 hrs, so I am going to try him tonight in free style climbing, if he does it, I will carry on, if not and he chooses to sit with me, then its a no-no.


They both do really well at there chosen sports so feel I would be wrong to stop them. DS2 is dancing in British championships comp in March, which means for the next 4 weekends I've got to spend with him at supermarket check outs while he packs bag for tips!!! This will test my spending!! 15 hrs over 4 weeks!!


And looking back, before I joined this, DS1 wanted to try dance, so we let him, but he only lasted 6 weeks, so maybe its just going to be in reverse haha

his_missus

I think a lot of parents cut back to afford things for their children. I know my parents did.


Bit of a spendy day yesterday. Needed milk, fruit juice and bread so decided to do a big supermarket shop in the hope we won't need to shop for the next two Saturdays. Well that's the plan anyway. The food in the freezer doesn't seem to be going down, still about 2 weeks worth of meals. The cats have enough to see them through until payday (20th Feb) and I still have £112 budget left

kb_soma

Good morning all and a happy new year to everyone.

I must admit that I dropped off the face of the planet sometime last year and my signature is desperate need of an upgrade.

Count me in this year again, I've been sticking to the frugal wagon this year so far. Squirrelling away at spending, so far I'm on track to my £240 extra to pay off on debt this month. If all goes to plan i shall be debt free by August. It's been a long hard journey, but I feel like I'm getting somewhere finally.

Good luck to all the newbies, you can do it!

My first task is to do a freezer and cupboard stock check and clear out all the 'old' food.

Lovely to see you all, I just need to read through the last 25 pages.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

morning all,


the area where we live, there used to be a well known tramp, not one of these drunk homeless person, but a old fashioned tramp..


never sat there with cap in hand, and would never accept money, would take food if he was hungry.


his nick names were 'teabag' and tea cosy pete.


well sadly he died a few days ago.. and the out pour of people who are well and truly sorry runs into the thousands..


I know you might think this if off thread, but even though he didn't have a penny to his name, and only owned the rags he had on his back.. he had wealth beyond belief,


here is the godsquad Sean stillman's words about him


http://www.zacsplace.org/zacs-2/is-anyone-listening/


http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Hundreds-memorial-city-s-legendary-gent-road/story-25942235-detail/story.html

kb_soma

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

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

Can you recommend a good place to buy full/halves of pork or lamb?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

kb_soma, what part of the country are you??