2015 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

I'm still doing the final work to my January spreadsheet pages - taking longer than it should as a heavy cold is making me very woolly headed and lethargic

Need to do a final check of my toiletries and cleaning pages before I can declare, but I've decided they can wait until tomorrow - I'd rather not risk making a mess of it at the last minute

I know I'm showing as being over budget for the month, and I also know why (and knew when I spent that they'd take me over). But all things considered it's not looking as bad it could have, and it should balance out over the next few months as it's really only a case of having 'bought early' due to good offers or needing earlier than I'd expected.

Will hopefully have final figures for the month posted by lunch time tomorrow ...

COOLTRIKERCHICK

how many acres have you got maria??


we just have a 'little ranch' with approx. 3.5 acres, wooded, over grown etc, which is ideal for pigs...

youngmummy

first NSD of the month for us.
today was a chilled out pj day fake away for tea followed by popcorn and a film before the kids bedtime and once ds2 is out im heading for a candle-lit bath in peace :rotfl:


got my college interview tomorrow ... hopefully it goes well. the course (providing I get the grades needed) will allow me to study my nursing degree in 2 years (if I do college part-time)

rubiesr4eva

Maria - yes it is always short notice, even tonight, what should have been 6 was 8, as one of DH's friends came round with his fiance and their baby, to have her hair done by my DD and I ended up feeding them. Wouldn't change life style for anything though, I love it


I find it also makes you eat healthier, cause you can always bulk out meat and veg, where as other foods I find more difficult to spread.


Was a roast chicken dinner, always buy large, but never anything left over apart from chicken stock for tomorrows HM soup.


Going to get sc tomorrow while DS2 is at dance, so will report back. I'm hoping to be able to buy cheaper joints of meat so in the long run will save money, and at only £20 shouldn't take long to get my money back.


I'm lucky enough to be on the farm during the day and can pop in and out, its all the after school clubs that mess me up haha

youngmummy

sorry to post again ... just looked in the fridge and I have eating apples that the kids haven't eaten and getting worried they wont last much longer any ideas on ways too use them up please x thanks in advance

quidsy

I have to "find" £280 for oh driving lessons and test. He needs to get his license as we'll be moving further away in the next 2 years and he will need to drive to work and ds to school, also his work have requested he learn so he can drive the van on occasion and as a result have offered to pay £200 towards it. The best total package including theory and driving test is £480 so our share is £280.

So the treadmill gathering dust went on ebay last week and finish today at £144. That means I now only need another £136 to find by end of Feb when the lessons start. Can probaby skim £50 off next months food budget and have curtains, electric mandolin and a few other items to put on ebay which will hopefully make up the difference.

Anyway the point of this post is to compare how I would have reacted in the past, I would have just booked it, used unbudgeted money and prolly used a cc to get through!the!month, now we wait a while, make up the shortfall somehow and get a lifelong benefit eventually without putting any financial strain on our budget.

youngmummy

Well done quidsy

I have finally got partner on board about budgeting and sticking to it .. We want to save for a wedding and deposit on a house .. (The 2 biggest expenses of our lives) so if we are going to do it we need to start saving now ..

Good luck with the ebaying

ETA
I have £10 in my purse .. I'm going to "hide" the bank cards and see if I can make the money in my purse stretch the week .. We shouldn't need anything other than milk and bread and bananas so let the challenge commence x

lynnejk

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

......
but up until today I only ever used to use zoflora to wash down outside when we had a dog....

I always put a couple of drops in the water to wash the kitchen and bathrooms floors and leave the bucket in the bath for about an hour to 'scent' the air


I haven't done the budgets for Jan yet as collected our repaired phones today and spent the spare hours sorting them out :mad:


Hope to get them done by Tuesday as working the morrow


Hope you all have a marvellous Monday


Lx

his_missus

Hi all,


All this talk of slow cooking meat is making me hungry and quite disappointed I still have 10 days worth of food in the freezer so no excuse to buy a joint to try in the sc.


I used to have a round slow cooker but found it wasn't great for large joints or whole chicken so I bought a MR oval one similar to some other posters.


I really should use it more!

Frugaldom

Apologies for not posting sooner. January ended with total grocery spend of £53.92, as I haven't needed to buy any meat products other than cooking bacon and haggis for Burns night last week. Freezer and cupboards are full but set to run down stores so I can rotate everything properly and I'm going to stick with the £5/person/week plan for as long as I possibly can.


Slow cooker full of soup to last the week and a small order due from Asda this week to top up on the likes of flour, eggs, cheese and milk. Everything's detailed in the usual place.


February for us is 28-day fitness challenge and 28-day food challenge, so it keeps us busy in Frugaldom.


Hope everyone is well, get better soon to those who are under par and good luck to all the new people who have joined us recently.