2015 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

It is a beautiful morning here today. I am hoping it stays that way and it will be the first day I have been able to get my washing out on the line to dry:).

COOLTRIKERCHICK

morning all,


we had a litter of piglets born on Friday, a very large litter, sadly w have lost a few, but at least it is now a good manageable size..


been starting to potter around, and sowing some veggie seeds.. really do need to forward think about of veg plot.. and make sure we can grow most of our summer/autumn food..

Aaleigha

people are doing so well very inspirational

my month started so well - how many of you seem to have more motivation at the end of the month

its pay day on thursday and I worked out we would have 800 in the bank so was going to slide half of that into an unused account (it will pay for our holiday if I do that monthly) then things seem to escalate out of control - my bipolar is only just being held at bay by the meds - but I had a need to spend and could not seem to stop myself - about 150 has been frittered away - 150 went on deposit for a holiday in norfolk and my daughters vacuum died so as I send money to my son monthly its only fair I support her when she needs it too - so a total 400 gone from account - but on the brighter side I do have some money left out of the grocery budget and I have been sliding money over into the spare unused account we have so I am slowly but surely building an emergency fund not all is lost bring on April

[Deleted User]

Frugal plans today:
1. NSD today
2. Another washing out on the line.
3. No heating on
4. Free exercise - walk along local cycle track today
5. Wash the cars and hoover inside

Have a good week all.

his_missus

Hi all,


Really needed to stock up the store cupboard this weekend, had to get more health stuff for the kitties and stocked up on some housey stuff as they were on offer so I think I'm going to go over my monthly shopping budget .


Freezer is once again jammed packed full of meals and should see us through 3 weeks.


Turned the heating off for all but half an hour each morning and evening (mainly to dry undies and towels) but got most of the washing out on the line this weekend

[Deleted User]

It's another beautiful day here today. I have been looking at the finances this morning and realise that I have been in a bit of a rut with food and cooking over the past few weeks so have spent more on convenience foods and takeaways. I really need to get back to cooking from scratch. To this end I have re-joined the GC this month.

My plan is to use up what is in the freezer over the next few days. So today's plan is to make Spaghetti bolognaise from mince that had been in the freezer, some chopped toms and other veg.

Other than that my day is completely free today (this rarely happens) so I plan to use my Historic Scotland card and visit one of their local properties and take a packed lunch along.

optimistic-mummy

we're still plodding along. had a few unexpected expensive expenses last few weeks. but still determined to hit my savings target at the end of the year.

i turn 23 in july that gives us 7 and a bit years to save and change careers before my target age for wanting to apply for a mortgage hits us ideally id like to look at purchasing by 30 !
never did i think at 16 when i was cradling my newborn baby did i think id say that . people also made me feel like id never be able to get a career for myself once id had him and to be honest i didn't think me and my partner would be together long after he was born either kept expecting him to run for the high hills. so glad its panned out differently and we havent used having children young as an excuse

anyway just needed to get that off my chest, i went to bed when kids went to bed tonight and im sat here now at 3.30 in the morning wide awake .. why do i do it to myself :cool:

anyway i hope your all well im off back to bed soon

nessauk

Good morning all. Am already thinking about tonights dinner, and want to make use of some bbq spare ribs that are in the freezer. I want to avoid potato if I can help it, but am at a bit of a loss as to what to serve on the side. I have courgettes, eggs, peppers, aubergine, and rice, but am at a loss as to what to concoct with resorting to something simple as just egg fried rice.

Oh and I've just remembered that I also have noodles as well.

JustStartingOut

Don't know if this is relevant to this thread, but does anyone do those 'get paid for surveys'? and if so are they worth it?

cw18

I'm signed up for a few.

On one (which only pays in vouchers) they're always "out of stock" of Amaz0n vouchers - but you need less points for the same value in B00ts vouchers, so I'll take those instead (and save them for my next change of glasses)

On another I can get Amaz0n vouchers or cash (prefer the vouchers as you get an extra 2%)

Yet another only pays in vouchers - and 'charges' 50p for each one. Amaz0n on there come in £15 denominations, so I need £15.50 before I can claim. I cashed in two in January which I earned last year, and since then I've had another and am currently about 80p short of the next.

My latest is points towards cash (you need a lot of points before you can cash out) or you can use them as entries to a prize draw. At the moment I'm saving them for cash, but may change my mind depening on how long they take to accumulate (don't seem to get many invites).

This is all money for my 'zero budget' categories (when I use the B00ts vouchers I'll move the equivalent amount over), so for me they're worth doing. So far I've had just short of £55 of Amaz0n vouvhers this year, which has bought a LOT of DVDs for me (all second hand unless new was cheaper, with most costing under £1.50 including postage).