2015 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugal_life

lynnejk wrote: »

Welcome to the thread. I think you have had some serious thoughts about this and are doing really well.

You might find it helps to make a menu plan for a couple of weeks at a time, check what you have in stock and then make your shopping list from that. It takes a bit of practice but gets easier as you go along.

Good luck and just ask on here or other threads if you need any help - it's all really friendly.

Thank you! Yes, I've definitely thought long and hard about the money we've been spending up until now and I'm keen to stop spending frivolously and really get saving. A menu plan sounds like a brilliant idea! I shall do a stock take over the weekend and will be sure to post an update and let everyone know what difference it makes to our weekly shop

Frugaldom

Frugal_life wrote: »

Thank you! Yes, I've definitely thought long and hard about the money we've been spending up until now and I'm keen to stop spending frivolously and really get saving. A menu plan sounds like a brilliant idea! I shall do a stock take over the weekend and will be sure to post an update and let everyone know what difference it makes to our weekly shop

Good luck menu planning, it is a skill I have never, in all my years of frugaling, succeeded in mastering... a bit like trigonometry at school.

I am now into week 3 of yet another new gear to my lifestyle engine, so I am adjusting to cooking with gas at the home-from-home 'ranch'. I have under £250 of my challenge budget remaining to last until end of June, which will then give me £2,000 for the second half of 2015.

:eek:Biggest expense in kitchen department was £1.69 for a bag of sugar from the site shop! :eek: That'll teach me not to let stocks run low! A swift reminder that it is always best to be prepared to set up a second household, even if it is a temporary one.

Hope everyone and your extended families of pets and friends is well. Keep on frugaling, we're worth it. :rotfl:

maria3104

Hi

Am still keeping to the frugal way of life, but must confess this has been made much easier for me the last 3 months as I have been ill and it is quite difficult to be tempted when not going anywhere.

Anyway we are now in our renovated farmhouse and so far I have spent £30 on some very old X MFI bedroom furniture, DH is beside himself with horror and wants a designer new set. I am holding my firm line and DS has carried it to the guest room and it does indeed look tired but functional. Current saving around £650 on this one room. Ha, feel like a Money savings guru.

Am currently wasting loads of cash by using tumble dryer. DH will not allow me a ceiling airer as we had in old house. I reckon this saved me thousands over the years, but he steadfastly refuses me one. So I am not yet a total guru..!

Hoping to stay within Grocery challenge budget and resist everything which will be difficult in May as we have a family party and lots of visitors to enjoy.

Take care all

Maria

Shortie

Oh my goodness Maria, you've just reminded me of the ceiling airer that used to hang in the kitchen when I was little!

cw18

My Mum's Mum had one in the kitchen, above the table and chairs. I loved it (especially when I was allowed to operate the pulley), and if I had a house with high enough ceilings I'd be desperately trying to get hold of one myself.

Frugaldom

We always called them a 'pulley' but I think Argos and places like that sell them as kitchen maids. I had one up until my last move, but ceilings now too low.

Well done standing your ground on the bedroom furniture, Maria, am I guessing correctly that your hubby sees himself as the main breadwinner and therefor thinks the household desreves the best he thinks he can afford? I don't mean that in a derogatory way, it is just an observation made constantly over the years and probably explains why the vast majority of frugal forum moneysavers are female. Making do just doesn't have the same appeal to men when the male of the species is normally abour impressing the females at any expense.

Has anyone started off their veggies this year? We are still getting sub zero temps, frost and snow so only the hardy herbs are growing.

DawnW

maria3104 wrote: »

Hi

Anyway we are now in our renovated farmhouse and so far I have spent £30 on some very old X MFI bedroom furniture, DH is beside himself with horror and wants a designer new set. I am holding my firm line and DS has carried it to the guest room and it does indeed look tired but functional. Current saving around £650 on this one room. Ha, feel like a Money savings guru.

Maria

Perhaps when you are properly better, you might like to think about painting the old furniture? I have just done a couple of bedside cabinets of this type - I would have replaced them not with new ones, but with nice antique ones, had I been able to find any in the right size. The space is quite tight, and these fit just right, so I painted them with chalky furniture paint and waxed them, and it has transformed them, and made the whole room look nicer. It is easy to do as well, as the paint is water based and just washes off the brushes, clothes etc (I always get in a mess whenever I paint )

I am not a fan of the whole shabby chic look, but I must admit it looks pretty in a bedroom, and if your OH isn't sure, just show him how much similar furniture would cost to buy already done :eek:

happybird71

Hi everyone,

Time for a book review! I have now read Dave Ramsey's book 'The Legacy Journey'. It was good - very Christian which he is himself and interesting. The second book I am reading is 'The Total Money Makeover'. Love it!! I'm only about half way through. I have also been listening to him online and downloaded his app.

I understand what you said about buying books on getting out of debt Frugaldom and yes it doesn't really make sense I suppose. However, I am a real book person. I prefer to sit with a book than stare at a screen, especially if my children are with me. I don't want their lives filled with technology more than I can help. I also like to read at bedtime from a real book. I bought them with birthday money and not at full price. That's my justification. When I'm finished I'll sell them on.

Anyway, this guy is fab! In my opinion! Oh boy is he bold though :rotfl: He has been there, done it, and learned from experience. You can read about his theories online. I really love his 7 baby steps and I am planning to use them. I think the main difference between him and Martin Lewis is that Dave suggests paying off the smallest debt first, regardless of the interest on the others. This is to keep people motivated and be able to celebrate their achievements.

Here's a wee quick summary of the baby steps:
1) save a $1000 emergency fund (before paying off debt)
2) Pay off all debt using the debt snowball (smallest first)
3) Save 3-6 months of expenses for an emergency fund
4) Invest 15% of Household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement (American maybe? Not sure)
5) College funding for children
6) Pay off home early
7) Build wealth and give

Dave Ramsey is HUGE on giving - on blessing others. I'm pretty big on that too. He is of the opinion that our wealth is a gift and that we are only looking after it. There's nothing he says that is rocket science. It's common sense. He advises using a cash system and NO credit cards.

My own situation is that we have £1,200 on a credit card, £2,400 of shared money needing replaced into the account, £16,000 for our new car needing paid back to a family member although there is no rush. I have never experienced debt in my life so I hate this! We are generally careful and not extravagent spenders but after £7000 dental work and a new (second hand), bigger run-it-into the ground car we are pretty poor. After tracking our spending for a few months I have set the budget in stone and we are using cash. If the cash runs out it's tough! Hubby and I have been spending over £100 on 'eating out' i.e. buying coffees, grabbing snacks, lunch out etc. We are now allocated £50 each and if it runs out it runs out! No takeaways for the poor hubby if we can't afford it - but it also means he has freedom to buy sweeties and no narky wife asking him if he spent anything today! I have been selling things on FB and gumtree and every penny I make is paying off the credit card. I know we will pay it off soon but I hate the stress of it.

Apologies for the waffle. Can you tell I've just written a Literature Review? Ha ha.

Frugaldom

Different ways work for different people, I base my way on not having the income in the first place, so it simply cannot be spent. Every penny over my essential £4k is invested in some way, shape or form so there isn't any chance of running up any debts. I love my lifestyle and for me it is just basic arithmetic and zero spending on non-essentials. But then again, I have an ex-husband who disagreed with my theories and practices. Sharing and helping others is a big part of what I do, the results of my challenge are there for any member of the frugal forums to make use of whenever they want or can.

White with frost this morning again, that should help kickstart my late garlic planted in the new garden.

cw18

Just done a final run through stocks, receipts and bank accounts, so hopefully April is now all accounted for

Category - Annual Budget - Budget to end Apr - Spend to end Apr
Council Tax - £1212 - £260 - £255.10
Payments have restarted, and I'm now on a 12 month payment plan so no more breaks for me
Gas & Electricty - £900 - £300 - £181
Payments now seem to be back on the proper schedule, but because they refunded my credit a couple of months ago I should end the year in credit
Water - £288 - £96 - £96
standard monthly D/Debit
House Insurance - £270 - £0 - £0
due in Decemeber
Central Heating Cover - £240 - £80 - £77.60
received the annual renewal (notification of price increase) a couple of days ago, but still need to check if I've allowed enough in my budget (quick glance suggests I have)
Phone & Broadband - £264 - £88 - £174.40
Opted to pay line rental for a year up front when I changed provider in Feb, which pushed me over budget. Received refund (£15+) from old provider in April.
Mobile - £150 - £50 - £50
standard monthly d/debit
Windows - £78 - £26 - £23
Payments up-to-date
Vision (glasses and contacts) - £300 - £100 - £98.30
Back on track with this thanks to a refund of 3 months of my contact lens scheme (due to them shipping early with no warning while I was going through a prescription change). Also got a small refund as I swapped 60 pairs of old prescription for 60 of new which are slightly cheaper. Now on a payment holiday until November, so should be well under budget for this by year end
Dental - £72 - £24 - £18.50
Within budget for this one now Next check-up due late July, but hoping to stretch it until late August.
Prescriptions/Flu shot - £48 - £16 - £0
Not needed anything :T
First Aid - £24 - £8 - £3.90
Nothing new needed.
Vitamins - £144 - £48 - £50.80
Still working on balancing out big spend in Jan
Presents - £480 - £160 - £84.30
Still picking bits up as I see them.
Gym - £160 - £160 - £160
Have now cancelled this. Money is getting that tight that even if I used the gym daily I'd not be able to justify keeping it on. April was last payment, so I've dropped the annual budget for this.
Lottery - £372 - £124 - £80
Under due to a few small wins.
WLR subs - £96 - £0 - £0
Subscription to a website I've been a member of for years. pay in 6 monthly instalments in June & Dec, but looking to drop to monthly (due to cash flow) or cancel
Car Insurance - £480 - £0 - £0
Due 1st Aug, so gets paid late July
Petrol - £864 - £288 - £170.10
this one's always a bit of a finger in the air when estimating - which has been harder to do since I put DS1 on the insurance as I can only work on his commute accurately, with his leisure mileage varying wildly month to month
Breakdown - £78 - £78 - £77.50
Annual payment due in Jan
Road Tax - £132 - £132 - £130
Annual payment due in Jan
MOT - £48 - £0 - £0
Due in July
Service - £132 - £0 - £0
Due in July
Repairs - £600 - £200 - £127.00
Another repair free month. Need to replace a bulb, but hopefully have a spare in the house (though I should then replace that!)
Groceries - £2980 - £979.73 - £899.10
Thankfully back on track with this one. Actual shops spends for the year so far are only £454.77, with the rest being savings made (and moved to 'anything else' or from long-term stock (which I buy from myself). Still spending too much on junk food though (cakes, crisps, sweets, biscuits, ice cream, puddings), as that accounts for over 12.5% of my groceries :eek:
Toiletries - £180 - £60 - £45.50
Under budget, but may start getting close as I start to build up my pampering routine (using stuff from long-term stock that I’m extremely unlikely to replace)
Cleaning - £120 - £40 - £11.20
Still not really doing the household cleaning I should be – most of the latest addition is from washing powder and fabric conditioner! Need to get a cleaning routine going and (more importantly) stick to it.

Totals - £10712 - £3317.73 - £2813.60

Across various categories for year to end April I used
stock (groceries) £324.70
stock (toiletries & cleaning to be replaced) £28.12
vouchers worth £46.77
and saved
from offers (half price type) £34.48
from multibuys £11.98
from whoopsie purchases £51.44

giving me £497.49 to play with, of which

£2483.75 has been put aside in case some of my budgets get blown out of the water
and
£248.74 has been allocated as available for my zero budgets

I've also made £67.15 selling old bits on eB@y, which has been split
£33.63 for budget 'cushioning' and
£33.52 for zero budgets
(I split income from each item rather than as a total, so will never be a 50:50 split)

So zero budget income is
£40 from DS1 (his contribution, in return for which I do his laundry)
£60 from surveys
35p from roadkill
£9.99p from presents stock
£6.17 value of toiletries/cleaning I won't be replacing (only used up because I had in the house)
£3 from purchasing bits from non-zero budget (presents) using loyalty points
£64.26 from cashback (on grocery purchases, via Apps on my phone - this is what's been claimed and paid into my bank or credited to my Amaz0n account)
£248.74 from the savings made across categories with budgets
£14.48 from grocery budget to cover items DS1 and OH paid for but didn't get paid back by me for
£200 gifts (my Christmas and Birthday cheques)
80p loose change from regular bills (rounding d/debits up to next 10p)
£6.79 loose change from groceries (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
64p loose change from toiletries (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
16p loose change from cleaning (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
5p loose change from vitamins (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
£33.52 from eB@y sales

giving me a total income for zero budget of £688.95 - another £70+ added in April. I can’t believe how this continues to mount up !!

of that I've spent £397.16 as follows

Books £24.92
CDs £9.00 (actually 3 albums on vinyl, but I don't have a category for that!)
DVDs £76.17
Footwear £22.99
Fitness £25 (annual membership fee to running club)
Household 'bits' £56.09
Household Repairs £143.00
Public Transport £3.80
Everything Else £36.19 (includes two lots of cat food for DD and a drink for OH, which all came with cashback/mail in offers which make them free or better than free once I get those payments through)