2015 Frugal Living Challenge

quidsy

Have had a horrible couple of months financially including the death of a bestie & associated overseas funeral costs.


My mission for next month is to spend no more than £25 pw week on food to force myself to use up the tins, dried goods & packets in the cupboard. We have 2 full freezers too so this should be doable. Just have to meal plan & stick to it.


Up side is I paid off the final 2k on a personal loan I have been paying since 2009. It felt like a mental orgasm when I did it. haha

Frugaldom

Quidsy, Sorry to hear of your loss of a close friend, it is never easy, especially if it happens overseas. These are the kinds of sudden costs and losses that many people overlook but cannot possibly avoid. (5 family deaths, 2 of them extremely sudden, in my family over the past 3 years.)


Had to have a laugh at your perfect description of paying off that loan, nobody could say it better!

cw18

Finally got my head into gear enough to finish off my May accounts...

Category - Annual Budget - Budget to end May - Spend to end May
Council Tax - £1212 - £379 - £372.10
standard monthly D/Debit
Gas & Electricty - £900 - £375 - £256
I had to submit readings last week, and based on those they've reduced my monthly payments by £9. Means this category will be getting further into credit each month at least until the next readings.
Water - £288 - £120 - £120
standard monthly D/Debit
House Insurance - £270 - £0 - £0
due in Decemeber
Central Heating Cover - £240 - £100 - £97.00
still need to double check if my budget will cover the announced increase
Phone & Broadband - £264 - £110 - £174.40
Opted to pay line rental for a year up front when I changed provider in Feb, which pushed me over budget. Should (hopefully) recover the situation by year end.
Mobile - £150 - £62.50 - £62.50
standard monthly d/debit
Windows - £78 - £32.50 - £35
Paid for June when he came in May, so slightly over budget at the moment
Vision (glasses and contacts) - £300 - £125 - £98.30
My contact lens scheme is now on a payment holiday until November, so should be well under budget for this by year end
Dental - £72 - £30 - £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 - £20 - £0
Not needed anything :T
First Aid - £24 - £10 - £5.00
Bought a tubular bandage in May. The wrist I broke last year aches badly when it gets cold, so I've cut the tubular bandage to make 2 supports which run up my lower arm and over my palm (with thumb hole) and one smaller one that I just wear like a cuff (all double thickness). The last couple of weeks suggest this is £1.10 well spent, as I'm not supposed to wear the official wrist supports as that stops it building back up the strength it lost and they were the only thing I had that kept it warm.
Vitamins - £144 - £60 - £50.80
Now under budget on this one, and shouldn't need any more tablets for a while.
Presents - £480 - £200 - £84.30
Still picking bits up as I see them, but none picked up in May.
Gym - £160 - £160 - £160
Cancelled earlier this year, so will now stay at these figures.
Lottery - £372 - £155 - £106
Under due to a few small wins (some of which has been used to buy extra tickets for major rollover draws)
WLR subs - £96 - £0 - £0
Subscription to a website I've been a member of for years, which I've been paying in 6 monthly instalments in June & Dec. Payment due in a couple of weeks, but not yet decided what to do. Have set it to change to monthly (which will cost more in the long run, but means I don't have to find as much now), but I'm still considering cancelling soon so may be under budget by year end.
Car Insurance - £480 - £0 - £0
Due 1st Aug, so gets paid late July
Petrol - £864 - £360 - £195
DS1 has just handed in his notice at work as he's been offered a job that has better hours and pay, and is something he prefers doing as well. But instead of 7 shifts every 2 weeks it's 5 a week - and it's a longer journey too (almost 11 miles each way instead of a smidgen over 3, so an additional 90 miles a week). Means the monthly petrol bill's about to go up, but I'm far enough under at the moment that I'm not going to worry for now (and in any case he'll be covering the extra). Only snag is it leaves me without a car all week if I want to run errands (such as a trip to Costc0), and with a car at the weekends when OH and his car are here - so I'm pretty much losing all the perks of car ownership whilst still paying to own one !!! I think we may have to have a chat about how things like insurance, mot, breakdown and road tax are being split if I'm not actually able to use the car much
Breakdown - £78 - £78 - £77.50
Annual payment amde in Jan
Road Tax - £132 - £132 - £130
Annual payment made in Jan
MOT - £48 - £0 - £0
Due in July
Service - £132 - £0 - £0
Due in July
Repairs - £600 - £250 - £127.00
Another repair free month. Still need to replace a bulb (oops). Have a funny feeling that when the car goes in for service next month I'll be told it's due a timing belt change, which I can't afford
Groceries - £2980 - £1232.83 - £1136.70
Thankfully back on track with this one. Actual shops spends for the year so far are only £543.95, with the rest being savings made (and moved to 'anything else') or from long-term stock (which I buy from myself). Junk food spend dropped dramatically in May, which one of my major targets
Toiletries - £180 - £75 - £80.81
Nastily over budget as I've pulled a few items out of stash to use up that have turned out to have very hefty replacement values :eek: Fortunately I wasn't intending on replacing them, so I don't need to take them into account when setting 2016 budgets (even if I end the year well over).
Cleaning - £120 - £50 - £12.90
Still need to get a cleaning routine going and (more importantly) stick to it. I manage a day or three, and then lose interest again. If I get a routine going properly the spends on this one will shoot up !!

Totals - £10712 - £4116.83 - £3400.11

Across various categories for year to end April I used
stock (groceries) £407.10
stock (toiletries & cleaning to be replaced) £35.40
vouchers worth £48.05
and saved
from offers (half price type) £43.28
from multibuys £17.84
from whoopsie purchases £51.44 (had a fantastic month for these in May, with £40.99 of the saving coming from just the one month!)

giving me £644.10 to play with, of which

£322.05 has been put aside in case some of my budgets get blown out of the water
and
£322.05 has been allocated as available for my zero budgets

I've also made £140.23 selling old bits on eB@y, which has been split
£70.66 for budget 'cushioning' and
£69.57 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
£50 from DS1 (his contribution, in return for which I do his laundry)
£75 from surveys
71p from roadkill
£9.99p from presents stock
£7.81 value of toiletries/cleaning I won't be replacing (only used up because I had in the house)
£27.98 from purchasing bits from non-zero budgets using loyalty points (this one boosted in May as I used B00ts points to buy DS1's allergy tablets and he refunded me in cash )
£121.55 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). Another category that got a huge boost in May
£10.00 from Sh0p & Scan. This one is new as I only got accepted into the system a couple of weeks ago. The reward for first upload of data was enough points to claim a £10 Amaz0n gift card which I got on Sunday. I should be looking at another £10 every 6 weeks from here on in, so that's a lot of DVDs for not a lot of effort (as my shopping trips are only small) :T
£327.45 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)
93p loose change from regular bills (rounding d/debits up to next 10p)
£9.11 loose change from groceries (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
76p loose change from toiletries (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
23p loose change from cleaning (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
5p loose change from vitamins (rounding up each spend to next 10p)
£69.57 from eB@y sales

giving me a total income for zero budget of £925.65 - a very healthy £156.31 added in May

of that I've spent £453.10 as follows

Books £26.90
CDs £10.00 (£9 was actually 3 albums on vinyl)
DVDs £88.56 (an increase on last month, but not by as much as I actually spent. An order I placed with Amaz0n in February got cancelled on my as they can't get stocks - so that was a £5 refund to my gift card balance)
Footwear £22.99
Fitness £25 (annual membership fee to running club)
Household 'bits' £47.78 (less than last month as an eB@y purchase never arrived, and the claim I filed was found in my favour meaning I got a full refund)
Household Repairs £143.00
Public Transport £3.80
Everything Else £66.46 (includes some grocery items I've bought for others which I've claimed the full cost back for via cashback and/or by mailing in)

parsniphead

cw18

That's a heck of a post. Makes my accounting system look a bit Weasley.

cw18

I run it all in a spreadsheet, so (as long as I keep up-to-date with the inputting of the out-goings) it's all worked out for me in fractions of seconds

happybird71

Hi everyone,

It's been a while! Life's been somewhat crazy and I am in the middle of my dissertation research.

Still feeling very inspired to pay off debts and be debt free. I've been flat out selling stuff. Best yet is 3/4 of a tin on paint (bought wrong colour) and a box of used light bulbs! It's true people buy the most random stuff!

Been listening to Dave Ramsey loads on my way to and from work on my app. The plan is to keep chipping away the debts, save a 3 month emergency fund and pay off the mortgage. As it currently stands I'd be 58 and DS1 26. Ideally it would be paid by the time he hits his late teens if not before. I've taken on a few pupils to tutor. After running out of gumtree and eBay ideas I realised I was sitting on my talents rather than using them. So - £15 for half an hour!! Crazy. So far around £2000 of £21,000 paid but feeling really encouraged. I want to pay around £1100 imminently and that pays 2 debts off including a credit card. The other £18.000 is not required imminently but I hate owing anybody anything so I'm keen to get it all paid off.

The biggest change is switching to a cash only system. We now have envelopes for every single budget category. I worked out our monthly requirements by using the 'spending' app as recommended by someone on here. I also keep up the freezer inventory and monthly meal plans. It's hard work but worth it. And - hubby is on board!! He likes our £50 no questions asked personal budget and it has made us more creative with how we spend. It's a long road but good.

By the way - anyone feel that a visit to Lidl/Aldi is like a scene from Supermarket Sweep at the checkout??? Stressful!! But..much cheaper.

parsniphead

I've had a good morning debt payment wise. My cheque cleared and I've managed to pay off £2400. I have put £200 into a savings account because emergency savings is something I've never got sorted before and I needs to be done.

I still have £1701.29 to pay off and I want to do this as quickly as possible to build up some emergency and future savings.

Because of a few birthdays this month spends have been a little higher than normal so hopefully next month I will be able to pay off more. We do have a weeks holiday in Lincolnshire but we tend to be frugal and find cheap or cree things to do. The little one is happy with the beach and a picnic. Also evenings sitting outside the caravan is OK for us. No wild nights out for us.

I'm hoping to cut costs enough to pay off at least £400 in July and august. I break up on july 10th for the summer holidays so that will save quite a bit on petrol.

I have been looking around the house to see where I can insulate the house to cut cost on heating a little more. I'm very careful with the heat but we do need some....think single glazed Victorian terrace...brrr...

I really need to start reading and following the example of others to cut costs as much as is possible.

cw18

Even if you keep repayments at the level you've been paying you should pay them off a bit faster (assuming having paid off a chunk will have lowered your minimum monthly payments) :T

I have a modern (2002) double glazed property, but even I found putting curtains up across my external doors made a huge difference. I couldn't find a thick set I liked, so I bought thinner and just doubled them up when hanging. Taping up my letterbox and installing an external mailbox (to stop a dog shredding the mail) made a huge difference too. I no longer have the dog, but I've left the mailbox in place and the tape on the letterbox

Frugaldom

Well done PH. I, too, have single glazing and very little by way of insulation as it is early 1800s terrace with no attic and solid walls. I lined the upstairs rooms with polystyrene insulation wallpaper and that made a difference, plus no letterbox at all in door, got wall mounted external one. Draught excluders, heavy curtains and still doing renovations on a budget, so loads more to fix. I made bubblewrap and fleece blinds for winter use - we only had coal fire as source of heating, so fitted a cheap log burner, which is great for cooking on, too. I am currently living in a mobile home - single glazed and draughty - so woolly blankets, extra layers and electric blanket are my top 3 tips here.

Kerry_Woman

For the rest of the year I am going to try my hardest to resist any unnecessary purchases and keep within my budget. Still trying to declutter things in my flat. Have managed to take some things to the charity shop, the recycling centre, normal recycling for weekly council refuse people to take, or bin(which are not suitable for CS). Still got 2 carrier bags to take to cs(one still needs to be filled up. Would really love to get things sorted out this year, as I want to decorate my flat.


I am doing a free online health and nutrition course at the moment. On the last unit and assignment. I know that I have passed the first two assignments and still waiting to hear about assignments 3, 4 and 5. Then they would have to be seen by a moderator who will then decide if I pass each unit and course. After I have submitted unit 6, I can then start on the free mindfulness course.


It has been a bad year for people who I have known passing away. It was really sad seeing my neighbours flat being cleared out after he passed away. Someone else I have volunteered with has given up on this treatment for C and has not long now. This has made me try and enjoy my life even more and to have the odd treat and to do more things with my life.