Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Bobarella

Hi All

The Frugal Flirter & IWAB - I love Frugal Woods because it is a great example of how a young couple (younger than my 36) have managed to come through university debt free. And to get to the point of almost retiring by their early 30s is incredible. I like Mr Money Moustache too but he is quite full on in a way that The Frugal Woods are not.

I wish that they could make financial education exciting & appealing like these bloggers do and get kids into it early. Can you imagine the next generation coming up frugal and inspired to turn their backs on the debt hamster wheel?

I am trying very hard to lead by example with my little boy & I really hope he has a chance of not thinking borrowing is the only way forward.

Cheerfulness - Glad to hear you are doing so well with your savings. Hearing all us chatting about our savings makes me feel really cheerful myself so thanks

I_want_a_baby

Bobarella,

The only thing which I disliked is their December expenses, when converted to uk pounds were about £2800 and this was 40% of their income as they were saving 60% that month!

Quite discouraging, whilst the principle of what they are sharing is good and inspiring, they are sharing a lifestyle unachievable by most of us - who has a household income of £7k on here!

Still, like I day they have lots of valid points.

fairy3

Hi all, just lost a couple of hours on frugal woods website - brilliant and very readable with loads of ideas thank you Bobarella for pointing it out. Really taken by the vat of soup on a Sunday for through the week.
Cheerfulness - have fun with your sausage! Lol
Have been working so sadly lacking in the make do and mend department but have now identified at least three jobs for the weekend - painting of frame in a shabby chic style and inserting a piece of embroidery. Mending a broken chair leg by glueing and recovering the seat and finally knit a couple of squares towards my baby cover started about two years ago and 9 squares of 36 in....
Weather is awful here, blustery wind with rain so not planning on venturing anywhere too far.

Harleyquinn

I'm so joining in on this! I love the idea of it. Currently, I'm sat reading through all 12 pages to get inspiration

good_advice

Evening everyone, so many good idea's.

Make do and mend, minimise, it takes practice! and time to learn to STOP SPENDING.
I always think there is someting new to learn. I love the idea of Martins to ring your old gas/ electric company to ask if you have any money left in your account.
Only problen is I have been Scotish power customer a wile and cannot remember who we had before ;0(.
Well for my making do = I have not spent anything since 24th December.
We have been using up /eating the food we have in cupbpoards/fridge.freezer.
I will confess OH has bought some bread and milk.
We had plenty of fresh veg and potatoes left from the Christmas buy.

Not been to the sales. I think the sales are on most of the year now anyway.

One of my latest saves is I have learned to conect with fanily on facebook. When i catch them on facebook I can now message or phone from my mini ipad at NO CHARGE.
Ok, I did learn awile ago to vidio link when DD was onholiday abroad.
The point is - it saves using my PAYG phone and their charges.

tooties

Good Evening,

I am still enjoying this thread. Everyone is so resourceful!! Its very inspiring.
regards

Grandmaibb

Hi just joined the forum and finding this thread very inspirational. I'm going to be using lots of your ideas in my new frugal mind set. Now off to read more from the OS forum.

Bobarella

I_want_a_baby wrote: »

Bobarella,

The only thing which I disliked is their December expenses, when converted to uk pounds were about £2800 and this was 40% of their income as they were saving 60% that month!

Quite discouraging, whilst the principle of what they are sharing is good and inspiring, they are sharing a lifestyle unachievable by most of us - who has a household income of £7k on here!

Still, like I day they have lots of valid points.

Wow yes you are right. I just went and read it all through. Must have very good jobs. But as you rightly say very good points still being made. And it's the classic, it's easy to earn a lot but it isn't usual to save a lot too. So they are still doing great on that front.

cheerfulness4

Bobarella, I really do get excited about saving. When DH and I were in the deep doo doo we made a pact that if we ever scraped our way out we would continue to live how we were, living as frugally as we possibly could so that we could still save on a small wage.
I'm so grateful to be on that other side now and doing just that. :T:T

The beauty about this site is that you never really ever learn it all. You keep hearing new ideas and you keep taking it to another level.
There are thousands of different posters from all generations with varying experiences to pool knowledge. How brilliant is that!

Going to post my grocery spends before I forget. It focuses me.

As usual I added my £3 to the purse this morning.
Day 9
Money Spent Today - £5.69 Vouchers Spent - £0
Money Spent in Total - £25.85 Vouchers Spent in Total - £5
Money left in purse - £1.15 - Float left- £0/£15
Jan non-foods left- £11.09/£15

With my grocery money got 2x milk, 750g Crunchy nut cornflakes @ £1.57, Brains 6pk faggots @ 87p, Cadburys Hot choc @ £1.49 (still half price in Morries if you like it) and out of non-foods my luxury of a tv guide @ 57p.

Oh my goodness, it sounds like the windows are going to come in with these winds. :eek:
I could hear lots of bangs and scraping noises from the garden but a quick check showed there was nothing amiss in ours. I think its the wheelie bin lids all lifting and shutting in unison around the square.

Ches

Hello to you all. I hope you don't mind me delurking to say, for anyone who has Sky I found a programme for crafters which may be useful. Can't give exact details because my old brain has forgotten but its on Showcase at 9pm on a Tuesday evening I think. Might be worth a look and I think its called Craft Daily (although its once a week).