2016 Frugal Living Challenge

Wombatchops

Yay to the Frugal Ears. That's genius.

Frugalwannabe wrote: »

Hello :-)

I've just spent some time reading through all of the posts here and I'm so inspired by you all! I'm definitely looking to join in with this lovely frugal lifestyle.

In our house there myself, oh, DS1-6, DS2-4 and DD-1. We home educate them so they're here all day and fed all meals. We have a fair sized house that also old so can feel the cold quite a lot too. We used to (and still do at times if I'm honest) spend money on stuff we absolutely don't need.

Going forward I need to set a proper budget for the year and sell a lot on ebsy. We've booked a week at centerparcs and I'd like to raise the money for the balance outstanding by selling stuff we don't need!

I'm off to meal plan and look through the freezer and cupboards as we have a ridiculous amount of food.

Can I ask what peoples food spends are for the month with families roughly the same as mine please? I've one in nappies and one in night time pull ups. 1 cat as well.

Thanks in advance and looking forward to be super frugal with you all!

My kids are 6, 2 and 1. My monthly shopping is £180. My youngest two are in nappies. I buy nappies mostly at Ald! Or B00ts. The former sell nappies in boxes for less than £7. The latter sell smaller packs, but they often have three packs for £8, which is essentially 3 for 2, and I buy them when I've got the spend £20, get £5 off deal, and I know I'll be spending that much anyway. For everything else, I check the price of groceries online and get each item wherever it's cheaper. Plus, if I see yellow stickers that I know we'll use, I buy them. That all helps to keep costs down.

DH is now going to be off work until at least mid-March, and we now have to pay for nursery (he's in no position to look after them, plus we'll lose the places if we pull them out). Not only is the childcare more than all of our bills combined, including mortgage, but it's more than either of us is bringing in. :mad: Thank goodness for tax credits and child benefit.

We have a few saving graces. We remortgaged this week. We increased the mortgage by £6k, but that was to pay off a loan to replace all windows and external doors. It was a smart move, because the new mortgage has an interest rate of 1.54%, but the loan had a rate of 24.3%. Also, the new mortgage will cost £170 per month less than the old mortgage + loan combined. That's a mini victory to us. Also, no council tax for this month and next, so the money saved is being put aside to top off the Stat Sick Pay that DH is getting. Plus, we have switched current account from Santander 123 (still a great account, but sadly no longer cost-effective for us with a £5 monthly fee) to First Direct, and we have received the £150 switching bribe, sorry, cashback.

Now comes the bad news. We found out our toilet was leaking, and had been leakng for months, the weekend before Christmas. This was when my DH was on half pay. We had to replace it, but since we would eventually be replacing the bathroom suite anyway and there was a sale on, we also bought a bath and basin. The new toilet has been fitted, replacing an old 12 litre cistern with a dual flush, so saving water and money (we are on a meter).

However, with DH now on SSP, our bath won't drain, and drain unblocker doesn't clear it. Nor does bicarb and vinegar. Having a bath full of water with small children in the house is not safe. And we don't have the money to get a plumber to fix the problem now, and then do up the bathroom later, so we are biting the bullet and having the bathroom done up now. We do have the money saved for it, but we were going to keep it to help us get through the next few months. I'll disclose now that we inherited the bathroom suite when we bought the house, and it's all as old as me (33 wishing I was 23).

We always seem to have these things happen to us when we are in tight financial spots. When DH was made redundant and was out of work for several months a few years back, when I was pregnant with my middle child, our boiler was leaking carbon monoxide and had to be replaced, at a cost of over £3k. And now we're having to make repairs again at a time when we need to keep hold of as much money as possible. :wall::wall::wall::wall::wall:

Anyway, enough complaining from me. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far. I best make dinner or the boarded will complain. Sausages, mash, onion gravy and peas. The sausages were a yellow sticker purchase

bmma

spends to date £28.69
yearly budget now stands at £1,721.40
3 NSD's to date x

mumtoomany

Wombatchops, sorry to see you are still having a rough time, although re-mortgaging will give you a bit extra each month. First direct have an offer on woth credit cards at the moment, (till the end of Feb) if you take one out and use it, once, they give you £25 cashback. I don't know if this is any good to you. Also wih the locked bath. Try emptying out as much water as you can, with a jug, then pour neat caustic soda down the plug hole. Be careful you don't splash it on you, it's bad stuff. This should work better than any unblocker. M2m.

jess444_2

Sorry to hear about your troubles Wombat - it is sods law that everything goes wrong when you can least afford it. I hope you find a way of sorting your bath out.

A friends birthday this week, so a gift and a birthday meal will come out of this weeks money. This will make things very tight, but it will be worth it.

Managed to sell something on Ebay, hopefully the first of many, although after fees I don't think I will be getting rich any time soon lol!

FunBrum

wombatchops it never rains but pours. Sorry to hear your still battling. Hugs! :grouphug:

I've been frugally dying my hair today, trying desperately to cover up the grey! :eek:
Thankfully home dyes are better than they have ever been, so I'm well pleased.
Have had a great evening bowling with family and friends for my GS1 9th birthday and was treated to not only the bowling but also tea from the chippy!:D

I've been thinking about where I want to be this time next year, and I'm quite happy with my life as it is. The only thing I want to be different is hopefully my debt will be gone...by 31st December!:money:

Food isn't really a problem for me as I get so much for free. I do like to pay my way and one of the ways I can do that is to share and help others, whether it's making meals for people or doing something for them. That's my little way of giving back.:)

I'm off to London with my sister tomorrow to visit my niece and her little family until Tuesday. It gives me a change of scenery and means my utilities are kept to the minimum!;)

[Deleted User]

Planning for the week ahead today, something I have not done in a while. This week will be tight budget wise.

Plans include:
Daily swim
Walk each day - not sure how this one will go as weather here awful.
Get up to date with washing and ironing.
Crochet - I started a pram blanket a few weeks ago but haven't done much with it since then.
Food plan and shop.
General tidy/dust/clean of house through the week.

And of course login to MSE each day to stay on track.

FunBrum

The weather has been so bad to day, I only managed a half hour stroll outsied.:o
I did manage to find 5p on the floor and was given a free sample of Up And Go! :j
I spent most of last night and this afternoon on YouTube, watching people's accounts of how they got out of debt and how they became mortgage free. It was very inspiring and watching and reading these real life accounts make me more determined to be debt free! I was telling my niece and we've been going over her budget. I already have a budget and have been living frugally for years but I know I can cut back further and throw more money at my debt, and the season of Lent is the perfect time to keep the in check!:D

Shortie

Morning all. Been a hard month financially but we are keeping afloat. Next pay month (next week) was meant to be when I had a breather and got back on track but we got sideswiped again with work being booked that the OH thought hadn't been agreed. On top of the wm blowing up and being replaced last week I could really do without the work being done but it's not something we could tackle ourselves, we'd wait ages to get another slot and the first we knew about it was because the materials had been ordered. So I'm going to have to grit my teeth and get this done now and not later. Not looking forward to next month and am having to urgently work out where I can skim money from the budget as I am in the red before the month starts now. Grrr.

It will get better but am definately fed up of spending my time shuffling money around at the moment and feeling like I'm not making any head way

jess444_2

I have a huge maiden on the dining room that I dry my clothes on. Also have a dehumidifier in there which really helps to dry the clothes. Apparently a dehumidifier is quite economical as it also helps to keep the house warmer. Can't remember where I read that but it does seem to be true.
Lovely meal for friends BD last night, brought home a 'doggy bag', so that's lunch sorted today.
Have managed not to go food shopping this week (except for milk and bacon bits)so still in budget.
Another small sale on Ebay, a little extra for the emergency fund.

sheba

Ayup Fellow Frugal Ears,

Well I am trying sooooo hard to be frugal but have had to do a stock up shop at a time when I am wanting to spend nowt essentially-grrrr! However I am hoping now food costs will be minimal as I have a clear menu plan for 2 weeks and then a few other meals I can think of off the top of my head. Fingers crossed!

My blooming buffer fund is being severely tested as the hubster has now said we need 2 new tyres on the van (at a cost of £100) but gotta be done as van is 1) plumbers van 2) our only family vehicle 3) holiday home when camping season starts.

As always I won't know what all this unplanned spending will do to Feb savings/losses until the 2nd of the next month occurs- that's the date of reckoning in this house, I'll know the correct price of any variable bills then and can reconcile to any income that's come in up to that date (I ignore outstanding invoices owed to us financially until they're in hand). But i know increased expenditure = less chance of savings so am flipping aggrieved at all these bills! As they say ' life is what happens while your making plans'.

Hope your all having a better month but I see from some posts some are not, hugs to all that need em.

Talk soon xxxx