2016 Frugal Living Challenge

FunBrum

You are welcome sheba...I'm hooked on Dave Ramsey! jess444, you will love him! I was watching one of his seminars today and literally laughed out loud on a number of occasions! :rotfl:
My DD2 has ordered his budget book which has the envelope system included. Me being frugal...have made my own!:money:

The last direct debit has left the bank for this month. Even though I'm on schedule, I won't be able to throw any cash at my debt, but I'm working hard listing books, DVD's and other stuff online. I'm going to knuckle down throughout the rest of the month as I'm determined to crush this debt by the end of the year! Arghhhhh......!!:cool:

Shortie

Morning all. Hope you all had a good and frugal weekend

Welcome SqueezedMillenial - trying the angle with OH that there is less packaging waste with batch cooked home-cooked food may appeal to his environmentalist side? Then, there will be less packaging waste as well as less money spent :money:

This weekend was lovely and productive - Mr Shortie finished the side fence, we've decided to make the back garden bed edging out of pallets that we have in abundance after the building work, we cleared out the old chook area and decided we will get more, got the strawbs and garlic planted in their proper beds and 'found' most of the lawn bar a patch where we have hippo bags of fire wood that currently has no permanent home (where it used to live is now under decking. Oh and two runs to the tip

Feels like we have made good in-roads to the back garden. And then if rained last night so everything that was planted up have now had a watering :j

Frugaldom

Thanks, Bettyboof, but even in the advanced mode I am unable to use the smilies - not sure why, or who keeps reporting me, which might also cause loss of functionality on the site! Ho hum... only been here running this challenge for 9 years, but we can't keep all of the people happy all of the time, hence the reason I no longer post my personal updates on here. LOL


To all who are saving for houses, this challenge is how 2 of us here managed to save enough to buy a fixy-up. I used a homemade wooden box bank, wrote out a complete list of every cost I could think of, from travelling to look at property and surveys to legal costs, moving costs and initial repairs, as I knew we'd only ever afford a fixy up. Prior to this, I was doing the challenge to clear debts and get back on my feet. It took until 2012 to save enough cash, (there were 3 of us at that point) to buy this fixy-up outright, as in no mortgage.


The challenge continued, more so once DS moved into his own place, and we still haven't renovated fully because in 2014 we spent the savings on a piece of land (now aptly named 'Frugaldom') and are now saving like mad to turn the house into a proper home and the field into a frugaldom project. BUT... we had to buy in a completely different area from where any of us grew up originally, owing to how cheap the property is about here.


NEVER GIVE UP - KEEP ON FRUGALING! (At least I know how to type the basic auto-generated smilies. LOL)

Frugaldom

Just to clarify - Frugaldom was not my original username - I have been on this site since the forums first began and this is my 3rd username after some folks appeared not to like my first one and my second one was eventually ruled out, hence the early posts on this challenge showing as NYK*****.

DawnW

I remember the NYK

---

threads! Thanks for clarifying (and for all your posts over the years)

Wombatchops

Hi all. Welcome squeezedmillenial, I was going to suggest the exact same thing as Shortie. Good luck with the frugal journey.

Last week was very busy with half term, but it was done frugally, I think. I'll leave you all to judge for yourselves. I sold some jewellery last Monday. I got it valued the previous week, was offered £620, but wanted to add a few other bits (which would have added only another £50 maximum to the valuation), and I was waiting on a second valuation. However, by the time that came through, the price of gold had increased by 5%, and I was offered £745. I decided to try the first place again, and I was offered £800, so I took it. I may have got more if I waited a bit longer, but I may also have got less, it's a gamble. Besides, the money is going towards doing the bathroom up, so I need it sooner rather than later.

Frugal activities last week included:
reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to DD1 (she's 6)
watching a few Disney DVDs
making hot chocolate from scratch
making Toblerone fudge, which didn't set, so it turned into Toblerone fudge goo, but it's still totally delicious
on separate days, going to the park, going to the library, and going to the local garden centre to check out the chickens there (the park and library were on foot)
my BIL taking DD1 swimming one day, him paying

All in all, apart from buying some marmalade from the garden centre, we didn't spend anything on entertainment. Even the hot chocolate and goo we had virtually all of the ingredients for already, except the single cream for the hot chocolate.

After 14 months at home on maternity leave (I had one month of holiday off at the beginning, and one month of accrued holiday off at the end), I go back to work on Friday. I'm really going to miss the kids, even though, and I'm reckoning most parents know exactly what I mean by this, they drive me mad sometimes (I always used to think how on earth could your own kids drive you mad before I became a parent, but I totally get it now). I will be working Mon, Wed, Fri, 8 - 5, so I won't get the traffic as badly in the morning. I will be working 24 hours per week (normally it would be 21 hours, so I'm not losing as much money, and that helps with childcare costs). Plus I still get two days at home with the two little ones, which also means two days of the school run. It'll be nice getting paid again, but I really dislike my job. I am considering doing some free online courses to boost my skills and make me more employable, but, as with a lot of things, it's a case of making the time when all I want to do is switch off and veg out. Does anyone fancy giving me a kick up the a*** to do it?

OK, I need to get on with dinner. I hope everyone is having a good start to the week.

bmma

Hi catching up- NSD's to date = 11
spend for the last 5 days = £27.88
yearly budget left = 1,604.77
vegan casserole in slow cooker, will have that with mashed potatoes,should make 4 good sized portions with each portion costing around 68p

jess444_2

A frugal day out for myself and OH today including a walk along the beach with a bag of chips - certainly blew the cobwebs away.

Really pleased today. We have been living on what will be our income when I retire at the end of the year so have managed to save £1000!! Lovely feeling to transfer it into an ISA and know we have a bit of an emergency fund. I am hoping if we can stick with our new frugal ways we should be able to get another £3000 in there before I leave work.

It sounds like you and the kids have had a lovely half term Wombatchops and good luck going back to work on Friday.

Frugaldom, was NYK your previous username??

lynnejk

Frugaldom wrote: »

Thanks, Bettyboof, but even in the advanced mode I am unable to use the smilies - not sure why, or who keeps reporting me, which might also cause loss of functionality on the site! .....

NEVER GIVE UP - KEEP ON FRUGALING! (At least I know how to type the basic auto-generated smilies. LOL)

Frugaldom - I haven't been able to use the 'smilies' for ages and ages BUT if you click on the [More] at the bottom of the list you will get the full list of how to 'make' them all and that's what I use (though I now know lots of them off by heart)


Sounds like you had a fun, frugal week Wombat - well done :T


Still plodding away here in the cold and trying to save pennies.


Hope you all have a super Tuesday and stay warm and dry
Lx

Frugaldom

Thanks for that info, Lynnejk, very handy to know.

Jess444, yes, my previos username here and elsewhere was NYKMedia, so the old threads all updated to Frugaldom but the actual posts and quotes weren't affected. The name became a big international company, while still in existence here, so MSE made the relevant changes for me. NYK = Now You Know... but the New York Knicks fans also get confused by it.