2016 Frugal Living Challenge

squeezedmillennial

Shortie- I think you hit the nail on the head with the environmental angle. It's also his chore to take the bins out, so less packaging / lighter load might just sway it. :beer:

Totted up my NSDs for Feb so far- turns out I'm on track to manage 18! Looks like I'll be upping my target to 20 for March

FunBrum

I spent a good 2 hours making a budget debt during budget book out of an un-used photo album I had.
I'm really pleased with the result, and now I have everything at my finger tips and in one place. It will also make me focus on my debt-busting mission! :money:

I've sold some books and just have to post them. Next Will be lusting the DVD's. Anything extra I have will be put towards paying off my cc!

I haven't shopped for a few days and hopefully I won't need anything until next month. I plan on using everything out of my freezer, as I have a lot of soup and chicken casserole!

BettyBoof

Frugaldom sorry to hear you keep being reported, that's awful. Amazing work buying a house outright, I'll be pleased just to save up a small deposit!

Frugaldom

Bettyboof, it more reflects the property prices here than my income, but it is all relevant. You can still buy a house for under £50k in many places, so the ability to relocate and work from home helped immensely. It is definitely scaleable, as I haven't cleared minimum wage in years. Had I been earning £30k, I could probably have bought another house within 2 years. Instead, we bought a field and named it Frugaldom. I still don't earn minimum wage, have now dropped my hours to 20 a week and still run the household on the original £4k per year. But I now also have holiday caravans that are shared with my fellow frugalers.

sheba

Morning fellow Frugal Ears hope you are all well, :T

Just coming on here for a tiny grrrr moment. I have done the energy fix via the fabulous Mr. Lewis energy club and have moved from British Gas to... British Gas! Just on a (much) cheaper rate and a monthly DD rather than paying the actual usage bill on a variable dd every 3 months as I did before. So have given them my 'final' meter reading before the new 'energy club' rates come in and am now waiting, very impatiently, for them to generate my bill- I mean how long does it take?!! Don't they know I'm waiting on all my variable bills to come in so I can see whether we are sunk or swimming in March!!! I appreciate this is a first world problem and a minor annoyance at best but I can't be doing with waiting for bills, I can wait for anything else but with money stuff I like to be knowing!! So I am sending out a tiny grrrr to the universe and now... big exhale and RELEASE.

Anyhoo, hope you all have a fabulous Friday, and a great weekend and I shall be back on the 2nd to update the 'sink or swim' situation- assuming British Gas have pulled their finger out by then...:cool:

xxxxxxx

bmma

HI spends = £52.28
yearly budget left = £1.552.49
have started the envelope budgeting method (started today),new mantra Every Pound has its Place!
home made soup made-it is freezing here today-first load of laundry done (home made liquid detergent) have been making this for 3 years . have a good week end everyone x
ps 14 NSD's for Feb x

[Deleted User]

Hi All, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I got home from holidays last night so today is being spent unpacking and getting the washing done - the first load is in already.

OH is away to stay with a friend this weekend so I will just be getting bits done in the house and a couple of early nights. I was given one of those pots sets a week or two ago that comes complete with compost and bulbs so I got that planted up this morning. It should look lovely if the bulbs actually come to anything.

Frugal plans for the month ahead are:
Rejoin GC to keep a better reign on food budget
Try to sell some books on Amazon
Get out into the garden and clear it ready for spring.
Get out walking more regularly
Zero takeaways - this will be a big challenge for me but going to give it a go.

jess444_2

I changed my tariff wit EDF Sheba and got my new payment straight away. Hope British Gas lets you know soon.
Bmma, how do you make your own liquid detergent and does it work out cheaper. Been out shopping - Farm foods, BM and Lidl. Shopping around definitely saves money, but I find it really hard to keep track of which shop I cheapest for what! Anyway, spent £53 but this should do us for 2 weeks. Filled car is Asda, which seems to be the cheapest for diesel around here atm and hoping that will do for two weeks until payday too. Things getting a bit tight now, so hoping for lots of NSDs.

Frugaldom

Jess444 if you go to post 2 on here there is link to all the handy stuff, like laundry liquid / gloop. Many of us have been using it for many years. Saves a small fortune each year.

bmma

HI JESS444 as Frugaldom says lots of recipes on here for the home made detergent- liquid and powder
I have refined mine to 1 cup castile liquid soap,1 cup of oxycleaner and 1 cup of washing soda - add 6 cups of water - heat until everything dissolves then put in a large container and add another 5 cups of water-let it sit overnight-it could turn like a gel but it is still all right-I use 1/2 cup per load-live in a hard water area-have never costed it -make it as I like control over the ingredients-no chemicals,no animal enzymes and not tested on animals-I would advise take the basic recipe and adjust to your own preference- good luck x