2016 Frugal Living Challenge

lynnejk

Evening all

Just dropped in to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and hope you all enjoy the day :xmassign:
Lx

Merle

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas.
Looking forward to 2017 starting on the frugal merry-go-round again.
Love reading all your posts. Good luck to everyone in 2017.

Frugaldom

Hope everyone had fabulously frugal, festive fun!

Here is the link to the

2017 Frugal Living Challenge

See you all there for our next year of frugaldom!

Honeylife

Made a decision to cut back hugely on Christmas, although I had already been making presents of jams, chutney etc, I knew I was still spending too much and a lot going to waste. That heaving table of food was a left over from my parents but too much was being chucked out after.

This year saved an absolute fortune 2016 Christmas. Only meat was a very small turkey crown with cheap vegetables from Lidl. Made a Nut roast, Jamie Oliver Cranberry and Pistachio - two portions in freezer at mo. About a third of the usual chocolates, nuts, and snacking stuff. My mince pies and only one type of brandy cream instead of the usual 3. (Will cut back more on that in 2017) Son brought a very small ham as his contribution to meal. Daughters the alcohol, which again was far less than usual. Grandchildren too small to notice their presents are just that - small, and useful. The One present rule worked very well and the stocking stuff was collected over the past 12 months. No one felt deprived and it was as jolly as ever without me worrying about wasting food and an overdraft. Turkey leftovers made a great stir fry with vegetables leftovers blended into a tasty soup. All food used up or frozen.

Freezer has food for at least six weeks. Cupboard (pasta, spaghetti, rice and flour) should last much longer. No waste. :T
Drifted around the sales but so far only picked up some cheap Christmas wrapping paper and a large box of Jacobs crackers in Sainsbury at half price and a whole salmon for a third off the usual price. Thats been cut up into steaks and frozen in packets of two. Don't need clothes and my boots have been repaired at the cobblers, so I don't care how much Sale stuff is around I am so not tempted to buy even at 80% off! . No birthdays until June so I should save enough for the summer hols 2017. :j
Not feeling stressed about money after Christmas is wonderful. :):)