2016 Frugal Living Challenge

nannygladys

Only been out to draw out this month's cash and as I'm eating leftovers and store cupboard things I haven't spent anything, I did enjoy the walk though but it was a lot colder than I realised.

Feeling positive about this year, I'm going away on a small hollibob in a couple of weeks but it's already paid for and I will take quite a bit of food with me, so that won't cost much, ans I'm hoping to grow a bit on the allotment, it's the first year I have got it and there's still a lot of clearing to do and it takes time when you're on your own and getting on a bit, but I so enjoy it.

Happy New Year everyone.

Nannyg

amber03

I would like to join please, am DF but would like to save as much as possible as DH is on about retiring in a couple of years, so want to get used to spending less. First thing going to do is eat what is in the cupboards, fridge and freezer. Going to lend books from library instead of buying them. Only having a chippy tea the Saturday after payday( only cos this is the only meal I have that I haven't actually cooked and I can have a night off). Not taking my purse to work ( work in a supermarket) so usually spend about £5 each day on stuff I don't really need. Looking forward to this frugal year.x

FunBrum

I've been cooking for my sick friend today and so ate there so all good on the food front! :A
My sister gave me a packet of 6 breakfast muffins, so those are in the freezer to use during this month.
I'm lucky that my out goings each month are very low, but then my monthly income is low!
Not including rent I'm aiming at £3000 for all my spends, to include the rest of my bills.

cybertortoise

Happy New Year to everyone!

Today I sorted through my food cupboards and made a list of everything we have in preparation for my first food shop of the year on Tuesday. I tend to have cupboards full of stuff but not much to turn into a meal, I'm hoping this way I will actually use what we have, making room for things we do need. I chucked out everything that was out of date, though I have been keeping on top of it over the last year so it was a very small amount.

I plan on starting baking my own bread, we do have a bread maker (borrowed) so I will probably make the dough in there and then bake in the oven. This is the only way I can get dough to rise in my house as it's quite cold and no airing cupboard. I need to find some vegetarian stew recipes to get my slow cooker going as often as possible to save me time and money.

I am buying a parking season pass for university and resolve to never pay for parking other than this except in emergencies or in case of really bad weather, if it costs to park I will walk or not go at all. Town is free to park for 2 hours on a Saturday so I can get my fruit and veg on the market then.

Shortie

Happy New Year all. Today saw us pulling some boxes down from the loft of spices, lentils etc. They went up there during the building work that we had done so trying to re-find things now

Lots in the freezer and hoping we don't need to buy much more in until next pay day (20th)

Hope you all had a good day

lcc86

Found some free gym/exercise passes I plan to use:

One day in January for one gym and a three day for another
Two days in February for a different gym
7 days in March for an outdoor class

I'm not a gym bunny and like to exercise for free (apart from horse riding, no such thing as a free ride! ) so have decided to use these free passes as motivation for times when I would probably take one look out the window, decide it's too cold/wet and not bother exercising at all!

Wombatchops

lcc86 wrote: »

Found some free gym/exercise passes I plan to use:

One day in January for one gym and a three day for another
Two days in February for a different gym
7 days in March for an outdoor class

I'm not a gym bunny and like to exercise for free (apart from horse riding, no such thing as a free ride! ) so have decided to use these free passes as motivation for times when I would probably take one look out the window, decide it's too cold/wet and not bother exercising at all!

Hi lcc86, if you don't like going out when it's cold and/or wet, what about exercising in your living room? I have a games console, given to us by my BIL so very MSE, which sounds like something you do when you go to the loo. I have some dance games and a (games console name) Fit Plus game, which I used in order to get back into shape after each of my kids. I really enjoyed it, and would like to do it more, but I struggle to find time in my day to fit it in. It was easy when I had only one kidlet, but after three, it's a toss up between sleeping and exercising, and unsurprisingly, sleep wins.

Anyway, I thought I'd mention it as it would hopefully be cheaper than the gym after you run out of free passes, and it's warmer and less public than going outdoors, which is a winning argument for me.

mumtoomany

First spends of the year yesterday. £25 for dd4's singing lesson and £20 pocket money for January. Food spend £2.38. I needed milk, it keeps going off, new fridge arriving tomorrow, so called in at Morrisons while dd4 was singing. Got 10 bags of reduced fruit 19p a bag, reduced crumpets, teacakes, rolls etc and reduced mince pies as well. Spent a £5 voucher and £2.38 cash. Hope the rest of the years shopping is as cheap.

sistercas

NSD today the weather isn't fit to venture out anyway. We have plenty in
Lunch was turkey soup and hm bread , tea will be cold meats and salad ( I'm also working my way through a tin of choccies which was a Xmas gift ):D

Wombatchops

I'm feeling delighted with my shopping successes today. The trip didn't start well, it was chucking it down and we went on foot. Whereas most cars avoided the puddles in the road if they saw a pedestrian, one **** of a driver drove right through one and sprayed water all down my leg. :mad:

My DD1 needed new shoes for school, and the only pair that fit and were appropriate cost £41, however, the kids' clothes and shoes are paid for out of gift money that they receive. I'm hoping that she looks after these shoes and they last the year because otherwise, at over £40 a pair, her gift money won't last long.

We then went to B00ts. DH has one of their loyalty cards, and, for some strange reason, I have two. However, they've got a section on their website where you can load offers onto your card to use in store, so I did that before we went out. We needed nappies and wipes, and on DH's card, he had an offer where you'd get £5 off a £20 spend, and 400 points on a £20 spend. Plus I had a gift card with over £30 on it. Our spend was as follows:

3 x nappies, £3.99 a pack, on a 3 for £8 offer, saving £3.97
4 pack of wipes, £2.50 (each pack costs 85p individually, so saving 90p)
Own brand baby paracetamol, and own brand baby ibuprofen, £2.49 each
Own brand 16 paracetamol tablets, 25p
Men's deoderant on offer, £1.59 (full price £3.19)
Own brand exfoliator on offer, £1.89 (full price £3.79)
Own brand face mask on offer, £1.49 (full price £2.99)
We bought the toiletries because we knew we'd get them for free with the £5 off (they came to £4.97), but although we didn't need them today, we will need them eventually, so we spent £15.70 and saved £14.87. Then, on the way out, we saw peppermint capsules on clearance, £6.49 reduced to £1, and I take them daily, so we saved a further £5.49. Plus, we earned 596 bonus points.

We then popped into Mr S to check out the yellow stickers, and got the following bargains:
10 x individual apples, reduced from £4 for 10 to 90p for 10
3 x mini chicken fillets, use by today, reduced from £8.25 for three, to £2.07 for three, now in the freezer
1 x mini chicken fillets, use by tomorrow, reduced from £2.75 to £1.84, now in the freezer
Satsumas, reduced from £1.75 to £1.19
A Christmas cake slab, on sale, reduced from £2.15 to 10p (it would have been rude not to)
At full price, this would have cost £18.90, but we spent £6.10, saving £12.80, plus we had a gift card which covered the total spend. The best part was that the shop assistant was doing the reductions as we were getting the items, so the apples and the chicken with today's use by were picked up at just the right time.

If we had paid full price at B00ts and Mr S, we would have spent £55.96, but we managed to pick it all up for £22.80, a 59% saving. I'm :j