2017 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaliza

determined_new_ms wrote: »

I tend to file away other's opinions of my life choice along with everything else I have no need for (you know nod, smile sweetly, make appropriate hmm, ah sounds but then file away afterwards ) honestly it's your life, you live it how you want. You can also tell people, it's your diary! Someone on a thread I go on everyday says "sometimes you have to adjust your crown and remind people who they are dealing with"

honestly it's up to you how you live, what you are happy with and what concessions you're prepared to make. Yep the way you live your life may not be met with everyone's approval but who needs that albatross anyway?

for my oh travel is really important, has always been. His mother was a flight attendant throughout his childhood and he always travelled all over the world. It is something that is a deal breaker for him. He has made concessions over the years, when we were in debt (and now that my income has reduced drastically) where we would have 1 holiday abroad - best deal found of course! - a sun holiday and a couple of camping trips. You decide what works for you and that's ok

Well said. Thank you.:beer:

Savvy_sewing

Today I got a lift to Aldi and did most of the food shopping there. Although the shelves were a little empty of choice. Fresh food was nearly all empty!
I spent a few pence short of £40.
However I will not have to call into the Tesco express or the co-o this week now. Which is the bad habit I had slipped into.

cw18

I think my version of my spreadsheet is working for me - for now.
Realised yesterday I had a category missing (nowhere to log car parking charges, and had one yesterday due to being sent to a different office - can't claim it back, but the mileage I get paid more than covers it as well as the petrol), and then realised this afternoon while plugging in the the D/Debits that have already gone out this month that I was missing another :eek:

Still suspect it's going to need some tweaking as we go through the year, but at least I'm up and running for now - and have managed to get all spends for the year-to-date into it.

I currently have straighforward budgets for
Council Tax (allowed for a small increase)
Gas/Electricity (combined monthly payment)
Water (metered, so need to closely monitor use)
Central Heating Breakdown (thinking of cancelling this after something the chap said when he came to service and do a repair in November)
Building & Contents Insurance (combined. last years premium plus extra)
Landline & Broadband (combined, and coming up to the end of my years special deal so need to start doing price comparisons again very soon - and may have to upwardly adjust the budget for it )
Mobile Phone (found a good SIM only deal about 10 months ago, and very happy with it. may need a minor increase as the contract allows a small move upwards each year)
Dental Costs (allowed for one tier 1 and one tier 2 in the year),
Opticians (well overdue a check-up, so a total guess at what it may cost me for a new pair of specs plus enough contacts to get me though the year)
Medical Costs (total guess, but set at higher than I'd hope to need for prescriptions and over the counter meds / plasters as I'll have to pay for the flu vaccine again later in the year)
Car Insurance (last years premium plus extra)
Breakdown Cover (know the cost - due this month)
Road Tax (know the cost - due this month)
Service & MOT (guesstimate based on what I paid last year)
Car Repairs (total guess, but increases ever year. need to get exhaust sorted very soon as have fumes coming in through the heater system!)
Presents (have worked out who I need to buy for when, and set myself a budget for each. already bought some in the sales)
Lottery (my one vice. on-line account, so paid by monthly direct debit)


I then have more complicated budgets for
Groceries. I split the outgoings for this into what I actually spend and the replacement value of things I'm using from stock. The replacement value comes out of my budget and goes into savings - desperately need to replace my built in fridge/freezer, and I think I'm going to have to look at replacing the car in the next 18 months
Toiletries and Cleaning. Working this the same way as Groceries.
Travel Expenses. I've set a budget based on what I'd expect to spend on petrol if I drove to work every day and do what I suspect is minimum recreational / holiday mileage (and then added some on to allow for extra trips to see family, weekends away and / or petrol prices soaring). But outgoings are then split between Petrol, Bus Fares (cheaper to commute by bus but takes around 3 hours a day instead of 75 minutes! still do it some weeks as it also gives me some time to read when I can't be distraced by anything else, and it's easier to get to some offices by bus due to congested routes or lack of parking) and Parking Fees. However any mileage expenses I get from work will offset spends in this category, effectively increasing the budget


Anything Else (clothes, shoes, days out, household bits, books, CDs, DVDs, membership fees etc) has to be covered by additional income. This can be presents, tips from work, roadkill, savings made by using points from various loyalty cards, a percentage of income from overtime / bonus (splitting 40% for spends, 60% for savings) or a percentage of anything I make by decluttering on eB@y (split depends on how much an item sells for - I can spend a higher percentage of low value items). I'm also attempting to control my 'addiction' to second hand DVDs by setting myself an addtional condition of having to watch 2 before I can buy 1, and if a box set I want has 6 in it then I have to watch 12 before I can order it. I don't count bonus DVDs with extras on them as watches or purchases as I don't watch those (so a 2 disk special edition only counts as 1 either way). So far this year I've watched 11 and bought none - but have my eyes on 2 box sets, one with 6 and one with 7 :shhh:

[Deleted User]

Morning CW18 I put parking under Anything else but wonder if Gutter Cleaning is usual. I can understand the vets & endowments although these are not nec. for me, but maybe gutter could be under a general Garden type. Never the less, I can make these column "thinner". Thanks for all your hard work, have populated my Totals and started filling in Jan. Thanks again.

cw18

I hadn't spotted gutter cleaning was still on the blank sheet - off to remove it now. It's something I personally wanted to include every couple of years, as the house looks bad against the neighbours if it's not done and there's no way I'm going up ladders to do it (not that I own any long enough anyway )

If you change the text in that box to something you do spend on it should automatically change on the regular payment pages (This holds for everything in column A from rows 2 to 23 inclusive.) I no longer use Dog Expenses or Vets Bills (not had a pet since November 2011), TV Licence (not needed one since the end of 2010), Endowment (paid out when hubby passed away in 2008) or Windows (cancelled window cleaner a couple of years ago when finances got really tight, but it is one I may re-instate later this year now I have a salary coming in again). I also used to have Gym Membership (another that's long since been cancelled), but that appears to have gone from the blank spreadsheet anyway.

I'd normally have put parking under anything else myself, but the time I'm most likely to need to pay is when I'm sent to one particular office to help out so I needed to find a way of balancing it out against the mileage allowance I get for going there.


Good news on my exhaust problem. Went to my local Kw!k F!t this morning, and was told the fumes were coming from a seal that was slowly coming apart. They resealed the joint, and informed me there was no charge :T The chap sounded confident that it should solve the problem, so fingers crossed I'll get to work from now on without a cloudy windscreen or a headache from fumes - the two options I've had for the last few weeks

cw18

DVD buying restrictions have been tested to the limit today. By early afternoon I'd watched 12 since the start of the year, which left me 'able' to buy a 6 disk set or needing to watch 2 more to buy a 7 disk set. After much consideration I went for the 6 disk set as it was at the lowest price in over 3 years and 63p less than I was prepared to pay for it. The 7 disk set is almost at lowest price ever (and available on another site slightly below the lowest ever Amaz0n marketplace price), but is a lot newer so I'd expect it to start coming down on a more regular basis over the next 12-18 months (plus it's still £1+ more than I'd really like to pay, and almost £2 more than the one I bought).

Have watched another DVD this afternoon, so I'm already clocking up towards being allowed another purchase :whistle: Should hopefully manage at least another 4 before the weekend, and will watch at least 1 on Saturday with OH. Might have to try talking him into watching another on Sunday as we're unlikely to manage one the next weekend due to family commitments

Kerry_Woman

I have finalised my budget for the year. I keep the general spend and food/household spends separate. My Mum lives with me and she kindly helps with the food/household spends. General spends is £8500 and the food/household spends is £1800. So total for the year is £10,300. It is the same amount as last year. Last year the total of both spends was £8817. I know that some categories I went over and this needs to be addressed this year.


I am going to be carrying on using up creams/lotions that I have this year. Used up about 40 creams/lotions/samples last year. Planning to restrict my spending of things that I need until I really them. Brought face cleansers last year and not used them yet. Still using the one I already had.


Planning to get work clothes, eg blouses, top and trousers from charity shops this year. Did this last year. I do temp office work and had a 2 month break. Am hoping to start a temp job next week as some paperwork needs to be sorted at the place where I will be working. It is up London, so will have to get used to travelling to London again and the extra cost of travel.


January is an expensive month. Paid the property maintenance for the flat in full for the year, as I had the money in the bank. Also the contents insurance is due and paid for the pre paid prescription card.


Am carrying on with decluttering things in the flat again this year and thinking twice about buying things.

determined_new_ms

kerry facial products are such a black hole for me. I have no 7 peel from 2 years ago and a polish facial cleanser from last year! Doing better at not buying creams until they are almost gone now!

Kerry_Woman

determined new ms - I still have some unopened hand creams given to me at Christmas 2015 from people at a temp job I was in. Planning to use them this year. I think the cleansers I got will keep me going for a while. This is one area I really want to get under control and limit the amount of things I have in this area.

cw18

Another one here working their way through a toiletries stockpile. At the moment I think the only things I may need to buy in 2017 are eye drops (I have dry eye, which gets worse when I wear contacts), lip salve (essential as I work outdoors) and day cream with SPF (another essential due to my job).

Other than one shower gel that I got 100% of the cost back for, eye drops and lip salve were the only items I purchased in 2016 - so that shows how much of everything I had before the start of last year :eek: