2018 Frugal Living Challenge

Treasurequeen

Just came back from holiday in Cornwall. With my health issues the resturaunt on site didn’t serve food that I could eat. So I had to go to Morrison’s and buy some gluten free and vegetarian meals to cook in lodge. Only spent £39.39 on entry fees and food altogether. I had £200 saved as spending money so I have a lot left over. Which for me is very frugal!

Robi90

Hello!

Don't think I've posted in a while.
I need to fix up my diet this month as I've had really low energy for the past month and my digestion hasn't been great either.
I was also going to use my Jillian Michael's 30 day shred DVD this month to give myself a little fitness boost.
I've got a few items for free on the app Olio like pasta, prawn crackers I need to fry myself and some shoes which I'm picking up tomorrow.
The visa card crash forced me to just use the coins I had in my purse in the co-op so I just got some eggs, bread and orange juice.
I'm going to try cooking the red lentils I have in the cupboard with some rice and season it with some spices and add a fried egg on top for dinner tomorrow Trying to go meat free this month to lower my weekly food shop

Frugaldom

The card crash caused mini chaos in our villge as the one and only cashline for miles had also run out of cash! Luckily, us locals simply got a tab and went back later to pay. I felt sorry for the holidaymakers and weekend visitors in the hotel trying to pay for meals.

Nonnadiluca

Slightly late, but May budgets were:
Shopping - £2108.14 remaining out of £3600 budget, this is on track so I'm well pleased:
Other spends - £2013.66 remaining out of £4800 budget, this is not going so well and I will have to be under budget for the rest of the year:
Annual budget - £10624.92 remaining out of £18000 budget, not too bad!
Extra income to date for the year - £325 premium bonds winnings and £8.27 roadkill.
I don't post often but read every day and am inspired! Thanks.

mumof3.12kindebt

How's everyone doing?

We have £800 of debt left to clear and then we are totally debt free :T
This time last year we had just under £15k so I'm very pleased. Also it means I can now fully concentrate on saving for our house deposit once that last £800 is paid.

I have all my accounts labeled with my total aims... And I've given us until we are 30 ... 4 years 1.5 months away... But I'm going to aim for better than that ... My first aim is 24 months.
Broken down that's
5k emergancy
5k moving costs
20k deposit

It works out at £1250 a month... So I'm going to sit with my budget tomorrow And see if it's possible. If not I'll aim for 30 months or 36 months. But definitely before 49 months :money:

Frugaldom

Wow! That is awesome, mumof3! Keep up with your fantastic frugalling. Exciting times ahead for you.

Well done Nonna! Great to see someone winning something on premium bonds.

mumof3.12kindebt

Thank you it means our savings have plummeted right down. I have left 300 in the savings account for us to build on. Fingers crossed we don't have any huge expenses in the next few months.

Christmas will also soon be here so I'm October I'll start getting some presents together for the kids. Going to be a frugal one this year.

Now our finances are better. I can focus my energy on my family and career /education goals.
I'd like to set up a monthly direct debit to the savings account but we get our money all at different times of the month.
Today I'm doing the food shop for the week. Armed with a list. Going to put my phone on charge so I can add it up as I go alone. Budget is £60 that's for a family of 5 with 2 in nappies full time. I have gone through my fridge freezer and pantry to see what we already have. So let's see if I can do it.! Will update later. .£60 works out at £1.70 a day per person but the £60 isn't just food it's also household and toiletries. And I have to buy 3 lots of milk each week. Soya. Lactose free. And whole milk which shoves the bill up. If I could do £60 every week id be happy.

mumof3.12kindebt

£52.20 spent on the food shop. So we have £7.80 for any top ups needed in the week. I need to phone and pay the council tax tonight. Then I need to crack on With my studies. I'm thinking of applying to do an access course or degree next year. Not sure which route to take yet. I have plenty of time to look through my options. I basically have 3 career options I can work towards. Need to think through everything before I take the plunge..

spudsmum

Hi all,

Back after a short break, frugalling still going well and currently around £1000 under budget for the year.

We've just returned from our latest holiday - only a cheapy break in a caravan at seaside but the kids loved it and more importantly all of our spends were saved up in advance from my weekly allowance and online sales so completely within budget.

Been spending a lot of time down at my other property too getting it ready to sell, was preparing to replace both sides of the garden fence which were damaged in the recent storms and looked a right mess. Had priced it up to be £400 approx but got talking to the neighbours last week and they both volunteered to conribute so its only actually cost me £120 which I had in my savings pot so thats a massive bonus. Just a bit of cleaning and a few more tip runs of garden waste and i can get the valuers in - really hoping i can offload it soon as its costing me £700 a month at the moment.

Had some Mr M vouchers so been using them to stock up on bulky and non perishable items (baby wipes, bottles of pop, tins etc) for the last few weeks. Hopeful that this means my next few shops will be minimal - fresh fruit, veg and milk only meaning i can plough more money into debt repayment - i only managed to knock a very miserable £143 off my total debt figure last month which is really pathetic considering i seemed to be constantly throwing money at them.

In other news i finally heard back from my ppi complaint - wasnt expecting anything as it was from a card that had a £500 limit that i took out over 15 years ago and closed down about 11 years ago. Was very surprised to learn they upheld my complaint and paid me £1384.51p! Its sat nicely in my bank account at the moment while i decide what to do with it - my head says use it for debt payment but it's hard to get my head around the feeling that i wouldnt have anything tangible to show for it (silly i know) I do like the secure feeling of having a reasonable amount of savings (especially since I've closed down the credit cards) so its a bit of a dilemma at the moment - regardless i want to make sure it doesnt get frittered away on bits of nothing. Ideas on a postcard please!

Frugaldom

spudsmum wrote: »

In other news i finally heard back from my ppi complaint - wasnt expecting anything as it was from a card that had a £500 limit that i took out over 15 years ago and closed down about 11 years ago. Was very surprised to learn they upheld my complaint and paid me £1384.51p! Its sat nicely in my bank account at the moment while i decide what to do with it - my head says use it for debt payment but it's hard to get my head around the feeling that i wouldnt have anything tangible to show for it (silly i know) I do like the secure feeling of having a reasonable amount of savings (especially since I've closed down the credit cards) so its a bit of a dilemma at the moment - regardless i want to make sure it doesnt get frittered away on bits of nothing. Ideas on a postcard please!

I would think of it as invisible money that doesn't really exist, throw £1300 of it at the debts and then think of the £84.51 as free money to do with as you please - win, win situation.