2018 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Good morning to all - new challenger names added - welcome to all.

I, too, had a look for the slow cooking thread and can no longer find it - perhaps the original poster deleted it or perhaps I was thinking of our old forum, sorry about that. Loads of recipes online if you do a search for slow cooker recipes, though.

More foraging here, so I am just making the jams and jellies as I pick the fruit - saves switching on the heater when the cooker is on, which is ideal now the nights are drawing in and much getting cooler.

Well done with your weight loss, FrankieM.

Thank you to those who took the time to read the house buying thread - it got off to a bit of a bumpy start but we have kept going with the challenge, making improvements wherever possible and investing in more property whenever it becomes realistic to do so. In 2014, we bought the land that is now known as 'Frugaldom'. In 2015 we bought the ex-rental caravans where we now offer frugal breaks and then last summer, we managed to buy another fixy-up cottage, which has now been rented out on a frugal tenancy agreement for a few months. My allocated budget for frugal living is extremely tight, so life goes on as normal - spending little and saving more.

Frugaldom

For earning or saving a few pounds extra, here is the link to an old challenge we used to do on here. The object was to earn/save and extra £1000 over the space of 100 days, so we ran this several times a year. Some of us are still doing this, although it is now impossible to include interest on savings - there just aren't any worth talking about unless you're a millionaire, in which case, what are you doing here?

Frugaldom

FOUND IT!

THE LINK TO ALL THE SLOW COOKER RECIPES IS HERE

I knew there was one somewhere - I'd linked to it from the original Living on £4,000 for a year challenge threads

Moll

Payday and weigh in today


6lbs of weight gone, which was my target The 'weight loss budget' is 10lbs this month to stay on track. 10 months to go.


well done Frankie M thats a lot of weight loss in a short time , any tips for me ?

littlesimplelivingcottage

Frugaldom wrote: »

FOUND IT!

THE LINK TO ALL THE SLOW COOKER RECIPES IS HERE

I knew there was one somewhere - I'd linked to it from the original Living on £4,000 for a year challenge threads

THANK YOU!!!! :T:T:T

I'll be looking forward to going through that tonight and get some good ideas.

Pay day and Weigh in day for me to Frankie M, Well done on your loss!!! That is amazing. I managed to lose 2.4lbs this week which for me is amazing as no matter what I do I'm a 1lb a week dropper lol.

I've played around with my budget as much as I can and I've already blown my own little budget, I didn't mean to but I bought the book Down to Earth by Rhonda Hetzel, I read her blog and love it. I've tried buying her book a few times now which ends up with me buying it, it not turning up and getting refunded so I'm hoping I actually get it this time. I'm hoping that there will be some good bits in it to keep me motivated . I do have some wiggle room for the rest of the month but I'm really wanting to save every penny so it will be interesting to see how I do. Every NSD day will be a happy dance day for me!

I'm going to be trying the cash envelope system this month so I'm looking forward to seeing it it works.

I'm on my staycation next week so myself and the other half are having packed lunches everyday (we're going to watch the racing) so I'm hoping this week is going to be cheap with our food spending. I've also got a load of apples waiting at my parents house from a family friend so I'm hoping to process them this coming week. I'm really hoping to maybe try out some dried apple (never done it), get some fruit leather and do some apple pies for the freezer for winter.

Hope everyone is doing well :j

the_cross_rabbit

New water butt has arrived.We ordered it through our water company and was alot cheaper that any we could find on the internet.

Mamageek

I came across this thread last night and I've read quite a lot of it, some of the ideas are amazing! Probably far too late in the year to join but I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of some motivating articles or anything similar?

We're on a very low income whilst I go back to education, and our debts have crept up quite high. We definitely need to get on the right track but I'm struggling how to be frugal without being stuck in the house, does anyone have any tips? I have a one year old, no car, family or friends and partner's only home at weekends. I've spent the year going to all the free and cheap groups/areas within walking distance and I'm sick to death of the same old places now! I've done lots of research but everything is either expensive to get to or I have to pay for travel AND entry. This is the only part I'm struggling with as things are getting depressing with nothing to do, any advice?

FrankieM

Thanks everyone for your 'well dones' on my weight loss. Just to be clear that was for August (well half way through) My budget for everything else is monthly so I figured why not for ditching the weight to. I'm going from pay day to pay day.

I've dropped the carbs, they make me over eat and a lot of the ones I choose are processed so it's been meat and veg/salad. It seems to be suiting me.

t's never too late in the year MamaGeek you've got to start somewhere and sometime so it may as well be now. Welcome aboard!
In regards to cheap days out for children etc, that's a little out of my area of expertise now days. Are you able to trim your budget in other areas to make more money available for this one? Sorry I'm not much help.

mumtoomany

As FrankieM says it's never too late. If you are in education, why not start a year long challenge from September when you go back. Free idea out and about this time of year. Go blackberry picking. They can be found on most waste land, or in the country along hedgerows. You can freeze them, they freeze well, and use them for pies, crumbles, in jelly or yoghurt etc. Day out and free food too! M2m.

frosty

MamaGeek wrote: »

I came across this thread last night and I've read quite a lot of it, some of the ideas are amazing! Probably far too late in the year to join but I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of some motivating articles or anything similar?

We're on a very low income whilst I go back to education, and our debts have crept up quite high. We definitely need to get on the right track but I'm struggling how to be frugal without being stuck in the house, does anyone have any tips? I have a one year old, no car, family or friends and partner's only home at weekends. I've spent the year going to all the free and cheap groups/areas within walking distance and I'm sick to death of the same old places now! I've done lots of research but everything is either expensive to get to or I have to pay for travel AND entry. This is the only part I'm struggling with as things are getting depressing with nothing to do, any advice?

Hi,head over to the old style money saving board,were a friendly bunch.:D