2018 Frugal Living Challenge

skint_chick

sinkorswim2018 wrote: »

Skint_chick - you sound like you need to change your user name now.

I've been skint_chick for 10 years so here's to the next 10 years overpaying the mortgage to be mortgage free! I'm having another minimal purchasing year with just a new wardrobe planned to replace my 15year old falling apart one, and I need to do something with the stairs at some point too as the carpet is worn out and I think I'd prefer to sand and paint them and have a runner or similar. We'll be saving on holidays this year, we usually take a few but around work and plans I only have time for a long weekend break and a couple of short trips to visit family.

The rest of the year I want to focus on building my self care routine with lots of walks, early nights and beginners yoga from youtube (I already have a mat). I have lots of clothes and stuff to sell on ebay too, so will get that all started in the next couple of weeks. I reckon we have about £500 worth of things under the spare bed just waiting to be sold! That will pay for the new wardrobe!

Frugaldom

The final countdown - 3 days remaining of 2018 and the 2019 challenge thread has already been started. Hopefully it won't be inundated with posts to the point that I can't keep up with it but it needed starting in case I'm too busy or forget at new year.

mumof3.12kindebt

Hi everyone.
Looks like lots of people will be taking part next year . It's been great to read everyone's posts. Tomorrow I'll be using up stuff out the freezer and pantry before doing a food shop on Sunday.

Cereal for breakfast
Pasta for lunch
Freezer mix up for dinner.

Will go to Aldi on Sunday and get the essentials needed to get us through until the 1st . I don't think we have enough to get us through to the first but I'll double check.

I don't tend to stockpile as things just get forgotten about.

shish100

I spent yesterday batch cooking some some leftover meat and veg in to stews for the freezer. Today is a bit more of the same of the same, I am taking advantage of being off work for Christmas and getting some meals in the freezer.

I have a full year of spending habits that I have reviewed and also shown to the OH. When the figures are shown to OH as a full year in a percentage of annual salary, he seems to pay more attention.

Also I will be putting together next year's budgets and targets.
I intend on changing a few habits too, mainly planning picnics better when we go away in the campervan, what we take for a work packed lunch is fine to take for a picnic. I always end buying lots of things like pork pies and it ends up costing more.

The other change I am going to make is to take care of me a bit more. I am going to make sure that I look after my skin, improve my posture (I've noticed a slouch!), and I am also going to go through my wardrobe and make sure I wear tidy stuff when I am out, and scruffier stuff around the house, and then any clothes that needs a repair or alteration, I will work on in the new year.

System

shish100 wrote: »

I spent yesterday batch cooking some some leftover meat and veg in to stews for the freezer. Today is a bit more of the same of the same, I am taking advantage of being off work for Christmas and getting some meals in the freezer.

I have a full year of spending habits that I have reviewed and also shown to the OH. When the figures are shown to OH as a full year in a percentage of annual salary, he seems to pay more attention.

Also I will be putting together next year's budgets and targets.
I intend on changing a few habits too, mainly planning picnics better when we go away in the campervan, what we take for a work packed lunch is fine to take for a picnic. I always end buying lots of things like pork pies and it ends up costing more.

The other change I am going to make is to take care of me a bit more. I am going to make sure that I look after my skin, improve my posture (I've noticed a slouch!), and I am also going to go through my wardrobe and make sure I wear tidy stuff when I am out, and scruffier stuff around the house, and then any clothes that needs a repair or alteration, I will work on in the new year.

Like the idea of paying more attention to "me", I am trying to do that as well. Like you, my posture is bad and I suffer from Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis, so need to exercise more. As far as my skin is concerned, I tend to start off with good intentions...buy good makeup remover and night cream and then by the time we go to bed I am too tired to use it.....lol. Really must make more of an effort. If you have any tips, please share them.

parsniphead

Hi ploppy (my favourite username but I'm very childish :rotfl:).

I was same with the skincare thing until someone said that they take of makeup, etc as soon as they got home from work rather than waiting until bedtime If they knew thet weren't going out again. I tried it and it helped. I can be lazy once bedtime arrives and not do it properly.

Looking forward to the first so I can start hitting those debts.

System

parsniphead wrote: »

Hi ploppy (my favourite username but I'm very childish :rotfl:).

I was same with the skincare thing until someone said that they take of makeup, etc as soon as they got home from work rather than waiting until bedtime If they knew thet weren't going out again. I tried it and it helped. I can be lazy once bedtime arrives and not do it properly.

Looking forward to the first so I can start hitting those debts.

Good idea, never thought of that. Will have to get into that habit.


My username was chosen as for some bizarre reason, OH calls me that sometimes...I have no idea why, but it seems to be his pet name for me now....lol :rotfl:

Frugaldom

I have reloaded the original spreadsheet (see link in post 1) so that it includes an extra 6 columns for listing other expenses not previously included. Hope this helps someone.

mumof3.12kindebt

Hi everyone.
Today was day one of quitting smoking for me and my partner. We have switched to our vapes. We were going to quit In the new year but the bacci ran out so we thought might as well just quit now. I would say I can smoke upto 30 a day on a bad day. There was two times today I really felt like Caving in . That was sat at the smoking shelter on my break at work (no where else I'm allowed to use my vape). And when I left work. Other than that I've been okay.
I've been in alot of pain for the last ten days with my cp . Today I finally gave in after trying all other options (medical and non medical) and took some tramadol.
I also drank 2 litres of water and only 5 cups of tea appose to my normal 30! :eek:

Today was a NSD

Tomorrow I am blitzing the house (it's desperate) and doing my diploma . Then board games when the boys get back from grandmas.

Have a nice weekend everyone

Frugaldom

Like others, I have been cooking meals from leftovers, so the turkey carcase was turned into a huge pan of soup stock, which has now been frozen for future soupmaking and I have also frozen the soup I had already made, plus all the leftover turkey. Last night I made turkey curry for dinner and there's enough left over for tonight.

Mumof3.12kindebt - I, too, quit smoking, although it was quite a few years ago now and I did it cold-turkey without a problem. I found that the lead up to it was in delaying the first cigarette of the day, as it's that first one that 'gets' you, and finding my trigger points that caused me to light up in the first place. For me, it was using the phone and the kettle going on - both had me reaching for cigs. Re the vapes - I never tried them but was visiting a friend and had the worst allergic reaction I'd had in many years when she started 'vaping' next to me. I'm normally only affected by certain perfumes and aerosols, like hairspray, but the reaction I had to the vape was quite extreme and gave me a big scare. Good luck with your challenge, if you can both get off the smoking then you'll definitely feel a huge difference in your budget as it saves a fortune over the years.