2018 Frugal Living Challenge

LittleGingerFox

Hi Frugaldom and everyone on the thread. I am new to joining this site but have used it over the years as I have struggled with keeping my spending under control. I'm being honest with myself now and I really need to get myself sorted. I would love to be part of this challenge! I enjoy 'frugal' living but definitely need comrades to help me along the way to fighting debt- and I will support others as well. I have set an experimental budget up of £20 per week (not including travel costs, bills etc) so I will let you all know how that goes too!
Happy new year everyone, let's make it a fun frugal one and all get debt free :beer:

Best wishes
Victoria

Penny2myName

This is my All in Budget 2018, it allows for inflation and possible hikes in water/CT and rent.

Housing
£4200 Rent
£1200 Council Tax
£1200 Gas/Electric
£305 Water
£258.24 Contents Insurance
£600.00 Phone/Broadband/Mobile
£95.88 Netflix
£7859.12 Sub Total
Hobbies interests
£179.88 Itunes Family
£200 Ancestry Subscription plus certificates
£30.00 Cross Stitching
£500 Toiletry/Candle making
£50.00 Sims 3
£0.00 Gifts to come from my hobbies or cash back earned in 2018.
£959.88 Sub Total
Other
£415.44 Critial Care Insurance
£700.00Travel Work
£98.40 RCN
£200.00 Clothing
£100.00 Cleaning
£200.00 Other travel
£500.00 Animals Costs Vets, food etc
£500.00 Holidays/Days out
£3000.00 Food Shopping (including any take out/meals out) £57.69 week average.
£233.58 Emergency
£233.58 All other costs
£6181.00 Sub Total
£15000.00 GRAND Total

£9600 Basic Wage before enhancements
£6000 Husbands share for bills and food
£1800 Board from son
£17400 Total

kb_soma

Happy new year everyone!

Hi there! I would like to join in the challenge for 2018. I got debt free a few years ago and have been a little frivolous in 2017. I'd like to go back to my frugal ways as old spending habits have crept back in!

I've just sat down for a couple of hours and have mapped out my house spending and personal spending and have realised exactly how much I've been wasting.

Here's to resurrecting my spending diary!

nannygladys

Hi everyone
My visitors went to the airport this morning and are now safely home, well I hope they are as I haven't heard anything to the contrary.
So I haven't been out anywhere but my dd1 came for a visit and went home with a goody bag of food that I wouldn't eat, so no money spent and frugal day had!! I am out tomorrow and also looking after dgd2 whilst mum is at work as school isn't till Wednesday, but it is budgeted for and I will need some milk so I will do a shopping list. I have amended budget to start today instead of 17/1 so I could start it today!!!
Nannyg

debtaghh

A nice frugal day here too. I didn’t spend any money and stuck to tap water whilst being out.

PennyGrabber

Evening all,

Not a great frugal day today... It's partner's 40th on weds, so I needed to finish buying his presents. I still need to get a bottle of wine to complete his 40 for 40. Then I'll be buying fish and chips on weds, as that's what he's chisen for dinner. All of that should leave me with about £20 to last until the end of next week (self-imposed frugal budget), mainly for food shop. However, I have planned jan food well, using up stuff into the house. This week's food only cost £10.03, and I'm confident that next week's won't be much more. Go me!

PG x

parsniphead

Penny2myName wrote: »

I did the £4000 for a year back in 2009 and was pretty close to it,now I really need to organize myself again, so would like to join the new challenge. The only hick up for me is I am no longer a single parent, but a married woman with no dependents, though the husband will not willingly join in the challenge so I need to do it based on myself only and not as a household. Since all the household bills come out of my account, that bit is easy.

My husband is the same penny. He says he wants to get rid of the mortgage etc but doesn't seem to want to go the extra mile. The bills also all come from my account too and I do the food shopping so I have a lot of control.

I'm just about completing my budget for the year so will put that up soon.

I do need to shop today but its going to be very basic a we have lots left. I may do a big batch cook up today too.

[Deleted User]

Got through the first day and it was a nsd!!

Back to work today so another nsd will be bagged....just got to motivate myself to get out of bed!! :rotfl:

PennyGrabber

Hi all,

NSD today. Thought I'd have to buy a bottle of red wine to complete oh's 40 for 40 gifts, but I decided to give him a plant I already have instead. Well, a cutting from my plant, which he said he wanted. A decent amount not spent there, as I only have ~£38 to last until a week Saturday.

Although I started by spending quite a lot yesterday, I have several days now where I don't need to spend. I just need to keep my purse closed! (Except for the fish and chip dinner tomorrow for oh birthday. It will be about £15, but it's his choice and he could've chosen something much more expensive!)

Now I'm off to find a lock for my purse...

PG x

Ps - my reusable sanitary towels arrived today, so will use these and try my mooncup again. Should save a fair few pounds there too.

Frugaldom

PennyGrabber wrote: »

I'm kinda loving being frugaller than I used to be!! (Yes, I know that's not a word, but still...!)

PG x

Anythng with the word 'frugal' in it is a real word to me!

PlaysNicely wrote: »

:wave:

We've had a good start with the frugal budgets, largely due to focusing on using up leftovers and aiming for no food waste to help cut the grocery budget. ... PN x

:T:j:beer: Zero waste aspirations are ace!

FrankieM wrote: »

...I'm also aiming to lose 1lb a week. Weight loss has been an ongoing challenge for me so I've decided to make it as easy as possible. Almost so easy I can't fail. So that's also part of my frugal plan. Good, healthy food, organised and batch cooked when needed. ...

I do the February Frugal Fitness Challenge every year - it's like minimising and decluttering the menu for a full month and it's always during february because it's the shortes month! :cool::D

Hello everyone, I'm just catching up and will get the new names added ASAP - welcome to all our newbies and returning 'oldbies' :rotfl:

NSD here again as I don't need anything and there aren't any shops nearby, so nowhere to soend even if I wanted to.

Nonnadiluca - I count free vouchers as additional income and do not write them through my day to day household spending. I transferred £50 into an Argos voucher from what I had left from last year's £4k so I deducted it as a spend, so it's already gone through and is now treated like savings. Likewise with any winnings, gifts, points or cashback I receive. I'll just include the actual cash I spend and everything else is a bonus.