2018 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

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.

HELLO! WELCOME BACK & HUGE CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MARRIAGE! :beer:

Savvy_sewing

£2 spent on milk and bread.
Direct debits went out for the council tax, car tax, tv license.

nannygladys

Hi everyone
Well I think I have the rest of this week to myself, tomorrow I will do a freezer inventory and plan the next three days menu. I also need to go through my seeds to plan my growing on the lottie and make a chart so I know when to start them off. I really enjoy going through them it means spring is getting nearer!!
I did not little shopping £9.23 and took dgd2 to McDs £2.89, I had a free coffee whilst there and lunch when I got home!!
That's it for today day 2/365 completed!!
Nannyg

Frugaldom

We've now made it past the 60 challengers mark so let's hope the vast majority of you succeed in hanging on in here for the full year. Don't worry if things slip a little at any point, just bounce back up and onto the frugaldom wagon - there's always someone around to lend a hand.

This year I have heaps of things to do, all of which cost a small fortune. It means keeping the purse strings pulled extremely tight to avoid the potential to slip into debt and using a cedit card always leaves you open to that possibility. (As does availability of an overdraft and HP)

Someone recently asked how 'rich' I was... I almost fell over and rolled about laughing! :rotfl: So, I'm going to say here what I said there:

I have been doing this challenge for the best part of 20 years. It took me the first 5 or so before I could even make my bid for freedom from debt and another 2 to actually achieve it, so that was 2007. By then, there were 2 of us sharing the challenge, both saving for the same things, so we evetually pooled our resources. We houseshared, I budgeted and we lived on £4000 per year. Now let's just say we both earned an average of £10,000 per annum, that would equate to £4,000 to live, £1,000 for council tax and £15,000 per year into savings... every year.

A full 10 years on and we are still doing the exact same. I invest in whatever great bargains I can negotiate for cash, then try to turn those into other sources of income wherever possible. This is what we refer to as being a frugal entrepreneur (aka a frugaleur). A penny saved is a penny earned - so you are basically turning savings into income while trying to drive down the cost of living even further by adapting to suit current trends and fluctuating food prices.

If I spot a long shelf-life bargain such as pasta, rice, sugar, coffee, tea etc, etc, etc then I have no qualms in turning some of my hard earned savings into useful stores. Right now, my savings are being converted into trees, seeds and tiny properties that can be fixed up for future frugalers. Please don't mistake this as a sales pitch or any sort of self-promotion - I registered the whole lot as a new start social enterprise. That's my story so far and that's also why I will seldom post anything else about it on here.

My wish for 2018 is that nobody gives up on their hopes, dreams or aspirations because anything is possible, especially in the land of the frugal and the land of the debt free.

:beer: Here's to all of you taking part! Never be afraid to ask anything because there are no silly questions.

Kerry_Woman

Yesterday was a NSD. Today and tomorrow will be spending days. Today I sorted and paid for home contents insurance - was cheaper than I thought it was going to be, paid for pre payment prescription certificate for the whole year. I did buy an eco friendly deodorant in a tin that you apply with your fingers and should last about 3 months. Did use a 20% discount code.

Must sort out the property maintenance for the flat. Got the bill in December. Usually pay it in January and by cheque. As I was dealing with my Mum's funeral I did not read it properly. They do not accept cheques anymore and I should have paid it straight away. I also need to do some other things as well, so will make out a list. I need to do the food shopping as well. I also have someone coming round to sort out an issue with a light fitting. Using the same company that done work in the flat in 2016.

cw18

Nipped to the shops today.

A!di took my money in exchange for half price gel insoles (had one pair I'd have to remember to carry with me once I start keeping a pair of boots at work and another at home in case I get sent to another office at short notice - something that will happen if my plans to commute by pushbike work out once the weather starts to improve), a couple of bananas (my second breakfast for the next couple of days), a punnet of grapes (healthier nibbles than the mince pies I've been at for the past month), and a bag of stir fry veg for tea tomorrow (sauce which was bought at bargain price already in house, and chicken to come out of freezer shortly).

I came out of P0undtretchers with a large diary for this year (lots of challenges on different sites I need to keep track of this year, and that's the quickest way to log on a daily basis before I update less frequently on various FB pages and forums), 6 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper (25p each instead of £1, and with 25 metres on each they'll last for more than 6 years even with DS1 'borrowing' every year - I just like to have different designs for different people if I can get suitable designs cheaply enough), and Christmas cards for work and neighbours and grand-daughters for the next 2 years (3 packs at 32p/pack instead of £1.29).

I then bobbed into Icel@nd for a bag of the chicken nuggets I have for lunch at work, and B'n'M to change a pair of fleece lined thermal leggings for a bigger size (the S/M were too short for me!)


I spent part of today making a list of toiletries I have in the house. I've almost completed all the unopened stuff, but still need to tackle the part used. That should give me some idea of what (if anything) I'll need to buy this year (currently looks like deodorant towards the end of the year, and possibly cleansing lotion unless I get well stuck into the soap mountain I have that needs using!)

OH picked me up some vitamins at Costc0 today. Running short of some that are currently on special offer, but it still wasn't worth me making a special trip (mainly because of the time involved), but he was going anyway

MoneysavingmadGem

Yesterday was nsd - spent day with the best mate, having a roast and celebrating new years day with them.

Today I have spent £6.52 on an emergency bulb kit as headlight bulb had gone but I fixed it myself. Bar that no spends

MadamMim2013

Snuck into the shops today! Was only meant to go to the bank & council..
Oops, ended up spending £12.46
I did get some quality soups (that I wouldn't make from scratch), other than that it was impulse buys and the sausage rolls (reduced) weren't that nice.. Will heat them up tomorrow with some beans!
Working tomorrow, so should be a NSD.. Fingers crossed!

Smijil

Today was a no spend day I sold a dress on eBay so the £60 I got went to pay my credit card and also did a balance transfer so I now have 38 months interest free.

Have done a list of my freezer food and other than bread and milk and sandwich filling we should be covered for another week.

LittleGingerFox

Evening all! Today was a NSD and tomorrow will likely be the same. I have made an extra £400 payment off a credit card tonight that is now charging interest (I couldn't do a balance transfer for the full amount I owed on that CC onto my new one so I making this my main debt priority and will then close that card) using some money that I managed to save last month.
I have 70p left of my strict self imposed budget of £20 per week for food, clothes, house products etc and I feel really confident that I will stick to it....Heavens to Betsy I might even SAVE it!! I only have £5 in bank account so I have too!��
Also me and my OH are doing £1 meals and tonight's' dinner was sausages (reduced to £1.08) and dauphenoise potatoes (reduced to 25p) so that's 66p p/h. Bargainous!
I have started soaking my overnight oats for my breakfast that will stop me going to Pret and spending a fiver on essentially the same breakfast and the lentils are soaking in stock and herbs ready to be cooked for tomorrows dinner (beef stew using reduced beef which cost 80p)
Also additional pressure of now having to cover my mortgage payments as I kicked my tenants out the house I own and will need to do some work on the house before it is fit to rent again/ sell. If anyone knows of any roofers in Preston, Lancashire I'd love to hear about them!
Good night folks, well done on being frugal!