2018 Frugal Living Challenge

Savvy_sewing

Today I emptied 3 bank accounts that only had a few £s in each. Paid off a credit card and wrote to the bank to close them all. Then I cut up the credit card!
At work we had more cuppa soups and crackers and a pain eu Chocolat for a treat at my afternoon cup of tea time. All from home, so another no Spends day.
I stayed at work until 6pm, messaging, texting, emailing previous customers about Sewing Lessons restarting. I also made two small shopping bags out of a piece of fabric that was donated to me this morning.
I plan to make a few tote bags to offer as “Bags for life” in the shop rather then my buying bags. As a small business we don’t charge for plastic bags, so it is me who bares the cost of the bags. I will aim to make a few each day while the Shop is quiet and see if I can sell them, for £1.
Yes I know that’s not cost effective etc that way but I am sewing on a recycled by Mooloo’s label on the outside of each one. So it will be advertising for me. It also goes with my want to reduce plastic useage. The fabrics that I have all over the place, a lot of it donated means that I can afford to try anyway.

PennyGrabber

Evening everyone,

A frugal day today. £2 spent, on planned things, cat food and passata. I'd run out of cat food and had passata on my list for Sunday, but it was cheaper in today's shop. Saved about 5p on the passata and 17p on the cat food. I know that's not a lot, but if I saved on every product I buy, the pounds will add up!

About to have dinner now, which I made yesterday and it just needs pinging, thus saving energy. I may even put the heating on for half an hour!

PG x

kb_soma

Super windy day again today, so I could not cycle. £3 spend on the train ticket home from work.

Come on weather, I need some more NSDs!

sinkorswim2018

NSD today...which for me is an achievement. I was at work today and took some of the turkey I cooked yesterday with some salad left over from new year. Usually I spend a wild 55p on porridge from the canteen, they ran out and I had some sachets in my drawer. Might have to do that every day at work. Off this weekend. Need to take a trip to recyling with thw xmas tree and huge amount of recycling from Xmas. Spending temptations will be entertaining the daughter, and date night with the boyfriend on Sunday. I have some lamb in the freezer so should be able to whip up a nice meal, and there's lots of left over alcohol. If we go out it could be a spend day...
Perhaps I'll get some stuff on eBay this weekend.

Frugaldom

Well done, everyone! I am impressed by all your enthusiasm and resolve and hope to be able to help keep up momentum and see loads of progress as we proceed through the year.

Mooloo - congratulations with the CC!

Day 5 gone and no shopping yet - this is going to be a 'buy milk and absolute essentials only' sort of month.

I've just rehomed an old cooker that was left in the cottage when we bought it, so that's being collected tomorrow. I also have an old fridge to move but it's going to be brought to Frugaldom and used as an apple store next year.

On the postage & deliveries category of my budget sheet, if I buy anything online that has postage & packaging to pay, I keep note of that in there, plus the delivery charge for supermarket deliveries, so it soon mounts up when you start adding in parcels sent out for Christmas & Birthdays. I soon switched to onlibne vouchers and learned to buy a supply of 1st Class stamps with no price stamped on them.

MoneysavingmadGem

Well so far last 2 days only spend has been on parking each day.
Today is a NSD as waiting for friend in hospital then going back to theirs and cooking tea.

Used some xmas money towards credit cards so min amounts paid by due date.
Plus counted out £5 in 1ps and 2ps so used that to pay cc to.
Moved into a flat on my own yesterday so some bits are needed. Over this month eg pillows. But any spare at end of this month from the £150 budget I have will go to reduce cc more.

Steve1097

Please can I join? Will work out my budget today and post. So glad I found this challenge!

Rosesandrainbows

Morning all. It's a cold, frosty one here today.

I had a lovely day yesterday. We went out for the day but my only spend was my lunch. I stuck to one course as planned and it came out of my budgeted personal spends. I also didn't have to cook any tea when I got home which was a nice bonus.

Today is all about organising myself for a frugal week ahead.

- House work and laundry......boring!
- Make a few pizza bases. One for tonights tea and a couple for the freezer.
- Pop to the shop to buy essentials for tonights tea. I have all the main ingredients so it should come to no more than £5.
-Top up the car with fuel. I usually budget £30 a week for this as I need to for work but this week I think I can get away with £25. I would try £20 but that might be cutting it a bit fine and if I do have any fuel left over at the end of the week then I will just put less in next week.
-Make sure our fire baskets are filled up inside.

I seem to be not getting many NSDs at the moment as I am going to the shop most days. It is however part of the plan to drive food costs down this month. I check what I have to make my meals for the day and then ONLY buy the other ingredients needed for that day. So it has meant that in the first five days of Jan I have only spent £10.27 on food rather than the £60 per week that I usually spend.

Have a lovely day and stay warm

shish100

CheshireCat - I bought a van that me and OH are in the process of converting in to a camper! A slow process as we are doing it ourselves. But looking forward to getting away in it at the weekends once spring arrives.

My main task this weekend is to find reasonably priced foam for the seats/bed - now I know the size of the seats, that should be easier

Other goals this weekend:
Restock the wood baskets - don't like doing it in the dark after work because of the creepy crawlies
Clear out a cupboard or two and list a few bits on an auction site
Food shopping with a list that I am going to stick to

FrankieM

Morning

Chicken pie for tea tonight!! I'm so excited. I already had the filling made and in the freezer and the pastry is ready made (I've got out of making it successfully and have it so rarely...but , yes, I know )

This week has been a very low spend for me, helped by not taking my purse out. Just a birthday card and posting it for my mum and the cinema trip earlier in the week.
I'll have to put some fuel in the car, probably £20 and get some bananas and mayo. That should be the total of my spending this week.

I need to update my accounts. I found an old copy of MS money that I'm using. This year is very much a 'see what you actually spend' year as I've taken my eye off the ball. I've not racked up loads of debt but I've spent money when I should/could've saved it.

SinkorSwim I take my breakfast to work. Weetabix and the instant porridge satchets (golden syrup..yum!) and just alternate them. I have them in my drawer and then just bring in a banana to go with it.

I'm also going to be doing housework, laundry, house admin and other organisational things to set me up for the week ahead. I like knowing I'm in control of all that.