2018 Frugal Living Challenge

PennyGrabber

Reporting in to own up to my not very frugal weekend... Really cross with myself, but can't change it now. Still have the flu, and not had an appetite for a week. Thought I was hungry, so I ordered a Chinese. I was not hungry...! The food did me for Saturday, and oh and me for Sunday, so it could've been worse I suppose. Then I did my weekly shop with oh's help. Total weekend spend was £47.83.

Back to work today even though not completely well again, so hoping not to spend anything, unless I get the stamps that were on my list for Saturday. Will be taking food so no need to buy that.

Have a good day everyone.

PG x

Savvy_sewing

bustiblondilocks wrote: »

Spent this morning...just 2 hours... intensively decluttering my bathroom.
I've cleared the cupboards and got rid of them! I decanted the part bottles of shampoo and conditioner and bubble bath into the biggest bottle of each one and got full ones left over too. I've binned (to recycling) 25 now empty bottles!!! I've found I have 17 tubes of toothpaste and enough shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath and toilet roll to last the rest of the year. Whilst I'm quite pleased that I can now save on that part of the shopping list I'm mad at myself for hoarding so much to start with. Consoling myself with having paid lower prices than they will be now.
Another no spend day today! Well, bought petrol but that's in the bills budget so accounted for already. Going to bed happy and eager to blitz rest of the house

I had a blitz on Thursday morning of the bathroom as every cupboard and surface was full of stuff!
So I put everything in a laundry basket to start with.
Then I only put one bottle of the things we needed that day in a tub on the windowsill.
One shelf has my new pretty bottles I received for Christmas. But I don’t intend to open them until I have sorted out my basket. As I have a hoarding tendency I find it difficult to throw away anything.
But even I think that I have too many old open jars and lotions.
I am going to empty the cupboard tonight.
The aim is to only put in the full new things. Then I am hoping that I will be brave enough to throw out some of the older ones etc. I say some rather than all, because I know me!
But I may get braver once I start.

Kerreh

bustiblondilocks wrote: »

Spent this morning...just 2 hours... intensively decluttering my bathroom.
I've cleared the cupboards and got rid of them! I decanted the part bottles of shampoo and conditioner and bubble bath into the biggest bottle of each one and got full ones left over too. I've binned (to recycling) 25 now empty bottles!!! I've found I have 17 tubes of toothpaste and enough shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath and toilet roll to last the rest of the year. Whilst I'm quite pleased that I can now save on that part of the shopping list I'm mad at myself for hoarding so much to start with. Consoling myself with having paid lower prices than they will be now.
Another no spend day today! Well, bought petrol but that's in the bills budget so accounted for already. Going to bed happy and eager to blitz rest of the house

Are you my twin? :rotfl: I'm a terror for Boots 'offers'... I've been weaning myself over the past few years but fell foul of an organix shampoo offer in ... November 2016! I still have 10 bottles of shampoo and conditioner in use so no need to buy anytime soon!

Almost had a non spend weekend but needed compost to plant bulbs I already had. A downside to being on my own that I hadn't realised until I was stood in the garden centre - they had 125l of compost for £6.00 but could I lift it? Could I heck. So ended up buying 3 x 20l bags at £8.49 BUT I made a loaf at the weekend, some pitta breads last night for work lunches and did a menu which showed I can eat 'out of the freezer' for the next 31 days :eek:

Aim of 2018 which adopting a more frugal approach will help with:
Clear credit card
Pay for and go on holiday
Save £3k

Moll

wow what a frugal day . I take my elderly Dad to a place for his dinner once a month ( Really its so the old people get others to talk to ) I love going with him . everyone is so nice , Anyway today was a belated "Christmas dinner" as the real one had to be cancelled last month due to the snow in our area. So they did it today instead ,,,,,,,,, a LOT of food was left un used and they asked me if I could use it ( They know im frugal and try and use everything , or know people to give and share with ) Usually its just carrots and peas etc left over,,,which I use in a stew the next day , ,today however it was ALSORTS ,for starters ( And im not exaggerating ) there must have been about £20 worth of beef . Sliced up , I couldn't believe it , but they said they wouldn't use it , and would be glad if I could ? it was still warm when I brought it home , Would this be ok to freeze when cold? I know I can freeze it , but does it still taste ok when its thawed out ? ive never done this so help and advice needed on that one , It is a huge amount wrapped in foil at the moment . On top of that I was given a whole caterers size trifle !!! Now ive shared this out with umpteen people . Im so pleased about that as this is people who give me lots of fruit and veg when in season , so it was lovely to be able to give back , and give them something nice , Everyone was pleased with the unexpected home made trifle for tea. On another topic,,,,,,,i needed new slippers , Was hoping Santa would bring me some , but I think he forgot , I had a couple of £s worth of Love to shop vouchers that id earned doing a survey , and got some BEAUTIFUL slippers ( I like sparkles and these were lovely ) from Peacocks , £2 in the after Christmas sale , just had the one pair , and in my size , yayyyyyy and I payed with vouchers , so the only money spent was for my dinner which was a planned spend , never expecting to get all the extras ,

Kerreh

Moll wrote: »

... Would this be ok to freeze when cold? I know I can freeze it , but does it still taste ok when its thawed out ? ive never done this so help and advice needed on that one ...

I do this all the time and it's fine I normally defrost it overnight and then pop it in some tinfoil to heat up in the oven... it's lovely. Just need to not keep it in the freezer TOO long as it may get all frostbitten.

Moll

Kerreh wrote: »

I do this all the time and it's fine I normally defrost it overnight and then pop it in some tinfoil to heat up in the oven... it's lovely. Just need to not keep it in the freezer TOO long as it may get all frostbitten.

thanks Kerreh x

cw18

I reheat it on top of the veg in the top layer of my steamer having defrosted it first - but only put it in for the last 5 minutes or so. When we had a Mr M in the town I used to clear them out of roast beef if it was on a good end of day reduction, bring it home, and freeze in portions. It a fantastic way of doing roast dinner for 1

Moll

Forgot to tell you . also at the meal today , theyd decorated the tables with rolls of fancy Christmas paper ( But it was paper that you could use for any occasion , ) some tables had gold, others had red , foil type , they was binning it after the tables were being put away .soooooooooo I rolled the rest up and brought it home , shouldn't need to buy wrapping paper for birthday gifts all year ( it was really nice paper )

Unicorn101

Journey so far: Paid off credit card using some savings so not paying interest. Have used the spreadsheet and produced a detailed monthly budget (thanks for this it was a massive help) and set up envelopes of allowed spends for the remainder of the month. Today was second NSD in a row. I can do this!

sinkorswim2018

Hi.
Yesterday was £10.80 spent in Aldi, got all the ingredients I needed make a nice dinner and several meals for work. Got a lot for my money and didn't buy anything I didn't need. Today was £10 to my daughter, this covers 2 bus fares and 2 lunches. I made a packet porridge at work and ate my premade meals. No extra spends. Still have some grenade meals left. Might go to cinema tomorrow using meerkat 2 fir 1 and gift cards.