2018 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Welcome, Aruba! Your plan to progress with savings for your forever home sounds entirely doable to me so good luck with that. There is a link in the first page about the 'saving to buy a house without a mortgage' challenge I did some years back - you might find some of that helpful, too.

Plastics and chemicals - I grew up with and still have septic tanks, so chemicals have always been minimal. I also have a chemical sensitivity to cosmetics, perfumes and aerosols, so it probably saves me a fortune in not buying them but the plastics are a whole different kettle of fish! They are becoming more and more difficlt to banish. Instead, I like to think that I give them all a fighting chance to be used fr as long as possible by recycling them into anything possible. I also wonder what wil happen to all the spare by-producs produced by the oil industry if everyone sopped using plastics, but that's impossible for now, as almost everything seems to have plastic in it nowadays, We have a little 'plasticart' project on the go at Frugaldom, recycling whatever we can.

Re the holidays - we have holiday caravan if anyone ever wants to have a frugal break here. I posted a discount code for it only yesterday in the 'offer moneysavers a discount' section.

Frugaldom

Wit40iwtwan Are you out there? I keep looking at your username and wondering what it all stands for so please come back and tell us. The best I have come up with so far is: When I Turn 40 I Want To Wander Around Naked. :rotfl:

sinkorswim2018

Went a bit off track yesterday, took my daughter and we friend out. First time this month so it is an improvement. Have 8 daya to turn things around and keep within my set budget...gonna be tight!
Out 'shopping' today with my friend. We go once a month and It's probably my other big challenge day. At least I'm startingthe day with the right intentions. Wish me luck.

[Deleted User]

Morning, I have not actually joined but always read. I have always been fairly frugal and tips on here help too. All this has helped as my freezers are full, both h/m soups & meals as well as dump bags which is good as I am almost completely immobile this last week and onward for a while. I had stocked soups for after an operation and had comtinued to freeze some as I went along, bought YS foods, had good cupboard stocks. bread making ingredients and always freeze into small bottles from 4 pt milk. I even bought some wax wrappers this week. I can still spend money from my recliner. Have not done any food shopping for 2 weeks and the one prior to that was just £15.00 Thanks you all for your ideas (washing powder/shampoo etc etc.)

Tanya12345

Afternoon Fruggies, was having a good day but now a bit down as I went to get a couple of cooking apples from my store (garage) to find all but 5 of them are rotten !! I had carefully picked them and wrapped them in newspaper and then put them in plastic mesh crates, really not sure what went wrong - perhaps just need to make more cider next year (Hic!!). Sometimes seems like one step forward and three backwards !!
Next research item is to find something in which to freeze our meat chickens when their time comes, any ideas you brilliant bunch ? Have used plastic bags in the past but am really trying to move away from the dreaded stuff !
Well done Moll on your sales x

shish100

Evening everyone,

What has been really interesting has been logging all the spend on Frugaldom's spreadsheet - it's presented really usefully. I showed OH over the weekend and he was surprised at some of the spending, but it works as it was easily understood! Thankyou Frugaldom

It does show that I am not on track for January - however I am trying to be really positive about it. My spending is now captured properly and not just on a cluster of receipts looked at once and a while!

The freezer food has helped - seem to be on track for the food budget.

sinkorswim2018

Tanya12345 could you wrap the chicken in baking paper? That's how I keep a lot of things in the fridge now.
My day out 'shopping was quite successful. Spent £4.95 on lunch , but had hot water with a slice if lemon to drink which no one charged for (so far!). Bought a scarf from a charity shop for £2.50. Worked out my figures. Now have £133.32 left for the rest of the month which equals £14.81 a day. Car is nearly full of petrol so with a few NSD's I may make it to February within my target. I've learnt a lot and can see areas I can cut down further without feeling it too badly.

Unicorn-ASJSD

I would like to take part in this challenge but where do I start / what do I do (other than the obvious of cutting back!!)

cw18

Unicorn-ASJSD wrote: »

I would like to take part in this challenge but where do I start / what do I do (other than the obvious of cutting back!!)

Most of us have budget plans in place - mine is never set in stone, as I may feel the need to increase one category which means I have to make reductions elsewhere to keep the annual total the same (that figure is pretty much set in stone - it can only increase if I find a way of bringing in more money eg. through overtime or selling stuff as I declutter).

But if you're not used to budgetting, it can be useful to just log what you spend for the first month. Whilst doing this you may well find you start questioning whether or not you need something, which is the first step. Once you have figures of spends for a month (and can see what it's been spent on, meaning you can identify things you can cut back on), it's a lot easier to set budgets for the rest of the year.

lynnejk

Unicorn-ASJSD wrote: »

I would like to take part in this challenge but where do I start / what do I do (other than the obvious of cutting back!!)

I started by writing down all my yearly outgoings, such as car tax, car insurance, MOT, other insurances etc. I then added a target for things such as hairdressers, clothing and shoes, presents and other yearly expenses. Then added them all up and divided by 12 to get a monthly amount.

Then I wrote down all my monthly outgoings such as rent, council tax, phone, broadband etc. Add these up and then add to the monthly amount you have from the yearly outgoings.

I then set a realistic monthly target for things such as food and household things, social life, petrol etc and added this in as well.

I put all my money into an account where it was earning a bit of interest but I could get at it if I needed.

Don't worry as you're bound to miss things out to start with, but you can adjust as you go along.

It really helps if you keep every receipt for the first few months. Keep them on a bulldog clip or something and then you can check how you're doing. Many people use a spreadsheet and if you look further back you will see where to download one

You will find it gets easier as you go along and then you'll start to see where you can make some savings.

HTH and good luck with the frugal challenge. Please ask on here if you need any help as there is a lot of support here.
Lx