2018 Frugal Living Challenge

FrankieM

Morning

A quiet day here today and no spending involved..:)

I went to see my son at Uni yesterday. My daughter and grandsons came too. I didn't spend as much as I expected so I'm pleasantly surprised.

Hope you all have a good day

Nonnadiluca

Just had a tally up for the first quarter.
Remaining from budgets, 1st January to 31st March:
Shopping - £2694.67/£3600, pretty close to budget so quite pleased with this
Other spends - £3278.37/£4800, a bit over but have had annual home insurance, annual bill for garden waste and a boiler repair and service. Hopefully will make this up over the next few months.
Annual spends - £13,153.77/£18,000, about £350 over which is almost exactly the 'other Spends' overspend.
Generally close enough I think.
Extra money for the first quarter - £200 premium bonds winnings and £6.05 roadkill.
Dental bill - I am keeping a record but not including in budget.
How is it going for you?
Btw, thanks for the continuing inspiration!

DawnW

Nonnadiluca, you have inspired me to look at my totals for the first quarter - I was wary of this, as we have had to help out a relative quite a bit over the last few months, and that has involved a lot of spending on things such as a rental deposit, some basic secondhand furniture etc :eek: Added to that, my OH has needed expensive treatment on a back injury over the whole period

However, the total to date is £5049.32. This is for everything, all spends and all bills. My budget for the year, again, for everything, is £17585. The only thing I don't count in either of these figures are expenses for my small business, but of course these have to be accounted for separately, for HMRC purposes. So, despite having spent considerably more than 25% of the total budget, it isn't as much over as I had feared.

My relative will hopefully be able to stand on his own two feet from now on, and OH now only needs to see his therapist once every couple of months (instead of twice a week :eek:), but we have expenses coming up with our vehicles, which in the case of our old camper van, will be quite large :eek: So I need to find additional ways to cut down, if our savings aren't to become too depleted. Still, we won't need the heating on for much longer, and there won't be need to buy any more logs till the autumn, I have full freezers, and summer will bring more garden produce to supplement our diet

Thanks for inspiring me to have a look, as I really did think it would be very much worse

PennyGrabber

Happy Easter everyone!

I spent some of today sorting out the pantry. I've written a list of the stuff that needs to be used up. Six jars of apple sauce, anyone?!! First to be used will be a tin of stewed steak and a tin of chicken in white sauce. I'm going to knock up some pastry, then mix the meats with a tin of spuds to make steak pasties and chicken pasties for lunches for this week.

I enjoyed a sneaky cheaty roast tonight before the children came home from their dad's - a pork loin from the freezer, a few roasties, some mashed swede, apple sauce and gravy. It was delish, and I still have two loin steaks left in the freezer. Im having a real thing for swede at the moment - mashed with butter and black pepper. Mmmmmmm!

Wishing you a frugal month.

PG x

Frugaldom

indigowarrior wrote: »

Frugal unfortunately I am disabled and very mental unwell. I struggle to leave the house never mind work. Its just not an option for me at the moment.

I hope you are able to find a place to stay very soon. Hang on in there - you know we are all here if you need us, even just to vent off a bit steam at situations and circumstances.

lindez wrote: »

Hi am I to late to join in this challenge, I have read all the posts and would love to start paying off my debts, get into good habits and have an emergency fund. I would greatly appreciate support and ideas. Thank you

Like Cheryl says, it's never too late to start frugaling. Welcome on board - I'll add your name to our challenger list in page 1, post 2. :T

FrankieM wrote: »

Morning

I spent my Good Friday batch cooking. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy seeing meals in the freezer that I know I can just grab when I don't feel like cooking.

:j:T Briliant! Meals mojo is a great buddy to have around as he's such a happy, fun and frugal chappie who seems to magically fill the freezer with good things and keep the bins free from food waste. Well done!

I've stretched out what we had for as long as possible while just buying bits and bobs from the village store but that has to stop! Every time I go in there for a carton of milk, (which is about £1.59, as opposed to £1 from supermarkets) I end up spending £20+ so it all mounts up. This month, I have booked a £1 delivery slot through As d@ online and made up an order that should last us a month and plan on batch cooking. I have avoided the temptation of buying chicken fillets and included 4 small chickens instead - costing less than £10 for all 4! A rubber chicken per week should provide soup, roast dinner, curry, stir fry and pie filling. The bare bones will be dried and crushed for adding to the garden, rather than bin them, and the other leftovers will go into cat food.

Frugaldom

Apologies if any of my posts are repetitive to those who are on our FB page but I'm having to copy/paste from there to save some time

I'm still doing my £1 per person per day grocery challenge (have lost count of how many years now), so my grocery shpping and assorted 'strangely random' meals reflects that.

Hens and ducks are laying now so eggs are on the menu every day. I'm still making the most of porridge (Scottish version made with water & salt) for breakfast, pancakes at lunchtime (served with sugar & lemon or syrup or homemade jam or banana) and dinner depends on what's needing used up first. I have a bowl of mashed potato and some peppered carrots and a few slices of roast beef, so that should do tonight and tomorrow's dinner. There's also some homemade soup to be used up, so that will be lunch, rather than making pancakes, but I have 2 broken eggs, so I'm thinking I should use these to make yorkie puddings instead.

Buffythedebtslayer

Things are a bit messy here, car collapsed and I considered buying a new one, couldn't really as too many family commitments so although I am 5000 pounds in debt I didn't buy a new car (yet) just got the old one fixed and hanging to buy a new one.

I also have a tax rebate coming which is helpful but I haven't had a chance to get my head round anything.

I did get fruit trees for my birthday and made some garden plans.

I will get more sorted at some point. Honest.

XXX

FrankieM

Morning

Not had a great Easter...:(
I've enjoyed the time off and enjoyed seeing my son on Saturday but I've generally felt like a time for family has mostly not involved family. Of course the weather doesn't help.

I need to get myself a social life but that seems to go against moneysaving and since I've been separated I feel like I have to start from the very beginning financially, which is soul destroying at 44. I feel a lot like life has and is just passing me by...

Add to that, my microsoft money hasn't been updated all month and I just can't face sorting it out! lol. I keep thinking I'll just delete and start again (it's a new quarter after all!) but I don't want to lose the data. So, it's still sitting there and still not updated. *sigh*

I don't think I'm good with days off if I don't have anything planned. Too much thinking time.

Anyway, enough of my moaning millie moment. I'm going to look up some survey sites and find a box set to watch and potter in between episodes. Time for a cuppa.

Buffythedebtslayer

Frankie, I am a similar age and a lot has happened recently that makes me think ermm.......ok. This isn't what I thought.

I am trying to stay positive, a phrase I hate bu I am looking for new things to try, and working towards the idea that the more money I save the more I can do. I just wanted to say hello and I think I know a little of how you feel. You aren't moaning - adjusting to the unexpected takes a bit of time.

XXX

FrankieM

Thanks Buffy, your understanding helps a lot. I guess stuff just throws you, no matter how well you're generally coping and holding it altogether.

Still, I've put some of my spending data on microsoft money, it still doesn't balance but I've made a start.
I've joined some survey sites and been reminded how terribly boring I find doing surveys! Still, it's a bit of something.
And i've been back to work. There's nothing like a new position, new starter and trying to cover 2 other jobs to take your mind off things.

The rest is just getting with life and getting on with my plan, even if it feels like slow progress.

Hope you all had a good day.