2019 Frugal Living Challenge

mumtoomany

Forgot to explain, All household bills are half of total cost.at the moment DD1 and son-in-law and their three little ones share our house. They are building a new house next door. They also contribute 120 per month towards groceries, so I feed 5 adults and 3 children on(hopefully) £220 per month. So far have had a no spend year! M2m.

DawnW

Evening all
First check in of 2019 - I was a bit rubbish at checking in during 2018, and will try to do better this year! I have set my budgets, set up my spreadsheet (thanks again CW18) and got my lovely new spending diary ready (was a Christmas gift). Nothing spent today though, and I made nice food from ingredients we already had in
Happy New Year everyone

spudsmum

Hi all,

NSD today not done much just vegetated and done a few online surveys. Also making a list of a few things we need for the house as we have a voucher to spend and want to spend it wisely. Thinking some sensible storage for my kitchen cupboards - be nice to see what dried goods/baking stuff I have at a glance so I can meal plan without having to rake through all the half full packets.

Husband is in the kitchen - he's cooking one of the massive legs of lamb for tea - sadly (or happily?) when I took it out of the freezer last night I found a huge turkey leg and thigh right at the bottom of the freezer - yet more to add to the meat mountain! We have so much food left - Husband works for a food company so they always send a massive hamper plus both sets of parents are obviously concerned we may starve so give us food and supermarket vouchers in the run up to Xmas so we end up with loads - despite that I'm pleased to say that this year, nothing at all has been wasted, everything has been eaten or frozen (much better than previous years where we've thrown loads out!)

cybertortoise

£31.86 on groceries yesterday - it's January's income though so I'm counting it. I was very careful to consider what I actually had in the cupboards at home and bought accordingly. We are doing our own version of Veganuary (more like Veggie-uary) so I have some new recipes to test out. But I was happy to only spend that much.

And I remembered to freeze the bread rolls I bought as they won't be used for a few days, normally I'd have forgotten and then bought fresh. I used up the last of the eggs (almost gone off, but not quite according to the cold water trick), and half a loaf of stale bread for lunch for myself and the tiddlers. I did a stocktake of my kitchen food cupboards so I know what we actually have in. I listed a few bits on a food waste app and someone came round half an hour later to collect a couple of the items.

I got a small refund from Amazon, due to a subscription I didn't know I was paying, so that went to debt. And everything is duly noted on my spreadsheet. Now to get on with my university essay that I have been putting off for way too long!

Whippet1

Day one of the year, haven't bought anything today!

amber03

Back in again this year, hopefully to do a lot better this year than last year. Payday next week, so looking not to spend much till then.xx

abbe89

Day 1, and knowing that I'm recording everything I spend has already made me think - was feeling hungry and a little delicate from last night's celebrations. Almost got in my car to drive to McDs for some terrible (but much needed) hangover relief but stopped myself and had very cheesy beans on toast instead. Saved myself at least £10 when I include fuel costs etc!

yaisa

can i join please?

parsniphead

It had completely bypassed me that it was day one of the challenge. Luckily today was a NSD.

I have monthly bills to pay tomorrow and need to get DS some school trousers as he got slime all over his which I cannot get out. I've tried all sorts. Any good ideas?

Hopefully that will be all for me on spends for a day or two.

miss_empty_piggy

First day of the new year, and usually my favourite day of the year. However, I was not feeling well at all as woke with bad back pain which kept me up most of the night. Plenty of ibuprofen and hot water bottles and sleeping until 2:30pm set me right and I then set on clearing out more rubbish from the house.

We have been trying so hard to reduce our waste since the summer holidays with us only having to put out the bins once since August. However, the xmas period saw a huge influx of rubbish which needed sorting and recycling etc. I have also been having a good purge of 'unnecessary' things - excessive numbers of cups, glasses, plastic Tupperware containers etc. I have a couple of rooms left to do yet, but it feels good to simplify what we own. Alongside this I have taken stock of food and drink. We have 20 bottles of red wine (which I think should last us all year) or I may save a few to put into hampers I am planning on making at xmas next year.

Got a 'leftover' pie out of the freezer for tea and had with any xmas veg left in the fridge. I also peeled and mashed the mountain of all the remaining potatoes to make cottage pie for the next couple of days.

We have 4 'leftover' pies from xmas day's offerings so they should see us through the month if we have one a week.

Am determined to get back into proper meal-planning over the next couple of days - I got out of the habit and we have fallen back into the grab a quick (and expensive) takeaway, which I find is lethal to the budget. Does anyone else struggle to meal plan?

abbe89 I also considered a hit on McDs today as a 'treat' for my daughter but then reconsidered my thinking - how is that a treat? We made buns together instead and she was really pleased. As DOH and I are trying to eat healthier it would have been a bad idea, plus it would easily have cost in excess of £10 which is mad.

Like cyber tortoise I was considering doing the veganuary - but will probably do a few days veggie a week to cut down on food costs. Meat is so expensive and we eat way too much of it.

NSD Number 1 - long may it continue.