2019 Frugal Living Challenge

vintageteainmywardrobe

Hello all,

Can I pop in and natter every so often??

Frugal living is really something which has interested me in a really long time and I'm only just putting my dreams into action and one of them is to live as frugal/simple as possible. My challenge for this month is to start to declutter, keep our food budget to £200 and to learn how to make yogurt and start a sourdough off! I've tried 3 times to do sourdough and my house just isn't warm enough and it seems to get a liquid coating on top so I'm hoping 4th time lucky!!!

I'm so excited to read this thread through!! And the others!! With a decent cuppa!

little_green

just checking in as have been a bit inactive recently .
Hoping June will be a more frugal month as still going over budget.
People keep telling me to treat myself & buy something brand new but i love the thrill of charity shopping lol.

2Scratters

Morning Peeps,
we all seem to be doing very well which is nice to see. I'm getting a bit excited here as I am retiring early at the end of the month. I will be having a month off then working just 4 days a month. This will give me more time to sort out my stuff which I cant wait to get done. Gives me more time to organise myself which I have never done. Love the frugal life and managing our money so much better. Hope to be popping in here a bit more too.

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

O'Laney - I completely agree with you and could not have put it better myself. I also wish I had started this style of living earlier. I am lucky in that I never really got into debt but I was literally getting to the end of the month with nothing left over so I just felt like I was working to live. Everyone else seemed to be managing to go on holidays and trips away but I couldn't even afford to buy myself a rose for my garden. Since January I started this challenge and I set up the spreadsheet in March and it has really made me think about where my money is going. I have now managed to book myself a short 5 day holiday in July as a result.


This weekend I went to visit a friend for a few days. I budgeted £100.00 for the whole weekend. I did overspend a little (I forgot to allow for the petrol to get there and back) but I have no further expenditures expected this month so hopefully it won't cause me to be in debt - I will just have less to save at the end of the month.


I have had no NSDs as yet this month but I am aiming to have more of this than I have had over the last few months. I do a lot of sewing and the like so I am just going to concentrate on doing the projects that I do have the materials etc for rather than starting something and then realising I need to buy something else. I have lots of "household" projects I want to get done rather than clothes. I did sort through all my fabrics and managed to cut out from oddments loads of circles that I can use to make plate covers (instead of using cling film). I have overlocked them and I need to work out how to sew the elastic to them so that they secure themselves round the said plates or bowls. I have set aside another pile of fabrics that I will make some dolls clothes with for my niece's Christmas present and I want to make some gift bags.


The other thing I want to work on is my little garden I have (rather than my allotment). I have suggested to my Dad that for my birthday present he spare me a day/weekend to help me build a raised bed and level the garden out a bit. I also want to lay a patio (but I think that can wait until much later). He has agreed to that. I have an old pallet that I want to use to make a herb garden as well. I have seen loads of ideas on Pinterest and Facebook. I think that should keep me busy and prevent me from spending money on things I don't need.

Siebrie

We have been living off of my husband's income for the last 7 months, unwilling to touch my severance pay, and we have now almost reached the end of our other savings. We are nowhere near destitute, but being the sole earner is taking a toll on my husband, and we have several plans that require money. I have a job interview on Friday, for an Assistant position to a lady I do WI gymnastics with. It's a semi-governmental, non-profit, environmental organisation (to help garage owners, etc., clear up any polluted soil), so it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

Anyway, reaching the end of our money (so to speak) has spurred me on to actually plant the seedlings, to clear the former sandpit-turned-herbbed-turned weedbed, add fertiliser, and plant salads and celery.

mumof3.12kindebt

Hi everyone , it's lovely to see some new names. good luck all on your journey

I have my first shadow shift tomorrow. After completing my 2 weeks training .
We move on the 18th/19th.

Also "mortgage" is now showing up on my online banking but they haven't updated it with the balance so it's currently showing £0.00 :rotfl: that's the lowest I will see it for many many years

Once we have our new income (once tax credits have updated) I will update the budget.

We are continuing with frugal living as or no spend as I like to tell myself :money: for the foreseeable , we need to build our savings back up and then I want to overpay the mortgage and I may also have to look at changing my car.

Our fruit and vegetables are growing well
I also get a travel allowance with my new job so that will really help towards commuting costs.

We are only topping up essentials between now and moving trying to use up as much out of the fridge , freezer and pantry before we move. So it will be mix up meals for the next two weeks

It's all starting to feel more real. And I'm starting to feel more relaxed now it's all coming together.

I hope you all have a lovely evening.
Peace love and happiness to you all x

Frugaldom

Igamogam wrote: »

Last day of May and things still on track. I have said it before but I still cant quite believe that using a spreadsheet would make such a difference....and continues to!

:beer: Spreadsheets help solve so many problems that they deserve a special place in history! :j

vintageteainmywardrobe wrote: »

Hello all,

Can I pop in and natter every so often?? ... I'm so excited to read this thread through!! And the others!! With a decent cuppa!

Pop in anytime and if you are ever within actual visiting distance (SW Scotland) pop in for a cuppa, too!

2Scratters wrote: »

...I'm getting a bit excited here as I am retiring early at the end of the month.

Here's to a happy retirement! :beer: :T

My updates: I have set myself another challenge as we still haven't managed to create an allotment on the overgrown patch of ground that I fenced. It is so overgrown that a whole bunch of new cherry trees have sprouted through it, seeded from the two existing ones, so I'm going to have to start from scratch. Instead of digging out spaces I am going to just get help to strim patches of it and set out containers wherever possible. The pallet fence is still standing so it can be reinforced before I transfer any more herbs and cuttings to it. My milk carton tubs are beginning to disintegrate so most need replacing now.

Keeping everything watered has always been a problem during the dry weather so I've now got more water barrels, which have already filled with all the rain we've had over the past week. I'm concentrating on growing fruit and herbs but have sown a few veg seeds - onions, beetroot, courgette, lettuce.

My offer still stands for anyone who wants to come and see what frugal living has achieved for us here in our little corner of the country. It wouldn't have been possible without the support of the hundreds of people who have joined us on this frugal journey over the past 12 years, since bringing this challenge onto the MSE forums.

LONG MAY THE JOURNEY CONTINUE! :happylove

PipneyJane

Siebrie wrote: »

We have been living off of my husband's income for the last 7 months, unwilling to touch my severance pay, and we have now almost reached the end of our other savings. We are nowhere near destitute, but being the sole earner is taking a toll on my husband, and we have several plans that require money. I have a job interview on Friday, for an Assistant position to a lady I do WI gymnastics with. It's a semi-governmental, non-profit, environmental organisation (to help garage owners, etc., clear up any polluted soil), so it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

Anyway, reaching the end of our money (so to speak) has spurred me on to actually plant the seedlings, to clear the former sandpit-turned-herbbed-turned weedbed, add fertiliser, and plant salads and celery.

Good luck with the interview, Siebre. I hope you get the job.

FWIW, I've always thought that the first financial goal of any couple is to reach the point where they can live off one salary, so that if anything happened to the other income, all the day to day costs are covered. It's one thing less to stress about. We reached that point a few years ago, so when I was made redundant in 2016, I didn't have to touch my redundancy money. Ditto my DH, when he was made redundant in 2017. (This will not be the case with his current job. He's a contractor but he's being paid about the same as a full time employee's gross pay. From that, he also has to pay employer's NIC, holiday pay, sick leave and pension contributions so he's actually considerably worse off than if they made him permanent.)

An idea I've borrowed from elsewhere is to micro-budget for treats, hobbies, clothes and things that aren't day-to-day living expenses but are still important to me. Anita Bell (author of Your mortgage and how to pay it off in 5 years by someone who did it in 3 talks about budgeting for a small "Sanity Fund" each payday. She used hers to buy a new saddle for her horse. The first thing I did after reading her book was to create a "Boot Fund", so that I could afford decent leather boots when winter rolled around. I put in £10 a month and, after years of never having the money available when the weather turned nasty, finally bought decent leather boots the following winter.

The Boot Fund has now been extended to cover clothes, plus I've added a Knitting Fund, a Christmas/Birthdays Fund, an iPhone/New Computer Fund and a Fun Fund for treats/nights out with the girls. (The Fun Fund is paying for my forthcoming Steam On the Underground trip, where we get to ride a steam train on the District Line between Ealing and High Street Kensington.) The monthly contributions to each are not huge, but they roll up into reasonable sums by the time I come to spend the.

- Pip

Siebrie

Thank you, Pip.

When we applied for this mortgage 8 years ago, I made sure we could pay it on one income, and we have managed to get a lower interest rate since then. It's not so much me who has to change spending, but my husband. He loooooves clothes and shoes, and will buy whatever he fancies to cook and eat, regardless of the price.

He is also from Africa, from one of the poorest countries; we send his Mum money every month for her diabetes medication. There have been months, when the harvests were bad and prices high, that 34 people were fed off our money. Together with my husband I have changed their mindset of 'now that you are in Europe you can just send us money' to a more practical approach. We have helped every single brother or sister to set up a business (just once; if it fails, too bad), and we are helping the oldest child in each family through school.

Anyway, all this to say that we manage our money well, usually. Husband bought a car to export, which was a bit of a lemon, but is fixed now. It is ready to be shipped, which will cost about €2,000. Until that is sold, we will have hardly any savings.

Furthermore, our house started leaking, the old and weird extension is either no longer waterproof or coming away from the house, and the horrific rain bursts of the last three days drove that point really home with leaks in the garage/pantry, home office and possibly living room (I heard the water, but cannot see any damage).

Frugaldom

Talking of mini budgets, which is something we have done a lot in the oast, as well as all the mini challenges, has anyone else signed up to do the Ration Challenge? It's a fundraiser that any diehard frugaler should be proud to attempt, in support of those living in extreme poverty. You purchase the ingredients that should last you a full week and look for sponsors to support you. Each person has a grocery supply comprising the following (I have posted cost per person based on supermarket's cheapest brands)

PRICES:
Sardines 34p,
Rice 85p,
Flour 15p
Lentils 35p,
Veg oil 37p,
Dried chick peas 23p,
Tin of kidney beans 30p.
TOTAL £2.59 PER PERSON PER WEEK

I usually aim for £1 per person per day so I have kickstarted my own fundraiser with £5, which is almost what I'll save by doing this challenge for the week 16-23 June 2019 By starting off the donations, I can select one spice to use as eadded flavouring so I need to decide what that should be as salt is not a spice. Earning extra towards your fundraiser allows you to have extra ingredients so it probably helps to do this as a group.

Is anyone else on here attempting this?