2019 Frugal Living Challenge

nannygladys

Hi everyone
Been MIA the last four days and haven't left the house (well only to do the bins) so its been non spend as well.
Finished making the family Xmas cards and they are all written ready to be posted or given out. Also been sewing and knitting, the sewing was for Xmas decs and the knitting for expected dgc in March. I also defrosted the fridge/freezer as it hadn't been done for a couple of years!!!! and went through what was in there, so the top drawer is now full of stuff to eat before the new year!! so that's me really, oh had my eyes tested last week and I knew I needed new glasses but when I got home they phoned me to ask me to have them retested as there is a huge difference since I had them done last time on one of the tests, so they think something has been written down wrong!!! Anyway that's for later this week, I was hoping to pick them up this week!!!!
So that's about it from me, keep well and warm everyone
Nannyg

[Deleted User]

Morning folks, I hope everyone is well.

Crafty Lisa where do you do your volunteering? I like to have some volunteering on the go but at the moment I am too busy with working full-time. I did volunteer with my local food-bank during the summer holidays which was really rewarding and a bit of a learning curve.

Nannygladys I hope you get your eye test sorted out.

My frugal plans today are:
Pick up book from Library. I ordered the new Margaret Atwood book and was 10th in the queue but I was happy to wait. It's finally got round to being my turn with it. I have just finished reading Adam Kay's 'This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor' (lots of laugh out loud moments but also had me in tears at times) which will be returned to the library tonight.

Cooking - the Cottage Pie that we were meant to have last night didn't quite work out. I arrived home to find a mass of overcooked watery potatoes swimming in ... something!! OH who made it says he has no idea what happened:eek: Anyhow, we had egg and chips instead and I will make a fresh and, more importantly, edible cottage pie tonight.

Catch up on Chores - Will do a half hour ironing, a quick dust and put a washing on which will be air dried on the pulley in the kitchen and the clothes horse.

Frugaldom

What a gabby lot you all become as we sprint towards the final furlong of the 2019 frugal living challenge! :rotfl: I can barely keep up even with the daily email summaries, never mind the actual boards themselves so apologies for my usual absences; I can assure you all that they are legitimate and entirely down to time constraints involving saving. Let's face it, I need to keep on saving with all the rescue ponies etc to feed over winter but savings have been made there by way of more ponies meaning I can now buy bigger bales of hay, which work out much less expensive than small bales. I do sometimes feel quite sick with jealousy when I see the prices some are paying 'down south' but up here in the remoter parts of rural Scotland, with no suitable transport, my biggest spend of all is on horse feed. (In some instances, it s double the price here to elsewhere by the time I pay for haulage.)

Onwards and upwards - I usually set up the following year's challenge late November / beginning of December so I'm going to go ahead and set up the 2020 Challenge. Who'd have believed that after all these years, we would still be here? Our first challenge on MSE was set up here in 2007 and the first published challenge I ever set up was in 1999, so I am now over 20 years down the line.

Frugal living is a lifestyle choice, one that involves balancing your income against your expenditure in a way that leads you to and then maintains debt freedom - the ultimate freedom in society, as far as I am concerned. If you can then start adding some readily avalable savings and investments then all the better.

2Scratters - I forgot to explain that NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is a global, annual challenge to get 50,000 words written within the space of 30 days during the month of November. I have managed to write 50,000 words but haven't got them all collated into one document for submitting but I'm not going to worry about that as it's about creative writing, not counting. In a way, it's like frugal living - it's about creative saving, not income counting. :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Find your way to the brand new 2020 Frugal Living Challenge by clicking HERE

nannygladys

Hi frugal
Just been over to 2020, so something to look forwards to!!!!
This year has been mixed for me, I was working at frugality at the beginning of the year and was doing really well and enjoying it as its not quite a necessity but I want to do it to save unnecessary waste. But I then lost my way a little and started going backwards a bit, then realised I wanted to get back to the those ways again and Im back on track - sorry bit of a ramble there!!!! This year I haven't gone mad buying Xmas presents and Im trying to be mindful about it all, buying useful gifts within a budget and for the dgc asking what I can do by talking with their parents, so feeling positive about it all and enjoying it all again.
Nannyg

[Deleted User]

I was so excited to see the new 2020 thread is ready Frugaldom, I am looking forward to staying on track next year with this lovely thread to help keep me focused.

Managed to get most of my chores done yesterday including the remake of the Cottage Pie which was lovely. Only thing I still have to do is go to the library - I forgot that my local library has new opening times as part of the council's drive to save money, so it closed at 3pm which means I can't pop in after work. I am aiming to use the library more to curb my book buying habit and so far it seems to be working well. Sometimes I have a long wait for books as they have been requested by other users but I don't mind waiting, it's like the opposite of the next-day-delivery culture which I quite like.

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

Allie23 - I volunteer for MIND looking after a wellbeing garden so their client's have somewhere nice to sit for some quiet time. I thoroughly enjoy it. Doing something for someone else is good for the soul.

Frugaldom

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire wrote: »

Allie23 - I volunteer for MIND looking after a wellbeing garden so their client's have somewhere nice to sit for some quiet time. I thoroughly enjoy it. Doing something for someone else is good for the soul.

These are the types of quiet spaces we are creating at Frugaldom, there to be enjoyed by those who can get here

Shopaholic_no_more

Hi All

Just checking in after signing up for the new 2020 challenge! ��
Good news, I got a very generous yearly bonus this paycheck and so I have just paid off another CC debt...how happy am I ...this has been such a great journey for me and now I am looking into living a more a zero waste life as well which should help me even more! I have been catching up as not posted for a bit but nice to see new people (and old) getting on board. It’s a great place to be

Happy frugaling everyone!

nannygladys

Hi everyone
Congrats OLaney for the CC payment, in the old days I would have bought some very nice Xmas pressies for myself and others - oh how times have changed!! for the better I hasten to add!!

Havent been doing anything interesting the last couple of days, but I did go to the lottie and picked a couple of turnips, pots, chard, and one leek, and bought the rest of my onions home as its very damp in my shed down there, I was surprised that I found some chard and turnips as I haven't been down there for a couple of weeks and thought they would all have been spoiled by the amount of rain we have had, so that was a veggie stew for me tonight, with enough left for tomorrow, and some put into the freezer.

I have been cutting down on plastic waste but its difficult at times, everything comes wrapped in the stuff, its not so much us not recycling its the manufacturers etc who keep putting everything in it! ranting over. Anyway managed to stop putting recycling out every week and got it down to once month or even a couple of times to 6 weeks, so pleased about that.(we have boxes here not wheelie bins) I do put food waste out every week but theres only a very small amount - I tend not to have any leftovers so its only outer skins and that's only because I don't need the compost at home at the moment.
Anyway off to bed
Nannyg