2019 Frugal Living Challenge

FrankieM

Morning

I still haven't managed to sort my body clock out and just after 3am seems to be my current waking up time so instead of getting annoyed about it, I've decided to roll with it until it changes.

A spend weekend but mostly planned, petrol, weekly groceries and monthly groceries bought and a meal out with the DD's and there's still money in my purse to get the groceries for the next 2 weeks .

I'm going to batch cook a couple of meals this morning and due to the Braeburn apples from Aldi tasting terrible, I've also got an apple crumble to make

Birthday flowers and a cred for my mum also need to be purchased and sent, but that's my only birthday this month (though another grandchild is due on the 15th January so that will soon change!)

Heading out with DD2 for the day as a surprise for my Christmas present. I'm hoping it involves a nap.

Happy Monday

*little.squirrel*

natnat13 wrote: »

I have a dilema between frugality and ecofriendly choices. For example glass bottled milk is 87p a pint, I can buy 4 pints in the supermarket for £1. I guess it's personal choice.

This is my problem too. Some things just seem like a very expensive change. I've been considering beeswax wrapping instead of cling film but it is very pricey and 'lasts a year if you look after it' which doesn't seem like a great deal.

My biggest frugal change has been shopping in charity shops for clothes instead of buying brand new. That was my personal challenge last year and I see no reason to make changes this year. I didn't spend much over the year and I was happy with the purchases I did make. Underwear aside, of course, although my Mum always buys me black socks for Christmas

My daughter has gone off to preschool today so I'm using my free time :j to take stock of the cupboards and meal plan for the month. We have a lot of meat in the freezer and don't eat that much of it so I need to use it up and make space for batch cooking. Someone on here suggested always bulking out with lentils or chickpeas so I try to do that as often as I can. My main problem is being inventive with veggies. I want to eat more but I'm not great at cooking them. Hopefully sitting down to plan and look at recipes will help me out there.

Frugaldom

Whippet1 wrote: »

Biggest spending day so far for 2019. Petrol £27, bag of chips £2.50. Yet another waste of £5 for a scratchcard. That's a total wastage of £10 so far this year in the lottery.

If you add the chips money to the gambling money and take that as a daily or weekly average, you could, instead, try to set £12 a week (£50 a month) and purchase Premium Bonds. That way, you run the chance of winning a £million with every single pound spent, every month, with the bonds safe for cashing in at any point in the future. It may not get you chips every week but even a £25 win would get you a nice takeaway. I quit smoking a few yeard ago and have been saving £10 per week ever since. I save it in PBs until suc h times as I need the money for something important, as the banks just aren't paying interest on any accounts I can afford to have. (Irregular income omits you from most by slapping on a minimum monthly pay in, which I cannot guarantee.)

Just a thought!

Frugaldom

ECO-nomical versus ECO-friendly

This is just my take on the subject. I'm open to suggestions for how else to recycle from home, keeping in mind all the associated challenges we have done in the past and continue to do.

If you are doing the frugal living challenge to get out of debt then going green by paying extra for 'green' or organic products is an extreme luxury that you can't really afford to buy into for now. This is the sad truth - it is a luxury!

Mass advertising etc guilts many into spending more on almost identical products with different packaging. Plastic milk cartons can be recycled and if everyone followed Government recommended household recycling, then councils might HAVE to improve on them instead of blaming lack of money for lack of services. They need to develop better means of recycling (conversion of waste to fuel or something?) and/or legislate against excess packaging and contaminants in the food and other industries.

At the minute, we simply cannot live without plastics and we also need to remember their origins. In a way, plastic can be said to be a recycled product - recycled waste from the oil / petrochemicals industries - and it all has to go somewhere. Taking action to ensure it doesn't end up in the sea is a global problem, but it isn't the only ocean contaminant when we look at oil spills, drug-contaminated sewage effluent, chemical and radioacive waste and any other **** that ends up in rivers and seas. What's leaching into our natural water supply is downright scary, so I think looking at keeping things simple, safe and within budget is much more helpful to the environment.

For a fun challenge, try ecoarts. We try to create artwork from waste and H is now sculpting it into larger garden items. We even have a trash deepsea diver by the pond, now.

sistercas

Mooloo wrote: »

I get my milk delivered, yes it is dearer but I like to have the milk on the door step in the mornings, and am happy to pay a little more. So that is £10.85 a week but it includes smoothies and fruit juices too.

I agree and it’s very mportant to support local business :T
We get our milk from the local farm, it has its own processing plant so you know the cows you see in the field are actually the ones providing your milk

It’s eco friendly too as the bottles are returned to be reused, also the farmer asks for his egg boxes back to reuse

Had a spend day today on some Xmas baubles , safely stored away until December unless I forget all about them :rotfl: also did a bit of food shopping as dd2 was complaining there was nothing to eat lol. I have only bought fresh food no rubbish

BrownHare

Ashamed to find I've put on half a stone since last weighing - another incentive to buy less junk food as well as saving money. I buy cheap chocolate/crisps to last the month but eat it all in a week as "they're only little" and each one "costs almost nothing". I find I can limit myself to one if it's late in the day.

Bought a water bottle (reduced) for work so no excuse to buy from coffee shop over the road when I run out of coffee/milk at the office.

Today I've avoided naughty snacks so far and have drank a lot of water.

parsniphead

sistercas wrote: »

What a fabulous idea and I bet you will enjoy making them :T
I use s*perdrugs own make cleanser and face cream it is often half price



I try to stretch things like mince and chicken, however I never seem to manage it. I make 2 meals max, maybe we have enormous appetites

Spend day today, had to get some food and a birthday present for MIL she is 94 on Wednesday and doesn’t want for much. We have bought her a comfy foot stool to rest her legs on in an evening

Jabeezah wrote: »

Over Xmas I had an idea. Rather than pay £50 for my favourite moisturiser , I asked my daughter to buy me a book on how to make my own personal care products as my gift . I have quite a few essential oils already and therefore only need a few more ingreadients so have asked my family for vouchers for my birthday so I can get the other ingreadients without having to pay anything plus I will know what goes in to them . Now I’m saving all the old pots and bottles I would normally throw away . As much as I love stores like Lush and their ethics etc , their prices are extortionate! I will keep you all updated ❤️����

You will have to let us know how things turn out. I bad a Liz Earle book for making toiletries a while back but it was lost. I would love to do some stuff again.

I loved Lush but hadn't been in for a long time until recently. The prices...:eek:. I didn't think I could move as fast as I did leaving the shop.

miss_empty_piggy

Today has been relatively frugal and a NSD for me! Yippee. Being back at work always helps. There were free croissants and OJ today which I resisted until lunchtime as I was starving. I don't know about anyone else but it really does take me a while to get back into a structure of eating at certain times as opposed to the continuous grazing that occurs over the holiday period.

When making tea last night I made a larger portion than needed and dished it up which I don't normally do. We had 3 plates for 'there and then' and had two lunch pack up boxes ready to fill also for work today. I also used smaller bowls instead of our usual dinner plates as our portions have progressively gotten huge, and then we have dessert of mammoth proportion alongside. It's strange how these habits evolve. We have ditched the desserts (although I do sometimes have a piece of fruit).

DD2 and BF are back tonight but I had factored them in to this week's grocery budget (as they eat so much). I had originally planned to make stewing beef in the slow cooker - however for the amount we needed it would have been about £10+ for one meal (which I know isn't THAT much for 5 of us) but we really are trying to cut back so I made lasagne which cost me about £7 in total. a £3-£5 saving, which if I can do that for every meal this week will be a good thing.

Hope everyone's had a good day xxx

TryinToDoItRight

Had yesterdays leftovers for lunch today..it was great.

Used up the frozen chicken and bacon pieces with baked potatoes for dinner...lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Did spend £2.70 today..but it got me one of my favourite frozen pizzas for friday night and also a loaf of bread for toast options for dinner tomorrow (scrambled egg on toast, beans on toast, french toast..or maybe nice buttery toast.)

:cheesy:

sinkorswim2018

Talking of ECO-nomical versus ECO-friendly... I went to a new reduced packaging shop today. Brought some old bread bags rather than using their paper ones. Filled up a large bag of brown rice... I'd estimate it would cost me a £1 in the supermarket, weighed it and printed off ticket...£2.98 argh. ��
I couldn't see a way of putting it back so went ahead a bought it. A lesson learnt I'm afraid. I'll stick to market stalls in future for weighed produce.

Thank you for all your thoughts on loo cleaning... I've gone for the folded toilet paper option so far.

On a more money saving note I baked the potatoes I'd bought for 15p rather than let then go green on the side as I've been known to do. Eaten some for tea with a batch of bbq Jackfruit (veggie) cooked in the slow cooker. Will freeze leftovers for work later this week. Have built up a stock of a few different meals to take from leftovers.

I was thinking about unused food and unnecessary purchases today. I'm going to keep a list of everything I throw out or didn't need after all to see if it helps me mend my ways.
No.1 unmade ginger bread house... I'm sure I can get my daughter to eat it but it was definitely a wasteful buy as not used as intended. If anyone complains I haven't bought one next year I will hand then the ingredients to make their own!

I'm not buying Xmas crackers next year either, though they did get pulled. ��