2019 Frugal Living Challenge

piglet27

Morning,

We are eating from the cupboards and freezer this week and probably next week too.
We lost the electric to our shed in November so lost our ys/batch freezer. Luckily we managed to get all items in the kitchen freezer (all except two huge bags of hm stock). The freezer desperately needs defrosting but is very full, so I'm on a mission.
Any money from the grocery budget that's not spent is going towards mortgage op.
I am loving the "girl called Jack" cook book, Food is super yummy and helping us to use our stocks.

Kaylataste

It snowed this morning, just a few massive flakes and settled a tiny bit,had a very cold walk to the shop,spent 5 pounds on essentials.I normally walk around looking for stuff to buy,but I remembered this thread and thought better of it ��.

Nell_c

Count me in! Im a divorced working mum who gets the minimum amount of child benefit and wtc and no maintenance from my ex, my only real overspends has been food (takeaways and treats) and gifts. Ive stopped every non essential apart from netflix and am only doing internet grocery shopping to stop me buying extra and am ensuring i pack meals for work rather than going out and buying from Greg's/ burger king/ vending machine. The only debt I have is a car loan and overdraft but I've been living paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all.

little_green

spudsmum wrote: »

My husband was terrible with money - before we lived together he lived in his overdraft and relied on his parents to lend him money.

He also has a weakness for stuff - in his case mainly dvds and cds. He'd buy a £20 cd just because he quite liked one song on there. He had a complete "I work so I deserve this" mentality

I'm afraid I took charge - I showed him the budgets and how we were heading to ruin in a couple of years if he didn't stop - he now gets his pocket money which he spends on his stuff and the rest goes to bills and savings. He's quite happy because he now has something to show for it and we can afford things like the odd (frugal) trip away

He does still buy DVDs and cds but we have agreed a strict - one in, one out policy (as much for storage space as anything) any new cds- DVDs get bought and one must be given away or sent to charity - he gets a day to choose which and if he hasn't done so then I pick one at random! No arguments. It works really well because he thinks hard about whether he likes his new purchase more than what he already has - it's not just mindless spending. I've also given up buying many things so it's not one sided. It works for us.

In other news - I've applied for another 0% balance transfer card - if I get it then I'll have very little on interest bearing cards so should be able to clear them a bit quicker. Fingers crossed.

what helped in getting him on board? My OH has a similar mindset ie "i work so i can buy what i want" Despite being in over 10k debt. They often say "it's my money i'll buy it if i want" to which i reply "actually it's the banks money”. Or famously “I want to buy it I can afford it” me: “actually you can’t that’s why your in so much debt!” …. Now I realize I sound really harsh & like a total douche but it’s frustrating when your OH will constantly spend money on luxuries they neither need or can afford whilst the debt continues to build. I always say if you have extra money make extra loan repayments to which they reply “I want to enjoy life”. Anyway that aside I guess looking for more helpful tips on trying to motivate OH to develop a more sensible approach with money would be great. The more frustrating part is the sheer amount of money that goes on takeaway’s out of sheer laziness to cook. I make a food planner usually around a month at a time & account for 2 times to eat out during the month which I think is fair. If OH then decided to order take out that night despite me cooking it usually means the extra food goes to waste. I just wish OH would be more strict with their spending. How can I get them onboard!? They literally live month to month & I hate that. At the moment they want to buy an expensive plane ticket for later in the year when prices are always high, now if they bought it now it would be about £300 but if they wait until nearer the time it’ll be double. But instead of buying it now they’d rather spend now & then pay £600 further down the line. Where’s the logic? Plus if you cant afford £300 now what makes you think you’ll have enough for £600 later!?
For me it’s not about money per say it’s abou the type of lifestyle you want to live. I don’t want to live month to month. It’s not even about the amount of money, its about the ATTITUDE towards money. For me frugality is fun. (how sad!)

spudsmum

little_green wrote: »

what helped in getting him on board? My OH has a similar mindset ie "i work so i can buy what i want" Despite being in over 10k debt. They often say "it's my money i'll buy it if i want" to which i reply "actually it's the banks money”. Or famously “I want to buy it I can afford it” me: “actually you can’t that’s why your in so much debt!” …. Now I realize I sound really harsh & like a total douche but it’s frustrating when your OH will constantly spend money on luxuries they neither need or can afford whilst the debt continues to build. I always say if you have extra money make extra loan repayments to which they reply “I want to enjoy life”. Anyway that aside I guess looking for more helpful tips on trying to motivate OH to develop a more sensible approach with money would be great. The more frustrating part is the sheer amount of money that goes on takeaway’s out of sheer laziness to cook. I make a food planner usually around a month at a time & account for 2 times to eat out during the month which I think is fair. If OH then decided to order take out that night despite me cooking it usually means the extra food goes to waste. I just wish OH would be more strict with their spending. How can I get them onboard!? They literally live month to month & I hate that. At the moment they want to buy an expensive plane ticket for later in the year when prices are always high, now if they bought it now it would be about £300 but if they wait until nearer the time it’ll be double. But instead of buying it now they’d rather spend now & then pay £600 further down the line. Where’s the logic? Plus if you cant afford £300 now what makes you think you’ll have enough for £600 later!?
For me it’s not about money per say it’s abou the type of lifestyle you want to live. I don’t want to live month to month. It’s not even about the amount of money, its about the ATTITUDE towards money. For me frugality is fun. (how sad!)

It's hard little green I won't deny it - it was a realisation mine had to come to on his own - the more i "nagged" and made comments the more he resisted - he's like a rebellious child at times!

I showed him the bottom line and how, if his spending continued as it was he would soon get to the point he could no longer service his debts and that I wouldn't be bailing him out and wasn't prepared to live that way and for things to get to that stage.

The "I deserve this" mentality is so hard to break but my argument is we deserve to enjoy life free of debt so much more. We started small but looked seriously at how all the piles of stuff he had bought added nothing of real value to his life but if he was a bit more conscious of his spending we could do something we really wanted to do like have a trip which gave him something specific to aim for. I guess we swopped short term rewards for longer term ones initially and went from there.Once he saw the rewards of saving for himself it was much easier to get him to look at debt - I couldn't go straight there as conversation about finance was "boring" and he would just shut down or sulk

It took a while of me patiently waiting but he got it and now he's more frugal than me in some ways. - it can certainly be addictive. Good luck x

danni.yelly

Gosh I have to say I am not doing too well this month...

I had to buy a new laptop because mine broken (on the plus I did find a rather good value second hand one!) and it looks like Im going to be in need of a new phone soon... the battery doesn't even last a day anymore!
But I'm going to see if it can be replaced first.

Also needing two new tyres for the car. But my aim will just be to shop around and find the best deals for all of this stuff!

On the plus side I have finally gotten around to cancelling my Sky TV package!

So my main aims at the moment:
- Get rid of Sky TV - DONE!
- Eat less takeaway - Limit myself to 1 a month - I have already had two this month, oh dear.
- Avoid WANT buys - Still struggling with this one but noting my wants in my spreadsheet is helping.

Flossygrows

Hi everyone - I'm going to join the challenge if you don't mind as I need some accountability!

No debt - other than my mortgage but I had an expensive Christmas and now scrabbling round to find money to payoff my credit card bill and my tax bill at the end of the month. I also have an amazing 8 year old daughter who loves dancing. Her team have just qualified to dance at the Dance World Cup in Portugal in June so I need to do some serious saving for that as it is going to be an expensive trip!

I have always liked to try and live frugally so that I can afford to do some of the nice things in life (like holidays). I've always managed to have a bit of a slush fund to be able to afford to do things but suddenly realised I have got to a point where I don't actually have access to much cash as I have used my savings to invest in a personal pension (I'm self employed) and a stocks and shares ISA. I still need to continue to put money into a pension but also need to pay towards Portugal and build up an emergency fund then work on a future holiday funds!

So my aims are to stick to a budget of household spend of £2000 a month (2 adults, 1 child and 1 hungry teen who lives with us every other week).

I have an allotment so plan to grow as much as I can this year and ensure there is excess that I can freeze for over the winter.

I need to stop being lazy with cooking (to be fair I'm not too bad!) and make sure there are more 'easy' to prep healthy meals in the freezer to avoid having a chippy tea (that has become to far a frequent occurrence on a Friday night!)

Lots of decluttering and Ebaying to get rid of the excess. I would like to be able to live a more simple streamlined life instead of tripping over !!!! everytime I turn around!

So I think I am in the right place - what I have read so far you all seem like quite a like minded bunch so I hope I fit in :):):)

CapricornLass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/70375173#Comment_70375173

The subjecct of Trading.212 has appeared on the Forum before, in 2016. Anyone thinking of taking up Rachel's offer should read the above link in full before before making a final decision as to whether to proceed.

Lifeisforliving19

Does anybody use Eco eggs? Been reading lots of good reviews on them and can see that over a period of time, they are quite money saving and definitely not as bad for the environment. But I am not sure if the clothes would feel as soft unless I carried on using Fabric softener, which is still spending extra money and more plastic to throw away.
Any opinions?

Treasurequeen

Have finally sorted my budgets out, all bills and budgeted spends for this year should come to £9753.65. i am hoping to cut a few things down like food and clothes. i am hoping to buy clothes from charity shops and just buy the essentials elsewhere using gift cards from survey money. I have managed to slash my contents insurance down so that's all sorted until next year. Big expense yesterday a cat activity tree for my cat her old one is beyond repair and its starting to make her ill. But i have managed to budget for it and it should last a good 3-4 years. Her old one is 3 years old so its done well. Cat food was reduced in Tesco so bought a few bags saving £8 over the next three months.

bought a packet of organic seeds 49p reduced in local garden centre so saved myself a couple of pounds here too.

My biggest expenses are health and beauty spends, i have bad health and am allergic to nearly everything i put on my skin. so i have to buy special products which aren't cheap. I make my body scrubs, air fresheners, room diffuser sticks, aromatherapy room sprays etc. so save some money there too. But my disability is costly to live with, but i have managed to budget it so hopefully i can stick within my budget this year.