2019 Frugal Living Challenge

tighteningthebelt

little green
Don't do it!!!!! X

[Deleted User]

Morning folks, apologies that i am not posting regularly. I am hardly online at all once I am home from work. I must try harder to get online and post on here as it keeps me focused.

I have had a really stressful week at work which has made me want to redouble my efforts to maximise savings towards retirement. Before this all happened I had booked myself a facial but I cancelled it and did a home facial instead. It was actually lovely to put some relaxing music on, have some time to myself and focus on my own self-care. In a way I think me booking a facial was more about having some time to myself to relax rather than actually needing a facial. Anyhow the money I would have spent is now in savings.

little_green

tighteningthebelt wrote: »

little green
Don't do it!!!!! X

resisted so far! maybe by the time i check again my size will have sold out (with any luck). was "only" £11 but I'm not sure I need it, though did say to my OH yesterday I wanted another pair of fluffy pyjamas to wear around the house (as the only pair I have are in the wash at the moment) ... the onesie would work out cheaper ... & i dont have a onesie ... sooo... i can almost justify it BUT I really want to start feb as I mean to go on & aiming to make today a no spend day.

ma-ri-ella

morning pps . So ive just taking a fresh look at what i have cut and trying to decide where i can cut things further - think im running out of ideas!!

so i work on average 30-40 hours a week (depending on overtime ) before i get my pay i pay the max contribution into pension it allows and i have a 250 sharesave .
my take home pay is then around 750-850
rent is 325 - if i go on property ladder morgage would be around the same
union -10.23 , contract phone 12 , council tax 91, electric around 50 . warmer months is about 30
ive cut out sky (live city centre so use free wifi) subscription boxes , netflix, dont have a tv.

The areas i need to focus on are not eating out and convience foods but i think im as frugal as i can get . The only other problem i have is my urge between being frugal and my urge for minimalism as they dont always go together

Frugaldom

little_green wrote: »

Says I'll be stricter I'm February yet here we are oat 7am on day 1 and I want to buy an adult unicorn onesie :rotfl:

Switch off the online shops and step away from the computer, or anywhere else you can fall prey to the tricks and underhand ways of advertisers. What the eye cannot see, the heart cannot want and if you start feeling like you 'need' to be a unicorn then come live out with my ponies for a few days to make sure you like the lifestyle first. :rotfl:

WELL DONE KERRY WOMAN! I hope you aren't suffering any ill-effects from coming off the medication and that you have done so for your own good reasons. :T:j I have often found that many MH issues are hugely improved when various stress factors are reduced. Debt freedom has definitely got to be one less thing to worry about while concentrating on health so here's hoping you are on your way to being happy and healthy in all areas of life. (OK, almost all, as I'm forever being told that nobody has it all.:rotfl:)

Ist February already, so this is my 'get fitter, not fatter' challenge month. We'll see how it goes this year after missing it completely last year and not having shifted the extra weight gained over the past 2 Christmases! :eek:

Kerry_Woman

Frugaldom - Thankfully I have not had any side effects from coming off medication. I am trying to do self care each day. I have started a new life journey since my Mum died. After my holiday in April I am going to start making plans to move to a new location.

Marinebee

Evening All

So, last month I managed to only spend 273.00 on our grocery bill and I had budgeted for 310.00 so very pleased with that!
I would still like to get that a lot lower so I’m trying to change the way I think about meals as in planning planning planning! Also, I always used to buy way too much fruit (veg as much but veg is easier to freeze?) and I wasted a lot of it as OH is not a massive fruit fan and I couldn’t eat all of it quick enough before it went off/mouldy which is terrible so no more!
And no more cards ...cash only in the supermarkets! Reading the comments about real hard cash handling making you think about how you spend that money is very wise indeed.
I think the self scanners are a great way of keeping an eye on your spending but sadly Aldi and Lidl don’t have them which is a shame. Not really sure why that is?

So all in all not a bad start to the year. I am determined to get more organised this year with paying off my debt. It can so easily just roll on and on month after month if I let it (which I have done in the past).

Have a good spendfree weekend everyone

try_harder

January summary for me too ..

I had a good month overall , my main problem was my food budget , i need to really work hard on that in February as it would make a huge difference over the year savings wise.

Such great tips on this thread , i am learning so much

shish100

Morning everyone,
I have been quietly reading your posts during January.

For me January has been a mixed bag of success levels.
- I've taken lunch to work everyday, except one.
- I have started walking the 1.5 miles to the train 3 days a week, saving £3 a day. My aim is to do it everyday, but I need to work up to that!
- Decided to be more proactive with family and to do a day excursion as a birthday present. I know I've ended up spending more, but it is all about family. There were two birthdays in January.
So as the concept has gone down well for the past 4 months(needed to warm the family up to the idea of not having a gift to open!), my plan is to be more pro-active in finding vouchers and discounts, and free activities. Then I can push the boundaries of frugalness and fun, who knows what we will end up doing!
- My other area of not such a success was eating out! 3 meals out in January, one did have 50% off mains and live music with friends. We were going out for tea with parents to a nice and reasonably priced restaurant, then OH said he wants to try a different restaurant. This ended up costing more than I intended, £50 for 2 mains, 2 puddings and 4 pints. I always end up getting talked in to a pudding!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

PipneyJane

[Deleted User] wrote:

Morning folks, apologies that i am not posting regularly. I am hardly online at all once I am home from work. I must try harder to get online and post on here as it keeps me focused.

I have had a really stressful week at work which has made me want to redouble my efforts to maximise savings towards retirement. Before this all happened I had booked myself a facial but I cancelled it and did a home facial instead. It was actually lovely to put some relaxing music on, have some time to myself and focus on my own self-care. In a way I think me booking a facial was more about having some time to myself to relax rather than actually needing a facial. Anyhow the money I would have spent is now in savings.

Sometimes, you just need to give yourself the mental space to switch off and let go of the stress, somewhere quiet without distraction. (After a particularly stressful quarter at work a couple years back, we spent Christmas at a friend’s house in Miami. Upon landing, I informed everyone that I needed the first day to myself, just to sit on the back patio in the sun, knit and de-stress. It worked a treat.)

ma-ri-ella wrote: »

morning pps . So ive just taking a fresh look at what i have cut and trying to decide where i can cut things further - think im running out of ideas!!

so i work on average 30-40 hours a week (depending on overtime ) before i get my pay i pay the max contribution into pension it allows and i have a 250 sharesave .
my take home pay is then around 750-850
rent is 325 - if i go on property ladder morgage would be around the same
union -10.23 , contract phone 12 , council tax 91, electric around 50 . warmer months is about 30
ive cut out sky (live city centre so use free wifi) subscription boxes , netflix, dont have a tv.

The areas i need to focus on are not eating out and convience foods but i think im as frugal as i can get . The only other problem i have is my urge between being frugal and my urge for minimalism as they dont always go together

On a bad month, that leaves you with £261.77 to live off. (I’m assuming you’re paid monthly.). Do you budget that down further into separate pots? Do you have a Sanity Fund for treats and hobbies? Are you setting anything aside for holidays? (Everyone needs a Running Away Fund.). Do you have an Emergency Fund? Is your Grocery Challenge money quarantined? If the answers to any of the above are “no”, may I suggest that a) you withdraw your Grocery Challenge budget as cash on payday - keep it in a separate purse, and b) you set aside (say) £80, and slice it up between several different savings accounts - Sanity Fund, Clothes Allowance, Running Away Fund, Emergency Fund - so that you can build up balances for treats, holidays, etc, and give yourself a cushion. Put them somewhere that is inconvenient to raid, so not your regular bank. It’s hard to start - I started with setting aside £5 - but once you’re in the swing of things, you’ll be amazed how the money builds up.

Re minimalism vs frugality, I’m assuming you’re dealing with the conflict of buying multiples to get a cheaper price and where to store them? And not having everything on display? Do you have space under the bed or on the top of your kitchen cupboards? I’d suggest using thick cardboard fruit boxes from the supermarket as “drawers” so that you can safely slide them out/lift them off the shelf and store smaller boxes/lose bags of food/tins in them. (We lived for 3 years with a shell of a kitchen, using IVOR bookcases from IKEA and fruit boxes as storage. Ironically, we had more - and better - kitchen storage then, than we did in the years prior to gutting the kitchen.)

Frugaldom wrote: »

Switch off the online shops and step away from the computer, or anywhere else you can fall prey to the tricks and underhand ways of advertisers. What the eye cannot see, the heart cannot want and if you start feeling like you 'need' to be a unicorn then come live out with my ponies for a few days to make sure you like the lifestyle first. :rotfl:

WELL DONE KERRY WOMAN! I hope you aren't suffering any ill-effects from coming off the medication and that you have done so for your own good reasons. :T:j I have often found that many MH issues are hugely improved when various stress factors are reduced. Debt freedom has definitely got to be one less thing to worry about while concentrating on health so here's hoping you are on your way to being happy and healthy in all areas of life. (OK, almost all, as I'm forever being told that nobody has it all.:rotfl:)

Ist February already, so this is my 'get fitter, not fatter' challenge month. We'll see how it goes this year after missing it completely last year and not having shifted the extra weight gained over the past 2 Christmases! :eek:

Good advice. Please may I join your Get Fitter Not Fatter February challenge? I am alarmed at how frail some of my older friends are getting and do not want the same to happen to me. (I’m 53.)

LittleGreen Says I'll be stricter I'm February yet here we are oat 7am on day 1 and I want to buy an adult unicorn onesie

Don’t do it! Onesies are lovely and cosy until you need to go to the loo and then you have to strip off everything from your body, just to do the deed. You’ll end up freezing cold and will never wear the damn thing again.

You’re very welcome to join us in the 2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge, if you think it’d help you control your clothing spending.

- Pip