2019 Frugal Living Challenge

slowlyfading

Just delurking to say I am loving reading about everyone's endeavors. I am struggling to keep spending down this month after a really frugal January, so I'm not sure why.

I've made some homemade granola this evening so have for breakfasts with all stuff we have in the store cupboard. It has made the house smell great! We'll have it with greek yogurt and chopped fruit.

Can I ask what your favourite budget friendly lunches are? I really struggle at lunch time for things to eat that are appetising, quick and low cost. I either end up eating nothing or something rubbish!

Hettyhound

Today has been an excellent day, I’ve got a new job! Initially I won’t see much extra money but going forward in the next few years I should. I remember reading somewhere that just because you get a pay increase you shouldn’t spend it, just save. I still plan to live frugally!

In reply to Lisa, I budget £150 a month which is for me and a child, two cats and a dog. It used to be £210 so I have reduced it bit by bit. There is 25 for household, 25 for the pets and then 100 for the months worth of groceries. We eat fairly basic stuff but don’t go hungry. Tonight was a jacket potato with humus and cheese followed by carrot cake, tomorrow is corned beef hash and Sunday is mince and gravy in a giant Yorkshire pudding. You must make a meal plan and check your cupboards, pulses and lentils are great for bulking things out and making them go further. I bake a cake each week but tend not to buy anything pre packed. Get to love porridge, as Frugaldom says it’s cheap and filling. I buy packs of frozen fruit and put some yoghurt and fruit on the porridge, which I make half milk half water. I now tend to challenge myself shopping. When I make a list I roughly work out how much it might be and try to beat it.

Good luck with reducing your spends but do it gradually otherwise it will seem too much of sacrifice all at once and you’ll loose faith with it.:rotfl:

sinkorswim2018

Congratulations on the job Hettyhound!
Slowlyfading - left overs from previous meals go to work with me, there is a microwave. However I always have 35p packs of couscous from Ald! in my draw, just add boiled water. There are 3 flavours. Nice allowed to go cold with salad.

So currently I am over budget on car costs and holidays, however my budget started in Jan so the monthly amounts have not had time to accrue and car insurance needed sorting and parts of a holiday booking. I am fortunate tjat I can juggle things to avoid interest and pay my insurance outright.
I was able to get in 16 hours unexpected overtime this week at time and a half. As a consequence the house is a mess (As this is on top of full.time hours) but it's the equivalent of my.monthly grocery budget and eating out budget extra...It will go off my credit card.
On a bum note I came home to a parking fine last night. £40 If I pay now then £75. I've appealed so hopefully won't have to pay.
I have £63.19 left out of my £200 grocery budget. I think I can stay within that as cupboards etc.. are bulging. At work it is a running joke that I bulk buy and have a loft full of toilet paper and enough chick peas for a month.
After last month when my 'dining out budget' was hammered as I had to stay away for 5 days (poorly daughter).I am pleased to say I have only spent £25.95 out of my £100 budget. Monday would have hit it a little as out with a friend, however we are now walking and taking sandwiches and a flask rather than tje usual shopping trip and lunch out. It will be better for us too. On that note I need to be a bit more generous in buying fruit in my budget as I have not been buying much at all. Must get some cheap apples I think.

PipneyJane

slowlyfading wrote: »

Just delurking to say I am loving reading about everyone's endeavors. I am struggling to keep spending down this month after a really frugal January, so I'm not sure why.

I've made some homemade granola this evening so have for breakfasts with all stuff we have in the store cupboard. It has made the house smell great! We'll have it with greek yogurt and chopped fruit.

Can I ask what your favourite budget friendly lunches are? I really struggle at lunch time for things to eat that are appetising, quick and low cost. I either end up eating nothing or something rubbish!

May I beg your recipe, please, for the granola? My breakfasts tend to be half muesli or expensive “Crunch” cereal and half bran flakes (for the fibre and to cut the cost).

Most of my lunches are leftovers. There’s only two of us and virtually every recipe I know is for four or more portions. When I’m dishing up dinner, I’ll do our lunch boxes at the same time. It’s portion control, too. (My husband is quite capable of eating 2 main meals in one sitting.)

When I don’t have leftovers, I might make a couscous or bulgar wheat salad: in a bowl, combine 1 cup of couscous or bulgar wheat with 2 cups of boiling water and cover until the liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, chop a carrot into small pieces and thinly slice a spring onion (or two). When the couscous is ready, stir in the carrot and the spring onion, together with a drained tin of tuna and a drained tin of sweetcorn. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, together with a couple of tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. That will make a couple of lunches.

Do you have a locker or a desk drawer where you can leave things? You need an “emergency lunch” stash. Do you have access to a microwave? I always had a couple of these in my bottom drawer. One of my colleagues keeps tins of thick soup (e.g. lentil & bacon) in hers, together with one of those zap-able soup mugs. You can buy own-brand tins of decent soup for less than 70p each. (If you only have a kettle, then stash pot noodle.)

HTH

- Pip

skint_chick

CraftyLisa - our budget for 2 is £158/month for groceries, cleaning products and toiletries and rabbit food for 1 house rabbit. I cook everything from scratch, and buy cheaper cuts of meat that I make into stews and slow cooked meals. I use seasonal veggies and grow my own so in the summer we don't have to buy a lot of veggies. I also get my staples like rice and flour from the Asian supermarket in bulk, although last week I got spaghetti from Tesco for 20p and 1kg rice for 45p so it can be done in smaller quantities. The easiest way to do it is to plan your meals in advance and go shopping with a list to stick to, so any leftovers are used up - less food waste and cheaper so win win.

Pipney Jane - I make granola with rolled oats, chopped nuts (I like pecans the best but any old nuts will do), melted coconut oil and a couple of spoonfuls of honey mixed together in a bowl. Spread it on a baking sheet and give it 10 mins or so in the oven at about 150 until it's crispy. Then I add raisins and some of the coconut flakes you can get in the baking aisle. I don't really weigh the oats, I usually put in 2 breakfast bowls worth because that makes 7 breakfasts for me then chop and add in enough nuts so it looks about right. I go heavier on raisins because they're cheap and then add coconut to make it sweeter rather than using lots of oil. You can also smush it together to make bars as well although I do usually add dates and do that in the food processor to keep it together. You could add bran flakes or even bran mix to it easily if you wanted to.

I make most of my own toiletries, and use cheap cruelty free makeup, so I'm hoping to reduce the food budget further later on in the year, although we are going on holiday to Switzerland for 2weeks this summer where food is much more expensive so that will hit the budget hard. Luckily our accommodation is free as we're house sitting for family and we have the use of their car with just fuel to pay for. We're planning a lot of hiking and picnics so the budget is £300 spending money for anything that isn't food to cover museum entry fees, parking (it's almost impossible to find free parking in Switzerland even at the grocery store!) and some lift fees for the hikes we've planned.

Have been spending as little as possible, this week's groceries were £36 because I got a chicken for a roast and large packs of pork chops and mince for freezer meals as OH has a couple of weeks of nights so it's just me for dinner. Restocked a lot of cupboard basics and cleaning products as well. Having lunch out with a friend next week but we are both frugal so should be less than £10, I was worried when I became fully self employed I would waste money in coffee shops etc but I've been so busy I haven't had time to stop so it's working out well!

Shopaholic_no_more

spudsmum wrote: »

Not posted for a while but been reading along.

Did well with my budget last week - £65 under budget and shopping was only £27 but that is offset by the fact that my car broke down on Friday and just when I was congratulating myself on the fact that I already the money in my car savings account one of my toddlers broke the tv today - we've only had it 2 months after they broke the last one and I definitely don't have any money in savings for that.

They say these things come in threes - dreading what the 3rd thing will be.

Oh no spudsmum! I was wondering, do you have accidental cover on your house insurance that would replace your broken tv? Just a thought? Hopefully, there won't be a third thing :eek:


Afternoon good people


I have a question.... for those of you who have had CC debt in the past...if you have had more than one card with debt which ones did you pay off first? The smaller amounts or larger amounts? Or did you pay off the ones with the higher interest rates first? Any advice would be welcome as I am confused as to what to do as I am reading/watching conflicting stories. I thought it best to ask the people who have actually achieved this!


Thanks in advance for any advice. It will be gratefully received

Kerry_Woman

Still trying my best to be frugal. My outgoing flight time for my holiday has changed to an earlier time. So had to book a hotel near the airport for the night before, booked it myself and the shuttle between hotel and airport. The company dealing with the package tour charged me more than what they said, so they refunded me. I saved £13 altogether compared to what the company charged. Used loyalty card to get plug adapter so saved £5.50. Really trying my best with nsd's and using what I have already in, only did a very small food top up yesterday. Making time to do as much free exercise - walking, as possible. I am stopping getting the monthly buddy boxes from the mh support organisation. Cancelled March's one and they refunded me. This will now save me £215 for the rest of the year. Have started a free 6 week programme about grief through a funeral director company this week. Hopefully I can get benefit from it to help me with my Mum's death. Also booked onto a Christian retreat on grief at a priory in March - just paid the deposit for now.

little_green

another porridge lover here!! :j dont know where i'd be without my porridge tbh. I treat myself to other cereals at the weekends but mon-friday i have porridge as it tides me over until lunch time as I try to avoid snacking between breakfast & lunch.

cw18

OLaney wrote: »

I have a question.... for those of you who have had CC debt in the past...if you have had more than one card with debt which ones did you pay off first? The smaller amounts or larger amounts? Or did you pay off the ones with the higher interest rates first? Any advice would be welcome as I am confused as to what to do as I am reading/watching conflicting stories. I thought it best to ask the people who have actually achieved this!

Highest interest rate every time.

CapricornLass

Ah the joys of toddlers! (If its any consolation, spudsmum, one of ours posted a wax crayon into the video machine slot, waited until we had paid a fortune for it to be repaired, and then did it again a week later.....)

With regard to CC debt, I had £4500+ when I finally knuckled down to paying it off. What I did was:

1.) Set up a SO on the main card to ensure that the minimum and a bit above that was paid off each month to avoid any non-payment charges.
2.) Worked out what I could pay monthly over and above this SO. I was lucky enough to be able to open a low APR card and a 0% carc. I did a balance transfer of some of the money from the main card to a 0% card ( £x x whatever the 0% period was so that by the time it ended, there was nothing left on the card) and transferrred the rest to the very low % APR card and again set up another SO to ensure that the minimum + a little bit more was paid off each month.
3.) Kept further spending on the main card to as little as possible.

That worked for me. However, that was at least 10 years ago, and I have to say that it did take me three/four years to get the debt cleared up.

If the smaller CC is only a couple of hundred, and you are able to clear it in two or three months, then personally I would clear that first, if only to have the satisfaction on paying one debt off, and then add the payment from the smaller CC to the larger one . Otherwise, look at the APR rates, set up the SO for the minimum+ a small amount on the card which charges the least, and then concentrate on paying off the one with the higher APR.