2019 Frugal Living Challenge

2Scratters

OLaney re the CC payoffs the rule is the highest balance attracting interest to be cleared off first.
Personally I have paid off the lowest to give me a head start and feel like achieving, then snowball that payment. Obviously if can be moved to 0% helps massively. Good luck either way

Clouds88

Hello guys i wanted to say hello and that I will be following your thread now and have read over the last 5 or so pages.

Life is really hectic at the moment I have two kids age 8 and 3 (girls) and a husband who has worsening mental health problems. I work part time and he is out of work at the moment so we are living off of my wage only and top up UC.

For that reason I am trying my hardest to live frugally so we can have some money put away each month, at the moment we swallow every last penny without any rolling over.
The food budget is a generous £400 so I’m hoping to cut this. When my husband gets better and back into work then I’m hoping we’ll be on our way to saving properly and then for a mortgage, here’s hoping! X

spudsmum

Thanks Capricorn and o'laney toddlers really are a nightmare at times but it's hard to stay mad at them for long they are sweet kids really

Well it's been a crazy week - the car that I had fixed... well it's not fixed, it's making an awful noise so needs to go back. It was booked in on Friday morning. Unfortunately my husband was up all night Thursday with chest pains so we called an ambulance and he spent 5 hours in A&E. Luckily it was nothing serious but still scary. Since I'd. cancelled the garage and my car was still poorly I took my husband's car to go pick him up from hospital - get halfway there and his car starts playing up! Seriously you couldn't make it up!

So both cars are now in need of repair - on a positive we go on holiday tomorrow- well maybe, we're going on eurostar and at least 50% of trains are cancelled due to a world war 2 unexploded bomb being found in Paris today - added to that various other calamities too numerous to mention and I'm starting to think somebody up there doesn't much like me at the moment

gien

Me too for porridge! I decided to make a habit of porridge for breakfast because it's meant to be very good for gut health. So I nought a bag of oats, a pakcet of mixed seeds and some sultanas from Tesc0 at the beginning of January and I have only just finished them - what briliant value, and I really enjoy it for breakfast too.

We are on holiday now - got family coming so really looking forward to that.we have such a nice time together but it will just be a week. I think maybe the frugalness will stretch for the week as we celebrate.

When we get back we are going to get some chickens. I do not think they will be a frugal investment (its probably a lot cheaper just to buy eggs from the shop) but we rather like chucks and fancy having some scraping about the place. I did learn something from the farmer who is going to supply our hens (he has lots of different breeds and sells them mainly to the 'pet' chicken trade). Apparently the regulations have changed so much for 'caged'hens that from a welfare point of view they are better in their enriched cages from a stocking density point of view than free range. FR cheicken are still pretty squashed in and only need to have access to the outside, not necessarily BE outside.

Anyway, here' to holidays as]nd a bit of time off, but still havign porridge for brekkie

cw18

2Scratters wrote: »

OLaney re the CC payoffs the rule is the highest balance attracting interest to be cleared off first.

You need to look at the interest rates


If I had 2 cards where


card 1 has an outstanding balance of £1000 and an interest rate of 10%, then in a year I'd have to pay £100 interest
card 2 has an outstanding balance of £500 and an interest rate of 30%, then in a year I'd have to pay £150 interest
total interest for the year is £250



If I have £100 I can afford to clear off the balances each month, then after 5 months of paying it all off card 1 things would look like this


card 1 now had an outstanding balance of £500 and an interest rate of 10%, so I'd pay £50 interest over the next year
card 2 still has an outstanding balance of £500 and an interest rate of 30%, so I'd pay £150 interest over the next year

total interest for the next year would be £200, meaning my £500 in additional payments has saved me £50 in interest charges over the year.



But if I'd made those payments off card 2 it would now show as


card 1 still has an outstanding balance of £1000 and an interest rate of 10%, so I'd pay £100 interest over the next year
card 2 is cleared, so no interest payable
total interest for the next year would be £100 (half that if I'd cleared some of the balance off card 1), and my additional payments would have saved me £150 in interest charges over the year.





Yes, I've assumed that only interest is paid each month which wouldn't be the case (minimum payments are always slightly more than interest), but it's too complicated to do a quick example any other way

RunningBackwards

You are a stronger women than me, buckled & ordered a unicorn onesie. But on the plus side, it is excellent quality and machine washable. I have started IF (intermittent fasting) so no more snacks on the way to work and take my lunch in. It's impulse purchases that catch me off guard!

Igamogam

Bank balance still looking good and over half through the month. Only a mop bucket and a £14 dental charge for my student DD2 so far spent since January - other than bills and food shop.

Made a broccoli an Stilton soup today - flabby broccoli plus the stalk and some old Stilton found in the freezer - YS bought eons ago! This will be my lunch for this week. Low carb and tasty.

Hospital trip this week 'over the boarder' so tolls and parking to pay ( dont pay for hospital parking here ) but that is budgeted in my £500 for the year for MISC spends. Its an early start with a 150 mile round trip so will treat ourselves to a coffee and a cake in an independent coffee shop whilst we wait results...again this will come out of my 'ENTZ' envelope of which I put away £5 a week for. Kinda lovin' this spread sheet /envelope malarkey again. Also fallen in love with Eb*y all over again. Not quite reached the 10 listings a week....but I will

2Scratters

cw18 wrote: »

You need to look at the interest rates


If I had 2 cards where


card 1 has an outstanding balance of £1000 and an interest rate of 10%, then in a year I'd have to pay £100 interest
card 2 has an outstanding balance of £500 and an interest rate of 30%, then in a year I'd have to pay £150 interest
total interest for the year is £250



If I have £100 I can afford to clear off the balances each month, then after 5 months of paying it all off card 1 things would look like this


card 1 now had an outstanding balance of £500 and an interest rate of 10%, so I'd pay £50 interest over the next year
card 2 still has an outstanding balance of £500 and an interest rate of 30%, so I'd pay £150 interest over the next year

total interest for the next year would be £200, meaning my £500 in additional payments has saved me £50 in interest charges over the year.



But if I'd made those payments off card 2 it would now show as


card 1 still has an outstanding balance of £1000 and an interest rate of 10%, so I'd pay £100 interest over the next year
card 2 is cleared, so no interest payable
total interest for the next year would be £100 (half that if I'd cleared some of the balance off card 1), and my additional payments would have saved me £150 in interest charges over the year.

Thanks CW18 I have missed this typo it is highest rate first. Good example of how it works too.

little_green

bought "prawn flavour tails" instead of prawns today as cheapest prawns i could find were £2.50 and the tails were only £1. Let's see how they cut it.
Anyone had them before (don't put me off having them lol). On the menu for tuesday.
i've never knowing had them before but wouldnt be surprised if i had had them in a dish at a restaurant as they've been substituted in as a cheaper alternative.

sinkorswim2018

OLany- yes, hit the ones with highest interest first. If able move any balances to 0% or as low as you can go, making sure any transfer fees are taken into account and it doesn't actually cost more.

I hope to hear back about my parking fine appeal today. Meanwhile off out for some free exercise