2020 Frugal Living Challenge

peony40

Hello, I’d like to join you all in 2020. I am currently reading through everyone’s posts, and I will work on a budget over the weekend. This last year has not been the best financially, and 2020 is not looking any better, so I definitely need to be more focussed and disciplined.

BBL.

natnat13

Hello all

I have been a lurker this year but need to post to keep myself accountable.

I have about £1500 CC debt I need to clear, it's interest free unitl Sept 2020 so I want to clear it by then.

I am fortunate in April I start a new job, my wages will increase by about 60% and my commute will drop from 40 mins each way to about 10 mins which will definately help the finanaces, however I don't want to start spending more because I'm earning more.

My plans are to firstly clear my CC. My mobile contract is up in March, I'll be getting a SIM free plan as my phone is fine, that will save about £26 p/m. I also don't need any clothes but I do need to lose about 1.5 stone to fit into most of mine so that's another goal. Then it's just beig mindful of spending and starting to save some money for the future.

I am going to start christmas shopping in the sales for next year, it worked well this year. I have also managed to re-gift a few presents, I know people have different views on this but as long as it's a totally different friendship group then I think it's ok. I have tried to become more minimal this year too, which re-gifting helps with.

I have some clothes and other bits to sell, has anyone had success with debop or is ebay better? It's nice quality stuff but not designer.

Frugaldom

Welcome to our latest arrivals!

NatNat, congratulations on the new job, it sounds like a great opportunity to get to financial freedom sooner rather than later. Good luck

Cash neutral Christmas... My thoughts on that are just do it. If you have £50 in the pot then have a fun time making the most of it to cover everything needed without falling for the commercialism or feeling pressurised into spending more. At the end of the day, you can give gifts at any time of year to those who mean something to you, nobody says it musr be on 25th December.

Have a great week everyone. Don't forget that for many, it's just another day. Make the most of any special time afforded to you.

DawnW

I also need to lose about 1.5 stone Natnat, and I am sure we aren't the only ones.
Don't know much about Debop, but I find that certain brands of clothes sell ok on ebay - things like Joules, Monsoon, Fatface etc, that are mass market but pretty expensive to buy new, so long as they are in good condition and freshly laundered. Or you could try FB marketplace - no fees but in my experience, plenty of timewasters.

frostie101

Hi
Looking to join in for 2020.
Have a budget for the year and spreadsheet ready.
First aim is to stick to the monthly amounts then by September I need to have reduced my outgoings by a third due to loss of income.
Hopefully following this challenge and watching where the pennies go will help me reduce expenses.
Good Luck everyone

Siebrie

We live and work in Belgium, and they have the wonderful system of 'meal vouchers' here. For every worked day, the employer (most of them, anyway) will give you a voucher of about €6 to be spent on food, any food, from Aldi ingredients to dinners at Michelin star restaurants. Employees just pay the 6% VAT. Husband and I get vouchers worth €8 (improved benefits ), so we have around (€280 minus VAT € 260 to spend every month. The voucher keep their value for 1 year.


I have agreed with husband that we will really need to stay within this amount as our food budget for at least this year; we will not spend any hard cash on food in 2020.

natnat13

Thank you Frugaldom.

Wow Siebrie that's great, food is one of my main expenses, although I take lunch to work most of the time rather than buying it from a shop which saves.

Thanks DawnW, I agree about marketplace, I've had people just not turn up to collect things before or message "is this available?" then say no more after I reply.

Siebrie

Thank you, natnat13. I also take lunch to work every day (no shops or restaurants nearby enough for the 30-minute lunch break). Husband hardly ever eats lunch; he usually eats a large breakfast and a large dinner. DDs take lunch, snack, and piece of fruit to school; I have decided that I will not be buying any biscuits or cake/muffins/etc this year - we will either bake them or not have them. Bonus: that will give dds (11 and 8) another good skill.

sausageelza

Hello, I'm new to MSE. Can I join in with you all?

I have been working out a budget for the next year. We need to cut our food and petrol bills down drastically. The petrol may be difficult as we live in the middle of no where, so a car is essential; we also have mobility problems and no access to a bus, but we will give it a go. Reducing the food bill is doable though.

I run a small art business part-time. This is my second year of trading and I have just started to make a profit, but I need to stop propping it up financially from my personal account, so need to stop buying 'stuff' I don't really need with my non-business money (keep off Amazon)! There are a couple of credit cards that need paying off and a small loan from my other half I need to pay back and I would like to be able to put some money into savings by the end of the year.

There is the potential of £3400 disposable income this year and it would be amazing if I could pay off my debts and have a good amount of this left by December 2020.

Spreadsheets at the ready!

[Deleted User]

:xmastree: hope everyone has had/is having a wonderful holiday period

I did my food inventory yesterday and went through the fridge re-purposing leftovers and using up past its best veg I've come to the conclusion that I have enough chutney to sink a battleship!! much of it is from my sister as she has had massive chutney making sessions over the past 18 months or so and donates quite a bit of it to me - trouble is I'm pretty much the only person who really eats it here so it takes a while to get through it! In all honesty, I haven't done too much to use it up previously but now I've realised how much we have, I think I need to make an effort! :rotfl: Anyway, now that I have the inventory, it will help me reduce food spends quite dramatically- I'm going to scrub things off the list as I use them and use up as much as possible before I buy anything else

I'm having a lazy day today - I may have a pamper session while dh is watching the football - I think that I have a face mask somewhere and some moisturiser so I'll see if I can find them

I found some veg seeds yesterday when I was looking for something else - I'm going to get a few tomatoes started off next week so will need to get the greenhouse sorted by the end of January (it's a bit of a dumping ground and I lost a couple of panes of glass in the last high winds) so that it's ready for a very productive year Although we'll be having a complete garden revamp at the end of the year, we've got loads of garden work to do in the next few months anyway so that we can use the space for growing veg while we wait As I buy organic, growing my own will hopefully work out cheaper

I'm making parsnip wine after the first good frost - doing the renovations has stopped me making any wine for the past 18 months but I'm doing one a month in 2020 I haven't made parsnip for years and its a really nice dessert wine so I'm looking forward to it!

I am putting my spreadsheet together this week for 2020 spends - I am going to be recording every spend from every budget- including my persie- so that I have a definitive record of where my money goes. I know that I will be horrified by how much I spend on rubbish but it has to be done

Right, time to start using up the alcohol stockpile! :rotfl: