2020 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

@sashacat - straight out is fine, no greenhouse required 😉

Viking_mfw

Thanks for the welcome @Frugaldom
Well, our lodger has decided not to move out after all but we're sticking with frugality as essentially this will just mean we can save towards both sons going to uni instead of just picking the favourite  

Put a couple of items on fb marketplace and someone is coming to pick up an unwanted toy for the princely sum of £1. Also read about We Buy Books on the forum somewhere last night and have put together a stack to go to them. Just need an appropriate box to package them in. I've had quite a lot of books put aside during lockdown to go to various places so I managed to get to the 10% bonus. The rest are sorted into locations I can actually get them to now so they are out of the house. 

Today's job is turning the courgettes that got out of hand into courgette marmalade, to the scepticism  of DH. He has been doing his bit mattocking out leylandii stumps in the garden saving a couple of hundred quid on getting someone to do it for us. 

willow_loulou

Good news for me today, my blue badge application was approved. It’s a double edged sword that I need it but it will help so much moving dd to uni and enabling me to get to work. It’s a big relief. I no longer need to pay to park or get the bus (which stops outside work) as I’ll have a dedicated parking spot at work now. It means the extra 3 hours I’m doing soon won’t be eaten up in travel costs, as well as enabling to have the energy to actually work rather than endure the painful bus ride. 

The application thanks to covid was all much more straight forward than the form I have had for over a year. I didn’t have to get photocopied evidence or get it countersigned. It was all done on my phone. 

Pixiehouse55

Yeah paid off another £468 off of my C card plus £400 DD end of month, yes I've nearly got rid of that one. Had our own carrots with roast dinner Sunday, runner beans and courgettes nearly ready so are cucumbers and tomatoes  and eating/using up bits n pieces out of the freezers. Garage and shed cleared out and the last of everything sold on Facebook. About £200 made. 

Frugaldom

Viking_mfw said:

Thanks for the welcome @Frugaldom
Well, our lodger has decided not to move out after all but we're sticking with frugality as essentially this will just mean we can save towards both sons going to uni instead of just picking the favourite  

That made me laugh (Hope the courgette marmalade turns out ok - never tried that so let us know how you make it and how it turns out - I have aubergines and courgettes needing used up.)

Frugaldom

Pixiehouse55 said:

Yeah paid off another £468 off of my C card plus £400 DD end of month, yes I've nearly got rid of that one. Had our own carrots with roast dinner Sunday, runner beans and courgettes nearly ready so are cucumbers and tomatoes  and eating/using up bits n pieces out of the freezers. Garage and shed cleared out and the last of everything sold on Facebook. About £200 made. 

WELL DONE!

mumtoomany

Hi all. Been MIA again for a while. First the computer has been broken, fixed now! Been spending some time hay making, not an easy job! Who needs a gym? Even my muscles have muscles now. 
On a frugal note, have also been decorating youngest daughter's room with her. We've put insulated wall-covering on the outside wall and ceiling, (still need to finish ceiling.) Has made a great difference to the temperature in there already. We live in a 270ish year old farmhouse, solid thick stone walls. I am hoping to cover all the external walls and upstairs ceilings. Should help with the condensation too.
Also have removed the external front door, sanded down, glued, and now ready for painting. Much cheaper than a new one. 
Runner beans now growing and carrots doing well. Pigs growing big too, must empty the freezers a bit. Take care all, mumtoomany.

Viking_mfw

Frugaldom said:

Viking_mfw said:

Thanks for the welcome @Frugaldom
Well, our lodger has decided not to move out after all but we're sticking with frugality as essentially this will just mean we can save towards both sons going to uni instead of just picking the favourite  

That made me laugh (Hope the courgette marmalade turns out ok - never tried that so let us know how you make it and how it turns out - I have aubergines and courgettes needing used up.)

Courgette marmalade looked and tasted lovely. It is quite solid though - the gratings are very dense. DH described it as giving him a "confused mouth feel" whatever that means!!

Recipe is on Abel and Cole's website: https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/gourdgeous-courgette-marmalade

Viking_mfw

Ooh and in exciting gardening news, looks like 4 or 5 dwarf beans survived the cat digging them over! 

[Deleted User]

Mumtoomany - I am about to embark on decorating DDs room and I confess I have never decorated before. Her room is also cold, and the insulating boards interest me, could you post a link please? Also do you just attach them straight to the wall and paint/paper over? Any tips would be appreciated, thank you xx

Also any tips in general about decorating would be much appreciated, I really don't have a clue but am determined!

Paying off the CC has been so liberating, and I have £39 to last until next Friday so we should be fine. I also have some paid for cleaning work tomorrow, I am car-less at present but am going to walk there to save on the £5 taxi fare, it should only be a 40 minute walk.