2020 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

Sparky, I love how determined you are ❤️ 

My best decorating tip is clean everything before you start and cover everything in and out of the room. I get paint everywhere 😂 have every window open,
even on other floors as even low odour paints linger. (Will dry quicker too) find a good bamboo stick and really stir paint well or you’ll get streaks. That’s the limit of my knowledge 😂

today we’re collecting some felt and trimmings. Dd is making xmas decorations in down time at uni to give as presents. She likes to sew so it’s ideal and frugal. Helping her learn frugal life as she embarks on budget living is really important. She’s doing well! 

mumtoomany

Hi Sparkly, the stuff I'm using is called, Wallrock, thermal liner KV600. It's expensive, around £100 per roll, then you need the correct paste too. It's very thick, quite heavy and not at all easy to put up. Definitely a two (wo)man job. It can be papered over or painted, DD is painting it pink! It will cost us a lot to do the whole house, but, at present DD1 and DS-in-L1 pay half the gas bill. When there house is built we'll have to pay it all. I figure this will pay for itself in the end, we are not moving again. If you choose to do this maybe you could find a friend to help put it up and pay by cooking a meal, or babysitting or cleaning. HTH, mumtoomany.

Viking_mfw

Courgette fritters for lunch... more on the way. Last year we were inundated with rhubarb, this year it's courgettes. 

CraftyLittleLisa

Its been a while since I posted but I have kept up to date with all your frugalling.  You have all put me to shame as I have fallen off the wagon a bit.  I had two weeks off work which means that as I didn't go away I kept myself busy doing projects that I wouldn't normally have done which obviously resulted in spending money to enable these projects to be completed.  Basically they involved getting the allotment and garden up together and upcycling a dolls house I already had and turning a bookshelf into another dolls house as well as sewing.  On the plus side although I spent money I didn't overspend as much as I thought so I was able to take £100.00 from my savings to cover it all.

I did get some frugal bargains however over this period.  Where I am working from home sitting at the dining room table is rather uncomfortable so I went shopping at an office furniture store who actually sell secondhand desks.  I found one that fits perfectly (I only wanted a small one) for £66 and because they were already delivering to my area they said they could deliver to me for free - result.  Secondly, I was finding the laptop screen was causing me difficulty with clicking through different applications so I asked around and a friend of mine (who hoards everything) said she had an old screen going spare.  She checked it and it worked and she kindly gave it to me for no charge so now I can work very comfortably.

One more frugal success is that my mobile phone contract needed to be reviewed and when I did some searching I found one with a different company that was £4.00 cheaper.  I was always a bit scared about doing this sort of thing but I organised a cheaper sim card deal and I have set it all up and I can confirm it is all working.  I have now reviewed my budget and it all seems to be realistic.  I just wish I could bring my grocery bill down a bit more.  I have had to put it up again as food prices seem to be going up.

Anyway, thats me for now.

Stay safe in the heat this weekend.

sashacat

Lots of frugalling here. My neighbours have given me lots of windfall apples which I have cut up and frozen. Some of them I cooked others I just cut and froze. I must have 7 or 8 bags of apples ready for the winter. 
I used Jamie Oliver’s way of preserving about 2kg of tomatoes. Putting them in jars with garlic and basil from the garden. A little bit of olive oil on top and in a water bath for 30 minutes and they keep for months. And are delicious and save space in the freezer.
i would love to know how to make courgette fritters though. Any chance of the recipe? 

Viking_mfw

Chop courgette up small, add sweetcorn and or bacon and or some form of cheese (soft goat's is particularly good), cover with enough gram flour to go lumpy (my husband seasons the gram flour and adds herbs), beat in an egg and add enough water to make a thick batter. Fry in butter. Serve with mayo or chutney or lemon juice. 

cw18

I've had a rather spendy couple of weeks - remind me not to take any more sick leave

I started feeling ill towards the end of my shift on Tues 28th July, and had several phone calls with health care professionals between late that night and the middle of this past Monday.   Original diagnosis was probably a bowel obstruction (matched diagnosis from March, when I had almost identical symptoms), or possibly food poisoning.   As I also developed a change in taste (especially with sweet flavours, but also plain tap water) I had to do a Covid test - came back negative, which was what everyone actually expected.  Self certification would have put me back at work on Wednesday, but on Monday I was still needing to be reasonably close to a bathroom, still having spells of light-headedness when I came close to blacking out, and I was only just starting to feel less dehydrated - so my GP signed me off until this coming Tuesday.

No food spend in all that time until yesterday.   Son brought me some tins of soup (something I've realised I don't keep in, and may need to consider rectifying), a loaf of white bread (I couldn't chew/swallow the seeded wholemeal I had in), and topped up my tinned fruit supplies for me - and asked for undying and unconditional love in return.....

But I've been ordering bits on-line

A tub of Istonic drink powder was the first, but this was what got me on the rungs of the hydration ladder so was pretty much an essential (with thanks to Amaz0n who delivered it the next day).

I shortly followed that with a computer desk I can use my laptop on whilst sitting on the couch (again through Amaz0n).   I've been having problems with my back and sciatica, so this is part of taking ownershop of the problem and resolution - I've had to concede that the set-up I had meant I was stooping over everything when I used the keyboard, which was making things worse.

Then I've also had a gadget to be able to use a bluetooth headset with a device that doesn't have bluetooth.  But the one I ordered doesn't actually do everything I want, so it's being returned (Amaz0n again - don't think I've ever had as many visits from them in one week before ), and I've ordered an alternative which is specific to my device from eB@y (I tried a generic first so I could use it with other devices as well).
And tomorrow I'm planning on stretching my legs (prior to return to work) by walking to a running shoe shop - so I could be in for another hefty spend there.   But it's another essential as the shoes I have are now at a point of wear that they're likely to start cause injuries!

Thankfully the Amaz0n spends are covered by vouchers I earn

Chessbear

Viking mfw thank you great receipe, even converted my husband 

Rowan9

Glad you’re on the mend  cw18

sashacat

 Viking, thanks for the recipe. I will make those tomorrow as I now have a double glut of courgettes. I am watering my next door neighbours’ garden while they are away and they said to be sure to cut the courgettes and beans. So I did. 
Jarred up 6 jars of pickled red cabbage today. I have never done it before so I hope it is ok.
cw, they all sound like essential spends to me. If you don’t look after yourself you will end up having to spend more.