2020 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

@Frugaldom do you sell seeds? 

@jbkmum
i went through all variants of dog food. My last dog was raw fed with some kibble but my current two didn’t take to it. After goi g through every expensive dog food I now use Sainsbury’s own small dog complete biscuits at £2.99 a bag and give chappie tins when worming (smallest needs tablet crushed) they both seem to have balanced weight wise, teeth improved and their poop is better so less anal gland issues (brought on by too rich expensive foods) 
funny enough it was the kibble my last dog had as a senior and she loved it too. I do mix in the occasional bag of dried raw which are 99p in pets at home. They REALLY love that and I try not to treat so mixing it in is easiest. 

Our monthly budget for 3 and 2 dogs is £250 now. It’s very doable to cut back on things but with rising costs I suggest you try and go lower each week than you intend and try and save a buffer. For example my milk has gone up 35p in recent months and the saw dust for the hamster has gone up 20p this last week! 

Also write down what to spend and keep a list of what you have in. Good luck and welcome to being frugal x 

Good luck

willow_loulou

(The £250 includes petrol) 

Bluegreen143

When I get stuff second hand for the kids I buy the same size. Stuff may shrink a little but only slightly and new stuff will as you wash it too as @cw18 says. Sometimes second hand stuff has stretched with wear too. I obviously avoid anything too bobbled or worn looking. I find once you get past baby sizes you don’t get as much for bigger kids and it tends to be “good” clothes like shirts, dresses, jumper etc. And I find with my nearly 5yo son I need to buy basic play clothes like joggers etc new as you never find those second hand. He always wrecks his play clothes and thus I can never pass them on so other kids must be the same 😂

LivingInTheBlack

Hello everyone. I'm a bit of a lurker.
Today i changed my sons mobile contract and made a £15 saving a month. 
I've also started bulk buying household items from amazon, making sure everything only comes on the same months (in my case, every 3 months) so it all gets the biggest discount possible. A bigger initial outlay but cheaper in the long run.
I used to be very frugal out of necessity, then my income increased and i became relaxed and developed many bad habits. Trying to get it under control so i can save a little and have that freedom @Frugaldom talks about.

willow_loulou

Had 4 no spend days this week. Not even petrol or anything. I’ve started writing everything i spend where as before I didn’t really track individual prices unless expensive like coffee and I’m just shocked how much things have gone up. I popped to get a few things - rice, soy sauce. I actually walked out of Tesco empty handed and went to Home Bargains as I’d seen the soy sauce there.  I got almost double the amount for 50p less!  

willow_loulou

@LivingInTheBlack
welcome and well done. 😁

Frugaldom

Welcome onboard @LivingInTheBlack, I hope we can help you find your frugal freedom.

Bluegreen143

No spending at all for a couple of days 🙂 I did have to redo (fresh start) my YNAB though as I’d got myself in a muddle and the figures were all wrong. Annoyingly you can’t reconcile/lock your accounts on the phone app (which does every other function I think!) and our laptop no longer works 🙄

LivingInTheBlack

Ah that's annoying @Bluegreen143. I love my ynab. If i ever lose control it nearly always coincides with less use of the app.  

Thanks for my welcome @Frugaldom and @willow_loulou.

My very sweet friends who own a store gave me some food that was going out of date (i never ask them and they dont believe me to be hard up or anything) so thats a meal sorted for monday. Also set up a secret santa group for my family (excluding children) so we only spend 60 pounds on one person. Suits everyone and brings the price down. Surprisingly fun too. It was my brother and sis in laws idea last year. We weren't convinced but ending up loving it. 

Pixiehouse55

Hi everyone sorry not been about lately our service user John has been in and out of hospital. I'm feeling exhausted.  I've paid another £500 ish so cc is now under a £1000  and should be paid off by Christmas☺ Very happy about that. Next is the mortgage.. ive saved through it the year for Christmas presents and food. So that's a bonus. Oh and our gas and electric gone down your £20..  Gone over budget this month for food, cleaning stuff. Freezer in garage nearly empty so we can try that cleaned out and get filled again. We buy half a pig half a lamb, stewing steak etc from our local butcher. Keeps us going for a long time, Both our service users don't eat much. We work for a people called Shared lives and have Adults with Learning Difficulties living with us, I can't work because of my back and other problems so this is a way of me working from home and support  our service users, We love our work.. anyway that's it from me ha ha.. Keep safe ever