2020 Frugal Living Challenge

mumtoomany

Hi, Bluegreen143. ( how do you do that @name thing?) You mention UC and savings. Have you looked into the help to save scheme? Save between £1 and £50 per month, very good interest after a couple of years. You and Red could have an account each. Info on the Gov website. 
Willow, make is quite nice coated in olive oil and seasoning and cooked in the oven, like guilt free crisps. I have kale growing as a perennial in the polytunnel. Mumtoomany.

cw18

LivingInTheBlack said:

Hi all. I'm still working through my annual budget for next year. The more i think about it the more costs i think of. Perhaps i am over budgeting and need to generalise some of my categories.

Even if you generalise categories, you still need to be sure the budgets are set at a level to cover everything you're including in them.   I personally like lots of categories as that means I can see where I allow too much or over spend.

eg. My grocery budget is only for food.  I have another budget for cleaning items, and another for toiletries.  When I had a dog I had another category for dog food.    I split my car down to road tax, insurance, mot/service/repairs and petrol - so 4 categories for that!  And my 'everything else' doesn't include birthdays & Christmas - those also have a specific budget.

Bluegreen143

@mumtoomany you use the @ character and start typing the name and it’ll pop up a list of usernames underneath for you to select 🙂

Ooooh no, I hadn’t. We had never claimed UC/benefits before in our lives and I was completely unaware until late July that we could get UC to top up our income with Red being on furlough (so missed out on March/April/May/June payments we could have had) 🤦‍♀️ it was thanks to someone commenting on my diary thread that I found out! Not sure if we will get much/anything going forward. After a couple of months of just working here and there and lots of furlough days still, he has had a full week at work this week and is expected to now be full time going forward (well the old furlough scheme is I think now ending anyway so just in time!). I think if he gets his basic salary we might get a tiny amount UC as his salary is right at the borderline for a family of four. But with on call and if he does any overtime then I think he will start earning too much each month soon. Will look into the scheme anyway and find out the details! Our last debt payment (to my MIL) ought to get paid with this payday if we are frugal this month and then it’s fully onto saving up a £1,000 emergency fund first of all 🙂

mumtoomany

Thanks for that @Bluegreen143 ,let's see if that works! Not very computer literate. From what I understand, as long as you apply for the savings account while receiving the benefit, you can continue to pay in, and get the interest, even if you're no longer entitled to the UC. Might be better checking though. Mumtoomany.

mumtoomany

Just checked, yes you can keep it even if you stop claiming. The interest is 50% over four years, half at the end of two years half at the end of four. Hope this is useful to others too. Mumtoomany.

mumtoomany

Me again, thought you might like to see today's uber frugal challenge, or maybe to just laugh at the ramblings of an old woman. Thermal gloves bought five years ago for £1.99. Very warm and worn a lot! I've already earned them but they had gone to holes again. Now knitting new fingers into them. Both gloves to show before and after. Cost around 20p in wool. mumtoomany.

Nonnadiluca

That's a good cost/wear ratio, must be much less than 1p per wear! ( They look pretty good too! )

cw18

mumtoomany said:

Just checked, yes you can keep it even if you stop claiming. The interest is 50% over four years, half at the end of two years half at the end of four. Hope this is useful to others too. Mumtoomany.

Must mention this to my OH.   He's recently applied for UC (contributions based JSA came to an end), so it might be worth him looking into this.  Thanks for sharing the info.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

I have been crunching numbers and have had a good look at my spending over the last 6 months.  Aside from unavoidable spends I have spent £420 a month on food, which I can definitely reduce, £58 a month on clothes which isnt necessary, but only £8 average on takeaways and nothing on other entertainment.  My diesel spend used to be £180 a month and it was £23 a month in lockdown then £83 a month in August to October.  That will be offset by extra heating over winter working from home.  I spent £200 a month on miscellaneous spends, which includes birthday presents, parking, small things for the house, medicines, toiletries and pet food that wasnt included the food shopping.  I am fairly happy with this, although it could come down a bit.

We have been paying just over £1000 a month off the debts which puts us on track to clear our debts in 3.5 years (nearly all our debt is 0% interest).  However, we could push a bit harder on this.  DH is going to need a new work van at some stage (his is 16 years old) but there is no point in saving for this until we get some debts cleared.  It all feels fairly positive, but we cant get complacent, DH is self employed and has been really busy but nothing is guaranteed.

Kerry_Woman

Was just slightly over for last month's food budget.  My general spend was over as well, but I had to buy things that I needed and kept putting off, eg kitchen knives(included bread knife) - got set of 5 for £8.  I have made a menu plan.  Sorted out list for food shopping tomorrow.  Still got somethings I got during last full lockdown, eg 5lt eco friendly washing up liquid, 5lt fabric conditioner, so i will not have to worry about ordering them.  Have put off buying something as there is no rush for it. It is for another cottage cross stitch kit, but want to wait until I find something I like and want.  Have completed the last of the set of 4 cottage cross stitch kits last month.  Have had them for quite a few years and am pleased to see the end result.  Started another cottage cross stitch kit yesterday and I have also had for a few years. Just want to do something positive.  Also started to volunteer at a f/b last month, it is one day a week.