2020 Frugal Living Challenge

LivingInTheBlack

Managed day 2 of shopping from home week. Found some microwave popcorn which made a nice treat for us. Forgot we had it!  I have one egg left so i will make some banana loaf cupcakes. Also going to make plain scones for tea break/lunches. Love a simple scone with jam and butter. 

ldee2111

Thanks for the nice welcome.
I overspent in October so will try my hardest to reign it in this month. Found a game in the local charity shop yesterday that I was going to buy anyway for my toddler’s Christmas. £3 instead of £10 new - happy with that! Played it last night with the OH while wee one was in bed. Also sold an old dvd and speaker system on GT - the thing I’m most happy about with this is having less cables! 

But it’s not all good news - I’ve already overspent on this week’s food budget.  This is happening more and more. Don’t know if it’s because we’re working from home and just eating more! They’ll maybe have to roll us back to the office. I’m going to try not to ‘nip to the shop’ for wee extras for the rest of this week. 

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello fellow frugalers, I hope you are all well. 
 I received my first pay today that was solely ssp. I've been off since mid sept. Hoping to go back before Christmas.

I've finished Christmas shopping for our 3 kids. Also got ds2 birthday presents ready for the end of the month. 
I really need to cut down our grocery spends. 

I've gone through all our direct debits / bills and there is nothing we can cancel at the moment. I've cancelled my giffgaff top up as i don't need that at the moment and shouldn't need it for the rest of this year. I get free calls and texts to my partner and son and use WiFi to make calls to family and message family and friends. 

I made soup the other day from veg scraps id been saving and freezing. 
I also made bread using normal flour instead of bread flour. 
Our food waste has become much less due to being more careful and things like chopping an apple and giving them half each for the small kids instead of giving them a whole one. 
We are not really consuming meat at the moment maybe chicken one night and sausages another, the rest of the time its been vegan or vegetarian based. Using things like cheap veg, pasta, pulses and rice to bulk out the recipe.
I'm still not feeling right. 

I also need to contact hmrc about my help to save bonus as I haven't received it.. which is frustrating. And I can't find anything anywhere to say it has been paid. It definitely hasn't gone into my account.
I'm still trying to save to buy a car in cash next year. As well as start paying back our debts. 

We are in more debt now than we were when I started my diary back in 2017. I hope to be debt free again apart from our mortgage by December 2022. 

On the upside daughters room has been plastered. So when we have some spare money (when I go back to work) that will be painted and carpeted for her to go in there  (she's currently in with us) 

On the whole I'm trying to keep my frugal head on and keep things simple. We are in Wales so come out of our fire break on Monday the 9th . 

I have a few more christmas presents to get for people and then I'm done. 

ldee2111

After reading @LivingInTheBlack talking about ‘shop at home’, I’ve managed to get through the past two days without nipping to the shop. This was becoming a daily habit so I’m quite pleased I’ve managed to avoid it the past couple of days. I had a small win today when I traded in a little  ball of tangled silver necklaces I don’t wear to a local shop offering cash for silver and gold. I thought to myself “I’ll be happy with a fiver”. And came out with £20 in my pocket. 🙂 Going to clear out some bits and bobs over the next while and hopefully I have the same success as with the jewellery. I was also thinking about doing paid surveys - any recommendations? Hope everyone is keeping safe and well.

mumtoomany

Hi @mumof3.12kindebt, I hadn't realised you were in Wales too, we are in Carmarthenshire. Are you welsh or, like us, english invaders? I noticed that Aldi have bread flour back in, white and wholemeal for 55p bag. NSD again today, most days are to be fair. Uber frugal trick today, Saved the fat (lard) from the pork shoulder I cooked the other day and used it to make pastry for today's chicken pie, a Manchester tart and some mince pies. Made some treacle toffee too at OH's request.  Also rescued a swede that S-i-L had thrown away. (he'd bought it a few weeks ago, to cook a meal when friends visited). I've peeled and cut of the worst bits. Most now been frozen, he won't know when it reappears. I hate food waste! Mumoomany.

LivingInTheBlack

Hey all. My shopping at home week ended early. My son has been unwell all week so ive been unexpectedly feeding both of us from home. Still, i guess we saved by using up random things for lunch. 

willow_loulou

@ldee2111

I do prolific survey site and have done very well in the five or six months - you have to check it regularly which is not a problem for me as it’s on my phone and iPad. I think there’s a section on surverys in here so might be worth a mooch. But as you can see in my signature it’s not bad pay out if you are vigilant 

willow_loulou

I bought an individual coffee infuser today. Hopefully now I’ve found a cheaper filter coffee I like I’ll drink less with making one coffee rather than 2/3 in the pot. 

Prolific has paid for it. Was £5:98 I just cashed out £6.08

LivingInTheBlack

@ldee2111 Not a survey site but i recently started using 20 cogs which seems to be pretty good.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

DH got paid for a job he has finished today, so it has gone straight off the cards, with a bit extra that I cobbled together to make £2000.  Total cards down to £35592, it will soon be under £35k which feels like an achievement (although I know its still a lot!!).  I have booked an Asd@ shop for Monday and the fridge is really bare, but I am determined to manage.  My plan going forward is to get one online delivery a fortnight, I used to do this years ago but got out of the habit.

Think DH is working tomorrow morning, I will do some cleaning.  Want to check my budgets too.