2020 Frugal Living Challenge

mumtoomany

We've had cover for most of the last several years and not needed it. So didn't get it this year! If we'd not had the little one with us we could have walked across town and got a belt from the motorist shop. left it to cool, refilled the oil and water and repaired the hose that had come apart. (more than one problem with it) But didn't want to walk DGD that far and mostly roads with no pavement. Will look into Autoaid, thank you @fionaandphil.

willow_loulou

Shopping was awful, I was very breathless and stressed so we just grabbed stuff and left. We were over budget but I didn’t care in the end. We had to upshift with usual stuff out of stock, so about £9 over budget. But we’ve got enough stuff to only need bread, milk, cheese for at least 4 or so weeks. I’ll need mince but it can wait until I pass the butchers. 

Bluegreen143

@mumtoomany how stressful re your car! and annoying it should happen when you take a break from having cover.

@willow_loulou so sorry you had a bad time at the shops. I know what you mean, I felt so anxious and uncomfortable when I tried to go Christmas shopping at a shopping centre and won’t go in person again now. Going to nip into some of the small independent shops in the west end next week instead - there’s a lovely independently owned knitting shop near me and my mum loves to knit so I’d rather support them for her gift and I know they only let one customer in at once and are so small I can be in and out quickly anyway.

in_my_wellies

Good afternoon everyone. Frugaldom, I used to follow one of your threads years ago, probably 10 or 12 years ago when you were saving up, with a £4000 budget. I've dipped in and out over the years. I'm so pleased to see what you have achieved.  If I wasn't a carer for my mothers I'd be up there in a shot helping to plant all those trees. 

I originally posted on a NYK thread (don't think it was MSE) before I went to volunteer in India. When I came back I had been deleted    AWOL for too long. 

I'd like to join this thread for inspiration and ideas. I've always been - quite - very - (delete as appropriate) frugal but reading through this I've been reminded of so many things. To be honest I have no idea what proportion of my income I spend on what. I don't tend to replace clothes or furnishings until completely broken or worn out. I don't have a mortgage and live on a part time teachers pension, I have to wait a while for my state pension. I'm very fortunate to be able have my mum live here. She has Alzheimer's and if I had to work she would be in a care home now.

My home is in Devon but I'm currently 'house-sitting' longish term in the East Midlands, by coincidence in the house which I bought 35 years ago then sold before moving to Devon. We loved the house but TBH it was at the top of our budget and we could never really afford the investment it needed to bring it up to date. We raised our children happily enough and sold to relocate. The next owner did invest and extend and .............. and  it's now on the market for £850,000. I could never afford it now but he's let me house-sit while he decides what to do. It's very isolated, very vulnerable if left unoccupied and I do need noisy dogs and geese. 

I have an allotment which keeps me busy and where I can always find something to occupy my mum. I have too many carrots this year! Raining today so I've been baking a spinach, rosemary and tomato quiche for tea and an apple cake to eat now

Sorry if I've gone on a bit, thanks for reading

willow_loulou

Welcome @in_my_wellies
@Bluegreen143 Thank you 😊 it’s all got to me a bit, I’m very vulnerable yet somehow not in the group that gets a letter to stay home. (Was hospitalised in Jan with a cold/flu) so my anxiety it really high. I’m looking at all the alternatives possible for us. Sadly the veg supplier I relied on last time has upped their prices beyond affordable and most online orders cost more than my budget. Sigh. I hope you manage to find other options for gifts. Etsy is great x 

mumof3.12kindebt

Hi everyone. 
I hope you are all okay. I've been feeling quite low about my health the last few days, but I'm trying to turn it around into a positive. The biggest thing that hit me was standing on the scales at 4 foot 11 inches and weighing 11 stone! I could of cried and that night I felt awful I began to have this fear that if I don't change it I'll die. (Abit drastic now I think about it but its a genuine fear now that if I don't do something about it I'll either end up in much worse health or die way before my time) 
Anyway wanting to stick to no spend I've found a very basic workout I'm going to try and I've told myself it doesn't matter if I only do 5 mins its better than non and this is a starting point. I've also joined slimming World group on fb instead of paying for slimming World. And the obvious drink more water, try to move more (even if I have to keep taking breaks its better than doing nothing) slow and steady is better than non at all. And obviously eating better. I'm hoping it will help my health. If I do 30 days of exercise for at least 10 minutes  (even if its 10 1 min exercises throughout the day) then I will allow myself £30 to buy or go towards exercise equipment etc. Although my goal is too workout without spending a penny! 

I really need to do this and I'm hoping it will help with what I am currently going through.. I'm also going to stick to my good morning routine I've started i always feel better when I have i get up earlier than the kids. 

No spend here other than food shop that I have ordered to be delivered on Tuesday  

Will try and catch up on posts now  

Have a good evening everyone 😊 

Frugaldom

willow_loulou said:

@Frugaldom idiot question, how do you use powdered milk? Do you mix up say a pint or just add powder to tea or something 😊 also do have a favourite brand 
Thank you. 

I mix up a pint at a time if/when I need it. If there are offers available, I use it for making things like pancakes or milk puddings. No favourite brands as it's price dependent.

Frugaldom

in_my_wellies said:

Good afternoon everyone. Frugaldom, I used to follow one of your threads years ago, probably 10 or 12 years ago when you were saving up, with a £4000 budget. I've dipped in and out over the years. I'm so pleased to see what you have achieved.  If I wasn't a carer for my mothers I'd be up there in a shot helping to plant all those trees. 

I originally posted on a NYK thread (don't think it was MSE) before I went to volunteer in India. When I came back I had been deleted    AWOL for too long. 

I'd like to join this thread for inspiration and ideas. I've always been - quite - very - (delete as appropriate) frugal but reading through this I've been reminded of so many things. To be honest I have no idea what proportion of my income I spend on what. I don't tend to replace clothes or furnishings until completely broken or worn out. I don't have a mortgage and live on a part time teachers pension, I have to wait a while for my state pension. I'm very fortunate to be able have my mum live here. She has Alzheimer's and if I had to work she would be in a care home now.

My home is in Devon but I'm currently 'house-sitting' longish term in the East Midlands, by coincidence in the house which I bought 35 years ago then sold before moving to Devon. We loved the house but TBH it was at the top of our budget and we could never really afford the investment it needed to bring it up to date. We raised our children happily enough and sold to relocate. The next owner did invest and extend and .............. and  it's now on the market for £850,000. I could never afford it now but he's let me house-sit while he decides what to do. It's very isolated, very vulnerable if left unoccupied and I do need noisy dogs and geese. 

I have an allotment which keeps me busy and where I can always find something to occupy my mum. I have too many carrots this year! Raining today so I've been baking a spinach, rosemary and tomato quiche for tea and an apple cake to eat now

Sorry if I've gone on a bit, thanks for reading

Welcome back! I'm glad you have found us again. Many of the old forums have long since been archived as all the free services we used eventually vanished, or became paid-for services. Did you have another username back then?  I'm still trying to keep my geneal household spends as close to £4,000 per year as possible but times are definitely changing. Also, it would have been great if you were close enough to come help plant trees (Thank you for following the Frugaldom page)

Frugaldom

Hi frugal guys and gals, I hope everyone is doing ok. For those feeling under pressure, down or a bit lost,  it's November. Let's just blame it on that   The wind is howling here and we got completely soaked this afternoon while working out at Frugaldom but it felt good just getting a tiny bit of ground fenced off with donated wind-break mesh plus the free pallet that friend picked up from the roadside pile yesterday. It was muddy - very muddy - but the ponies don't seem to care, so neither did we.

We collected some freebies from our local Olio 'hero' last night, for us and for friends, so had a quick, socially distanced catch-up when said friend came along to collect her rescued food and some hay for her goats. Still hard to believe that after all these years of squeezing the grocery budget beyond all recognition, the stores are now giving food away! Believe it or not, I still occasionally refer to Weasl's 50p per day meal plan from many years ago, plus my experience of participating in the sponsored Food Ration challenge helped a great deal. Neither of us here is vegetarian but we don't mind eating meals without it.

Howling gale here now so if you have the same weather, stay safe.

in_my_wellies

Frugaldom said:

Welcome back! I'm glad you have found us again. Many of the old forums have long since been archived as all the free services we used eventually vanished, or became paid-for services. Did you have another username back then?  I'm still trying to keep my geneal household spends as close to £4,000 per year as possible but times are definitely changing. Also, it would have been great if you were close enough to come help plant trees (Thank you for following the Frugaldom page)

I can't remember my user name, it was probably my real first name and initial. I could do the £4000 challenge at the time but it's more difficult now. There are three of us. I aim to make the main meal for £1 per person by growing all my fruit and veg, just buy oranges and lemons and the odd green veg in the 'hungry gap'. Heating is my main expense which I can't control because mum lives here and needs it on all day from 7 am till 10 pm. I have an open fire but still need the heating on for when she wanders around - which she does a lot. 

Thank you to various people for flagging up Olio on here, I have joined, just trying to work it out. I have a few things I could donate but not sure anyone would find me, or whether I want to be found.