2020 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

Good evening all,

I hope everyone is well. Another frugal day here in ASB world. NSD, charged everything at work, free lunch, and we went to the food share waste group after school pick up. 

The queue wasn’t as long as it has been in the past, and we got absolutely LOADS. There was so much there it was astounding to see. We are fully stocked on F&V, bread, treats, bacon, ham and cheese - in fact, the only thing I need to buy is a 99p basics marguerita pizza for the children’s tea on Friday (a tradition here). I have £1 in my purse in small change, so that’s that taken care of. That £1 is the only planned spend between now and month end 🙏🏻

I had picked up four pints of organic milk several weeks ago for a bargain 60p. I had frozen it, and that is now out to defrost to be used in drinks/on cereal/to make a rice pudding tomorrow night. Yum 😋 

I have been gifted a second compost bin which is hugely helpful as mine is full. I have also chosen a chicken coop and run, I am aiming to raise £100 from eBay sales over the next week to cover a big chunk of the cost, so that’s a job for this weekend - listing like my life depends on it! 😂😊

A very small win this morning - last night when I boiled the kettle for my cuppa and hot water bottle, there was a good mug full of hot water left in the kettle afterwards. I popped it in a flask, and it was still piping hot this morning for my morning cuppa 💥💥😀

Keep on keeping on everyone, we’re doing so well xx

sashacat

I picked up some food from Olio this morning.
I am horrified at what was going to waste.
Like Frugaldom said, it can’t go to a food bank because it is fresh food and short dated.

The woman I went to had 47 pints of skimmed milk...I took 6 but I think a lot will be wasted, and 37 packs of celery with yesterday’s sell by date and enough bread to feed the village.
I have made a bread and butter pudding and a large quantity of soup...mainly celery but also some veggie bits that my kids thought could go in the compost...they were perfectly acceptable vegetables. And a large baguette has been made into garlic bread (lots of home grown garlic) for the freezer. 
I am going to make bread crumbs and croutons. 
Frugaldom, after I’ve Cooked the croutons can I store them in air tight jars...is that what you said? 
This lot will last me at least a week. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Feel like today has been a bit of a frugal fail here.  I drove into town to check out the new food share, took ages to find a free parking space, went to the Community Centre, no sign of anyone or anything going on.  Thought that perhaps everything had already gone so drove home, checked online and found it is in the Church Hall, I was in the wrong place!  Oh well, there is always next week.

It rained on my washing, and the sweet potatoes I was going to use for tea had gone to mush in the fridge so they had to go in the compost bin.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

cw18

Well, I've spent today.  But I guess I could call it a carefully considered spend, and it was on something that was fast becoming an essential need!!

My toaster started to die a few months ago.  It's a 4 slice toaster, but with two sets of controls so it's more like two 2-slice toasters in one outer body.  The central elements in one of the 2-slicers stopped working, which meant you had to put each slice of bread through twice (turning it between).   And I couldn't avoid the need as I have 3 slices for breakfast every morning if using a seeded or multi-grain bread - or 4 if using wholemeal.   After a few weeks the central element in the other 2-slicer gave out too

The toaster had cost me over £50 (think it was closer to £60 which seems a big Ouch! now), but was bought when I was on a really good salary so I didn't really feel the hit.   It's earned every penny of that, as it was 18 years old in May.

I've been trying to find a replacement.  The only possibles in Mr T had smaller slots than mine, so it wouldn't have toasted slices properly from top to bottom.   I picked one up in B'n'M for around £30, but even with the toaster setting on max it wasn't really toasted well enough for me (OH likes his even darker) and was darker against central elements than outer wall ones.   That went back for a refund.

The only ones I could find that met all my requirements (apart from colour of toaster) were the same model as the one I bought in 2002.   Cheapest were in Arg0s, but at £50 I decided I couldn't really justify the outlay even though they were worth the money if they were going to last another 18 years - and as they're the same price as I paid in 2002 they're effectively cheaper now.  Yes I tried using that logic to unlock my purse strings, but it didn't work

Went into the Arg0s site today to check something for someone else, and spotted the toasters had been reduced to £30.    Result.    I'm not sure what I make of the green (it's very green without being bright), but the cream wouldn't go in a white kitchen and the charcoal (which would probably be too dark, but was also at £30 despite this colour scheme normally being £60) would have meant a 30 mile round trip in the car to a place I don't know at all (only 12 for the green, which I combined with a visit to a few stores I don't normally get chance to visit but always call into when up that way).

Went through a scheme I have access to from work when I paid for it on-line, which saved me 7% of the price as well.  Then went and collected it tonight.   It felt really strange queuing outside Argos to pick it up, but at least we can still get things from there by doing so.

mumtoomany

Hi all, well done on your toaster purchase @cw18. The toaster we had when we moved here seven years ago died, it had been bought many years before from a car boot sale, so we had been using DD1's. Last year that one also gave up. OH bought one from Tesco, saving money he went for the cheapest! I think it was about £5. I don't recommend them, it only cooks half the slice and only had two slots! Two rounds of toast at a time and eight people living in the house, not a great combination. I keep looking at four slice ones but can't bring myself to buy one. At least when the building work is finished we'll only need it for three of us. 


I've realised I bruised my arm the other day when I went down in the mud. I was carrying a hurdle which fell on top of me, landed with both hands in a patch of nettles. Doesn't hurt though.

Frugal cooking today. Pea and ham soup made. Left over mushy peas, from DD3, a couple of rashers of bacon, two small onions, veg stock and last night's left over bubble and squeak. Will do lunch for today. Still need to make tonight's chilli made with minced pork.

Keep frugalling, mumtoomany

CraftyLittleLisa

mumtoomany said:

@CraftyLittleLisa I pay the tv licence monthly by DD. Around £13 a month. It's the only thing I've found where you're not charged extra for paying by instalments. Won't make it any cheaper overall, but spreading the cost might help. mumtoomany.

I was aware you could pay it monthly but I prefer to just get it paid rather than worry about another amount coming out of my account every month.  I do that with most bills that give you the option of monthly or annually.
Thanks for everyone's input on the Olio app recently.  I can confirm I have now signed up for this.  I haven't collected anything yet or offered anything but come spring when I start growing things again I can now offer things off on Olio when I have too many.  I also have another way of sharing stuff when I get to the point of decluttering the flat.
I'm still doing okay on using up all the food stuffs I have such as veg and fruit.  I don't think I have wasted any for a couple of months now (when I say waste I mean put in the compost bin so its not a complete waste I suppose).
Today is my final pay day before Christmas.  I am pleased to say that Christmas is sorted now.  I just need to post the cards and deliver the presents.  Following the announcement on Tuesday about Christmas bubbles I am so excited that I can now spend Christmas with my parents, brother, sister and all their kids.  That is the best Christmas present ever.  I will stay safe now by limiting contact etc as much as possible until the big day.
As it is pay day today I have sorted out next months budget and have checked the final tally's for the year.  I can see that I will have overspent on groceries and toiletries by £400.00.  I'm not sure why but I suspect it might be something to do with the increased cost of food plus my attempt to try and buy eco-friendly goods which can be a little more pricey.  Despite that overspend it is still less than I would have spent before I joined this frugal challenge.  I knew the crafting and gardening budgets had been completely blown as that has been pretty much all I have done this year due to Covid.  It seems I have spent £1,400.00 on crafting and £700.00 on gardening.  I have put a monthly limit in place for next year so that I can kerb this particular habit.  The good news on this though is because I haven't been doing my usual theatre/meal out/cinema trips/exercise classes the extra expense has been covered by those budgets.
I'm feeling quite positive for the next year and I am determined to be more disciplined.  I will set myself a gardening project and crafting project every month that costs money and any other projects I decide to do will have to be from existing resources.  It might also mean that things that have needed doing for a while will get done for a change.  I will also try and make sure any spending I do is at the end of the month so that I only spend what is actually spare rather than spending it and then finding an emergency expense crops up.
I think that is pretty much all the news from this end.  I hope everyone is well.  Take care.

cw18

CraftyLittleLisa said:

Following the announcement on Tuesday about Christmas bubbles I am so excited that I can now spend Christmas with my parents, brother, sister and all their kids.  That is the best Christmas present ever.  I will stay safe now by limiting contact etc as much as possible until the big day.

Without wanting to put the dampers on it - that reads like 4 households, and the rules (at least for England as I understand them) say 3.   Although if you have a normal social bubble in the mix I believe that counts as 1 household.

We still need to decide what we're doing.   My daughter (and GDs who are all under 18, meaning it's a single adult household) are bubbled with my parents.  So that's one household, although the two youngest GDs haven't been going over and the two oldest GDs have only nipped over if dropping something off for my parents.   My daughter has paid short and infrequent visits - if she's dropping off shopping she normally only nips in to use the loo whilst my parents are in a different area of the house.

My daughter has been speaking to my Mum, and has said my Mum is preparing for us to all descend on 27th for a buffet inside their home (would have preferred 28th as that's my Dad's birthday, but it's not within the bubble period despite being a Bank Holiday!).   'All' means my parents, my daughter, 4 GDs, myself, and my older son as a minimum.   If my younger son wanted to come as well (means public transport from Reading so not ideal - or bring his partner who drives) he could go into a bubble with my older son if he doesn't already have one at home, as my older son is single and not in a bubble.   I could also take my partner with me, as we're a normal social bubble.   So we could actually have 6 households / 12 people in my parents front room - and the risks that go with that terrify me    But that's still exluding my brother, his wife, and their two boys (who are the same age groups as my 2 eldest GDs).   If I dropped my normal social bubble and went into one with my brother and family we could actually have 6 households and 15 people   The most likely scenario is parents, DD, GDs, DS1 and me - so 9 of us, and I still think that's too many for one living room.

My GDs will have all finished school no later than 18th, so 18th to 27th is considerably better than some cases I'm reading where schools break up on 22nd and people are planning to mix on 23rd/24th.  Younger son and partner work from home, so should be relatively low risk if they wanted to come.  My partner is currently out of work, so again at home most of the time meaning low risk.  But my daughter, my older son and I are all in work at least as late as 24th.  Son is an HGV driver, so comes into contact with random people at intervals during the day (at base, and when he loads/unloads at other companies).  He *should* be wearing a face covering when in contact, but it still carries risks.  I'm a postie, so in a busy building for a couple of hours every day then outdoors but still in contact with / walking past people for the rest of the day.  I wear a shield in the office, but nothing outdoors.  My daughter works in a pre-school nursery, and looks after the baby group - so she's hands on with I believe with no face coverings all day.   So I consider the three of us to carry some element of risk.  My brother works in an office part of the time.  My SIL is a teacher, and I don't know when she and my nephews break up - Scottish school hols.   So potentially more risk from that household.

My Mum had chemo late last year/early this, and as a result was part of the initial 'shield at home' group.  Between lock downs my Dad has now been diagnosed with cancer.  He's not getting any treatment for it, and the prognosis was 3 months to 2 years.  My Mum and I believe he's had it 2 years now.    So I'm really torn. 

This is likely to be the last time we have my Dad with us for Christmas and his birthday, but if one of us carries even the flu into their home we may lose him rapidly.  My Mum has had the flu shot, but my Dad's refused.  DD is trying to get at the momement - she wasn't going to, but after a chat with her she's trying to find out if her asthma is still bad enough that she qualifies   I believe she could also try to get it because she's the one who shops for my parents - but the fact she's not actually a formal carer for them may mean that's a non-starter.  My 2 youngest GDs should be getting through school.  I should be entitled to it free now they've dropped the age, but trying to find somewhere with stock is a nightmare.  My partner is in the same boat as me, but we've already agreed he's not coming with me (he'll spend time in a different Christmas bubble with his Mum and Sister & family instead).  But my sons would both have to find somewhere with stock prepared to do it privately, and it's likely that the partner of younger son is in the same boat as them.  Brother and SIL should get on age (I think SIL scrapes in), but I don't know of any medical condition that means my nephews would qualify.   I doubt we'd be able to get it for 2 eldest GDs.

So I think I'm more likely to go on a different day (not sure when though, as I don't yet know when DS1 and I are both off work) and chat to them from their driveway.    I'd then go and visit DD and GDs at their house - with them at the front door / in the front garden while I stand by my car on the road.   I'd never forgive myself if I carried something in to anyone, and I'm not mad keen on the idea of picking anything up from someone else either.

If it weren't for my Dad's prognosis I'd be trying to encourage the family to have an unofficial Christmas after we've all had the chance of a Covid vaccination and things are starting to become more like the 'old' normal.

mumof3.12kindebt

Afternoon everyone..
Kids are off school due to waiting for partners coronavirus test. Ds2 birthday is in 2 days and I haven't wrapped his presents yet. (Family have had stuff delivered here so I need to wrap those too) 
We're not doing alot today. Partner got took in to hospital last night  lots of tests etc they still don't know what's wrong. Hes developed an irregular heartbeat but ruled out everything  life threatening. He was discharged at 5am .. I wasn't able to pick him up as I hadn't managed to sleep my meds off properly so told him to get a taxi home .. cost £95. Its just one of those things nothing can really be done about it. It is what is it. 

I've done !!!!!! all today other than see to the kids. I must get a move on. Tomorrow is a new day. 
Another one  of my teeth broke last night. That's 3 now in the last 4 weeks.. I've got an appointment with my dentist in 2 weeks time. I can't really book an appointment for the same day (emergency) as they ask you to come down sometimes within 30 mins (if they even have a slot) and I'm 2 hours away. (Unable to register with a local dentist so we have stayed with our old ones) I did have intense tooth pain before it broke but it seems to of settled now. I also have a thing on my face I need to get checked out. I thought it was a spot coming but nothing came of it . Its like a freckle/mole.. but has no became raised so that really needs to be looked at i think .. quite concerned about it to be honest.. 
This year has not been a good year for us at all.  On top of the coronavirus... I'm really hoping to get a few weekends away in next year once we have sorted a car . 

I've got 2800 saved up so far for a car. I'm hoping to get a 7 seater. I was looking at small cars to begin with but it just won't be practical. So hopefully  I'll have enough saved by the time we want to buy one. 

I hope everyone has a lovely frugal day.  X

CraftyLittleLisa

I am single and am in a bubble with my parents which counts as one household so it does work out as 3 households.

cw18

CraftyLittleLisa said:

I am single and am in a bubble with my parents which counts as one household so it does work out as 3 households.

I was hoping you had a bubbe in there somewhere

It's only that part of the rules that means we can even consider our normal get-togther, but I'm incredibly nervous at the prospect of doing it