2020 Frugal Living Challenge

sashacat

I have just picked up a lot of food from the Olio volunteer. She had the floors of 2 rooms covered in boxes of food. 
I got lots of quorn sausage rolls, 2 veggie ready meals of tikka, 2 packs of cherry tomatoes, 2 nets of limes, chestnuts, peaches, bread, veggies, salad and lots more. The poor woman will be up all night listing it. 
I could have had a lot more...bananas, apples, strawberries, raspberries etc. But I am on my own. I hope some families ask for it. 
If you have not joined Olio please join because if nobody takes the food it will go to compost or animal feed. There were so many baguettes that she wanted me to take a box full of about 12.
it is all fresh food on or near the sell by date. 
But my boiler is not working so I am glad to be able to save some of my food budget towards the repair.

[Deleted User]

Well done with Olio @sashacat, it's extraordinary and very sobering to see just how much is destined for landfill isn't it. I've had two great things from Olio today, some veg and also some cake, and also gave something away on the non-food section. 

I collected our second hand tree this morning and it's fab. This is the first weekend in a very, very long time that I haven't had any wine. I don't drink lots don't get me wrong, but a bottle on a weekend has been my 'treat' for a long time. I did miss it yesterday evening, but I slept far better for not having had any so that was great. 😊

A lovely friend dropped off four large pallets earlier, so that is my evening tomorrow sorted - I know how to live! 😂😎

I hereby vow not to spend a single penny until this Saturday (when I will have to purchase a few items such as breaded fish and mince. Intend to stick to £15 budget). My normal bills go out on Tuesday all in one go, but I shan't be using my debit card or any cash at all until Saturday. Leaving my purse at home during the week makes it far easier as well! I have had to meal plan carefully this week, to ensure we are only 'shopping from home' and I don't need to buy anything, whilst ensuring we all get our daily F&V intake. We still have plenty left from the food share last week, and I intend to go to both food shares this week (two different days); will take plenty of things to keep the children occupied whilst we queue. 

I have stuck to my weekly budget of £45.27 (and come quite a way under) for several weeks now, I'm so pleased and quite amazed. It's all thanks to the marvellous support on this thread.

I hope everyone has had a productive, frugal weekend 😊😊

misfire

Can I join you? its been a long time since I have been on MSE - using card for everything in recent times has led me to a bit of a slippery slope, I can feel bad habits knocking at my doors, so here for inspiration and ideas to make sure that they they don't come back.  Still debt free (after years of trying to get there! but only just) 

Frugaldom

Welcome on board misfire!   It's always good to welcome a few more people into the world of frugal living in the hope they can save and prosper, by way of debt freedom.
@sashacat that is an amazing amount of foodstuff and it constantly astounds me that so many people "won't lower themselves" (their words, not mine) to help use up all the wasted food. It is absolutely tragic that there are so many going without when so much could be done to help stop food waste. Frugaldom, being a voluntary project (not for profit), is the nominated organisation for the leftovers from our local food waste hero and the amount of bread that would have otherwise been getting wasted is criminal. I'm trying so hard to get people to sign up and help use the surplus food and to be honest, I'm getting quite creative and ending up with more and more food without needing to go anywhere near a shop. Over the weekend, I had carrots, salad, mushrooms, vegan ready meals and yoghurt. I am not a vegan but a high percentage of the food destined for the bins here seem to be of that variety - double whammy is the fact that so much of it is plastic wrapped or in plastic containers and from overseas, so it's hardly saving the planet. I was disgusted to see packets of mint all the way from Morocco! I salvaged a packet of mint to try rooting it, and even some little house plants IN CERAMIC POTS!

Spending wise - I have spent £6 since my last supermarket delivery a fortnight ago, on milk and butter. That is it. I have barely touched the supermarket stuff as the amount of 'waste' food has been sufficient to make pans of soup, curry and tomato based sauce for having with pasts. For 2021, I am still going to attempt my £1 per person per day for all meals challeneg and make it my mission, once more, to rescue perfectly good food from going to waste. It's an unfortunate side effect that I now have a ridiculous amount of plastic waste so I really, really need to think of how I can best utilise all of that.

willow_loulou

I’ve not managed to get an olio pick up yet, I appear to have missed the coffee I asked for. 

I think most of the food is picked up by established groups here though I will continue to check regularly.
Good news though is that the group I usually get fare share goodies from is back open on Saturday so I will be going for their opening time to get what I can use rather than go when they close for it to be quieter like I usually do. 

They usually have croissants- I’m not a fan of them but I was wondering if I can make them into something. 

I have also got a free Moses basket to collect to upcycle into a dog bed, it was going to landfil otherwise as they’re hard to even give away apparently. If I manage to make it successfully I may try to get another one to upcycle and sell for a few pennies. 

cw18

My central heating started playing up in the middle of last week - radiators only warming up if the water heater was on as well (the controls in this house have always had separate timers for them).   I was convinced I knew exactly what was wrong with it because it was an almost annual event in the last house (I recall it happening here once in the 18.5 years I've lived here, but it could be twice).

Previously I'd have put a call in to Brit G@s, but I cancelled my contract approaching 4 years ago.  It was nigh on impossible to book a service or repair around my work hours (and they cancelled the original appointment for the last service I had done at short notice, which meant I couldn't cancel my day off and had to book another for the rearranged appointment), the cost had reached almost £30/month due to the age of my system, and I was told (for the second year in a row) that my boiler was of an age that if that broke down they were unlikely to be able to get spares.  I decided the £30/month would be better diverted to being saved towards a new boiler than being paid to them, as I'd actually had little need to call them in the 14 years I'd been here - and the last time I'd called them for a repair it had turned out to be a wall mounted thermostat (which was what I thought it was) that I could have done myself long before I could get an appointment with them. I'd had three weeks around March/April with no warm radiators !!

So I mentioned it to my OH when he arrived on Friday, and he looked very unconvinced.   (He trained as an electrician when he left school, and has almost always worked as an electrical engineer of some sort.)  But having got out a screwdriver and pair of pliers to check my diagnosis he confirmed I was right.   Priced up the part I need - £45-ish on Amaz0n (but a couple of weeks for delivery), or £70-ish from a couple of local places who had stock.   The cheapest new & unused I found was on eB@y, and is due to arrive at the back end of this week (subject to my colleagues keeping it moving along).   OH is quite happy that I'm competent enough to fit it as it's a simple wiring job similar to changing a light fitting or plug socket, both of which I've done several times.   But he did double check that the fuse I thought the engineers flicked was enough to cut power to it before he left yesterday!
In the meantime I can move a valve with a pair of pliers so that I have hot water when I need it, and a warm house as well.
So hopefully the part arrives and works, meaning it's cost me under £30 against at least £1350 of saved service care payments (45 months x £30 - and I'd probably be paying more than that now!)
I changed the timer control in the last couple of years.   If I'd done that while I had an agreement in place they've had voided the contract unless I paid them to do an inspection of the work - and that would have cost almost as much as asking them to supply and fit which was a price that meant it wasn't worth having it done!  The one that was on had to be set to the same times every day of the week, which was a pain as I was starting work earlier on a Saturday than on weekdays and didn't want it on as early on a Sunday.   I now have one which allows every day of the week to have its own times - and can also be set so it doesn't come on whilst I'm away, but comes back on the morning of the day I'm due home.   It's nice to know I'm coming home to hot water and a warm house without having to leave it running for up to a week with no-one at home.   I reckon that's already paid for itself as the times are more specific (so only an hour every morning, instead of closer to two to try and cover all alarm calls).  My energy provider queried my September reading as it was a lot lower than anticipted - I'd been away for 8 nights, so it hadn't run for about a quarter of the month

I think the thermostats on a couple of the radiators have stopped working (the system doesn't need bleeding, but they never warm up).  They're in rooms I rarely use so I've not worried about doing anything just yet (I leave the doors to the rooms open several days a week so that they still get some warm air in), but OH is going to help me take a look at some point - preferably when the weather's warmer and I don't mind being without heating for most of a day whilst we deal with them.   I've taken radiators off walls when decorating, and it doesn't look to be much harder than that to do.

Frugaldom

@willow_loulou are you planning on volunteering as a food hero, collecting the end of night stuff from Tesco for redistribution? Locally, we have only 1 'food hero' for now who collects at weekends when the charity folks don't seem to be available and we have only 1 smallish Tesco Metro within about 25 miles of us. Being in such a rural location means very few people have registered for the app and even fewer seem to have used it. Ours really only took off a few weeks ago when someone nearby got collection slots. Saving food from waste is definitely saving me money, but also changing my whole diet. Right now I have grated coconut, chopped pineapple and sliced apple all in the oven drying them out and I'm just about to add in a tray of croutons to save the last of a loaf that didn't fit in the freezer. I'm debating whether or not to make mushroom soup or attempt to slice the mushrooms and dry them, too. I think it's time for me to dust down the dehydrator and get it running. No shortage of jars now the recycling has all changed and my collectin of plastic pots, tubs and trays is growing at an alarming rate. As for Croissants - I love them so just warmed with butter would be fine if I ever got any.

willow_loulou

@Frugaldom I have considered it but I’m concerned about being unwell and not being able to collect. I will go through it tomorrow and see if I can just do it fortnightly or less. It will be easier to do when my Mr moves in or when my daughter passes her driving test. 

I’m quite looking forward to seeing what I can get Saturday now and challenge myself with using it well. I’ll take anything I think lol 

Frugaldom

@willow_loulou I think that's the best way of looking at it - viewing the available items as if you're mounting a rescue operation but having the back-up of knowing you can and will use the food, even if it is something you wouldn't normally eat. I certainly teaches creativity in the kitchen department and that can only be a good thing. Our zero food waste challenge just stepped up to a whole new level and has also probably changed our diets accordingly. Not sure if the latter is a good thing or not, as getting creative with bread isn't an easy thing to promote to others if they won't use food that's on use by date and won't freeze it.
@cw18, good luck with your DIY repairs, hope you get the heating working properly again. Well done attempting the job yourself.

sashacat

I am the same as Frugaldom....I have so much bread and other stuff from Olio and I have now persuaded 4 other people to try it. My freezers are full from my veggie growing and lots of soup I made with them....but I now have 4 loaves in there as well. 
Some of the people here “can’t be bothered” yet claim to be environmental warriors. The later is clearly acceptable but not joining Olio .