2020 Frugal Living Challenge

FrankieM

Hi @Bluegreen143
The blogs I read are:
The humble penny
The escape artist
Both of those are from the UK
And then:
The simple dollar
Mr money moustache
Get rich slowly
The frugalwoods

All of those blogs will link you to other blogs. It can become a bit like falling down a rabbit hole if you're not careful!

I didn't come across FI until recently, before that it was always frugality to pay off debt (my ex was always terrible with money!), so by the time I did start reading, I was in my 40's and I've never been a high earner so while a lot of the principles are helpful, I'll never have the same end result.

Let me know if you come across any others that you find interesting

mumtoomany

Morning all, hope you're all well. Glad your move went well Frankie. Lovely to see the new thread back is back where it belongs, on old style. I would never have found it hard ago if it had always been on debt free wannabe. 

Fire wood, we have a local company that builds timber framed houses.They sell builders bags, (tonne bags?) of off cuts and wood they have reclaimed from demolitions for £25 per bag. We normally have eight or ten topped off at the start of winter. In the past, when we lived in a town, I would collect wild from schools outside houses having building work done, would balance it on the baby buggy, long after the baby needed it. 

Frugal things done today and yesterday. It is Christmas jumper day at the grandchildren's school today. Could not find DGS1' s silver tinsel jumper. To be fair it might not fit anyway, he has worn it for the last two years already. DGD1's jumper,also hand knitted in tinsel wool but in red was too small too. So added plain cuffs and extra at the bottom to it. For DGS I took a plain blue jumper, knitted a Christmas tree from scraps of green and brown wool, sewed on beads as baubles and added snowflake sequins. This morning having seen her brother's jumper I had to add sequins to DGD's too. Total cost, zero! 

Now sitting having a catch up on here while DGD2 does her Paw Patrol jigsaws.

Keep up the good work, take care all, mumtoomany.

Jazee

Frankie, I don't follow blogs but with regards to reading I have a kindle and in the last five years can count on one hand the books I've paid for.  I search for the free kindle books on Amazon.  Always a good selection and I've read things I wouldn't normally choose, both fiction and factual including frugal guides.

FrankieM

I also have a kindle @Jazee and I've just signed up to kindle unlimited cause it was free for a couple of months, but I do love a proper book.

Bluegreen143

Thanks so much for the blog suggestions @FrankieM and everyone else - that’s really helpful. A couple I’ve looked at before but loads of new stuff to check out.

MazzieD

Hooray, I managed to get some veg via Olio this morning.  Iceberg lettuce and beetroot.  Local Food Hero lives round the corner from my last house so we recognised each other's photo's!.

Had a lightbulb moment last night.  I live a short walk/driving distance from all major supermarkets, frozen food stores and the discounters so even if I can't use Olio at least I can get YS meat, fruit and veg.  Popped into Asd* yesterday, lots of reduced chicken, meat, fruit and veg.  Didn't buy anything, it was purely to have a look.  I need to start clearing my freezer!.

cw18

FrankieM said:

though I'm a sucker for buying books on Amazon

DVDs for me - though not just from Amaz0n.    Latest order (which was from there) went in this morning after hearing about the death of Barbara Windsor.   I've been meaning to get all the Carry On films for a looooong time, and this news will bump the price for a while.   New on Amaz0n wasn't much dearer than second hand (with all the risks that brings) from my normal sources.   And I had a £10 'sorry' from them after a delivery was less than satisfactory (only useable on sold and shipped by them, so not on Marketplace purchases), and I have a healthy balance anyway (I get vouchers for running monitoring software on my mobile phone, tablet and TV).

YORKSHIRELASS

My local Mind charity shop always has a brilliant selection of books, usually some recent ones, and most are £1.50.  I love a proper book so I go in occasionally and get £10 worth, then when I have read them I donate them to a local charity that I support.  OK it's not the most frugal way of reading but it makes me happy.

Two loads of washing over the big airer with the dehumidifier on, have just shuffled it around and put the lighter things that were almost dry through the tumbler.  Just been to Li@l with DS, needed fruit and bread, resisted all the extras and Christmassy stuff.

Going to try and sort out my electric bills and check our usage, I was hoping it would come down when DS1 left home but our DD is still an eyewatering £91 a month.  We have two freezers, one of which is very old, and probably should get rid of one but we do use them both.

Bluegreen143

I am a right sucker for Amazon - both paper and kindle books. As for fiction, I’ll often get that from charity shops and the library. But I’m a sucker for books on parenting, marriage, frugal living, minimalism etc and usually end up convincing myself I “need” it right away so get the kindle version so I don’t need to wait for it. Thing is, if it is genuinely a brilliant reference I always want it as a paper book anyway (and if it’s not I usually regret buying it) so it’s silly. I can be guilty of over researching eg Monkey is really picky with his food after eating everything as a baby, so I now own tons of books on picky eating... having read them all I have one which is brilliant and says everything all the others do (this is the one I recommend to friends in the same boat) so why do I waste my money buying endless other books in the hopes of a magic solution? 

Likewise when Bambi was tiny she didn’t sleep, was permanently attached to my boobs and I was completely exhausted so I bought oodles of books on baby sleep, none of which made her sleep needless to say 😂

Treasurequeen

I downloaded some free ebooks onto my iPad one of them a new release which was free. I prefer paperbacks and usually buy them in charity shops or the works. Ocassionally I buy new ones in supermarket with my vouchers. I’m trying not to buy off amazon, twice a year I buy books from an independent online bookshop depending on what books are new released, usually get on offer too and get cashback. Any other books I ask others to get me for Christmas or birthday.  I can’t get to a library so me getting books in charity shop is frugal for me and my situation. 

winter warm scheme was paid into my electric account yesterday which should cover a few months. I cancelled my national trust membership as haven’t been able to use it and unlikely I will next year. Got a refund on something I bought online as it never turned up.