2020 Frugal Living Challenge

Couldsavemore

Viking_mfw said:

I can send you the recipe for this really terrible cabbage curry my husband made for dinner...

Hmmmm... polite pass... if you don't mind.
🤣🤣

Couldsavemore

joedenise said:

@Couldsavemore at the start of the Grocery challenge there are lots of recipes, no idea how many are vegan though but I'm sure some are.  I suggest basing your meals on whatever is on the Super 6 at Mr Al which will help keep costs down.

I shall look for that thread, thank you

Bluegreen143

@Couldsavemore it is easier to keep the costs per person down when you are cooking for more people in a way. When you are just cooking for one it’s difficult to take advantage of things like bags of cheap veg etc. Also you can get fed up of leftovers or batches of baked goods etc whereas with a bigger family it’s easier to use it all up between you. I don’t think your budget is ridiculously high but if you are wanting to reduce it you’re in the right place!

If you can take advantage of YS offers and the initiatives to reduce food waste like many do on here the savings seem to be amazing. We don’t have much on Olio locally so I’ve not been lucky with that here. My aim next year is to use up every scrap of fruit, veg, leftovers etc and make sure nothing is getting binned as I am admittedly hit and miss with this. I would love to get under £50 a week but don’t think it’s possible with £17 being the veg box, and I don’t want to cancel that - the veg is lovely quality, it forces us to try different things and it supports a local greengrocer too.

Viking_mfw

Couldsavemore said:

Viking_mfw said:

I can send you the recipe for this really terrible cabbage curry my husband made for dinner...

Hmmmm... polite pass... if you don't mind.
🤣🤣

If only I could have passed....

  

ldee2111

ldee2111 said:

ldee2111 said:

I've spent this afternoon looking at our budget for 2021. Anticipating a job loss mid-2021, so our budget for next year is based on one wage, but emergency savings, mortgage OP, and non-essentials will be covered by second wage until it's lost. This will hopefully make the transition to one wage less of a shock.
For now, our non-essentials add up to around £6.4k! I think I can get this down to around £6k without causing too much upset with others in the house. Possibly £5.5k depending on choices we make when it comes to house improvements and holidays. If/when job loss happens, this list will be vastly different. 

Sky TV 

Netflix 

Disney+ 

Home improvements 

Bin cleaning 

Leisure/fun 

Holidays 

Gifts 

Decided to start living on one wage from this month rather than waiting until January. 
Had to keep myself in check today when visiting T3sc0 and put that unnecessary Christmas jumper and slippers back. I only went for a small top-up shop but there were so many shiny temptations! Quite proud of myself for getting out of there with only the things I went for. 
Been keeping to homemade lunches/dinners, and using up food so there’s less waste, but tomorrow I’ve budgeted for a takeaway pizza (an annual tradition alongside putting up the tree and watching Home Alone).
Aiming for 20 NSDs this month. 2/20 so far.

Looking forward to the new year frugal living challenge, especially since the job loss came sooner than expected! Until we get a second income again, the goal is to live on one wage - I have budgeted every pound into our spreadsheet. I’m an avid saver but I’ll need to shift my mindset for a wee while and accept I can’t save right now. The aim really is to stick strictly to our budget.

Viking_mfw

Well with my Olio haul I've prepped, blanched and frozen a kilo and a half of sprouts; made clementine jam, two batches of clementine marmalade; "canned" segments; started a clementine cake; and had an oven full of mushrooms drying for several hours (and 2.5 large bags of mushrooms to go - am going to have creamy mushrooms on toast for breakfast), and I have only just scraped the surface. The lady must have desperate to shed some of her load (she had hundreds of bags of clementines and sprouts) as she gave me more than I asked for. I love making jam but don't eat it much so will distribute it around the village - already exchanged marmalade futures for jam jars. I guess it's not entirely frugal to have to buy the sugar but it is saving the lot from landfill. 

Oh and DS1 and I have eaten a bag of clementines between us raw

willow_loulou

Viking_mfw said:

Couldsavemore said:

Viking_mfw said:

I can send you the recipe for this really terrible cabbage curry my husband made for dinner...

Hmmmm... polite pass... if you don't mind.
🤣🤣

If only I could have passed....

  

😂😂😂

willow_loulou

@Couldsavemore if you’re buying dietary requirements like vegan milks etc you’re always going to have higher costs. My milk has gone up 45p this year! So don’t be hard on yourself for higher budgets.
i would definitely invest in a slow cooker if you don’t have one. The hours you work it will be a welcome relief coming home to dinner already done. Also a fab quick meal is tortilla pizza. A pack of those goes a long way and are freezer friendly And often reduced in my locals. My fav is tomatoes chopped small, cheese and chopped spring onions. Just oven or grill for a few minutes. 

cw18

Given I only cater for myself (other than at weekends) and don't "do" Christmas in terms of the big or seasonal meals many have I don't have "left overs" to use    25th saw me with a ham salad baguette as I was out most of the day and didn't feel like cooking when I got home.   26th was steak, chips and peppercorn sauce (my Christmas treat), 27th was sausages (from freezer) with baby potatoes and cheap Christmas veg, and 28th was yellow-stickered lemon sole (bought last month) with more baby potatoes and cheap Christmas veg.

I do find simple gifts for most of my closest family, my OH, and my OH's niece who normally stays with me several weekends a year (or buy them something they need and ask for - DD got a decent set of kitchen knives last year that should last her a good long while!), so I don't bypass Christmas entirely.  And I wore festive hats at work for the 2 weeks leading up the big day - kept waiting for my manager to say something (the one we 'gained' earlier this year is turning out to be a bit of a stickler), but he didn't.   I get a lot of smiles and cheeful greetings from people as I deliver the mail with them on - and a lot of children remark on them, even secondary school age kids have genuinely complimented some of them.   One looks like a Christmas pudding, one looks like a Christmas tree, and the other is a red and white velour baseball cap (lots of little ones point and tell their parents they can see a Santa hat when I wear this one).

willow_loulou

I made a huge decision tonight and just got an instant approval for a loan to pay off my cc. I’ve struggled to make a dent in it yet my loan every £10 made a difference. With the interest fixed even if I take the whole term to repay I’ll save hundreds on interest if I was paying the cc. This gives me fixed outgoings and I’ll be able to pay on top when ever I want to without it being lost interest. I’m feeling good about it and wish I’d done it sooner! 

If I pay it off as I’d hoped to my cc I’ll be slightly up on interest. But the big thing here fir me is the visible difference every few quid makes and the knowledge I can afford the repayments if I lose my job. 

I’m still aiming to get it gone ASAP, so I’ll be focused on frugal stuff, just a little less worried about interest rates etc!