2020 Frugal Living Challenge

jammy_dodger

SummerDays wrote: »

Still trying to be mindful of my spending. I’ve been so tempted to buy a budget planner notebook/journal - this sort of thing is my total weakness - but I have a whole load of unused notebooks, so I have chosen one to use to record my spends and do some planning. Baby steps!

Thanks for all the advice on this thread

i have downloaded spending tracker app to my phone and have found that super useful to see where the ££s go
you can set up different accounts for your allocated pots and set up as many categories as you like . i have been shocked how much I spend on fuel a a month which at the moment is unavoidable with long travel to work

i know some prefer a written journal but it may suit others

jammy_dodger

My goal is to pay of remaining CC debt ( currently on 0% )
im keeping track of my NSDS 19 so far this month .deleting saved card details off my phone has certainly curtailed those impromptu unnecessary "treat" spends. Amazon will think im deceased
ive been shoppping using a list and stick to a budget ive set myself that will be my budget when i retire early this year
any extra ££s is going on to the card after Direct debits and my allocated budget is taken from my wages
i think keeping track of all spends is an eye opener and a good place to start to saving and not spending
Have a happy Sunday

Frugaldom

Hi fruguys and gals, hope you are all doing well, recuprating from any illnesses, recovering from the season splurge and making the most of the extremely mild winter we're having in UK. (Be prepared, in case it's just a delay and winter hts us frm next month onwads!)

Welcome to our new arrivals and later returners.

We are fas approaching the end of the first month and for some that means payday. I'm self-employed so paydays vary, usually start of a new month after invoices are issued at the end of each month or in sme cases quarterly. I don't follow the No Spend Day (NSD) counting as I am seldm anywhere to spend, unless it is online. Month to date I have had 5 household spending days and 6 in total so not to bad so far. One of the sends was an online supermarket order, bringing my year to date grocery spend up to £99.26 I decide to allow £100 per month for groceries this year after spending the past x number of years challenging myself to stick to £1 per person per day for all meals. With only 2 to feed and the occasional guests, I feel this is perfectly doable, even when including luxury extras . If my budget changes, I know I have plenty of wiggle room in the grocery budget.

On the stocking up of cupboards front, pasta, spaghetti, rice, flour, sugar, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and things like tinned kidney beans are still all looking cheap shelf-fillers so these items are always in stock here, along with lentils and broth mix for soup. Porridge oats are still cheap at about 75p per kilo so porridge breakfasts and soup lunches are still the meals of the day here.

My herbs and garlic are growing but as yet, I haven't sown any seeds or prepared any veg beds. It is costing less to buy veggies than it is to grow them once I factor in compost costs. It has been so wet over the past year that al efforts to make our own cmpost have, once again, failed. We do, however, have a massive manure heap to contend with so no shirtage of that.

SummerDays

Jammy Dodger - thank you for the info re spending tracker app. I will investigate. I like the sound of the categories. It’s been a real eye opener this month properly tracking every penny!

Thanks.

A_Random_Man

Sorry for lack of replies but life has been very busy, I have switched from paying on credit card to paying in cash & I am slowly starting to see the benefit of this as I question my purchases more and I am only buying with I need rather than want.

Apart from that I have being doing a bit of research into how to fix things such as iPhones laptops etc, apart from being an area which interests my greatly I can see huge benefits in learning how to do this. My first project is to update my iPod classic, I bought this in 2007 and it has been a reliable device since I only really use it to listen to my music in my car but I would like to try to get it back to the condition I bought it in.

It will need a fair few parts such as; front and back plates, new screen, scroll wheel and middle button, I am also tempted to buy a new battery as well these parts should set me back in region of £70-80 but it will rejuvenate my old beaten up iPod.

Apart from that I am still tracking my budget through my spreadsheet and trying to save as much as possible as I aim to be buying my first property late this year/early 2021.

Hope everyone else is doing okay

Jazee

There have been a few splurges this week but I think I redeemed myself yesterday. Went to the cinema using free tickets and did a top up at farm food's using their offers and vouchers. Here's what I got broken down into prices per item.

Toilet roll 18p per roll
Washing powder 7p per wash
Shrimps and banana sweets 45p per bag
Part baked rolls 7p per roll
Chew sticks for dogs 12p per stick but I cut these in half
Fabric conditioner 10p per wash
Baby wipes 45p per pack
5 litres washing up liquid £6.99
Tinned tomatoes 26p per tin
Pack of 20 dog treats £1

Mostly branded items. Total spend was £67.96

Siebrie

jammy_dodger wrote: »

i have been shocked how much I spend on fuel a a month which at the moment is unavoidable with long travel to work.

Do you regularly inflate your car tyres? Properly inflated tyres make a huge difference to fuel consumption!

PipneyJane

jammy_dodger wrote: »

i have downloaded spending tracker app to my phone and have found that super useful to see where the ££s go
you can set up different accounts for your allocated pots and set up as many categories as you like . i have been shocked how much I spend on fuel a a month which at the moment is unavoidable with long travel to work

i know some prefer a written journal but it may suit others

Hi JammyDodger

Which app, please? I tried iXPENSEit for a while but it didn't cope well with me running multiple bank accounts.

Cheers

Pip



PS: For things like the Grocery Challenge, I track that on a "Numbers" spreadsheet on my phone. Otherwise, my money is split into multiple small savings accounts for budget items, a "money to live off" account and a bills account at the bank.

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

Yesterday I was very domesticated. It was not pleasant weatherwise so I decided to stay in. I am trying to last until the end of the month without buying any more food but I didn't have a lot of stuff suitable for packed lunches so I made some tomato and broccoli soup, some savoury cheese biscuits (to have with the soup) and an apple and raisin teabread. With those made I should be able to last until I go for a big shop on Friday night.


I also spent a good amount of my time looking at my budgets and finances. I read somewhere that your income should roughly portion up to 50% on needs, 30% on wants/luxuries and 20% on saves. My "needs" portion is a bit high still so I had a look at that to see if I can bring it down. I'm wondering if I can try and shave a bit more off my grocery budget and maybe look at changing my energy provider. My broadband is due to be reviewed so I need to look into that as well. If I can then maybe I can bring my savings up a bit more. My "wants/luxuries" is lower than 30% so I'm not worrying about that.


I do have some good news though. I sent a photo of my pinafore dress to the company who provide the sewing subscription box that I receive and as a result they have put me down as make of the month and I will get my box free in March. I was not expecting that.


Challenge for this week is 5 days of no spending on food.

Finstickle

Today I put Excel on my phone and set up a daily tracking spreadsheet. Money seems to dissappear on a lot of small purchases at the moment - but they're most likely the ones I don't need to make!!!!
My plan is by looking at it all the time and adding spend as it happens rather than at the end of the month it will keep me focused and aware.