2020 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

mumtoomany said:

FREE not fee bingo, can't find the edit button! 

It's the little cog symbol in top right hand corner of your posts. 😊 With my atrocious typing skills, it was the first thing I had to find. 

Oops! Sorry, just saw cs18 had already responded to this.

The storm seems to have blown itself out here, even if it is still windy. I'm hoping it dries up a bit this week because we have a mole invasion at Frugaldom and the diehard members know what that means... 
Lovely soil to be collected and used for sowing vegetable seeds. 😄

patentgirl

Still going well here had little win on premium bonds January and February still putting all spare money into early retirement pot. Apart from windy weather here caused several roof tiles to fall on to mine and DH cars quite a lot of damage unfortunately but could have been worse could have been just getting into car still annoying though.

willow_loulou

Up to £2.57 in my prolific surveys account (thanks for the suggestions at the start of this thread somewhere!) 
I was given a pile of old towels for the dogs so I don’t need to buy any for our holiday next month yay! (Small dogs get particularly muddy it seems!) 
I spent a long time working on my budget last night, I see where I have been going wrong and should be able to reset myself on Friday though I will be going over drawn for a few days . Luckily I have a virtually free over draft facility so it will only cost a few pence. I could open the uni savings tin and put it in my bank but honestly I think the few pennies it will cost is probably something I should use as a learning curve. 

Annoyingly it seems the council have taken more than they should for my council tax so now I need to ring and check ... 5th call over this bill since September. 

DdraigGoch

Hello all, I hope that the storm caused as little damage/inconvenience to everyone as possible.

So far, I'm returned from the BigSmoke but via very much delayed trains so I have registered for the  Delay Repay site and shall certainly be claiming whatever I can reclaim, particularly so as to actually have a seat - lots of understandable delays and cancellations, no complaints at any railway - I upgraded to a First Class seat which was another £20.  I shall put any refund I may receive into my Travel Fund [a large and mostly empty jar, currently~ ]  I bought a 3 year RailCard and it's already paid for itself for this year on two journeys.  My British Museum pass costs £6/month [£72 a year].  What's everyone else's Top Two Passes/Cards for saving, what benefits are there and how does it work for you?  I've been a member of the National Trust - not a lot of use to me as I live and travel to nowhere near their properties!  I've tried a freebie 3 month Tastecard, it worked a bit but I wouldn't bother again.

CraftyLittleLisa

Hello there - I was formerly Crafty Lisa Hampshire.  For some reason I wasn't able to re-set my password as the email wouldn't come through so I have decided to create a new account.  Hopefully this won't cause any problems later.  I'm not sure I like this new set up.  I can't read the messages very easily.  Are there some settings I need to change?

cw18

DdraigGoch said:

What's everyone else's Top Two Passes/Cards for saving, what benefits are there and how does it work for you?  I've been a member of the National Trust - not a lot of use to me as I live and travel to nowhere near their properties!  I've tried a freebie 3 month Tastecard, it worked a bit but I wouldn't bother again.

We used to be members of the NZ equivalent of the NT - a lot cheaper, but gave us all the same perks.  However, a couple of years ago the NT removed free parking for members of foreign equivalents, and it's no longer worth us having so we didn't renew at the end of 2018     We had a Two Together Railcard for a couple of years, which I paid for with my Tesc0 points.  The first year we went to London First Class when I ran the Marathon, the second year we went down (again first class) to watch an NFL game I'd won seats for (in a box no less).   Both times the savings on the train tickets were more than the value of the points in store (by a huge percentage), and there was nothing else I'd have used them on.

As of now, there is absolutely nothing similar to either that would save us money.   And as my budget won't stretch to eating out more than once in a blue moon (and I always feel guilty when I do, as I look at the bill and work out how many days I could have fed myself for with that money) plus I have some dietary issues (intolerances) that mean I have to pick and choose very carefully where and what I eat, there's no point looking at anything that discounts doing so.

The only cards I have at the moment are two I've recently got through work.   One I load up with a 7% discount (so I say I want to load £10 and only get charged £9.30) and can spend in a host of shops (one I use semi-regularly and two I use now and again - but the card is an instant top-up so I can do it just before I go shopping), and the other is specific to a supermarket (who have a small branch right across the road from work and a large one very close to the gym I use) which I call into for a few bits when I know they have good offers on things I use or I've run out of something my local discount stores don't carry which I get a 4% discount on when loading (again done instantly, with £10 costing me £9.60).    So not huge savings using either, but I didn't have to actually pay anything for the card that I then have to recoup before being in credit - I just need to spend what I load onto it, and I can load just a few £££s to cover a small shop

df-MRes_student

Siebrie said:

Welcome to the group, df-MRes student! Lots of tips here, and friendly motivation.

DD1 (11) wanted to cook pitabread for Saturday dinner, but in the end I had to prepare it as she was too busy playing with her friends (hide and seek, police-and-crook, zombies, etc. She is a playful child still and I am enjoying it very much). DD2 (8) wanted to make a serving plateful of raw veggies to nibble on for Sunday dinner, and she cut half the veggies while I cut the other half and fried some leftover potatoes. We made a chocolate sponge for dessert. It was fun. Leftover bits will be put in tomorrow's lunchboxes or have been put in the very large pot of red sauce I made this evening for tomorrow's dinner and the freezer.

We are cosy at home while the storm picks up speed outside. I love this! Husband keeps on hopping outside to feel the storm.

Thanks for the welcome, Siebrie! It's very inspiring reading everyone's journeys, yours included! I may turn my hand to some home baking again myself. Not done that since I was young... 
Best,

willow_loulou

Woooo very happy camper here, after messing my budget up I read a few forums on here for ideas and took the idea of Facebook market place to look for cheap or free stuff. I’m picking up £5 worth of puppy pads for free tomorrow (we use them a lot when away with very anxious dog) and an unused bed for one of my dogs for £3. 

I will keep looking for a suitable dog coat as knowing my luck it will rain all week! 

Crafty Lisa, it took me a while but I got used to the new layout. I did prefer the old one but I’m okay with it now. 

nat21luv

This year seems to be going well for me so far, I have my emergency fund filled, sinking pots added to monthly, some savings tucked away and I’m currently working on paying off my loan. It’s my last debt and the only thing that stands between me and debt freedom. I made a large overpayment yesterday that took the total from £6508 to £5120 and I made plans to have this paid off by July. Because, why not?! So my grocery spends are under control, I allocate £40pw for a family of 4 and send the money to my hyper jar account. I usually spend £30pw so the £10 saved will stay in the account and pay for Christmas food shop and other treats throughout the year. I would rather have a little wiggle room in the budget than be super strict and overspend, then feel bad. I’ll be making a plan of action today on how to reduce my debt quickly.

Another poster asked about soap nuts, I use them often and if the bag breaks, I use an odd sock and tie a knot in the end. Works great! 

Doing a spot of eBay listing today. I’m a minimalist and noticed my wardrobe seems a bit fuller than usual so I set a 5 minute timer yesterday and had a quick purge. 3 pairs of shoes and 10 items of clothes later and I have some new eBay listings! I shop 90% at charity shops and most of my clothes are designer, I usually pay £1-£3 for clothes and when I’m done, sell them for considerably more! I sold a Karen Millen silk top yesterday, I bought it 2 years ago and worn it 5ish times, and it sold yesterday for £35. Selling personal items aren’t taxable so yay!

I hope you are all well and look forward to your updates.

mumtoomany

Morning all. Thanks Cheryl and Frugaldom for the info on how to edit. Still getting used to this new layout, but I can now log in on my tablet, never could before. 
Made a chicken and mushroom pie for last night's tea, ( evening meal is tea, when from the north), chicken from one of the reduced ones from Aldi, shortcuts for the base, yellow sticker puff pastry for the top, onions from a 25kg sack, and won't mushrooms. Add a little cream, yellow sticker and frozen, brush with home raised egg and cook. Delicious! One small chicken has served seven people roasted, seven portions of soup and eight portions of pie. 
 The rest of the puff pastry made Apple turnovers, ( leftover apple sauce from a jar we were gifted and frozen apples) and cheese straws. The rest of the egg wash went into fairy cakes.  
Th wind seems to have dropped at last. Only damage, two smallish sheets of "wriggly tin" from the front of the barn, one piece from the smaller barn, and damage to a barn door. Pleased it was so little.
Someone asked about cards. Other than the store points cards, clubcard etc, the most useful card I have is a cash and carry card. A small local cash and carry. They sell great yellow sticker bargains. For example 15lb of for fillets for £30 a few weeks ago, reason damaged box. Also 1200 gm  tins of tomato puree, for 75p. 
Off now as on childcare duty today, take care all, mumtoomany.