2020 Frugal Living Challenge

df-MRes_student

Frugaldom said:

df-MRes_student said:

Frugaldom said:

df-MRes_student said:

Frugaldom said:

Siebrie, I would store the cookies in an airtight container ...

That's what Tupperware is, Frugaldom! Tupperware parties were quite common thirty-something years ago. Congrats on the bartering/exchange of groceries btw. You did very well there! 

Yes, I do know what T*pperware is, I remember the parties well, just that I don't like usng trade names on here in case I get reported.

Oh, my comment "That's what Tupperware is, Frugaldom!" wasn't meant as sarcasm, it was merely to inform. I don't know where in the world you live, Frugaldom. You may not have heard of it if it wasn't a worldwide brand. I didn't realise mentioning brand names was a problem unless one was trying to publicise one's own business and keep adding links to websites/spam to the site! I used it as an all-inclusive name for 'airtight containers' which is what people generally refer to airtight containers as in the UK nowadays. I don't even know if the company is still trading...

No worries, I never saw it as sarcasm I've been on here for so long that I tend to wrongly assume everyone knows I'm running the challenge from UK. Absolutely no offence meant in my response; I actually have to admit to laughing at your original possibility of my never having heard of T*pperware. It's of American origin and still a global brand leader.   I'm getting on a bit now, it's been over 20 years since I published my first moneysaving / frugal living challenge. #goldenoldies

Oh, right... I've never had the need to discuss it with fellow conference delegates or family members living abroad so unsure whether it's still trading even. I suffer from chronic migraine, Frugaldom, so even if I was aware you lived in a certain country one day, it doesn't mean when I'm migrainous I would remember where.

mumtoomany

Still frugalling along. The weather is still not on our side! Having fixed the roof on the dutch barn, one side wall on the "cow barn" came down. ( We do not have cows, the name comes from previous owners who kept 2 jersey cows in there) Part of the roof had blown off several weeks ago. The side wall is now fixed and roof partly so. More wood needed! All the out building have been up since the sixties, apart from one that was build over 100 years ago (brick) with apparently no work on them. They are held together with woodworm and rust. But we can't afford to have them replaced.

Only spent around £180 on groceries etc this month. That feeds 8 of us. Happy with that. 

Tuperware is still around. Sold online now. The vegetable peelers are very good and you can buy replacement blades.

Speak soon, hope you all enjoy your pancakes, mumtoomany.

mumtoomany

Also with tuperware, if you have any old stuff, from the 90's or earlier, if it breaks it is covered by a lifetime guarantee, even if you did not buy it yourself, or bought it second hand. Hope this helps someone, mumtoomany.

Frugaldom

mumtoomany said:

Also with tuperware, if you have any old stuff, from the 90's or earlier, if it breaks it is covered by a lifetime guarantee, even if you did not buy it yourself, or bought it second hand. Hope this helps someone, mumtoomany.

Thanks for that snippet, I didn't know about the lifetime guarantee covering all their containers - or perhaps I had forgotten, as I haven't bought any for decades. It probably costs a fortune for the branded stuff nowadays: I only have the cheap 'made in China' stuff now but I dare say these types of plastic bargans will gradually disappear over the coming years as we are encouraged to move away from plastic and return to paper, fabric and glass.

mumtoomany

You're welcome Frugaldom. I only know because both my youngest sister and eldest daughter sold it whilst at university. Back when it was party based.

Back to childcare today. DD1 and S-i-L1 both at work till late thursday. At least I can stay inside and not hold ladders etc. Latest job is gate post replacing and it's cold! 

Sent three bin bags of clothes to the CD this week. Amongst them two jumpers given to me, second hand, by sister two. They are very short in the body. Each time I have worn one I've thought I must get rid of them. It's only taken me twenty years to do so! Mumtoomany.

willow_loulou

Aldi shop night. I used my £16 budget and money I had not spent from other budgets (wood etc) to buy enough food for my son whilst I’m away with dd next week, so I didn’t have to make the effort Sunday. I will need bread Friday but will get double so he had enough. The cheapy bread lasts well in the fridge. 
I decided to get 4 of the korma sauces whilst there as last week I got the last jar. It’s apparently very popular. So I spent £9 of the 16 left in food budget on the bits for this week and £25 on everything else including the 4 sauce jars. Son should have enough to keep him going happily next week, including biscuits. Aldi is so cheap! I have £7 left of this weeks official budget which I’ll use for the bread Friday and get some peppers for the curry,I’ll put the rest on the electric meter. Really really happy to have kept to the food budget this month. 

Next months budget is £120  of which I’ve spent the £25 today, I got son mostly convenience food - leaving £95 for the following 3 weeks.  For 3 of us and I need cleaning products. 

Scrimps

carolinerunner said:

Scrimps, I don't know if this helps, but when mine were little their greatest treat was what we called 'snacky tea'. It basically consisted of cubes of/small ones of everything they'd eat, eg cubes of cheese, cherry tomatoes, sticks of cucumber/carrot/pepper, breadsticks especially mini ones, or small crackers, defrosted peas (take ages to eat!), big beans eg chick peas, butterbeans, grapes... you get the idea. Somehow it mostly seemed to get eaten without too much supervision and at least I didn't mind eating any leftovers, unlike eg fish fingers. Also somehow it was less stressful as I didn't have to keep pressuring them to eat, maybe they felt like they had more of a choice. Mine have also been very fussy but now will eat almost anything, even kale!!! (Well they are about 20 now! it might take a long time but they do get better!).
We used to do a thing called 'salami hats' as part of this 'feast' - take round slice of salami, cut a radius into it, overlap cut edges a bit, press together - salami 'hat' (well, pointy thing!). We still joke about them now 

Thank you for this, it does help and is in line with what the health visitors have said about letting him choose.   Unfortinately,  apart from breadsticks and crackers everything you have listed get a very negative reaction, except, he does love cheese......but is lactose intolerant!! The overarching this you have said about not getting stressed and offering things for them to choose is exactly what the support workers have said.  I was also trying to not 'give in' and only give him what he like but the family workers have said, its more about enjoying being around the table, if that mean a bit of toast with most meals because everyone knows he likes it the so be it.  Otherwise its stressfull for everyone including him and meal times become a 'thing'.
That said, I really wish he still liked the cheapo one pot meals we used to all love!

In other frugal news, I have been getting more lettuces into the ground in the green house and managed to get some washing on the line this week.  Our house gets rather damp, a side effect of cornish living im led to believe. We got a tumble drier when the kids arrived, the electric bill has shot up!  Ive been a bit bad buying lunch at work again due to a lack of planning and being asked to facilitate training which meant i couldnt reheat my lunch as usual and bought shop sandwiches< I think if I hadnt have just been paid I'd have found a way around it!

stirchleygirl

Scrimps
I love your 1 more year idea and your 3 extra years flip flops made me laugh
df-MRes_student and DdraigGoch
printer ink is very expensive 
I used to buy the syringe refill kits which save tons of money  
eg 
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-black-ink-refill-kit-4-pack/p/0262763
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-ink-cartridge-refill-kit-colour-4-pack/p/0262764

as my disability worsened I no longer had the manual dexterity to use this method
other options are 
re manufactured ones eg https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-remanufactured-epson-t2981-black-inkjet-cartidge/p/0459624 - other printer companies are available 

or companies that refill your empty cartridges for sorry cant remember where my PA (carer) went to get this done but im sure Google would find a place local to where you live
it is worth exploring these options to find what suits you

welcome Bluebell90

well done Frugalistamama for getting back on the frugal band wagon - keep on with using up what you've already got in cupboards/freezer it is amazing what meals you can come up with it you challenge yourself to not buying more or buying only if needed to complete the meal.

nat21luv wow! paying that much off your debt how brilliant 
CraftyLittleLisa well done you've been very busy - the sneaky ways thread is brilliant I remember reading through it this time last year
mumtoomany sorry to hear that your outbuildings have taken a battering in the storm hope you are able to get them fixed. you made me laugh with your 20 year jumper story

stirchleygirl

sorry I wasn't on here last week as I had a bit of a rough week healthwise
I did manage to not do food delivery shop last week and only needed my PA to buy - loaf, soya milk, spring onions, lettuce, cherry toms, bananas, marmalade, natural yoghurt
she made 
3 smoothies using the soya milk bananas oats from cupboard and frozen fruit 
lots of frozen indian/Chinese starters (spring rolls samosas and the like) which she put in the oven as they werent cooked and once cooled she portioned up for me
she chopped all the spring onions and put in a container for me to use from
I still had 6 portions of the cous cous salad left from the previous week so managed to use that up alongside the indian/Chinese starters and added some of the lettuce, toms and the chopped spring onions and nori flakes (which have been in the cupboard for months so she opened the pack and decanted into a nice jar for me to use from) there was a packet of dip with one of the starters so she divided that into 2 very mini pots to use up.
I also used up a few more of the sweet and sour with rice meals that she had frozen the previous week
I used up the last few egg noodle nests for a few snacks by putting a next in a mug and adding boiling water from kettle and letting steep for 5 or 10 mins then adding a cup a soup sachet - makes a tasty snack  
i used up the remaining (own brand cheapo) cornflakes with some of the soya milk i got 2 portions out of that and used up the last of the granola with half the yoghurt for 1 breakfast and had the other half of the yoghurt for another breakfast
also had lots of toast and marmalade 
so that was an extra unexpected week of making meals from what I had with just a few extra buys to complete the meals

stirchleygirl

last weekend as I was thinking about needing to do a food delivery shop order I had another look at my write on wipe off board the lists all my food and yet again challenged myself to hold off for yet another week (Ive lost track of how many 'extra' weeks I managed to do this - last food delivery shops I had were just before xmas) 
so on Wednesday i sent my PA to local open all hours shop to get 
a loaf and marmalade and marg (loving my toast at the moment)
packet mash
more soya milk to make 4 more smoothies (1 each day since weds so i left in fridge for tomorrows brekky) with the remaining bananas from last week oats from the cupboard and all the remaining frozen fruit
more spring onions to be chopped 
more cherry toms
red onions
I still have half the lettuce left from last week
the salad items will be used with yet more frozen indian starters these are the already cooked ones so i only need to microwave them when i need them I asked my PA to divide them into the portion containers that I have so a couple of each type of starter in each portion and the portions went straight back in the freezer and ive still get a few jars of different chutneys left from xmas to go with these

she made up some of the packet mash and mixed with chopped red onion and defrosted vegetarian 'kebab meat' and then shallow fried them as round 'patties' ive been having these for supper the last few nights with ketchup as a filling in the toasted sandwich maker very yummy only 2 patties left
for weds thurs and Friday lunch she used the rest of the packet mash (with 1 portion of mash spare and put in the freezer) along with frozen mini mixed veg and some of the frozen vegetarian haggis with gravy from granules from the cupboard which has now been finished off
ive still got 1 portion left of the frozen sweet and sour with rice meal that ill have for tomorrows main meal

then ill move onto the salad and indian starters meals
ive 5 tins of soup left over from xmas and my PA defrosted 3 chunky slices of homemade bread that ill put at the bottom of the soup bowl as we haven't yet perfected using the bread maker that I got for my birthday last year - the bread is edible but not really a proper loaf and suitable for sandwiches or toasting hence putting it in with the soup there is also a little packet of 'liquid gravy' in the fridge that didn't get used last year that came with a frozen nut loaf type of thing so ill tip that into one of the soups to use it up
there are also a few packets of cup a soup and 2 packets of microwave rice left so I should have enough to eat until weds comes around again
the kitchen fridge is empty apart from a few jars of condiments in the door shelves
cupboards are very bare and not a lot left in the freezer 
so over the weekend I WILL have to place a food delivery shop order to arrive sometime on Tuesday or very early weds so that the food is here for my PA to do batch cooking and cold meal prep on weds morning for the week
hope you all have a lovely and frugal weekend