2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Bluegreen143

Also made ice cream last week for the first time using the ice cream maker I got for Christmas and can confirm homemade ice cream is wonderful!

Shopaholic_no_more

@moneyonmymindsam I have just started following FrugalJo on YT ...she has a fairly new channel but I think she will gain a lot of followers....some of her frugalling is quite unique. I recommend giving her a watch 😊

Shopaholic_no_more

I have found some old recipe magazines while having my decluttering moments and I am going to cut out my favourites and make a homemade recipe scrapbook I think 😃🙌

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'll let you know how i get on. If i am left with any cream my usual go to recipe is for toffee sauce as it lasts an age in the fridge and who doesnt love sticky toffee pudding?!?!?!
Olaney I have just started watching frugal jo after you mentioned it a while back. She has a lovely soothing voice. Its quite relaxing watching her videos. 

Shopaholic_no_more

She does doesn’t she....@Mummy2cheekymonkeys...I think she will do well....there is another one I follow from Ireland called Fairyland Cottage ....she is more of a sustainability channel which lends itself to Frugalism as well. She is also worth checking out x 

Living_proof

Could I please join you? I have been lurking for a while and think this is now the best place on the OS Board for me now and you all seem a friendly and non-judgmental lot with similar ideas to my own. I have recently retired from a long career in travel, which has been through a terrible time with the Covid pandemic and all the effort I put in during the last 18 months has come to nothing due to cancellations, delays and clients' illness. As a result I don't have quite the amount of money 'behind me' as I had planned, but I have a full state pension and a rent-a-room income so the wolf won't be knocking at the door anytime soon. I live in a newish house which is well-insulated and have installed solar panels which are now moving into profit after about 7 years. I am  quite frugal in most ways but have rather an issue with food insecurity which stems back to a long, acrimonious divorce with no child maintenance for 14 years. I'm trying to take myself in hand over this, but old habits die hard.

I mainly shop in Lidl, which is my nearest store and always try and get their £1.50 boxes once a week and also their general reductions in salad and hummus, etc. Recently I have used Olio, although as I am plant-based there isn't always a great selection available and also it's a drive across town to pick up, but if it carries on over the summer it will be more accessible with the better weather. I dry a lot of fruit and vegetables so am quite well prepared for any emergencies and do need to start running down my huge stash so that I can start afresh in the autumn. I think I should have a budget of just £50 per month with a separate budget of £40 for drinks, which are generally alcohol-free and a substitute for any social events. 

I look forward to your posts with interest, and I hope we can swap ideas and hacks to make our lives more frugal and enjoyable.

willow_loulou

I popped into Lidl to shop for my Mr, we’re bubbled as he lives alone. I was pleasantly surprised how cheap some of the things are but there were no veg boxes so I think I’ll order a Morrison’s one. It’s much dearer but it will give me a good idea on their veg quality and I think it will last us 2 weeks. 

I bought a couple of things In Lidl that I’d normally buy to try them.  If they’re okay I’ll get them every time I’m over here as I’ll save money on them. It looks like we will be getting snow next week so it’s handy I’ve got those extra few bits. The only thing I’d like is some mince but we can live without it. 

Has anyone readjusted their food budget with the prices? I’ve settled on £150 after last month. This is for 3 adults. (Plus £15 if I can bulk buy something) 

So far I’ve spent £39.76 plus what ever I spent in Lidl, roughly half the same time last month when getting food delivered. 

Edit: £8.59 in Lidl, would’ve cost me over £12 in Asda and more in Tesco. 

moneyonmymindsam

I've just posted on the grocery thread about my Mr L veg box. Here is what I got and my post if that helps. They usually go by 2.30pm I'm sure someone said they usually go to a charity after a set time of day. 

In my £1.50 veg box (which we couldn't see into and brought blind) was parsnips, red onion, onions, apples, easy peelers/oranges and beetroot.

Have stewed apples for pudding and rest in freezer. Will probably just juice the orange to be honest. Chopped bags and bags of onions for freezer until my eyes couldn't take anymore.

Beet is on the hob, parsnips will be used Sunday. Was an odd bod selection, but there was a lot of everything.

Not sure of the actual value but I'd guess about £4. 50 if bagged up (???) so not too bad.
Sam x 

roblou27

Afternoon everyone, hope you are all safe and well. Yay...we are officially out of self-isolation and DF is well on the road to recovery..phew! His room has now been decontaminated..😀 Pay day today and as I had thought we had a nice little balance leftover. £118 pounds was added to the extras that were paid in this pay period which has enabled us to put £242 into the EF, ( I know sounds weird amount but I like to see a nice round figure. This gives us £1000 in the fund which is great. Also we paid an extra £168 off the CC which along with our regular monthly payment and overpayment will bring the balance down to £3600. It will still leave us a bit of float over and above the budgeted total but if I can keep up the NSD which to be fair is a lot easier in lockdown, then we will hopefully have some to move about before the March payday. The February free Council tax £125 has gone to the holiday fund. We have enough to pay the balance because we allocate an amount each month, but anything from now is petrol costs and spends. We don’t normally have a lot of fuel cost as we normally holiday closer to home and once parked up that’s usually it for the week but we will have a 5 hour drive and then there will be places we will want to see when we are there. This is all speculative of course and depends on the restrictions nearer the time. Hopefully we know more by the beginning of March as the final payment needs to be made on the 12th. Any way not much we can do about it but it’s a boost to know that the moneys there ready to go. So all moneys allocated and click and collect picked up early this morning taking advantage of the extra discount. Chicken soup made ready for weekend dinners so all in all in all a productive day, shattered now, sitting down ready for the 4pm crossword competition. 

zafiro1984

there is another one I follow from Ireland called Fairyland Cottage ....she is more of a sustainability channel which lends itself to Frugalism as well. She is also worth checking out x 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look at both later tonight, I'm getting bored with the programmes on TV.

Almost went on-line and did a supermarket order. Then a made an unplanned trip to the veg plot. The weather was ok and I started to turn a bed over - came indoors half an hour later with half a bucket of potatoes  plus the rest of the parsnips. Supermarket order cancelled - success