2021 Frugal Living Challenge

marionmgcars

roblou27 said:

  It was going to be for today but one of our lovely neighbours ordered myself and another neighbour an afternoon tea delivery as a surprise. Lovely but oh dear the calories. So I shall be grazing that today as already had pancakes for my breakfast.   

How kind, but oh the calories.  I have the motto that there are no calories in gifts or treats, I always said to the girls I worked with, that if someone has spent their hard earned cash, and bought a thoughtful gift, the least I can do is enjoy it.  So I always do, and worry about the calories later.  They still quote me on that, ha ha....

ps I wish someone would order me afternoon tea, yum yum xxx

DawnW

Potatoes grow really well in containers, new ones are best x

Viking_mfw

@tryingtodobetter Bitcoin is an ecological disaster if that makes a difference to you? 

Agree courgettes do really well in pots. I will probably have courgettes, radishes, tomatoes, pak choi in pots among other things this year. 

angela110660

Listened to BBC The Missing Cryptoqueen on BBC Sounds and got put off BitCoin or anything akin to it. 

MazzieD

@angela110660 I listened to The Missing Cryptoqueen when they were still recording it, I never heard the final episode as I was so put off!.

There seem to be quite a few container gardeners on here.  I have small plant pots but will need some large plant pots or containers so will need to buy some.  Can anyone recommend a cheap or reasonably priced supplier for them?.  

Thrifty_Taylor

Maize D, could you use buckets? When my mum worked in a butchers, they often had strong buckets that sausage skins, marinades etc came in. Could buy the empties for £1 each

joedenise

If you use buckets don't forget to drill some holes in the bottom for drainage plus some broken crocks otherwise the compost will become waterlogged and anything you plant will probably rot rather than grow!

Shopaholic_no_more

Living_proof said:

I recently took swab tests for the Imperial College survey, assessing the Covid infection in the population overall. The worst part, by the way, was constructing the box required to send it back - like something out of the Krypton Factor. One of the questions on the survey asked that if you found you had an unexpected but necessary expense of £850, would you have the resources to pay it? It has bothered me that the specific amount was mentioned - do you thing the Government is going to slap us with some sort of bill in the future and they are trying to assess what sort of amount would be reasonable? Or maybe I am just cynical.

How interesting I have just done the very same thing! They are collecting today. Was yours picked up by courier?
Anytime between 8am and 6pm...that’s the best they can give you. Not helpful when you have to work later in the day.
I totally agree about the box haha! I made it inside out to start with and then checked the leaflet and it was showing the white side out which I thought was kind of weird. I struggled big time with doing the throat swab so I only hope it came out ok. My gag reflex is pretty intense lol. I, too, wondered why the specifics of £850 was mentioned?! It does make you wonder.....

My eBoy sales are coming along nicely....so far I’ve made £172.00....just from stuff out of the kitchen....I’m so pleased! 

All of that went straight off my cc. Will be looking around for some more stuff to sell while I’m waiting for the courier I think.

I have 22p left out of the food budget of £100 which covered 2 weeks!! This is unheard for me!! I get paid on the 19th and DOH gets paid at the end of the month which makes things a tad awkward sometimes. We put a separate amount in to a different account for bills and food. Most of the bills come out at the beginning of the month which always used to leave less for food than after the 19th, if you get my drift, but because I’ve managed to keep a low spend, food wise, at the beginning of this month it should help to keep things on a more even keel for the rest of the month. I have now just got to keep it up 👍. I hope that made sense haha!

The £200 we are saving from the council tax in February is going to pay for a service on my car. After, the problems with DOH’s car and the subsequent bill...I am going for “prevention better than cure.”

ooh, literally just had email to say the courier should be with me in the next 3 hours. 👍

Tightpants24

Hello Frugal February People.
I am relatively new to the forums but have been trawling through looking for top tips.  
I don't have debt, thankfully, but my income has been hugely reduced in the past year due to bad timing leaving a job and covid preventing taking a new one.  Luckily dh still works full time and I have some part time self employment, so it could be worse.
I have been ramping up the thrifty lifestyle for a while but really need to crack on with more thrift where possible.  
I have been doing the Prolific surveys for a while but miss lots that can't be done on the phone.  Need to use laptop more.  
Due to fear of covid (having a close relative die in January has made me super anxious) I have been doing click and collect for shopping.  I have found that the online availability is poor with most of the cheaper own brands not in stock.  Being a bit of a conspiracy theorist I feel the supermarkets are manipulating their stocks to maximize profits. Anyway, once things are less risky I intend to go to Aldi or Lidl again.  My current supermarket spends are coming in at around £115 a week for family of 4 (DD is currently still at home from uni due to learning being online, DS is at 6th form but currently home all day, DH working from home full time).  I think this is a lot of money but we are obviously spending less on travel and "going out".
I have started "shopping from stocks" after discovering 5 bags of frozen quorn and 6 bags of frozen broccoli in the garage freezer.  Also I have a thing for buying bleach (covid paranoia) and currently have about 7 unopened bottles.  It appears that the online order just gets repeated too much.  Now I don't expect any recipes for quorn, broccoli and bleach casserole, but any tips for shopping will be appreciated.
Anyway, I just wanted to join in and say thank you for the tips I am reading about.  If anyone has any good advice it will be appreciated. 🙂

CRANKY40

@Tightpants24 I have a terrible food memory so I keep a written inventory of my freezer contents. It goes astray sometmes but it's a good resource if I'm wondering what to cook. 

Good news yesterday - I wasn't expecting to be paid for the last week in February as my looked after person is going for respite care and I've used almost all of my holidays on his previous respite. My boss emailed me to say that she will be paying me in full for the week as I've earned it because of how helpful I've been to them. The money is welcome and unexpected but I'm also pleased that my hard work and willingness to fit in with any changes has been noted.