2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Living_proof

Over the last week I have done tremendously well with Lidl Waste Not boxes (2) and several 70p felafels and 20p houmous packs. I have shared with a friend and neighbour and cooked down a few vegetable dishes for the freezer. For the first time ever I managed to buy a Magic Box box from a local Spar for £3.09 but don't expect this to be suitable for me, but maybe my friend as they seem to contain a lot of high-carb, processed food with predominantly animal products. I won't know until I pick it up tonight, but I thought I would try it for once. Yesterday was day 1 NSD for March and I am very well stocked with all kinds of food, so I am looking for a very frugal month indeed.

retiredinfrance

On sensitive skin, when my son was a baby he had very bad eczema and the health visitor, well into her sixties said to stop washing and only clean off dirt if you can see it . I f you have to just use water. It was like a miracle - skin recovered and the eczema went . A very mse approach. 
Stay safe everyone.

retiredinfrance

In case you are wondering about bottoms_ he had a plastic " bottom basin " and I would dunk him in warm tap water, swirl him around a few times and when he was clean , pat him dry. He loved it!

Bluegreen143

@retiredinfrance very wise! With my two, I never used any shampoo or bath bubbles or anything until they were past the baby stage (and even now very sparingly). Even when full on covered with spag bol I found water only cleaned them up well.

We mainly cloth nappied and I just wiped with small cut up flannels or cloth wipes I’d wet in warm water which I washed with the nappies. 

Bluegreen143

The “bottom basin” sounds like a brilliant solution if you disposable nappy though, as I usually ended up using wet wipes if they were in disposable nappies for a while to avoid having a cloth to wash on its own!

retiredinfrance

I used old style nappies and when the children grew out of them I used them for kitchen hand towels and then for rags. Youngest is now 35 and I still have quite a pile. When he was a teenager and was having friends over he always used to take the " hand towel" out of the kitchen in case it damaged his street cred. They use disposable ones on the grandchildren and , to me, the cost is horrendous.
Stay safe everyone.

Wraithlady

Bluegreen143 said:

Can’t wait for my seeds to come! You are all making me jealous!

We ordered online a few weeks ago and they keep emailing to say they are delayed and we really want to get certain things planted (chillies & tomatoes mainly, in Scotland so have to be careful not to plant other stuff too early).

I got a free pack of tomatoes with my seed order - it's labelled as 'tombola' which I think is a sort of pot luck packet.
You're quite welcome to them if you wish

[Deleted User]

Hi frugal friends,
I haven't posted for a while, work has been very busy and I am still frugalling along. My greatest expense over the past couple of months has been heating; even with the woodburner I am using the GCH more. When I don't get home from work until gone 4pm, by the time the woodburner has heated the downstairs through properly it's bedtime (I go up early with a cuppa to read). Also, the price of logs has jumped by £10 a bag from my usual supplier, and I only have a few left so I am using the woodburner at weekends only. I am totally out of free wood. 

Still sticking to an all in budget after bills of £40 per week for food and anything else we need (which isn't much!). I haven't spent any money since Friday, and will be fine until this Friday at which point I will get around £15 of bits from the butcher. The hens are laying well, we get between 5-6 eggs a day, I just need to get better at baking! 

All in all, savings are going very well, I personally cannot wait for our library to open again as I hate buying new books. Take care one and all x

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

The cost of nappies is ridiculous. I used cloth nappies and washable wipes with both of fine until they no longer fit. Unfortunately because of the boys special needs they are still in nappies at 4 and 3 so cloth nappies are no longer an option. I hate having to use disposables. 

balabooberlies

retiredinfrance said:

On sensitive skin, when my son was a baby he had very bad eczema and the health visitor, well into her sixties said to stop washing and only clean off dirt if you can see it . I f you have to just use water. It was like a miracle - skin recovered and the eczema went . A very mse approach. 
Stay safe everyone.

My friends Mum, many years ago, swore by bathing everyday in water only.  She had the softest skin I have ever come across.

bala