2021 Frugal Living Challenge

victoriajj

Tightpants24 said:

Frugaldom said:

Tightpants24 said:

If you want some free sunflower seeds go on the Nestle website and enter the code BEES for a free pack.  I don't know how many are in the pack but it is FREE! 🥳

I tried this but it wouldn't let me proceed without uploading a proof of purchase.

I don't know why it is doing this.  It didn't need a purchase when I did it.  I got an email confirming I will receive the seeds within 28 days.  I will update if / when they come.

My sister got this too. I think Nestle may have twigged that people are entering the competition without actually buying the cereal

MazzieD

victoriajj said:

Tightpants24 said:

Frugaldom said:

Tightpants24 said:

If you want some free sunflower seeds go on the Nestle website and enter the code BEES for a free pack.  I don't know how many are in the pack but it is FREE! 🥳

I tried this but it wouldn't let me proceed without uploading a proof of purchase.

I don't know why it is doing this.  It didn't need a purchase when I did it.  I got an email confirming I will receive the seeds within 28 days.  I will update if / when they come.

My sister got this too. I think Nestle may have twigged that people are entering the competition without actually buying the cereal

It's  also been posted on a major 'deals' website as well so they have probably been inundated with entries..

In other news I got lucky at L*dl this morning, I was going to get some shopping but came away with a F&V box instead.  They sell out so quickly, there were three when I walked past, it took about 2 minutes to get to them and there was one left!.

You can freeze most things, might be worth doing a search on G*ogle for similar recipes or type in a question about oats.  I always do this when trying something new and have been genuinely surprised at what you can freeze!.

balabooberlies

In the old days when I was rich (tee-hee  ) losing 14 teabags that hadn't been sealed well wouldn't have bothered me.  Not now !

So I phoned co. and explained nicely.  Today I received a complimentary box with a whopping 240 teabags.  They have smaller boxes so am chuffed with their generosity.

bala

Onebrokelady

March is not a frugal month for me, I am still having NSDs but my DD2 birthday was last week so I bought presents for that and instead of going out for a meal we had a takeaway from the restaurant we were hoping to go to and then Mother's Day is on Sunday.I am pleased to be able to say that no extra money or credit has been used for either of these events because I have a savings fund for birthdays and Christmas now which i add to each month. Before I learned how to budget it would have gone on a credit card so that is a vast improvement 
Monday,Wednesday and today will be NSDs 😊

Onebrokelady

balabooberlies said:

In the old days when I was rich (tee-hee  ) losing 14 teabags that hadn't been sealed well wouldn't have bothered me.  Not now !

So I phoned co. and explained nicely.  Today I received a complimentary box with a whopping 240 teabags.  They have smaller boxes so am chuffed with their generosity.

bala

Great result on the tea bags 😊

Living_proof

@MazzieD Well done on the lidl box! I am going in the morning tomorrow to try and get one, as it was too dangerous earlier with recycling rubbish and bins blowing around with abandon. I did drop in this afternoon for a bottle of wine and was really surprised to see loads of 20p reductions - two bags of pea shoot salad, two Arriabata sauces, Moroccan Houmous and some Gosh felafels. £1.20 well spent I would say! My friend dropped in some grocery goodies which he gets for peanuts at work, including bread mixes, salad dressing, hollandaise, guacamole, garlic paste, toothpaste, chilli flakes, vegetable crisps etc. so an enormous haul for next to nothing. Really appreciate getting all these foodie 'extras' so cheaply because it's these that cost so much, not the fruit and vegetables which form 95% of my diet. I have had a very fortunate and almost frugal day! 

zafiro1984

Spent the morning dodging the showers whilst filling my buggy several times with logs after DH felled an oak tree that was threatening to come over and land on the stables. His job is to log and split the branches/trunk whilst mine is to collect and move the 'logburner sized logs' under cover to dry out. They say wood warms you twice - once when you deal with it and once when you burn it, but it also makes me ache and tired. My ambition is to keep the electric and oil bill under more control. I think i can make some savings here.

Bluegreen143

Hello all! Have been following along but don’t feel I’ve been up to anything exciting to post. I’m on a real healthy eating kick so no baking etc. 

HOWEVER the last two weeks my shop has been under £65 rather than about £75, despite continuing to get it delivered from Tesco. It’s been cheaper since I stopped my veg box as it’s cheaper to buy the veg (I did like the box and would get it again another time but was bored of paying £22 a week for the cabbage, apples, onions etc you get in a winter veg box!). As well as this, buying almost no treats has saved money. 

I’m eating a lot of salads which I find pretty cheap to throw together - I keep in a cheap 40p lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, peppers, radishes, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, carrots and sometimes beetroot and keep chopped/sliced/grated up combinations of these in the fridge at all times as a base to throw a dressing + protein option (usually tinned fish) on. Also re the cheaper groceries, it helps that the children are back at nursery as they both get some of their daytime meals/snacks there now - DD2’s just because it is included in the eye-watering nursery fee and DS5’s preschool have free school meals for the kids in their full days unit now which is great!

Have recently started off some chillies, tomatoes and sunflowers indoors and hoping to do a bit more gardening this weekend as would love to do well out of the veg patch this year again.

Had a giggle when DH asked if I wanted anything for Mother’s Day. As usual I want handmade cards/drawings from the children, a lie in and a nice breakfast made for me! Won’t cost him a penny 😆We aren’t the best with keeping to Christmas/birthday budgets 😳 but we are good with the minor holidays. Our Valentine’s tradition is to write a proper really nice message in our cards (which we hand made this year) and make HM sushi, we don’t do gifts for Valentine’s or our anniversary but I do love to celebrate these things with a letter or card and making a bit of fuss with the food. As we all know well on here, we don’t need to spend to celebrate! Now just to figure out how to apply this to Christmas 😆

Bluegreen143

Meant to say, I’m now wondering with a bit of effort if I could get my shopping back under £60 a week 🤔 don’t think it’s been that low since we had DD. I love the thought of getting back to £50 a week again but I don’t think that’s realistic for us...

[Deleted User]

Hi frugal friends,
Just popping in to report a frugal win. As posted on my budget near the start of the thread, I pay for Sky TV and movies as our treat as I don't go out much, and have really enjoyed the movies in the past. Over recent weeks the quality of films has been terrible, with the same ones repeated numerous times a day, and I've hardly used it. I typed an email to Sky, explaining everything. Despite being in contract still they have agreed (after some to-in and fro-ing) to let me cancel! So that's £30pcm, or £360 a year saved! Absolutely thrilled!

They want me to send the box back, and as our TV isn't a smart TV but we want to use Netflix and iplayer I need to source a free view box that has these apps on. If anyone has any suggestions in this regard I would appreciate it.
Final point, I've saved enough this past two months to pay the annual council tax bill in full. I know there are no longer discounts for doing this, but it is my most hated direct debit as it comes out over a week after all the other bills and is the second biggest. To know that on the 1st of the month all my bills are paid will be just great. 

I'd better get ready for work now, take care all xx