2021 Frugal Living Challenge

tryingtodobetter

Thank you for all your kind words. Dh and I had a good chat last night, we realise we need some time to work on our relationship. We have been together for over 20 years and worked in the NHS for as long, in that time we have always had down time and been able to meet up with friends and family, go on holiday etc to relieve stress and build resilience, but of course over the past 12 months that hasn't been possible. During this past 12 months we have seen so much sadness and despair in patients and our colleagues that it has taken its toll on both of us and that has been reflected in the way that we have been treating each other. I think we both need a good dose of sunshine and fresh air today so we are heading out for a walk before DH starts his shift tonight. Thank you again for listening.

zafiro1984

Tryingtodobetter I'm trying hard to find phrases on how to say thank-you to you and your DH because if it wasn't for people like you I don't know where we would be by now. Take your time and treasure what you have that's good in life, look after each other and change your name from 'Tryingtodobetter' to I'moneofthebest'

balabooberlies

zafiro1984 said:

Tryingtodobetter I'm trying hard to find phrases on how to say thank-you to you and your DH because if it wasn't for people like you I don't know where we would be by now. Take your time and treasure what you have that's good in life, look after each other and change your name from 'Tryingtodobetter' to I'moneofthebest'

Couldn't have said it better.  (Really, I couldn't  )

Hope you both have a wonderful walk.

bala

x

elbree

Agreed @zafiro1984, thank you @tryingtodobetter

willow_loulou

@tryingtodobetter
huge hugs to you. I hope you can work through things and have caught the problems early enough to get through it. Talking is the best thing you can do, quality time for each other is so important and doing the jobs you do must have taken every ounce of energy. Thank you, you are appreciated so much. 

I think being mindful of your financial future is super wise, whatever your situation. I definitely wish I’d had more time to prepare financially. 15 years later from divorce I’m almost on top of it all! 

Today I’m heading to my Mr’s
for a few days. I dropped our dog to him in the week for company. Our bubble has worked so well but I’ve been more reluctant to go since being back at work. I’ve scanned some
more books as my cheque arrived today and I’m hoping he will have some I can zap too 😂

I’m still loving my dishwasher, it’s a joy to use and my kitchen is starting to look less like a battle ground. A few more bits to organise (Chuck) then we can get into the garden. I still have piles of stuff in the living room but it will have to stay until charity shops take or someone wants it from my feee listings. 

tryingtodobetter

Thanks again for your kind words.

Back to frugalling today... Making a lentil and nut roast with homemade peanut butter and using up very brown bananas to make banana and choc muffins using chocolate from DS3's Easter egg pile. T£sco shop coming later and I manged to keep it below £45 this week.

Bluegreen143

Sending much love @tryingtodobetter and echoing the words of thanks from everyone else. 

I’ve been pondering on my monthly budget as I’d like to increase my rate of savings to at least 20% of our joint budget. This will be aspirational for now, but when my 2yo gets her free nursery hours it should hopefully happen - though I’m on a 12m fixed term contract, so by the time she gets those free hours I will be nearing the end of that and then it’s very uncertain what our income will be. In an ideal world I’d like to have a third child and take a couple more years off a SAHM again but I think it’s seriously unlikely. Even if I talk DH into the third child, which he has said definitely not until the kids are at school and even then probably not) I think I’ll need to keep working at least part time.

Heres my current month’s budget - we each put 80% of our income plus child benefit into our joint account at the moment & figures can fluctuate depending on that month’s pay:

JOINT INCOME (80% of pay)

£1,108 (me)

£1,628 (DH)

£140 (child benefit)

= £2,876

SPENDING 

£421 - mortgage 

£475 - childcare

£155 - council tax

£100 - gas & electricity 

£150 - other bills & subscriptions

£500 - housekeeping (food, petrol etc)

£140 - kids pot (child benefit)

£150 - gifts & celebrations pot

£200 - home & garden and car pots 

£200 - holiday pot 

LEFT TO SAVE £385 (13%)

SAVINGS 

£100 - help to save 

£75 - mortgage overpayments

£210 - emergency fund/buffer (currently at just over £1,600)

As for the 20% of my income I keep in my own account, I put £50 into my LISA, allocate some for my phone, clothes and fun money, put £25 into my “fun pot” (saving up for when things reopen and I might want tickets to something or a night away with friends). And I do tend to pop the rest into the emergency fund to boost it. DH will then to put £50 into his pension (on top of the amount coming out of his pay) and does put plenty towards things we want for the house/garden, but is very unlikely to use his money to top up the savings!

There are a few improvements we can make, and the more frugal we are with food and petrol etc, the more we have left to top up savings. I just don’t think we can hit that 20% rate til we haven’t got the childcare to pay... we do have a couple of subscriptions to TV services and spotify but I can only imagine DH’s face if I suggest cancelling them 🤣

Also thinking, I was planning on putting the child benefit in its entirety into the kids’ pot so we can build savings towards activities, school trips etc when they are older (at the moment it’s just paying for clothes and pocket money really so we don’t need as much as that), but maybe £100 a month into this is fine and that frees up £40 to go into savings 🤔 and we can readjust as they get older and start to do more activities... I’m a big believer in not overscheduling small children anyway.

mandy47

Had a menu change earlier this week due to lack of time after car trouble. The sweet potatoes that were meant for dinner on Thursday are now a lovely thick soup. Enough for a couple of days.
Strawberries passed their best made into jam.
Yesterdays bargain was a half price toy car for my nephews birthday. It's not until July but  at £6 I don't mind storing it for a few months.
Started sorting books for selling. Did my cookery books this morning. I enjoy cooking and tend to get cookery books at xmas and birthdays. I have way too many hence the sort out.
Re-gifted a toiletry set yesterday. I always feel bad about this but I would never have used this brand and money is tight.

willow_loulou

My dad’s birthday in a few weeks, I saw a national trust plant a tree thing advertised so I have bought him a planted tree(you get an emailed certificate) for £5 and bought a £3 garden gargoyle. This is £7 under budget and I think a very environmentally friendly gift. He needs nothing so ideal really. 

Am also looking on FB market place for feee or very cheap garden things. I don’t have a budget yet, I have spent £17 on the builders bags so far. 

Any suggestions for frugal weed suppression? It’s only for a part of the garden, I want a gravel/shale bit for garden seating. I am loathe to pave as I want good drainage but it’s so clay bound and boggy here in the wet times that furniture sinks! 

balabooberlies

Willow

I might get shouted at by true gardeners so I will pre-empt this by saying that I love most weeds.  But there was this particular one that was aggressive, deep and thick rooted.  I tried for a couple of years just pulling/digging them up, then a membrain with shale.  No luck.  Having a dog I wouldn't consider any weed killers.  In the end I used SALT (ARGHHH) but it worked a treat and was as cheap as chips.

Only use this method if you are sure you don't want anything to grow there for some time.

bala