2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Mamaspender

MazzieD 

@Mamaspender Welcome, it's always nice to have new joiners.  If it's any help I have never thought in terms of NSD or spend days, I just try and keep spends low and under or within my budget for the month but I do keep a close eye on it.  I'm not sure NSD's would work for me but they do seem to be helpful to many people on the forums.

Thanks @MazzieD , I think this may well be the way for me to approach it whilst finding my frugal feet.. I’ve to get some fruit & bread for the kids on my way home from work today usually I end up going off piste especially in A!di & coming out with things I don’t need but I’m determined to stick to my list & ignore temptation for anything other than what’s needed 🤞

Living_proof

I have had a very frugal week with the exception of ordering a tofu press which was a massive £22. I have tried getting one on Freecycle, Gumtree and hunted charity shops and car boot sales without success. In January I ordered one which was supposed to arrive within two to four days, and turned out to being shipped from China. It never came and a week ago Paypal refunded me, and although it was advertised at about £10 it was not such a bargain after all! I also bought a large stainless steel stockpot for £4 in a charity shop on Saturday, and although it won't be used frequently, it's handy to have at that price.

I have had some great Olio pick-ups and also had a couple of F&V boxes at £1.50 from Lidl. I share the contents with my live-out SO and this is adequate for the entire week. I have a glut of peaches and grapes this week which I will probably have to freeze or dehydrate. It's really hard to envisage how much food 'waste' went to landfill before Too Good to Go, Olio, etc. came along. Worse still is that a lot of items have come so many food miles - like the spring onions I was gifted last week which had come all the way from Senegal! They are still good to use in a Lakeland green bag in the salad drawer. I can't imagine I will need to buy much this week so it should be a frugal one, all being well and I hope it's the same for you all with no unexpected blips on the horizon.

hikingqueen

Hi, newbie here!
I've just joined as we are moving back to the UK in the Autumn after a number of years abroad.
I'm hoping to pick up lots of tips for getting good deals on utilities etc, as been out of the loop for quite a while.

We live a frugal lifestyle all the time, but I've set us a budget based on the fact that we'll be moving later in the year and will have to set up all new accounts for elec, phones etc.

I've challenged us to a budget of £12,500 for the year, fo everything except rent and council tax.
I've kept records so far this year, and are doing pretty well, having spent £1,744 to end of March.

Looking forward to getting lots of great tips to help us continue our frugal life in UK!

1. Frugal living challenge 1,744/12,500
2. £2021 in 2021 challenge 1979/2021

hikingqueen

Ooops
Made a mistake

my 2021 in 2021 is £1589/2021......thought I was doing a bit too well!

Blackcats

I'm trying to keep my food spending low this week to balance out some spending at the garden centre.  Those places can be so tempting and despite a list I still managed to find a few extra things in my basket.  So tonight I used a leftover dhansak sauce that I'd frozen and added cauliflower, potatoes, carrots and onions and it made a really nice meal.  I tend to make chicken based curries but actually this veggie curry was nicer than my last couple of chicken versions.  I've got so much in my freezer and food cupboard but the fridge is a bit empty so I'll have to think what I absolutely need and what I can cook with what I've got in stock.  I don't drink during the week and I've got a bottle of wine ready for the forthcoming weekend (chilling in anticipation already) 😋 so that will be a saving on the shopping bill. 

willow_loulou

Got to Waitrose to pick up my To good to Go bag and he said they had just released loads more so I bought 2 more. A bit of a punt as I had not had them before! But we got loads of sandwiches, 3 ready meals which I have frozen, pork pies and 2 massive bags of oranges. 
A quick calculation makes it £60 of food for £15! 
I probably wouldn't buy more than 2 very often as there is a lot of sandwiches, but as he said they had about 27 more bags I popped my frugaldom head on and thought about the waste side of it too.
All of it will get eaten as we can pop the sandwiches in the toasty maker too. The one none of us will eat I will pop to my dad tomorrow.

Now that we have that waitrose ( its very new) I have redownloaded the app to my phone so I can get a bag a week, hopefully!

AskYouWillGet

Just a quick update: I was successful at applying for a Barclay Card for the 0% / 29 month Balance transfer via MSE tool the weekend, so quick and easy. 
Had a sight test and need new spectacles which came in at £340 so now back in the overdraft - that didn't last long did it -money is like a game of snakes and ladders!

Tightpants24

I was looking to add to my cutlery set which was expensive many years ago.  I only have the basic set and was recently looking at prices for more.  It is well over £150   Anyway I saw some on FB market and got it for £10.  Now I have a lovely big  set of quality cutlery.  I feel very posh (but frugal).  

emilysmile

How can i join ?

willow_loulou

 emilysmile said:

How can i join ?

If you pop to page 1 @Frugaldom has posted the idea and previous threads, we don’t have a list of members we just encourage anyone who posts. Welcome 🙏