2021 Frugal Living Challenge

MazzieD

It's good that you have a choice of houses to view @jak, very sensible to think about things like shopping and buses.

I have to confess I'm a bit bemused by L*dl at the moment, I quite often buy Iceberg lettuce there and they will keep tinkering with the price.  It goes from 43p to 46p, then a price cut back down to 43p and this morning it was 49p!. Needed so bought one as no reduced salad or F&V boxes, had a quick look online at T*sco price when I got home and they're still doing a price match with A*di at 43p!.  T*sco on a Saturday is not an option, it's always too busy and long queues.  Need to plan that a bit better and buy before I've run out.

The last week of the month is always touch and go with food shopping, always start running out of essentials and try to hang on until pay day.  Need to plan when to raid the shops as I hate shopping on Bank Holiday weekends.

willow_loulou

Had a productive day today, I found a new shop to visit for essentials. A brand new 1stop. I needed loo roll and couldn’t get near my usual places for queues of cars! It was lovely and clean, supper friendly staff too. I bought my loo roll, it’s a different brand but hopefully as good for the same price. 

I got a free loaf from the Fareshare food and some eggs from a friend. 

Got home and managed to lay some self adhesive floor tiles in my hall. I was a pack short but I covered the most high traffic area. I put carpet samples I’d been given round the edge! It doesn’t look half bad. Total cost £2! (Tiles were £land) brilliant for a temporary fix and will probably last a fair while. 

The bath fix seems to be okay, so that’s great news. If it lasts 6 months I should be able to replace it. 

I was given 3 carriers of books. I’m going to ziffit check and then car boot them. I am table sharing with a friend so hopefully I’ll break even at worst. 

Ohh and there were sausages on the tgtg bags last night! I’ve just realised and popped them in the oven! Dd put the bags away so I hadn’t noticed them. 

Blackcats

Thank you to folk on here who have shared about too good to go.  I told a friend of mine who is struggling financially about them and they are so pleased.  Even better a garage that is walking distance away from their home does them plus they've been lucky at Morrison's too.  

My frugal (but not really very frugal) contribution today was to use my £5 hobby craft voucher to buy some wool for my new blanket I'm making  - 3 balls for the price of 2.  I also bought some gifts from there too from my gift budget so I got free postage.  I probably didn't need the wool but it feels like a very nice treat and I'm looking forward to the parcel arriving.

Frugaldom

Hi fru-guys and gals, hope everyone is doing ok and best wished to those who have been dealing with health, home or family issues (or driving lesson delays).

Frugal front here is still holding up well and things should improve after the 26th when Scotland moves a step closer to the new normal. I think sharing, swapping and trading is going to be much more of the 'in thing' within communities after this pandemic finally gets brought under control. I'm trying to get the sowing and growing underway but the weather has been so unpredictable: 21 degrees here today but we've had frosty starts to many of the mornings. Now we are running short of water (off grid here) and having to cart it from the stream. On the plus side, I've now bottled over 5 litres of fertiliser from the wormery and all 4 of my vines are growing. Spent time today making what looks like a 4' x 2' raised bed and then sat it on top of a salvaged trolley cart that a friend gave us. It's now sitting outside the gate ready t be used for giving away all the surplus seedlings, cuttings and, hopefully, rehoming bags of horse manure.

Managed to get some Olio so that's my little freezer restocked with bread and a few other bits and pieces swapped or shared from friends. Still no news on the planning. I'm hopeful of being able to claim the HMRC self employment payment, then keeping everything crossed that we can finally host work exchange students again. 

Now going to try and catch up with all your news.

Frugaldom

zafiro1984 said:

I think it's time I ventured out to Lidl, I haven't been in a supermarket since Feb. 2020, The only trips out have been to the docs, hospital or festival hall for my vaccination. Think of all the petrol I've saved 

Shopping has been all on-line but the frugal side of me is intrigued by the £1.50 F&V boxes. They sound amazing value for money. Do all Lidl have them and what do you have to do to get one? I think I'll pluck up courage and venture out, I'll be wearing my 'spacesuit' but it sounds as if it's worth using the petrol 

I haven't been in a shop since around then, too, and I haven't missed shopping for anything in the least, as I hate it. A supermarket delivery every 4 to 6 weeks is working fine for us, plus whatever Olio, swaps and trades I can get. Hope you enjoy your big adventure to Lidl. 

Frugaldom

willow_loulou said:

I need to empty the freezer now so I can freeze more of what we get.
I’m wondering if I can feeeze the filled sandwiches. If I take the lettuce out of say a ploughman’s. Anyone tried it? Did you @fru@Frugaldom ? 

Yes, I freeze sandwiches and they seem to be fine once defrosted. I froze some of the bacon, egg and sausage sandwiches from Olio and they were fine, too. I don't freeze the salady ones but they usually get eaten fairly quickly.

Nonnadiluca

Frugaldom, I'm sure you're right about the sharing/swapping/trading economy continuing post pandemic. In the last couple of days I've had jigsaws from the local puzzle swap and surplus eggs from a friend's chickens; I've given aloe vera plants to another friend's plant swap and given a few things away on Olo; we've given gooseberry cuttings and strawberry plants to fellow allotment holders and been given courgette plants in exchange. There are also loads of book swaps outside people's houses. I really hope it carries on, we need to stop chucking stuff away and buying new stuff - the planet needs us frugal swappers!

Bluegreen143

Hello all!

My gas & electricity supplier has just emailed to say they’ve reviewed my account and my direct debit needs to go up. Currently it’s £75 Apr-Sep and £115 Oct-Mar. They want to put it up to £90 Apr-Sep and £135 Oct-Mar! This is averaging £112.50 a month which seems an awful lot for a relatively modern small 3 bed house. 

We haven’t sent in meter reads the last two months (just forgotten) so we are going to take them today and hope that their estimate of our usage is over. I think I also need to REALLY work on our usage though. I’ll admit we aren’t the best, and of course I work from home so I’m always here using up the electricity. 

DH is still putting the heating on at random times if he feels a bit chilly but then will forget to turn it off again and the place gets really hot so he opens all the windows to cool off 😳 nagging doesn’t appear to work so I need to be more vigilant and just go round turning off after him I think 😂

Electricity-wise, it just feels like we are constantly using it and really overwhelming to tackle. We live a normal family life with electronic devices and a big TV, a husband who has lots of power tools, a dishwasher and tumble dryer so electricity is constantly in use and I feel like I don’t even know where to start or how to save energy without giving up all the things we like. My appointment to get a smart meter fitted got cancelled due to lockdown so if they do get that rescheduled maybe that will give me some information to start with 🤔

FrankieM

I'm back reading and trying to get back on my own personal frugal wagon.

It's been great to read everyone's adventures

AskYouWillGet

Good morning all, my news thia week is I got the free sunflowers from the Nestle breafast ceral offer 'Save the Bees' - it is really mini box but very cute!
Lost a lot of sowed seeds of all sorts of veg and flowers in trays and pots from the heat, so will start again. Moved greenhouse into a shady spot now to avoid it happening again. But good news the plants in the ground have burst into growth, so will sow seeds direct. 🌱
YS/TGTG was very good as not had any fresh fruit or veg (just  frozen) for a long while, so now stocked up.
Found out if you arrive too early for a TGTG magic bag you need to wait! Just in case anyone else gets caught with browsing while wait and end up spending...not had bought wine since moved house! And I have not missed it enough to buy again on a regular basis. I just worked it out that i used to buy on average say 2 per week @£10- £12. This change has saved me about £500 in last 8 months!! Benefits of being Frugal 💰