2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Blackcats

I agree Mazzie that all bills have gone up this year.  I've managed to mitigate a bit by changing gas/electricity supplier and I'm being really careful with my water usage which has actually resulted in a small reduction.  I've re-negotiated my mobile phone contract too.  My biggest household cost is council tax which is £3500 per year - I wouldn't mind so much if I lived in a large mansion or a small castle 🤷‍♀️.  I've been overpaying it each month to try and get it paid off in 9 months instead of 10.  I've paid £400 in April, May and June which I'm pleased about.  

willow_loulou

@Blackcats how much! Wow! 

I sewed a peg bag today with supplies I had at home, I now have 2 airers as well as the new heated airer and I needed peg storage for the airers I can put outside. I’m hoping this will make a difference to my electric usage as I’m not replacing the dryer. I can’t now anyway as I’ve moved the kitchen round! 

I just need to get some more pegs from somewhere. 

I’m venturing to the shop tomorrow as I don’t need to buy the minimum Ocado spend. I’m going to stick with M&S as their organic tomato’s are just so tasty. Hopefully the 65p bit will be things I can use too. 

Frugaldom

@Blackcats WOW! £3,500 in council tax is an eye-wateringly huge amount to have to pay, I hope it includes your water. Ours is less than one third of that for our little band-B terrace in SW Scotland, there must be some huge regional differences throughout the UK. 
Olio has been kind to us yet again so my grocery bill is staying well under budget as we fast approach the end of the first half of this year.  I allocated £1200 for all groceries and have spent only £259.42 this year so far. The diet is attrocious, though, as it revolves around using up absolutely everything and eating sandwiches almost every lunchtime.  Having the same working routine seven days a week means I seldom know what day of the week it actually is so it's good hearing the 'ding dong' alert on my phone on a Thursday night when there's an Olio listing nearby.
Other expenses this month - car filled with petrol - petrol is up in price again  and £130 for a year's road tax had to be paid. 

marionmgcars

Its great reading everyone's posts, and keeps me motivated.  I had a big box of mushrooms for free, and tried a new recipe for mushroom stroganoff.  Used frozen cubes of white wine and frozen cubes of creme fresh in recipe so felt it was a free meal.  I have just sold two items of eb*y this week, only £20 in total but it will go into my retirement pot.

Siebrie

Frugaldom, having sandwiches for lunch every day is very Dutch You're expanding your cultural horizon

willow_loulou

I just downloaded the olio app - they want me to pay to use it. I deleted it. 

Living_proof

willow_loulou Olio ask for a donation to keep expanding their system and I didn't pay anything until I had been using it for 6 months. They have been bizarrely trialing a variety of different costs from £5.99 a year to over £20. It's worth using the app and paying the donation doesn't get you any preferential treatment.

willow_loulou

Living_proof said:

willow_loulou Olio ask for a donation to keep expanding their system and I didn't pay anything until I had been using it for 6 months. They have been bizarrely trialing a variety of different costs from £5.99 a year to over £20. It's worth using the app and paying the donation doesn't get you any preferential treatment.

They wanted £11:99 from me and I couldn’t even see any available food before doing so. I don’t mind donating, but if it’s just going to be bread again I’ll give it a miss as we eat so little of it I can get it at the fare share table for free on a Saturday and at the food exchange most of the week. 

[Deleted User]

@Frugaldom wow that is an absolutely brilliant grocery spend so far. I am in awe. Frugality has stepped up another notch here... it has to, but for exciting reasons which I will share when I am able

£13 worth of direct debits PCM cancelled - a nice tidy saving over the year x

Frugaldom

willow_loulou said:

I just downloaded the olio app - they want me to pay to use it. I deleted it. 

Wow! Is that something new? I have seen the trial membership payments pop up but I have never seen anything saying I need to pay anything. How strange. I assumed the stores paid Olio part of what they will be saving in landfill tax related costs.