2021 Frugal Living Challenge

balabooberlies

amber03 said:

asparklyblonde, what a lovely post. This can give hope to others beginning their journey. It shows that you can do it. Keep up the good work and thanks for an updat.x

Ditto !

bala

x

angela110660

re grow bags- on one of the gardenprogs on BBC poss the Scottish one on Sunday morning they suggested cutting growbag in half and standing up both ends to plant up. We have done this with and plants are growing great and no roots sticking up like normally. Thanks for all the other ideas earlier too

welshspendthrift

angela110660 said:

re grow bags- on one of the gardenprogs on BBC poss the Scottish one on Sunday morning they suggested cutting growbag in half and standing up both ends to plant up. We have done this with and plants are growing great and no roots sticking up like normally. Thanks for all the other ideas earlier too

I like this idea thank you for sharing 😀

willow_loulou

balabooberlies said:

amber03 said:

asparklyblonde, what a lovely post. This can give hope to others beginning their journey. It shows that you can do it. Keep up the good work and thanks for an updat.x

Ditto !

bala

x

Also ditto x

[Deleted User]

Thank you for the lovely comments.

I have made a significant saving today. Up to now I have been on a SIM only deal which costs me £8.09 PCM, or £97.08 PA. After looking closely at my usage, and given that my deal has expired, I have moved to 1p mobile as recommended by MSE. I have ordered a SIM and put £30 credit on it, which is the amount you need to put on it per year. The £30 will last me a year easily (I use imessages, whatsapp and facetime as my main methods of communication, all using the WiFi at home). 

Saving of £67.08 PA / £5.59 per month xx

Sallyp2

BTW Martin will be co-host on Good Morning Britain for three days from 28 June to 30 June

willow_loulou

Had an interesting shop trip yesterday, youngest is having to remove some things from her diet as she’s had an upset tum for ages. 

Looking at even ordinary things like a tin of soup and finding one without wheat or milk is impossible! I did from some free from crackers and cheese so at least we can try them out before she starts commuting to uni.

 I did find a lacto free yoghurt in Sainsbob that even I like! That’s the same price as the tub I get the eldest so I’m happy with that. I know we can make most things from scratch but it’s the quick stuff and travel easy stuff that’s harder.

 Anyone have free from bread? Any recommendations? It all Looked rather unappetising. Also free from cake recipes would be amazing!

 On the frugal front I’ve secured another £7 on prolific and found some items we needed to repurpose for a project at work for free.

 I got an old but in great condition washing up bowl to sink into the garden with a few rocks to replace the tub I need to get rid of as it’s splitting. It’s the start of a series of bog/marginal tubs that will be near a bigger deep one to hopefully keep our frogs and other guests happy once the weeds are finally all gone.

wort

I'm coeliac (no wheat,Rye, or barley ), and use Juvela white mix in place of flour, then use the all in one cake method by Delia,  I. E. Weigh eggs then add same amount of all other ingredients.  I would imagine it should work with dairy free butter. Good luck

-taff

There's a porridge bread you could make, or use gram flour but not sure how that would make a loaf, it does make nice pastry though and sticky toffee cakes

QueenJess

willow_loulou said:

 Anyone have free from bread? Any recommendations? It all Looked rather unappetising. Also free from cake recipes would be amazing!

My family seem to like Genius bread, but not tried it myself (and quite possibly will be cheaper to make it yourself).  My mum swears by two different books (maybe you can get them at the library?) for baking cakes etc:

• Free-from food for family and friends by Pippa Kendrick
• The intolerant gourmet by Pippa Kendrick

However, you would effectively be baking vegan cakes, so you could look for those sorts of recipes. Another poster who is vegan on MSE ages ago posted the following re: vegan cakes (no experience myself):

Take a normal sized mug and put: one mug s/r flour, just under 1/4 mug sugar, heaped teaspoon baking powder, 1/3 mug dessicated coconut, in a bowl.  Pour oat milk up until an inch from the top of the mug, 2 teaspoons (or the cap) vinegar, any vinegar, white, brown, cider, whatever you have in with the milk, stir, pour the rest of the mug full with veg oil or sunflower oil.  

Get a whisk or a bowl, add wet mix to dry mix and stir for about 20 seconds -vegan cake is quick.  Check the consistency is ok - just check it is not too firm then bake on about GM 4  / 180 degrees  check after 10 for buns or c.25 for cake. 

This is basic vegan cake mix, pimp it with cocoa powder (just add more milk)/ mixed spice and golden syrup , apple and cinnamon ,choc chips , almond essence and raspberries, dried fruit, whatever you fancy.  

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I am still following this thread with interest.  I am far from frugal reading everyone else's posts, but I am trying to challenge myself to make sure I am only spending on things which really do enhance my life/are necessities.  I have reduced my budget for July as I think I can be spending less day to day and will see how that goes.  I think small changes over long periods of time are going to be the key here.  

I've already tried to stop mindless spending and have been doing that for years now.  I have been annoyed recently by what seems like the relentless pressure to spend that is everywhere - it feels like the world is trying to get you to spend more all the time and I find it tiring and pointless.  I avoid as many of these things as possible (e.g. I don't get any offer emails as I am not subscribed to anything, TV adverts etc) and although I am not tempted, I still find these things irritating.