2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Living_proof

Frugaldom said:

@Living_proof, after all this ends, you will need to try and get to SW Scotland for a visit in your MoHo.made overnight parking available in response to Dumfries &Galloway's welcome adoption of private Aires.

Thanks so much for this and although I lived in Perth for many years and saw a lot of northern Scotland I have never spent any time in the Sw so will put it on the list. My partner is keen to do the 500 but it has attracted too many of the wrong type of rough camper I hear. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

The garage have refurbished the part that broke on the car so we dont need to buy an expensive new part.  This is good because we are saving money but not so good because no-one can guarantee that it wont go wrong again, and it may still need a new part.  At least it gives us a bit of time to shuffle some money around, and we can get a quote for the stove and decide whether to do that or not.

Heating off, eating out of the freezer, DH is back at work today, so thats something.

MandM90

Yorkshirelass that must be such a relief! Hope all remains well for you.

I've really enjoyed lurking on this thread recently, you're all superstars.

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, going to have to tighten the purse strings further after a discussion with our landlord about our rent. Just ordered some battery powered t-lights to put around the house in place of the main lights in the evenings as the kids tend to leave them on. I'm also planning on encouraging the kids to wear onesies or similar for warmth and utilising blankets to avoid having the heating on as much as possible. 

MandM90

Right. I need to pull myself together a bit and get properly back to frugality. The news is scaring me a bit - higher electricity, gas, food, NI ...and I go on mat leave this December. Luckily it's fully paid for 6 months but when I return our childcare bill will be over £1600 pcm so I want to make sure we have very tight control over our finances.

I've really reined in spending on frivolities and groceries lately, which is good, but our emergency fund is much depleted and I feel really worried about what would happen if DH lost his job.

To do:
Claim working from home tax discount - should be worthh ~£370 for DH and I over two years
Make a list of free and cheap things I can do to improve the house before we start proper renovations next year
Make a list of things we don't use which I can sell
Start lists for Christmas (so I can watch out for bargains and not go nuts!)

willow_loulou

I had a thought for little ones gifts - a few seeds, pot (something interesting from a charity shop) and instructions. 

I’m thinking cress, sunflowers, herbs. Might even do this for my neighbours lol. 

We’re off Xmas shopping Saturday. Covid is rising again and I don’t do well in cold with my lungs. I have a list and if I can’t get it as I’d like I’m getting chocolate or biscuits. I have £30 budget for everything! Be wonderful if I can stick to it. 

Last few nights have been courtesy of M&S yellow stickers with Freezer food I’m using up. 

I finally got my disability rail card sorted, I tweeted them to chase it up and by 7am next morning it was approved. Yay! 

I’m on prolific prolifically this week as I’m off work. Mot and tax due end of the month and guess who forgot to budget for it again! 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Odd weather here, quite warm outside but cold inside the house.  3 loads of washing done and hung outside, some is still outside because it wasnt dry.  Working from home so filled the flask.  Scrambled egg for lunch, getting the hang of doing it in the microwave so I dont have to use the electric hob.

Stir fry for tea, courgette, kale and broccoli out of the garden.  Used up a few prawns that have been in the freezer for a while.

Like everyone else I am a bit nervous about increasing prices, we will be continuing to keep a close watch on the finances. 

Frugaldom

@Mummy2cheekymonkeys I hope DS gets well soon. This Covid nightmare seems to be going on forever and things just seem to keep on getting worse. 

My A5da order arrived almost complete and the £10 voucher had been deducted so that was good. Olio has been an absolute saviour in keeping grocery spends down and the prolonged warm spell has kept heating bills down. I've assessed the budget for 2022 and think we should be able to keep pursuing the same financial goals - live on £4000 plus council tax and car running costs. Making everything else cash neutral is going to be difficult but if it was easy, this wouldn't be a challenge.

Siebrie

I'm looking into a Hooimadam (haychest?) for cooking pasta, rice, stews: https://www.hooimadam.com (warning: it's in Dutch). The link shows premade ones, but they are easy to make with an old duvet or sleeping bag and a sturdy box. You just bring your food to a boil for a few minutes, and then pop it in the haychest for 3x the normal cooking time.

MandM90

@Siebrie reminds me of these Wonderbags: https://www.wonderbagworld.com/

There are some cool recipes on the website!

@Frugaldom is that £4000...a year?! Would love to see a breakdown of that. That's about our monthly outgoings I think