2021 Frugal Living Challenge

boultdj

@kippers 10 mm needles are UK 000 size, very thick needles, which is USA size 15 needles. 
Size 10 USA needles are 6mm and UK size 4 in the old needle sizing. hth.

Marghirl

kippers said:

Marghirl said:

What about knitted slippers. Just search ‘cloud slippers pattern’ on internet. They only take about an hour to make a pair

Wow never knew about these.  I havent knitted for about 20 years and ive been wanting to start again now my girls have grown up.  Ive found a pattern online that seems pretty easy but it says 10-15mm US needles …… what size is that in the uk?  Is there a  better uk pattern to use?

I used 10mm needles which are size 000 Uk. They are very thick! Www.ravelry.com have a free pattern to download. I used super chunky.

Treasurequeen

Have spent most of the day getting my small balcony ready for winter, clearing away dead plants, de heading and securing plants and furniture ready for windy weather coming in next week. 

The rest of the day I’ve been doing online surveys and am 25p  away from cashing in my next voucher. It takes me a while until I can cash in but at the end of the day it’s free money for answering a few questions. 

Lunch today was a cup of soup that is nearly past it’s best before date that I was gifted. I have come to realise that I seem to hoard certain things as my safety blanket so to speak or spend money on spares of everything. Or buy things to make myself feel better it’s got so excessive I have multiples of things in my home that I’m running out of room. From today I will only buy one spare of things and will keep lists of things I have in. And I will be using up things and will not be replacing some items. I’m going to see if I can make my own instead of buying certain things. I suppose live a frugal and simpler life from now on. 

It’s been such a nice day I’ve managed to do a load of washing and it’s finishing off drying in my bathroom. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Day at home except for a little walk this afternoon, November budget done, grocery shop done and mealplan sorted, HM pizza for tea with slow cooker rice pudding for afters.  A good frugal day.

Sweetlittledaydreams

No good for me because milk makes me ill but I always see milk reduced ridiculously cheap, you might already know but paneer is very easy to make, boil up the milk while stirring until it gets to a rolling boil, then add lemon juice, continue stirring and it will become to clump, keep going until you don't seem to be getting any more clumps of cheese. Then either use a slotted spoon to separate the cheese from the liquid or use a piece of cheese cloth to strain it. Then press between plates and chill in the fridge. Very easy to make into curry, or a sweet Indian pudding, or could probably use it as an alternative to cottage cheese. Very annoying that I can't tolerate dairy, because its a really cheap base for a meal.
Annoyingly lost out on 6 extra hours at work this evening, someone beat me to it, but it did give me time to make pizza with the dough I made at 2am when I couldn't sleep, and used up the odds and ends from the fridge for toppings. Anyone that makes kombucha? I have such an easy pizza base recipie that is just kombucha and flour, no yeast or faffing around with sourdough starter, so easy.
Peace, love and sweet daydreams.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Treasurequeen said:

Lunch today was a cup of soup that is nearly past it’s best before date that I was gifted. I have come to realise that I seem to hoard certain things as my safety blanket so to speak or spend money on spares of everything. Or buy things to make myself feel better it’s got so excessive I have multiples of things in my home that I’m running out of room. From today I will only buy one spare of things and will keep lists of things I have in. And I will be using up things and will not be replacing some items. I’m going to see if I can make my own instead of buying certain things. I suppose live a frugal and simpler life from now on. 

 

I was just thinking yesterday that I do this with toiletries. It's almost as if I dont use up something because I dont want it to be gone and not have it anymore (especially pricier products) so I keep hold of them and start using something else which is ridiculous. I think a new years resolution next year will be to finish up all the odds and ends before starting something new.
Also with food I like the safety net of having full cupboards so as soon as I use something I replace it. With the way things have been lately I don't think its a bad idea with food.

RainbowHippie

Hello all, hope everyone is well. I've been following along (very) sporadically but not posted for most of the year. Trying to catch up with the thread but i'm nowhere near the end so thought i would just add a quick post. I need to get back on the frugal bandwagon as we're in the process of putting an offer in on a house after living the itinerant life for 2-3 years. We do mostly live low-spend (not having a house to store cr*p has definitely curbed impulse spending for both of us!) but we're back down to one income, my work is super busy and with less time, costs on thing like groceries have crept up. i'm also anticipating the high costs of things like energy bills as the house we'll hopefully be buying is a bit of a project and not exactly energy efficient. So i need to focus on keeping down all the costs that we can. Thanks to all of you who have been posting your helpful ideas and inspirational stories, i love to read this thread when i need some frugal inspiration.

Belated congratulations to @Frugaldom re planning permission and @Deleted_User for taking the plunge and leaving work.

Frugal haircuts are on my mind today. I've always had my hair cut by my lovely mum. She's not a trained hairdresser and is quite cautious (so it takes a while!) but she always does a great job and it's a nice way to spend some time together. I'm not as confident but i do trim the ends of hers if she asks! Of course over the last couple of years i've not been able to visit much so like many people i've been learning to cut my hair myself. Mostly it's been just trimming my fringe (harder than it looks!) but took the plunge this January to do a proper layered shoulder-length cut as it had got much longer than i like. I found some helpful tutorials on utube that explained what i needed to know, it took a couple of hours to cut but i was pleasantly surprised with the result. The layers were surprisingly easy, the hardest part was making sure the bottom layer was an even length all the way round. I dye it myself (my only 'cosmetics' type spend, which costs me £20-30/yr if i don't ask for them as gifts) so if nothing else shorter hair means lower dye costs! It's getting long again now so i need to set aside a few hours to re-watch those videos and have another go.

I've also been cutting my OH's hair for the last couple of years, he was reluctant at first but seems to have been been quite pleased (or at least very polite!) with the results.

So i would definitely say if you're thinking about cutting your own hair, or even letting a member of your household loose on it, have a go! I found it helpful to give myself plenty of time when i was unlikely to be disturbed part-way through, and a glass of wine on hand (though i didn't drink much of it til i had finished as i was concentrating too much) so it felt like i was treating/pampering myself.

Anyway, back to work now, best wishes to you all xx

Marghirl

I decided about five years ago to stop going to hairdresser. My hair was very short all over and I was spending about £30 every six weeks to keep it like that. I just let it grow and just trim the ends and my fringe on occasion. It is now about half way down my back but I find it easier to keep. I just put it in a pony tail or twist it up with a clasp. I reckon I have saved myself around £1400! 

Kerry_Woman

Have overspent on food  and general spending - did have an unexpected expense, had an issue with the toilet that needed sorting out.  There could be a possibility of having extension to my current fixed term contract at work.  Hopefully hear next month.  Really have to be extra careful with my spending for the next two months.  Planning as to what food I need to get for the December celebration.  Still have enough cleaning products for the rest of the year, also toiletries, apart from hair shampoo and conditioner bars I think that I will have to get in December.  I have a meal out on Thursday with some work colleagues that I used to work with, but will be careful as to how much I spend.  I usually do not go out socially this year due to the days that I have managed to get shifts at work.   

Elisheba

I'm another one that cuts my own hair. Have always cut my own fringe, but had a go at my hair after watching a YouTube video and it turned out fine, so have just kept on doing it. It helps my hair is wavy so it hides a multitude of sins 😂. I also stopped dying it back then as well so that saves me a few pounds on boxes of dye.