2021 Frugal Living Challenge

flossyblog

Hello everyone, October expenses as follows

€314.49 - food

€234.00 - dental hygienist - me & DH

  €22.91 - dentist - check up - me. DH has another appointment, will receive his later in the month

€145.60 - new bath tap 

  €70.00 - travel card

  €10.00 - Jumper for me - my one and only clothes purchase this year so far

€195.50 - household utility bills

That makes a grand total of €992.50 spent in October

Treasurequeen

Mummy2cheekymonkeys said:

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.

I understand completely I do that too. I agree with the New Years resolution to finish up the odds and ends before buying something new. 

May I ask what do frugal people ask as gifts for Christmas from others? 

Bought a dress for the December wedding in an online sale and am collecting it today, I managed to get cash back too on the order. 

zafiro1984

Just having thoughts on what I achieved in October to help with the budget.

1) broke my dishwasher tablets in half, I have seen no difference in the way the dishes came out of the machine, still sparkly and clean. Thank you to the person who posted on here with that idea.
2) restricted my wash loads to 5 per week, actually more than enough and again thanks to the posting by somebody earlier in October.
3) Told DH to turn off all everything in his workshop on 'standby' I said 'I'm not stopping you using them but it will help if you turn them off afterwards'
4) did a lot more cooking on the ironheart, - it uses wood as its fuel, everything from boiling the kettle to cooking casseroles, cakes and old fashioned puddings. This was a little more of an effort as it is at the far end of the kitchen in an area that has a couple of armchairs and the TV. Also, kept the ironheart going all day and night, the temperature has been high enough to prevent the central heating coming on downstairs.
5) did a lot more meal planning so that waste was practically 0. The geese weren't pleased as they used to get most of the leftovers but at least they knew they weren't being fattened up for Christmas 
6) drew the curtains in the evening, a small thing but it felt cosy and I hoped it helped.
7) managed to get a couple of veg boxes from Lidl and made sure I used everything in the boxes
8) altered the timing of the central heating upstairs so that it only works first thing in the morning and at bedtime.

All in all I have cut the electric units by about 6kw per day and have stayed well within my food budget and I have even managed to get a few things cooked and frozen for Christmas

Just a little upset that I thought I was reasonably frugal before, to find there was more I could do.

Onto Nov  - eBay beckons, I have loads I could sell, I have a spare bedroom with boxes stacked floor to ceiling of items from our move almost 15yrs ago. We moved from a rather large house to a much smaller house. I've got over being attached to them so now is the time for them to go.

Frugaldom

Welcome to November! Another month gone and a new one beginning with not long to go before the set up for 2022! This is my busiest month of the year and I still haven't caught up with posts here so apologies, once more. November plans include the annual writing project, having the Frugaldom hut built and planting several hundred more trees. All the fruit has been picked - jam, jelly, apple sauce and marmalade made - and now I'm starting the apples off for cider vinegar. The budget will be analysed next month then it's knuckle down time to make it through winter while feeding all the ponies, goats, ducks and hens. Olio helps feed us.

Keep on frugaling, folks!

Effician

Treasurequeen said:

Mummy2cheekymonkeys said:

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.

May I ask what do frugal people ask as gifts for Christmas from others? 

I don't ask for anyting not even off Mrs E ,

We buy for the grandchildren but neither give or recieve from other family members, it makes for a much less stressed & more enjoyable Chritmas all round we find.

mandy47

Effician said

I don't ask for anyting not even off Mrs E ,

We buy for the grandchildren but neither give or recieve from other family members, it makes for a much less stressed & enjoyable Chritmas all round we find.

I agree.
When DD was little DH and I stopped buying gifts for each other. Money was tight ad we wanted to make lovely xmas memories for DD so that's where our xmas budget was spent. We soon realised the time spent together was far more important. DD is now 28 and DH and I still don't buy xmas gifts for each other. 
We give and receive amongst family and a few friends. Nothing too extravagant. I would rather this stop and maybe enjoy a meal out together instead but DH and I seem to be the only ones who feel this way. When we suggested it we were made to feel like scrooge. 
 

AnimalTribe

Yet another one who cuts their own hair. As to gifts, only the children under 21 in the family get a gift of money, which makes it easier for everyone. If you are looking to give a gift to a frugal person suggestions might be seeds, one of the many garden foraging books, a student cookbook, potted herbs, special chutney or mustard.

I had a good frugal weekend. Moneywise I sold a few things on Ebay. Got another £5 worth of points on Microsoft Rewards, and hit the £10 mark on Qmee.

I had some milk that was ‘on the edge’ and some bananas that were riper than I like them. So I made cheesy chilli scones, banana cake and banana bacon. I used the peel of an orange, finely grated, in some chocolate chip flapjacks. So lots of things saved from the waste pile. I opened some rhubarb jam I made a while ago, to find that it was a solid, sticky mess. I’m not sure if I can find any use for the jam – I’d welcome any ideas.

A favourite jumper had become a bit short after many washes, but it’s lovely and snuggly for inside the house. I picked up every other stitch on the hem and crocheted around to make it longer, and did the same with the sleeves. Some hyssop cuttings that I took a while ago have begun to grow really well.

Disappointingly, I broke an angel ornament that I’d intended to sell on Ebay for a £10 profit, and I opened some rhubarb jam I made a while ago, to find that it was a solid, sticky mess. I’m not sure if I can find any use for the jam – I’d welcome any ideas.

This afternoon I’ll research paid for internet searches. I already use Qmee and Microsoft Rewards, but I’m sure there must be others, and it will be interesting to see how others compare.

willow_loulou

I gift mostly secondhand items or things I have made. I get my hair cut and colour paid for Xmas and birthday from my parents. I only gift to 7 people plus work but I have a £1 budget each work person as it’s only a token. One is getting 2 50p bags of Bombay mix as I know it’s her favourite treat. 

My sister will seed swap with me as usual. I always make her a few labels and she often gifts me twine or homemade biscuits. 

I’m gifting biscuits to a few people this year now I have a working oven. I’m excited to do that. 

If anyone were to ask me what I’d like I’d say garden shoes, bed socks and a microwave bowl with lid. Easy pleased! 

RainbowHippie

I'm slowly catching up! @zafiro1984 I've not read the last few pages yet so a lot of this might have been said already! Just to add my penny's worth re online selling -

Ebay can be useful to benchmark the value of used items - do a search for what you're selling under sold listings (you can tick 'sold' in the filters on the left of the screen) to see what things are going for.

I've not sold as much recently and i think ebay has become worse value over time. But i have had some success with lower value clothing on Vinted since it appeared here, all the fees, postage etc are paid on the buyer's end so although you need to price accordingly you keep the total amount for the item itself.

On ebay and vinted i always mention in the listing that i'm happy to consider offers, combining postage, bundling different listings together etc and this has definitely helped make more sales. Extra detail also helps e.g. measurements for furniture.

Listing title is important as it's what people will search for. I've had things that weren't selling and added a frequently-searched keyword e.g. 'goth' to the title (has to be accurate of course!) and it's suddenly been noticed and sold. If it's a respected brand make sure the brand is in the title.

For clothes unless it's a high value item i often 'bundle' several items together as people feel they are getting better value.

I just re-use whatever i have to hand for packaging (for cost and ecological reasons). A member of post office staff gave me a great tip about using any opaque plastic (carrier bags, bin bags etc) to wrap things for posting as it's waterproof and very light. If i only have see-through plastic available i use a layer of (free) newspaper inside it. Before we moved when i was selling loads on ebay i printed a few pages of little notes that i cut up to include one in each parcel saying 'Thanks for your purchase, packaging is recycled where possible out of respect for the environment' or something similar, so recipients wouldn't think i was just being cheap. Although i also was! And sellotape from the £ shop. As someone has said all the carriers will list prices by size/weight on their websites.

Someone may have said this but if you've got books, dvds etc to sell, try specialist selling apps/websites (e.g. ziffit, webuybooks). Entering each item is quicker on the apps if you have a smartphone that's up to it (they scan the barcode) or type in the ISBN on the websites. I always have at least two sites open to check each book as one will almost always offer more but it's hard to predict which one for which book! I generally end up with two or three piles to post, one for each app/website depending on where the highest offers . I've found craft books, cookbooks and reference books/text books to be the highest earners.

Like most people have said it all depends on what you find in your boxes!

I'm another one who uses half dishwasher tablets, and have never noticed a difference. I also use much less than the 'recommended' amount of laundry liquid - i used soap nuts for a couple of years and although i've now switched back to liquid we both find we can't tolerate a strong detergent scent after getting used to unscented laundry. I use max about 2tbsp per load, normally less, doesn't seem to affect the outcome other than a less overpowering smell.

Happy Monday all xx

Sweetlittledaydreams

I don't know much about making jam but could you reheat it and mix in more water and let it reset? Would that work to make it less thick or would it ruin it?
I've never tracked my no spend days but that seems to be something people have success with so I'm going to try it this month. Looked at some dungarees today but they were £36 so resisted temptation and feel good about that now. Gym membership (£25) went out as a direct debit - worth it for me as i swim a good few miles a week and would end up paying a lot more if I paid per session, I know £300 a year is a lot for something not truly essential but I really feel the negative difference mentally and physically if I don't manage to swim for a few days in a row. Council tax went out of the account today too.
Still eating from the fridge/ freezer / cupboards, going to see how long I can put off going to the supermarket for. I watched a food programme earlier and couldn't believe that one family of 4 were spending around £300 a week on the food shop and still buying takeaways on top of that! I really do think budgeting should be taught more in school and college, surely it's an important life skill.
Sorry I'll stop rambling on now, one last thing, how do you all keep yourselves motivated if you're not surrounded by like minded people?