2021 Frugal Living Challenge

AnimalTribe

balabooberlies said:

I have these beautiful carrots I bought today, with the longest tops/leaves.

Anyone have any idea what I can do with them ?

bala

I use them in cheese savoury sandwiches.

I had a good frugal day today. The charity shop had a brand new pair of walking boots in my size for £3 - they came home with me. I took DH for coffee and cake to a local cafe, and their skip was full of bakers trays and mushroom boxes. The owner said she was happy for us to take them away, so they came home too. I will find a use for them in the garden or in the garage to keep things tidy. We live in such a wasteful world.

Wraithlady

Sweetlittledaydreams said:

Is anyone feeling Christmassy yet? I've started the Christmas shopping ... but this year I feel quite unmotivated. This is going to be my first Christmas being single for a few years so feel quite sad and not festive at all yet. 

It's perfectly understandable you will feel a little 'flat' under the circumstances - especially as Christmas is sold as 'togetherness' and somehow idealised as having to be 'perfect'.

If you have family or friends you can be with, that would be good - otherwise, my suggestions would be to either volunteer for something on or around the day, or get in nice stuff to eat and drink (doesn't have to be traditional fare, if you fancy curry, have curry), close the curtains and watch dvd's/netflix/ sports or whatever floats your goat and pamper yourself.

RainbowHippie

@Ellie79 sorry to hear about your doggo. I'm sure you gave him a wonderful and happy life and made him feel very loved.

I'm not feeling very Christmassy yet at all, though i have started planning gifts and working out a plan for visiting family etc on the day itself. @Sweetlittledaydreams maybe similar to you, in previous years i have gone 'all out' on gifting - not always in terms of spending but definitely in time and energy. This year i am really struggling for motivation.

I usually make most of the gifts i/we give (OH has some unconventional ideas about gifting and is very comfortable not giving anything, and although in principle i kind of agree with him i have historically been the complete opposite) and i would spend months preparing hampers of homemade food, crocheting blankets, hats, gloves, tree decorations etc, and sewing toys and soft furnishings. For many years this was done for the joy of making and giving, but in recent years it had expanded to include so many people that it stopped being fun and became a bit overwhelming.

Last year, because of the pandemic (and because we were house-sitting at the other end of the country) we saw no-one at Christmas, it was actually a really relaxing change and i was able to release myself from lots of the (admittedly self-imposed) gifting pressure. This year i've basically kept the same reduced my gifting list so it's much shorter than it had become. However i'm really struggling to get motivated to plan and sort any gifts this year, and if i'm honest it's stressing me out a bit. Over time i've spoken to many on our list about switching to 'experience' gifts, doing something together or no gifts at all, and while many were happy with this, some really weren't and seemed to really value receiving (and giving) a physical gift. More than anything i feel sad that i seem to have lost the energy and motivation that meant i found it so much fun in the past. Added to that is a good dose of covid anxiety (social pressure to see lots of people in crowded places followed by time with vulnerable family members). The whole thing now just seems like a massive stress and i feel almost sorry we've arranged to be near home this year. I definitely have a tendency to catastrophize lol. I'm sure i'll get over it and enjoy it all at the time, i just need to get my a**e in gear and at least plan the rest of the gifts so i can relax a bit!

@bala i've never blanched fresh herbs to freeze - not sure if you're supposed to but they've always seemed fine to me!

Have a lovely weekend all! xx

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

I havent used the car for two days, which is a frugal win for me.  Cycled to work yesterday and worked from home today.  Cycling home was a killer yesterday with an evil head wind and my laptop and work stuff in my rucksack!  Our electricity use was shocking last week, possibly because DS1 was home for a few days, so keeping a close eye on that.  

Need a few bits of foo shopping tomorrow, but will make a list.  Washing mainly dried outside today, although it's cooler I havent had the heating on much so thats good.  Filled my flask this morning so I didnt need to keep putting the kettle on.

I am not feeling festive yet.  I hate the pressure to spend and the pressure to buy endless stuff that no-one really wants, I have a family who are big on Christmas so its hard to avoid!!  I do save all year around for Christmas though so that's something.

balabooberlies

Scottiedog_3 said:

balabooberlies said:

Have decided to use the carrot leaves as I would fresh corriander.

However, has anyone ever frozen fresh herbs and would I need to blanch them first ?

bala

I have often frozen fresh flat-leaved parsley and its curly cousin - and I don't blanch them first.  They survive very well and crumble very satisfactorily into whatever you're cooking without needing to be defrosted first.

Excellent !

thank you.........and you too RainbowHippy........

florianatwobob

 It’s not directly Frugal related but a small cause for celebration in our house. We’ve been actively working to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill in our fortnightly bin collections and today we realised that we’ve barely scraped a half full bin for the last two collections. Our local council reduced the size of the landfill bins from a previous standard sized wheelie bin which all means the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ efforts are working! 🎉

CraftyLittleLisa

I'm not feeling particularly Christmassy yet but I never do until December.  I have, however, got Christmas presents sorted or planned and some are wrapped up.  I tend to save up over the year to cover Christmas and I do have a set budget for every gift.  This year the family have agreed that we will just buy for the kids (3 of them) and do one secret santa.  I'm currently making some curtains for my niece, between us we have paid for bits so my brother can build my youngest nephew a radio control car and my eldest nephew I bought a game thing he wanted (which I am secretly hoping he will let me play it with him).  The actual Christmas day is spent at my Mum and Dad's as their place is just about big enough to accommodate all of us.  I will buy some food bits to contribute but other than that I'm all done.

This has been an expensive month for me as I have had my car service and MOT, car insurance and I had to buy some new tyres for it.  I also  had to pay for some new glasses as my prescription has changed and my frames were quite a bit past their best.  The good news is that the money I put aside each month for these expenses covered it all.

I also had some success this last month selling some bits on Facebook and have earned £145 in total.  I have got a couple of other things on there but not sure they will sell.

I can't think of any other particularly frugal things that have happened but as it is now second nature to me to do "frugal" things.  I have got the heating on now but I have turned it down quite low and when it does come on the door to the lounge gets shut to keep it in.  I have reduced my electricity use by a miniscule amount (comparing it to this time last year) and I am very aware of using up food before it goes off and only buying things when I need it.

To keep me occupied I have been doing more reading and I have been making practical things for the home with fabric remnants (my new favourite thing is cable tidies).

This weekend my goal is to finally put the allotment to bed for winter.  The garden got sorted last weekend.  This will hopefully mean minimal money spent.

Have good weekends and keep up the frugalling.

cuddlymarm

Hi guys
My frugalling is going well. I won’t need much shopping again this week as went to Lidl last week after cancelling my online T shop. Got mark downed meat a few bits which will feed us well into next week. My food stock is holding out well and the money not being spent is going straight off the credit. The food shop has got cheaper now we aren’t eating as much meat.
We’ve still not used the heating at all and as it’s not been absolutely freezing haven’t need the dehumidifier on at all yet.I just leave the windows on the open but locked on the latch during the day and then try to let the flat have a good blow out a couple of times a week. As it’s such a small flat I need to keep an eye on humidity or we get mould.
I knitted OH a blankie to cuddle under while watching tv and he’s really taken to using it. (This is a man that would sit around in a T-shirt with the heating on full) We’ve reached an age where if we don’t do things we want, trips etc we might never get to do them and there’s only so much money. If it is freezing though keeping warm and well will be the most important.
Have a good evening guys
Night night

YorksLass

cuddlymarm said:

I knitted OH a blankie to cuddle under while watching tv and he’s really taken to using it. (This is a man that would sit around in a T-shirt with the heating on full)

Snap!  My DH worked most of his life outdoors on a building site and never used to feel the cold.  Fast forward, now 80 years old, he really feels it.  He also wears slippers, another thing he never used to do.  I'm just the opposite and nearly always feel warm but still have a knitted blankie for over my legs in the evenings.  A good way of using up oddments of yarn and you can guarantee no-one else will have one the same! 

zafiro1984

YorksLass said:

Snap!  My DH worked most of his life outdoors on a building site and never used to feel the cold.  Fast forward, now 80 years old, he really feels it.  He also wears slippers, another thing he never used to do.  I'm just the opposite and nearly always feel warm 

Also snap, mine spent his working life in suits or scrubs now he is outdoors most of the time, four layers of clothing under his coat one of which is a heated gillet, slippers indoors, woodburner/ironheart on all day and night.  I'm like you, I don't feel the cold, one layer under my coat, usually a short sleeved T-shirt, but I do sit near to the woodburner in the evenings.
Maybe the name YorkLass has something to do with it. I could be called LancsLass if I had to rename myself.
Writing the above reminds me I must look to see if they make heated socks or heated trouser legs, I know the gillet was 'warmly' (no pun intended) received last Christmas.