2021 Frugal Living Challenge

florianatwobob

The the fridge, freezer and cupboards were all raided and left over frozen wraps and chillies and dying veggies were turned into Jamie Oliver’s Mexican Breakfast (but for dinner instead) and also knocked another hole in the egg mountain . 

This week heralds the traditional running down of the freezer ahead of Christmas. I’ve no doubt there will be some interesting dinners to be had. I have however made the gluten free Yorkshire’s for Christmas and a couple of giant ones for this week and a pork casserole. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Thank you @balabooberlies that actually made me feel a little emotional.  I felt a bit nervous posting those figures because I know that some of you on here are far more frugal than me, but we lived beyond our means for so long - hence the debts, and I am so inspired and encouraged by this forum.

Being honest with myself about my finances was a huge part of turning things around and starting to pay off the debts so my spreadsheets are so important to me now.  I still struggle with feeling like I need to have "stuff" to be likeable and fit in and I dont think I will ever completely shake that off but I am making some big strides forward.

Soup made for lunches, mealplan done for the week mostly using what we have in the freezer.  A nice walk this afternoon so the only spends this weekend was £25 on essentials in Li@l.

Paspatur

Hi, all of this analysing of numbers made me look at a comparison of 2020 to 2021. Surprisingly utilities are down by £259.
£155 by getting rid of tv licence, £59 down on gas and electric but that is a mixture of changing supplier and refunds and will obviously not continue, £60 reduction on mobile phone and internet but this will reduce to a £20 saving per year after incentives run out.
Other small increases and decreases on insurance etc.
Clothing is down from £325 to £184, the majority of 2020 were purchases for holiday 2020 that never happend and are still brand new in suitcase (hopefully for 2022)
Total overall expenditure is £3,190 down on 2020 of which £2,368 was a new boiler in 2020 and £520 was new glasses
I use a spreadsheet but also use an app to record details of expenditure
Food is down nearly £500 (but December is not finished yet) very hard to compare, last year after March someone else did my shopping as I was isolating and a large part of last year and this year I was not feeding grandkids at the weekend due to restrictions
Need a couple of non-Covid years to get real comparisons
Garden expenditure went nuts due to Covid and restructuring of garden but this is included in the overall reduction from 2020 to 2021 and should be minimal in 2022

Blackcats

Thank you to those that share their figures - it's very helpful to see and definitely not something that happens in real life.
I've been reading a blog which has helped me think slightly differently about budget categories.  Next year I'm going to have a family pot which will include family get togethers that I cater for, trips out, our annual picnic which involves a night in a hotel etc.  Similarly a friends pot which includes meals out, ad hoc gifts for weddings, parties etc.  Another one will be for entertainment eg concerts, shows, memberships, Spotify, audible etc.
the blog encourages you to identify your lifestyle and what is important to you to create the categories for discretionary spends.  There will also be categories for bills, food, car etc.  Feeling quite inspired by this approach.  It's definitely better than my usual guesstimates 🙃

balabooberlies

YORKSHIRELASS said:

Thank you @balabooberlies that actually made me feel a little emotional.  I felt a bit nervous posting those figures because I know that some of you on here are far more frugal than me, but we lived beyond our means for so long - hence the debts, and I am so inspired and encouraged by this forum.

Being honest with myself about my finances was a huge part of turning things around and starting to pay off the debts so my spreadsheets are so important to me now.  I still struggle with feeling like I need to have "stuff" to be likeable and fit in and I dont think I will ever completely shake that off but I am making some big strides forward.

Soup made for lunches, mealplan done for the week mostly using what we have in the freezer.  A nice walk this afternoon so the only spends this weekend was £25 on essentials in Li@l.

I think you're amazing. Spreadsheets ?  Being honest with yourself.  All attributes.  Huge ones.

 Yes, I admit to being VERY uncomfortable admitting that I am in more debt than when I started on this thread.  I had all these plans but life had a different one.  I dropped the ball for over 6 months.  Spent a lot of money on comfort purchases etc.

However..........

I cannot give up.  I have to realise that everyone's journey is different.  

And mine begins every morning with the support and encouragement everyone is kind enough to offer here.  Be proud of yourself.

bala

x

[Deleted User]

Hi folks, I have been MIA from this forum for several months due to my attention being taken up elsewhere due to a still ongoing family crisis.  @balabooberlies I can totally identify with the comfort purchases, been doing that myself for the past four months. But it's time to dust myself down and get back in the game.

I really need to refocus on being as frugal as I can. Due to the ongoing crisis our monthly outgoings have increased by a significant amount. These costs are unavoidable until we get through this so I need to focus on where I can rein things back in. I am in awe of the plans and tracking that's being posted here. I have never been any good at tracking my money but I think it's time I tried.  I'm going to spend this week planning next year and report back on here. 

Scottiedog_3

Paspatur said:

Total overall expenditure is £3,190 down on 2020 of which £2,368 was a new boiler in 2020 and £520 was new glasses

I too spent well over £540 on glasses, which I find outrageous! How do you feel when you are faced with such a bill? I don't think I could use a distant optician because my varifocals have to be marked in by hand. What can be done?

ZsaZsa

Blackcats said:

Thank you to those that share their figures - it's very helpful to see and definitely not something that happens in real life.
I've been reading a blog which has helped me think slightly differently about budget categories.  Next year I'm going to have a family pot which will include family get togethers that I cater for, trips out, our annual picnic which involves a night in a hotel etc.  Similarly a friends pot which includes meals out, ad hoc gifts for weddings, parties etc.  Another one will be for entertainment eg concerts, shows, memberships, Spotify, audible etc.
the blog encourages you to identify your lifestyle and what is important to you to create the categories for discretionary spends.  There will also be categories for bills, food, car etc.  Feeling quite inspired by this approach.  It's definitely better than my usual guesstimates 🙃

This is really helpful to me. I write everything down on paper (I struggle a bit with spreadsheets) and I think I’ve over complicated my system by having too many categories. Really need to think about how to simplify it.

Paspatur

Scottiedog ( sorry can't work out the quote thing)
I agree it is expensive but I worked out that if the prescription lasts 3 years like the last one did it is less than 50p a day
Some people spend more than that a day on overpriced takeaway coffee
I have very complicated eyesight problems and could never use distant or even high street chain opticians
I cannot function without them so 50p a day to be able to see doesn't sound so bad
Although it sounds worse when I tell you I have monocular vision
And actually I would pay a £1 a day (or more) to see out of both eyes!!!

Scottiedog_3

@Paspatur My problem is that I paid over £500  early this year, had to go back to the same optician a few months  ago - I have blepharitis which needed a hospital visit to prescribe antibiotics- had more eye tests- and now the same optician is saying that my eyes have changed so much I need new glasses. GPs no longer have anything to do with eyes, yet opticians in private practice aren't allowed to prescribe antibiotics. Where is the sense in that ? 
Rant over ! Sympathy with your own eye problems.