2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

@fionaandphil Thank you. It took 7 months for planning to be passed then a further 3 months to complete everything. I had everyone on standby awaiting the planners' decision then the hut got built off site. It took 5 weeks to get it moved and rebuilt on site. This week, I hope to get the inside completed but had help last week doing the main parts. It still all needs to be painted but can't do that until it is totally dry inside and out. Exciting times! 😊

balabooberlies

Congratulations Frugaldom with cabin and with 'blow your socks off budget' !

And you Sparkly.  And all others on this journey.

I am not going to look at finances until Jan 1st when I will find out exactly how much I owe in a lump sum (from Experian) I can only manage things in a global, overview sense.  Learning about myself has been a god-send so if these are the tools I have to hand then these are the ones I will use.  No point stressing about what I find very difficult to do.  As long as the amount reduces every month in the next year then I am heading in the right direction.  This year I have learnt how to shop for food at vastly discounted prices.  2022 will be getting to grips over heating, insurances etc.

Just a wee aside.  I think it was back in March that we set ourselves a challenge.  Mine was to sell on ebay.  I have a considerable amount to sell.  My 'fear' was in downloading/uploading photos.  Am not great with tech.  Well, I didn't give up and last week I listed 3 things.  With photos !

 

have a wonderful day

bala

x 

YORKSHIRELASS

Bala so true, I get a bit obsessed about the numbers but if you are in debt and the amount is going down that's the main thing.

Our car is fixed, well the garage hope its fixed!!  No idea how much it is going to cost this time.  I had to pay a small amount to return an online impulse buy today so not technically a NSD but it was money well spent.

I have booked two more online food deliveries, just in case this Covid situation starts to cause problems again.  We are fairly limited for food shops here so it makes sense to plan ahead.

Frugaldom

@YORKSHIRELASS Glad your car problems are (hopefully) resolved and I have to agree with the stocking up on things. My A$da order has just arrived and the only extra special 'treats' I'd added onto it was their special offer litre bottle of Baliey's and their 8 for £5 Cup-a-Soups. That takes care of celebratory cheer on the hut decking at New Year and speedy, warm snacks in between tending to ponies and goats.

My dehydrated banabas and apples aren't going to last long as I keep eating them but as the food was free and the dehydrator warmed the place up instead of the fire, I'll count these sweet snacks as frugal.

On my EEK (Everything Else Kitty) and extra earnings challenges, I was overjoyed to learn today that our local council, in line with the Scottich Government's current lan to provide more campervan parking facilities, has extended their programme to October 2022. Tis means we can have campervans and motorhomes visiting throughout the year. I've already got parking spaces reserved  for folks coming here at Christmas and New Year. We don't charge for parking overnight but we do accept donations towards feeding the ponies and goats so evey penny counts.

balabooberlies

Frugaldom said:

@YORKSHIRELASS Glad your car problems are (hopefully) resolved and I have to agree with the stocking up on things. My A$da order has just arrived and the only extra special 'treats' I'd added onto it was their special offer litre bottle of Baliey's and their 8 for £5 Cup-a-Soups. That takes care of celebratory cheer on the hut decking at New Year and speedy, warm snacks in between tending to ponies and goats.

My dehydrated banabas and apples aren't going to last long as I keep eating them but as the food was free and the dehydrator warmed the place up instead of the fire, I'll count these sweet snacks as frugal.

On my EEK (Everything Else Kitty) and extra earnings challenges, I was overjoyed to learn today that our local council, in line with the Scottich Government's current lan to provide more campervan parking facilities, has extended their programme to October 2022. Tis means we can have campervans and motorhomes visiting throughout the year. I've already got parking spaces reserved  for folks coming here at Christmas and New Year. We don't charge for parking overnight but we do accept donations towards feeding the ponies and goats so evey penny counts.

Excellent News !

bala

x

willow_loulou

Had a MASSIVE olio haul today, more peppers and limes than I know what to do with, some ‘oh dear’ bananas that only really fit for banana loaf, rolls, brioche buns, spring onions and toasty loaves. I’ve not been in a food shop this week! Just as well as I’ve no money til Friday. 

Curry will be made tomorrow I think, tempted to add limes so going to google that. 

I hope this keeps up, it’s going to revolutionise my food spending and allow for better quality meat and less shopping trips in general. Fingers crossed! 

Frugaldom

@willow_loulou Having a food hero within my reach has definitely revolutionised my grocery budget. Only problem is, a lot of what we get is really fattening and carbie. I DEFINITELY need to do my February Frugal Fitness challenge in 2022!

balabooberlies

willow_loulou said:

Had a MASSIVE olio haul today, more peppers and limes than I know what to do with, some ‘oh dear’ bananas that only really fit for banana loaf, rolls, brioche buns, spring onions and toasty loaves. I’ve not been in a food shop this week! Just as well as I’ve no money til Friday. 

Curry will be made tomorrow I think, tempted to add limes so going to google that. 

I hope this keeps up, it’s going to revolutionise my food spending and allow for better quality meat and less shopping trips in general. Fingers crossed! 

Willow

I joined Olio, cos you mentioned it a few times and I thought 'why not ?'

on Tuesday I collected croissanty things.  2 of which I ate within an hour.  Shame on me but they were lovely and I was hungry !

I have some left......

 

x 

Frugaldom

Great that you have joined OLi0, Bala. I joined it a couple of years ago but it's only been in the past year or so that there has been anyone near enough me to enable me to become an active member. There's a section in the app that tells you how much you would have saved if you had paid full price for the free food. Mine is currently sitting at £1,921 so it is quite incredible what you can 'rescue' from there.

I've just been looking at setting up the 2022 challenge and suddenly realised that we have a major anniversary! 2022 will be our 15th year of running the challenge on MSE!  It's been 23 years since I began publishing moneysaving challenges but 15 years here is quite a milestone, especially as some of you have been with us since the start!  I believe that 15th anniversaries are celebrated with crystal, so 2022 is about making things crystal clear that to achieve debt freedom you need to prioritise and learn the bottom line in separating needs from wants. My own household became totally debt free 15 years ago but I decided then to continue with the lifestyle and save every unspent penny to invest in a project that would see me through to retirement and beyond. For newcomers, this may sound like a lifetime but trust me when I say it is a lifeSTYLE and one that I won't ever abandon. The rewards are far too great and the freedom to live life the way you want is why we do this.

Some of you may have followed the journey, which has included investing in property, others who join us here can probably find enough reading material linked to page 1 of this challenge to last throughout the year. So, without further ado, I propse to set up the new challenge this coming weekend. I hope you will all join me there and help make 2022 an absolutely dazzling crystal clear year of frugal living.

willow_loulou

@balabooberlies yay for olio! Glad you got something yummy to start off with! 

@Frugaldom I was offered naughty foods but I was fortunate they were dairy based so turned them down conscience free lol
I am definitely in for next year’s challenge, congratulations on 15yrs of challenges. This will be my 3rd year though not until April I think. My life is totally different since finding this mindset, thank you x