2021 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

I didn't have cover for my dog.

When we took him in (he was almost 2) he was on steroids to try and stop him scratching.   Our vet ended up doing a skin scrape looking for a cause, and we were told to put him on a hypo-allergenic diet as it looks like allergies (he later suffered from hay fever!).   Changing his diet was enough to get him of the meds, so it appears to be have been the correct diagnosis.  Vet also thought he detected a slight heart irregularity, although we never had any related issues.   Both those meant insurance premiums were vastly higher - but they still excluded claims for anything that could be related in any way to either of those conditions.   So I'd have had to pay around three times the price I'd have paid had those things not already been identified, but would have only received a small percentage of the normal cover (and they'd have tried to connect anything I claimed for to one of those to get out of paying).   No thanks.    It was the same story with every company I contacted.

What I did discover was that some cover a condition for life (if they accept a claim for it and as long as you renew with them every year - though the annual premium will definitely start shooting up), but other only cover it for the remainder of the policy year.   So something like cancer or diabetes may only be covered for a matter of days if you're about to renew.

Decided I was better off putting money aside in case it was needed, rather than lining the vaults of an insurance company.

Bluegreen143

I agree @cw18. We don’t have pet insurance for our cat either. We are building our emergency fund which will cover that sort of thing and if anything happened in the interim we could use a credit card (not ideal but we have no CC debt, it’s precisely this kind of thing I keep the card for while we build our savings up! And aim one day to have enough savings that the card wouldn’t be necessary at all). 

Missywissy

Thank you both CW18 and Bluegreen 

Couldsavemore

Well I've pickef up somethings from olio. Just messaged some one else for their spare veg so hoping for a cheap shop at the weekend.
Also had 2 more no spend days.
Also working on eating less... that'll save money on food and means more of what I own will fit.

tryingtodobetter

I had some spends today:
£50 - DS2 birthday present
£26 - DS2 UCAS application

£3.43 profit from surveys
Listed 8 items on eBay

Meal plans and online Tesco order done.

Viking_mfw

Wildrose said:

I had a marathon cooking and baking session in the kitchen today. I live on the edge of one of the great food producing regions of the country and every week my oldest friend buys a load of veg from a farm shop and gives me a couple of bags of it. She's been doing this for the last couple of months and its such a help. I'm only allowed to thank her once, so I find different ways to pay her back.

So today I made: the veg filling for a vegetable lasagne, a double quantity of versatile veg soup, a roast dinner using up lots of root vegetables I had planned on using for Christmas. Cooked up enough spuds, parsnips, sprouts, carrots and leeks to have plenty over for a bubble and squeak tomorrow. I also made a batch of Nigella's Christmas Morning muffins. I'd got all the ingredients in when I thought we'd have a few more for Christmas Day than we actually did. Then a lemon dainty, one of those self-saucing puddings. So I've cooked up a lot of veg and eggs which needed using and made good use of a hot oven. 

Next goal is to start selling items again. I sold a lot of books through Music Magpie a couple of years ago, so that might be one of the first things to look at.

Went to look up the Nigella recipe and it sounds scrummy. That's breakfast tomorrow sorted! Thanks. 

cw18

I've an Olio pick-up to do tomorrow.   Someone listed a jar of one of my favourite flavoured coffees (tried and doesn't like), and also some not needed celeriac (which I've never tried before).   5.6 miles from me, but I'm off this week and had already planned to do a 20 mile walk tomorrow (for an on-line challenge), so I've planned a route that takes me home to there and then a long way home (with options to shorten if I start to struggle).

evuka

Hi everyone, back after a long hiatus in this challenge! I need to get familiar with the new look (can't find how to add signatures) and some ongoing threads and challenges. 
I was made redundant and now I'm looking for work, decluttering and minimising plus working on starting a side hustle. Will catch up on previous posts, I see we're already 36 pages in! 

Frugaliza

Morning all, 

I’m enjoying this frugal challenge and reading all your posts.  My local branch of Lidl box up rescued fruit and veg that would otherwise be food waste and sell for £1.50.  Hopefully you can see a pic of what I picked up yesterday - all in good edible condition.  Hope your branches of Lidl do the same.  

I’ve downloaded Frugaldom’s budget spreadsheet but I don’t quite follow how I’m meant to complete it.  Is there a link/post that explains this anywhere?

Happy Frugalling:)

MazzieD

Think it's a case of 'as you were' here.  I only go out for a daily walk and to do grocery shopping anyway so Lockdown hasn't made any difference apart from a cancelled haircut and plans for a significant big _0 Birthday in early February now cancelled. No snow so far but it's been bitterly cold. 

So glad I keep a month's supply of own brand wet cat food in, apparently it's in short supply, friend went to the local T"sco superstore yesterday, plenty of all the panic buy loo rolls etc but no own brand cat food, shelves completely empty apart from the more expensive brands!.  One very unhappy friend and no doubt his cat won't be pleased either!.

Lot of new places signed up on 'Too Good to Go' before Lockdown.  Has anyone tried the Costa bag?.  Getting the Morries one is impossible, they sell out in a couple of minutes and the pick up time is during my 'core' hours in the week,  Olio is really quiet, no food heroes so far this week or food listings.