2021 Frugal Living Challenge

tryingtodobetter

Morning All! A quick post before I start work.

No anticipated spends today so should be a NSD as i'm working until 8pm and parking is still free. Packed lunch made and extra sandwiches made for DH & DS3 to save them the bother later.

Frugal Plans for Today (to be done in lunch break)
> Investigate the Olio app 
> Complete any surveys that I can manage on my phone

Hope you all have a lovely day

the_cross_rabbit

decided to cut up the lemons and limes that I bought just before the new year (for cocktails) instead of leaving them to develop fuzzy blue/grey coats and popped them in the freezer for drinks in the summer or for adding to cakes.
CRx

Shopaholic_no_more

Morning all
I hope all who have/had Covid are feeling they are turning a corner now 🤗
I am going to check out the Kate Humble book also! We have a university bookshop in our town where we can get discounted books and I am intending to use this much more!
A big Aldi shop yesterday which came to £96 but will definitely see us through until the end of January bar a few bits of fruit and milk. Happy with it because we needed to drastically cut back on our food spend. Was worried it might be heaving with panicked shoppers since the latest announcement but thankfully it was quiet.
No stay at home for us as my DP is a Royal Mail key worker and I work for a company that supplies craft and hobby supplies to the masses and boy last year was our busiest year to date I believe. So I guess they are expecting more of the same now we are back in another lockdown. Crafting has been so so popular for keeping minds and fingers active so I’m happy to be part of that service even if we are not recognised as key workers 😂.
At the moment there is only £285 in our EF so we need to build that back up...
The council tax savings are going to be a massive help from February and March as they will be paying for a boiler service (the pilot light keeps going out so needs looking at as well) and we need to fix a cracked piece of guttering at the front of the house too. 

I have 2 credit cards on 0% which will end in March and April completely cleared....I am so happy about this.
I still have way too much on my main credit card but I’m hoping by taking small amounts of it away on to a 0% card and paying them off until cleared I will be able to slowly slowly cut through my debt .... it seems to work for me so far 🤞.
I have been a self confessed compulsive buyer....it used to be clothes ...then it was hair products ...oh my word I have so much shampoo in this house it is beyond ridiculous. BUT...I seriously have needed to get a grip so this last year I have started on my frugal journey with the help of this wonderful forum and online content...the likes of Rachel Cruze and so forth.
Here’s to all us frugalers....may better times come that we may hug our friends and families once again. How wonderful would that be ❤️.
Have a great day x

wishus

Feeling lucky! Was reading The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber on Borrowbox, and it's huge, so I only managed to read 60% of it before running out of renewals. Sadly I let it expire... Just looked again and it's available to borrow again! Yay! Saves me having a DNF on my list or splurging the money.

My instant pot Christmas present has been coming in very useful... Going to try for a veggie day today, for the planet, you know. Hubby likes spice but is allergic to chillies, so trying to decide between an alloo sag or lentil dahl...

Frugalistamama

zafiro1984 said:

Frugaldom, I take my hat off to you as you are so committed to your way of life. I'll try to be more frugal but I'll never come anywhere close to what you do.

I had to step outside my planned budget yesterday as we needed more PPE. We're both now shielding and taking this variant very seriously as we live in a high risk zone. Our help has asked if she can come in at 7am and be gone by 10am. That suits us as she does all the hard physical work to do with the horses, so we should be able to cope for the rest of the day. 

I'm still working my way through my egg surplus, just made four cake batter mixes, cooked one and put three in the freezer.  That took 16 eggs. I think I'll make some meringues this afternoon and I'm sure I read somewhere there is a cake made with just eggs yolks, I think it was a Scottish recipe, and it was a cross between a cake and shortbread. If I can find it again I'll have a go at it.

I found this cake recipe for surplus eggs. My great grandmother had lots of chickens and made a similar cake when she had a glut.  High protein cake whats not to love! Xx

https://aseasyasapplepie.com/italian-sponge-cake-pan-di-spagna/

rolorich

I’ve just put a spaghetti bolognaise mix into the slow cooker; increased quantities with more vegetables (carrots peas and baked beans) so that will make three dinners and freeze two for next week and week after. 

Im collecting two nut trees lunchtime from my local nursery and will get those into the garden this weekend. We don’t have squirrels so hopefully in time will get good harvests. 

found out my local stately home does free residents passes to walk around their gardens so I’ve applied for one so can walk the dog in gorgeous surroundings regularly. So that’s a good frugal saving.  

I finished knitting my grand daughter a pair socks last night from stashed yarn.  Will knit her sister a pair and send them.  

Had the offer of a free moonpig card with just 79p postage so sent mum a card with hugs telling her how much I miss and love her and thinking about her.  She’s on her own over 100 miles away.  I do speak to her every day on the phone too ( mobile has unlimited calls package). 

Those are my frugal things for today. 

nannygladys

Hi everyone, wow this thread is moving quickly, good going everyone following the frugal path. My banking has been done and a meal plan for the rest of my pay period has been done, mainly from the freezer and stores. My frugality is really happening as Im not going out anywhere! but I will get to the lottie when the snow has gone, it will be just too muddy down there at the moment and I cant really do much down there.
I have put the breadmaker on and have a fruit loaf in the oven, I opened some polenta the other day so that cooking in the halogen and lunch is soup made from onions and butternut grown on the lottie last year with the polenta. That's is for now as the oven is pinging. See you later
Nannyg

CRANKY40

Good afternoon all, 

My spends so far this month are £108.13/£538.53. £2.57 was added to my original available total as a direct debit was slightly less than I thought it would be. Food shopping was more than intended as I'm on a liquid diet for a few days (doctors appointment tomorrow morning) so shopping included 2 tubs of slimfast, extra skimmed milk and a lot of yogurt. This is not an attempt at weight loss (although it seems quite effective as such), it's a medical problem, sigh. There's always something isn't there? I do know it could be a lot worse. 

Our food bill is also higher every other week as I have a supermarket delivery every 2 weeks. I do have top up shops here and there as I prefer to choose some things myself but generally I'm quite good at staying away. My 16 year old son is doing online school from home and said it was cold on Monday morning. He was wearing shorts pyjamas so I told him to get dressed and see if that helped. It did. I don't need to put petrol in the car this week either. Every little helps. 

It's a making day today. I will be making gingerbread biscuits and brownies once I've finished this post. 

skint_chick

Another quiet NSD - just back from a long walk as the sun was out although it's about 3 degrees outside. Really enjoyed it, walked to the local RSPB reserve and looked out over the sea. There's a few benches, so I might bring a flask of soup next week and have lunch there because it was very peaceful and relaxing, and only a 35min walk through my local park and along the shore. There's also a cycle path so should probably do more cycling but I am a bit nervous of having an accident and needing to go to hospital! Made a soup/stew from chickpeas, greens, leftover chorizo, and canned tomatoes which turned out really delicious and baked a crusty loaf to go with it - wasn't quite as fluffy as I'd hoped but still tasted good.

Won't be spending any money this weekend either, planning to do a long walk with hubby to the beach, it takes just over an hour each way, and then walk past the fancy houses and decide which one we would buy if we won the lottery. My main aim for this year is to build up my fitness ready for more serious hiking when we can travel further afield. Booked a supermarket delivery for 18th Jan, will need to get bread for OH's lunches from local shop, but we have enough of everything else to get us through.

Frugaldom

zafiro1984 said:

Frugaldom, I take my hat off to you as you are so committed to your way of life. I'll try to be more frugal but I'll never come anywhere close to what you do.

I had to step outside my planned budget yesterday as we needed more PPE. We're both now shielding and taking this variant very seriously as we live in a high risk zone. Our help has asked if she can come in at 7am and be gone by 10am. That suits us as she does all the hard physical work to do with the horses, so we should be able to cope for the rest of the day. 

I'm still working my way through my egg surplus, just made four cake batter mixes, cooked one and put three in the freezer.  That took 16 eggs. I think I'll make some meringues this afternoon and I'm sure I read somewhere there is a cake made with just eggs yolks, I think it was a Scottish recipe, and it was a cross between a cake and shortbread. If I can find it again I'll have a go at it.

Zafiro, the horses (ponies) here are my biggest expense, especially after 2020 and the continuing lockdown preventing us from fundraising or having volunteers / students to stay and help. How many horses do you have? On the other topic of eggs, I make lemon curd with the yellow yokes and wouldn't hesitate to add them to biscuit mix when baking those. I don't follow any recipes, I just throw in whatever I have and the addition of any egg at all is treated as an extra