2021 Frugal Living Challenge

welshspendthrift

Sorry for your loss wishes x

welshspendthrift

Oops predictive text sorry wishus 

Landgirlinthelittlecity

@wishus sorry for your loss super big hugs from across the way.

Couldsavemore

Sorry for your loss wishus

balabooberlies

I am just lurking and learning this year on this thread. 

My condolences to those that have lost loved ones.

bala

CRANKY40

Sorry to hear about your dad wishus. 

My habit of keeping food in the house started when my son was small and his dad worked away for 4 months at a time. If the baby was ill I ate what was in the house or did without so I started keeping extra bits in. When he was 4 I was widowed so there was still only me to go shopping and if he was ill then we were housebound. It's carried on from there. He's 16 now but it was so good not to have to go shopping when the queues were round the supermarket carpark after the first lockdown started. 

Frugaldom

Couldsavemore said:

Am amazed at how much people have left in there budgets etc... I'm on my knees this month.
My son has had a growth spurt so had to get new school trousers and pants and socks. Also got him some wellies. Also needed big bag of dog food which will get me through a few months...

Can I ask.. those of you with money left do you put money into savings at the start of the month?
 I put £400 into my savings account and £200 into the big bill account (car insurance etc) but then can't trim down my budgets which are way bigger than other peoples.. 

If your budget is calculated over the year then the amounts for each day, week or month are just averages so it's not always spare cash, it's just that the bigger, less regular bills haven't come along yet. The golden rule in my frugal budget is never to spend what you think is extra, save it for when it is needed. Hopefully this makes sense. Anything left over for me gets carried forward into the following year so I know for sure it was really left over from my overall annual budget.

Frugaldom

Condolences to all who have lost loved ones recently.                          

Rowan9

Hope you’re ok @wishus. I’m glad you were able to visit. 

DawnW

CRANKY40 said:

My habit of keeping food in the house started when my son was small and his dad worked away for 4 months at a time. If the baby was ill I ate what was in the house or did without so I started keeping extra bits in. When he was 4 I was widowed so there was still only me to go shopping and if he was ill then we were housebound. It's carried on from there. He's 16 now but it was so good not to have to go shopping when the queues were round the supermarket carpark after the first lockdown started. 

I have always kept a certain amount of food in the house. I was brought up to 'keep a good larder'. My mother and grandmother always said you never know what is round the corner, and this has certainly been borne out this last year!. For most of my married life (though not now) we lived very rurally, and bad weather, illness, lack of transport, or in more recent years, pressure of work meant we could not always get to the shops. We also grow and preserve food, so obviously at certain times of the year there are stocks of vegetables, fruit and preserves (in the past we had meat, milk and eggs too).  Any home grown stuff I can't use is given to any neighbours who would like it. The French beans were popular last summer - they are so expensive to buy.

I am deemed clinically extremely vulnerable, so queueing and supermarket shopping are not an option for me right now, and I have to rely on deliveries. I don't keep as much in as I used to, as the children are no longer at home, but it just seems a sensible idea to me to have a bit in reserve in case you can't get to the shops, the shops are low on stock for whatever reason, or a delivery gets cancelled (has happened to me) or items you use are unavailable, which just about everyone who shops online has had happen.  But each to their own of course, and I do understand issues of food poverty.  Having been poor myself in the past, I donate to the local food bank when I am able.