2021 Frugal Living Challenge

wort

Strawberry Suze,  I feed my cat raw, 80 20 20. I'm quite squeamish so buy it in blocks , from a local raw pet food place they deliver. Before I found them online I used a larger warehouse place but delivery was more. They 500 gram blocks I buy are a £1. Each. They also do precut chunks of meat ,  bones etc.

MazzieD

Yay!  payday today, although I work to calendar months for budget purposes.  Just done a quick supermarket dash to T*sco to stock up on cat food as fussy moggy doesn't like wet or dry L*dl cat food.  That will come out of grocery budget for February. I'm a slave to that animal, it was literally all I bought so a special trip just for him.

Hughesfamily

Up early as headache is in day three and showing no signs of going - covid test yesterday has proven negative though, and I know it's not a migraine (frequent sufferer) so have dosed up on tablets and ignoring it. Did a review of my seeds yesterday and I have set DD the task of planning the plot with what we have and we'll make a start at the weekend - have to tidy up the green house as well and replace a couple of panels, I have the glass already though from when next door got rid of their greenhouse. My little gem lettuce stubs that have been sat in water in egg cups are regrowing up to an inch now, so that will be something for nothing. Another thing I do is buy the living salad packs (usually T3sco or Sainsbugs) they are usually under £1.50 - I water well, separate the plants out and plant them up in a tub outside the back door for ease of use. It's like getting a head start on planting. I find that you can cut and they come again and with a bit of TLC, they last a good few months.
I've got myself organised and prepped the breakfasts and lunches for us to grab today, hoping this means I can just get on with work and maybe finish a little bit earlier. Right, best make a start on my work. Have a good frugal day all x

fiwen30

Thinking of you and yours @wishus

Partner got paid today, and so it’s a new budget for us. It’s usually a favourite day of the month, but we’re off to the vets first thing today - our vet physio was out on Wednesday and thinks our pup has got worse from when she initially assessed him 2 weeks ago. She’s now of the opinion that his left cruciate has completely ruptured, and has advised us to consult with the orthopaedic vet surgeon at our practice, so that he can get a full examination, diagnosis, and treatment plan in place.

I’ve been reading & learning a lot, and we’ll be guided by the vet, who I’ve worked with before & trust. But the cost aspect is terrifying. There’s various types of surgery, which can vary wildly in cost between about £1k - £6k+. One of those we can afford, the other we can’t. Feeling a bit sick, but trying to hold it together so that the dog doesn’t worry.

sashacat

Been reading regularly but keep forgetting to post.
got my granddaughter here as she is homeschooling and both her parents work and I live on my own. So it’s ok. Extra food has cost me a lot.
total spends for January are £151.25
that’s apart from the usual DDs for electricity etc. So managed to save some money  for holiday (2022 I hope) and getting some flagstones down around the house. 
Thank goodness this long month is nearly over. 

apple_muncher

Hugs, wishus. Lots of hugs.

Frugaldom - wow to all that fruit! And yes to Hughesfamily, if they want some.

ldee2111

OLaney said:

 
@ldee2111 Now this is very interesting! I have wondered if I could do this in the past... have multiple accounts...do all banks do this? Can I set them up online do you think? And you have separate instant access accounts for each one? I truly love this idea and think this will help me enormously as I will be able to see exactly what I have each time in each account. 
Thankyou so much for telling me about this!! I am going to go online now and see if I can do it through my bank.
I will let you know how I got on x 

I don’t know if all banks do it - definitely worth checking with your current bank. 
 Yes, I’ve got separate accounts for all the categories. I can open an instant access savings account with £1 via their app and it takes about 24 hours to appear. 👍🏻 But I need to rename the accounts on their actual website.
The digital envelope system really works for me and one of my close friends, who regularly used her cc to get through the month, started doing it about a year ago after I told her how I manage our budget. She’s not had to use her cc to get her to the end of the month since. 
The other thing I like about it is that I can see exactly what’s left in each category at the end of the month. I save any leftover money either into emergency or as an OP on our mortgage - no matter how little it is. I do not carry money over to the next month because my goal is to live within the budget I’ve set and using the extra from the previous month feels like I’m cheating the budget. 😂

ldee2111

Question for my fellow frugalers

I got a good 0lio pick up last night with some croissants, a soda bread, 6 rolls, and mushrooms.

I’d like to make mushroom soup but haven’t done it before. I’ve found a recipe on the BBC website which calls for single cream. Anyone know if it would work well with whole milk as I don’t have cream?

Rowan9

@fiwen30 hope good news from vet x

ldee2111

Sorry for your loss @wishus