2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Hopefuljoy

Evening all! Well I have almost made it to payday on Thursday and have just topped up with £9 of petrol and have £2.50 left to buy some baking potatoes and single cream tomorrow which I need for meals this week. Making salmon pasta in the instant pot tomorrow for dinner and freezing and also a batch of bolognese sauce for freezing. Wednesday will be microwaved potatoes and cheese. 

The energy company wrote today about the 1st April price rises and offered a fixed rate for a year which is no higher than the variable rate will be. After a bit of thinking I have opted into it as although the price increase will start from tomorrow it is a limited offer and I could do with 12 months certainty. So i ha e gone from £48pcm to 79pcm to 103pcm in less than a year! Fortunately my DD who is at home while doing a masters is going to contribute 10pcm from her Saturday job pay to help. I'm not asking for any more from her as she is saving up to emigrate and she contributes in other ways. Not least by being a lovely person to live with! 

Now that I'm on this thread I feel a lot more positive about the future so I'm glad I signed up. Currently reading some books on foraging from the local library where I work full time. Libraries are epic! Will now wander off and catch up on more of this thread. Night night. x

Ellie79

Evening! @Hopefuljoy I like Alys Fowler's thrifty forager book. I like  her a lot! Really got me motivated to grow all sorts and not worry about sharing space with flowers and food stuffs. 

Thrifty things happening here. I've taken hold of my budget and mentally kicked my own backside about frittered away money. No more! Today's wins (mostly because I'm on holiday this week so have time) is to make leftovers soup from yesterday's roast chicken, bubble and squeak patties for the freezer (to have with some veggie sausages in there already), chicken, bacon and mushroom pasta (all leftovers) was for tea. Cheap plans for the week to entertain the youngest at home. I do need to tackle some decorating but I had saved money for that through those apps that skim money. Now to sit down and tackle my budget. I need a plan. I need some motivation! 

Hope the storms haven't been too bad for people. Mostly we have had tail ends here but we had some vicious ones previously. It's an awful feeling. 

[Deleted User]

It was back to school here today. Half term was a huge success due to the long list of very cheap and free activities I had on hand to keep the kids amused, but it’s nice to get back in to our normal routine. 

Spends were minimal - surprisingly (!!) as I was like a zombie on account of a poor night’s sleep due to the gales blowing everyone’s recycling bins about outside. Thankfully the weather has calmed here and got the kids out for a late run round the garden after school when the sun broke through. 

All meals from stores and lots of life admin related phone calls made. Also made a start on getting a friend sorted with a decent deal on life insurance. Following Martin’s advice, as always - legend.

Still catching up on all the previous posts - love all the positivity! 

Sweetlittledaydreams

I'm lucky in that where I live hasnt been hit too badly by the storms, but where I work has. Its pretty much flooded for miles in every direction. I worked 13hrs yesterday then attempted 4 different routes home, met fast running flood water, closed roads, broken down cars and fire engines on the first 3 attempts, finally got home an hour and 45 minutes later, to say it was a long day is an understatment, plus it was pitch black on the back lanes making it even harder to gauge the depth of the water. Slightly worried about getting there tomorrow but I'm then in for 5 days in a row so will be taking spare clothes with me so I have a back up plan of sleeping there between shifts. 
Made soup today with left over vegetables, and also bought some ready to eat foods to take into work because there's a fridge and microwave there so if I am there for a few days at least I'm sorted a won't end up spending too much on food. Also got my sleeping bag, bottles of water and snacks in the car incase i get stuck somewhere. Frugal has gone out the window today, I've had the heating on for about 4 hours and I'm still really cold, think I might just go to bed. 

CraftyLittleLisa

I have had some success as although my greenhouse at the allotment did suffer some minor damage due to the winds (that's a miracle in itself) we have been able to repair it with supplies in the shed.  The real irritant as a result of the storms was the fact that I had no power for 7 hours from lunchtime on Friday.  It was amusing at first but when it started to get dark and it wasn't coming back on I realised how ill-prepared I was as my little torch I thought would be sufficient wasn't that great and I only had one candle.  I also had no means to heat up water or cook as I have an electric cooker.  I have now got hold of a really good torch and I am going to investigate getting a small camping stove and some large candles.  I have lots of blankets to keep warm so that isn't the issue for me.  On the plus side - having no power for 7 hours has meant I had to save a bit of energy usage - every cloud as they say.

I have had a little bit of success selling things recently as well.  Normally I send stuff I don't want to the charity shops but the stuff they don't want I don't like to just throw out so I have been putting it up on social media just to see if I can find a home for it.  I have made £16 so far this month.  Other frugal things are, as was recommended on here a while back, I turned down the temperatures on my boiler, cancelled an anti-virus subscription and signed up to the free one I get with my broadband provider, changed my heating programmes on my boiler to be on for less time, having a vegan month which has saved me some money, adjusted and repaired some clothes and made some fingerless gloves from my stash to keep me warm when working at my desk.  Not a bad month for me.

Take care all.

Elisheba

Hi @CraftyLittleLisa A good supply of tea lights might be the thing. They last 2 or 3 hours and you can light a few at a time. Last I checked the best deal I saw was 100 for £2 at T3sco but that was before Xmas. 

Chloboshoka_2

My fridge is looking a bit bare, but I’ve managed to have some nice meals at work and finally getting round to use some frozen leftovers for meals. I am trying to go for a plant based diet, (I sometimes slip up on this) but I do try. 

EskarinaWeatherwax

Evening all

I’ll second the idea to have a stock of tea lights. I like them because they’re pretty but also vividly remember early 80s power cuts as a kid, sticking candles to saucers, so have never not had them around for necessity. They don’t eat or drink, as my mum used to say.

It looks like I might have to replace a few battered fence panels soon - not imminent thankfully as I’m sure they are going to be like hens teeth soon. We get strong winds here in May so I think I’ll wait til after those.  

Some nice frugal wins to be happy about. Got some great cheese, fresh veg and canned fruit from the community pantry, plus some tiny chocolate snacks which make for nice after lunch puds with a coffee. 

I’ve submitted my monthly energy readings and am happy to find I’m £70 in credit on dual fuel. 

And I’m busily eb8ying again, all to the good of thee mortgage overpayment.

Stay well and warm all

MazzieD

It's been an interesting few days, still have quite blustery winds and rain but no power cuts.  Lots of trees down as well as fence panels.

Did some number crunching last night, got my April energy price increases yesterday so have worked out what my new DD will be as they seem to be very reticent about mentioning it!.  Normally I can change my monthly DD amount on my account but that has been frozen for the moment, was going to put it up more than the increase but will have to wait.

Apart from that got the all clear to go back to work on Tuesday part time so I'm really looking forward to that, getting a bit bored now after 6 weeks of doing very little.  I am so lucky to have made a full recovery.

Think I will have to put my grocery budget up quite a bit just for March, my freezer needs to be re-stocked and I'm now low on essentials.  A small price to pay really, it would have been so difficult to manage otherwise and I know I would have resorted to take-aways if I didn't have all my batch cooked meals, a real money saver if you are ill or in an accident.

Thrifty_Taylor

Glad you're doing better @MazzieD.

Still selling things on eboy. Had a backdated pay rise this month, but then my car needed a lot of work to get it through its MOT. Have some money in the car sinking fund, but think it'll need topping up.
Frugal win yesterday, collected a broken bedframe for firewood from a nearby village. Hoping I can use some of the slats to repair the broken ones on our bed. Some good wood amongst it, so could save that for future projects (would like to build a coat & shoe cupboard in my porch). Also picked up a box of newspapers from the C00p for the fire, which I'd asked them to save. Bought some ys eggs (23p for 6) & mushrooms (20p)