2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Thrifty_Taylor

Just thought @Deleted_User, when my boys were younger, we spent the summer holidays visiting as many different playparks on our island as we could. Always took a picnic with us.
Don't know how old your littlies are, or if you have boys, but when we were toilet training our eldest, you could buy a blue ball with a face on, that you placed in your toilet, to teach them to aim straight. Sure it was @£5! I drew a face on the ball from a roll on deodorant, which worked just as well & didn't cost a penny! I have 3 boys, so saved us £15 over the years ☺️

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the tips @Thrifty_Taylor! We also have quite a few play parks quite local to us that we can take our pick of and the kids love to take picnics. Roll on the better weather!

Unfortunately the whole house has come down with covid. We are all quite poorly, but hopefully the worst will be past soon. 

On the upside I am using the down time to make some changes to our budget and catch up with this mammoth thread!

When I realised yesterday we were all getting sick I got the oven on and filled and have a few days worth of meals cooked and in the fridge to avoid the old take away temptation. My dad also dropped round a bag of a couple of bits I needed to save me having to do a delivery with a minimum spend. 

In better news we have a new addition to our extended family and I am crafting the main part of the gift we are going to send. Some home made bunting made from my girls’ old baby clothes - I did this for my own two, with their names on and was delighted with how they turned out. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

So February has not turned out to be the spend free month I planned, but all the spending has been unavoidable.  I need to get back on track next month and there is heating oil to pay for.  The good news is that we have managed to keep our electricity use down, and our food shopping spend is also looking good.

I will be glad when this stormy weather passes, our fence needs attention and I really dont want it to blow down right now!  

We have a weekend away coming up which was a Christmas present, we are in a holiday cottage so will take our own food.  Looking forward to it.

mumtoomany

Morning all. Still here and reading along. Just don't manage to post very often. Is been an eventful few weeks with the storms. Having fixed the tractor barn roof and put a temporary repair on the the brick barn, following the storms at the start of the year, we then had this batch of weather! The tractor barn roof has been damaged again, I think because we reused some of the old metal sheeting, some of which was very thin and prone to bending. This will now need mending again, OH it's trying to source some cheap, new, sheeting. 
Sadly our other very old tree split down the middle, around a third of it is now in the field. It's a beech and, we believe, older than the house. The house is almost three hundred years old. Sad to see it damaged. Hopefully the remaining but will survive and we will now have more fire wood, once we cut and dry it all. 
No other damage, fortunately. 
Took two old ewes to market this morning, sad to see them go as they both have names. Makes it much harder to say goodbye. The remaining ewes have been scanned, twenty five lambs due. 
Spent very little so far this year on groceries. Trying to use up what's in, so far for the year we are under £300, this covers food and non food, toilet rolls, soap, etc. Most meals for eight people, although DD3 says she's now vegetarian, says and his some of her own food. She still eats with us, even meat, if she feels like it!
My new, to me, wellies have sprung a leak, possibly due to age. They were laid under a bench in the putting shed for at least ten years, possibly a lot longer. Need to find the glue I think.
Take care all, mumtoomany.xx

Hopefuljoy

Evening everyone. A mixed bag of a day today but overall positive. I got paid today and did my budget last night. As dog insurance went down there was a slight gain and I am pleased that my 5 night camping holiday in May is now fully funded as is car insurance. I'm going on holiday with DD and two dear friends and really looking forward to it. Steadily saving towards my first visit to see my son and daughter in law in Australia in 6 years and that is on target too. 

Unfortunately one of our cats weed on my lovely mattress today and it is too epic to get out. I have £50 in the household repairs and buffer budget combined so I'm going to see if I can get it professionally cleaned. I can't afford a new one and this is a really good quality one given to me by my parents when mum went into a nursing home. Cheaper to get it cleaned than get a replacement All animals are now totally banned from my bedroom!!! 

Last night I also moved onto a one year fixed rate for gas and electric as my supplier offered one at the same rate as the April price cap. I will avoid the October hike and count that as a win in uncertain times. 

My goal this month is to stick to my budget and leave my annual expenses fund completely alone!!! Also to fill my freezer and meal plan before shopping. Have a good night everyone.

wort

@Hopefuljoy you will need an enzyme cleaner to get rid of the smell , I bought a big bottle on Am@zon, to douse floorboards after trying umpteen other options that were supposed to remove the smell. It was the only thing that worked. 🤞🏻

Hopefuljoy

Thank you wort! Have woken up feeling a little put upon as my DD had to raid her piggy banks and pay £1500 in January for investigations and an operation on one of the cats as she had a bladder stone. A whole three piece suite was irredeemable (hand me downs from parents but very nice!) and we were on camping chairs until last week we we got a new to us sofa. This time round it will be my turn to pay if another or the same cat is ill. Hatches are being battened down!!! 

However we are healthy and getting wiser even though decidedly not wealthy so all is not lost!! 

Ellie79

Morning all. Off to the pictures today (last day of half term). Saved money as we have a cea card as partner is visually impaired so carer goes free, oldest DD is a student and youngest DD still a child. I've budgeted it in our 'fun money'. Moved bank accounts this week so take advantage of 150 incentive plus other one really didn't work for me. Budgets done with 1st cuppa as today is payday. Moving money around later for sinking funds and see how we go from there! World to grim to contemplate so looking forwards to a couple of hours away from the news. Hope all are OK. 

Treasurequeen

Was treated to a hot meal out today which was nice. Popped into local independent bakery and treated myself to two cakes which only cost me £1.60 which will be for my supper tonight with a cuppa. Popped into local greengrocer and got a few planters for my balcony they were cheaper than was ticketed and I helped support a local independent seller. The plants will come up every year and help the bees. 

I dropped off a large bag of books and clothes to CS as I’ve been decluttering. I needed some new mittens as mine are falling to bits and can’t be repaired anymore in CS I found a nice orange woollen pair  brand new with tags originally  from a local independent shop in my local area. They were £2.60 but they can be repaired with new wool if it comes to it in the future. 

Yesterday I went to my local library and signed up for a card, I’ve taken a few books out on loan. 

I was told that you can now Borrow eBooks and eAudiobooks free from your library using the  BorrowBox app. The app is free to download and you type in your library card number and pin and you can borrow 10 of each. You can renew them on the app too. 

angela110660

Borrowbox is brilliant- use it all the time now but can't read or listen fast enough to take out all the titles at once!