2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Ellie79

My borrowbox every so often boots me out or the app crashes and won't reopen. So frustrating because when it does work it's ace!
Spent a bit more than planned at flicks but I'll just readjust a budget. Was a tenner more but both DD (one is a newish mummy, nice to give her an afternoon off every so often) loved it and was worth every penny to have us together. 

Now to attempt to squeeze some bits in the freezer. Thanks to food shop sending meat due to go out of date today. I did get a refund but obviously no chance of me not using it up. 

Hopefuljoy

Evening! Well the professional cleaner told me that my mattress is unsalvageable so I moved on to plan B which was to look at the Which magazine reports online at the library during my lunch hour and find the best I could get for my maximum budget of £250 (arrived at by calculating what I will get from tarting 2 bank accounts). Using my workplace discount card I managed to get 5.5% off a highly rated Ik@a mattress for a grand total of £219. 

So once again repairs to the bathroom light and some other jobs are delayed but it had to be done and I will just stick to my budget and rebuild those sinking funds. 

Apart from that blip I'm feeling very positive about frugalling and have also joined Fashion on the Ration! 

Tomorrow after I've collected the mattress I will do the weekly shop and start batch cooking to fill the freezer up again. 

Hope you are all having a lovely evening and chat soon.

zafiro1984

Not posted for a few days.
Had quite a bit of expense this month and rather glad Feb is coming to a close.

They say look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves - never a truer word.
I'm on a campaign to reduce the electric consumption. So far I'm quite pleased considering it's not a small house. A few weeks ago the oil was late in being delivered and we were without for several days. The electric consumption went up to over 38kw a day despite using the woodburner 24hrs a day. 
I checked and the woodburner/stove kicks out 9-10kw, wood is free, I cook as much as possible on its 2 hotplates and small oven, it also heats some of the water. Today the electric consumption was down to 14kw for the last 24hrs. The general temp has been turned down by 1degree, I used the washer, run 3 freezers, 2 fridges, 2 tv's, 2 computers - but today I washed the dishes by hand - first time in years. I'm quietly pleased, at this rate my STO for electric won't have to be increased despite the hefty price increase (which came through yesterday) 

Another win today was to change an insurance company and save £570 for the year, It was also for slightly better cover as well.

I'm going to have a good look at other things after the weekend and see where else i can trim things back.

RainbowHippie

Hello all, hope everyone is well and doing ok after all the stormy weather.

I've finally got round to looking through my spending tracker for the last year and feeling a bit deflated. This year (or most of it - 2021/22 so far) I've not tracked OH's spending as well as i did for 2020/21, but mine is high - not a huge surprise as OH has been unemployed for much of the year so i'm covering most costs, but my spending alone is higher than what i'd hoped we'd both spend in total, based on the previous year. I've tracked my own spending quite thoroughly, and really i knew during the year that there were problems but had put off sitting down and analysing it month by month until eariler this week. I'd sort of hoped it would turn out better than i thought - decidedly not the case! It could definitely be worse, but it's not pretty! Some months we were a couple of hundred under, but some months were the same or more over. Trying not to feel too dismayed about it as it could be worse, my income has been ok this year so it's not like we're in debt, and the picture is going to change completely anyway once we move. 2022/23 is an opportunity for some new frugal routines. Just need to make sure i am learning from the past. Not least about not ignoring the problem! Looking at the figures, some of the main culprits have been:

Having to pay for accommodation when we couldn't house-sit (the least controllable and no big surprise, and at least house-related costs should be more predictable in future). Petrol has been fairly high with about 3 full tanks a month, hoping this will be less from about May once the move is complete.

Gifts, which was a bit of an unexpected one for me, and definitely on me as i tend to sort out all our gifts for people, though we do discuss and agree some jointly. I used to be big on frugal gifting (handmade/home cooked, gifts of time etc), but we/I've become 'lazy' during the pandemic and got into the habit of spending more. Ironically we've reduced the number of people we buy gifts for but seem to have massively increased the amount spent. Needs some thought and better planning throughout the next year.

Health-related stuff for OH. Due to some health issues we've been trying to get him up to a better level of fitness, for various reasons this has ended up being quite expensive and is a difficult and ongoing process. Health is so important and definitely something i do want us to invest in, but i do sometimes wish some of the more frugal methods worked better for him. I've made some suggestions recently for potential compromises, and we've agreed a few things in principle, but time will tell. I will continue to do what i can to support him, and of course pay for what is necessary, but try to be more conscious and with a gentle steer towards frugal activities. I'm sure it will also be easier once he gets a job in our new town (fingers crossed) and is able to pay towards this himself, plus hopefully the lovely seafront will inspire us both to be more active in frugal ways!

Food/grocery costs really need addressing. Our spending is quite consistent but higher than i'd like. I've started categorising some things (alcohol bought at the supermarket, 'treats' type food) separately in an effort to show us a bit more accurately where the money is going. I have some ideas on how to cut this down, the main issue being that the Venn diagram of frugal, healthy, and appetising to the OH does not have a large intersect area! I'll have to catch him at a receptive time and engage him in meal planning again (have tried many times, but he has a very strong dislike of being 'told what to do', even by his past self ) I've started some habits recently, just focussing on my own behaviour, that will hopefully help, like choosing not to have whatever 'main event' he's having (veggie sausages etc) if i don't feel i need it - most of the time i actually prefer just the vegetables/sides part of the meal, and though it doesn't seem like much of a difference, hopefully it will mean the more expensive items are used at a slower rate.

Social spends (food/drink out) have been creeping back up and we'll need to keep an eye on them - as i think i mentioned we'll hopefully both be finding low-key local part-time jobs to pay for our social spends.

There will be more lessons to learn as i continue to go through the figures. So far i'm really reinforcing my commitments to make/grow/scratch cook etc as much as possible when we're settled in our new home, and do as much as possible free or very cheaply in terms of furnishing, decorating and also learning about our new area. Lots to think about. I will certainly be continuing to read along with this thread and trying to absorb your frugal wisdom.

Hugs to all xx

Hopefuljoy

I sat down as well @RainbowHippie and took a long hard look at where I overspent last year. It shocked me as most of my overspend was on food/treatsand I forked put almost double what I had budgeted for in most months. It wasn't even on decent food or because of rising prices. So like you I am keeping a firmer eye and grip on things. I wish you good fortune with it and cheer you on! 

Hopefuljoy

Forgot to say that I collected the mattress today and DD kindly drove me so no petrol used. She wanted a breakfast instead of money so we went to the golden arches place and it came put of my fun money budget so no overspend or guilt. I have enough left over to see a friend for a tea tomorrow as well. Food shopping has come in on budget at £25 this week as well so I am happy. Lots of good veg and I have planned meals in my head forbade week. No batch cooking done today but I have two more days to do it before work again on Tuesday. So far so good and DD picked up some free meals from her Saturday job. 4 chicken escalopes, a curry for her dinner, smoked salmon spread and two mini yum yums!!!!!! Hurrah for free food!!!

Floss

Could your OH take on meal planning while he is not working @RainbowHippie

2Scratters

Evening Peeps,
Well taking  a dive into the bottom of the wardrobe has paid (not financially) dividends. Found some clothes that come into the category of they will do and not a "fantasy me". There are some that are a bit snug but will make do with that as they are summer clothes Happy with that. Just need a swimming costume.
Got some washing onto the line today 3 lots in total. House smells fab. That's the first time this year, need to get more organised!
Tonight's tea sorted and tomorrow's - if I play my cards right may get into Tuesday with it.
Today is 3rd NSD since payday. We have enough produce to keep us going for another 3 days or so. Still working on bringing the amount of stuff in the freezer down. We have an empty drawer, that feels good as we sure had a lot of not so good stuff in there, DH is not too keen he has decided about quorn items. I need to be a little inventive and not tell him what I am doing with it. Easiest to do is going to be adding in beef mince when I do a batch cook
DH has just sat down and moved money in his bank accounts into different pots, he is on a learning curve with his money (teaching an old dog )

Stay safe
2Scratters xx

spudsmum

Hi all, 

Just back from our week's holiday. Not hugely Frugal but I did put some money aside prior to going and managed to come in under that amount by £50 - normally I massively overspend and end up laying into the credit cards so I'm calling that a massive win. 

Went food shopping on the way home and came in £44.88 under budget. We've both also just been paid so all budgets reset and we didn't use the cc at all last month. Overall balance is slightly up as I did a balance transfer but with the amount saved on interest that should break even by next month and I can hopefully get back to reducing it. I say hopefully as my car mot is due so I'm being hopeful but realistic. 

It's my twins birthday in a few weeks - normally another danger point for overspending but we've decided not to do a party. Neither will we be buying presents they got loads of toys at Xmas that we already have no space for. We'll buy some little sweets etc to wrap up so they have something to open. They are both obsessed with lego so we're using Clubcard vouchers to buy some tickets for legoland. Family have already offered to give them birthday money so they can buy themselves something in legoland shop.

We'll get a cheap premier inn and stay over - we'll put the £50 we saved from our holiday budget towards that - so it will still cost money but much less than we'd normally spend - they're only 5 and their last 2 birthdays were disrupted by covid so we're still keen to do something. 

London_1

End of the month at last and because I only shopped for food once in February I have about £15 odd to roll over into March

I have found because I am being even more frugal (if thats possible:)) I only buy real essentials, and I am using up stuff in the cupboards more, and I'm running down my freezer to hopefully defrost it.

My DD brought me a nice broccoli and cheese quiche yesterday that she spotted in M&S vastly reduced, so that was quartered up wrapped and frozen for lunches this week and next, I have plenty of salady bits in the fridge so I shall maake something from the different quarters maybe with some pickles and bread and butter one day, or even some chips or a jacket spud another Its surprising what you can do with just the basics

 I have still some spicy carrot & lentil soup in the fridge to use up that will do for todays lunch.

I dug out 500 gms of best minced beef from the frezer last night so will be batch making some cottage pies for the freezer I have a few carrots left from the kilo I bought to make the soup so I will use them up diced and I have a bag of diced onion and mushrooms in the freezer that i can get a nadful off so thats the mince sorted I may divide it up and make one lot of cottage pies aand one lot of chilli portions as I have tinned kidney beans in the cupboards as well.

its quite liberating not having to trail around the shops looking at how the prices have shot up at the moment .Shopping from my cupboards is my main objective at the moment

I had a hefty bill from the builder on Friday for replacing some roof tiles ,so belts will be tightened a little more this month coming .

But everything, although a challenge at the moment, will at least get me motivated more into sorting out what's in my food stocks ,luckily I have a good stock of tinned stuff for these occasions when the wolf is knocking on the door so I will batten down and sort out some more stuff today to use up

I have menu planned as usual for the coming week so no shopping at the moment needed at all I have an essential shopping list with only a few things on there at the moment ,nothing I can't live without just yet  

Onwards and upwards everyone 

JackieO xx