2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Baxtersmum

Hello All
heres my list of little frugal practices of the day

• Made ice lollies from all the bits of fresh OJ left in glasses and breakfast which were then eaten by the tinies for desert after dinner
• Took the pup for a walk and fed the ducks with some suspect left over bread from a soup lunch yesterday
• Put away 3 boxes to use for eDay posting
• Listed 15 items on eDay
• A 15 minute clothes wash on the tinies clothes which unbelievably almost dried outside 😮 (I adore the 15 minute cycle, I use it on everything except bedding and towels which go on an eco wash) 
• Old perfume empty packaging listed on eDay
• Roasted some old tomatoes and veg to go with fish for dinner, absolutely delicious 😋 
• Going to freeze flat lemonade tomorrow for ice lollies once the moulds are empty again
• 1/2 a bruised banana into a silicon bag in the freezer to make smoothies during the week.

I’ll try to actually work out what I want from this challenge as I go along. I know I want to be more sustainable but cheaply as I find the weigh your own shops quite expensive 

EskarinaWeatherwax

My frugal start to the year has gone well. Took a drink and snack on a walk instead of having to buy for our coffee stop. 

And as I’m looking to plant about 30 new lavender plants in spring, instead of ordering plug plants I’m first going to have a go at propagating from cuttings. I bought 15 plug plants for £45 inc delivery a few years ago so if I can propagate 30 that’s £90 saved. 

I don’t have rooting hormone but have had success with 10 rosemary (for a low hedge) just by stripping cut sections back and putting them into little coir pellets, so I have pellets rehydrating now and lavender stalks in water waiting to be trimmed. 🤞🏽

EskarinaWeatherwax

Oh, I forgot!

I’ve also decided to do Dryanuary. The pub is a really important part of my social life but the nearest pub with outdoor space - I’m not drinking indoors due to covid at the moment - has gone downhill recently. Every time I’ve been, they’ve been out of anything I’d like to drink and I’ve ended up spending money on something I don’t want or much like so have agreed with my pub buddy that we’ll knock it on the head for a moment revisit in February. That’s (£10/week) £40 minimum saved!

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

First item on my to do list was to overpay the mortgage this morning. After saving up last year we had enough to overpay the full 10% allowance of £5820. That has knocked 10 months off of the term and had a saving of £948 in interest. Now we can start saving for 2023's overpayment. 
I've had a quick look around the house and I can't think of anything that we need unless something breaks. I probably have enough toiletries for the year except for toothpaste. No clothes needed for anyone. Even the kids have the next 2 sizes up sorted thanks to charity shops and vinted. I'm well stocked on cleaning products and all the cupboards and freezers are full of food.
I have the £10 lidl plus reward to use by wednesday so will use that for some fresh bits. We have budgeted £250 a month for groceries but I would love to keep it under £50 this month and eat out of our stores and bank that £200  into savings. 

EskarinaWeatherwax

I have a question - does anyone know of anywhere to bulk buy and get delivered (no car) recycled and UK made loo roll that’s actually cheaper than the supermarkets?

I’ve been buying Traidcraft 40 rolls for £25&delivery but it works out at about 2x what the supermarket recycled version costs. I remember my parents buying 96 rolls at a time and I’d love to do the same. 

I don’t want to compromise on recycled or uk made.

nannygladys

Wow, I have a day off and there's so much catching up to do, brilliant!  

Woke up after a very late one last night or rather 3am morning. Feel as if I lost half my day, but this year I don't mind and will take each day as it comes. 

Frugal wise I froze some leeks and mushrooms that dd1 gave me yesterday after I did some freezer Tetris as I don't intend using them this week, so as I was in there I did an inventory. Then I moved onto the fridge, sorted out some fruit she gave me and made sure all the fruit and veggies were going to be eaten in the right freshness order, so tonight for tea, I made a mixed veg risotto to use some up that was more or less past it's best.

I did do a meal plan for the week but it's all changed now, but at least I'm not wasting anything. I went to a food hub on Thursday (I think it was Thursday, I'm losing days here and there) and got quite a lot of free fruit and veg, I told dd1 about it and she went yesterday and they wanted her to take everything that was left, there was dairy and bakery goods as well, of course she couldn't as we just couldn't eat it all, even with other dd taking loads as well. I think as its a new one they hadn't had many people in and dd was told it would all going to land fill if she didn't have it, that's the thing about being frugal for us, we care about food waste and sustainability as well as living simply, find it all a bit upsetting to know there's people going without food when there is so much food waste, doesn't make sense but there you are.

I put one wash load in and managed to more or less dry it all outside and then I just finished it over the radiators whilst I had the heating in for an hour.  I also took the rest of my Xmas decorations down today, and gave the front room a good clean through so it's looking a bit empty now.

And that's my day, I kept busy and feel positive about the coming year.
Nannyg

cybertortoise

Today I have spent 7 hours at work. I took my own lunch, hummus and crackers (shop bought from the fridge) and they gave us a small fizzy drink and popcorn because it was New Year's Day so that bulked it out a bit. I haven't spent a penny today, I only had £1.62 in my bank anyway so less of an accomplishment

Dinner was scrambled eggs on toast due to my late finish at work. The bread was reduced and frozen and the eggs were yellow sticker, 15p for 6 large! Tasty and relatively healthy.

I have emptied my bank account into my savings pot, I'm trying to build a bit of an emergency fund/buffer but also trying to pay off a mountain of debt. I'm very aware that if there was an emergency I'd be reliant on credit of some sort to fix it. My budgets are all ready to go for the coming year. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge.

I do have some hefty bills to pay out in January. The hall and stairs are being wallpapered and I have to finish paying off my holiday. Then I need to make a start on the garden getting sorted out so we can actually use it, it will help me to earn more from home too so worth the cost. All that money is being budgeted very carefully. I've got a decent pay day due in January from some extra shifts before Xmas, I just need to make sure I spread that extra across February as it'll be a much tighter month.

I'm going to go through the cupboards and freezer tomorrow and work out a shopping list in advance of Tuesday when I actually get paid and can go shopping! We never really have a stock of food that we can make meals from, it's all frozen onion and mushrooms at the moment. If anyone has a recipe to use up frozen mushrooms I'd be so grateful as we bought 6 bags for batch cooking then didn't like that recipe

cw18

MazzieD said:

Whilst I'm posting, just wanted to ask if anyone uses the cash (stuffing) envelopes system.  I'm looking at using this for anything not on DD this year.  What I'm particularly interested in is what you put the cash in i.e. an actual envelope or a clear plastic zip lock type of thing or whatever.  Is there a frugal way rather than buying a binder and clear plastic 'envelopes' from the big river company?

Not something I've ever fancied doing, as my home insurance only covers a very limited amount of cash in the home in the event of theft / fire or possibly even a flood (probably not so much now notes are all plastic).

I've seen a number of comments on the internet about bank accounts that allow you to set up lots of mini-accounts within them, and then name these as to what that portion of money is for.    If I were in the market to change banks, then this is something that would interest me greatly - and seems to be a safer way of pigeon-holing cash ready for specific spends.

[Deleted User]

So my focus for January is:

General No Spend month.  No spending on anything other than food (in house), petrol.  Focus on decluttering one bedroom.

I have started decluttering today with a few items now listed on gumtree. The room I am planning on focussing on is OHs room - it's a 'spare room' where he has all his clothes and where he sleeps when he snores or is nightshift.  He is quite messy and his clothes are often just flung into the wardrobe.  There is alot if other stuff in there that you would not expect to be in a wardrobe like tools, various screws, nails and random wires, a microphone stand, an old printer etc.  So this is where we will focus on decluttering this month.  I've told him to pretend I am Tan from Queer Eye and we are going to get the wardrobe set up with all his clothes hanging and folded so he can find things easily.  We'll also look to set up proper storage for tools and misc items, ideally in the shed or attic.  There is a built in cupboard in the room that is in dire need of some new paint (which we should have) and new shelving but as this is a no-spend month I am going to try and source these for free either on gumtree or elsewhere.  

No spend day today, I had a lovely day at my sisters with OH sharing a pot-luck dinner and playing board games.  I hope everyone has had a good start to the year, howevr you chose to spend it.

nannygladys

MazzieD - I tried the cash envelope system for a time and bought some zipped envelopes from Wilko, I think they were 40-50p each, but stopped when during lockdown shops didn't want cash. My dd uses jam jars with labels on, for groceries, window cleaner, school dinners etc so there is never any large amount of monies kept in the house, and the jars are in her pantry out of sight.

Nannyg