2022 Frugal Living Challenge

missmoneywatch

Does anyone have a bread maker and do you know how the price compares to buying bread? I had an old one which we threw out years ago now wondering if buying a new one would make sense.

Bluegreen143

Went for a drink with a friend the other night and we had a brilliant chat on materialism, money and life goals. She’s a Green Party member and thus in total agreement about the harms of consumerism.

I watched the “Playing with Fire” document recently so we had a chat about that, and about the concept of FIRE and choosing to be more intentional with your money to save/invest and thus buy freedom (whether by getting to work part time, stay home with your kids, start your own business, retire early).

Refreshing as a few of my “mum friends” are very different and own very expensive houses, always buy brand new status symbol cars etc, so I can’t talk about this stuff with them. Reminded me of how much better it is to surround yourself with like minded people!

Primrose

We've  had an automatic Panasonic Breadmaker for several years and my OH who is the Bread expert in our house swears by it as it can be set to work on a timer for your convenience.
I'm not sure that it's necessarily cheaper than buying a supermarket loaf but you can make a wide range of quality breads in it.

My OH also makes a variety of delicious cakes in it. (You put them in in one of those rectangular paper case containers) and I'm sure its probably a cheaper way of baking them (and bread)than having to use a large oven.  We've never sat down to work out the £sd of running it .

Just wish we had a bigger kitchen though.  It does take up quite a lot of space, but there's no way my OH would be without it ! 

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

Went for a drink with a friend the other night and we had a brilliant chat on materialism, money and life goals. She’s a Green Party member and thus in total agreement about the harms of consumerism.

I watched the “Playing with Fire” document recently so we had a chat about that, and about the concept of FIRE and choosing to be more intentional with your money to save/invest and thus buy freedom (whether by getting to work part time, stay home with your kids, start your own business, retire early).

Refreshing as a few of my “mum friends” are very different and own very expensive houses, always buy brand new status symbol cars etc, so I can’t talk about this stuff with them. Reminded me of how much better it is to surround yourself with like minded people!

I have exactly the same problem.. The amount of consumerism thrust on kids and around at the kids parties I go to makes me feel slightly nauseous. However, I do hope me being there with others does make something filter through, even though I don’t say anything.

Glittering_M

Sweetlittledaydreams said:

Super cheap meals so far this week, 17p for a loaf of bread reduced to go, eaten half so far and it's still soft enough to keep eating. Wild garlic and nettle risotto - foraged, healthy and obviously cheap! Less healthy tonight but still tasty and filling, spaghetti hoops 16p a tin, some of the bread and eggs from the garden chicks, and homemade cider.
I've requested a statement to see how much I've got left to pay on the mortgage, just to get me back on track.
I've also ordered mushroom spores this morning and plan to make a mushroom bed in a shady bit of the garden, I'm vegetarian and eat a lot of mushrooms so this should be good if it's successful. Also now it's getting warmer I'm going to dry grass cuttings to make straw for the mushrooms to grow in. My garden is quite small but I'm trying to make it as productive as possible. 

Ooh, I've been considering that but I wasn't sure if it was worth it/complicated as I get different answers online. 

Can I ask where you got the spores from? 

Keep us posted how it goes!

Floss

I used to grow mushrooms years ago in the cupboard under the stairs!

Primrose

Bluegreen143 said:

Went for a drink with a friend the other night and we had a brilliant chat on materialism, money and life goals. She’s a Green Party member and thus in total agreement about the harms of consumerism.

I watched the “Playing with Fire” document recently so we had a chat about that, and about the concept of FIRE and choosing to be more intentional with your money to save/invest and thus buy freedom (whether by getting to work part time, stay home with your kids, start your own business, retire early).

Refreshing as a few of my “mum friends” are very different and own very expensive houses, always buy brand new status symbol cars etc, so I can’t talk about this stuff with them. Reminded me of how much better it is to surround yourself with like minded people!

One learns, as one gets older, that keeping the company of like minded people is a more comfortable  experience but it can be surprising sometimes how you can influence the more extravagant lifestyle  consumers if you quietly stand your ground on your own principles.  You may find some of them have their own guilty consciences about some of their habits but simply don,t have the courage to step out of line.    Sometimes quietly sticking to your own principles on certain issues can get people thinking about blindly following the herd and give them the courage to adopt their own path.

i think this is particularly relevant in the realm of childrens' parties these days and all their  related elements.  Some consumer habits have got completely out of hand in terms of extravagance, pushing some parents into debt simply to "keep up with the Jones".  Where is the sense in that?

QueenJess

Primrose said:

Bluegreen143 said:

Went for a drink with a friend the other night and we had a brilliant chat on materialism, money and life goals. She’s a Green Party member and thus in total agreement about the harms of consumerism.

I watched the “Playing with Fire” document recently so we had a chat about that, and about the concept of FIRE and choosing to be more intentional with your money to save/invest and thus buy freedom (whether by getting to work part time, stay home with your kids, start your own business, retire early).

Refreshing as a few of my “mum friends” are very different and own very expensive houses, always buy brand new status symbol cars etc, so I can’t talk about this stuff with them. Reminded me of how much better it is to surround yourself with like minded people!

One learns, as one gets older, that keeping the company of like minded people is a more comfortable  experience but it can be surprising sometimes how you can influence the more extravagant lifestyle  consumers if you quietly stand your ground on your own principles.  You may find some of them have their own guilty consciences about some of their habits but simply don,t have the courage to step out of line.    Sometimes quietly sticking to your own principles on certain issues can get people thinking about blindly following the herd and give them the courage to adopt their own path.

i think this is particularly relevant in the realm of childrens' parties these days and all their  related elements.  Some consumer habits have got completely out of hand in terms of extravagance, pushing some parents into debt simply to "keep up with the Jones".  Where is the sense in that?

A great example was at our nursery. People used to just have birthdays and they’d sing happy birthday and some people took in a cake for the kids to share. Fine. The nursery said they’d prefer a book donation so people started doing both! 

Then someone decided they would put a pack of horrible plastic wrapped sweets in every child’s bag as well (we don’t give our child those sweets and I was slightly annoyed we don’t get asked before the child sees them). Then of course everyone does that too. Then someone started buying small horrible plastic gifts as well as the cake, book and sweets to put in every child’s bag. It started to feel like madness since there are 30 children (90 in the year and some parents started to do it for all the classes). I mean what?!! Thank goodness we then finished nursery before it escalated further!

Primrose

QueenJess 

A great example was at our nursery. People used to just have birthdays and they’d sing happy birthday and some people took in a cake for the kids to share. Fine. The nursery said they’d prefer a book donation so people started doing both! 

Then someone decided they would put a pack of horrible plastic wrapped sweets in every child’s bag as well (we don’t give our child those sweets and I was slightly annoyed we don’t get asked before the child sees them). Then of course everyone does that too. Then someone started buying small horrible plastic gifts as well as the cake, book and sweets to put in every child’s bag. It started to feel like madness since there are 30 children (90 in the year and some parents started to do it for all the classes). I mean what?!! Thank goodness we then finished nursery before it escalated further!

Exactly!    It always takes somebody with a little more courage and sense than the rest to see how such situations might escalate to the point where people feel under peer pressure  to "catch up" .  In my view it,s important for somebody to have the courage to nip these situations in the bud.    Parents (usually mums,  are under enough oressure just raising their children without having all these emotional consumer pressures thrust on them.

Perhaps  in a perverse way the current cost of living crisis will put a halt to some of these more extravagant practices.

CCW007

missmoneywatch said:

Does anyone have a bread maker and do you know how the price compares to buying bread? I had an old one which we threw out years ago now wondering if buying a new one would make sense.

Definitely recommend getting a panasonic if you can find one second hand - they are not the quickest at baking bread but they are most definitely the best.  You can buy white bread flour from Lidl / Aldi for around 60p a 1.5kg bag which will make three loaves.  Add in a few pence for yeast, sugar, salt, butter or oil and then electricity to bake.  It may save a little or break even but the bread is so much better, fewer preservatives and you can't beat the smell of baking bread!