2022 Frugal Living Challenge

spudsmum

Kim1965 said:

-taff said:

Kim1965 said:

Lots of tips on here, having read the thread not many people give a total of 21 spending and spending aim for 22.
Its difficult to quantify peoples success at being frugal

The only people who need to quantify their success are the people who are being frugal, not any outside agency. There is no ultimate end prize of being frugal like a Gold Cup for the winner. Everyone has their own reasons for doing it, whether that's an end goal or just to be able to live how they want.

Surely its not about "living how they want", if money was no object there would be no need to be frugal? I would have thought being frugal is bourne out of necessity rather than want. Me included. 

Not necessarily - we all have our own reasons for being here. For me, frugality is a life choice more than strictly a necessity. 

Not saying money is no object - far from it but we do have a reasonable income. What we also have is a lot of historic debt and a large portion of our income going to service those debts. I'm also sick of frittering my money away and having nothing to show for it. 

I consciously chose frugality as a lifestyle to be more mindful of my spending and save money so that I can throw it at my debt. Paying extra off my debt is a choice - I could quite easily continue just making the minimum repayment and spending the rest of my money but the way I see it once my debt is gone that frees up yet more of my income for enjoying life, boosting savings and my early retirement fund etc. So in the long term its EXACTLY about living how I want. 

JIL

I have to say my council is making a bit of a mess with the £150 payment. I like to pay my council tax in one lump sum. I use a bills account where I pay my car insurance, service and household stuff from.
However this year we were advised that due to the £150 payment it would be good to pay by direct debit. So middle of March I set one up, 10 payments.
No payment was taken for April, apparently there were such an increase it wasnt processed in time. I received a "demand" [anyone else received a demand] the payments would increase and be taken over 9 months.
However the new first payment is due on 1 May, but theres no direct debit mandate at the bank.

Before I found this site, I spent every penny I had that month, I'm sure lots of people still do that. I'm not the only one in the direct debit situation, it just seems a crazy situation that people havent paid their months council tax, due to setting up a new payment method to get a £150 cash payment.

spudsmum

JIL said:

I have to say my council is making a bit of a mess with the £150 payment. I like to pay my council tax in one lump sum. I use a bills account where I pay my car insurance, service and household stuff from.
However this year we were advised that due to the £150 payment it would be good to pay by direct debit. So middle of March I set one up, 10 payments.
No payment was taken for April, apparently there were such an increase it wasnt processed in time. I received a "demand" [anyone else received a demand] the payments would increase and be taken over 9 months.
However the new first payment is due on 1 May, but theres no direct debit mandate at the bank.

Before I found this site, I spent every penny I had that month, I'm sure lots of people still do that. I'm not the only one in the direct debit situation, it just seems a crazy situation that people havent paid their months council tax, due to setting up a new payment method to get a £150 cash payment.

@JIL all council tax bills are called demands here.

It always annoys me when it arrives on the doormat "council tax demand" because it feels like an overdue bill - its a horrible choice of wording 

MazzieD

Some really interesting comments about the Council Tax Rebate so far.  It does seem odd to call it that when it isn't actually taken off Council Tax Bills (which would be the sensible thing to do (unless you are in Scotland who seem to be a bit more enlightened)..

Apparently my Council are starting to pay out this week but no mention of who is getting it when so no idea if it's based on Surname or which Band they are starting with or any other way.

Mine is likely to be put towards the October energy price increase which I'm really dreading.  Bills are hopefully manageable until then as long as consumption is kept to a minimum with no heating to worry about over the summer.  

Primrose

Saving money and being frugal to "buy time" feels a good choice to me.  We only pass this way once so how we live our lives and the quality of them is important.

Does it matter for example if you,re "tight" or "frugal" with your income so that you can afford a cleaner to clean your house if  you're a dual working couple so that you can spend quality weekend time with your children instead of doing housework?  Your choice.  Your priority. 

i think the value of having spare money is to use it to help maintain the sort of lifestyle you want to lead.  I suppose I'm fortunate in that as a World War II baby I grew up in a time of austerity so living frugally was built into me.   Today's generation may be shocked at my childhood paucity of material possessions  but I count it as a blessing that my lack of need for some of today's consumer items  has  given me a freedom from the "keeping up with the Jones" mentality in which many find themselves. 

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Primrose said:

Saving money and being frugal to "buy time" feels a good choice to me.  We only pass this way once so how we live our lives and the quality of them is important.

Doe it matter for example if you,re "tight" or "frugal" with your income so that you can afford a cleaner to clean your house if  you,re a dual working couple so that you can spend quality weekend time with your children instead of doing housework?  Your choirs.  Your priority. 

i think the value of having spare money is to use it to help maintain the sort of lifestyle you want to lead.  I suppose I'm fortunate in that as a World War II baby I grew up in a time of austerity so living frugally was built into me.   Today,s generation may be shocked at my childhood paucity of material possessions  but I count it as a blessing that my lack of need for some of today,s consumer items  has  given me a freedom from the "keeping up with the Jones" mentality in which many find themselves. 

spudsmum said:

Kim1965 said:

-taff said:

Kim1965 said:

Lots of tips on here, having read the thread not many people give a total of 21 spending and spending aim for 22.
Its difficult to quantify peoples success at being frugal

The only people who need to quantify their success are the people who are being frugal, not any outside agency. There is no ultimate end prize of being frugal like a Gold Cup for the winner. Everyone has their own reasons for doing it, whether that's an end goal or just to be able to live how they want.

Surely its not about "living how they want", if money was no object there would be no need to be frugal? I would have thought being frugal is bourne out of necessity rather than want. Me included. 

Not necessarily - we all have our own reasons for being here. For me, frugality is a life choice more than strictly a necessity. 

Not saying money is no object - far from it but we do have a reasonable income. What we also have is a lot of historic debt and a large portion of our income going to service those debts. I'm also sick of frittering my money away and having nothing to show for it. 

I consciously chose frugality as a lifestyle to be more mindful of my spending and save money so that I can throw it at my debt. Paying extra off my debt is a choice - I could quite easily continue just making the minimum repayment and spending the rest of my money but the way I see it once my debt is gone that frees up yet more of my income for enjoying life, boosting savings and my early retirement fund etc. So in the long term its EXACTLY about living how I want. 

I agree. We could afford to splurge a lot more then we do. We could fritter our money away on stuff we don't need just because society says we should but instead we choose to be careful with our money and save what we can. We have 2 young children with special needs and don't know what the future will bring. I have already had to leave work to care for them when it got too much and who know's in the future my OH may have to do the same. Personally I am much happier knowing that we may clear our mortgage in the next 2 years then I would have been ordering takeaways or filling my wardrobe with un needed clothes. I've never been one for going out at the weekend, out for meals or trips away. Even if i wanted to now its impossible with family life to do those things so we save our money. At the moment we will be on track to have cleared our mortgage by the time I am 37 (i'm 35 tomorrow). Frugal life isn't life or death for us but it makes life that bit more enjoyable. It really annoys me when people have the attitude that you have to be spending money in order to enjoy life. 

Wraithlady

Mummy2cheekymonkeys said:

Frugal life isn't life or death for us but it makes life that bit more enjoyable. It really annoys me when people have the attitude that you have to be spending money in order to enjoy life. 

Or, conversely, that Frugality is a competitive sport.

Obviously, if achieving set goals is your preferred method of motivation, all power to you (personally, it is a guaranteed way of making me lose interest), but I really can't see the point of seeing where you fall in some sort of league table.

I may be misunderstanding the original point, but it does sound a bit strange.

Kim1965

spudsmum said:

Kim1965 said:

-taff said:

Kim1965 said:

Lots of tips on here, having read the thread not many people give a total of 21 spending and spending aim for 22.
Its difficult to quantify peoples success at being frugal

The only people who need to quantify their success are the people who are being frugal, not any outside agency. There is no ultimate end prize of being frugal like a Gold Cup for the winner. Everyone has their own reasons for doing it, whether that's an end goal or just to be able to live how they want.

Surely its not about "living how they want", if money was no object there would be no need to be frugal? I would have thought being frugal is bourne out of necessity rather than want. Me included. 

Not necessarily - we all have our own reasons for being here. For me, frugality is a life choice more than strictly a necessity. 

Not saying money is no object - far from it but we do have a reasonable income. What we also have is a lot of historic debt and a large portion of our income going to service those debts. I'm also sick of frittering my money away and having nothing to show for it. 

I consciously chose frugality as a lifestyle to be more mindful of my spending and save money so that I can throw it at my debt. Paying extra off my debt is a choice - I could quite easily continue just making the minimum repayment and spending the rest of my money but the way I see it once my debt is gone that frees up yet more of my income for enjoying life, boosting savings and my early retirement fund etc. So in the long term its EXACTLY about living how I want. 

I get what your saying. So for you being frugal pays off historic debt, for me it allows me to save towards retirement.
 I would consider paying off debt as a necessity, if one chooses not to tackle debt it ends up costing a fortune. 

Kitchenbunny

Well, we’re getting to the end of the month and my budget is nearly set now. Got various pots set up in a spreadsheet to save for the larger bills later in the year (car insurance and birthdays/Christmas). There is a holiday in late May but I’m hoping that’ll be relatively frugal. It’s budgeted for at least, and any savings will go to the other pots. It helps to feel in control of something lately. 

Talking of Christmas and gifting,‘I was suggesting to my SiL that I’m thinking of doing a “no gifts unless crafted” rule as we both have stashes to use up. She seemed quite up for the idea, so I’ll be on the lookout for some decent crochet or cross stitch patterns for cheap/free and just put time into it. 

Final bit of frugal news, I’ve signed up to do some surveys to help boost things a bit. Also want to start a longer term emergency fund for things that will inevitably go wrong. 

Hope everyone is doing okay. Love reading this thread as it gives me real motivation. Thank you 😊

spudsmum

Kim1965 said:

spudsmum said:

Kim1965 said:

-taff said:

Kim1965 said:

Lots of tips on here, having read the thread not many people give a total of 21 spending and spending aim for 22.
Its difficult to quantify peoples success at being frugal

The only people who need to quantify their success are the people who are being frugal, not any outside agency. There is no ultimate end prize of being frugal like a Gold Cup for the winner. Everyone has their own reasons for doing it, whether that's an end goal or just to be able to live how they want.

Surely its not about "living how they want", if money was no object there would be no need to be frugal? I would have thought being frugal is bourne out of necessity rather than want. Me included. 

Not necessarily - we all have our own reasons for being here. For me, frugality is a life choice more than strictly a necessity. 

Not saying money is no object - far from it but we do have a reasonable income. What we also have is a lot of historic debt and a large portion of our income going to service those debts. I'm also sick of frittering my money away and having nothing to show for it. 

I consciously chose frugality as a lifestyle to be more mindful of my spending and save money so that I can throw it at my debt. Paying extra off my debt is a choice - I could quite easily continue just making the minimum repayment and spending the rest of my money but the way I see it once my debt is gone that frees up yet more of my income for enjoying life, boosting savings and my early retirement fund etc. So in the long term its EXACTLY about living how I want. 

I get what your saying. So for you being frugal pays off historic debt, for me it allows me to save towards retirement.
 I would consider paying off debt as a necessity, if one chooses not to tackle debt it ends up costing a fortune. 

Perhaps although if I just pay the minimum payments the debt will just remain static as I'm not adding to it.

If I did that I'd never be free of it and that's really depressing so I choose to pay more from my Frugal savings.

What I mean is that frugality for us is not a necessity in terms of having to cut back so I can feed us and pay the gas bill like some people are currently in the unfortunate position of being. If I overspend one week it will set me back but it won't be highly detrimental - we'll still survive

I know I'm very lucky to have the luxury of choice though. I know a lot of others don't.