2022 Frugal Living Challenge

dustydigger

Our pension credit rise netted me a tenner per fortnight. Sounds good,but then you add in internet rise of £2.50 a month,water rates £5 rise,and heaven knows on the food bill. Never mind whatever much they goudge me for when my fixed dual fuel tariff ends in June.

Hmm,not putting out flags after all. But I should be glad the rise covers several bill increases,so gratitudes for that!

tooldle

Any rise is a positive. I've just had my April salary and my take home has decreased, despite my salary having not changed. Double whammy of NI increase and no change to the personal tax allowance. Fingers crossed for a pay rise of some sort!

Auntycaz

@dustydigger as you are on pension credit you should be eligible for the social tarriff broadband.  I found the details on the weekly email. 

Elisheba

MazzieD said:

Just out of interest has anyone received their £150 Council Tax rebate yet?.

Mine is supposedly due by the end of April so should be this week but I'm not holding my breath!!

Its now May, and my Council's website still says they expect to make an announcement on when Payments will start shortly - which I think was what it said at the start of April! 

newlywed

Our council is now saying they expect to pay them all by the end of July… whereas it did say from April…. 

2Scratters

Our council is saying the end of May but our payment is likely to take longer as we don't do DD ours is paid by SO so will have to claim it. 
As a recent customer of FD I had opened a regular savings account with them on the side of the current account. I have just managed to close it  and re-open with the far better interest rate of 3% fixed for 12 months so have set up the maximum DD allowed. It all helps.
Our grocery budget is set each month to be the same yet I ensure we get to have some cash left over so it can be stashed away. We really are eating to the bottom of the cupboards before purchasing any more. That method may need to change over the summer and begin to refill and have fuller stores. 
2Scratters xx

nannygladys

I was given a tray of lettuce for planting out at the lottie the last time I went, needless to say I bought them home planted a few in an old recycling bin and an old plastic container and they're growing like weeds!!! I've still got loads left so will plant a few more out next week, I don't think I need to buy any more lettuce forever!!!!!  Really pleased as I don't have a lot of luck with lettuce - too many slugs and snails 

spudsmum

Hi all!

Still frugalling on here. I lost my mojo for a bit but I'm trying to refocus again. 

We received the £150 energy rebate last week a few days after my first council tax DD had cleared. It's gone into my bills account to help cushion against the rises in all my other bills for a bit. 

My child benefit has gone up by a huge £6.20 per month however Council tax has gone up by £8, my petrol bill by £50 per month, gas/electric by £80 per month before we start on increasing food costs etc so it was a drop in the ocean. We also lost about £20 each on our normal monthly wage due to the NI increase. Additionally DH got a small bonus this month for productivity however he didn't receive much of it due to them taking increased NI and student loan from it

We had a nice weekend away in Liverpool for the bank holiday - fairly Frugal. We stayed in a cheap Premier Inn out of the city centre, took a cool box packed with snacks and went to a lot of free museums which we and the kids really enjoyed. Also made the effort to seek out council run car parks so we could park cheaply or for for free using DS's blue badge - much better than the £20 a day we paid for parking last time.

Even with a trip away and a special birthday to pay out for its looking like I may end the month under budget - whatever I hopefully save I'll bank rather than paying to the CC because typically the younger two kids have both had a massive growth spurt so will need some new clothes next month. That said, it will be nice to have a head start on that and not have to fund it all from one month's budget.

On the positive food shop today was under budget again - £45 so £30 under budget. Also I've put nothing on my credit card this month and have managed to pay off a bit more so debt is now under £11k for the first time in many years. Getting there - slowly but I'm getting there

Thrifty_Taylor

Well done @spudsmum. That will give you incentive to aim towards 10k then ☺️

I use my stamps up on eboy sales too, charging buyer for postage, so helps pay for eboy selling fees. Have only got 35 left now, so feeling a bit panicky that I might run out! Due to return to the Royal Mail survey again in the next couple of weeks though, so will start to get more again

leftatthetrafficlights

Thought I'd better check back in- I've been away for quite some time! 🤦‍♀️

Although I am extremely fortunate in that we have two incomes and a relatively comfortable lifestyle, I have gone off the rails over the past couple of months financially - I need the frugal mindframe back!!!

Our fuel bills are ridiculous- we have oil and electric - our electricity bill has shot up by around £70 per month, thankfully I bought oil just before the prices went through the roof but as we are replacing the boiler and oil tank in the summer, I'm dreading to think how expensive it will be to fill the new tank! 🤦‍♀️ 

Although we can accommodate the additional costs, it still impacts on our 'disposable' income and therefore on my dd/son-i-l/grandbaby as we like to help them out and treat our grandbaby wherever we can. Thankfully my dd has a good financial head on her shoulders (she learnt from the mistakes I made years ago! 🙈) but with a young child in the house, it's always expensive! 

I hate to think how difficult it is for so many people out there at the moment- if this had been happening several years ago I'd never have managed - our income/outgoings at that time meant that we had pretty much no wiggle room financially and we certainly couldn't have accommodated the massive prices increases in food, fuel and petrol that we have seen recently 😢 

Thankfully I can make savings on our day to day expenditure now - we grow our own veg and this year have planned properly so will have a harvest all year round moving forwards; I have an extremely healthy storecupboard so can utilise that to a fuller extent; I will use my instant pot duo crisp rather than my oven where possible; we've started to turn off appliances at the wall when not in use and will make sure that we don't use the car unnecessarily. 

My plan is to do what I can to reduce my expenditure - although I don't 'have to', you can never tell what is around the corner and I want to feel as secure as I can in this insecure climate.