2022 Frugal Living Challenge

[Deleted User]

Hi frugal friends

I am well and truly on board for next year and will be sticking to my budget of £3,800. A full breakdown of this is on the 2021 thread on 8th December if anyone wants to have a look.

Hester - lovely to have you here. I am very tempted by solar panels for our (minimal) electric use but have absolutely no idea where to start with them. If you, or any one else for that matter, has any advice on what would be appropriate for a house with below average use I would be very grateful. Everything I have looked at seems so pricey to buy and install xx

Poppy_Golightly

Thanks Frugaldom, having read through most of last year's posts and all of this year's I was hoping you'd put up one for 2022.

I currently live in a run down council apartment block where you have to share showers with your neighbours - not very nice in the current climate.

My dream is to own a camper van/tiny house/second hand mobile home and to buy land to put it on. One acre would be fine. There I would create a huge wildlife pond, and veg patch and orchard. Rescue animals would live there too.

I was looking at land in France and Ireland which seems affordable, having dual nationality should enable me to get round Monsieur Macron's hatred of Brits

I'm newly retired so time is not on my side! However I am not in debt and the rent here is cheap so I reckon I can stand it for 2 years max, especially if I concentrate on extreme frugal living. I need to bank £8k each year in savings. So scratch cooking, no luxuries, cancel magazine subscription, keep out of charity shops! and stop impulsive online shopping and learning to distinguish needs from wants!

Hope that makes sense, it does in my head at least

Hard_Up_Hester

Sparky, our solar was very expensive as it's designed to go on a boat so I can't help, sorry.

leftatthetrafficlights

I'm in for 2022! 😊 

My new year starts on Wednesday as I celebrate winter solstice - tomorrow I will clear any outstanding balance on the credit cards (got a few bits from am*zon to help out dd) so that I start the new year fresh 😉 

I'll post my budgets on Wednesday but basically, I intend to make 2022 my most frugal year to date - I have a bit more work to do on the garden but have the money for that already, I have nothing to buy for the house and I just want to finally relax in 2022 as these past few years have been expensive even though it was planned. 

I'm clearing all the remnants of my old life- I am quitting smoking and drinking, all unnecessary spending and concentrating on health and self care for the next 12 months.

I'm going to make full use of my veg garden, storecupboard and freezers for food, continue to cook from scratch, eliminate food waste and make sure that I'm mindful of everything I spend. 

It's time to put the past behind me and move forward with a life I'm happy to lead! 😊

Siebrie

@skint_chick If travelling to your Dad is financially difficult, and presuming he is not strapped for cash, can you work out an agreement where he subsidises your travel? If you don't want to exchange money outright, maybe he pays to fill up the tank when you are there? Go shopping with him, and he pays your shopping, too?

balabooberlies

Poppy that's a fabulous dream.

I can see you achieving it.

bala

x

skint_chick

Siebrie said:

@skint_chick If travelling to your Dad is financially difficult, and presuming he is not strapped for cash, can you work out an agreement where he subsidises your travel? If you don't want to exchange money outright, maybe he pays to fill up the tank when you are there? Go shopping with him, and he pays your shopping, too?

I wouldn't ask him to contribute until probate is sorted as mum kept the money in her name as she was younger and in better health as well as a non tax payer. It's several hours by car to visit or about an hour flying and I'm hoping to visit every 3/4 weeks. 

Bala - hugs to you too, hope you and the rest of your family circle are doing OK. I feel like I'm doing OK most of the time, then something reminds of me of what's happened and I'm back in the depths of it. I'm definitely still in shock.

Poppy - fab dream and there's lots of tiny house inspiration on YouTube that are really expensive but give you ideas on space saving and interior organisation. See if your local library offers free online magazines as part of your membership - mine does and free audiobooks and ebooks too so I haven't bought any books or magazines since long before lockdown!

cw18

skint_chick said:

See if your local library offers free online magazines as part of your membership - mine does and free audiobooks and ebooks too so I haven't bought any books or magazines since long before lockdown!

I don't know of anything through my local library, but I've not checked.

However I have (literally) hundreds of eBooks, and have only paid for 1 of them (which was a special topic I wanted).   I subscribe to a couple of services which send out daily emails, and those include links to books on various platforms that are either on sale at very reduced prices (which I ignore) or are free (which I download if they're a genre I enjoy or look interesting - they don't cost me, so I'm not losing anything )

cw18

Deleted_User said:

Hester - lovely to have you here. I am very tempted by solar panels for our (minimal) electric use but have absolutely no idea where to start with them. If you, or any one else for that matter, has any advice on what would be appropriate for a house with below average use I would be very grateful. Everything I have looked at seems so pricey to buy and install xx

My Dad paid what I understand was a considerable sum to have them installed probably 5 or 6 years ago (if not slightly longer), but right from the off my Mum wasn't convinced they were working properly.   After my Dad got ill she started getting people in to do jobs without asking him first, and one team came in to sort the solar panels.   18 months on and she still didn't think they were right, so another team (I think another company) have been out to do some rework to them - and at the same time installed a battery that the panels charge (at another considerable expense), so there should be free electric outside of the sunny hours.    Having seen the last few utility bills whilst sorting out my Dad's estate, I'm not convinced they're working even now     I can't see any further back to try and compare though, as my Dad had recently changed supplier - and everything was on the internet which only he had access to, so even if he could have still accessed old bills with the old supplier we don't know who it was (and have no idea of account name/password).    But her billed electric use is more than mine!!!    I know she's home more than me and isn't as good at turning things off when she leaves a room (and my Dad had some equipment in those 2 months which used electric, and it's not the best time of year for solar), but I'm still questioning the figures in my head.     I think my main concern is that they had Smart meters installed 'fairly recently' (Mum doesn't recall when), so I'm wondering if the electric meter hasn't been wired up properly for a solar system ?????   But we've no idea who installed that either, so I wouldn't know who to contact to ask......

We used about the same Aug-Sept.   Sept-Oct has their bill showing about twice the useage of mine - but I was away for a week in that period which offsets a small portion of that.  Oct-Nov (when my Mum was on her own for half the billing period) used more than 50% extra to me, and the latest one is about 30% up on mine (she had my brother or myself staying with her about half that period, and I was was away for 10 days - so that looks pretty equal).

balabooberlies

Thank you Skint Chick

I know what you mean.  I had an awful day yesterday.  I am sure there are more to come.  You are supposed to expect that in the circle of life you will lose your parents.  That doesn't lessen the grief.  Nor the age they reached.  That 'good innings' expression drives me nuts !

 

hugs to all

bala

x