2022 Frugal Living Challenge

ladyholly

I usually have the doors open all year except when the temperature in the sitting room drops below 15 but this year as we have lost the dog that needed the door open it will be shut much more I think. My DH gets very cold but hopefully by the door being shut more the house will stay warmer. We live in a terraced house so next doors heating helps us somewhat.

Siebrie

I'm discussing with dd1 (14) what she can take to school for lunch. She is getting tired of 2 slices of brown bread with either Nutella or soem type of sandwich meat (whatever is on offer). She carries the lunchbox in her schoolbag from 7 utnil lunch at noon, so something with salad leaves will probably go mushy.

Her solution is to buy a croissant at the bakery every morning, which is neither healthy nor cheap.

C_J

@Siebrie - how about something like a pasta salad or couscous with veg?  You can add one of the little frozen ice packs to her lunchbox to keep salads cool. If she has a salad with leaves etc, keeping the salad dressing separate helps stop them going mushy - those tiny individual screw-top jam jars are good for that.

Primrose

Siebrie said:

I'm discussing with dd1 (14) what she can take to school for lunch. She is getting tired of 2 slices of brown bread with either Nutella or soem type of sandwich meat (whatever is on offer). She carries the lunchbox in her schoolbag from 7 utnil lunch at noon, so something with salad leaves will probably go mushy.

Her solution is to buy a croissant at the bakery every morning, which is neither healthy nor cheap.

Could you make up a pasta salad of some sort, or hard boiled egg, cheese& apple or raw carrots or even some homemade quiche?  Some supermarkets sell the ready cooked flan cases individually wrapped which makes preparing them much easier.   Or possibly a cheese & potato salad ?  

Yes salad leaves would go mushy but pieces of chopped carrot, apple, whole radishes, mini tomatoes, grapes, dried apricots, prunes,  would stay in better shape. 

sunshineli

Please can I join? I have been reading through the posts and I am feeling really inspired, so have made my own account. I am really trying to cut down on unnecessary spending, in particular looking at ways I can reduce my food bill. 

So far I have had 3 NSD's this month so lets hope the month (and the rest of the year) carries on like this!

Primrose

Welcome aboard !  No matter how old or experienced some of us are, everybody has learnt something new or helpful on here.

mumof3.12kindebt

Hello everyone 

Not much spent this month so far just food shopping. Spent £59.13p so far this month on food. 5 days in and I have 2 no spend days. Today should be a third 🤞 

Hope everyone is okay. 

I now cash budget for everything outside of our direct debits. 
So each week I cash stuff into binders (a modern version of envelopes) the night before I unstuff all (if any) left over money our food, tobacco and petrol catagories) the change goes in to a jar and any notes go into an envelope. At the end of the year I'll count it all up and allocate the money somewhere. 💰 I'm thinking maybe starting a travel fund and using the money towards taking the kids on their first little trip outside of Britain 🇬🇧 🤔 
Next year I will do the same but for the full year. 

My low mood / depression seems to have lifted the last few days. Which I'm very pleased about and just hope it sticks. Please send sticky good vibes 🙏 

Today was the first day back at school 
I didn't buy new uniform because rhe uniforms the have fit and their shoes 👍 so I was pleased about that. I'll replace throughout the year as they need / grow 

I have about half an hour until school pick up 

I had planned to do my diploma work today but I didn't get round to it so will do some this evening 

We are going to the park after school and I'll make some ice lollies for when we get back as a little treat ... just thought they might not freeze in time. That's okay we have cupcakes they made yesterday for their Lunchboxes so they can have an extra one tonight 😉 

I'm going to try and get hold of some free fire wood ready for winter as we have a wood burner. 
The kids and partner have blanket jumper things. I'm going to get myself one too 
We have lots of blankets. And I'll get some wolly socks / make sure we all have slippers that fit. 

I put my washing machine on an extra spin and use eco egg things instead of washing powder 

I also use dryer balls. I really need to sort out our washing line and use that more. And our airers. I've read dehumidifiers are great if you use airers and the clothes dry quicker. Would it be worth the investment? 

Anyway off to make a list on how we can save money further... and I'll try and read back some of these threads for inspiration ❤️

Oh and I charge my phone in the car and at work as much as possible 🙃 

Bluegreen143

I like the idea of cash budgeting but how do you then buy stuff online? I get our grocery shopping delivered and tend to order clothes etc for myself and the kids online. I hate shopping so would rather not go in person! Just wondering if I could have like a buffer in my account to use for online shopping and then pay the money back in from relevant the binder/envelope, or would that be too much faff 🤔

Maybe over complicating things as I use YNAB which works the same way as an envelope budget, but my DH doesn’t use YNAB so think a cash budget would maybe be more tangible for him. 

2Scratters

Bluegreen143 said:

I like the idea of cash budgeting but how do you then buy stuff online? I get our grocery shopping delivered and tend to order clothes etc for myself and the kids online. I hate shopping so would rather not go in person! Just wondering if I could have like a buffer in my account to use for online shopping and then pay the money back in from relevant the binder/envelope, or would that be too much faff 🤔

Maybe over complicating things as I use YNAB which works the same way as an envelope budget, but my DH doesn’t use YNAB so think a cash budget would maybe be more tangible for him. 

If you used your bank account to buy on line but only after checking what you have already got in cash, you could then pay in at  local post office to the bank account. Hope that helps.
2 Scratters xx

mumof3.12kindebt

Bluegreen143 said:

I like the idea of cash budgeting but how do you then buy stuff online? I get our grocery shopping delivered and tend to order clothes etc for myself and the kids online. I hate shopping so would rather not go in person! Just wondering if I could have like a buffer in my account to use for online shopping and then pay the money back in from relevant the binder/envelope, or would that be too much faff 🤔

Maybe over complicating things as I use YNAB which works the same way as an envelope budget, but my DH doesn’t use YNAB so think a cash budget would maybe be more tangible for him. 

I normally just pay it in at the bank its only 5 minutes drive and is instant. Or if its something that can wait I just wait till our new month and leave the money in the bank 😀

You could leave a buffer if you wanted to. I don't because I tend to dwindle it away on random rubbish 😭


3rd no spend day for us today 👍