2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Poppy_Golightly

The books that I buy (mainly in charity shops) tend to be natural history books. I found a beautiful book complete with DVD "Reef" in Oxfam last week for £1.99. I think I like looking at the pictures! For Christmas I bought myself 

Tim Flach's new book "Birds" - expensive! They all seem to be huge books and lord knows how they will eventually fit in a tiny house. Maybe I could actually build a tiny house from them!

Anyway, back to frugal living. For the rest of January am setting myself a weekly amount of £15 for food for me and pussycat - loads of stuff in freezer to be used up at the moment. I have my expenses spreadsheet at the ready

babs_103

Over the weekend I decided that, as I am useless at organising my life I will do one thing at a time for a while then add something else to be frugal about. So today I am making a list of freezer,cupboards and 'Narnia' our chuck anything in cupboard which has all our tins and packets in. I will then decide how long that will last and how much money I will need for fresh stuff. Two spends over the weekend, DH badly needs new trousers so 2 pairs ordered and tea bags which are essential.

Sweetlittledaydreams

Thank you for the advice regarding taking in a friend as a lodger, I think I still need to weigh up all the pros and cons but at the minute I'm leaning towards not doing it.
So far this year I've spent £20 on petrol but will need to get some more at the end of this week. Does anyone think petrol prices will come down again? It seems to have gone so expensive but not sure if it's better to just fill up because prices will continue to rise.
Gas and electric bills need looking at properly because I don't really understand what I'm paying, some months it's only £12 then other months £50 and some months two payments go out, so I need to see what is going on there.
So far this year I've spent just under £25 on food, it's ok but I was hoping it would be less so I'll try harder this week. Have been getting into the habit of going to the supermarket at 8pm on the search for yellow stickers, not exciting for most people but i enjoy seeing how much I'm saving. 
Last year I picked and dried herbs from the garden so I've got an endless supply of herbal teas for over winter then go back to fresh herbs in the summer, tasty and free! 
12 days until payday and another step towards financial freedom. 

Glittering_M

So I've very much been lurking and enjoying reading this all, thank you everyone. I'm in limbo at the moment as I'm back living at home but I hope to be able to get on board and join in with this once I've moved in a couple of months.

Sweetlittledaydreams, what herbs did you grow and how did you grow them? I'm planning my garden for the next few years and I would love to know what you use. Also, how you take the tea, do you just steep the herbs in boiling water or do you add other bits too?

mumtoomany

Hi all, frugalling along here. I've spent less than £11 so far this year on groceries. Hi @spudsmum, glad it's not only me with three freezers, we also have two fridges, many cupboards full of food and a pantry! Hoping to empty some this year. Part of the problem last year was every time we took DD3 to town for work, or driving lessons, I would call into the shops, just for one or two bits. This of course always became many bits! Now DD3 is driving this will stop. I can even get her to bring milk in for me on her way home. Much shopping money saved and also diesel money. 
I've started sorting through the seeds, looks like i have plenty of most things left. I need tomato seeds, maybe squash, and possibly runner beans. I'm going to try blight resistant tomatoes this year. Last year i lost the lot again to it. The joys of living in wet Wales.
The rams were returned home yesterday. Hoping they have done their job, we'll find out around half term, when the ewes are scanned. Lambs due from the end of April.
I'm off outside now to carry on moving logs with OH.
Take care, mumtoomany.xx

[Deleted User]

Wow, this thread is moving on at pace, sorry I'm not keeping up with everyones news.  Despite my No Spend plans for January OH and I did go for a meal out on Friday night and it was worth every penny, we had a great time.

Plans this week:
Take lunches to work every day - both of us.
Dinners all week at home.  Weekend plan is HM pizza which always turns out well.
Mend OH's Jeans
Keep an eye on Gas/Electricity costs using the Smart Meter.  The heating has been on as it was cold over the weekend and to dry clothes.  I cannot wait until spring so i can start getting the washing out on the line again.

I do want to have a frugal day out with OH on Saturday or Sunday (we'll pick the best weather day).  We'll probably do a walk and take flasks with tea/coffee and sandwiches. I might do some home baking to take as a treat as well.

spudsmum

Hi @mumtoomany

Sounds like me - I can never go in a shop for just one or two bits - always come out with a basket full. 

I also have two fridges. They were both jam packed before Christmas but almost empty now. We did eat everything though - some slightly random combinations but nothing was wasted so all good.

My food store takes up almost the entire garage . Husband affectionately refers to it as my "stash" and makes jokes about me preparing for the apocalypse BUT when something happens like all that mad panic buying a while ago I can rest easier because I know I have plenty and won't run out if that's makes sense (especially with my youngest who has disabilities and will only eat maybe 10 different foods and it has to be specific types) 

I know I need to try to get it used up but I do get a bit anxious when it gets low. I have an irrational fear of us not having anything to eat. No idea where it comes from. 

Sweetlittledaydreams

@Glittering_M when I moved here there was mint growing everywhere, I spent a long time digging a lot of it out but I've kept some, definitely plant it in a pot if you don't want it taking over. There are lots of different types of mint, I've got chocolate mint, but you can get pineapple mint and apple mint which I'm going to try and grow next year. Then I've got lemon balm, rose petals, sunflower petals and lavender but that didn't do well last year. I just steep them in not quite boiling water. 
Having a housework day, looking at all the cleaning products I've got in the cupboard I don't think I'll have to buy anything else for a year, I'm a sucker for nice smelling cleaning stuff. I'm also looking forward to line drying weather again. 

Glittering_M

I've got chocolate mint too but I've been disappointed with it flavourwise, although it has been growing well and is definitely staying in the pots! I do like as a minty tea or water. I also add it sometimes to instant hot chocolate to perk it up.

 I have lavender but never thought to make tea with it or do anything with it, I've dried it, hoping it would smell nice but I was disappointed as it wasn't as strong as I was hoping.

I read about lemon balm earlier in a seed catalogue and apparently my parents have some which I can take off their hands. 

Never thought of using petals, I can understand rose but never considered sunflower.

Thank you!

Jellytotts

Still on the frugal wagon. Only spends so far this year have been for milk and some replacement bits for a techy cable DH needed (a finished cable is £34 and he got the bits to make 2 cables for £7.99 so one can be made up as a spare).

Olio had continued to be amazing for us.  We are eating some lovely things that the budget doesn't normally allow for (had 13 avacados so far this year....we can normally stretch to one as a treat now and then but 13 has been wonderful).  

Thursday nights beef stew was made with olio veg and some left over beef from Christmas, served with olio mashed veg and a packet of steamed olio veg.  

Friday was an anniversary meal so a chicken breast each flattened and rolled with a bit of left over Christmas cheese and some olio roasted garlic (I had a kilo of peeled cloves to deal with) served with baby roasted olio spuds and served with steamed olio veg.

Saturday night was left over cheese from Christmas served with olio bread and dehydrated olio tomatoes soaked in olive oil and olio garlic.

Sunday used up the remainders of Thursdays stew with added chucks of mums left over Christmas turkey that she didn't want, topped with 2 olio jacket spuds that have been sitting in the fridge for 2 weeks and the last scrapings of mash from olio veg from Thursday.

This morning we collected gluten free pancakes, pittas and rolls with a swede the size of my head (I hate swede but I'll eat it if it's free) and a big pack of casserole veg, pre chopped.  So lunch for me was a toasted olio roll with a ripe onion avacado and some dehydrated olio garlic tomatoes and DH had Olio pancakes with an olio banana and syrup.
We both had a couple of olio plums for pudding.  I'll pop the oliocasserole pack in the slowcooker with some additional olio root veg and the last of my home grown squashes for a nice veg stew and add some olio swede and potato mash on the side.

When I shop this week I need a few basics and some cat food (which I always buy a months worth of) but that will be my first proper shop since 21st December.  

We are being very careful with the heating and lighting the fire earlier in the afternoon which keeps the house lovely and warm for the evening and using the slowcooker and halogen oven where possible to save putting the big oven on.  I'm also not putting the dishwasher going in the evening but waiting until sunrise so we can use the solar panel energy.  Washing machine is loaded and ready to go as soon as the dishwasher finishes.  We have an electric car and rather than charge on the rapid charge we have it on a slow trickle charge during the day so again it's using any solar energy we are generating rather than walloping the usage up any higher than it needs to be.