2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Bluegreen143

Good luck RebeccaPearson! I bet you can get that £120 a week right down following along here. I do find my shop has gone up so much in the last year, a combination of the price rises but also us being careless. So I’m happy to spend a bit more to support local business but not to spend so much on convenience and on food we end up throwing away 🤦‍♀️ 

We have two young kids too and tend to spend about £100 a week including the milk man bill I think (excluding alcohol but including toiletries etc), which could definitely come down. I’ve actually not been keeping very good track for a while but I’m using YNAB again to budget.

BelleBaluu

Just cashed out £30 on receipt apps and £70 on my Rewards current a/c today. E-day sales going well too, must keep up the momentum! 

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Wow everyone has been busy!  I had to take DS for a hospital appointment yesterday so ended up spending £20 on parking and lunch out.  DS really wanted to get something to eat and I dont want him worrying that I couldnt afford it so I agreed.  Not ideal but not a complete disaster either, we have been really frugal this month.

£5200 moved on balance transfer 0% until 1st April 2024.  I have another £3600 0% ending on 9th February but dont seem to have an actual card for that one so might need to get one.  These numbers are scary but they are coming down all the time.

Our emergency fund was up to £1000 for quite a while in 2020 then various car bills and other unexpected costs brought it down to the current £228, still I am glad it was there when we needed it.  Will carry on putting £20 a week in it while we have the money spare.

I will do a free yoga session tonight, DH made a squash, bean and lentil stew from stores for tea.  Food prices are a worry, glad its just the two of us and we are prepared to live very frugally!

amber03

Payday today (finally), even had £13 left in my account so transferred that to my EF which I am hoping to get to £1000 by the end of the year. Have had to buy some bulky stuff today, dog food and dishwasher tablets at least that should last me to the middle of March. Most of the cupboards and fridge/freezer are full. Hoping to budget £80 a week for food. Hoping to have some money left in the account again by next payday.xx

Sweetlittledaydreams

Finally made it to the £50 mark on one of the survey sites I use, so have requested to cash that in and the money should be in my account by tomorrow. Up to £11.12 on another survey site, able to cash that out every time you reach £1 so that's good. Otherwise nothing much is new financial wise for me at the moment. Will have a £120 fee to pay at the end of February to maintain my registration to work, annoying payment that has to be made every year, but has to be done. Hoping for a nice big premium bond win in February, but then I always am wishful! There are no new switching deals which I can make use of at the moment, have been with all the ones doing deals now, but would say it's a good way to get an extra bit of cash pretty easily.
Another 5am start for work tomorrow so think I'll be asleep soon, good thing about being in bed early is not having to have the heating on for long when I get home. Looking forward to summer when it hopefully wont feel like all I do is work and sleep. 

EskarinaWeatherwax

Thanks for the kind words about my family help and mortgage overpaying. If I *really* push it I could do it within ten years. That will be a squeeze but it’s a heck of a goal to aim for.

i hear you @balabooberlies about the YS ‘bargains’. I had a mistakenly massive olio haul today. Where I am it seems to be almost entirely bread type products so I’ve come home with a slice loaf nine croissant to French batons and six pretzels. My freezer just isn’t big enough to cope but I couldn’t bear the thought of the waste so I’m going to do with the best that I can to eat through this carefully over the next few days/weeks, while also being mindful of the oldschool weight loss challenge that I’m part of.

Am moving my weekend wholesale stocks to the spare in and am still very chuffed about it!

nannygladys

Wow, everyone seems to be working towards their hopes and aims. 

No shopping today as I have been grandma sitting and we didn't go out, well only to pick dgs sister up from school but there aren't any shops near - thankfully!!

I'm half way through my 'month' and still on track, I have taken £20 from the grocery purse and put it in my Xmas tin, I allocate a monetary amount to each person, well all the dgc have the same amount and dds and other halves also have the same amount, just a bit less than the kiddies!! Anyway, I have a cash tin with 3 envelopes In it, one for each family with their names and amounts on the front, so when I put money in the envelopes I highlight a persons name off. I know it sounds silly (well it does to me now I've written it down ) but it's like a little challenge to see how many I can cross off!!

Everything else ticking along nicely.
Nannyg

spudsmum

Still frugalling on here.

Trying to make tiny changes such as remembering to turn lights off as I leave the room and only filling the kettle as much as I need it. Tonight I experimented with turning the lounge TV off - we normally have it on in the background but tonight my youngest had his tablet and my daughter was playing so I thought why not switch it off - they didn't notice! I'll be doing it a lot more I think. Every little helps. 

Tea was lots of veg from the pantry. I've been trying to encourage a meat free day during the week, both for health reasons and budget. My husband is a dedicated carnivore and thinks that a meal is not a meal without meat however he's sick of me going on so said he would be willing to at least try some vegatarian dishes - I've done a massive vegetable lasagne for his tea - watch this space 

Will be happy to have my half day off tomorrow - some really complex cases and a new phone system to deal with at work have meant its been really hard going the past few days - normally when I'm fed up I tend to spend myself happy so I'm trying really hard to resist the urge.

My payday tomorrow - I've had a payrise which took effect on 1st January. Not much but an extra £25 a month so I will allocate that to one of my other budgets

2.44 made on surveys so paid that to credit card. This month is also the month I get my child benefit twice so I'll put that aside for the car repair - just hoping it's enough. 

[Deleted User]

Hello all, loving the positive plans despite the various price increases.  

My fixed rate comes to an end for my gas/electricity at the end of February.  They sent me a renewal quote and the prices where beyond anything I could have imagined.  To go onto their cheapest fix they quoted me just under £1300 for gas for the year!  Needless to say I won't be taking them up on the fix option.  I'm going to take Martin's advice and wait.

My line rental saver comes to an end as well at the end of Feb and my curent provider is no longer offering this.  They have said I'll end up paying £28.99 for combined monthly line rental and broadband but I am not happy with this.  My current BB contract runs until October and they won't let me move to a new one but they have offered an upgrade to fibre at £21.95 a month.  I'll do a bit more haggling and see how I get on as I really don't want to move providers.

I have tried Olio and been keeping an eye on the app but there is nothing close to me and I'm not convinced a 20 mile round trip would be worth it for what is on offer.  There is a 'Community Fridge' in my local town which I'm going to look into on Friday and see how it works.  

MazzieD

Caved in and did an on-line grocery shop which I hate due to the minimum order charge, £40 is quite a chunk of my grocery budget.  It's the only way at the moment, my chest is still very painful and I'm not sure I could even put a seat belt on as a passenger or carry shopping bags..

One interesting thing I did discover is that T*sco now also offer a flexible order slot.  You book a four hour slot and then they give you a fixed time slot on the day.  Cost me £1.50 for picking packing and delivery but charges vary like the fixed order slots!.  Works really well if you are at home in the afternoon to early evening.  Still, got most of the monthly shop for February a bit early but it will be from Feb budget.

Apart from that I'm still waiting to hear about the settlement for the car,  done my homework and will haggle if necessary. 

Glad that January is almost over, my employer always pays us early before Christmas and it's that long wait until the end of January for normal pay day.

I also worked on February budget yesterday.  It will be just the bills and food again until I can really assess the impact of all the price increases.  The furry hot water bottle needs feeding and having to swap to a more expensive cat food brand is just another expense to deal with.