2022 Frugal Living Challenge

mumtoomany

Pulled the last of the carrots, at least the ones the mice have left for me! Still have swedes in the ground and sprouts and kale. Purple sprouting broccoli starting too, along with more asparagus popping up. 
Tea was egg fried rice, (cooked too much rice several weeks ago so froze some) beans and (rtc) burgers. Followed by jam tarts, made using lots of ends of jars of jam, so four different varieties, 
Mumtoomany.xx

Jellytotts

My application to join the local food pantry was approved today so I shall pop along next week and see how it all works.  Olio has been quiet but still good for us this week, plenty of fruit and a couple of gluten free bits.

Food budget for the month has all been spent, we were around £120 under budget and spent the surplus on new skirting boards for the hall, sent some to the credit card Which is now clear and have half the allotment rent tucked away for April when it needs paying.

Popped past my favourite charity shop today (first visit to anything other than a supermarket since before Christmas), picked up a decent brand locking microwave Tupperware box and a salad spinner for 50p each, a new book for DH (one I debated buying him for Christmas at £18) at £1 and a couple of board games for 50p each (one for a birthday gift).  Quite happy with that.

Hoping February can be just as frugal.

spudsmum

Happy Friday everyone!

I finally got my husband's car back this afternoon - turned out it was a suspension issue. It also needed a new tyre as the broken part had damaged it. Total bill was £215 in the end so could have been a lot worse. Had enough in my emergency fund so no need to put anything on the cc

Just I totted up my spending budget and I had £12 left over this week - not perfect but better than overspending. Not much shopping needed either so should come in well under shopping budget too. 

Good haul at the pantry today including chicken breasts, tinned meat, frozen fish and potatoes, brioche and a huge bag of fruit and veg - with a bit of eeking out that should feed us for most of the week.

I did a Mediterranean chicken caserole today but instead of using a full pack of chicken breasts like usual I only used one chicken breast and bulked the rest out with veg. It's fed us both for tea and there's at least another 2-3 portions left too. 

Got another charity shop bargain today too - an absolutely gorgeous wool coat with a fur collar. My coat has a rip in it so needed replacing soon and I saw this one in the window - it's absolutely immaculate. I tried it on expecting it to be way too small but it fit perfectly. In fact another lady in the shop said it looked like it was made to measure for me. It cost £5 and I've found a similar one online for £95 so I'm very pleased. Just trying to decide if I should use my Christmas money for it (as technically its a treat for me) or general spends. 

Got to go out tomorrow to get a few things for the house - our house phone is broken etc. All already budgeted from my housewares pot. Will have the kids with me but hopefully won't spend too much. 

LegitTrying35

Well after a few changes in our income and updated goals for 2022 it would appear we need to regain control of our finances. One was not frugal during the pan-D!

So today I’ve emptied out the fridge and saved ingredients that were destined for the bin in a couple of days. Made 5 meals ahead for the week which also saved me gas and electric using the oven and stove. 

No spending today and have no plans to spend over weekend. Let’s see how that play out over the course of the weekend. 

MazzieD

wort said:

@MazzieD I have my cat on raw food, 80% meat 10%bone10% organ , this is around a £1 for 500g which does 2 days of 2 meals . He is a big 🐱 not sure how that compares to what you feed now. 

I have to be honest, I didn't know that raw cat food existed!.  Thanks, I really need to have a look at what's available on-line rather than limiting it to whatever is in the supermarket.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

EskarinaWeatherwax

Hi everybody.

Some frugal assistance needed if you can? My kettle appears to have died and I’m not quite sure why - and I have a question about the cost of boiling water on the hob.

I’ve descaled kettle and I think it’s actually to do with the electrics somehow as when I flipped the kettle on switch nothing happens. This was happening for a few days and jiggling it a bit would make it work but now it stopped.

I’ll try and take it to a repair cafe in three weeks but in the meantime does anybody have any suggestions? Is it possible to buy a new kettle base only? And more importantly are you able to advise me on how might I compare the cost of boiling a kettle (that I can’t boil and watch the meter) with boiling water on the hob?

In happier news I’ve got so much food in still that I’ve been able to bump my monthly delivery forward by a week to the second weekend of February.

I feel like with OLIO I’m never gonna have to buy carbohydrates ever again!

Jazee

Esk, I think boiling water on the hob would cost more.  We have a one cup water dispenser which I'd recommend. My SIL boils what he needs for a day in a kettle then pours it into a flask to use throughout the day.

Trying to be frugal here still.

Floss

MazzieD said:

wort said:

@MazzieD I have my cat on raw food, 80% meat 10%bone10% organ , this is around a £1 for 500g which does 2 days of 2 meals . He is a big 🐱 not sure how that compares to what you feed now. 

I have to be honest, I didn't know that raw cat food existed!.  Thanks, I really need to have a look at what's available on-line rather than limiting it to whatever is in the supermarket.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

As a comparison for a non-raw diet, my cat has Purina One hairball dry food (the only one she can tolerate) and one 50g pouch of wet food a day. A 3kg bag of dry lasts just over 2 months and costs around £14 (although sometimes on offer) Pouches work out at 25p a day, and daily cost is around 45p and monthly is around £14.

Primrose

I perhaps need to redact my advice only to keep a beaker,s worth of water in the kettle to reduce electricity costs.

Yesterday the water supply went down around here for several hours and that was not a policy which paid off !   Luckily we did have some emergency.bottled water in the garage but don,t adopt this money saving tactic without backup supplies !

2Scratters

Grr just deleted my post
@Ellie79 perhaps you could give your DD an allowance for sweets/treats e.g £1 and you have the same allowance, let her choose her own and you choose yours Perhaps you could buy the non famous brand as an alternative for her to have a share of and let her make her own mind up about it.
@MazzieD I only found about the application of early pay at Christmas especially those monthly paid is to leave it in the bank until pay day (it was suggested for it to be moved sideways out of the way - yet easy to get to still) of course it all makes sense to do that but we don't. This is the way we have been programmed to spend. Yet years ago wages were paid weekly which was the reasoning of being paid "early" as work places closed totally for the holiday.
My friend is still enjoying and reaping the benefit the gas boiler reconfiguration too.

Our fixed term is coming to an end with our supplier but have hit the mentality of being able a little luxury at the cheap rate for another week. I have also noticed when revisiting the prices with current supplier they have come down approx 2p pkw.(not as cheap as the loyalty scheme they are offering as fixed) So things are obviously moving about in the market. 
Keep moving stay safe and warm
2Scratters x