How long can I make £187.15 last?

Kaylataste

@mumtomany Yes,they are just under a mile away and I’m early retired so I’m ready and waiting 😄.

mumtoomany

Well another no spend day planned. Not running out of anything important yet. 

Tea today will be beef burgers. The huge ones i bought last week, but I have thawed just four of them and reshaped them with a burger press into twelve sensible sized ones. We have had these before, as full sized ones, and they are too big. However they seem to be all meat, with a little seasoning, so value for money. I paid £12 for 16 huge ones. 

I have pulled out lots of tomato plants that have stopped producing. I've taken some shoots of to try to over winter them, if i can get them to root. These were expensive seeds, compared to the ones i normally buy. They are the first tomatoes I've grown that are truly blight free. See how they go. i'm also topping up the beds with compost, in between rain showers. Right back to it, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Another no spend day. 

Brought in six enormous onions, few more green tomatoes,to ripen in the fruit bowl, and a pot of raspberries. Found an avocado stone that had germinated in the compost, so have potted it up. See if it will grow. 

Tea will be shepherds pie, with home reared mutton mince. HG onions, HG carrots, and HG grown cabbage on the side.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

beckstar1975

Ooh - sounds delicious - when we had the allotment I longed to be able to grow all the veg for christmas day, sadly we had to give it up before we could try.

I applaud your no spend days - I have to walk past so many shops to get anywhere, especially with perpetually hungry teens, that it so rarely happens

mumtoomany

Good morning all. 

Tea went ok, six our of seven empty plates. It's it any wonder the dog is putting on weight? DD3 is coming for a few days today, and has asked for some of yesterday's shepherds pie to be saved for her.

Off to take some sheep to market this morning. Will pick up milk while out. 

Speak later, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

piesagittariusstick

Wow your track record is excellent and the way you kept the overall discipline level throughout the year is astonishing to me! I too am a part of a seven-member household (including my 2-years old toddler), but I've never thought about planning for the whole year ahead. The fact that you're so close to the finish line in a year as crazy as 2022 was, is just so motivational to me! Thank you - and thank you again!

I must ask: what gave you the confidence to 'embark' on such a challenge in the first place, and with the rest of your family too? Things are fluctuating wildly all over the globe, prices jump almost on a weekly basis etc. Was gas included in your calculations? Also, is the tap water drinkable at your place? 

As for the strategizing part, you mentioned a thread in this forum (I'm kinda new here though), but did you collected ideas from random sources as well (YT videos, blogs, etc.)? I assume I'm not the only one (or at last the only one among the newer forumites) who found your post gripping and actionable So, I'd appreciate if you'd keep a steady flow of updates till the finish line. Cheers!

OrkneyStar

I think with pantries that full you might well manage it! Good luck though - nothing like a wee challenge (mine is to use all the rubbish from our dying freezer before purchasing a new one....we are getting there, slowly).

mumtoomany

Back from taking the rams. 
@beckstar1975, best way to avoid the shops? Don't live near any. At the last house i could walk to any of the supermarkets from the house. I would always call in to any i was passing to look for bargains. I would sometimes walk out with nothing, but not often. Now the nearest supermarket is half an hours drive away, and our minibus drinks a lot of diesel! Even the nearest corner shop/petrol station, is over a mile round trip to walk too. None of this will help you if you're near shops. Maybe try to only go past shops early in the morning, my experience of teens is that they sleep till lunch.

@piesagittariusstick, hello. The budget challenge is for groceries only. Bills is a separate budget. I calculate for the year, to even the spends out. Some things i buy in bulk, say dishwasher tablets, 1000 bought earlier this year. Will last around 18 months, but a big outlay in one go. Also when we take animals for slaughter, one big cheque, but meat to last months.
The reason we live on so little? Because that's all we have. Our total for the year is now around £12,000 or less per annum. This has to cover, all bills, animal costs, car expenses, food, Christmas, everything! Some things don't get covered because they don't get bought. No new clothes, not even underwear, bought this year, or last. Please don't feel sorry for us. This is the lifestyle we have chosen. Freedom, fresh air, time to spend with the grandchildren, space to grow our own food. 
Blogs/vlogs. Try a girl called Jack. What vivi did next.  Frugal Jo. Frugal queen in france. Pretty much anything with frugal in the title. Threads on here. Anything by weezl74. Anything by Frugalgdom. I've been collecting ideas most of my life. 
 
I'm keep posting to keep inspiring.

Tea today will be sausages. They are normally eaten without complaint. Mash, and veg from the freezer. Not sure what yet. Will probably make a crumble too, and cook the sausage in the oven.

Milk was £2.09!!! There is only one small supermarket, nisa I think, in the town where the livestock market is. OH didn't think he'd be able to get in and out of the car park, with the trailer on. So called at the shop in the village, can park on the road there. So money left is £181.96.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Hi @OrkneyStar, yes there is a lot of food here. But there always is. I like to know that if something terrible happens, nobody will starve. Probably due to living through times with even less money than we have now! 

I completed the emptying the freezers challenge last month. Not completely successfully. Still had to plug in the third one when we brought the pork home. 

Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

GillyLucy

mumtoomany said:. 

I have pulled out lots of tomato plants that have stopped producing. I've taken some shoots of to try to over winter them, if i can get them to root. These were expensive seeds, compared to the ones i normally buy.

Hi MTM.
Can I ask what variety and where you got these from please. We were disappointed with the tomato plants we bought this 
year & would like to try to grow some from seed next year.
Many thanks!