2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

bails

Whitewing, I was saddened to hear about your friend's husband, and heartened to hear how differently you can approach and help her with her loss. Thankyou for sharing, and for reminding us just how important our loved ones are. This challenge is wonderful for so many reasons, and especially for giving life real perspective xx

Frugaldom

Hi Whitewing, I must have been typing at similar time to you earlier and missed your post. Sorry to read about your friend's breavement. It's always a difficult thing knowing what to say or do and it's awful when you start seeing friends being widowed. I'm glad you can look at it in a calm and sensible manner and I am sure that your friend knows she can rely on you when needs must, even if you haven't seen her recently. Send her a hug and condolences from all your friends on here too.

bails

Sasha, some great ideas there which I will definitely be using when I start my veggie patch! I've been saving up loo rolls and anything that can be turned into seed trays etc. Every piece of 'rubbish' I now look at very carefully to see if I can reuse in some way - I was always very good at recycling everything before but only reused certain things; now almost everything gets a second/third/fourth... life
I still haven't completed my spends for last week as I have a couple of amounts to clarify with OH, so I'll do that soon.
I have to admit that the recent negativity has saddened and perplexed me. I'm not sure where it originated from for that person but I am happy to be without it. If it should return, I personally will continue to ignore it - constructive help/criticism/questioning I welcome, needless antagonising I don't!
Nyk, still haven't got my Billy Can in place but will do asap. Couldn't bear the thought of burning a fiver!!

Frugaldom

Bails - I hadn't thought about it as much until watching the Wife Swap programme and seeing Sue (the freegan) displaying waste from a supermarket and, like others here, being shocked at her putting the stuff back! I'm certainly not advocating bin-raking, but waste is one of my pet hates.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, there always seems to be more waste. Plastic and surplus food are my biggest annoyances, as I can find uses for most things (like others here), even if it is just recycling bottles, papers, tins and clothing, or composting peelings, garden waste and eggshells etc. We aren't guilty of much by way of surplus food here, as my freezer will show, but plastic drives me nuts! We need to pay for it somewhere along the line, like every other piece of packaging, so when it's binned, it's like money being burned.

Few people consider the price of plastic when food prices increase, nor do they consider the overall impact on food prices when basic commodities, chemicals, oil, electricity, production costs, road tax, minimum wage, insurance etc increase. I guess it's just a case of how far we are each prepared to go in the name of frugality, which isn't just about hard cash, at the end of the day. and that's without bringing any sort of religious beliefs into the equation.

Now, I'm off to do a little more work on niece's hm birthday gift. Meanwhile, I've a trifle half made waiting for the hm egg custard (using up stale sponge and the bargain Elmlea for a nice Valentines treat), I have dough proving for a nice wholemeal loaf and I'm tempted to go out and pick the last of the Brussels Sprouts that are still growing in the garden... and I hate sprouts! :rotfl: How far would I be prepared to go in the name of frugal living? I guess that depends on what sort of home I can afford to buy with the savings I make from living this lifestyle for a while longer. But it'll need space for growing veggies, storing logs and for my chickens. It'll also need Internet access too, so I can earn the cash part :rotfl: :rotfl:

elantan

white wing i know you dont want the thread taken up with sympathy messages (and can understand your reasoning) but to add mine i do feel heart sorry for your friend (i felt it is important to acknowledge it)


well i have done the last shopping went to the chinese supermarket and stocked up on the last wee bits then onto costco and stocked up on a few more things (dettol spray cereal for hubby) and got the phone bill in for the mobile and t.v so will figure them all out and add them on to my total later ...have no planned spends for a while now so if i hint of spending throw something at me ...i noticed something about toilet roll centres good for planting can anyone expand i am planning on growing some this year and any help would be appreciated thanks ..nyk how is the neices prezzie going?

FunBrum

CharliesAngel wrote: »

i caught myself staring at a £20 pound note yesterday... when did they change?!!!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

FunBrum

I had to go to Mr. S last night to purchase some essentials that I needed to stock up on.
I was fuming when the bill came in at £7.49:eek:
My BF was in stitches as he watched me mumbling under may breath, walking out of the shop:rotfl:I think I am spoilt now with my frugal runs to Mr M. late night ramble!;) We are still coming well within our weekly allowance for food but have decided...well I have and he will have to conform....to getting to grips with reducing all of our outgoings, and we dont live extravagantly, but I still think we can reduce our outgoings even more. If nothing, it will be fun just trying.:D

bails

Nyk, I try to avoid buying things with excess packaging etc as much as possible, it is difficult though and requires a much greater effort by the supermarkets themselves, as well as individual protests. I take off any unnecessary packaging and hand it in to the cashier, politely explaining why I don't want it - some are supportive, some are grumpy and some downright refuse to take it (we have to call the manager). My plan is that as I become more self-sufficient my waste will be almost non-existent.

Frugaldom

bails wrote: »

Nyk, My plan is that as I become more self-sufficient my waste will be almost non-existent.

This is exactly what I'm talking about! :T I'd never thought of handing back surplus packaging to the shop, though! I don't normally bother with bags unless I'm needing some for something else. Also, the closer we become to self-sufficiency (in a broad sense), the less we need to spend. The longer I pursue this goal, the less I need to worry about how much (or how little) we are earning because you are already aware of what is freely available. I would love to be self sufficient in as far as being able to balance my 'cost of living' books without the need for debt and the only way to do this that I can see is if you own your own home - no rent, no mortgage, no loans.

My question is, IF you owned your own home outright (ie no mortgage payments/rent/loans) and had absolutely no debt, would you still work long hours and strive for higher and higher incomes? For me, it would be like a £7000 per annum pay rise! :j

FREE PROPOGATOR AND SEED POTS: Re the toilet paper & kitchen roll tubes - Just cut them into pieces about 5cm each and cover the base of each little pot with newspaper. Or you can just sit them on top of newspaper inside a plastic tray (like the big mushroom trays). Fill each with potting compost, or whatever, plant the seeds in each and then sit another clear plastic tray over the top so it acts like a mini propogator.

Sasha - Sorry, I forgot to say earlier that, if I was you, I'd include the onion sets & seeds etc in your 4k budget and deduct it from grocery allowance. I do that with pots, pans, recipes books, kitchen associated stuff.

FunBrum

Ive been wanting to get rid of packaging for some time now. Bails...what a wonderful. brave person you are to hand back the 'rubbish' that supermarkets and the like, actually add onto our bill!:T I have been arguing with my BF about this. I said that I was going to get an wicker shopping basket and only purchase fruit and veg from a greengrocers that just drops the food into my basket, having no need for plastic/paper bags. He thinks I have totally lost the plot, but it saddens me at the amount of unnecessary packaging that goes into wrapping our purchases.:mad:

On a trip to Aldis. I noticed that a lot of packaging was removed from the goods after puchasing by some really eco friendly students. Good for them!:j
By the way NYK...glad you like my frugal, late-night runs to Mr.M. What a shame you cant do the same due to your location.