2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

MarkyMarkD

We do live reasonably near supermarkets - I drive past one on the way home from work each day and my wife passes it often too as it's only a mile away. But it's a Co-op and not as cheap as 59p per loaf.

The best wishes don't necessarily need to go to my wife. Guess who ends up washing the nappies at least half of the time!

It really isn't as much effort as some people seem to think, and it's definitely way cheaper. A wash cycle only costs about 5p or so (Economy 7!) plus washing powder which isn't much - in fact we are using powder we got free from a market research company at the moment - a big full size box! We dry them indoors on airers most of the time in the winter and outside in the summer if she can be bothered (it's better as the sun gets stains out).

The up-front cost is pretty steep, though, depending which sort you buy. If you only intend to have one baby, then it's not really worthwhile unless you buy the nappies secondhand and then sell them on afterwards. If you want a few sprogs, it will definitely save money.


Anyway, I'm great at meandering off topic on this thread. No wonder it's 208 pages long!

I phoned my wife from work to see whether she'd made some moussaka using the aubergines she insisted on buying when we went shopping a few weeks ago. She's thrown them away because they have gone mouldy. D'oh! How many times do I have to tell her that MSEs plan their menus and use up all their food?

Curry for tea instead. It'll be nice but not as frugal as it should have been!

lingojingo

Gone a little over budget this month:rolleyes: but not too bad as I've had to buy 8 birthday presents so far this year:eek: , all very necessary - my Mum, best friend, brother in law, 2 nephews and 3 nieces!!!! Hoping to save a bit in March as the only one to have a birthday is me:rotfl:

System

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

It's probably more important to note that it is better for your clothes too which could save you more money than the electricity saving.

i doubt it will make many savings in that area - im a primark sale/fill a binbag for £1 at a jumble sale kinda gal :rotfl:

...and i have vast caverns of clothing 'stock'

darn it, i failed my grocery challenge im not gonna bother doing it next month, I hardly read any of the thread, and i would have been spending food money frugally anyway.

I have had a pretty frugal day though, a workmate kindly took me and the other volunteer out for the biggest pizza in the world for lunch, then in the afternoon i was out with a group on a tour of a 4-star hotel, and got free fancy cakes and hot chocolate! (i managed to eat 4 cakes despite the fact that I was already in a fair bit of pain from eating too much pizza oh well now i wont need any dinner either!)

roll on march, i dont like my feb totals much!

System

oh wait, if you divide my year-to-date total by 2, it still comes out underbudget, average £148.13 per month!

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

please join me in a frugal-sucess can-can!
thanks everyone for helping me make frugalising into a fun game, mwah!

MarkyMarkD

LOL @ eating so much that it hurts, just cos it's "free". I used to be able to do that but I think my stomach has shrunk or something - hm, that's not true. My appetite has reduced since I was younger despite me putting on weight due to slower metabolism. I'm confused!

It's great to have lots of stock of nice clothes - well done! Guess you won't save too much on wear and tear to worry about it, though.

fallen_angel_shelley

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

We do live reasonably near supermarkets - I drive past one on the way home from work each day and my wife passes it often too as it's only a mile away. But it's a Co-op and not as cheap as 59p per loaf.

The best wishes don't necessarily need to go to my wife. Guess who ends up washing the nappies at least half of the time!

It really isn't as much effort as some people seem to think, and it's definitely way cheaper. A wash cycle only costs about 5p or so (Economy 7!) plus washing powder which isn't much - in fact we are using powder we got free from a market research company at the moment - a big full size box! We dry them indoors on airers most of the time in the winter and outside in the summer if she can be bothered (it's better as the sun gets stains out).

The up-front cost is pretty steep, though, depending which sort you buy. If you only intend to have one baby, then it's not really worthwhile unless you buy the nappies secondhand and then sell them on afterwards. If you want a few sprogs, it will definitely save money.


Anyway, I'm great at meandering off topic on this thread. No wonder it's 208 pages long!

I phoned my wife from work to see whether she'd made some moussaka using the aubergines she insisted on buying when we went shopping a few weeks ago. She's thrown them away because they have gone mouldy. D'oh! How many times do I have to tell her that MSEs plan their menus and use up all their food?

Curry for tea instead. It'll be nice but not as frugal as it should have been!

well done for using terry nappies, not only are they good for saving money but so much better for the enviroment :T :T :T i saw another post wher you said your wife didn't wan't to be measuring bread stuff out at night, could you not do it? don't be to hard on your wife for bining the aubergines, it's the type of thing i use to do, have you guys been doing meals plans? it's the best way of not waisting stuff. keep up the good work, shelley

MarkyMarkD

Yeah, I suppose that when I get off the computer late at night, and then find that she's gone to bed a few hours earlier without putting the nappies in, I could do them, and THEN measure out bread ingredients.

Or maybe we all need to plan a bit better.

Meal plans is an ongoing campaign which I haven't yet won. I hate getting home from work to "what shall we have for tea" rather than something cooking! And I know I sound like a right old chauvinist but I'm not really. But recently it seems that the only time we eat something that isn't straight out of the freezer is when I cook it myself.

Today was our 2 year old's second half-day at playgroup so I thought she'd have a bit more time for making the moussaka. Instead she (my wife) spent the afternoon in bed.

whitewing

Quick post tonight as left at 6am for the funeral and just got back. Sad but lovely send-off.

Pleased that we didn't spend loads of money on coke and crisps, cakes etc etc for the 9 hour round trip as we would have done previously. It cost us about £31 in fuel, which wasn't bad for the two of us.

Am having bad 'monthly' pains now, so have got my cheap non-branded painkillers. Little bit crushed that it means I'm not pregnant, but I guess it'll be a while of trying.

Still not heard about the job.

But, MIL has cleaned the house thoroughly and my hair looks fantastic (seriously, the best it has ever looked) after her hairdressing efforts yesterday.

Frugaldom

Whitewing, I think we need to find you a frugal sample of chocolate to help cheer you up... who was it mentioned free choccie here? And I'm sure I saw a telephone number to call for a free sample of hot cholcolate drink and I spotted 'turkish delight' flavour... MUST try to find it, back as soon as I do

FOUND IT............ http://www.optionstreats.co.uk/whats_new Call the number and leave your details on their automated system

My February grocery challenge budget went over but my budget is under, if you see what I mean. My 4k per year budget allows for £120 per month, but I'm in the Grocery Challenge at £100. Average after 2 months is £94.88 per month, so a saving, so far, of £25.12 despite going £3+ over in my GC challenge. I'm extremely happy with that :j :T

bails

Oh Nyk, I'm having a really rough time and need cheering up with some yummy choccy too so hurry back (okay, I might be telling the teensiest fib about having a rough time but I do NEED the chocolate :rotfl:).

Something else bizarre has happened recently - I now look forward to getting the nasty bill type letters and eagerly open these first...because they keep having refund cheques in them :T Got £28.08 from BG the other day and another £11 something from BT today, woo hoo! I also got my car tax refund today so that's another £60 ferreted away (this grin is not big enough to be a true representation!)