2023 Frugal Living Challenge

AnimalTribe

Frugaldom I think the ‘Nyk’ was because I’ve been reading the old threads, right from the 2008 beginning, as motivation. Not a problem mistaking me for a newbie though as I hardly ever posted.

The kitchen calendar is now updated with birthdays and I’ve looked at my loyalty cards and have £40 to spend. DH’s cards are likely to have a bigger balance as we use his cards more often. I’ll have to persuade him to go online and see what his balances are. I’ll use the points first for groceries in 2024, before spending actual cash.

The budget I’ve come up with, based on last year’s figures, show’s that DH and I are living within our income, but I’d like to save more. So, like Alie23 I’ll be looking through each budget category and seeing if there are any possible savings to be made.

My tidy task today is to tidy out 2 chests of drawers.

[Deleted User]

I still haven't set my budget properly yet either.  I will do it sometime this week.  Tonight I am going to inventory my skincare stash.  If I have as much as I think I should have enough to last the next 6 month to a year.  The trick then will be not watching when my favourite brand is on QVC!

RateTartExtraordinaire

Hi all,

I’m definitely in for next year. I read everyone’s posts and it has definitely made me focus and taught me a few things along the way 😊

I think ‘could do better’ sums up my year. I’ve just done a review of actual spent to-date against the budget from last December.

I’ve really spent more than I thought I would on the car, about £1200 more! It has really added up over the year. But with the cost of second-hand cars right now, I’m looking after this one. The maintenance costs included bonnet respray (a couple of chips that were starting to rust), carpet mats for the car (it didn’t have any), the hike in costs of insurance - even though I haggled it down, increased cost of car tax and increased cost of MOT and the unexpected need for new tyres that followed (the first time I’ve brought tyres online + Cyber Monday discount of 10% – its more or less wholesale price then fitted locally). Oh and of course, the ‘drip-drip’ effect of more money spent on petrol (some of which was paid for by my Mum because of increased chauffeuring costs, but I’ve included it in the spent so I’m aware of the cost).

Groceries spending is down on the budgeted amount but I’ve shared the cost with my partner and maybe he has been spending more than me…so not sure I can claim that as a win overall. We take it in turned to pay for the weekly shop. I feel I really should start to include him in the budgeting process now, as I am the chief executive of spending in the household and that isn’t healthy according to Martin Lewis!

Bills were over budget by £266 on the projected spend, not too bad but a 20% increase on last year’s bills – there was very little I could do to reduce this. The big culprit was energy costs. I’m not impressed by the rise on the standing charge at all. I’ve been offered another fix by Oct-o-pus, which I will have a look at.

I spent more on clothes this year than I should have. One pair of jeans gave up the ghost (I patched them twice but they just wore through). Then I lost weight and a lot of things started to look a bit baggy so I invested in some clothes that actually fit me. I could have saved by going to charity shops, but I didn’t do that this year. I did feel a little pressure to buy a new outfit with some social outings this summer and I only bought things I have got lots of use from because they go with everything and they are practical – Gosh that sounds boring. I’m not a fashionista.

The health costs have gone down – less migraines have been a plus this year financially too and of course the HRT prepayment certificate (Hurrah!).

Putting my partner in charge of holiday spending this year was great! He found a couple of bargains and we have already booked something for next November that he found. I resisted a trip away with friends this year, which is costing them more than they through it would be due to the cost of actually getting to the airport being so expensive and the allotted baggage allowance size equivalent to a handkerchief!  

I’m cat-sitting at the moment to bring in an extra £200 for December, which is a slow time for me workwise. My earnings are up 25% on last year as business has picked up. Next year, Mum is having an operation so I’ll need to take some time off to be around to help out while she recovers.  

I need to do better on the frugal-front. I’ll be drawing up my budget for next year. Things I’m planning to do that are in my control are: get my partner more involved in budgeting and shop at charity shops for clothes next year.

Asparklierblonde

Reminder that there is a free £200 from Nationwide if you switch to their current account. They get good customer service reviews and are more ethical than a lot of high street banks. May be helpful to someone, I am going to use the money to pay for logs.

Reduced hen and cockerel numbers by a further 8 today, further lowering feed bills. Full budget being done this week for 2024.

mumof3.12kindebt

I'm hoping to do this again in 2024.

We have done well to not have too many non essential spends this year. 

Next year I want to do the same but I also plan to have a huge declutter so I don't want to bring the clutter back and undo all the hard work that will go into it. 

I hope everyone is doing well I will try and catch up on posts xx

nannygladys

Just read AnimalTribes post and it reminded me about a gift card I had bought me back in June and not spent, thanks for that, I've found it and now I'm £20 better off😀 I'll spend it sensibly though, probably going towards the wood for another raised bed!
I've redone my budgets but I can't really do much better than they are, bit depressing really but I can at least try to stick to them ie the clothes budget has nothing in it, so I can't buy any clothes until there is and just use what I have! I need some waterproof boots or trainers, but instead I will go to the allotment and get a pair of wellies as I have two pairs down there!
And coming up to Xmas I'm hoping to be able to buy low priced veggies and set about freezing them for the months after Xmas, but using my food money, so in the next couple of weeks I'll be tightening up on the food spends and setting it aside to pay for them. I hope the supermarkets are going to do it this year! 
Nannyg 

balabooberlies

Hello All

don't know if any of you remember me as I petered out about 2 years ago.  Lots of changes.  Ones that I haven't coped with very well but now feel a little stronger.

Would love to join you next year.

balabooberlies x

joedenise

nannygladys said:

Just read AnimalTribes post and it reminded me about a gift card I had bought me back in June and not spent, thanks for that, I've found it and now I'm £20 better off😀 I'll spend it sensibly though, probably going towards the wood for another raised bed!
I've redone my budgets but I can't really do much better than they are, bit depressing really but I can at least try to stick to them ie the clothes budget has nothing in it, so I can't buy any clothes until there is and just use what I have! I need some waterproof boots or trainers, but instead I will go to the allotment and get a pair of wellies as I have two pairs down there!
And coming up to Xmas I'm hoping to be able to buy low priced veggies and set about freezing them for the months after Xmas, but using my food money, so in the next couple of weeks I'll be tightening up on the food spends and setting it aside to pay for them. I hope the supermarkets are going to do it this year! 
Nannyg 

You'll be pleased to know that Sainsbugs have said that they are doing the reduced veg from 19 December @19p; Lidl have also said they will be too.  No doubt all the other SMs will do them as well.

[Deleted User]

balabooberlies said:

Hello All

don't know if any of you remember me as I petered out about 2 years ago.  Lots of changes.  Ones that I haven't coped with very well but now feel a little stronger.

Would love to join you next year.

balabooberlies x

Welcome back 

mumtoomany

To all those buying/planing to buy cheap veg. The shallots i bought from Lidl kept for ever. I found one hidden in the back of the onion box in September, still perfectly fine to eat. They apparently last a lot longer than onions. Might be worth stocking up if anyone is selling shallots this year. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx