2023 Frugal Living Challenge

Asparklierblonde

Interested about the inclusion of the TV licence. I wonder how many people still watch live TV and/or use iplayer? We do neither and haven’t had a license for a few years now. 

mumtoomany

@Frugaldom, your internet/telephone seems dear. We are paying around £40 per month for both, including all calls, even to mobiles, as long as they are under one hour long each. No calls abroad. This is with plusnet. When the contract was up, 18 month contract, they renewed at the same price. I did call them and ask them to. Might be worth looking at.

@Asparklierblonde, we still have a tv licence. Our internet is so poor that watching catchup or Netflix etc is nearly impossible. We only pay half of it though, DD1 pays the other half, so only about £80 per year.

Still pondering next year's budget. But have just found out off Martin, last night's show, we will get the last payment of the cost of living bonus in February. I thought we you miss it as Tax Credits will end January. Apparently because we receive them now we will be entitled to it. Another £299 to add to next years budget. 

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

Frugaldom

We still have a TV licence as we can't stream anything on our rural broadband, which is through BT as it's one of the few providers who will service our area. My BT has already been reduced to include calls and unlimited broadband but owing to working outdoors 7 days a week and spending time away, I also need internet access at Frugaldom. This means having 2 SIM cards on 2 different networks as our area is really bad for any signals at all. Home has absolutely zero so can't do away with the landline. I also carry out wildlife surveillance, the videos and photos from which are uploading via mobile. Please remember I have a very unusual lifestyle and have been doing this for many years - believe me when I say all avenues are covered to suit that lifestyle (and self employment for 2 of us working mostly in different locations). My comms contracts are almost all business expenses. Prior to setting up the project, my mobile bill was £30 a year. 

Also, above listed was this year's budget and not 2024. I have managed to further reduce the comms contracts.

fionaandphil

Very impressed with your budget @Frugaldom I doubt we will ever get to those levels! We've had a crazy year with lots of wider family illness so have spent more in some areas than intended, but needs must and family comes first for us.

We are similar to you in that our broadband and mobile isn't good, not as far from civilisation as you but we are not classed as a priority as there are so few houses nearby. We have no gas supply either, just oil for us.  We seek to get the best price on everything but when it comes to communication/tv its not been worth skimping - we have been with T4lkTalk previously and they were awful.  We do watch live TV and it is good when the internet is playing up to not have to worry about having a reliable internet.

I haven't even started thinking about the budget yet, crazy busy here right now - I'm looking forward to Christmas in the hope it may be a bit calmer.

mumtoomany

After I'd posted yesterday I thought, "why am I trying to teach @Frugaldom to suck eggs?" I left the comment on in case it was of use to others. The clue is in your name really, and the multiple threads you've posted over the years. Glad you've managed to reduce it again for next year, well done. Poor broadband is normal here. And a scratchy phone line, that cuts out. The man from open reach was here again yesterday. Can't find the fault. The problem is ancient copper wires running through the trees. The local village now has fibre, but there are around a dozen houses here still on copper wire! The joys of rural life!

 Looking forward to the new thread, hugs, mumtoomany.xx

Asparklierblonde

I am sure @Frugaldom won't have even thought twice about it @mumtoomany, after all we are just trying to help each other in one way or another. We have decided to get rid of Netflix, in reality we don't use it much and we are quite happy using the free streaming services and watching DVDs. So that will be to come off the budget - not a huge saving but a saving nonetheless! 

One thing to add is that if I do spend over and above the budgeted £9k, it is paid for out of money that I have earnt as extra income, e.g. ebay sales, egg sales, lamb sales. There isn't a lot of it, but it goes into the extras pot to spend as needed. My spreadsheet tells me I have spent £15.09 on food in the last week. God bless pheasant season and lambs in the freezer!

mumtoomany

Good morning, @Asparklierblonde. We're still ploughing through the pork, will probably send a lamb, the little ram lamb that got left when the others went to market, as he was playing dead, at some point in the spring. Still eating lots of cabbage too. 
Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Sweetlittledaydreams

Haven't fallen off the frugal wagon but have fallen off the posting about it wagon - I will try harder to be more involved next year. Have sold £75 worth of furniture in the last few weeks and hopefully have another £45 worth of furniture to go as long as it's collected as agreed. Mortgage was cleared a few months ago so that's the biggest monthly bill out of the way. Will be splitting bills 50/50 from January which will also help a lot. I feel like the food bill has crept up so that needs to be looked at, need to get back to going more meals from scratch again. 

fionaandphil

mumtoomany said:

After I'd posted yesterday I thought, "why am I trying to teach @Frugaldom to suck eggs?" I left the comment on in case it was of use to others. The clue is in your name really, and the multiple threads you've posted over the years. Glad you've managed to reduce it again for next year, well done. Poor broadband is normal here. And a scratchy phone line, that cuts out. The man from open reach was here again yesterday. Can't find the fault. The problem is ancient copper wires running through the trees. The local village now has fibre, but there are around a dozen houses here still on copper wire! The joys of rural life!

 Looking forward to the new thread, hugs, mumtoomany.xx

Haha -  I think you must be my neighbour @m@mumtoomany that is what they always tell us too.  We only live 5 minutes from the M6 but apparently are classed as rural and very unlikely to move off copper wire for many years.  We are again being monitored and on our third router for the year, they can see its working intermittently but can't work out why.  Oh the joys of country life!

AnimalTribe

The rain has been non-stop here too, loads of places covered in water, the moor is sodden, but I’m not as badly affected as some poor folk. I still have a TV licence, but mainly for DH as he likes the history and engineering shows on the ‘Yesterday’ channel. We can’t watch Netflix or anything like that as being off-grid we only have satellite broadband and that has a download cap – enough for some things, but not for streaming.

I’ve sorted out the bookcase and found a couple of specialised books I won’t read again to put on eBay and I’ve sold 2 boxed sets of DVDs on eBay – so that’s good. I’m finding doing an extra tidy and extra finance thing a day really useful – even if they are very small things. The driving licence dates are fine. Next on my list is to sort out a kitchen cupboard and to ‘withdraw’ my online cash – Qmee and Quidco.