2023 Frugal Living Challenge

Madbat60

Morning all from south east Kent 
We've had a crap start to December as we've all had flu.  I need to sit down between now and New year and sort out my budget.  Thankfully we still have loads of coal and it's been pretty mild down south.  The HMRC finally sorted my tax out on my pension and I completed my first self-assessment tax form.  So I'm just plodding on at present.  I have loads of clothes cut out ready to sew after Christmas.  Have a fabulous Saturday all.

London_1

Good Morning all and especially to Madbat60 as I live in the Medway area.

Living alone, I've just roughly worked my next years budget out for all expenses at roughly £6.5k a year and that's saving some for a rainy day emergency  as well.

This will hopefully be revised in the spring as my youngest DD and son-in-law and I are selling up our houses and resettling on the IoW, so expenses will be shared and lowered for us both.
it's something we thought long and hard about for several years, and DD always wanted to go back to live on the Island as its where her late Dad came from.
We get along pretty well and respect our boundaries, and they both know I like my independence, as they do too. 

Fingers crossed we are hoping to be there by summer or autumn at the latest, depending how the housing markets are.
She is an estate agent which helps  

I am at present decluttering towards our moving and eating my way through my cupboards and freezer and running foodstuff down if I can which has been really good so far this month

I'm away from next Saturday until the New Year so using up as much of the fresh stuff as I can at the moment not a great deal left and I'm more than happy to live out of the freezer this week. Every little helps as it often quoted
Her family of five children  have all grown and flown, (the youngest is in  a second year at Uni but says he doesn't want to move over there ), so although we will be buying a largish property between us for when the family visit It will only be the three of us most of the time anyway, so we won't get under each others feet

My son-in-law is a fantastic cook and enjoys experimenting, and I'm always happy to let him try and will be on hand if it goes wrong

 DD and I like similar things and as long as I've got my space, and they have their's its never been a problem. So an  interesting year to come I hope, if probably at times a little stressful as moving house always is. But really looking forward to a more peaceful life than on the mainland. I think I can do 'pottering' to a fine art

JackieO xx 

Asparklierblonde

Happy to report that all of my spending for 2023 is complete. I have all the food we need for over the festive break, all bills are up to date and we have a healthy stock of wood and coal. Half a pig, two of our own lambs and several cuts of beef in the freezer. That is all of next years meat sorted. 

Sad news with the loss of a beloved animal this week, but life goes on and we have to be positive. I am very much looking forward to the new thread and will commit now to posting my monthly updates. 

Take care all x

Frugaldom

Sweetlittledaydreams said:

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. 

BRILLIANT NEWS!
WELL DONE on achieving mortgage freedom. It's such a huge relief getting to the stage of no longer worrying about monthly payments for the roofs over our heads.

Just to note - I'm never offended by anything anyone posts or comments here as I'm so bad at articulating what I mean that I'm more likely to frustrate those around me. I sometimes wonder at my own words if I find time to read back over then.

Got more 0lio this weekend plus a big box of cucumbers, which are being added into pony food as well as our own. Every visitor is being offered a cucumber.

nannygladys

Waiting for the cheap veggies coming into the shops this week and then I'll be filling my freezer with cheap veggies to help until home grown ones are big enough. I'll also be buying more Ys and get free veg from the food hub as well to supplement them.

London_1

DGS dug some more of my reduced daffodil bulbs in for me today, and put some where the potato plot was and managed to unearth some spuds that had been missed, so not a lot ,but will do me as an accompaniment to tomorrows dinner, with a several left over for Tuesday, two free spud days this week, they are charlottes and are very nice . I do love an unexpected freebie  

  JackieO xx

AnimalTribe

Madbat60 I hope you are all recovering from the flu.

London_1 the plan to move to the IoW sounds very exciting I hope the housing market works in your favour

Asparklierblonde I am sorry to hear you lost a beloved animal. It is heart-breaking when they go, but I’m sure you gave your animal a wonderful life.

I have de-cluttered my cooking and baking equipment cupboards. So I’ve got some more stuff to go to the charity shop. I’ve put some Disney crockery and fancy cake tins on eBay. A cracked, though pretty, mixing bowl went in the bin. I did think about using it as a planter, but decided it was too much faff. I forgot about sorting out Qmee and Quidco so I’ve still that to do. This weekend I managed to finish a couple of small craft projects that have been lying about for a while. I had a huge panic though, when I dropped a needle on the floor and spent ½ an hour panicking that the dog had eaten it before I found it.

Frugaldom

Two weeks remaining. I've already set up the 2024 challenge but won't be doing much there until this one ends. I can't see how to add in links on mobile app so that will need to wait until I get onto my laptop.

Popped into our local Keystore and found their oatcakes on offer so stocked up with those. We don't really do Christmas or any other occasions as it's just another day when looking after animals but I'll probably make a trifle for dessert. That's got to be worthy of celebration in its own right.

nannygladys

I'm thinking of making myself some mini trifles as I bought some small 'trifle' bowls that I remember as a child in the fifties, they have a stem on them and as a child it felt posh!!! When I saw them at a CS shop I couldn't resist, there's only three but there's only me, so it's fine! 

ancientmum

nannygladys, I like your new signature!