2023 Frugal Living Challenge

fionaandphil

Madbat60 said:

Morning all
I've just about got all of my food together for the next 10 days or so.  I'm very glad today is the shortest day.  I always struggle with everything as the light goes.  Next year I will be used to being retired and hopefully have strategies in place to deal with all of this.  I want to give up my job in my friends gym too, but i'll wait for a bit and see how they money pans out. 

I was looking at things to do for DP's birthday in January.  I've booked tickets for the Natural History and science museum.  Now all I need is some decent train and hotel accommodation.  He doesn't really need anything and being a Northerner, hasn't done much in London.  

Talking about trades people, DP and I do painting and gardening for others, usually by word of mouth.  The money pays for treats and time away.  I'm hoping things calm down a bit financially next year and this rampant inflation goes down.  At least I'm out of my energy deal in June, I will be leaving EDF and never going back. 

When we last went to Science museum we stayed at Novotel London west in Hammersmith which is just a short tube trip. We were members of their free loyalty programme and got extra discounts on room rate and breakfast also included, plus we booked via cashback site. Some nice cafe and local restaurants nearby too. It might also be worth looking at Railcard for travel, it can pay for itself quite quickly. We got our last Railcard via Tesco for £10 and it saved us about £25  on the first trip.

We spent the whole day in the science museum - so much to see! I think we took drinks and snacks in with us and just bought a coffee at some point 

AnimalTribe

I managed a quick trip into town to do some last minute bits and pieces. I bought some of the Aldi packs of cheap veg so that is Xmas lunch all sorted now. Some of the potatoes were big so I’ve put those aside to have as jacket potatoes. My finances are all now sorted ready for next year. So I’ve had a really good couple of weeks. I doubt I’ll do much over the holiday period, but from next year I’ll be de-cluttering the house and all the outbuildings. It will probably take me the whole of next year, but I’m looking forward to it – does this make me sad?

Frugaldom

Good afternoon, even although it feels like evening in this dank, murky weather. This weekend is being spent doing accounts as I need my self employment tax return away before the year ends. I've never been this disorganised in the past, always prefering to get it done before summer! Eek!  Once that's submitted, I'll have all the figures needed for next year's challenge. I don't earn anywhere near the current minimum wage, nor even the power tax threshold amount so it's scary numbers looking at what people are charging for various work. Can you imagine if I'd to get paid minimum rate of £11 an hour for the 5 hours a day, 7 days a week that it takes to water, feed, muck out and poop pick the tracks for our sanctuary animals? Eek! I'd be loaded!  

Hopefully, I'll be back later after completing tax return. Wish me luck.

Asparklierblonde

Good luck @Frugaldom xx

mandy47

Morning all.
Up early so finished balancing up this year's budget.
I achieved my goal and then some!
Enough money saved to buy the new sofas we desperately needed.

It just shows what can be done when you put your mind to it. 
I'm going to carry on next year and squirrel away what I can towards an early (ish) retirement. 
Wishing you all a merry and frugal Christmas and New year.
Keep up the good work. 

Frugaldom

Thank you @Asparklierblonde Tax return completed and submitted, just my NIC to pay as my pittance falls far short of the tax threshold. As long as I can afford to live, feed the animals and squirrel something away for retirement then all is well. 

Well done @Mandy47

It'll be a simple Xmas dinner for us and I'm not expecting any visitors. Family called in yesterday then I got mundane stuff like freezer inventory, laundry and accounts up to date. Today will be an achievement if I can now get all the Frugaldom work done in between rain showers.

Auti

Wishing everyone a calm and happy ending to the year. I find all the posts interesting thank you

Frugaldom

Accounts done, numbers crunched. 
Grocery costs for 2023 came to £750.70 and I've enough food in to last through to the new year, and then some. It works out slightly over my attempt at £1 per person per day for all meals but I didn't keep count of how many extra mouths got fed or how many free meals I had with others. This was only possible thanks to friends network on Olio, meaning we ate a very varied and somewhat unusual diet that has included some exotic new foodsabd a lot of salad stuff and vegan processed food as thats what Tesc0 seem to be keft with at the end of tge night.

Heat and light was just below £1,000 and no coal bought but there were a couple of cylinders of gas used, plus logs.

As long as our Olio friends remain active and we can subsidise our heating with wood & logs processed at Frugaldom then we should be able to continue on the similar budget of £4000. However, I'm not including gift giving in this, as I've got a savings pot for that.

Frugaldom

My latest Olio haul included a big bag of casserole veg, so I've just boiled that all up in ham stock with half a pack of lentils. That's tomorrow's soup done. 

Merry Christmas to all!

Siebrie

Madbat60 said:

I was looking at things to do for DP's birthday in January.  I've booked tickets for the Natural History and science museum.  Now all I need is some decent train and hotel accommodation.  He doesn't really need anything and being a Northerner, hasn't done much in London.

Tip:
take the cheapest ferry from Westminster to Greenwich. Walk around in Greenwich, visit the Old Royal Naval College (ornc.org, free), do some old-fashioned bowling in the basement (free). Walk underneath  the Thames (free) to Canary Wharf, take the DLR from Island Gardens to Bank. London buses are cheaper and more fun than the tube; there's lots of information on tfl.gov.uk. Have fun!