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Welcome to our latest newcomers- hope you enjoy being part of the frugal 'gang'.
I've notice a couple of others mention various social media platforms and @Frugaldom is on most of them so feel free to let me know your user names there for some mutual follows. I tend to post all the photos on those platforms as they can't be uploaded on here, only linked from elsewhere.
I reserve the right not to spend.
The less I spend, the more I can afford.
Frugal living challenge - living on £4000 in 20247 -
Frugaldom said:Welcome to our latest newcomers- hope you enjoy being part of the frugal 'gang'.
I've notice a couple of others mention various social media platforms and @Frugaldom is on most of them so feel free to let me know your user names there for some mutual follows. I tend to post all the photos on those platforms as they can't be uploaded on here, only linked from elsewhere.
You just click on the photo icon (ringed red in the screenshot below) and select the image from your device 🙂
2.22kWp Solar PV system installed Oct 2010, Fronius IG20 Inverter, south facing (-5 deg), 30 degree pitch, no shadingEverything will be alright in the end so, if it’s not yet alright, it means it’s not yet the endMFW #4 OPs (offset): 2018 £866.89, 2019 £1322.33, 2020 £1337.07,
2021 £1250.00, 2022 £1500.00, 2023 £1500Target for 2024 (offset) = £1200, YTD £460
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur13 -
@kayannie thank you for reminding me about the £1.50 fruit and veg boxes, I need to find out what time my local shop does them because I always seem to miss them, but I'm vegetarian so I think that could do for quite a bit of my weekly shop.
Made a big vegetable stew today, used left over veg from Christmas and olio freebies, I think the whole thing will have cost less than £1.50 and I'm hoping it will do for the next 4 days. Working the next 4 nights so that should stop me spending anything because I pretty much just work, drive, eat, sleep on repeat - who doesn't love being on the hamster wheel! The benefit of the silly hours is that I've overpaid 10% of my mortgage today 🎉 financial independence seems a little bit closer every time. Fingers crossed for a premium bonds win this month.
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Hello all,
I’m back to join again for 2023. I did very well and by the middle of last year I’d managed to reduce my overall debt down from over £21k to £10k - unfortunately then life happened and a few unexpected expenses together with having to buy a new car suddenly led me back into my old ways and took my debt back up to £19.5k - almost back where I started!I am determined to get back on track and live more frugally again so I can throw more money at my debt. I’ve already got it down to £17.5k.Not going to do a full yearly budget as I find it overwhelming - (I have autism so I get too obsessed with the numbers)
I am just going to concentrate on saving - (and not spending) as much as I can and also making extra money where I can.Positives:
1. We are mortgage free so not as worried about interest rate rises.2. I just got a decent pay rise so an extra £120 coming in per month which I’ve added to my monthly budgets - dividing the extra between electricity/gas, petrol, and credit card payments.3. I get obsessed with buying food - so we currently have 3 freezers stuffed full and loads in the cupboards plus a big garage stockpile. If I can resist the urge to buy more stuff I don’t need (this will be hard) food costs should be minimal for a while. Ditto toiletries/cleaning products - I have tonnes!4. - the big one. I didn’t add to my debt over Christmas probably for the first time ever. Christmas is a time when I always traditionally go OTT - I always go over budget in gifts etc I just can’t seem to help myself. Additionally at Christmas I get paid around 2 weeks early so it’s a long month to stretch the money and because we’re off work for a long stretch we end up eating out, taking the kids for days out etc. By the end of the the Christmas period I ALWAYS end up putting things on my credit card. This year I’ve managed to stay in budget and we still had a great time.5. Currently it’s 2 weeks until my husband gets paid. All known bills are accounted for and I currently have £70 left in my food budget and £139 left in my general spends budget. Hopefully this will be more than enough.Things that might derail me:
1. Petrol costs - I live out in the middle of nowhere so we need to drive pretty much everywhere. We have to run 2 cars due to working patterns. I have a petrol budget but I need to drive sometimes for work and this can be unpredictable. I can claim expenses but I still need to lay the money out.2. Gas bill for Oct/Nov/Dec is due in the next fortnight - not sure if there will be quite enough in the bill account to cover it all due to needing heating on and the increase in prices.3. My son is disabled so this means lots of extra washing/drying (bedding etc). He also uses a lot of devices/equiptment so higher energy costs are pretty unavoidable. I’m concerned about the price rises once the cap expires in April.4. My son also has a highly restrictive diet so sometimes I need to buy specific brands etc. to make sure he’ll eat which means I can’t always shop as cheaply as I’d like.I think that’s it for now - looking forward to following along and being more accountable for my spendingTotal debts £21050! :eek: now £10941. 76. Total extra income made in Jan22 £109. 27 Feb 22 £45.25 Total extra income made in 2022 £154.52 Aiming for debt free at 45 - 41 months to go!14 -
We had our energy bill, it was£346 almost triple what we're paying a year ago. Unfortunately one family member does require the heating on due to their disabilities and they were off college for 2 weeks. We also had visitors who needed the house to be hot due to health conditions on 2 of the days which cost us nearly £25 in gas. Quite a few of us were ill over Christmas, so we took our eye off the frugal ball. The aim is to try and only use £4 per day per utility next month 🤞. Had to order a new hoover last night as ours has finally given up. It's been mended a couple of times last year but its had it. At least it was on offer.
Frugal wins.
1. Veggie lunch and tea made from scratch. Enough leftover for lunch tomorrow. Enough of dd2 tea leftover for another 2 meals.
2. Heating didn't go on till 330pm, just before I picked up dd2 from college.
3. Might not have to replace dd2 electric chair(had to purchase privately - long boring story) NHS looking at transferring all the bits on her current chair to a new one. Whoop whoop. I might just have to pay labour costs.
🤞The weather is good tomorrow so I can get the washing out.
CRx14 -
First spend today of £9.76 in Mr M for bread, plant milk and some Brillo pads so I can clean the oven. I am not planning any more spending until the weekend so hopefully will end up with a really good first week.We have 2 freezers full of food and 2 cupboards plus some odd random stashed under the stairs etc so am doing three rivers pantry challenge. Aiming to make home-made Cornish (Warwickshire) pasties tomorrow and will also bung in a cake and a quiche to justify the electric for the oven. I have quite a few steaks in the freezer from TGTG bags I’ve picked up and fresh veg which needs using up
hope everyone is managing settling back into work/routines after ChristmasFrugal living challenge 2023 £7500 for 2 adultsJanuary grocery challenge £60.55/ £2008 -
Carolbee7
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I have set my budget for the year and have a store cupboard and small fridge/freezer full of food so I plan on reducing both over the next few months, also have lots of chutneys, pickles and jams made from fruits and veggies homegrown during last summer. I want to spend as little as possible during January and apart from a few pounds on milk, fruit and veggies I shouldn’t need to spend much more so I am hoping for as many NSDs as possible. Even if I run out of some things I am going to try and substitute or just do without during January.
This evening I've made a big pot of soup with leftovers and also a bean stew in the slow cooker as I had chorizo, carrots and an out-of-date passata, then did a round cheese soda bread quartered it and put the 3 x 1/4s into the freezer so I can use it when needed. I really want to run the freezer down as some things have been in there for a while, there are a few containers lurking in there with no labels on them so they are going to be rescued, could be interesting !
I'm kind of glad to be back to work today and into the start of a routine again. I think I am one of the few folk who like January, it always feels like a new start and new opportunities ahead, like stepping into the unknown...............
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carolbee said:
I went a few years back and it was lovely
Hope you are keeping well
NRA xNewRoadAhead Debts Sep 2009 £35,000.00Debt Free November 2014January GC £ 245.75/£250NSD January 13/10February GC £250.00NSD February 2/156 -
Testing photo upload, sorry if it is a huge photo but I don't know how to resize them on my mobile. My rescued food from Olio god chopped to make a pasta sauce. Cherry toms, mushrooms, onions and peppers with some garlic, salt and pepper. Added a good dash of Tabasco to spice it up a bit.I reserve the right not to spend.
The less I spend, the more I can afford.
Frugal living challenge - living on £4000 in 202417
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