2023 Frugal Living Challenge

MissRikkiC

I am following along with interest and reviewing my spends as I go. I haven’t got the opportunity to do a full budget yet, with 2 small children however I do the grocery challenge and am very aware of my electricity bill. For now, these are my focus areas (especially on my penultimate month of maternity pay) and I’ll continue to read along. 

Yesterday, I wanted out of the house so we were out for a few hours and took drinks and snacks with us. The oven didn’t go on but hub had a shower and the electric cost wasn’t eye watering at £3.56. For the days over Christmas it’s been upwards of £7/8. 

My aim for the first Q of this year is to keep the electric at an average of £4 per day. I am still on maternity until the end of Feb and then work from home anyway but both children will be in nursery from March so I think costs will be different after that. I wonder if we could alternate the days in which the oven and the shower are on so we don’t take full whammy for both on the same day. I’ve already switched to disposable nappies for the winter to save on TD costs so whilst I can’t do everything just now, I’m opting for what I can do instead. 

annieb64

We did have indoor toilet at home although did have the hard toilet paper at first. 
 Every year we'd have to go to the birthday party of a girl from church. She wasn't really a friend but my mother always made us go to the party for some reason. They had an outdoor toilet at the bottom of the garden. It was the plank with a hole over a pit type. If we wanted to use the toilet we'd have to take a torch and walk down a mud path. We were all so nervous about it that we'd go in pairs but then when we got to the toilet we had to decide who got the torch- the one in  the toilet or the one waiting outside in the dark.

Kitchenbunny

No spends today, always a good sign. I was tempted by a couple of charity shops but held firm 😊 scored an Amazon voucher with surveys which has gone to the gift fund for the end of the year. I also renegotiated my phone contract that I’d stupidly let get onto a really bad value rolling contract so that’ll be £6 less per month. 👍🏼 Over the course of the year that’ll make a difference to the annual budget. 

Tea tonight is a pasta bake with leftover Bolognese from Saturday. It’s all made and ready to go, and to save time we’ll heat it up in the oven while we’re out for a walk. There’ll be some bagel chips drying out as snacks when the pasta comes out 👍🏼 Got to maximise the oven!

SuperMoose

Delurking as I wanted to let people know that Morrison's are currently selling a kilo of Savers porridge oats for 38p. Not seen them that cheap for a long time. I can't find any mention of it on their website but lots of their Savers items aren't online so I'm not surprised.

Our Morrison's had what seemed like thousands of bags in several different places in the store.

Love this thread and glad it's here again for 2023. Thank you

aspella

@Landgirlinthelittlecity - Laxey & Lonan allotment host a seed/plant swap sometime in April which is a free event at the Laxey Sailing Club. I've been attending the event for a few years and it's introduced me to some different varieties and types of vegetables. It's enabled me to experiment more and try different things - I grow kohl rabi after picking up a packet of seeds at the event one year (I wouldn't have paid £2.99 in a shop).

Landgirlinthelittlecity

aspella said:

@Landgirlinthelittlecity - Laxey & Lonan allotment host a seed/plant swap sometime in April which is a free event at the Laxey Sailing Club. I've been attending the event for a few years and it's introduced me to some different varieties and types of vegetables. It's enabled me to experiment more and try different things - I grow kohl rabi after picking up a packet of seeds at the event one year (I wouldn't have paid £2.99 in a shop).

That they do I’ve been a couple of times but I’ve had prior engagements the last couple sadly. 

the_cross_rabbit

Frugal wins. 
1 washing went on the line and was almost dry. 
2. Tea provided by the allotment. Need to research recipes that contain swede, leeks, sprouts and kale, as that's what's left. 
3. Nsd
4. Although we didn't keep under the £4 mark yesterday(utilities) , we did identify where the increases are coming from. Just need to buy a couple of timers, so we can get certain appliances to come on when electricity is cheaper.
5. Heating only on for a couple of hours due to it been so mild during the day. 
CRx 

spudsmum

Frugal wins today:

My mother in law gave me £14 back for something I’d bought online for her and forgotten about 

Mother in law also gave me a massive joint of pork they’d bought for Christmas then decided they’d gone off pork so that’s gone in the freezer. 

I went to the eco pantry and got 7 items for £2 including a big bag of fruit and veg, oven chips, a giant pack of weetabix for my husband, multipack crisps for the kids pack ups and some orange juice - sadly no meat on offer today but it will all still get used and save me money. 

I found my kids usual cereal in reduce to clear at the shop - 30p a box so I bought 6 (now, strictly speaking I said I was avoiding buying more food but this will definitely get eaten and it’s usually £2 a box so I’m calling it a win!) 

Total spend for today £7.97 - tomorrow will probably be a NSD as I’m out all day working. 

£13.64 Quidco cash back from Christmas gifts I bought plus £1.89 from surveys paid out today and gone straight onto the credit card. 

Been WFH today - just me at home so put my big cardigan on and no heating on all day. MIL fed all the kids their tea so no use of oven (me and husband had some leftover chicken strips I bunged in the air fryer with some new potatoes I got from the eco pantry) 

think that’s it - small steps. 

2Scratters

Backing up on Morrisons, they have 2kg bag of sugar at 1.45 Purchased last week.

2Scratters

Hi All,
to add we have 9 lettuces that have been collected in the TGTG bags!! They are on the window bottom, all of them in water to hopefully keep them fresh, may need to advertise locally if anyone needs to share them with me  think I may need to check out the lettuce soup recipes.

2 Scratters xx