2023 Frugal Living Challenge 7 December 2022 at 1:21AM edited 7 December 2022 at 1:37AM in Old style MoneySaving 821 replies 176.3K views

RandomOne

Thank you @Absolock for the link to that budget planner, I'm spending a few days gathering all the info I need to fill it out. How eye evening, and not in a good way! At least I know where I can start to reduce my costs though. 

Technically I have quite a good amount of money left over after all of my essential bills plus the gym membership. I should be able to pay £1200 a month off my debts each month if I stick to my very tight budget. But I think I'll use some of that to save an emergency fund at the same time, as I have zero in savings. 

Absolock

RandomOne said:

Thank you for the tips. I will review my monthly budget and make an annual one based on that. We have a lot of changes coming this year. New job, older children moving out etc, so it'll have to be pretty flexible. But I'm sure I can manage to work something out. 

Sure you will manage.

cw18

I'm in again.

But I'm really going to have to stick to it this year as my income is currently well down (loss of pay due to industrial action), and there's also a chance I could be out of work again soon (RM want to lose at least the equivalent of 10,000 full time employees).   I've run my details through a couple of systems, and the pittance I'd get from the benefits system (vastly reduced as I have a widows pension) wouldn't cover my essential bills.   The systems I used actually suggest I'd lose more than I get from my pension which seems very unfair

I'm off work next week (my rest week), so I plan to work on my spreadsheet and try and start a stocktake of the food mountain I still have in my house (I've actually been using more than normal over the last few weeks due to less income).    I need to try and calculate realistic figures for each spend category whilst keeping them as low as possible, but I don't think I can really cut back anywhere within the essentials spends (or not without having lump sums to do things like replace my 21 year-old boiler or install solar panels).   My garden has been more than a little neglected since early 2020 (not had the time/energy after work), so I need to get that back under contol and have another attempt at growing some of my own - but the weather has destroyed both my plastic greenhouses, so I'm likely to be more restricted with what I can grown (I had some lovely tomatoes and peppers for a couple of years, but don't think the crops merit spending on replacement shelters).

Son has already been told he's going to have to chip in more towards the costs of my car (we share it), and yesterday I cancelled my subscription to a weight loss website I've not made proper use of for the last couple of years.   Next to look at is the streaming services I subscribe too.    I could probably cancel any I can't find a special offer for as I have rather a large collection of (second hand) DVDs I need to work my way through, but If I can find deals again I'm likely to keep them (the combined cost this year was around the same as a TV licence, which I've not needed since the end of 2010).

This year I spent a reasonable wedge on donations for a scheme that provides Christmas presents to children who otherwise wouldn't get anything, and I'd love to be able to do that again so I need to work out a way of building that into my budget (and keeping a close eye on what I actually spend this year).   I bought bits and pieces right through the year when I saw items on special offers, but didn't keep a tally of the total which was a bit silly.   Having dropped off at the main centre (due to the amount I had) I managed to chat to the staff, and now have a better idea of where they normally have gaps - so I'm going to concentrate more on the younger children (0-18 months, and 18-36 months), and also keep my eyes open for teenagers.   They loved the activity packs I made up for the groups between those (a colouring/activity book, crayons, a small craft kit and - for the older ones - a pencil and sharpener, which worked out at an average of around £2.80/pack), so I'm also going to try and make up more of those if I find suitable items at keen prices.    I always used to get my children those kind of items, as it meant they had something they could do on their own whilst I was busy in the kitchen or trying to take a bit of a rest over the holiday period.    I'd like to allocate a minimum of £200 to this for 2023, but that will unfortunately be dependant on keeping my job.   I've already spent some of that, as I bulk bought pencil sharpeners and have a lot left for the next batch of activity kits (and probably enough for 2024, and maybe 2025 as well).

Landgirlinthelittlecity

Hello all, can I join for 2023? I’ll have a look at my budget and up it up. I’ve tried living frugally for a while but alas life gets in the way but this year I’m determined. One of the main areas I want to pay more attention to is food shopping. If I budget properly we can do our shopping for £35/40, if I don’t it suddenly doubles without anything to show for it. I’m hoping that going back on ww2 rations (but more looser than last time) diet and being more “clean” with what we eat will help.

Looking forward to following everyone over the next year x

RandomOne

@Landgirlinthelittlecity I'm the same with food shopping. I love food shopping and can easily spend in excess of £100 a week for the 3 of us if I don't keep myself in check. It's a daily battle. I'm eating a lot cleaner after Christmas but am not sure if I'll save any money that way. 

Wraithlady

mumtoomany said:

If it's books there is a site that has a lot of old classic books in audio from, for free. Not sure what it's called, but there may be others too.

You may be thinking of Project Gutenberg (sp?)

Glittering_M

Hi all,
A friend and I were talking and apparently you can make bricks out of horse poo which when dried you can burn.

Has anyone got any experience of that? I did see 1 older MSE forum but it didn't have much.

Part of me would want to try making a press but I'm not particularly technical. I'd probably just buy one of those ones you use to make paper briquettes as they seem to be about £20-30.

leftatthetrafficlights

leftatthetrafficlights said:

I'm back in for 2023 - I'll post my budget in a few weeks 

I've had a good look at our finances and we currently spend 23k (excluding CT). It's a lot of money but covers everything: debt repayments, TV licence, Sky/streaming services, water, electricity, oil, coal, wood, phone, birthdays & solstice, car maintenance & MOT'S, car tax and insurances, house insurance, groceries,  petrol, cleaners salary and a bird food/garden and household fund. I'm reasonably happy with the amount - leftover cash from groceries goes into a bulk buy fund and leftovers from petrol goes into a debt neutral fund.

We buy our own clothing/additional toiletries/haircuts and fun stuff out of our personal spend budget which is in addition to the above budget. 

My new financial year starts on 22nd December and my challenge this forthcoming year will be to reduce my expenditure by £500 - the savings I make will be put to our joint savings account. The first couple of months will be minimal as we have a 'slush' fund which we use for unexpected expenses such as appliance replacement which unfortunately has been halved recently due to expenses associated with a bereavement and I want to get that back up to it's previous level before I start increasing the savings. 

I'm reasonably confident that with more careful money management and less impulse buying I'll be able to achieve my goal. 

Landgirlinthelittlecity

RandomOne said:

@Landgirlinthelittlecity I'm the same with food shopping. I love food shopping and can easily spend in excess of £100 a week for the 3 of us if I don't keep myself in check. It's a daily battle. I'm eating a lot cleaner after Christmas but am not sure if I'll save any money that way. 

I love food shopping as well, no one understands how I can spend ages in tesco but I love looking at prices and seeing new ingredients to try. 

It’s only the two of us, with 4 dogs (though I pay them out of a separate budget as two are old now and cost a lot in medication even with petplan, and two do agility) and I’m amazed at how much we spend/ how easily the bill gets higher. I don’t remember it ever being this bad, but I guess with the rises in costs it’s just happened and I didn’t notice. We don’t buy any brand items either unless they are cheaper. So it’s not like I can go down to them to save some money. Just hoping that changing how and what we eat will help in the long run. X x

Madbat60

Thank you for the link to the budget planner. I've never done one properly ever. I've sent it to my local copy shop to be printed as I don't have access to a printer.