2023 Frugal Living Challenge

Glittering_M

Thanks @2Scratters I'll have a look

@Frugaldom that's amazing! I really need to look into Oleo etc more, I'm a bit put off as locally the pick up times seem to be late (for me! Ie 9/10pm) and require driving to so that puts me off.

Sweetlittledaydreams

Wow @Frugaldom that shopping budget is incredible, very impressive! Mine came in just under £100 for the month which I really need to try and get down to £80 or less next month. Hoping for a premium bonds win tomorrow 🙏  going to start taking my own coffee to work rather than paying £80 a year into the fund, can't tell if that is expensive or if I'm just being really cheap! But it seems a lot to me so I'll take my own from now on. Have been taking my own food to work now for a year so haven't done any calculations but pretty sure that will have saved me a fair bit. Anything to mean I don't have to work for so long feels like a win at the moment. I don't want to stop working completely but I really want to get a better work life balance because I'm so stressed again. Don't know if that means cutting my hours if I'm allowed (worried that I won't be allowed in my full time job but have decided not to do any extra hours in my other job for a while) or a complete career change but I feel like being frugal and not having so many expenses will help to make it a reality sooner. When I next have a few days off I will get some items up for sale that are sitting in cupboards collecting dust and taking up space. Bought a pair of boots at the weekend for £20 so my aim now is to sell £20's worth of stuff, probably should have done that first though! 

spudsmum

Very glad that January is now over and still no use of credit cards or overdrafts for the whole month which I’m incredibly proud of. 

Totted up my spends for the month - food/toiletries/cleaning came in at £190 which in the face of it is still massive BUT that is for a family of 5 including a bottomless teenager and my youngest who has a particular diet so I’m not going to be too hard on myself.  Previous  months before I embraced frugality again have been around £340 so I’m fairly pleased but I’m sure I can do more.  

Other monthly spends also came in under budget - I worked out I spent 78% of my budget so again a decent start but I can do better. 

The leftover money I’ve split 50 50 between my debts and my emergency fund. 

In terms of my weekly spending budget that reset every Friday I’ve not done great this week - it’s been a spendy week with school trips etc to pay for so I have £4.88 left - but at least I have SOME left. Tomorrow will be a NSD and then I’ll pay myself again on Friday. 

All in all a pleasing first month I think and something I can definitely build on. 

LadyWithAPlan

SuperSecretSquirrel said:

Madbat60 said:

According to what I've done I should have £1000 left a month. I have no idea where it goes so I shall start writing everything in a book. I'm lucky I have no rent or mortgage but I'm disgusted with myself if I fritter away so much money.

Hello old stylers! I usually lurk here, but wanted to voice a suggestion that might help anyone in the above situation. Pay yourself first.

If you have a regular income, the same amount received at regular intervals, and find that you should have a certain amount left over at the end of each month, but don't - instead of waiting until the end of the month to save the remainder, save it as soon as you get paid.

There are easy access accounts paying about 3% interest these days. Using the example above, stick £1000 in there on payday, then try living on what's left in your current account until next payday, and repeat. If your estimate is right it should be doable. If not you might need to adjust the budget and make a withdrawal from savings to cover the shortfall. It's very quick and easy to withdraw from an easy access account, but that one extra step can sometimes make you stop and think... If you would prefer a bit of enforced waiting time, I think premium bonds take a few days to withdraw from, so that could help.

You gain a little interest/prizes along the way, but for me the real benefit is that you manage to save a lot more when you save at the start of the month (and then try to cut your cloth to fit what's left) than you otherwise would.

This is a genius idea - as I am definitely saving less than I'd like .. especially with inconsistent income. I will have a play with this this month,

@SecondStar I dont have a TV nor a TV license for a decade. If I want to watch anything live or on iplayer I wait til I go to my family's. I dont really miss it  - loads of other things to do and I watch programmes eg netflix when I subscribe on my laptop. I also have a projector and a large monitor if I wanted to super size my screen but I rarely bother.

Blackcats

@Glittering_M - with Olio the use by items have to be collected that night but the best before can be requested for collection the next morning (our olio food waste heroes are v good about this).  What this enables is that some items like bread, fruit and veg might be available for you the next day.  I was lucky today and collected a swede, some bananas, a mango, some parsnips and some flatbreads.  Hope that helps 

Madbat60

Evening all

Well, I went through my incomings and outgoings. I had the unexpected expense of new glasses, so there are no savings. I had to have dental work to pay for this month. My food and grocery spending was £500. Less than I thought but still too high.  Never mind it's a  new month, I'll just carry on tracking. 

aspella

I kept within my £15 per day budget for January i.e. outgoings were less than £465 despite some unplanned purchases, which were bought at charity shops or in clearance sale. Only entering 23 competitions per day meant I spent less time online throughout January which resulted in me reading 9 books and doing 24 jigsaw puzzles. Decluttered a few items - some were donated to charity, swapped or sold (not an enjoyable experience, shocked at the number of people who don't turn up or decide to change the day/time at the last minute). I received two prizes in January which came to £130. 

Things I've noticed by looking at till receipts in January.

• Cress is 0.07 more in T than S
• T overcharged me for milk refund requested 0.20
• Carrots have gone up 0.05 in T
• Allinson loaf has gone up 0.15
• Eggs have gone up 0.50

I'm going to have a fantastic February and so far it has been a wonderful Wednesday. First NSD of February. Washing dried outside, after it stopped raining. WEM received telling me I've won a prize so I look forward to that turning up in the post.

RateTartExtraordinaire

cw18 said:

Bluegreen143 said:

I think if you can get the repair that much cheaper than buying a new car it would make sense to repair. Could you borrow the money if needed or use credit? Just given you’ve said it is essential for your son’s work. I agree that car prices are mad and you can’t get cheap beaters that cheap anymore.

Credit isn't a viable option for either of us - which is why a replacement car is a hard option to swallow.

Anything we can't fund ourselves will mean approaching 'the bank of Mum' - and at my age it's something I really, really don't want to be doing!   But the amount for repairs wouldn't feel as bad as the cost of a car.

I use her in an evening and at weekends because she's here, but the only thing I couldn't do without having a car is a day trip visit to see my Mum, daughter and grand-daughters.   By the time I got there on public transport I'd have to turn around and come home again, so it means at least one night of scrounging a bed from my Mum if I do that.   So if it were just me I'd be looking at giving her up and doing without for a couple of years (keeping an eye on the deadline for losing my full NCD if I don't take out another insurance policy).

Hi @cw18
I recently replaced my car and I can contest to how the prices have gone up!
I was reading your post about credit not being an option and I remembered a programme that featured a credit union. They will lend to people who cannot usually get credit from normal sources and have low interest and no hidden costs. They are all individual but have a common theme.

Do you have a Credit Union in your area or are you a member of a church or union that has one? You can search for them here. https://www.abcul.coop/home 
Good luck with your situation.

Glittering_M

Thanks @Blackcats I didn't know that about Olio. 

cw18

RateTartExtraodinaire said:

Hi @cw18
I recently replaced my car and I can contest to how the prices have gone up!
I was reading your post about credit not being an option and I remembered a programme that featured a credit union. They will lend to people who cannot usually get credit from normal sources and have low interest and no hidden costs. They are all individual but have a common theme.

Do you have a Credit Union in your area or are you a member of a church or union that has one? You can search for them here. https://www.abcul.coop/home 
Good luck with your situation.

I've seen a poster of some sort at work about one, but it's not something that really sank in!   I may look at starting to pay in so that it's there for future use though

Garage phoned a couple of hours ago, as they'd managed to get it onto a ramp this morning.    I might get £5 change from £600 - but I've told them to go ahead.   From what he said there's only one tricky bit - some of the welding is right alongside the fuel tank, so they need to lift off the exhaust and something else to get to it safely.   And as the exhaust needs some attention anyway it's not adding the full cost of doing that to the bill.    He said they'd try and make a start today as she's already on a ramp, so we could have her back on Monday/Tuesday (rather than them only starting to look at it on Monday as per the booking).

I'm going to have to put it on plastic in the knowledge I can't pay it all off in once - it's a lot cheaper to put it onto the plastic than it is to use my overdraft (15.8%, against a staggering 35.9% even for my arranged one!), but will be scrimping to get it paid as quickly as possible.    I have a LOT of food in the house, so should be able to manage with not much other than bread, spread, potatoes and bananas.   My grocery budget is £30/week, but even if I only manage to throw £20 of that towards the debt it'll help pulling it down.

I'm going to get hold of the opticians and take another couple of months out from my contact lens scheme as well (£35/month).   The latest meds my GP has me on seem to be making my dry eye worse, and I've not been able to wear contacts since very early January - so I have a 2-3 month supply sitting here doing nothing at the moment meaning it's not essential the next delivery arrives as planned.    (If I decided I need them sooner I can call and make up the payments to get them sent out anyway.)

But my son is going to be told that it's high time he starting saving for his own car, rather than spending on latest gaming station and high spec PC (as he's done in the last 2 years).  I'm not shelling out - even partially - for another repair bill like this when I could (if necessary) live without a vehicle.    If I had a couple of years without one that would give me time to save for a replacement, and the road tax, insurance, breakdown cover, mot and repair money (which aren't an insignificant amount - quick finger in air estimates a minimum of £800/yr) could all be added into the pot those years.