2023 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

I would say the same as @cw18 if it’s cashless keep only what you’re prepared to spend in your card account. If you don’t already have online savings to utilise most banks will let you open one via your app pretty quick. 

I made an error when shopping and I’m gutted. I picked up a quiche as it was reduced, portioned it and froze it. Then I realised it has chilli in it which I can’t eat. Gutted. Ho hum. 

I’m sure my son will eat it but it’s thrown my meal planning out. Sigh. 

sunshineli

obscuredbyclouds said:

Morning all,

So this is the first payday within our new frugal challenge, whilst I said I was going to start next year, I am wanting to really get a good handle on things now. Anyhow our spending for shopping this month is £200 so I'm hoping to utilize our slow cooker and I'm going to do a big batch of jacket potatoes tomorrow to have in the fridge ready for the rest of the week. I started doing this a good few months back and it's one of the best things I've done. It's amazing what you can do with spare jacket potatoes, I loved adding some cheese and re-cooking them till crispy or chopping them up and frying with spam or taking the inside for mash and crisping up the outter to have as a crisp. Lot's of options and it does save that, what should I cook fatigue.

@Frugaldom, I can see the blackberries coming out, still a few weeks till they get ripe and I absolutely cannot wait. We used to have a PYO place here but it shut down and since then I've not made any jams or anything, so this year I'm going to make sure I make a years worth of jam from the blackberries, possibly some cordials to as I don't like the sugar free ones and when you get the actual "proper" cordials, they cost more than a new born child! 

I am slightly worried about spending more this month as I've got the Festival of Quilts next week, I've set a budget and I've got a shopping list but as we have no fabric shops here, I do get very excited to feel and touch and then tend to spend way to much. So any ideas on how to manage this would be great.

obc x

This has made me really want jacket potatoes! I’ve added them to my meal plan this week 😊

sunshineli

£52.50 spent on this weeks shop. I’m happy with that. I did have to buy some stain remover though which cost £3.50! Today I also bought my friend a birthday present. The gift was £13.50 but actually only cost me £2.50. I received a £45 voucher from work for doing a 1 hour research interview, so used £11 of the voucher for the gift. Focussing on small steps to spend less and save more 😊

Frugaldom

@obscuredbyclouds I'm going to make what may seem like a silly suggestion but if you are spending £200 on groceries and wondering about how to curb your enthusiasm at the quilt festival, set yourself a mini challenge to neutralise any overspends. For example, jam making... Include all the extra sugar costs within your grocery budget at the expense of some non-essentials. For the quilt festival, if you prefer taking your cards rather than limiting your spending by only taking cash, find a way of earning whatever you spend as extra income - make the entire trip cash neutral by selling some stuff online (or off). Whatever you decide, make it fun. 😊

leftatthetrafficlights

We grow runner beans and I always plant extras - with a couple of plants we use the pods (I harvest when they are reasonably small) and the others I leave them to grow the beans inside then cook and eat the beans as they are my absolute favourites! The ones left until the bean stage don't produce as many but are definitely worth it 😁

willow_loulou

Well my main payday arrived and I paid and split my money as it needed to be. The remaining amount is not great but I know I can do this. 

The only thing I need to pay for towards the holiday now is my visa which I’ll do a little later today as my brain is worn out. 

I’ve decided I’m definitely not doing tomatoes as my main crop next year. With the storms and wind (and hail) forever damaging the plants my success rate is just too low. I have about a dozen fruit on my plants combined that may or may not make it to edible stage. 

Next year I’ll shove one plant in a pot with a cage and that’s it. My main crop next year will be peas and lettuces as I’d be on my second harvest and 3rd planting of peas by now if I’d gone with them. 

It’s sad but it’s just not worth the space per fruit harvest anymore. Last year I didn’t get anything worth it and this year is as bad. 

I’m going to do a couple of potatoes next year too after watching them done in a planter on YouTube I can see it would work with what I have. I’m going to ask for another trough on legs for Xmas so that’s easy for the parents and what I’d really like (they’ll ask in a few weeks as they like to be prepared) 

joedenise

Courgettes are usually a good and easy plant to grow and you get plenty of them.  No good if you don't like them though!

My tomatoes are doing really well.  Loads of fruit but they just aren't anywhere near ripening.  I've only got 3 plants - cherry, salad and beef.  Still loads of flowers as well so could well be more fruits later.

willow_loulou

I dont mind courgette it it’s not something I’d want to grow especially- they’re often reduced here too. I have traditionally done tomato’s as homegrown don’t seem to irritate my mouth unlike shop bought. I can live without them though.
 My local farm shop ones are usually delicious so I’ll get some of those instead for Greek salads. 

obscuredbyclouds

Frugaldom said:

@obscuredbyclouds I'm going to make what may seem like a silly suggestion but if you are spending £200 on groceries and wondering about how to curb your enthusiasm at the quilt festival, set yourself a mini challenge to neutralise any overspends. For example, jam making... Include all the extra sugar costs within your grocery budget at the expense of some non-essentials. For the quilt festival, if you prefer taking your cards rather than limiting your spending by only taking cash, find a way of earning whatever you spend as extra income - make the entire trip cash neutral by selling some stuff online (or off). Whatever you decide, make it fun. 😊

OH MY! This sounds like such a great idea and I am actually all for it. Thankfully I do have a budget as no saving yet (that's on my list for when I've come back) but I am seriously going to have a proper go at this. Now to look at the extra money boards and get some ideas!! 

willow_loulou

I’m going to freeze sandwiches to toast in the machine. Has anyone done this? I normally just to cheese and tomato paste and wondering what else I can freeze easily.