2024 Frugal Living Challenge

London_1

natnat13  if you open an account online on your phone with Chase and tuck all your food budget money in there for the month you get 1% cash back at the end of every month
 They also have a great savings account you can link to it that pays 4.1% every month. I keep my ordinary current account with the high street bank, but the Chase one is great as I can transfer my food budget money every month into the 'spend' account part, and every time I use it to buy food with I get the cash back stashed which I can either transfer to the 'spend' account or to the savings part.

 Its a great back up.  and earns you some cash for spending your own money after a year, to get the cash back you have to pay £500 in per month, but once you have paid it in you can transfer it straight back to any account you want and you still get your cash back

I have used it for various things and paid for large items by transferring the money to the account and paying for the item and get the cash back for it

My DD needed an amount to a company paying and she sent me the money to my current account I transferred it to my Chase and paid the bill , it take literally seconds to do and is as safe as houses it 18 months juggling things around and getting cash back i've earned over £65. My grandsons uni grant transferred to my account then I paid out his house rent over four monthly chunks and he earned almost a fiver which I popped into his account an extra fiver now and again helped him get extra tinned stuff/pasta etc, when he is at Uni.
 I always try to make my cash work for me and earn a bit extra, and every penny earned is a penny more for me to spend on something else, usually my youngest grandson to help him get through Uni

It works really well and you can ring them and get through almost instantly if there is a problem and its sorted straight away

I'm a great fan of it, but still keep my main high street account for DD and SO. the card is in my apple wallet on my phone so I don't need to carry cash at all as I've always got my phone on me 24/7

JackieO xx 

mama67

I like Chase for using abroad as there are no charges. 

cw18

I'm here

I've decided I'm not setting an actual budget, but I will be recording all my spends - and trying to pull myself up sharply if I feel like I'm spending more than I need to.    I'll try and stay on top of this for 2024 (I normally stop recording within a matter of weeks!), and will then use those figures for setting budgets for 2025....

I still have a fair old food mountain in my house, so I want to try and start using up from that which will release some money for other things (including the increases to household bills that I can't avoid).   I'll probably shop for 'new' each weekend, as I'd got into a rut with what I cook when OH is over and a few recent less regular or totally new options have been well received by us both.  So my plan is to look for inspiration amongst the glut of cookery books I have, and try at least 2 new things each month (possibly one new thing each weekend, as I generally cook both Saturday and Sunday - so it would be one new and one tried and tested).

I'm actually off work this week (my scheduled rest week, in lieu of one rest day each week), so should be able to find some time to to tidy up my spreadsheet for recording spends AND try to sort out some of the food mountain for the next couple of weeks.

Also on the cards for this week is installing and setting up the rest of my smart radiator thermostatic valves to try and reduce my gas usage a little more.   My latest energy saving move was to put a curtain across the top of my stairs on Thursday evening, which means the radiator in the hallway no longer heats the landing and I can run the landing radiator (which already has a smart valve on it) for fewer hours and at a lower temperature.   I got an expanding shower curtain pole (£15.99) and a set of 24 curtain rings (£7.99) free through the Amaz0n review panel, so I only had to buy curtains (£25.49) and some hooks (£2.59) which were mostly paid for using vouchers I get for running monitoring software, uploading receipts and doing surveys.   I bought a pair of curtains (some did appear to be sold as singles, but cost almost as much for one as this pair cost and weren't really a colour I felt happy with), but so far have only put one of them up which is enough that I can feel the change in temperature whenever I need to go upstairs (my valves tell me there's generally a 2C difference if hall is on and landing isn't).   I can't decide whether to hang the other back-to-back and see if makes more of a difference, or just keep it as a spare.   There's no point putting one at the bottom of the stairs, as they're open to the hallway on one side as they go up.

I did treat myself to three 6-month magazine subscriptions in the Black Friday sales - two get me 6 issues, the other gets 5 - and I've just received the first for each.    I've no intention of letting these auto-renew, but it's a long time since I've had a nice magazine and I'd found myself wandering over to shop shelves to see what was since the summer.   It would have been a lot more expensive to pick them up there, so I'm hoping these subscriptions cure the 'itch' for a good while.    Each subscription cost me £6, but the magazines have shelf prices of £4.99, £5.99 and £5.99 - so I've paid £18 for 17 magazines, and just one issue of each from the shops would have cost £16.97     If I find that I really enjoy one of them, then my OH will be asked for a subscription as my present for Christmas 2024/birthday 2025.   I think he'd be very happy with that, as he always moans he doesn't know what to get me.

And, to keep my hands busy and away from on-line shops, I picked myself up a couple of decent sized diamond art kits (with change from £7) while I was ordering some for Christmas presents.   I'd actually like to allocate myself a half hour at least a couple of times a week to work on those, as when I do something crafty I find I relax a lot more.

willow_loulou

My Christmas is paid for via park vouchers, I get M&S and Sainsbury’s. That covers the food, some gifts or wrappings and if I don’t spend it all I treat myself. This year I have £31 in M&S vouchers left, that’s going to be spent on a bottle of Gin and pizzas. Excited for that! 

I know I’d get a little interest if I saved rather than used park but it works for me as I can’t be tempted to spend elsewhere. 

jackieblack

Happy 2024 everyone 
2023 did NOT go to plan, and the start of 2024 is looking tumultuous… but I’ll do what I can - with a goal of early retirement to motivate me

Black_Saturn

I am aiming for frugality this year, mostly I wish to get the food budget under control. We are a family of four, yet can easily spend £800 - £1,000 each month. I have made a stock-take of the two freezers, cupboards, and food pantry, so will try to minimise spends in this area by using up. I do try to do this each year, but I am the only adult with the frugal mindset, so resistance is a weakness. One area I am able to control is my wants over needs, especially with online shopping. I am planning on not buying anything new unless it is essential. I don’t know what my budget is, but perhaps this year will give me an idea.

London_1

I know I do as do many NSDs but for those who are tempted how about a NSOSD No spend online shopping day. I never buy online as I like to see for myself what I am buying but thats probably down to my age and the era I was brought up in  but I can understand how addictive it could become.

Today will be day two of NSDs but I will be at Dobbies having coffee with my friends this morning which is a freebie as I pay a £10 a year subscription to my Dobbies card, and get two hot drinks a month. Their hot chocolate is gorgeous. I also have my eldest DDs card as she only uses hers for buying gardening bits as she never has time to buy the coffee as she works full time so I get 4 freebies a month  
So a morning out and see my friends for a good natter in the warm, win-win I think  

JackieO xx

otb666

We are both early retirees 59 and 57 both been retired 2 years, Mortgage paid off we have 1800pm (600 food 600 bills and 600 everything else) 3000pa on car, insurances and presents with i or 2 overnight hotel stay as well.  We have been ok with this budget we still have a 26 year old with us hoping he will be gone soon and then it will be a lot easier. We also spent a lot of our time looking after a 91 year old FIL but again hoping this wont be forever.

MegA43

Good Morning all!!
Can I join please? Was a bit of a lurker last year but have now worked up the courage to say hi.
Not got the budget fully mapped out yet but we (2 adults, 2 kids) are on a low income due to redundancy & ill health but hopefully things will improve it 2024. Looking forward to your lovely hints & tips & sharing our frugal journeys.
Meg

AnimalTribe

I still haven’t caught up with all the posts but I’ve signed up to the Grocery Challenge so that should help this year. I think it will be a while until I need to buy any food. I’ve just checked the fruit stores and I’ve loads of apples, pears and oranges left (as well as loads of berries in the freezer). I had a couple of bananas that were a bit too brown for me, so I made a banana cake yesterday, and prepped some banana bacon, which DH and I had for lunch today in a bun with lettuce and tomatoes. So no food wasted so far.