2024 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

My dogs food has gone up £3 since I last bought it. It’s now £35! It’s obviously going to last a couple of months but of course it’s not what I was planning on spending. It’s also not in stock so won’t be in till Wednesday, so I’ll be stretching his biscuits with extra veggies and some salmon 🫣 it’s normally in the day after I order. 

I did get several bags of veggies and salad free yesterday from the fare share table so that’s a bonus. Will be going past that weekly now I think. 

London_1

Katiehound my friend got the Jacqueline Percival book from Ebay and I think cost around £3.00, but its such a good read and well worth getting.Reading how women coped through WW 1 & 2 plus the depression of the 1930s is a reminder of how resilient women had to be to feed their families on very little amounts of money. 

I have had 12/13 NSDs this month so far and although my spending has been low its been helped by the fact I had a freezer far too full plus two cupboards packed with tinned stuff so this month so far I have literally spent £4.31 out of my food budget. But i've just reorganised my freezer and next Tuesday hopefully if I get what's needed on my list plus a good bit of Fruit and Veg, and some dairy stuff I am hoping it will come to around £25-30 at most.

 I am running down my supply cupboards as I am hoping to move before the summer so  if I can get the freezer emptied and defrosted I will only shop for essential stuff a few days at a time as my late Mum did.

 I did two lots of batch cooking since Christmas and with what's already in the freezer I am pretty sure I have enough main meals for the rest of this month easily. I live alone so there is only myself to please and I will make a meal out of what ever I can find to use up.

 I have quite a bit of stuff my two DDs gave me after Christmas to use up I had some really  nice peppers that my youngest bought for when the boys were home, and they didn't use them all so as DD doesn't like them it came to Mums kitchen They know I will use things up, or freeze them and its zero waste in my house. 

Frugal is definitely the name of the game this month as its a loong month  

  JackieO xx

Katiehound

Thanks Jackie. I managed to get "Sucking Eggs" for just under £3 and that arrived today. It's a hardback and in good condition. I have had a quick flick through and 'admired' some of the war time posters (wish they were in colour!) I love the 'squander bug!' Some great images online- it won't let me cut & paste

" Let the Squander Bug go hang!"

I thought it was going to be a NSD but asked a friend to get me a 2 litre bottle of supermarket bog standard cola as I'm feeling a bit 'off'. get ready to suck in the breath!
 She asked her husband to get it when he was shopping......1.75l Not even 2 l...... bottle of trademark Coke- £2.39 Aaarrgghh.   
   

Florafauna

Small spends today, £5 tip to lovely waitress at our afternoon tea. (Meal was paid for 2 months aaho so not counting it in today's spend 

suzeesu2000

No spend yesterday, Thursday or today. Yea me! I’m keeping a trolley in supermarket online but won’t be spending till end of the month. Hope everyone’s having a nice weekend x

Siebrie

Minor frugality (or: teaching the young 'uns): dd2 (12) had two friends over for a slumber party. The next afternoon they wanted to go 'shopping' in the next village over, which has a shopping street with about 20 shops. They wanted to end the afternoon at a fastfood chicken restaurant. I agreed to the plan, as I had some shopping of my own to do, and informed dd that I would pick them up at the restaurant, after they had finished eating, and that she had to pay from her pocket money. When I picked them up, they had bought 1 portion of chips and nuggets between the three of them . They had limited themselves to a €10 spending budget at the drugstore, even though they had their bankcards with them.

patentgirl

I too recommend using online Library services in my area it is Libby as well as books and audio I get magazines which was one of my downfalls definitely less clutter around house what I tend to do is to look out when my favourite author's have new book out reserve for free on Libby it may take month's but knowing it will eventually land as a notification ready to borrow lights up my day. 
So far this month had 9 NSDs need to get a few bits tomorrow but down to one car at moment DH car
 broke down last week practically fallen apart it's last chance tomorrow at our local garage I would happily go down to one car but DH wants to keep it going till he retires at least, when we want to look for our dream camper van, going back on thread I won't be able to carry loads of shopping so will probably get milk and bread both running short. Been using up freezer supplies need to get some veggies too we have some unusual combinations last few days all part of being frugal I suppose.

amber03

I use the Libby app a lot, saved me a lot of money as I was either buying or at Xmas buying a subscription for certain magazines. 

Bought a couple of things for next C (don’t want to write the actual word). Didn’t bother last year as thought it was fine to do it all in December. Never again, I hate shopping at the best of times, and December is the worst time. X

Cas

Hope everyone's had a lovely weekend!  

Got some yellow label double cream from M@rkies the other day so I've made butter and it's now in the freezer along with the buttermilk.  Also managed to get reduced sausage rolls (in the freezer for DH's lunch when he's wfh), chipolatas (yesterday's brekkie along with the last of the eggs) and a reduced lettuce which we'll have with burgers from the freezer. I got a few other bits and pieces that we needed, splashed out on some blue cheese (none left in the fridge and Sp@rks had a cheese offer). I had vouchers to use up so spent the princely sum of 80p.

DH has been listening to what I've been saying about eating from the fridge and is currently making cheese sandwiches for his lunch tomorrow rather than being disorganised and resorting to supermarket meal deals. 

It's going to be a poor week for NSDs this week as I've had the osteopath today (£58!) and DH is in the office for two days (£10 in bus fares). We'll also need milk and eggs too.

I've signed up for App1e Music as 02 Priorities had a 6 months free offer. I love music so I'm happy to get an ad free music service for nothing and there's a note in the calendar to make sure I cancel it before I get charged!

Madbat60

Morning all
Just trying to catch up with normality.  So far 2024 has been a bit of a disaster.  On the 30th December DP had chest pains.  To cut a long story short, one heart attack later, one stent fitted, he's now type 2 diabetic and on buckets of meds.  As he's a Northern boy and likes tinned peas and carrots  he's not impressed with the brave new world of eating fruit and veg.  Oh and some idiot went into my car, so there's the excess to pay out when I finally have it collected.

So financially it's been costly what with hospital parking and petrol costs as they moved him 36 miles away.  I've had to give up my little cleaning job that supplements my NHS pension as he needs a lot of moral support and help with his medication, due to his dyslexia.  I've applied for universal credit and we're waiting for his PIP form to come through.  He won't be able to go back to his driving job.  Any tips or pointers on filling out the PIP form would be gratefully received.  We've never claimed benefits.  

So now I'm trying to get into this new way of living.  I have no intention of  continuing to work, life is just too short and we want to enjoy life.  We see the cardiac rehab nurse next week, she's phoned and was enormously helpful.  I will be living on my NHS pension and things will be really tight.  Off to read up about benefits.