2024 Frugal Living Challenge

Kim_13

amber03 said:

If anybody has the As&a rewards app and uses it. I’ve just noticed that they have started the Christmas savers pot. Which means any rewards you save in your normal cash pot can now be transferred to the Christmas pot and use in December. I’ve just transferred £7 into it and will keep transferring any money I earn into it for .xx

No word yet on any bonuses - wondering whether only monies transferred between certain dates would qualify and if you’d have to meet the relevant transfer threshold in one transaction.

RateTartExtraordinaire

Hello all, 

Sorry I'm a whole month late to the party! 

Here is my budget forecast:

Frugal Living Challenge 2024
Groceries (my half)  £600
Council Tax, Water, Gas & Elec, House Ins, Broadband, Mobile £4570 
One Car (fuel, tax, insurance, breakdown, MOT and maintenance, parking permit) £1240
Clothes  £200
Personal Health £140
Property Maintenance  £400
Holiday £1200
Splurges and Christmas £400

Forecasted budget 2024 £8750

Targets for the year are:
1. To involve my partner more in the budgeting
2. To declutter by books
3. To make more use of my local charity shops (giving and buying)

Cas

Evening everyone, just been catching up on last week’s posts.  Hello to everyone's that's just joined!

I’ve had a mixed week… Some nice surprises through the post last week including 18(!) sachets of handcream with my gardening order, a tube of handcream from a FB advert and a free chilli growing kit courtesy of my TK Maxx reward card.  A lot of the big brands regularly have free samples available via FB - it's mainly perfume, haircare, skincare although there's sometimes household stuff, biscuits or money off vouchers - so I always apply and share with my Mum or SIL or donate it as DH’s work collects for a local women’s refuge and a food bank. 

As we were at the end of the month I cashed in some of my online rewards so £15 of Caffe Ner0 vouchers from my B1scuits app which DH will use on those days when he’s in the office and £11 in Amazon vouchers from surveys.  I also claimed £40 T0pcashback earnings and £50 from Y0uGov surveys which will go towards buying nematodes for the garden plus we also need a new iron as ours has gone kaput as it keeps tripping the fusebox. 

Massive fail with my windfall apple jelly which didn’t set! Think it’s because the fruit was older and didn’t have enough pectin so had to spend those Amazon vouchers on some Cert0 liquid pectin.  Emptied everything back out the jars and added the liquid pectin and fortunately it worked this time!.  There’s an argument that the cost of the sugar and pectin meant that it cost more than shop bought but DH says it tastes much better than anything you can buy, bless him!  Cert0 have a Jams, Jellies and Marmalade book if anyone’s interested https://certo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Certo-Recipe-2016.pdf  

Still eating out of the freezer and cupboards so we’re slowly making inroads but there doesn’t seem to be any empty spaces appearing!  Shopping is the bare minimum and replacement what we've run out of which is mainly milk and seasonal fresh fruit and veg.

@dND thank you for the heads up about the Nancy Birtwhistle’s Clean and Green K1ndle book being reduced to 99p on 4mazon recently. I managed to get it before it shot up to £5.99! I’ve collected some ivy leaves so will have a go with the ivy detergent.  Thanks also for the link for the D0ves Farm Sourdough guide.

Have a good week everyone!

Cas

I almost forgot, on the subject of bread Scotland the Bread, who advocate makiing real bread rather than the mass produced stuff have a guide to making bread on their website (https://scotlandthebread.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/How-to-bake-with-Scotland-The-Bread-flour-2020-PDF.pdf) as well as some lovely recipes (https://scotlandthebread.org/our-work/sourdough-baking/recipes/).

Prudent

Thank you Cas for the bread link. I will give their suggestions a try.  I noticed they are based in St. Monans. The Fife East Neuk is my favourite place for a day trip or a wee holiday. On the day the first lockdown ended it was gloriously sunny here. We made up a picnic and drove to St. Monans. It was fabulous to sit by the water with flasks of coffee and watch the boats and listen to the sea birds. It felt so freeing after being confined. OH was 70 last year and wanted a short break as his birthday present from me (he is not a party animal!). I looked at all kinds of wonderful ideas, but he just wanted a trip to the East Neuk again!  We also love coast and countryside in Dumfries and Galloway and the Moray coast. 

I have just spent twenty happy minutes on the BBC Good food site researching new recipes. I picked three and printed them out and have a shopping list ready for tomorrow. I mostly reverse plan meals depending on what I have in at the time, but recently they have been a bit repetitive.  I get a veggie bag every week for £1 from a local community centre when I attend a group there. This week it less variety than usual, six pink lady apples, four Tesco finest oranges, a bag of carrots and loads of tender stem broccoli. I have used about half of the broccoli in a tuna, broccoli and sundried tomato pasta bake today. 

My car is back in action again thankfully and I will try to be more frugal since month to add some extra into my car fund. 

Cas

I love the East Neuk @Prudent, we visit Crail regularly. In fact I've been there the last few days and have enjoyed some great time with DH and the dog. We walked the Old Course on Sunday and our springer found 36 lost golf balls in the rough so DH is very pleased as a lot of them are good - and expensive - brands which he can use as they’ve have only been hit once. 

Prudent

Well done to your springer @Cas. Did it earn some dog treats? It was Crail my OH opted to go to for his 70th birthday break. There was heavy rain, even though it was July, so we have been going back for day trips to do bits of walks that we missed. We are still to have our first trip of the year to the East Neuk, but I don't think it will be long now.

Cas

She earned lots of treats @Prudent, every time she finds a golf ball she gives it up in exchange for a treat! Crail is my happy place. You must visit soon! Weather this week has been dry with a cold wind and there's very few tourists round which gives the village a completely different atmosphere compared to the busy summertime. 

RavenRover

Absolutely chuffed to bits this week.  I have managed to secure a weekly Olio slot!  Looks like the individual who had most of the collection slots got suspended.   Got some tins of soup, tins of fruit and a load of salad stuff and bread.  I put some sliced apple into the air fryer.  Not as crisp as I hoped but will experiment with it.

Prudent

Raven Rover that is fantastic. You may make some new frugal friends from sharing any surplus too. I like getting food bargains as it comes with a challenge to try new recipes. I use a wee community shop which is open when I go to an unpaid carers social group. It has taught me a lot about reverse meal planning and adapting recipes as the fresh stock varies weekly. My favourite bit is the £1 fruit and veg bag. I also find Farmfoods good for random bargains. Nothing outstanding this week, but I did manage to get 400g of extra mature cheddar for £1.49. They also had mature and mild at that price. I went for the extra as the stronger flavour means I can use less in recipes.