2024 Frugal Living Challenge

suzeesu2000

Been paying a bit extra on the gas and electricity and found I was so far in credit this month I have nothing to pay, yay me! Used some of that money for a small shop but June is definitely a low spend month for me. Be nice to try to get a little bit ahead. 

Also been paying a few pounds over on the council tax so I can finish it sooner. 

gill5blue

Hi All,
I have just painfully worked out I was saving 2p a week off my water bill by saving the water from my baths into 4 pint milk containers to use to flush the toilet.
it is not worth the kerfuffle.
gill5blue

Van_Girl

gill5blue said:

Hi All,
I have just painfully worked out I was saving 2p a week off my water bill by saving the water from my baths into 4 pint milk containers to use to flush the toilet.
it is not worth the kerfuffle.
gill5blue

I keep a bucket in my bathroom to catch the run off from the shower, and use that to flush the loo. My bills were reducing by about £3 a month (including other frugal changes) until I sprung a leak somewhere. Only just sorted that, but I'm very interested to see how much I can reduce my water usage over all. 

joedenise

We've reduced our water usage compared to last year but our bill has still gone up by nearly £3 a month due to an increase in prices.  All we can do is try to reduce usage even more to offset the increase in costs.  It's very frustrating!

cw18

Prudent said:

I live in Scotland and our bills are not metered. This is an advantage if you use a lot, but not so good for light users. There was an above inflation increase this year 8.8 percent. It is billed as part of the council tax which means I tend to look at the figure as part of that overall cost. Just checked my bill and found that I pay £35 a month for water and waste. I am not sure how that compares to other areas of the country.

mama67 said:

That is good. 

Here in Lincolnshire with Anglian Water we were paying £79 per month unmetered. 

Have recently gone into a meter and it has dropped to £52 without us changing our usage etc. 

North West England.   Back in the 90s (same authority) I was paying about £20/month unmetered for a a 3 bed mid-terrace with 5 of us.   We then moved (and dropped one on the headcount) late 2001 to a metered 3 bed detached and they wanted to double my payments whilst waiting for the first bill. I refused to increase my payments, and after 7 months (when we moved from the rental to the metered property I still live in) we had a credit on the account.   That move was to a 4 bed detached which is a LOT bigger - and they again wanted to double the payments, purely because we went from one toilet to three    I asked them if we were supposed to flush them all when we used one - and the they agreed to keep the payments the same while we monitored usage.   I don't think my monthly payments ever went above £25 - and now I'm on my own (and am careful how I use water) my payments are much lower.   From Feb 2023 to Feb 2024 my bills totalled £172 - and £140 of that is standing charges which I can do nothing about !!!!   So I'd balance out of the year with monthly payments in the region of £14.35

Frugaldom

I've just coggled together another pipe for roof runoff water into barrel for the ponies. I have 4 x 1000 litre IBCs at Frugaldom but there's no running water or sewerage so nothing to pay. All other water needs brought in from home. I'll need to check to see how much the water part of council tax is.

My grocery budget is fluctuating a lot as prices are still going crazy. Much as I'd love to support our little village store more, I need to also support the supermarket just so we can afford some choice. Tonight, I took a look at the packaging and it's quite shocking when you consider how difficult it can be to put a decent, frugal meal together based on local produce:

Tomatoes - Morocco
Peppers - Spain
Carrots - Spain
Onions - UK
Potatoes - Scotland
Tinned tuna - Ecuador
Apples - France
Sultanas (& cottonseed oil?!) - No origin marked.

I'd never even heard of cottonseed oil until reading the back of the sultanas pack. I'm not sure what the answer is as growing veg and keeping chickens for eggs just isn't viable if you want the books to balance. Next problem will be wheat and other grain products escalating in cost because of all the recent flooding, meaning farmers haven't been able to sow their crops.

The mice and slugs ate my seedlings so I'm having to start again! Herbs grow like wildfire but I hardly ever use them. The trouble is, I don't NEED to use them, even if I want to. Even the rhubarb remains unpicked as I've had no spare time, energy or will power to stew it for freezing. Must try harder.

kayannie

I'd not heard of cottonseed oil until you mentioned it, but apparently it can contain residue of the pesticides used in the cotton growing industry. 
As we potentially consume far too many chemicals already, I will be scrutinizing food labels more carefully than I do now!
KA

Prudent

@Frugaldom, I am not surprised that you have no energy for growing and harvesting with all the other physical work that you do.

OH and I both have covid and have been discussing the allotment this morning. We currently have a full plot, but might drop that down to a half plot next year. We have a shed and the polytunnel on one half plus a fabulous apple tree and a few beds. I think it would be enough for us to move our young fruit trees and bushes from the other half into these beds and just have the fruit, the polytunnel and some potatoes in buckets. OH is 71 and I have three complex medical conditions. It is perhaps time to make life a bit easier for ourselves. We have noticed we no longer do many of the things we enjoy as the allotment takes so much of our time. We also are battling slugs and now bunnies for the crop.

I am taking things gently just now as I feel quite wiped out. This afternoon I might try and sort out a few drawers and check my MSE signature to add on any spends. 

Frugaldom

Today, I had a lovely catch-up visit from frugal friends from way back - anyone remember RattysndSquirrel? It was great to see them at Frugaldom - their first ever visit but hopefully not their last.

We got a good selection of produce from Olio on Friday night so I delayed any further shipping. My salad leaves are growing but I always seem to get lettuce from olio so it makes me wonder if trying to grow veg here is even worth it. As long as there's food waste, why would I want to add yo it when I could be reducing it asbest I can buy telling everyone about the tree app for food rescue. Any thoughts on this?

mandy47

Frugaldom said:

We got a good selection of produce from Olio on Friday night so I delayed any further shipping. My salad leaves are growing but I always seem to get lettuce from olio so it makes me wonder if trying to grow veg here is even worth it. As long as there's food waste, why would I want to add yo it when I could be reducing it asbest I can buy telling everyone about the tree app for food rescue. Any thoughts on this?

Our local Olio is mainly made up of bread, rolls etc.
I make my own sourdough bread so never get any food from Olio.
I do use it for non food items though.
We grow a good variety of salad, veg and berries so again not worth getting from Olio.
Home grown is fresher and tastier. You know there's no chemicals used. There's also the satisfaction that it's homegrown.