2024 Frugal Living Challenge

London_1

Yes I'm fine and i loving being here . Another very wet day today, and I dropped my DGS Ben off at Newport after lunch as he likes togo  fishing by Coppins bridge, bless him he does love his fishing no matter what the weather .He has caught trout there back in the summer .
 No such luck today though just got extremely wet. I nipped off to Westridge Tesco's and dropped some books off at the charity bookshelf in there, then got a few odds and ends .got back home and just got in as the heavens opened again.

BBC forecast says dry tomorrow I hope so as I put a wash load on this evening so if its a dry morning it may get a bit of a blow hopefully. Builders doing well with my new sitting room and the outside shell for the new downstairs  shower/loo went up today. the builder is a real hard grafter and I'm pleased how well they are getting on.

Hope no more of the Military Road goes into the sea with all this rain  .The best view on the Island is coming down the hill into Freshwater bay I think

Keep safe and flood free hopefully 

JackieO xx

Dizzycap

Popping my head around the door again and very early in the morning too!

Another wet & cold week here mixed in with being hectic again!

Still selling off the remaining 6 of my 10 large black bags and the savings pots are doing well. I expect it wil go nuts for the next few weeks, but I suppose it will depend on who has any disposable income left after bills etc.

I have to say, I'm dreading the October Budget, as it either is or is already looking like a complete and utter disaster for most

I managed to get out today and the streets were dead. I know it's half term and the weather has been depressing to say the least, but even so? I had the whole of Lidl & Sainsburys to myself at 8am this morning?! I bagged a £5 Lidl coupon which was handy as I needed to stock up on milk and bread for the week, so a no spend in Lidl. I used some of my Sainsburys points for my shop which left a £5 spend in total

I'm only using the car a maximum of twice a week now to do a shopping run and to attend doctor / hospital appointments, so my fuel expenditure has gone down along with my milage. 

The whole house is now fully decluttered and Autumn cleaned. Everything moved, emptied & fully cleaned. No doubt I will have to clean out the guttering mid week before yet more rain I really can't believe the amount of leaves that keep collecting but the sooner they all come down, the better.

All the garden is now finished and sleeping. Grass looking lush but not going to cut it any more this year as it's too wet & cold.

I think we'er in for a cold Winter this year. The Holly bushes have produced 2 lots of red berries already and my Winter bushes are about to bloom Pulled out all my snuggly long hoodie warmers along with the dogs winter blankets and she's happy as punch, so it's got to be cold. The heating has come on a couple of times during the night over the past 2 days. There seems to be sudden drops in temperature here and when it drops, boy you feel it!

Good night & God bless you all. I need to try and get some more sleep before the mayhem begins xxx

mandy47

Not a very frugal month. Dental check up and opticians.  £295 for new glasses. Couldn't get the price down any lower because of my awkward eye problems. Also discovered early signs of cataracts. 
Trying to live out of cupboard and freezer to recoup some  of the expenditure.

Prudent

 I have just caught up with a few pages of posts. What an interesting and enjoyable read, thank you everyone.

Life has overtaken the last wee while, but I have finally updated my Frugal challenge living challenge in my signature. It has been an interesting experiment for me. When I started in January I was (and remain) happy with most day to day spends on bills and outgoings but wanted to take a look at my hobby/holiday/family visits type of spending. It seems to be coming in at less than anticipated which is most welcome. The only remaining spending that I have planned is for a wee two night city break in November. The hotel (including breakfast) was £25 for both nights through a scheme for unpaid carers. This has been paid for, but I still need some spending money. OH was due to come with me but there is now a possibility he will be going to a friend's funeral then. 

I had actually aimed to up my food spend this year in order to have more healthy options. However I have stayed within my previous budget thanks to Lidl fruit and veg boxes and my community shop. I pay for the groceries from a separate account. This helps me to track monthly spending without having to add up receipts. I seem to be spending about £130/140 a month for two of us. I had set a budget of £200 a month. I transferred any surplus into a savings account at the end of each month. At the end of September the savings account had £500. I have transferred £300 of this to my gas and electricity account. I know this isn't sensible because I don't get  interest but it does mean I won't worry about costs if we get a cold snap. I don't have a fire (and miss one terribly), so I am not sure how wood/coal would work in comparison to gas central heating. The heating hasn't been on yet, but I am currently snuggled up under a heated throw. 

fionaandphil

Wood and coal both quite expensive now so gas is probably your best bet for now - and the convenience of course!

Well done on keeping the food budget so low

DawnW

I have just paid £275 for a load of properly dried logs from an approved supplier, if that gives some idea of costs. It was about £230 last year from the same supplier. We will probably need another load at some point during the winter. I am hoping not as OH has serviced the stove (with parts from the manufacturer this time rather than generic stuff), and it is working much more efficiently. We don't use coal. We only light the stove in the evenings as a rule. We also have gas heating but don't use it much.

Prudent

Thank you @DawnW. I have a dual account for gas and electricity. My direct debit is £50 I put in random amounts sometimes such as the recent £300. I have just checked how much I would pay without doing that and it tells me my monthly DD would be £92.74. Breaking that down it averages £42.47 for gas and £50.27 for electricity. Standing charges account for £16.68 of that. I use gas for water and the gas hob so even with reducing the cost of central heating I don't think it would cover the having a fire. Additionally I am guessing I would have the cost of getting the chimney swept. OH and I both love a real fire, but it certainly wouldn't be our most frugal option based on these figures. 

DawnW

Prudent said:

Thank you @DawnW. I have a dual account for gas and electricity. My direct debit is £50 I put in random amounts sometimes such as the recent £300. I have just checked how much I would pay without doing that and it tells me my monthly DD would be £92.74. Breaking that down it averages £42.47 for gas and £50.27 for electricity. Standing charges account for £16.68 of that. I use gas for water and the gas hob so even with reducing the cost of central heating I don't think it would cover the having a fire. Additionally I am guessing I would have the cost of getting the chimney swept. OH and I both love a real fire, but it certainly wouldn't be our most frugal option based on these figures. 

Agreed, not an especially frugal option. Until recently we have always lived in the countryside and not necessarily had alternative heating. We now have a biggish terraced house, over 100 years old, which would cost a lot to heat if we had the gas heating on all the time. OH sweeps the chimney himself, and as he does a lot of woodwork we do get offcuts from that. Also wood from neighbours when they want old fenceposts, or even trees removed, OH does that too. Any trees that he cuts down are cut up, and the wood stored for at least 2 years to ensure that it is properly dried. We are very fussy about what we burn as we do not want to cause unnecessary smoke and pollution or bother our neighbours. Most people don't realise we actually have a stove.

Viking_mfw

We used £10 more elec and gas than our dd is for in the last month (large cushion on account). Could be the heating or the increased use of the heated clothes airer. I have several times told people to put on jumpers because they're cold but no one has been turning the heating up or anything daft like that! 

2Scratters

I have managed to use up some food stuffs that have been around too long and have thrown away food again, I get so mad (disappointed )  at my disorganisation of not at least using it up. We really are not buying much food as am working on using up what is in the 2 freezers. I may get to fill 1 with just the HG fruit we have, then I can work on using that up in the various ways frugally obviously. This method for us is working as we have money left over and it is being stashed elsewhere for later. 

The fire gets lit at night time if it is not too late otherwise we manage with a blanket. If the day is too cool for DH (due to his health)  later in the afternoon then it will get lit then and will air the rest of the bungalow nicely. The free wood we have got this year is coming in nicely before we need to use thermal coals. They tend to be used keep heat overnight we have central heating and fortunately our boiler is good with gas. It will be different this year too, as 2 large ones are currently absent due to our slow refurb that is going on. 

2 Scratters xx