2024 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

Hello all,
I think this is my 4th or 5th year here. 

My budget is a little flexible due to recent changes in circumstances - however 

Insurances - £600
Heat and Lights £1100
Car maintenance and petrol £1000
Other savings - whatever is left at the end of the month in the general spend account. 

Coffee and cinema £120 

Direct debits (debts, Christmas, water, phone, internet - contracts or not negotiable) £3000

My internet is due to be upgraded as we’ve just received the full fibre and my food is just me so I’ll be using up stores and playing it by ear. These are the 2 things I will be able to really work on budget wise. 

My plans are:

•Save for 2025’s holiday
•Pay all my debt off by Jan’25
•No new clothes, if I need something specific it will be from a charity shop/ebay 
•Continue to decorate and fix the house up but I’ve no budget for this as I’m aiming for all second hand again. 

• No new gifts for people - charity shop or coffee vouchers only. 

•Learn a new skill via YouTube and improve existing skills 

suzeesu2000

[Deleted User] said:

Welcome @suzeesu2000, best of luck with your pantry challenge.  I am looking to make better use of our pantry this year as well. Our actual pantry needs a bit of a restock as we've run it down a good bit. I'd also like to add in some new shelves and revamp it a bit to make it more functional. I think this will be a January project.

Another project I'd like to do is sort through my recipes. I have some on my phone, some on scraps of paper, some in a folder that's falling apart etc. I want to get them into one place thar works well for me which means a new folder (which I already have) and time to get organised and bits written out. I'll do that on a quiet day next week I think.

Thanks. Looking forward to this challenge.

DH purchased some shelves for us this year, they are akin to what most people would use in a garage. Metal, sturdy, no screws, everything slots together. Really sturdy. I have one side loaded with bought tins, packets and jars. The other side is all glass storage jars, airtight type with dried foods in, plus I made up things like breadcrumbs, stuffing mix and  cake mix. Just put instructions for use on the back of the jar covered in tape so easy to wipe.

Got all my baking tins and machines on the bottom too. Easy to see and access.

Mad as it sounds, I would like to clear a couple of shelves totally so that I always have space for bargain buys. 

Good luck  & happy new year

London_1

 well I'm definitely in, I'm hoping to move by mid summer at least, so I can't really assess for a year but going on this year I'm hoping my cupboards which are still very well stocked, I am literally running stuff down as much as I can obviously D/D have to be paid so say a 6 month period I will have to spend in the region of

Water Rates  essential rate from Southern Water              £44.00
Gas & Electric                                                                     £600
Petrol etc  I try to use my bus pass or walk when I can     £200
Internet etc                                                                         £210
youngest DGS at Uni                                                         £300 (I helped all of my DGC when they were at uni with a small amount every month)
BoilerCH Insurance                                                            £120
Food                                                                                   £360 ( there's only me to feed)
Mobile phone                                                                      £35.00 (sim only)
Mobile Hairdresser Trim   every 6 weeks                          £108 
Gardener, doesn't return until March                                £90

Comes to £2067 for 6 months D/D plus £1500.00 rainy day savings = £3567 so if I set the 6 months budget at £4K that should cover most things I know it seems low but my needs are few and perhaps apart from birthday gifts for my 7 grandchildren (in the first 6 months I have 5 grandchildren's birthdays and two great granddaughters. the rest of the families are in the second half of the year.

I'm pretty good at budgeting, and because I'm running a lot of food stuff down I will probably have some food budget left over at the end of the month. I've already reduced my mobile phone smily by changing providers and when I rang the boil insurance people before I had a chance to say anything, the lady said "Oh I see you are a long time customer let me do you a discount' and I hadn't even rung to ask about that either so I said nothing and she lopped a fiver a month off the D/D so I seem to be on a good streak at the moment  

  onwards and upwards ,essential buying only for me  Happy New Year to everyone, may all your wishes come true 

JackieO xx

Kerry_Woman

My budget has been set for next year.  I already know that January is going to be an expense month, as I pay a few bills for the year, eg service charge for the flat. I have this week off annual leave from work, so have a list of things that I need to order, eg household cleaning products.  At least I will be in for the delivery of them.  Looking to be more careful at planning my spending as this year I was emotionally spending at times. 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.    

Frugaldom

@suzeesu2000 Of course that's ok, the frugal living challenge is simply to help people budget for a better lifestyle free from debt so anything that contributes to that freedom is welcome. Welcome on board.

We are almost there.. just a couple more hours to go (for me) then the new challenge begins. The first thing I will do will be to put my leftover 2023 savings into premium bonds for safe keeping. You never know what opportunities may spring up at any moment or when the next whopping great bill might arrive, be it car, house or animal related.

Have a great evening, everyone, and see you all back here soon.

Cas

Happy New Year everyone!

I'd like to join this year's challenge.

We made some inroads with last year's challenge and our main achievement was repaying our mortgage. 

We started clearing out our loft and spare room last week and DH has finally realised just how much stuff we've accumulated over the years and how much money we must have spent (and in some cases wasted) on it all. 

Our freezer and food cupboards are full so we should only need to buy only fresh food like milk for the foreseeable. Same goes for clothes and toiletries, no unnecessary spends.

We already keeps an eye on the savings rates and bills, don't auto renew anything such as insurance, but I'm sure there's more we can do especially as DH wants to stop working towards the end of 2025, assuming he's not made redundant before then.

I'd like to grow more of our own food this year. My Dad grew a lot of our veg when I was growing up in the 70s and has offered to help so that will be a nice project for us to work on.

Good luck everyone with 2024's challenge!

nannygladys

Frugaldom - I'd never really thought of putting any spare  money into PB's but it seems like a good idea to me, I'll have to have a look into it.

harddays

Going to allow £800 a month sounds a lot but £300 covers council  tax/water/electric/gas/logs
£50 car insurance/tax/mot etc.
Leaves £450 for food, cat stuff, sitter so I get a little me time for a walk or coffee with friend.
Also covers unexpected expenses such as hospital appointments etc  as husband has heart condition and bowel cancer being monitored as well as alzheimers. 
Going to try and spend as little as possible  in January as freezer full. Any surplus will go into emergency fund for extra care if needed 

bamboo_socks

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all a year that is at least kind, if not absolutely brilliant in every way.

Like Cas, starting the big declutter has shown OH how much money gets wasted on... Stuff. Can't find X? Buy a new one. And that's how we end up with four bottles of cough syrup 😅 

Thinking ahead, does anyone use an online shop for bulk buying dried goods? Do you find it good value? I like the idea of refill shops, but by the time I've driven to town and parked, I may as well have paid postage.

AnimalTribe

I haven’t read the first 6 pages but I’ll come back and read them later. I’ve set my budget for 2024 for 2 adults and 2 dogs. My aim this year is to get rid of the clutter I have and not to bring any more stuff into the house. Of course, I’ll have to buy food. So I’ll be joining the grocery challenge. DH and I will be focusing more on going places and doing things rather than buying more things. The only exception is spending the £70 book tokens I have. I’ll be trying to increase my savings and trying to earn a little extra cash. I hope 2024 is kind to everyone.