2024 Frugal Living Challenge

amber03

Don’t think I’m going to have a frugal start to the new year, my cooker broke this morning and sounds major. 

Prudent

Oh no @amber03 Christmas Day is not good timing for a cooker to break down. I hope you were still able to have a hot meal.

amber03

Turkey was cooked last night , everything else done in my ninja today. The only other time I have had a cooker break on me was 30 years ago on Xmas day, so I’m getting used to it, one of the reasons I cook the turkey on Xmas eve.xx

Prudent

Well done on being so organised @amber03. Glad you were able to enjoy your meal.

So its the biggie for me today. I have number crunched my frugal year in preparation for @Frugaldom's promise of a shiny new thread for 2025. I have added in a couple of sales spends and I have enough cash for a coffee with a friend and a wee potter around the charity shops before the year is out. I like a quiet new year celebration so no big spends there.

Thankfully I am happy with the numbers. Other than a few glitches with the car early in the year and needing to replace both the fridge and freezer everything has pretty much stayed to plan or underspent. 

Here is my result. My partner transfers his half of the bills, food etc to me at the start of the month and I have subtracted that as this is my personal spend. We keep our finances separate. I transfer £100 a month to him for a household fund which covers home insurance, boiler service and repairs and electrical good and all other domestic buys -even tea towels! I have included this in the total as it is my half share. 

This year I have spent £6,371 for the year which averages £530.91 a month. I am really happy with that. This includes absolutely everything including bills, food, running my car, holidays, visits to family, gifting, clothes, hobbies, sponsorships etc. 

I did have an additional big spend a couple of weeks ago. I am not counting it though. I retired due to ill health nine years ago. I put away some of my pension lump sum to buy myself a retirement treat. I had thought it would go on a wonderful holiday. Sometimes though my health limits my holidays and I never seemed to want to part with that much -and additionally I won some lovely holidays. So I have finally spent it on a sewing machine. Sewing is my retirement hobby and I had begun to outgrow my bargain £50 beginner machine. I bought myself a fancy all singing , all dancing kind of machine from eBay at a third of its original price. I just need to learn to use it now!

gesdt50

IF you want a genuinely fresh food thats really good for you and fresh and cheap as chips, then now is the time to get in season Omega rich fish like sardines, herrings as they are seasonal -supermarkets have doubled and tripled the price on some tinned sardines; asian type shops and foreign fish counter served fish mongers do these types of healthy fish for extremely low prices when in season omega rich fish is in season, have personally seen herrings for £2 a kg  in a few London fish mongers, wouldn't be surprised if these can be found cheaper in coastal towns and Bradfod and Leeds -supermarkets will sell you farmed bass for ten times the price for a dry protein fish that has virtually no healthy fish oil omega

Frugaldom

Hi frugalers, I'm on countdown to the new thread. Hopefully, everyone has had a successful year to date and are now looking forward to 2025 with your slate wiped clean.

Frugal Christmas this year with dinner cooked at the hut - homemade soup, chicken, ham, potatoes, veg, mince pies, cheese and crackers - no turkey, no alcohol and no extravagant sounds. I gave family the money I'd have spent had I followed a frivolous festive season and spent on essentials for the project - replaced a manure fork, a pitch fork and yard brooms. Gifts to us were mainly food based and practical, although there was an investment into some extra battery power and a tablet to replace the old laptop, which I use for work-related stuff. I now need to download the free open office software that will allow me to get my 2025 budget spreadsheet prepared. 

I need to take a final look at my figures but this next year, now H and I are both 60+, is going to be about final retirement plans. Having lost so much of our income-generating work since the pandemic & lockdown we have both been virtually semi-retired as far as being paid to work so now it's time to make provision for retirement proper. In order to do that, I need to find someone to help run the voluntary project at Frugaldom. All suggestions welcome. 😆

Frugaldom

Forgot to say, the storm took out many people's phones and modems so when the BT engineer arrived and opened the little junction box, it was literally scorched inside... Now need to wait for a replacement plus a new modem and hope what little mobile signal there is in the area remains active. I'm hoping that the merger / takeover between 3 and Vodafone will improve things but it probably won't help BT/O2/EE. 

ON ANOTHER NOTE - Christmas day after dinner games among friends consisted if investigating and playing with a free to download AI app and I was astounded at what it can do. (@Prudent you may have spotted the results in our FoF group 😆)

Frugaldom

OK frugal friends, I have opened up the new thread for our 2025 challenge. It can be found at the following link - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6576772/2025-frugal-living-challenge/p1?new=1 
I'll stay on this 2024 one until 31/12/24 to see out the final week of the challenge and round up all my own spends. Can't see how to create linked text so apologies for having had to list the links as they are.

Frugaldom

The final shop of the year has been done (£73 inc £1.50 delivery) and includes basic toiletries and New Year foodstuff. This week we weren't so fortunate with Olio but made up for it with Christmas gifts of biscuits, cheese, sweets and coffee. The average monthly grocery spend over the year has been around £70 plus minimum essential toiletries, toilet rolls and occasional kitchen rolls so I reckon £100 a month should be adequate for two of us and anything leftover can get saved or carried forward for the annual festive splurge. All leftover funds from the 2024 budget and accounts have been swept into savings and premium bonds, as the latter have provided a great return on investment compared to bank interest.

2025... We are all set and ready to tackle you head on from Wednesday and I've promised myself that I'll try to get the bling back up to date.

Hopefully, your year is ending on a positive note, however, my thoughts are with those who have lost lived ones over the Christmas period or who are facing their first new year alone. Stay strong,  carry on and keep battling. 

Frugaldom

Good morning! It seems everyone has jumped onto the new thread but I'll continue here until the year is done. We are spending new year break off-grid at the cabin, meeting a few friends and being extremely frugal. Meals get cooked on the logburner but I also have a double-ring, gas camping cooker and my trusty Omnia 'oven', which is the best thing ever. Logs are expensive - we are planting a woodland but it's not yet at a stage we can harvest our own firewood. Home is heated by an open fire with back boiler and a stand alone log burner so purchasing fuel for all of those is essential. £300 for one load of seasoned logs delivered! A load when we bought the house around 14 years ago was £80. The massive price hike isn't a reflection on timber prices so much as the cost of transportation and labour. We can't forget to factor in the minimum wage more than doubling since it's inception. I'd be fairly rich if I earned £12+ an hour for doing what I do. 🤣