2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

@mumtoomany I hope you move back to the NW of England as that would bring you closer to a frugalers meet-up here in SW Scotland. 😁

fionaandphil

More good than bad so that is a positive! I always worry when the weather is awful and we're only just getting started on autumn and winter, it always seems to sneak up so quickly.  It has been wet and windy here but not as bad as yours Frugaldom.

We are working our way through produce from the garden, first windfalls are being processed and the apples are abundant on the tree but not quite ready yet.  We have largely been eating from the freezer so that combined with fresh veg from the greenhouse and garden has helped with spending this month.  Just as well as DS has just gone to college and the extra costs that involves.

Welcome all the newbies and returners, the blog is very interesting and I'm sure you will be inspired with lots of ideas on here x

Viking_mfw

Mostly fed by Olio across the board today. Just made a very small batch of jam from 3 boxes of extremely past it strawberries. Also got the tops of them macerating for strawberry top syrup which is a recipe from Urban Nanna and makes delicious cordial type stuff. We freeze it and add cubes to lemonade. 

Gem-gem

MrsCD said:

@Gem-gem, have you made socks before? I can recommend winwick mum's blog for a good tutorial with dk and 4ply sock yarn basic patterns. I learned a few years ago, but be careful, they're addictive!!! 

Thank you, I will check it out. I have never made them before. 

Prudent

Thank you everyone for all your posts, lots of interesting reading this morning. Welcome back @RavenRover. I am sorry for the lack of posts, I have been really unwell, so just focusing on the things I need to do.

I think the financial resilience that years of frugality brings has been such a blessing at this time though. We had a trip to Perthshire booked last week and it was touch and go until the last minute if we could go. I finally had my last appointment at 2pm and we were able to go. The accommodation was wonderful, a huge two bedroom flat with a lovely roll top bath in a beautiful woodland for under £60 a night. It was self catering, but I hadn't been well enough to be organised to prepare food or even do much shopping beforehand. So for once we had ate out each day in local cafes. One lunch was more than half of my usual weekly food budget, but it gave me the break I needed. Thank goodness for all the other little frugal hacks over the year making that possible.

This week looks good weather wise, so I am going to start some small jobs around the house. I painted my bedroom in the spring and last week I found some curtains in a charity shop which are the right colour and size. I paid £8 and they are on the Dunelm website for £85, so a decent saving. Yesterday was dry and sunny so I washed and ironed them and they are ready to hang today. 

retireby35

Hello! Ive been trying to catch up with this board over the last few weeks - I'm still many pages away but it makes good reading!! I heavily used these boards a few years back when saving for my first house, I came back a couple of years ago but gave up regularly posting but now determined to get back to it. Me and my husband would like to buy a bigger house, one with a garage and a slightly bigger garden (Im a big veg gardener and find I can't grow much as we don't have the space). Unfortunately, like many others our spending is going through the roof. I'd like to get back to cheaper/filling/nutritious meals, keeping to a budget and stopping the unnecessary spending. Looking forward to picking up tips and being with others in this journey!! 

Im starting off with doing some decluttering onto vinted and eating from our cupboards. I can really recommend asking chatgpt for recipes with what ingredients you have in your cupboards - I ask 'I've got pesto, mushrooms, pasta, tinned tomatoes, etc in my cupboards. Give me some recipes and a meal plan using these ingredients'. 

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
My friend and I tried a new to us boot fair today. There were no more than 25 stalls. It started at 8am and we left at midday. There was a small steady flow throughout the morning, peak time was after parents had dropped their children off to school. I didn't go with a full car. I made £56 profit. My friend had loads of clothes many with names on that her kids had worn or bought, some with labels still on them! She made £170 profit. I have been told that they are much busier at the weekend. I will do one there again. It had quite a community feel. 

Once I got home, did a little bit of housework then spent two hours watching tv before preparing dinner. Dinner was h/made chips, h/made burger with salad followed by h/grown, h/made apple and blackberry crumble. After dinner I gave peeled and stewed another dozen apples. 

DH has seen that our porridge has gone up by 30p so after checking the Trolley app, we could see that it was still the old price at one of the major supermarkets, so my DH quickly nipped down and bought five bags to add to the four that we already had. That should keep us going for nearly six months. £1.50 saving. Some people might scoff at the saving but I say, every little helps.
Last night had a little celebration - my HMRC app has kindly told me that (unless the rules change) I will receive a full state pension in 2038!

Viking_mfw

Made excess Olio basil into pesto this evening using some garlic gifted by a colleague. She said it was pretty strong - turned out to be stronger than my blender as two cloves came out unscathed after 10 mins at max! Pesto mostly frozen now with some kept out for tomorrow's dinner.

Cooked up the last of the foraged Bramley's which I will take to work for a different colleague who hasn't been able to find any to make a blackberry and apple crumble for her recuperating FIL. I have found another tree to try but it's a bit of a bike ride away and I need a time to go investigating. 

More olio tonight. I am expecting more fancy bread but who knows what sort!

Viking_mfw

Not fancy bread as it turned out: chayote. 

Apparently they have not gone down well in this neck of the woods. Since I don't expect them all to be requested (I was quite surprised when any were!) does anyone have any idea how to go about eating/ cooking chayote??

mandy47

Chayote is nice raw in salads. Or use it in a stir fry.