2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Viking_mfw

41 packs of bean sprouts tonight and I had to leave twice that behind. Did someone add a zero or two onto the stock order?! No one is going to be able to use these. At least they will compost. 

RavenRover

I didn't set a budget as such, but the fact I am on 2 part time jobs which still only add up to 25 hours and haven't incurred any debts proves that the frugal life is working for me.  Yes, Olio is a life saver - literally, but changing my relationship with money has meant I only buy when I really have too.  With this lifestyle I definitely don't feel hard done too.

fionaandphil

Well done @Raven Rover

Gem-gem

@Frugaldom and @RavenRover, well done on your budgeting. I'm impressed. As I am now living off my savings at the end of the year I will see how much I am down. I see savings interest as a payday. I have two coming up at the end of this month. 😀
I won £50 on £2500 holdings. I am beating the average hands down; My Dad's are doing okay; my poor Mum's are not 😞. 

Regarding budgeting, most areas are on track but there are a couple of areas where I have spent more eg wool, most of this has been offset by the boot fairs plus I have built up a bank of gifts. Next year, I won't have this luxury and will need to think carefully about my priorities. 

No boot fairs will be done this weekend due to the weather. I managed to pick up a couple of bits outside the auction house that I will try selling at the next one. 

Yesterday, I spent the day in the garden. Several raised beds have now been emptied and weeded again! I have covered them up. Blackberries have been pruned. I just need to train next year's branches. Before I went out I put in a batch of tomato, pepper and chilli pasta sauce into the slow cooker. Five tubs were filled and frozen. 

More stewing of apples and pears have been done. There are still lots of apples on the tree to be processed. I have offered some to family and neighbours. We picked more pears from the neighbours trees. 

Last night, I made Chapatti's for the very first time. Two cups of flour, half a cup of water. Mix together and knees for about 8 to 10 minutes. Leave to stand for 15 minutes. Divide dough into six. Form a small ball and then roll out to a small pancake size. Heat a frying pan, no oil. Cook for several minutes each side. Much cheaper than buying and no preservatives. 

Today, the last of my already ripened tomatoes were used in my sweet fruit chutney along with a kilo of apples. It will be ready just in time for Christmas. The recipe says it makes 1.5 litres but I have around 2.5 litres or ten jars. Four jars will be given to family at Christmas. It is a Good Housekeeping recipe. This is the third time that I have made it. 

Also on the cooking front, today I made a chocolate cake, using the free hot chocolate sachets from Hotel Chocolat. Inside I used blackcurrant curd that was in the freezer. Nd needed using up. My dear husband is a happy chappy. 

We had our boiler serviced today. The engineer explained that our boiler isn't correctly configured something to do with direction of flow of water! He said it is probably costing us more in heating bills and would suggest getting it changed but it does work as it is and it is not dangerous. We will budget and save up for it to be done in the future. 

Frugaldom

Viking_mfw said:

41 packs of bean sprouts tonight and I had to leave twice that behind. Did someone add a zero or two onto the stock order?! No one is going to be able to use these. At least they will compost. 

I've no idea what you could make with all if those. We have often had 4 or 5 bags but they're ok for feeding to the animals - a couple of the ponies love them. 

@RavenRover Frugal living is definitely a forever lifestyle choice. I love it and can't imagine living any other way. I think if I'd to win a million, I'd be living off the interest in my perfect retirement property until pension kicked in, using my bus pass, paying some help and then having fun helping others find their way to the frugal lifestyle. 

@Gem-gem, you sound super productive, most impressed by your chappatis.

I lit the log burner today so kept water warm and also made a pot of lentil soup for the weekend.

Still can't upload photos to here via the mobile app.

Topher

Gem-gem said:

@Frugaldom and @RavenRover, well done on your budgeting. I'm impressed. As I am now living off my savings at the end of the year I will see how much I am down. I see savings interest as a payday. I have two coming up at the end of this month. 😀
I won £50 on £2500 holdings. I am beating the average hands down; My Dad's are doing okay; my poor Mum's are not 😞. 

Regarding budgeting, most areas are on track but there are a couple of areas where I have spent more eg wool, most of this has been offset by the boot fairs plus I have built up a bank of gifts. Next year, I won't have this luxury and will need to think carefully about my priorities. 

No boot fairs will be done this weekend due to the weather. I managed to pick up a couple of bits outside the auction house that I will try selling at the next one. 

Yesterday, I spent the day in the garden. Several raised beds have now been emptied and weeded again! I have covered them up. Blackberries have been pruned. I just need to train next year's branches. Before I went out I put in a batch of tomato, pepper and chilli pasta sauce into the slow cooker. Five tubs were filled and frozen. 

More stewing of apples and pears have been done. There are still lots of apples on the tree to be processed. I have offered some to family and neighbours. We picked more pears from the neighbours trees. 

Last night, I made Chapatti's for the very first time. Two cups of flour, half a cup of water. Mix together and knees for about 8 to 10 minutes. Leave to stand for 15 minutes. Divide dough into six. Form a small ball and then roll out to a small pancake size. Heat a frying pan, no oil. Cook for several minutes each side. Much cheaper than buying and no preservatives. 

Today, the last of my already ripened tomatoes were used in my sweet fruit chutney along with a kilo of apples. It will be ready just in time for Christmas. The recipe says it makes 1.5 litres but I have around 2.5 litres or ten jars. Four jars will be given to family at Christmas. It is a Good Housekeeping recipe. This is the third time that I have made it. 

Also on the cooking front, today I made a chocolate cake, using the free hot chocolate sachets from Hotel Chocolat. Inside I used blackcurrant curd that was in the freezer. Nd needed using up. My dear husband is a happy chappy. 

We had our boiler serviced today. The engineer explained that our boiler isn't correctly configured something to do with direction of flow of water! He said it is probably costing us more in heating bills and would suggest getting it changed but it does work as it is and it is not dangerous. We will budget and save up for it to be done in the future. 

Thank you, I’ve just bought some chapatti flour so will be trying this. The idea of Blackcurrant curd didn’t escape my notice either, but i think for the sake of my own greed to waistline ration, I’ll leave the thought unexplored.

peewhyeff

Gem-gem.......would you please share th GH chutney recipe......amounts and bare-bones instructions will suffice. Google led me down a rabbit hole!

Prudent

Thank you everyone. I have enjoyed another lovely catch-up reading all your posts this afternoon. Well done on the budgeting. I am still in awe of what @Frugaldom manages to live on. Like @RavenRover, I actively enjoy this lifestyle. I was watching a YouTube video by an early retiree yesterday. Apparently it is now called voluntary simplicity, and academic research is showing it enhances happiness and sense of purpose in life. 

I apologise again for the lack of posts. This is down to ill health, not lack of interest. I have been reasonably frugal over this time. Food shopping is still mainly Lidl and Farmfoods. I have noticed a jump in grocery spending this year of around £20 to £30 a month. Partly rising prices and partly that my local community shop rarely has good deals now. Our mainstay is still the Lidl veggie boxes. I haven't been able to get out to charity shops as much, so I am buying a few bits of autumn clothing from Vinted. I have been pleasantly surprised that even with postage (I get delivery to a local store or lockers, which is cheaper), Vinted isn't working out any more expensive than the charity shops for most things.

I have looked through my year- to- date spends and again they are higher than last year, but not outrageously so. Petrol has been my biggest saving as I haven't done so many days out or local journeys. Premium bonds have been dismal. October bought yet another month with no wins. I don't think it has ever been this poor. OH has done okay though. 

Frugaldom

@Prudent I'm glad you are feeling well enough to still show such enthusiasm for the frugal lifestyle, not great on the premium bonds front, though. I managed £50 this month so I'm still on my mini run of luck there. I would love, one day, to save up enough to max out my PB allowance but it's such a long process when income is so much less than national minimum wage. Roll on state pension, only another 6 years to go.  Theoretically, I could possibly reach the maximum in PBs by then but knowing my luck there, the Govt would likely introduce something like means testing. How typical would that be after living like paupers for decades?!

Made another pan of soup on top of the log burner and I'm also warming the water on there to save gas at the hut. My little micro business project has broken even after 2 months so now in profit by £1 - woohoo! 😂

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone.
@Frugaldom, congratulations on breaking even and making a small profit on your micro business. 

@Topher, I freeze most of the blackcurrant curd so that I don't need to eat it all at once.

@peewhyeff, sorry for sending you down a rabbit hole. It wasn't GH but Woman's Weekly. I got muddled with another recipe. I have included the ISBN number. I have made loads of  the recipes from this book. The recipe is below too. 

Today we had my BIL over. We did a food swap. He bought me up three butternut squashes. I am so thrilled. 

The three smallest ones on the bottom left are the squashes that I grew. 😂 The three super large ones were the ones that he grew. I gave him a jar of chutney, a tiny jar of red currant jelly and some pears. He didn't need / want any apples.