2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Gem-gem

Frugaldom said:

For anyone interested, this is the link to the original Interest Beater Challenge that I'm restarting.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/844891/home-based-enterprises-interest-beater-challenge/p1

I'll have a look. 

This afternoon / evening I have been cutting up previous year's cards and made gift tags and Christmas cards for next year. All at a £0 cost to me as I am using stock given to me by my aunt and DM. Some cards /tags will be going to my DM too. 

Sadly, not as much Christmas paper has been saved as previous years as a) majority of the paper used was already second / third time round paper. Plus some people didn't open their presents carefully. I have a roll of paper that I bought about four years ago that I will use. So I don't need to look out for any this year. I also have a roll of brown paper to use once I have used up the recycled birthday paper. Any present that I already knew about was wrapped in a cloth drawstring bag. 

Tomorrow, we are having h/made curry. Today, in the slow cooker I cooked Brussel sprout and carrot curry. To go with the leftover dishes that we are having. Today, we had h/made lasagna with h/made coleslaw and peppers and tomatoes. The red cabbage has now all gone. 

Has anyone ever made a carrot cake with olive oil instead of sunflower oil? 

kimwp

Frugaldom said:

Mini dilemma as I wasn't expecting to pay out anything more before new year but I'd ordered some logs. They got delivered today, as the guy was travelling this direction and it was a dry day. Do I deduct from the last of my 2025 budget, which I've not even talked up completely, or do I deduct from my new 2026 budget. I will be using them before new year so I'm thinking best add into my 2025 totals - what would anyone else do?

I'm currently scouring the interest rates but they all seem to be dropping again so the other thing I'm wondering is if I should restart my interest beater challenge. Anyone remember that or take part in it? Basically, you attempt to beat the interest rates on savings based on what you would earn if you had your entire annual budget banked. Eg. If my annual frugal living budget is £7,500 and the best interest rate I can find is 4.5% then I'd have earned £337.50 by the end of the year. That doesn't sound impossible to me. I'm off to read the old challenge to see how long ago it was. Anyone else interested in taking part?

I go by what's useful. Normally, spends get put when the money goes out (so even if it's for a concert in three months time, it goes against this month)- because it's easier to find if I need to and these things generally average out 

However, if it's a annual/6-month/quarterly spend and the cost of the wood for the first eg quarter of last year was in the 2025 spends, I'd put this in the 2026 spends, otherwise your 2026 wood spend will be under by a quarter and you might carry that forward to 2027 and under-budget.