2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, struck gold at M&S today. Five packs of hot cross buns 50% off. There were still about twenty packs left. Brioche buns 1/3rd off - we wanted some so happy but to have to pay full price. Chocolate Stout 2 cans 1/3 off. 2 bottles of a winter beer down to £1.67

Have been peeling and freezing some more 5p winter veg. 

Cut up this year's cards into tags. 

Tonight's dinner ys sirloin steak with 5p and 15p Christmas veg - jacket potato with roasted parsnips and roasted carrots and butternut squash from my BIL allotment. 

Kerry_Woman

Happy New Year to everyone 

mumtoomany

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. See you all on the new thread, hugs, mumtoomany.xx 

mama67

Happy New Year one & all. 

suzeesu2000

Happy New Year everyone xx

Quantaqa

Happy New Year everyone. All the best for 2026  x

Frugaldom

See you all on the 2026 thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6647615/2026-frugal-living-challenge/ 

Thank you to all accompanied me through the 2025 journey - here's to a good new year.

Catonthemoon

@Laura_elsewhere I’ve just noticed 2 of my jumpers have holes in them…moth larvae no doubt ( stored in the cupboard that houses my boiler)! In order to prevent any further damage I’m considering putting them in airtight plastic bags & then into the freezer. I know there are various sprays available, however, due to the chemicals, I don’t like to use such products.

(1) how long should I leave them in the freezer…until they’ve frozen solid?
(2) one of them is an expensive merino wool jumper; unfortunately, the hole is on the left breast, so,very noticeable.  It’s about the size of a 1p coin & is very irregular in shape. I’m wondering if it would be worth having an ‘invisible mend’ done or sometimes do you just have to accept that it’s ‘too far gone’?

Many thanks, Cotm

weenancyinAmerica

@Catonthemoon - can you sew a flower or other applique over the hole?

Laura_Elsewhere

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81855188#Comment_81855188

Well… I wouldn't bother freezing them at all because domestic freezers don't get cold enough to kill the eggs. The thawing will kill larvae, but then more will hatch out a few weeks later so nothing gained.

The glue that holds eggs on is very weak, and is knackered by daylight, so the best thing is to put the jumper outside, or hang it out of a window, and turn it every so often, turn it inside-out, etc. That\s why clothes you wear all the time don't get moth-holes :)

For the expensive jumper, if you want a genuinely invisible mend, then I know the wool shop Ewe & Ply, in Oswestry and Shrewsbury, offer that service by post. I am a happy customer of their wool, and have seen some of the mending they've done and it's incredible; you really can't tell there ever was a hole.

To prevent further damage… well moths love dark spaces that are seldom disturbed so your boiler-cupboard might not be the best place. If it's the only possible place to keep woollens, then set a reminder on your phone and get everything out every 2-3 weeks and shake it well, really thoroughly, check it over for signs of larvae, and then put it back. Disturbance is the best deterrent.

Never seal woollens away, because of course if any eggs are sealed in with them, you just provide sheltered accommodation for the nibblers! The "vacuum" bags that are sometimes recommended are not airless enough to make any difference and besides the pressure can damage textiles considerably.

I tried for years not to use chemicals, but tbh all the lavender and cedarwood in the world didn't make a blind bit of difference to the little blighters! My parents' house where I used to live is an old house and the clothes-moths live in the cracks between floorboards and inside the walls, hopeless without professional fumigation- so every time we come back from a visit, we always have an outbreak of moths here 2-3 weeks later, no matter how careful we try to be about taking shoes off at our door on return, and bringing everything back in plastic bags and straight into the wash, just no use. So we use a good Transfluthrin spray, and it means our home is mostly free of clothes-moths. I have learnt an awful lot in the process…!!

So if you want to avoid using sprays, the only thing you can do is to keep disturbing any possible nibblers by shaking the jumpers and checking them every few weeks…

Vacuum the moth-y area if you can and dispose of the vacuum bag/contents immediately.

But mostly, disturb them, disturb them, disturb them- and daylight. They're like wool-vampires, hate daylight :)