2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Siebrie

Tgtg is still a bit trial-and-error. Out of the 7 bakeries in the village next to us, there are only 3 we like. out of the 11 supermarkets, only 2 give a decent box of groceries. But for those prices, it's not a problem to do a trial.

Katiehound

Hello Savings Fox!
 All I am going to ask is if you have that credit card on a 0% finance deal? I think last week's email went into great detail about how you do it.

SparFuchs

Hi @Katiehound unfortunately not. Being self employed with a low income I won't get approved for any more than a few hundred credit limit.

Janeryan

Quick update for January so far. We have spent 88% of our allocated budget for the month so far (which is our practice retirement amount, not the amount we got from our salaries) and my next pay is due on 20th of the month. 
I have the hygienist next week but will be able to claim back half the cost through my healthcare insurance but hopefully that and groceries will be our only outlay . I still have 45% of my allocated grocery budget left which is good as DS, DIL and DGS are visiting next weekend for DS birthday. 
I am cooking a gammon that so got reduced before Christmas and making apple crumble for desert (apples already cooked as were free from a friend from her apple tree) so only extra expense should be some cake to celebrate with.
Well done everyone on your efforts so far

Gem-gem

Good afternoon everyone, 
This morning, I have been busy with my Mum's affairs.
This afternoon, we went to visit our elderly neighbour who is in hospital. He is 95 this weekend and is still as bright as a button. He is coming home next week - yippee! My mum's new place is next door so I took some books to add to their library and showed my DH the apartment (and took photos). We were given a cup of tea and piece of cake (free) and was able to leave our car in the car park whilst visiting our neighbour. We would never had paid for parking, we always find free off street parking but this is going to be really handy for hospital appointments.

Cas

Hello everyone, just been catching up on all that's been going on and it's so lovely to hear and be inspired by all the successes! 
We haven't had any snow although it's been very cold overnight at -7C and it's not gone above freezing today despite the lovely sunshine. It made for a very pleasant walk across the countryside with the dog.
So far this week all our meals have come from the freezer and store cupboard. Very rarely for us (as we spend little and often on essentials like milk) we've managed NSD for the last 3 days mainly because DH has been home all week either recovering from flu or WFH. The spends at the start of the week were for milk, luc0zade and cough medicine. 
Other small wins this week were refunds of some overcharged "tap on tap off" bus fares (overcharged for 4 out of 7 return journeys!) plus a compensation payment from M&S Bank for some truly atrocious service.
Pr!ncipality regular savings accounts are now open so thanks to everyone that mentioned these. 
Have checked the budget for this month and with 10 days to go before DH gets paid we have about a quarter of it left although that will drop next week when we need to buy food for the dog.
Happy weekend all!

MissRikkiC

Oh @SparFuchs I will be reading your diary with interest. The #vanlife really interests me to be the point where today I was curious about prices for a van; sold from a converting company where I live so I moseyed about their website. I look forward to your updates. 

MissRikkiC

Do you require specific dog food @Cas  it’s just that I did some research that’s all on finding good choices for our dog (standard spaniel) food and found a cheaper alternative to the normal shop bought stuff!

Cas

We feed her Ye4rs @MissRikkiC. Not the cheapest by any means but she can't tolerate chicken, turkey or indeed any kind of poultry or eggs. It's amazing how many dog foods or treats that say they are pork or beef but contain chicken so we need to check every label. We've tried so many different brands but this is the one that agrees with her and we've never had to bin. 

MissRikkiC

Glad that you have finally found something that works for your pooch @cas