2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Cas

Thank you @MissRikkiC,  me too! 

SparFuchs

MissRikkiC said:

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. 

Ahh great! I have to say it suits me down to the ground. I find it so liberating, plus I get to  wake up in gorgeous places. It's not for everyone of course and comes with it's own set of challenges (finding showers, laundrettes etc.) but it's perfect for me.

Siebrie

Siebrie said:

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.

Word of waning: if installing tgtg, make sure you have a tracking blocker on your device. Within 10 minutes of taking a peek to see if anything interesting was available, it blocked 2,243 tracking attempts!!

MadamMim2013

Enjoyed a nice M&S TGTG bag dinner tonight.. 
We paid £4 last night on collection and our total saved on food in the whole bag was about £22! 

One pack of egg, tomato and salad cream sandwiches, a breakfast baguette and egg n’ cheese bap (those needed to be heated through) Cauliflower poppers, filled potatoe skins and a full size carrot cake.

It has given us breakfast, brunch and our evening meal..
The carrot cake was lush 😋

We will definitely be getting more bags in the future.. A happy win 🎉

RavenRover

@MadamMim2013 the m@s bags are fab.  When I was working further up countryand coming home at night I would time my journey to pick up an m@s one from our local services.  Another good one to look out for are ones from Sp@r.  I use them when I go up north camping.  A good few days food.  Enjoy

EcoIntent

Hi, hope you are all having a fab weekend

I fell lucky this am and got a food waste box from Lidl for £1.50 and it had in it (large punnet ripen at home plums; 4 ready to eat nectarines, punnet ripen at home nectarines, six large pink lady apples, 3 avocados, 2x little gem lettuce, 4 baking potatoes). So pleased with that. 

In the spirit of avoiding food waste the large oranges from christmas have been juiced as wouldn't get used with this influx of fruit, so there is some fresh orange juice (and also seperately juiced two lemons that were getting wizened). I have also froze 3/4 loaf of warburtons toastie loaf. My DD likes it but has gravitated this week to the homemade bread instead. 

I'm having a full blown kitchen day today. Food shopping for the week is all done. I have cooked a turkey crown reduced in Sainsburys on Boxing day that I had frozen (I have another one too £4 something each!), made stuffing with sausagemeat bought on the same day 50% off, mixed with a packet of chestnut puree that had just gone past its best before as had been lurking in the cupboard for forever.

Got a three bean chilli in the slow cooker, and about to make a pork mince, black bean and sweetcorn chilli from some pork mince frozen last summer. These are all to make home made 'ready' meals for the freezer. My last dish of the day will be a spinach and feta bake to use up some spinach and feta before they go out of date. This will also then be frozen for an easy meal one day. I am finding the key for me keeping on top of cooking is doing more in advance when I have the time, so it is quick and easy when I have had a long work day or am feeling under the weather. 

EDIT* So frustrated as on browning the pork mince found it smelt funny , so that has gone in the bin. That will teach me to leave in the freezer for so long. 

Gem-gem

Good afternoon everyone, 
Yesterday started off well - went for a walk with a friend - £4 for parking in a country park. We used to go out for a meal, now we walk. 

Then I popped into a shopping centre, bought some chocolate - half price. Then a pair of trousers and a spring jumper. 20% discount on both items. 

Last night and today, we ate again from the freezer - lots of leftovers and two ys items.

Spent part of the day chatting to friends. Had some sad news about an old work colleague. She was my mentor when I first started work. 

Finished off two more crochet pouches. 
Off to have some h/m apple and blackberry crumble. We add oats to the crumble mixture and only put in 3/4 of the sugar. What do other people add to make it healthier? 

MadamMim2013

Thanks for the suggestion @RavenRover, I’ll keep an eye out as we have a sp@r in walking distance! 

MissRikkiC

Meal plan done for this week with the very few ingredients we have in. We’re getting creative! I shall have to pop to the shops tomorrow though as we are out of a few key ingredients (margarine, milk, butter). I don’t feel like we get through loads of those items but it’s always diary we’re short on! Make me dream of a farm life. 

We’re approx half way into the ££ budget for this month (£150 instead of the usual £600) but past the middle of the actual month but regardless it’s really starting to show! For January (if we make the target) I will be putting the unspent £450 in savings however I’m not blind to the fact that we will need a huge stock up when we’re done. 

Frugaldom

@SparFuchs Welcome to the fun of frugal living. You should come visit for a Frugaldom meet-up if you're ever in SW Scotland - I have designated campervan parking space in the yard. It bodes well that you like ponies if you visit as I have 7 here just now.

@Gem-gem I've added some cheap muesli in the past but porridge oats is the norm here. I've no oven at the cabin so I toasty the crumble in the frying pan over the stove then just add it to stewed apple with some cinnamon. 

Still on No Spend Days, apart from my direct debits, and planning to have some of my January budget left over to sweep into premium bonds. I'm learning how to use AI and have been amazed by it's simplicity coupled by the complexity of what it can do. Brand new micro-business development plan was practically completed in the space of 5 minutes last night, after brainstorming with H. It's mind-blowing how fast AI completes tasks. I'm in awe of such technology while, at the same time, I can see how easily it could wreak havoc.