2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Prudent

@MayDogsandCoffee if you spend a lot of time in wellies they are definitely worth the investment. It is also great that the technology has come on so far. I remember the constantly freezing feet of my youth out and about on the farm in an Aberdeenshire winter. I have bought Dunlop wellies this time as I think they will be fine for the type of use I make of them. I am working hard to keep costs down to reach my retirement financial goal this year. 

I still haven't manged to get a veg box which is unusual. I did get a £1 bag of veg from my community shop yesterday. I got four courgettes, two heads of broccoli, a bag of parsnips, a cabbage and a net of oranges. There was also carrots and turnips available but I still have plenty of those left from the cheap Christmas veg.

I had a wee potter around the charity shops yesterday and did well with buying toiletry gifts people had handed in after Christmas. I paid £6.50 for £53 worth of toiletries and a lovely art coaster of otters. 

Today I am hoping to collect some flowers. I won a £100 voucher for a florist about 20 miles away. I am hoping to get some flowers for two friends who are caring for ill husbands and a wee treat for myself. I will phone the florist after typing this and hopefully can collect the flowers either today or tomorrow.

TracyS66

I am sat doing all the finances this morning, my food budget is low so i am sticking to a shopping list and using as much as possible from the freezer, just fruit, veg and some milk required today. I have 4 jars of mincemeat and some pastry in the freezer to use up so mince pies will be made they will stop me from buying cakes!!
Keep going everyone, you keep me on the right track by offering loads of advice on how to be frugal and save money

MadamMim2013

@TracyS66, my friend made some kind of mincemeat muffins and shortbread? They’d got fed up of mince pies 🤣 
I’m sure there has to be a recipe for them online somewhere, I’d ask her but she’s on holibobs ☺️

Katiehound

Don't forget that jars of mincemeat can keep a looong time. No need to use them up just now.

Mincemeat goes well with apple, a good way to extend it

Quantaqa

Good morning everyone, apologies for being absent for the last week or so, the return to work after Christmas holidays has been a bit of a shock to the system.

On Friday OH and I had a rare morning out at the local shopping centre.  We had a lovely mooch around Waterstones and I used up a selection of national book tokens and got myself 2 new books for no cost to me. We then had a lunch at Pizza Express using the current offer of 2 for 1 for £1.  

I did a baking morning on Saturday and made a fruit loaf and Banana muffins.  The fruit loaf is my snack at work during this week.  

Today I have decided to move the money saved in my ISA to premium bonds.  The interest on the account got better for a while but is now pretty dismal so I thought I'd chance my luck with premium bonds instead.

Thank you to whoever mentioned the issue with microplastics from plastic chopping boards.  I am going to replace my plastic ones over the next month or so and use wooden ones instead.  I will probably get a new plastic one for raw meat - I did wonder about glass but glass seems not to be recommended for chopping boards when I googled it.

AnimalTribe

I've lots of pages to catch up on, but I just wanted to pop in to say that I've done my first grocery shop of the year - £14.62. It included bread x2 , milk, oat milk, margarine, tomatoes, pepperoni, and reduced price pizza, veggie sausages and ham. I still have loads of food in the house so the reduced priced stuff wasn't really necessary. As to mincemeat, a small amount mixed with vanilla icecream is good.

Duchess2

Bought mealworms for the birds today. Heron have a good offer on atm. I got 2 x boxes of 10 BE haddock fillet fish fingers, 1 x BE tempura chicken fillets and 1 x BE veggie fingers. All were £2 each and should have cost £8, but got them for £5. There were other things included in the offer like pizza and ice lollies. Good for a quick meal when you either don’t have time or cba.  

@Prudent. How kind of you to share your lovely floral prize with your friends. I’m sure they will love them.  Lovely sunny day today. Makes you want to get things done. Have a good evening everyone.

Cas

Dizzycap said:

I have exactly the same issue with my gorgeous baby. I now make her fresh dinners in bulk and freeze as it's the only way to avoid all things poultry and I know exactly what's in them. Even treats stating beef only I've found have poultry stock mixed in, so I avoid processed food & treats at all costs. I make 100% pure peanut butter cookies made with water & cut up raw veggies, especially carrots, for treats which gorgeous loves, so it's a win-win all round. In the summer I freeze up 100% pure peanut butter & apple ice-cubes which sends baby into fruit-loops with excitement Now baby has realised what gives her a sore stomach, makes her feel sick, and irritates her ears & skin she walks away from anything processed. 

The only thing that costs me in the whole equation is a little time to prepare, cook, and freeze. I've also found that it's cheaper to feed baby and I know she is getting a balance diet which I have tailored to her needs, so I also get peace of mind xxx

Some lovely ideas there that I might pinch @Dizzycap! She loves peanut butter, apple and veggies and is a devil for Greek yogurt! It's incredible what they put in processed dog food, isn't it with chicken meat & bones, eggs and "animal derivatives" appearing in the ingredients list far too often for my liking!

SparFuchs

Frugaldom said:

@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.

How lovely! I really want to visit Scotland when I get the time. I'm stuck in SE England for the time being though for work. I think I've found you on social media so will keep an eye out and plan a visit sometime.

Just wondering if anyone uses the cash envelope budget system? It seems to have become very popular recently with 'cash stuffing'. I've managed to not have a budget for my whole adult life and recently learned how to do this with a variable income. Part of my budget is using the cash envelope system (I've always been a 'cash is king' person). 

Today is day 2 of using it (I gave myself half this month's budget since I'm starting halfway through). Absolutely loving it so far! I always had a terrible relationship with money, like I had no idea where it all went (no wonder really without a budget).

Anyone else do this? I've gone totally old school and got a Filofax so I can separate my cash into plastic zip envelopes. I also use it as my main calendar in an effort to spend less time on my phone.

Cas

Evening everyone. We're still eating out the freezer and cupboards. Tomorrow will be soup making day now that there's a bit of space in the freezer.
We've been enjoying some glorious sunshine today so took the opportunity to get a few bulky items like the hall mats washed and hung outside to dry. It looks like it'll be dry for the next few days so will be getting a few more things washed and out.