2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Gem-gem

Prudent said:

@Gem-gem, that is a plus. I took three boxes of books to a book exchange yesterday and three full bin bags to a charity shop last week and came away with nothing.

The decluttering is continuing at a good pace here. I have another full bin bag ready, and also hope to fill one today. I don't think I have ever been so ruthless with my choices. My criteria this time is 'Would I want to pay a removal company to move this item for me if I moved?'. Ideally we would like to move to a bungalow at some point but very few come on the market in the village. At least the thought is keeping me motivated!

As I work around the house I am making a list of small DIY jobs. We are going to repaint two of the bedrooms, replace the curtain rails and one of them needs a new carpet and new bed. 

Well done Prudent with coming away with nothing. 👏
I have also started to make a list of to-do's. 

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, another frugal day. 

Visited my DM in the morning, did her shopping beforehand and then focused on supporting her with her post move job. 

Pm: Did the ironing, cleaned the kitchen, washed and polished a very, very old chair. 

Cooked a ys roast chicken from the freezer; Yorkshire puds from the whole milk from DM; ys veg. Also, as a surprise to DH made a mandarin mousse. It is very easy to made. 

1 small tin of mandarins (drained) or fruit mashed / whizzed down to a purée. 

1 jelly to match the flavour of the fruit
1 tin of evaporated milk, put in the freezer for a couple of hours before making the mousse. 

Method:
1. Chill evaporated milk in the freezer for several hours. 

2. Melt jelly in two/three tablespoons of water. 

3. Whisk evaporated milk till it has increased in volume and is thick / forming soft peaks. 

4. Once E milk is nice and thick, whisk in jelly and then puréed fruit. 

5. Pour into serving dishes and chill until set.

Topher

Gem-gem said:

Prudent said:

@Gem-gem, that is a plus. I took three boxes of books to a book exchange yesterday and three full bin bags to a charity shop last week and came away with nothing.

The decluttering is continuing at a good pace here. I have another full bin bag ready, and also hope to fill one today. I don't think I have ever been so ruthless with my choices. My criteria this time is 'Would I want to pay a removal company to move this item for me if I moved?'. Ideally we would like to move to a bungalow at some point but very few come on the market in the village. At least the thought is keeping me motivated!

As I work around the house I am making a list of small DIY jobs. We are going to repaint two of the bedrooms, replace the curtain rails and one of them needs a new carpet and new bed. 

Well done Prudent with coming away with nothing. 👏
I have also started to make a list of to-do's. 

Thank you, I like the idea of checking if you’d pay someone to move the items to decide how valued things are. I calculate how much space to live in I’ve gained, as in: that’s another cubic metre I’ve got back, when I load about four large bags into the boot for disposal. 

Topher

gill5blue said:

TracyS66 said:

Looking forward to the 2025 thread, always full of good advise and information ❤

Same here, good luck everyone.
I am lucky to be in a comfortable position(financially) but previously wasn't. with the enormous help of MSE I turned my finances around, and will always now have a watchful eye over it.
Gill5blue

I too am in a reasonably comfortable position now, but it’s thanks to no small part played by MSE and sheer graft on my part over many years. I’ve just come back to this forum to regain my sense of direction after finding myself multiple times on “comfort shopping trips”. I’m not particularly excessive on these trips, but it’s the swing of attitude that I’ve realised is “not me”, andI wish to get back on track.   

MadamMim2013

Thanks @Gem-gem for the mousse recipe, have copied it into my “found” recipe book 📕 

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
Spent the first part of the day making cards and doing housework.
Then late afternoon went to BW shopping centre to get a couple of things for DM. Managed to gat a 10% discount on one thing. Then popped down to the Waitrose/JL foodhall and picked up a couple of ys items to take to the quiz. I was really pleased with myself because in JL they had 50% off my favourite brand of chocolate. I spent about 10 minutes looking at it the said that I would do the shopping first and give myself time to think about it. I didn't go back. I still have Christmas choc left plus I'm cutting down on ultra processed foods. Previously I would have bought it without even battering an eyelid. 
At the quiz we had a ploughman's included. I didn't have the margarine, I thinly spread some of my homemade chutney onto the bread. I also avoided the crisps. I took a chocolate orange that I received at Christmas and shared it with the team. We won the quiz, we received a box of Maltesers each. I have put them into the cupboard. Will give to my niece and nephew for Easter. Yay! A few quid saved  😀

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
A quiet, NSD . 

DH and I sorted and tided the shed. We have recently taken delivery of a free spare fridge freezer and needed to keep it safe until it is needed. My current FF is 20 years old. It has a drawer missing on the freezer and a the lid that covers the bottom unit in the fridge broke this week and is now missing. I won't get rid of it because it is the only FF that I know that has the raw meat section below the vegetable drawers. 

We also decluttered a bookcase that is going back to my DM. We had to rearrange a fitted wardrobe to get the 'to keep' items in. We also got a tiny solid wood bookcase down from the loft which was my DH mother's. It has been up there for nearly eight years. I gave it a good wash and polish and put the books on it that I haven't read yet. 

Finally, I up-cycled half dozen Mother's Day / Mum birthday cards into new cards. This will save me having to buy a new one for a few years. I also finished off a couple of cards that DM made, which I will give to her to use. 

Dinner was leftovers - chicken and Yorkshire pud with cheap veg from Christmas. 

sams247

Today was not really a frugal day, had a couple of tough days and decided to go out for lunch, so went to a nice cafe, had a jacket potato and a banana milkshake.  Listened to some nice messages from friends and people watched.  Now onto work.....

Bunga12

Hello

This is my first post but I've been following the thread and writing down lots of tips since the start. I suppose you could say I'm a trainee frugaller (or is it frugaler?) for now. Trying to earn my stripes!

I've decided I'm going to focus on two areas: growing some stuff and getting rid of some stuff. Today I bought a bag of seed potatoes as a start (using money from my money box so it didn't feel like a real spend as it was all silver coins) and I'm going to plant them in pots on Friday after I complete my long run (I'm marathon training).

Then Saturday morning I'm going to declutter my bedside drawers. Does anyone have a process for decluttering? I like the point @Topher made - Would I want to pay a removals company to move it? I've written that down. I'm thinking I'll get it all out on the bed and channel Topher and Marie Kondo. How does that sound?

Frugaldom

Welcome to the challenge @Bunga12, I hope you enjoy being part of our frugal little online community. I like the term frugalites so I don't need to wonder about one 'l' or two.

Decluttering continues for us, two, with H clearing out the sheds. I'm strapped for time most days but want to completely empty one room at a time, freeing it from everything I no longer need, use or want. It's such a daunting task. I'm even here procrastinating rather than empty a shelf to go through things. Has anyone else got shelves of empty boxes saved from things bought years ago that will never be put back in their boxes?