2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

CONGRATULATIONS to all our Premium Bonds winners and commiserations to everyone on council tax increases. @Prudent yours seems like a ridiculously high increase! I thought ours was bad at 9% and had assumed it had been capped at max. 10% but had forgotten the other parts of it are calculated separately. We don't pay the sewage part as we aren't on mains drainage but we are on mains water. Don't they count these sorts of price increases into inflation figures? Makes me so mad that everything seems to be costing so much more yet they can manipulate figures to reflect a low inflation rate. Swings and roundabouts, there's no escaping the ever-increasing need for spending. 

Prudent

The figures definitely feel manipulated @Frugaldom. In April my council tax is going up 13%, gas and electric 7% (2nd rise this year), broadband 3% +CPI, mobile also 3% + CPI, I read today that food is up 4%. My already small occupational pension is going up 1.7%. It does not take any more than primary 5 maths skills to work out that I will be much worse off. I had a rare foray into Tesco today to purchase Orzo, spices and filo pastry. I had my Victor Mildrew face on again so thankfully I didn't meet anyone that I know. I then popped into Farmfoods and I was back in my price comfort zone.

However on a happier note, I am about the plant up the heated propagator. As well as the usual seeds I am going to add some cress and microgreens as they do so well in there. It will add some more variety to salads. I love salads which have a big variety of ingredients, it feels like living well. 

sams247

On the same day I heard the CTax was going up by 13%  I also heard I was getting a payrise......of 2%.  Well that solves my financial worries for sure!

Spring clean day today.  

cbsexec

My water bill has gone up nearly 50% and I don’t have mains sewage.  Apparently in our area those who only have the water supply element are facing the biggest rises.   Why?   Doesn’t make sense to me.  

Gem-gem

Good afternoon everyone, 
DH informs me that our water bill is also increasing by a silly amount. We always use more in the summer because of our mini allotment in the garden. We have a water butt that helps a little and I also empty the water into buckets if I know that it is going to rain. Every little helps. 

Lunch consisted once again of leftover Christmas turkey, leftover stuffing and Yorkshire puds from last week, vegetables either from the garden or left over from last week or ys. It does feel satisfying when you can have a meal like that.

Was up at the crack of dawn today, took the opportunity why the weather is good to do a b/fair. Made £101.30 profit. Very pleased with this as most things were only sold for 50p to £1.

fionaandphil

Fantastic result @Gem-gem definitely worth the effort of getting up early. Our water bill has gone up about £25 per month on an assessed charge so we are going to look at swapping to a water meter. We had a private one before so know roughly how much we use and it will be about £250 cheaper. We have 7 water butts in the garden which covers most of the outside needs.

Frugaldom

Good morning, we have also been trying to make the best of the dry, sunny spell as we get the last of our free trees planted as hedging and have been lucky enough to source some funding that will reimburse the cost of an Aspen planting project we began last year. Met som lovely new friends here at the weekend, after they saw my post asking for help building a fence for the tree planting. They stayed the weekend in their campervan and we all had a great time, albeit working hard in the sunshine. We are making a wildlife corridor for the badgers and pine martens, alongside a hunting corridor for our resident birds of prey. The wildlife gave us some fine, free entertainment with appearances by red kite, buzzard,badgers, pine martens, woodpeckers and countless other small birds. Frogs galore in the pond we dug out a few years ago.

We also had an Olio food rescue mission that included pizza, cakes and kefir, plus friend brought cake that we scoffed before unloading the hay that was delivered. Very busy weekend but plenty more still to do. I think I was more excited about the 'free' trees and fencing as it all amounts to the best part of £1,000. We had to buy everything in beforehand but will be reimbursed as soon as the fence is finished and the Aspen all planted safely out of reach of ponies. 😊 

Just spreading a little happiness during price increases and other doom & gloom. I'm uploading photos on my FB page but will get round to a new blog post soon.

More water barrels needed all round, I think, so don't forget to ask your local farmers for any big supplements buckets or similar that can be utilised.

Quantaqa

Hi All, I got my Council tax bill in on Friday.  I haven't compared it to last years yet for the water/sewerage but overall it's gone up by just over £15 per month (I am on a low band).  This, as well as all the other increases really adds up every month.  

Prudent

@Gem-gem well done on the car boot sale. That is a very handy amount. I hope you can enjoy it rather than spend it on the increased water bill.

@Quantaqa I am glad you at least have the bill through and can start budgeting. Ours usually comes in the last week of March. I got the annual increase for my broadband today so I can start adding figures to my budget.

@Frugaldom what a fabulously productive weekend. I can't wait to see it all in April. I have thoroughly enjoyed the photos on FB. We had a productive weekend at the allotment and it is all starting to take shape for the coming season. OH helps some friends do work on their renovations projects now and then and they usually do something for him in return. Next weekend they are delivering a big load of wood chippings for the allotment paths and for us to chip a large shady area. I messaged my joiner as he often has large unwanted cardboard boxes from things like kitchen units. He is going to drop some off later in the week, so that potentially pricy job will be free. Not nearly as good a bargain as your trees and fencing though, well done!

Today was much colder and cloudier here. I met up with some friends this morning and had a charity shop potter this afternoon. I got two Seasalt sailor tops (3/4 length sleeved striped t shirts). They were priced at £2 each but when I paid it was 10% off day so they cost £3.60 in total. I looked up the price on the Seasalt website and they are £29.99 each or two for £50. They are not new with labels but in new condition. 

Duchess2

Well done @Frugaldom on your tree funding. A huge boost to aid your budget. Good cs buys @Prudent. So satisfying. I’m afraid we’ve run out of budget for the lounge decoration. Still have a few bits to get to finish it off. A couple of shelves and some lampshades and eventually some more furniture paint. They will have to wait for next month or the one after. Just have to be patient. Trying to have as many NSD’s to facilitate getting them asap. Saving on utilities last week with the lovely sunny warm weather. Lots of line-dried washing and no heating. Boo hiss back to winter this week.