2025 Frugal Living Challenge

RateTartExtraordinaire

Hi All, 

So interesting to hear that everyone is picking their blackcurrants early. My mum has been growing blackcurrants for a few years and I received a lovely jar of jam this week. It's my absolute favourite. I love a spoon in some yoghurt. I've been trying to grow strawberries in my own garden, but I think something else is eating them before me. I've had 3 so far

Money spent
Last month I had the taps and shower hose replaced in the bathroom. They were all leaking and looking a bit sad. A few years back, I replaced the kitchen taps myself, but the bath and the basin were a but more tricky due to the pipe work and access. 
I sourced the bathroom taps myself from local store, then got a plumber to fit them. I couldn't get the shower hose off as the nut was so close to the wall, I couldn't get the wrench in to do it. Plumber had a specific bag full of tools for taps. He had short nose pliers that did the trick. 
I'd like to replace the units because they have sustained some water damage from leaks in the past. I've been looking at basin and toilet units and bath panels online but my very small bathroom needs non-standard sizes.
Now I've taken off the bath panel I can see that it has been custom built, so not easy to figure out what to buy. Would need a bathroom fitter really. I feel it could get costly. So I've taken off all the old sealant and will reseal it. 

Money saved / made
I opened a N W account not long ago, so got the £100 Fairer Share this month. Nice!
I also opened a Ch1p Instant Savings account and managed to get a referral payment of £20 and a £30 bonus payment for opening a S&S ISA and investing £101 (one pound minimum fee). 
I've sold a couple books on Ebay this month which gave me £18 after fees.

It has paid for the basin and bath taps and shower hose, though not the plumber's labour which came in a £150 plus VAT  .

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 

@RateTartExtraordinaire, that is a shame about your strawberries. My DAd has to bet his strawberries so that he gets some, you may want to consider this next year. 

Well done on sourcing your plumbing items. Ouch re: plumbing bill. 

Yesterday, I spent the day with family, several members have birthdays this month. My dear Dad and brother sorted out the trim on the front of the car that had come detached in places. They used a tie and screwed one of the screws back. Yay! Fixed for free. 😀 Thank you Dad and brother. 

A few weeks/months ago, I mentioned that I sat on my glasses and bent them. I then went to JL and they said that they couldn't switch the glasses into another frame as I was overdue an eye test. I went to Specsavers and they explained why JL wouldn't swap the glasses over - due to the fact that they might not fit the new frames and could damage the lenses. Well today, I went to a little independent opticians and I showed them my glasses. They took them away and two minutes later they came back and hey presto they had moulded my glasses back so they now sit correctly on my face. Needless to say, I have booked my next eye appointment with them. 

Spent 2.5hrs today picking, washing and destalking a full tub of blackcurrants and a full tub of redcurrants.

Nelliegrace

I think this is the earliest we have had blackberries in the Midlands, and there are a few figs beginning to swell. 

Edited, they are the black raspberries! Old age forgetfulness, every day has its surprises. 

Gem-gem

Good evening all, 
Another busy day... and another no spend day.
Gym - cardio for 40 minutes. 

Made a belated chocolate birthday cake. Mary Berry recipe - it only uses 100g of butter and three egg. It fills an 8 inch tin. I filled it with a thin layer of h/m apricot jam and a salted caramel chocolate ganache. The double cream was ys.
Stewed and strained the redcurrants, The juice is in the fridge ready for me to make redcurrant jelly tomorrow. I still have two jars left from 2023. It is nice to add to gravy. Using the Good Housekeeping recipe. 

Picked another tub of blackcurrants! I will be glad when I have finished picking them. Hopefully, I will have a few days off between picking the blackcurrants and the start of the blackberries. 

Tonight's dinner was h/m tuna, sardine, onion and olive pizza, h/m coleslaw, h/m pepper, sweetcorn and spring onion salad with a h/m dressing as well as home grown lettuce. For dessert, in a ramekin dish we had a dessert spoon of home grown stewed rhubarb with a small scoop of h/m strawberry ice-cream. 

I'm now watching tv and crocheting my blanket. 

Prudent

@Gem-gem that pizza sounds lovely. I watch and stitch in the evenings too. I am working on an unusual embroidery kit that I found in a charity shop. We have plenty of fruit at the allotment just now so today I am going to pick some and either freeze it or cook with it. We haven’t got blackcurrants yet here, although both bushes are quite young so might not be ready to crop heavily yet. I love the birthday card! It is OHs birthday at the start of July. He is very practical about presents. It is now a standing joke that he always gets the same pair of walking shoes and walking boots from Mountain Warehouse every year. I insisted we made an exception for a special birthday a few years ago and I took him away to a cottage on the Fife coast instead. I have collected the boots and shoes from our local store and I just need to make a cake now. 

@RateTartExtraordinaire  I have a small bathroom too. I won a bathroom and it sat in the garage for a long time before I felt the time had come for a refit of my existing bathroom. I got a plumber in to do the refit. I will need to check who I won it from as they did non standard sizes. However even with the win, the total refit (including buying wet walling and flooring) cost about £3,500.

I had a lovely day out at the Royal Highland Show on Sunday. So much to see and do and some welcome catch ups with friends from the past. I was amazed at the number of freebies on offer. I came away with lots of food and drink, three power banks, two chilly bottles, a magazine, a hat, some freebies on my Lidl app which I have still to collect, note pads and pencils, four cotton tote bags and a bag for life. There was so much free food and tea/coffee around that we only spent money on some cheese to bring home. Mostly I enjoyed seeing the ponies and goats. 

Frugaldom

Good morning to all. It's good to see so many of you are berry picking. To date, other than the rhubarb, I've just had a few strawberries and the handful of honeyberries and am now picking peas and salad leaves plus herbs.

In disappointing news, Halifax / Bank of Scotland is stopping their monthly draw, with the final one being September. It's very disappointing as my first entry should be August! I think I'll probably transfer the savings to premium bonds as the account was for house repairs plus DGD's 21st birthday money.

Car got taxed June, insurance is due July but it's ever so slightly less than last year, then MOT due in August. I reckon the savings made by using Olio, growing, sharing and yellow stickers must cover the costs of keeping the car in the road!

DdraigGoch

Hello everyone,
I'm a very old, not very good frugaller returning home after years of semi-frittering 😚.  Looking forward to rejoining and getting back into the swing of frugalling again.

Frugaldom

DdraigGoch said:

Hello everyone,
I'm a very old, not very good frugaller returning home after years of semi-frittering 😚.  Looking forward to rejoining and getting back into the swing of frugalling again.

Oh wow! Welcome home! You've found your way back to your original account. It's great to see you back here. The frugal living world is becoming harder to navigate so I'm brushing up my skills for the second half of this year and tightening the purse strings yet again. You are more than welcome to join that fun. 

Just read the latest premium bonds news... Prize fund being reduced again! Another blow to we ever-hopefuls, with even less chance of winning. 

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
@Prudent, I was also lucky to receive a free chilly bottle when I went to Birmingham. I was surprised that companies would give these away. Wow! You won a free bathroom, that is some prize. 

@Frugaldom, well done on getting slightly cheaper car insurance. Hopefully, I will be able to do the same, it is due in August. 
@DdraigGoch, hello. Looking forward to hearing about how you save your pennies and pounds. 

Today, was another busy day and more importantly a NSD. I finished off the redcurrant jelly. I ended up with three large jars for us and a small jar to give to my brother. I also made a small batch of rhubarb ice-cream. 

Dinner was left over salad from yesterday with half an avocado, cheap from Lidl and some gammon from the freezer. 

Washing /ironing one washing load was completed today along with cleaning mirrors and hoovering. Kitchen is all cleared down. I do like going to bed with everything in order. 

Tomorrow, my husband is leading a walk for both me and my friend. All I know is that we will finish in Harrow. Hopefully, we won't get rained upon. I have already got leftover curry out of the freezer to have tomorrow when we get home. 

Frugaldom

Good afternoon frugal friends, I hope everyone is enjoying sunshine (after all the rain we've had). 
@Gem-gem you will soon catch up with @DdraigGoch if you search her name - she is one of our original members from many years ago and I'm proud to call her a personal friend who has travelled to Frugaldom for a meet-up.

Not much to report from here other than being donated a full trailer load of pallets (around 20), which will be used for fencing.

Frugal lunch with friends at Frugaldom today and enough leftovers for tea. Win, win.