2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
Thursday, DH and a friend and I went out walking. We visited wetlands where beavers had been introduced. This has stopped the area from flooding. Then we walked along a part of the Grand Union Canal and saw baby ducklings that still had their down. Next we walked through woodland and enjoyed listening to the songbirds. Finally, we wended our way up Harrow on the Hill and spotted different parts of Harrow school. We walked over 11km.

The beavers felled this tree and is well on the way to bringing the second tree down. We saw one of their lodges.
Spend for all three of us was £30. This included my travel and three lunches at the 'Spoons in Harrow. 

Friday, was a NSD and couldn't have been anymore different. I spent the day in A&E with my Mum. Heart issues. She is being referred to the chest pain clinic. 

Today, another NSD for me. DH bought a half priced chicken when he popped into town. I cooked it whilst I was cooking today's dinner. 

Venison - half priced, butternut squash and potatoes home grown and peas. Spent the day slowly decluttering more stuff, getting ready for another boot fair next month. 

Tomorrow, we are taking the train to Herne Bay. Having lunch at a friends house then we are all going down to the beach: 

Prudent

Welcome back @DdgraigGoch. As @Frugaldom says it is definitely getting tougher to live frugally. On the plus side there are more people joining frugal communities and there is always something new to learn. For me, it has been learning to live more minimally rather than finding money saving ways of having stuff and experiences. I was an MSE comper when prizes were prolific and I got used to theatre trips, nice hotel breaks and an endless stream of smaller prizes. I rarely comp now as the returns are not the same and I feel my time is better spent on other things. With this has come embracing more simplicity. I found myself watching van life and similar videos on YouTube. While vanlife will never be for me, I saw how liberating ‘less’ can be. 

After a busy month of social activities things will now be quieter over the summer. I have been catching up on small jobs around the house. The steps at the front of the house have been sanded, repaired with cement and repainted. I am slowly tidying out and cleaning the garage. A few skip runs have been done with old paint tins etc. OH was given some pallets so we have made an insect home with them at the allotment which is something I have wanted to do for a while. Yesterday was too hot to do much outside so I spent a happy day inside cutting up small fabric scraps and adding them to my string quilt. I am awake early so I will water the garden and wash a couple of windows before it becomes too hot. I am of the generation that still makes phone calls, so I will also try to catch up with family today. 

Gem-gem

Good evening everyone, 
We are melting here! How about everyone else?
@Prudent, I have just washed my downstair windows. I will do the upstair windows ,early in the morning, later this week. 

Went to the opticians this morning, an independent local one. One pair of varifocal glasses, one pair of varifocal sunglasses plus the eye test - £815!!! They then gave me a £25 discount. This afternoon, I took my Mum to the eye hospital and got talking to a member of staff. I told them about the cost and they said that the quality at the independent lenses will be 5x better than the quality of lenses that you would get from a well known opticians that has stores all round the country. He knows because he used to work for the big company. When I got home I phoned the independent place and asked them to order both pairs of glasses. Have I done the right thing? I hope so. My husband use to go to the big company but he swapped over a few years ago. My belt is going to have to be tightened in other areas as I only budgeted £500. 

Neighbour popped over today with my door stops - he has made from left over pieces of 400+ years old oak wood that someone gave him plus some dibblers that he made from mahogany. The wood came from our neighbour windows. I swapped them with a crocheted pouch and a hand sewn purse. I will be giving the dibblers to family / friends for birthday or Xmas. I have asked for two more door stops - for my Dad. 

I have started to crochet a market bag for my friend for Xmas. 

fionaandphil

I feel your pain gem-gem mine are ridiculous too, over £900 for a pair last time but they are great. Lightweight sturdy but also variofocals which I now need due to my age. My first pair were from a high street place and I just couldn't wear them and felt dizzy so they were returned. The glasses have lasted 2 years so far and just been tested and prescription not changed so I'm keeping them a bit longer. DH and DS are much more straightforward and both had glasses at under £50 from high street.

RavenRover

@Gem-gem I use our local independent and feel your pain, but you get a getter service.   
One Christmas eve I woke up and couldn't open my eye and the pain was something else.  Phoned doc who told me to find an optician as they wouldn't see me.  I couldn't drive to the town and when I went down the street it was closed.  I phoned the number on his notice.  He then arranged to come out, a 60 mile round trip, and check  me over.  Turned out I had scratched my eyeball in my sleep, and left such a deep scratch that he gave me cream and antibiotics  but was still concerned, phoned me Christmas day to check in and came back over on Boxing Day for a final check.  Definitely wouldn't get that level of care from the big ones!

Nelliegrace

Our local optician is also the NHS emergency centre. I have been several times for retinal scans when I start seeing sudden flashes of light or get a new floater. 
A friend tripped and fell because of a pothole, thought she was alright, but the next day suffered retinal detachment. 

Frugaldom

Quick but late visit from me. Weather here isn't the heatwave some have as we've had some rain and a much cooler evening. I hope the rain falls heavy up north where the wildfires are! It's awful to see so much of the land go up in flames and once again, the cause being reported as careless campers and BBQs or campfires.

Another small win on the PBs brings my year to date return up to 1.59% but we are only halfway through the year so time yet to increase that. I did manage to open another 12 month 5.5% regular saver account but couldn't transfer a lump sum.

Salad leaves, radishes and peas are all growing like crazy here so it's time to make the most of them. I managed to rescue some Olio food, mainly baked goods but there was some cold meat so that will do for a salad lunch. Friend is going to pop into Lidl en route this week to see if they have any fruit n veg boxes and there's also a community cafe offering up to 20 items for £5 so that sounds like it's worth investigating. Again, it's saving food from going to landfill. 

Frugaldom

Popping this link in here so it can be found - it's the MasterCard class action page for those of you following this and submitting claims once that window opens. 

https://mastercardconsumerclaim.co.uk/

Skint_yet_Again

Just delurking to advise the Mastercard payment may now be delayed by months according to mse 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/mastercard-compensation-claim/#delay

Prudent

What an interesting discussion about opticians. I have just had a text to say my eye check up is due. I am sure I will need new glasses as I am noticing how much I am struggling just now. I use a local optician who is also good but expensive. I have never tried the big chain. Someone was telling me that she takes her prescription to an Asda optician about 25 miles away. She gets three pairs for the price the local optician would charge for one. Her hubby still uses the local optician. I had thought that I might try the Asda one, but reading these posts is making me pause.

No PB win here this month, £25 for OH. The returns have been poor for me the past couple of years. I am trying to work out if the tax free element, plus the chance of a higher value win, compensates for the poor returns.

Our boiler is now 15 years old and we having are having problems with the hot water cutting out about twice a week. We have a super gas engineer, but over the years (mainly before finding the current engineer), it has needed some expensive repairs. I am undecided whether I want to go for more repairs or simply decide the time has come to replace it. After going to a community event about energy, I had a phone consultation with Home Energy Scotland, who are funded by the Scottish government, they are going to send someone out next week to help us make a decision. In the interim, I am hoping we can keep rebooting it. 

This month will be an expensive one. I have a wedding, OH's birthday, car insurance and now potentially a new boiler. I will need to double down with the frugalling. I haven't spent anything for five days as I have had a heavy cold and temperature and haven't felt like leaving the house. We have had plenty of salad and strawberries from the allotment. OH was visiting his brother yesterday. It is also his brother's birthday this week so I made them a birthday cake to share.