2026 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Welcome to the all new 2026 Frugal Living Challenge

Challenge yourself to live a frugal lifestyle so you can afford the freedom to enjoy life. This is about household budgeting, simple living and being creative with your money. Frugality can be a fabulous lifestyle choice for debtbusting, boosting savings or investing in your own happiness.

This is an adaptation of the original NYK 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge. It has been running here on MSE since 2007. We have seen many changes over the years, none so much as affected us all throughout 2020/21 and the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by Brexit and then 'the cost of living crisis'. There could be even more people from all walks of life now finding themselves needing to learn traditional methods of moneysaving, debt-busting and budgeting - a penny saved is a penny earned and each is as important as the other. Frugal living, for some, is the only lifestyle available.

It's time to start thinking ahead into the new year and how we are going to organise our frugal lifestyles, be it to tackle debts, generate extra income or squirrel away some savings. Please take the time to read this post in full and if you have any questions, feel free to message me or ask in the forum.

Your budget is personal to you, it should fit with your personal financial situation. Some of you have already achieved debt freedom and now follow frugal lifestyles for the love of it. Others are still tackling debts and frugal living in an attempt to reach their debt-free and/or mortgage-free day. Whichever stage you are at, feel free to join us and share your progress.

The following links will take you to previous MSE versions of our challenges:

The 2025 Challenge - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6576772/2025-frugal-living-challenge/  

The 2024 Challenge - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6493242/2024-frugal-living-challenge/

The 2023 Challenge -https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6409294/2023-frugal-living-challenge/ 

The 2022 Challenge 
The 2021 Challenge
The 2020 Challenge
The 2019 Challenge
The 2018 Challenge
The 2017 Challenge
The 2016 Challenge
The 2015 Challenge
The 2014 Challenge
The 2013 Challenge
The 2012 Challenge
Part 1 - January to March 2011
Part 2 - April to June 2011
Part 3 - July to December 2011
Introduction to the 2010 Challenge
Part 1 - January to March 2010
Part 2 - April to June 2010
Part 3 - July to September 2010
Part 4 - October to December 2010
Part 1 - January to March 2009
Part 2 - April to June 2009
Part 3 - July to September 2009
Part 4 - October to December 2009
Part 1 - January to March 2008
Part 2 - April to June 2008
Part 3 - July to September 2008
Part 4 - October to December 2008
How it all began - Saving to buy a house without a mortgage 2007 Challenge
The original interest beater challenge
The original £1000 in 100 days challenge
The original free hobbies thread

IMPORTANT - Please respect others' lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support. Thank you

This challenge is about living a frugal, sustainable lifestyle - establishing the true cost of living, sticking to a budget, clearing debts and making savings wherever and however possible to enable you to live the life you really want. Frugal living isn't for everyone, but everyone is welcome to join us.

Methods employed by our merry band of frugalers include: batch cooking, stockpiling, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), Olio app, vegetable and fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cash back sites and earning whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt.

For some, it is initially about clearing debt while for others it is about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home parents or paying off the mortgage. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds. Above all, this is a fun, fairly traditional and supportive way to manage your budget so you have control of your own cost of living.

It's about NEEDS and not WANTS.

Living on a budget = living within our means
Frugal = thrifty, living without waste

Ideas to help you achieve and/or maintain debt free living

Recognise the differences between needs and wants
Spend within your means
Set a proper budget
Quit expensive bad habits
Houseshare
Get a lodger
Shop via cash-back sites and always price compare
Buy reduced items in stores only if you need them
Stockpile & bulk buy only those bargains that you use
Batch cooking
Make the most of charity shops
Join freebie or waste awareness and recycling associations
LETS trading - become active members of trading & exchange groups
Bartering
Grow your own herbs, fruit & veg
Preserving & winemaking
Breadmaking & home baking
Card & gift making
Order splitting/sharing for better discounts & reduced delivery costs
Landsharing, allotments & frugal garden systems
Food sharing
Online trading - auctions, stores, social media pages etc, etc, etc...

Monitoring and revising your budget is part of a good frugal living plan.

If you haven’t already done so, join the MSE forums to share and compare your frugal lifestyle hints, tips and achievements among like-minded friends and supporters.

GOOD LUCK IN 2026

Frugaldom

Thank you for joining me in the Frugal Living Challenge. We are entering the 19th year of posting this challenge here on the MSE forums but it is 25+ years since I first published about my budgeting. I thank every one of you who has been here since the start and please spend a moment of thought for lost friends along the way. It has been a real rollercoaster ride over the years and many of us have shared many things during that time. As always, anyone is welcome to message me direct if you have any questions - Frugaldom is easily found online by anyone who cares to look.

My budget for 2026 is a little more complicated than previously as we go between 2 properties and I want my budget to cover both the house and the cabin we use when working at the project.

Groceries - £1,200

Heat & light - £1,200
Gas cylinders - £300
Logs - £250
TV licence - £174.50
Mobiles, landline & internet - £1,200
Insurances - £500
Clothing & footwear - £50
Miscellaneous - £125.50
Total - £5,000 + Council Tax (£?)

My original £4,000 challenge did not include the council tax, as it is a non-negotiable expense. This is a true reflection on price increases as you can look back over the past 18+ years of challenges on here, links in post 1.

Council Tax is non-negotiable so there are no savings to be made there.
We don't have rent, mortgage or debts to pay, thanks to years of frugal living.
The car is a luxury that I am giving up as soon as it can be sold - I have my free bus passes and H has his own car. My budget gets juggled accordingly to allow for unexpected expenses or price changes.

Things I do to help cut costs:

Interest Beater Challenge is being incorporated here, feel free to join that, too.

Needs not wants

Make do and mend

Reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle

Collect firewood

Olio

Grow fruit, veg & herbs (try to)

Swap and barter

Only drive when absolutely necessary

Socialise with friends at Frugaldom, mostly outdoors

No shopping trips

Online shopping via cashback sites

Pay using a cashback credit card

Play the free postcode lottery

Put savings into Premium Bonds, 'just in case'

Use portable solar whenever possible for usb lights, phone charging and laptop

Harvest rainwater (not difficult in Scotland)

Composting (I've also got a wormery)

Log burners for heat - make paper and cardboard sticks for kindling

Fleeces and hot water bottles - if the logburner is lit then water for bottles gets warmed

No takeaways or fastfood
Cook from scratch - learn to love homemade soup

Only make what costs less than buying or it's false economy

Quit smoking (years ago - challenge is recorded somewhere)

Daily exercise to try and keep relatively fit and healthy (I work outdoors)

Make the most of offers, cashback and money off coupons only when they are needed

Biggest achievement to date - creating a real place named Frugaldom for friends to share. The name was originally derived from a combination of frugal living and debt freedom.

Quantaqa

Thank you for the new thread @Frugaldom and for continuing to run the thread every year.  I have been following along but not posting due to health issues but I need to get back on track for 2026.  DH and I are, for the moment at least, down to one wage and I need to make the most of the money that is coming in. This thread will help keep me on track.  One thing I have decided is that next Christmas will be a much more frugal affair for us next year.  Over the next week or so I'll have a think about my frugal goals for 2026 and post them here.  For the moment though I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas Day  .

mama67

Thank you for doing this again. 

Not always participating but following. 

Willow1983

Thanks from me too don’t comment but read along every day and learn so much from everyone’s posts. My husband and me have just stopped work so will be budgeting like mad from now till state pension 🫣

amber03

Yep, Im joining in again. Don’t comment much but love reading this thread and it keeps me motivated. Would love by the end of a frugal year to have a decent EF, so that’s my aim.

mumtoomany

Thank you @Frugaldom for running this challenge again. I started reading along with these challenges in 2009, joining for the first time in 2010. At the time we, dadtoomany DD3 and myself, we're living "up north" and thinking of moving to the country. We were 52, 11 and 50. I started being more frugal, following ideas from this thread and other places. Having viewed several houses, even put an offer on one, we eventually moved to south Wales in November 2012. We bought this smallholding with DD1 and her OH. Now living here with them and their 4 children.

We both retired from our proper jobs and lived on small private pensions and what little money we could make on the smallholding. Frugality increased.

DD3 has moved back up north, close to her 3 other siblings and their families. We are now 67 (68 in a couple of weeks) and 65. Having thought long and hard, we have concluded that we cannot stay here indefinitely. So are looking to move back up north in the next couple of years. We will either all sell or DD1 will buy us out. So this next year the frugality will be ratched up another level. Thus giving us a bigger pot to buy our new place. 

I want to increase our saving by at least £10000 this year if possible. We have a disposable income of around £16000 a year at present, although my state pension will kick in in September. 

I am going to try to manage on £8000 for the year.

Council tax approx £1300, will know exact figure in March. This is for our half.

Electricity, water, tv licence, house insurance, phone and Internet, and gas(not mains). For these I'm allocating £2900. 

Car expenses, insurance, tax, petrol, mot, repairs, etc. £1200.

Food and other shopping, £1800.

Dog food, chicken feed, seeds, compost etc. £600.

Christmas and birthdays, everything else. £200.

Looking forward to starting this, and seeing how everyone else is managing their budgets.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx 

cuddlymarm

Hi
I would like to read along too to keep me focused please.
My aims this year are to pay off my 0% cc and build up a £1000 emergency fund. We’ve recently moved house and have central heating and a water meter that we didn’t have at our last flat so it will be a learning experience on living costs.
Our aim is to have a good comfortable life and travel as much as possible while we can. To some this may not be seen as frugal living but we aim to live frugally to allow this. We’ve both had health scares in the last couple of years and realise that if we want to do things it’s probably an idea to do them while we can.
i hope you’re all having a lovely Xmas and look forward to reading and supporting you guys in the new year.

Nelliegrace

The lean years waiting for the delayed state pension, @mumtoomany. I know it was necessary but was a struggle when I became too ill to work, and like most women who raised a family, didn’t get the promotions and hadn’t much of a workplace pension.

There is always something to read, enjoy and learn here. 
I shall be reading more from the Mass Observation diaries, mainly 1941, and using WW2 ration quantities as usual, shopping for British ingredients where possible. 

We will continue to cook from scratch, bake our cakes, make our own bread and kefir, grow some food, and forage, because it is much better for our health and far more frugal than UPF stuff. We still have the old hens, but young ones would provide more eggs for the same feed costs.

We will limit clothing purchases with Fashion on the Ration, and Make Do and Mend what we have.
We will be holidaying from home, with days out locally, taking our picnic and flask of tea. 

I will use my off peak membership regularly at the local leisure centre, and National Trust membership, and the library.

These are the things I can control. 
We have budgeted for the regular bills, and have saved regularly for the rainy day. 

lilian1977

Every year I join, and by March everything has gone out of the window. I would like to fully commit this year, as I think it will also help with my weight loss and alcohol reduction aims. 

Our main expense after bills is football tickets and travel, not something I want to reduce as they're things we all do together and DS is getting older now (15), I don't know how much longer he will want to do these things with us.

So, main frugal areas will be food, alcohol, and random spending. I also always save towards Christmas but don't have a dedicated birthday gifts pot, so will be saving into that as well. And I want to get to £100k personal net worth - at £95.2k at the moment.

Hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday! 

Chan2019

Hello all, 
I am going to join this year and fully commit.
I have been reading in the background but I really need to try this year. 

I hope you’re all enjoying this festive period!