2026 Frugal Living Challenge

RavenRover

I love roasted squash and pumpkin seeds.  You can imagine my delight when the community event I organised at Halloween had several pumpkins leftover - lets say I still have a glut of pumpkin curry and pumpkin soup!!! The roasted seeds didn't last a month😋

ShazzaDazza

hello!
Had a good day yesterday,  only spend was a £1 for some bathroom necessities.

thought id share how ive been exchanging things I can make instead of buying , if useful to anyone
Make your ready to use chickpeas from dried..make large batches and freeze in portions for lovely recipes. I make my own hummus, which saves a fortune. there's loads of brilliant uses for chickpeas..!!

Ive learnt to make accompaniments like garlic bread, tortillas, chapati and sourdough bread...all cost so much if shop bought.
 Principally they are all flour / water combos someceasy recipes online. I do recognise theres just a little planning needed, but once we cracked it, it became habit. We make sourdough pizzas ourselves (with tomato sauce homemade so no sugar etc in it) . We had a friend with some Sourdough starter who gifted us some, and we now dont need to spend a fortune on weekend Sourdough bread or pizza night. 

hope that helps someone..we worked out how much bread accompaniments were costing  and that homemade tastes much nicer and saving us lots

happy kneading!!!

Shazza

Gem-gem

Hello Everyone, 
I wonder what other seeds we discard that could be roasted and eaten. 
@ShazzaDazza, we have also learnt to make our own chapatti's. It is so simple and costs very little. Like you said it just takes a little forward planning. We have a bread maker so we also make our own bread, pizza bases and enrich dough. How lovely to be able to make sourdough pizzas. The only bread we buy full price or cheap when we can get it is sour dough or brioche buns. Nann's we get when we find them ys. 

Cat facts of the day

Male cats are more likely to be left pawed.

Female cats are more likely to be right pawed.

Regardless of the above, most cats walk with their right paw first - a trait only shared between cats, camels and giraffes.

fionaandphil

For anyone passing Aldi today, our local one has heavily discounted all their Christmas stock today.  I picked up a couple of boxes of shortbread as well as some marzipan and even a Christmas Pudding dated January 2027, all at 29p.  I am stashing them away so they don't all get eaten this month!  I also spent 8p at Sainsburys when I went in to get milk and peanut butter by using up some nectar points.

Lovely to see you back @Prudent and to hear you are better again.  A big shock for you with that tax bill!  @Frugaldom well done with those Olio collections. I will have to look again at this, it hasn't been much good anytime I've looked or I'm at work and can't make the pick ups. I will try again this year and try to do my bit for food waste.  Might wait until we have a bit more space in the freezer first as we are still full after Christmas and the cheap vegetables are still going strong.  More soup made here too in the last few days and  have frozen some each time for when it runs out.

Great to see you all being frugal again for the new year, long may it continue.

AmyinIraq

Hi everyone, 
it's been a mixed couple of days.

I finally got around to signing up for Co-op membership a few weeks ago, and so I was able to pop in for milk yesterday and got it for 15p with the weekly offers they give.  Co-op is the most convenient shop for me but because of this I found I was spending quite a lot each month just popping in for bits and pieces so I am going to be more careful this year, use the offers and not fall into the trap of picking up a lot of other things while I'm there. 

Unfortunately my boiler stopped working a few days ago - plumber came round this morning and spent over 3 hours trying to figure out what was wrong before admitting that he's not sure but the theory is some water in my oil tank has frozen and partially blocked the supply pipe to my boiler which he can't fully remedy right now.  I have this sinking feeling that a big chunk of my emergency fund will be gone when I get the bill, and it's only the second week in January  

Also the water supply to our row of cottages has frozen so I am limited to the water left in my tank until things thaw.

Consoling myself by tucking into some of the mini-cheddars I got from 2G2G  and hoping for warmer weather. 

Mamma2004

Batch cooking has really saved me alot of time and money but I've been struggling with my 3.5L slow cooker not being big enough.  I toyed with the idea of getting a multicooker but felt I couldn't justify the cost when I already have a pressure cooker.

Then, a couple of days ago, I found a 6.5L slow cooker in Robert Dyas reduced to £19.99 (with 14p cashback from TCB).  It just arrived and it's perfect! Very happy! 🙌🥰

Here's the link in case anyone else fancies it: 

https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/daewoo-6-5l-slow-cooker-stainless-steel

Penny2myName

Spend day today buying two stainless steel sieves from TK Maxx. My eldest son has been asking me to get a new one for awhile as our old one seemed to have disappeared.
All Shopping/Spending
1645 - Monthly £137.00
1 Jan - 2.00, 2 Jan -2.00, 3 Jan - 36.57, 5 Jan 5.23, 9 Jan - 4.19

mumtoomany

Well the promised/threatened snow did not materialise, fortunately. Had a covering of a couple of inches by late yesterday evening, but by this morning we'd had enough rain to wash it away. 

Another bottle of milk bought, DD1 got it for us. Can't believe we've got to 9th with nothing but milk bought.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx 

Mamma2004

As a newbie, I'm really loving the forums!  Thanks to all who comment and participate 🥰

I'm doing really well so far this month.  I'm making 2026 my 'Building Wealth' year.  My youngest goes to Uni in September and I'd love to have a pot of money to set him up a bit. 

Gem-gem

Welcome @Mamma2004 to the forum. Good luck with building your wealth through out this year. 

@AmyinIraq sorry to hear about your boiler. Hope it isn't too costly. 

Hope everyone is okay after the storm yesterday and that no costly damage has been done.