2026 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

Penny2myName said:

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

Does anyone in your family have a pony? Metal sieves were discussed here at Frugaldom only days ago, along with hammers and rubber gloves... All the accoutrements necessary to break through and scoop out the ice from water buckets. 🤣

Frugaldom

Good evening to everyone and welcome to the newbies, lurkers and delurkers. 😊 Best wishes, condolences and get well soons to the appropriate people. Sorry that I've still never managed to learn multiple quilting to tag in names and my memory just can't cope trying to recall everything when I fall behind. Apologies for being AWOL the past few days but real life just takes over at times.

I'm still on no household spends this year/month aside from essential direct debits as we really need to work through the freezer contents. Another load of Olio arrived and the leftovers amounted to several bags of mostly baked goods that got shared with a friend as animal feed. Aside from that I got yoghurt, custard, some cheese, potatoes and turnips plus a pack of the haggis bon bons mentioned previously. (I think @RavenRover mentioned them.) Oh! And the rather regular bananas! They arrived quite often.

Loving the free cat tips! We now seem to have 5 feral cats at Frugaldom, as another has been spotted on a trail camera. All are coming looking for food but only 3 have become tame, so far. Did you know that when the Cat Protection folks trap ferals to get them neutered, vets snip the tip off the left ear so you can tell from a distance, once released, that they're neutered? 

No pennies added to my interest beater
No pennies spent

joedenise

Thanks for that @PipneyJane.   I always soak mine overnight but have never frozen them first.  I'll give that a try next time. 

I'm organised enough to remember to soak them overnight so I'll just have to get a little bit more organised!!!

Arrietty

Morning all,

It rained yesterday so I decided not to go to do food shopping because I can live on what I have.
consequently I'm now on NSD 13!   I made up 3 rounds of sandwiches for work lunches and have about 4 slices of bread left so it will need to be in the next few days! 

I've managed this because I buy 3 or 4 loaves of bread at a time and freeze them, I also buy cravendale milk which usually has  10 days - 2 weeks date on it. It's just me at home and I eat quite simply so stuff tends to last a while.

I split my shopping between Sainsbugs and Waitrows - tend to do a larger shop once a month for tinned/storecupboard and household items at Sainsbugs which is one of the big ones with clothes and decor and an Argos and is about 5 miles away.  The Waitrows is only a mile from me so I use that inbetween trips - incredibly I tend to spend less in there because it's a smaller shop and doesn't have tempting things like candles, and rugs etc 

@FrugalFalafel - the 'Four Day Fund' is what I'm saving/being frugal  for. I want to reduce my working week to four days by the end of 2027    I will then have 7 years until I can claim pensions so I need to compensate for the reduction in earnings during those years and I worked it out to be about £15k  but I'm aiming for £20k for safety!

Gem-gem

Cat fact for the day

Cat's claws can do some damage. However, they rarely attack with their teeth.

If you are playing with a cat and they lightly bite your hand, they are just playing, and not a sign of aggression.

On the frugal front, DH and I had some very different Sunday meals using bits and pieces up. 

NSD yesterday 😀 Quiet day finishing a book. 

mumtoomany

Morning all. Hope everyone is well and warm. The snow has all gone here. Now we have rain! At least it's a little warmer.

@PipneyJane, thanks for the info on pressure cooking beans. Another question for you. Where do you get the kidney beans from, please?  Last year I tried every supermarket, nobody seemed to stock them any more. Fortunately I managed to find some in giant tins, (dented) at the cash and carry for £1 each. But these are now running out so I'll need more soon. Thanks.

@Frugaldom, that's interesting about the feral cats. We have one here, though not all the time. It appears 2 or 3 times a year. Very timid, can't even get close enough to see if it's a he or a she. OH has been leaving cat food out for it, and straw in the barn for a bed.

Off now, being shouted, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx 

PipneyJane

mumtoomany said:

Morning all. Hope everyone is well and warm. The snow has all gone here. Now we have rain! At least it's a little warmer.

@PipneyJane, thanks for the info on pressure cooking beans. Another question for you. Where do you get the kidney beans from, please?  Last year I tried every supermarket, nobody seemed to stock them any more. Fortunately I managed to find some in giant tins, (dented) at the cash and carry for £1 each. But these are now running out so I'll need more soon. Thanks.

@Frugaldom, that's interesting about the feral cats. We have one here, though not all the time. It appears 2 or 3 times a year. Very timid, can't even get close enough to see if it's a he or a she. OH has been leaving cat food out for it, and straw in the barn for a bed.

Off now, being shouted, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx 

Sainsbugs or MrT's are my sources @mumtoomany, where I buy them by the 2kg bag.  They're another thing that I've noticed is hard to get these days, but both our local ones still have them in stock.  (I can only assume due to Brexit paperwork.  Nobody wants to sell to the UK.)  Certainly, I can't find dried black-eyed beans* at a decent price in any of the supermarkets, nor cannellini beans, but I'm lucky enough to live near some large Asian supermarkets, so must schedule a pricing up and shopping trip.  (I'll wander into both, make a note of the prices, then shop in whichever is cheaper for what I want to buy.)

- Pip



* I refuse to pay £1.95 for 500g of dried black-eyed beans, when they should be <£4 for 2kg.

Penny2myName

Spend day today  of 29.78, cheese and toilet paper alone came to £11.00. Did make some savings though, used Olio for first time today so knew about some reduced goods that I needed before I got to the shop. 


1645 - Monthly £137.00
1 Jan - 2.00, 2 Jan -2.00, 3 Jan - 36.57, 5 Jan 5.23, 9 Jan - 4.19, 12 Jan 29.78

maryb

Cheese is a fearful price.  We have a Rose Waites in town and I have their loyalty card .  Every week I get vouchers for stuff I actually need - eggs, chicken milk, butter, cream and cheese .  They rotate but a voucher for £1 off a 750g block of their own brand mature cheddar comes up about every three weeks.  At full price of £5 for 750g it's actually the cheapest of the local supermarkets, even Lidl, and with £1 off it comes down to £4 so £5.33/kg.

They do tailor it to stuff you actually buy so it takes a while until the vouchers reflect that but I save quite a bit this way

Gem-gem

Spend day today on toiletries - toothbrush heads, plastic hair bands, cotton buds, nail varnish remover (I do my own nails) and cotton wool pads (only used to remove nail varnish. I made washable cotton pads to remove make up). It all came to £25!!! I used the Trolley app to get it at its cheapest price.