2026 Frugal Living Challenge

Mamma2004

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81927394#Comment_81927394

Thanks for the badge 🤩

Welcome back @Prudent and @Quantaqa

fionaandphil

Welcome back! Spring is a great time for a refresh and restart.

We are noticing price rises with food and are therefore trying to use up items in the freezer. We are just about to finish the Christmas veg - still got a few kg of potatoes left and a few carrots. Easter veg due out soon and I believe it will be 15p for a variety of items. Not as easy to keep once the weather warms up though.

We were lucky to have ordered some oil in January so have enough to last until summer. This may affect us longer term though so I'm going to try and put aside some extra just in case.

I planted some seeds today and hopefully this will save on food costs over the summer. Seeds were all from last year or gifted so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will take.

t14cy_t

ive started up going to the local food pantry from today. havent been for over 2 years due to cancer and other health issues. this is a single membership for £4.50 a week.

this includes the two large glasses!! happy days.

Finstickle

I feel like I have had a spendy week this week although nothing wasteful, much more socialising than normal and with mother's day there was a present and out for coffee and cake - although both my mum and I got free coffee for mother's day.

I also went to a poetry gig yesterday which I had bought tickets for ages ago and my friend got the parking and a drink for me driving so a fun night out with no spends.

I am away at the weekend but staying in the wilds and hiking etc with food already sorted so extra money for fuel but I am bringing my very old slightly too tight waterproof trousers with me and will make them work. I'm in the process of shrinking so to buy new ones would be very wasteful.

Quantaqa

Thank you for the welcome back. @Prudent lovely to 'see' you.

Inventories done of the freezer, pantry and fridge. Food plan done and we have enough food to see us to DHs pay day and beyond.

Later on today I am going to visit my local community fridge to see what they have.

It's a glorious day today. I had my first clothing wash hung out on the line to dry yesterday and today I have towels out drying in the sun. I love this time of year. The daffodils are out in the local displays and I love seeing them as I go past. The ones in my garden aren't out yet but it won't be long. The blossom has appeared on some of the trees, mostly white, with some pink blossom on it's way.

Next month's budget finalised today as well.

Prudent

Thank you @Quantaqa and @Mamma2004.

I have enjoyed the sunshine today too. I washed some bedding and pruned some shrubs in the garden. My wee pond needs a tidy up and clean so that will be a job for tomorrow.

I had a new wardrobe built in on Tuesday and it was good to be able to air the house as it felt quite dusty, even after a clean yesterday. I have lined the bottom of the shelves with a pretty roll of wall paper that I got for £1 from B&Q. I hope it will keep them clean. I have ordered some removeable Bostik glue dots to hold it down as Google told me that they wouldn't leave marks. I think I will do a wee test patch first though. The wardrobe was quite a big cost consideration. I repainted and re- carpeted the bedroom last year. I bought second hand chest of drawers, dressing table and bedside table and painted them. My house is small and lacks storage and I just couldn't find a wardrobe that would make good use of the limited space. So eventually I decided to ask a joiner to build a wardrobe to fit the space. I am really pleased with the result. I have been without a wardrobe since November and it is lovely to now have somewhere to put my clothes. I am going to make the best of the good weather for gardening, but when the rain returns I will go up to the loft and bring my clothes back down after months of them being in plastic storage boxes.

Frugaldom

Good evening, glad to see so many here posting and also glad that I'm not the only one noticing yet more food price increases. It's now impossible for me to do the £1 per person per day for all meals, even with Olio. Meat prices are astronomical to me, but I think it's possibly because our income is so low. I forget how far things have come since regular earnings dwindled during the pandemic, never to return. I did find spaghetti at 28p per pack so based on that plus the cooking bacon, mince, cheese and chicken drumsticks, there's still scope for healthy meals on a budget.

Mamma2004

I notice Waitrose have some really good and wide-ranging offers on dairy until 14th April.

Includes butters, spreads (Flora, Lurpak), lots of cheeses, yoghurt, kefir and juices.

I haven't checked prices against other supermarkets but I thought I'd share in case it's useful to someone:

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/browse/offers/fresh_and_chilled_offers?categoryId=301134

mandy47

I noticed the supermarkets have their easter offers on meat. I only buy meat on offer or YS. So the weekend will be a freezer tidy and stock take and I'll fill it up next week.

I have a £10 voucher that will be used to soften the blow. Plus I worked 12 hours overtime last month and I was paid today. What's left will go into savings/retirement fund.

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81930280#Comment_81930280

No, you aren’t the only one noticing price increases @Frugaldom. I am very impressed at your £1/person/day budgetting. For how long did you manage to maintain it?

Even the price of dried beans has gone up considerably, When I wrote this post in November 2023, our regular Grocery Challenge budget was £140/month and had been for nearly 4 years. In May 2024, we were forced to increase it to £160; less than 15 months later, we had to increase it to £180! (With the war in the Middle East, I’m half expecting to have to put our budget up to £200 before the end of the year. Grrr…)

I find the cheapest meat of all is L!dl’s cooking bacon at £1.99 for a 1kg pack. We’re usually fairly lucky to find a packet with big lumps of bacon and not a lot of fat, quite often getting one full of thick medallions of bacon (which are perfect if you’re substituting it for gammon in a recipe).

< rant alert >

As everyone here is aware, the primary ingredient for eating well on a tight budget is planning. Cooking from scratch takes longer than opening a packet of pot noodle, so you have to schedule that into your day. I am constantly annoyed at the assumption made by the press that you can’t buy healthy, cheap food. What’s cheaper than an onion, a couple of carrots and a bag of split red lentils? Half an hour’s preparation and cooking time, and you’ve got carrot and lentil soup. Or throw in garlic and some spices, decrease the cooking liquid and you’ve got dhal.

I’m also gobsmacked at the “don’t waste food” ads that tell us the average family wastes £80 of food every month! How??? Again, it’s lack of planning.

• Pip (OK, I’ll put the soap box away)