2026 Frugal Living Challenge

RateTartExtraordinaire

@startin_again sometimes you have to spend money to save money. I feel your pain though - paying for air just doesn't feel right.

Prepare for a rant! I guess all the profit the petrol companies are making from customers doesn't pay enough for a free air 🙄Plus, how annoying is it when you drive all the way there to find it is out of order or a petrol tanker is blocking access to the machine. Rant over.

Once they started to charge at my local petrol stations in 2022, I decided to investment in a tyre inflator (cost £39.99 from a Hal fords at the time). It has more than paid for itself and is still going. It is more convenient, too. :) If you check your tyres regularly, it is a clear winner on a frugal-front. It needs to be charged every few months for a few hours but it doesn't use that much energy.

As for spreadsheet and devices, I like a laptop. You can buy a cheap laptop. Advise not to get a Chrome book, my partner says you can't really upgrade them - they become e-waste very quickly.

Are you Apple or Android on your phone? If you are using Apple, then Apple's iworks might be the one for you. A new laptop might come with a pre-installed version is a limited-time trial of the subscription-based Microsoft 365, but then you have to pay. If you use the web version it is free, but then can't access it offline.

If you are not going to need much storage then G00gle workspace would do and use G00gle sheets.

I have android on my phone and have Windows on a laptop. I now have lots of sheets on one budgeting Excel spreadsheet which are for multiple aspects of budgeting.

I'm constantly learning and changing things. My partner keeps telling me that my formulas are inefficient and I should be standardising them…I'm self-taught, so I'm by no means an expert in these matters.

I have a subscription to Micro soft office which my partner and I pay for jointly and we have been discussing changing to free software versions, such as Office Libre. If I were starting from scratch I would be tempted to go for Office Libre on a laptop with a subscription to One_drive for the 1TB of online storage.

Most of my old resources from work that I still use could be converted to Office Libre versions with a few tweaks, but I literally have thousands of resources.

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018284#Comment_82018284

Oohhh….. Clever! I’ll have to try this. Thanks for the idea @moginstein .

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82017905#Comment_82017905

@startin_again what type of phone do you have? Is it Apple or Android based? Both come with spreadsheet options. While I use Excel on my laptop and iPad, I do my Grocery Challenge accounting using Apple’s “Numbers” spreadsheet program. It’s more clunky than using Excel, but it means that I don’t have to download Excel to my phone, and I can update tracking my spending as I go.

(FWIW, the MS Office subscription we have cost about £100/year. It covers 5 users and each user gets 1TB of cloud storage, all MS Office programs, and can install those programs on 5 devices each.)

HTH

Who mentioned paying £2 to pump up their car’s tyres? We have a pump that you power by plugging it into the car’s cigarette lighter. Bought it from Halfords during the Pandemic. Cost less than £40 and has repaid that spend multiple times over.

• Pip

dND

May I please re-join the challenge @Frugaldom? I need to rein in my spending after a series of unplanned large purchases and spending on my garden.

I've had to get a replacement pressure washer, (K4rcher died after 25 months), and vacuum cleaner and my car tax came through along with passport replacement etc. Oh and an unexpected, but very welcome, purchase of an Ercol sofa from the local charity shop - I've been sitting on dining room chairs for the last few years. All monthly bills went up about 10% too. 😱

I will hold my hand up to a large L1dl shop - buying the vacuum cleaner there took my monthly spend over the threshold for a 10% discount on my next shop so I am at Covid level stockpiling of loo roll, mouthwash and other non-perishables. 🤣

Apart from that it's the garden soaking up money; I've spent so much on bags of compost, (from L1dl), to fill and top up the raised beds along with lawn edging to finish off the reworked border in the front garden. Generally I look at the garden as a spend to save, (or at least increase house value), and after the devastation out there left by the builders a couple of years ago, I really needed to see it improve.

I was able to get a fruit heavy veg box at L1dl today 😁so no further fruit required this week. My very young strawberry plants are beginning to produce a few berries and I was pleased to see the raspberries and blackberries in good flower as well. I also saw that I'd got a free fruit coupon from L1dl appear in my app - I think the new app is not as good as the old one for freebies and they are having to entice us back in the shop. Anyhow, I managed to find and get as my freebie 500g of blueberries so I'm a happy bunny.

Apart from eggs and battered fish for my weekly fish and chip supper I found some YS items. 2 packs of veg samosas and 2 blocks of mozzarella cheese which will be used for when my DS2 and DDiL come to visit from America. When my son came last year it turned out he'd become vegetarian. This year I'll be prepared. 😁 Dxx

Frugaldom

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018046#Comment_82018046

We used to have a few male participants whose wives were also in this group but the 3 I can think of all moved to Dumfries & Galloway and no longer post. I'm sure area and work/life balance have a lot to do with it. In general, those who combat adverse spending habits and then pursue a more frugal lifestyle (or even just a more conscientious approach to spending, life and work) tend not to engage much online. Forums are, in my experience, female orientated. Our social media groups are the same .. the men only interact when the topics cross into their work or pastime, it's never about household budgeting, helping at home, sharing childcare or organising anything. Guys, don't take offence if you're reading this, just make your presence known. 🤣

Frugaldom

WELCOME TO MONTH 6

Edited to month 6, sorry 😳😄

June has arrived and we are now 5/12 of the way through our 2026 frugal living challenge. Nowadays, my own frugal adventures are more about keeping tabs on the food shopping bills, trying not to freak out at the cost of seasoned logs and keeping the bills under control. Despite my best efforts, while factoring in the likes of Olio, my general food shopping costs have increased greatly. Originally, I could happily manage on less than £15 per week for two of us but that has now escalated to £25. I can't even say it's just down to food prices, it's more to do with spending so much time away from the kitchen that I have lapsed into making unnecessary purchases, like micro rice, jar sauces, cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks and ice cream. I no longer batch cook or make everything from scratch. All our old favourite sources of bargains have gone and the supermarket loss leaders are slowly vanishing. I'm also paying delivery charges so my figures include this and some pet food. On the plus side, I've hardly spent on petrol as I seldom go anywhere. However, I do still have my car that I'd considered selling and I still haven't used my bus pass. I made cheese & apple coleslaw... That's frugal. 🤣

Bank was in contact asking if I'd lost my debit card as it hadn't been used in a while. 😄 (I prefer my few pounds cashback via credit card, thank you.)

Regular saver is ending this month so I'll need to look around and see what the best deal is. I can't imagine BoS still offering 5.5% for a third year. I don't earn enough to qualify for a high interest account and locking away money for the sake of 3% seems a bit daft to me when talking such small sums. I guess the Premium Bonds could be getting a bit of a top-up. Checked online so I know I'm not a millionaire yet. 🤣

Frugaldom

Welcome back @dND

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018884#Comment_82018884

nationwide and Halifax have a good reg saver account

joedenise

As do First Direct (7%) and Santander (5%).

Arrietty

Good morning Frugallers,

I've not posted much recently as a) I've been a bit bogged down with various household and car things that have needed far more time and money than I wanted to give and b) these things mean I've not been very frugal of late 😔

My car is in the garage and will cost a four figure sum to repair. Consequently, I'm currently in a hire car which is costing a three figure sum. Thankfully, I've been able to cover these costs by withdrawing some of my Premium Bonds.

I have 4 family birthdays at the end of this month and I also have a decorator booked for the end of the month to do the whole place from top to bottom. I've saved up for this and it's made me realise I probably need to set up a fund to pay for things like this and one - off garden trims in the future.

My ED's wedding is the beginning of August and that necessitates a stay in a hotel for 2 nights (3 figure sum) so I'll be counting that as my summer holiday 😄

Hopefully, come September, I'll be back on an even keel financially and if this lovely rain continues to show up now and then throughout the summer, it should save me a fortune in hay and feed!

I'm still saving each month and scooping untidy pennies and pounds into my savings fund but admit that the monthly budgeting account has rather fallen by the wayside.

Nelliegrace

A small saving, natural crystal deodorant 25% off at Amz, and a further 5% off for 4. The plastic free 75g crystal block was £3.65 instead of the rrp £5.19.

Subscribe and Save was cheaper at £3.50 but is more deliveries.