2026 Frugal Living Challenge

ET22

@Nelliegrace , yes thats what i need , thankyou! Which shop is it from?

Nelliegrace

TK Maxx, @ET22, I looked online, they deliver to your local store. I remember seeing it in two sizes.

ET22

great thankyou 😊! x

ET22

@Nelliegrace ,just ordered 2 to be delivered to the local store. Didn't even know TK Maxx did that. Handy to know x

Quantaqa

@Prudent, thank you for the YT recommendation 😊.

I haven't posted in ages as it's been an exceptionally busy few months and expensive. We had to have new gutters put up (I knew this was coming) and a new roof put on the house as well as a new front door. Thankfully because I've been following MSE for a while I had savings to cover this but it's left a big gap in our savings. I start a new job in a couple of weeks and DH is putting in some overtime as we aim to build our savings back up.

I've been running our freezer down and it's almost ready to be defrosted so I'll get that job done on Sunday. Then we'll look to restock. We'll stock up on butter from Farmfoods as we have discovered it freezes really well and it's a great price. We'll also do meat, frozen fruit and veg and other bits. I like to have the freezer well stocked over winter and I'll do it gradually over the next few months.

Inspired by various You Tube videos I have started a 'Project Pan' with skincare, hair care and other toiletries. This isn't because I have a huge stash of things but because I can be bad for letting items sit unused for ages rather than using them up. I have been doing this for the past month or so and I have found this has led to a mindset shift in me in making sure I use up every last bit of things from toothpaste to stationery like notebooks and paper. This will form part of an overall strategy as we try to rebuild savings in making sure I use what I have before buying anything new.

I'll continue to use frugal strategies like cooking/baking from scratch, taking lunches into work, keeping the heating off until the end of September if I can and I'll look to pick up new strategies as I go, there is always room for improvement.

Quantaqa

Good morning All, I picked up two library books this morning so I plan some time this afternoon making a start on one of them. They are both easy summer reads, the one I'll read first is 'Meet me at the Seaside Cottages' by Jenny Colgan.

It's the end of my first month of 'Project Pan' and for July I've fully used up 7 items. Three of these were samples I had been given from Highland Soap Co which I usually bad at using. I also completely finished a Journal I'd had on the go for about a year and various other bits.

Dinner today will be HM Pizza and if I have time I might bake some fruit scones. I have some HM jam that would go very nicely with them.

I'm just about to put a washing on so I am hoping the weather holds and I can get it put out onto the line.

MrsCD

I need to use up lots of things before I buy any more, so I might join in with Project Pan ( please could someone tell me what this stands for?!) if that's ok?

I've got that Jenny Colgan (autocorrect changes this to volcano!) book to read too!

annieb64

Project plan sounds like a good idea.I need to run down our freezer to make room for fruit and veg.Daughter is going on holiday and I am being given the keys to her allotment with permission to pick any ripe fruit!

PipneyJane

@ET22 soap dishes are one of those hard-to-find essentials, that you’d expect everywhere to stock but nobody does. I bought this one in Dunelm recently for £1.25. Sometimes, you have to spend up-front to save in the long run.

FWiW, I decant my shampoo and hair conditioner into (re-used) pump-action soap dispensers. No mess and a controlled quantity dispensed. Now that I have short hair, I use one squirt of each, when it was waist-length, I used 3. One £1-ish 500ml bottle of shampoo last me 4-5 months. Hair conditioner lasts even longer, because I water it down (2/3 conditioner to 1/3 water). I wash my hair every day.

@Quantaqa more details, please, about this project. I’ve not heard of it but, like you, I am on a program to use up the stockpile of soaps which have built up, having been collected from various hotels. (They get binned by the hotel staff, if not taken.)

• Pip

Quantaqa

Morning All, I think the 'Project Pan' phase is probably an American phrase where people who are using up a stash of make up are trying to use up the product until they 'hit pan' and have a fully clean pan at the bottom of the product. There is loads of You tube videos on this with people taking a different approach as it applies to the things they want to use up. For me it is toiletries and skincare as I don't use make up. I have a bad habit of buying things when I see a great offer and that has created quite the backlog of products that I'm not using and not getting to, or I use them for a bit and leave them part used as I move onto something else.

For the first month (July) I made a list of the things I wanted to use up. Some of them were half used already and some were samples. I didn't use up everything on the list as some items will take longer to use up so I've rolled them over into August and will roll them over into each month until they are used up. PipneyJane, I too have a selection of soaps taken from hotels and other holiday accommodation to use up.

I won't start a new product of that type until I've finished the one I am currently working on. For some people this will be just how they normally do things but for me it's what I'm aiming for. After a few weeks of working in this, as I said above, I could feel a mindset change in how I viewed using up every product before buying more, not just toiletries and skincare which I think long term will have a positive effect on my spending and the amount of products I am storing.

Anyone who wants to join me doing this is very welcome 🙂.