2019 Frugal Living Challenge

Flossygrows · 21 January 2019 at 5:16PM

It's been a good week for me as I was still recovering from a bad cold and chesty cough so didn't get out much at all so lots of no spend days! We made a good start to the weekend with having dinner before we went out to our usual choir session. It usually turns into Friday night chippy tea after choir but as we had eaten already we saved ourselves a good £10-15. Need to try and do this every week as it makes quite a big saving cutting out that takeaway!

Quiet day on Saturday so I put lots of stuff on Ebay including my daughters ski's and ski boots. Put them on at 'Buy it Now' as get despondent when things self for next to nothing. Anyway - both sold the same day so chuffed to bits and £70 better off.

Sunday we went to the shops as had some stuff to return after Christmas (yes we left it quite late). OH had bought me some gym leggings from an expensive sports shop. They were too small and not quite what I wanted so money back and 2 gym tops and a pair of jogging bottoms in return at a cheaper sport outlet! My OH wanted to look at shoes in Clarks and I thought worth a quick look at the sale for DD. Thought better get her feet measured as not had them done since September for school shoes and she has gone up a whole size! Was in shock that she had grown so fast (age 8 so feet had slowed down a bit - or so I thought!) Managed to get her some trainers in the sale for £10 and they did have some school shoes showing on their system for £8 but a search of the stock was unsuccessful so we will visit the outlet of said store next weekend to replace school shoes (as I did check this morning and poor little ones toes are right at the end!).

Founds apples in garage someone had given us before Christmas so apple crumble cooked and enough there for two nights pudding.

So a few spends but necessary. Very pleased with my Ebaying and a few more things sold on Sunday night so 5 parcels to be posted so money in Paypal and less clutter in my house!

Just on Lush shampoo bars - we use 'Honey I washed my hair'. I have mid length long curly hair that I wash most days and OH washed every day. We have found this the best one so far and it does last us well. I read that each bar is the equivalent of 3 bottles of of shampoo so although they are expensive I think they are good value for money.

PipneyJane · 21 January 2019 at 5:22PM

Hi Everyone.

This morning's mention of Blue Monday on BBC Breakfast reminded me that we must have hit "National No Pay Day" too, i.e., the day when almost everyone who was paid December's salary before Christmas runs out of cash and has nearly 2 weeks to wait before Pay Day. If that's you this year, and you're struggling, I though you might want a virtual hug.

((((((((((((( Hug )))))))))))))))

I remember those days well, struggling to get to the end of January and then paying all the bills that I'd delayed paying and discovering I didn't have enough for February either. Oh, and I was married to a leach at the time, who never contributed a penny towards the household expenses if he could spend it on himself first.

I don't have a great "seeing the light" moment to share about how I broke that cycle (beyond divorcing the leach). The short answer is that I found a job at a great company where the founder had insisted that everyone had a contractual 1% "Christmas bonus" paid at the end of November, plus he paid Payroll extra to come in during the Christmas shutdown to process the payroll for 31st December. ("Old Bill" had been dead nearly 10 years when I joined, but his influence lived on. More than one person quoted him to me saying "Christmas is expensive" as his reason for the contractual Christmas bonus.) When I changed jobs to somewhere more typical that paid before Christmas, I decided to quarantine my December salary, transferring it out of my account on payday and back in on December 31st.

Quarantine is probably the best tool I can offer you. It's a cross between budgeting and mindset. On payday, everything gets transferred out of my account, leaving me only my "money to live off" for the month. All the household bills money gets transferred to the joint account; money set aside for car repairs, insurance, tyres, etc, to a "car" account; holiday money goes to the "Running Away Fund"; my small "Sanity Fund" for crafts/books/clothes transferred to its own account. Housekeeping money gets taken out as cash. When I had credit card debt, the payment was scheduled for that day. The rule is that I can't raid any of those accounts for anything except for their designated purpose - that's quarantine.

The money left in my account after the transfers on payday is mine to spend on whatever I want but I have to make it last the month (or beyond). The other rule is that, if I use my credit card for any purpose, I pay it off immediately, usually within a couple of minutes. As well as avoiding a credit card balance building up, this means my hip-pocket-nerve/bank account will feel the pain of the purchase immediately. It helps rain in my spending enormously.

- Pip

PS: Since I haven't seen any links to them, I thought I'd link to the original Sneaky Ways to Save the Pennies thread and it's replacement Lots More Sneaky Ways to Save the Pennies. They're very useful.

teedy23 · 21 January 2019 at 6:11PM

Hi Folks I'd like to join in. I have a full rewire required in the house and my roof really needs looking at, so will need all the frugality I can stand. I got off to a cracking start the other day in Asdas reduced section. A load of stuff reduced to 10p, I managed to bag 3 fresh chickens, a 1000grm pack of mince, 24 fresh meatballs, 2X 6 beef sausages, a lasagne for 1, a cottage pie serves two and pate. Total bill £1. I have separated most of it out and frozen it, I have made a sizeable pot of chilli, pot of bolognese, and a pot of mince . I made one of the chickens on Sunday and have more than half left, tomorrow I will have pasta chicken and pesto for my dinner. I've been using the sausages for breakfasts and frozen the rest. So that's the main courses taken care of for a while. I dont need any more clothes but that doesnt usually stop me, so reign that in. I do like to take care of myself but make good use of the local college, way cheaper than salons for massages but will make more use of the hairdressers there. I wont be buying any more creams lotions and potions, as I have plenty. Lets see how I get on.

Kaylataste · 21 January 2019 at 11:22PM

pip thanks for those links,will have a good look through when I’m off on Thursday.teedy what an amazing haul!!

gien · 21 January 2019 at 11:29PM

Finished my first day in a new, higher grade, job. It went well and looking forward to really getting to know the ins and outs.
I popped into the supermarket for a cauliflower and bagged some reduced meat, meaning we should be all done now until payday next Thursday (Good job because we are skint). I'm very much looking forwardvto February!

datlex · 22 January 2019 at 7:46AM

No blue Monday for me. Being paid weekly means I never have that issue.

sinkorswim2018 · 22 January 2019 at 5:36PM

Any talktalk tv customers? They are trying to introduce a £4 monthly fee for there tv box which has 'new benefits and even more award winning tv'. You can cancel and still use it as a free view box as I have just done. Sneaky way of trying to force an upgrade I think.

sparcinka · 22 January 2019 at 6:47PM

Hi, I've been lurking for a while. I don't really like posting so unless I have something important to say I'm gonna stay quiet for the rest of the year

Anyway, shampoo bars (and shampoo in general). Remember two things - one, you don't need more than a penny size of liquid shampoo/tiny amout of bar on your hands to wash your hair properly. Two - length of hair should have nothing to do with how much/how quick you use up your shampoo, as you're supposed to wash only the scalp, NOT the whole legth of your hair! Washing the length is the quickest way to dry, frizzy hair.

I might be a little haircair obsessed

We have the green bar from Lush - two adults, one kid and had my parents over for two weeks in december who used it as well. We all wash our hair about 3-4 times a week. We bought this bar at the end of August and there's still half of it left.

Kerry_Woman · 22 January 2019 at 7:41PM

I find that Lush shampoo and conditioner bars last me quite a while.

Have to be really careful with spending as I am now using my savings. This will be the case until I move location. Do not think I will be getting a lot more temp work from the agency I am working for. The carpet/lino is meant to done this Friday. I still have to pay the person who is laying the carpet/lino on Friday. For my holiday I have paid for 2 extra excursions. So the only things that I have to sort out is spending money(have to pay for the food/drinks) and getting a plug adapter. Am not planning to get too many souvenirs if not any.

BrownHare · 22 January 2019 at 7:45PM

Pip, I do similar with my early December pay. I don't move it to another account but I don't touch it until my official pay date. I find it amazing that my colleagues get excited by the early pay and are desperate to spend it.

I decided to try and extend this (starting this month), my direct debits and bills will be paid immediately but I plan to hold spending my months budget as long as possible. I expect to manage only a few days at first but it'd be fab to have a months worth of money to spend in two weeks.

I'm still doing well decluttering and keeping in budget, hopefully my savings will increase if I carry on.

What I'm struggling with is over eating snacky foods (what I already have in the cupboards) and I had a takeaway last night (first in over a month and within budget - but still....). Also struggling to keep up the motivation to take lunch to work, I don't like making sandwiches the night before and am too rushed in the mornings. Today I didn't buy lunch but I only ate a cereal bar, not good!

2019 Frugal Living Challenge

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