A question about : FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE part 3, July
FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 3, July - December 2010.
This is the follow up thread to the 'Living on Ј4,000 for a Year' challenge. It has been renamed and adapted to allow a more diverse range of budgets, depending on individual circumstances. The following links will take you to all the previous challenge threads.
Introduction to 2010 Frugal Living Challenge
Part 1 - January to March 2010
Part 2 - April to June 2010
Part 3 (The final part) July - December 2010
Part 1 - January to March 2009
Part 2 - April to June 2009
Part 3 - July to September 2009
Part 4 - October to December 2009
Part 1 - January to March 2008
Part 2 - April to June 2008
Part 3 - July to September 2008
Part 4 - October to December 2008
IMPORTANT.
Please respect others' lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support. Thank you
The challenge is about living a frugal lifestyle - establishing your true cost of living, sticking to your budget, clearing any debts and making savings wherever and however you can to enable you to live the life you really want.
Frugal living isn't for everyone, but everyone is welcome to join us. Methods employed by our merry band of frugalers include batch cooking, stockpiling, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), Vegetable & fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cashback sites and earning whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt. For some it is initially about clearing debt, for others it's about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home mums or paying off the mortgage early. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds. Above all, this is a fun and supportive way to manage your budget so you have control of your own cost of living. It's about NEEDS, not WANTS.
Living on a budget = living within our means.
Frugal = thrifty, living without waste
Ideas to help you achieve and/or maintain debt free living
Spend within your means
Set a proper budget
Houseshare
Get a lodger
Shop via cashback sites but always price compare,
Buy reduced items in stores only if you need them,
Stockpile & bulk buy
Batch cooking,
Make the most of charity shops,
Join Freecycle or other similar waste awareness and recycling associations,
LETS trading - become active members of trading & exchange groups
bartering
Grow your own herbs, fruit & veg,
Preserving & winemaking
Card & gift making
Order splitting for better discounts & shared postal costs,
Landsharing, allotments & frugal garden systems
Free scratchcards,
Matched betting,
Free online bingo,
eBid and eBay trading
etc, etc, etc...
Sample Budget
Groceries - Ј1,095.00
Toiletries - Ј40.00
Cleaning & Laundry products - Ј10.00
Heat, power & hot water - Ј1,500.00
Mobiles, Internet & telephone - Ј400
TV Licence - Ј145
Clothing & footwear Ј50
Travel Ј240
Household Insurance Ј55
Gifts & everything else - Ј465
TOTAL Ј4,000
Monitoring and revising the budget is part of frugal living plan. Gifts & cards could all to be homemade, livestock needs to pay its own keep, anything else needs to be cash neutral. If you live with debt and are serious about clearing it, there's no space in the budget for luxuries.
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HANDY LINKS:
(I am neither endorsing nor recommending any of the links provided here, members of our extended frugal community have simply found them to contain helpful information.)
Approved Food - amazing bargains if you don't mind short dates or past sell by - save a fortune whilst saving it from landfill!
BigBrandsforless - even more amazing bargains on short or just past sell by dates
Bite Card - 20% off food at train stations (ideal for regular travellers)
Budgetbrain - MSE's free to use budget analysis tool - BRILLIANT!
Carrot recipes - loads of ways to use up those carrots
CASHBACK - The official MSE list of sites offering the best cashback deals
Cheryl's FREE spreadsheet - how to download & use it free
Complete (MSE) cooking collection - Loads and loads and loads of recipes
Cookingbynumbers - using up food you have in stock, free to use
Crafting for Christmas - homemade presents
Eggs, eggs, eggs - My '100 things to do with eggs' list
Electricity & Gas savings - monitor your electricity & gas with the MoneySaving Carbon Club
Flannel Cake making - unusual gifts
Food Bargains - Discounted food, short dated and past 'BBE' dates.
Foraging & Preserving - free foods, when, where, what to do with them
Free 2010 OS MSE calendar - download and print
Free crafts ideas - how to make papier mache banks etc
Freecycle - don't bin it, rehome it.
Freegle - Originally Freecycle in UK
Gift Baskets & Hampers - an index to the MSE relevant threads
Gifts in a jar - you don't need a canner for these
Greenfingered money saving - Gardening & growing your own food
Grocery bargains - Supermarket price reduction times
Hunger Site - Charity site where every click counts
i-Measure - log your meter readings and try to reduce your carbon footprint
Laundry Gloop and loads of other frugal cleaning related 'recipes'
Leftovers - don't bin them, get creative, make another meal.
LETS - Local Exchange Trading Schemes and alternative currencies within communities
Martin's mad moneysaver ads - a surprising new addition to the site - advertising offers!
Martin's current offers & discount codes - updated daily
Menu Planning - hundreds of options and suggestions
Nutrition and diet info, an excellent thread - thanks to Weezl74
Old Style indexed collection - Indexed collection of links, hints and tips for anything old style, moneysaving and frugal.
Preparing for winter the frugal way
Recipes part 1 - thanks to Rosieben on the Grocery Challenge
Recipes part 2 - thanks, again, to Rosieben
Remoska discussion - everything you need to know about Remoska ovens
Rural Moneysaving Hunt - official MSE discussion
Selling on eBid - decluttering and recycling for cash with no listing fees
Snowman Soup - always a favourite with frugallers during the festive season
Soapnuts - The frugal, eco-friendly alternative to soap powder or detergents (free samples)
Soapnuts thread on MSE - discuss, ask questions here
Spending Diary - excellent free resource for recording your spends
Start a cottage industry - the official MSE discussion
Veg Planner - free printable vegetable planting guide/calendar from the RHS
Weezl74's 50p per person per day eating healthily thread
Weezl74's frugal recipe testing thread - Phase 1
Will Power & Billy Can - part 1, part 2, part 3
The bits we need to include to make this work 
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Please read the MSE forum rules and help us to keep this challenge on track, thank you.
If you have any questions about this challenge, feel free to PM me.
The following is taken from the official MSE forum rules section:
KEEPING THREADS ON-TOPIC
Please try not to take threads off-topic. This can be confusing for new users and makes it especially difficult for people ... Where requests from Board Guides for threads to be brought back on track have not been followed off-topic posts may be removed. We encourage community, but not thread derailment.
Please bear in mind the main purpose of the site is to save money. The forum team has therefore been instructed to prioritise its time on the MoneySaving forums.
KEEPING TOPICS RELEVANT TO THE BOARD
There are two boards provided for off-topic chat and discussion. The MoneySavers Arms has been set up for fun, more lighter-hearted chat (although do still remember this is a family forum - keep it clean please). Discussion Time is for discussion of current issues (read Martin's description).
If you post a topic that does not relate to the board it's posted on it will be moved to a more relevant MoneySaving board or to Discussion Time/The MoneySavers Arms.
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This challenge is about paying for needs so we can afford to live debt free and save for wants. It runs from 1st January to 31st December 2010. The links will give you an idea of how previous challenges have gone.
Best answers:
- Found you!
Hello everyone. Good luck for this quarter. - Good luck everyone, I'll be back to summarise progress of Frugaldom soon, just not had much time this week to keep up with this forum.
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new thread!
here's to the next 3 months - Start of the third quarter, and I fair hammered my 'anything else' category today !!
One pair of running shoes = Ј53
Then I also got a bra (with straps that detach or cross over or fit as normal, and comes with clear straps as well as bra coloured), 13 T-shirts (though 5 are primarily for under my uniform, so I'm charging them to my work expenses category), 5 pairs of shorts, a pack of 5 pairs of trainer socks, 2 capped sleeve blouses (different colours in a design I already own and love) and 2 dresses
Need to tot up the damage yet (and see if I need to transfer anything over from my 'contingency'), but the dresses were both in sales, 4 pairs of the shorts, 4 of the T-shirts and the two blouses were on '2 for' offers, and I did the Mr T clothes shopping in two 'rounds' so I could get (and use) two of their "Ј5 off a Ј25 minimum spend" vouchers (I got 9 of the T-shirts - including the ones for work - and the bra from Mr A, but everything else was from Mr T) - Hello again! Just finished my updates and I've got Ј6561 for the next 6 months, which is a Ј561 underspend so I'm happy. This month will be a bit pricier as there's 2 nights in the Lake District to pay for, but I will try and stay roughly on budget!
The garden is now starting to get really productive, lots of salad, HUGE turnips, and courgettes, so that should save on the food budget. Had the first tomatoes last weekend, there's going to be plenty more ready soon, and maybe even potatoes - anyone know when first earlies are supposed to be ready? - Hi everyone
Hooray for our new thread!
Hope everyone is well and big hugs to those who aren't.
I'm within budget so far. I've reduced my overall budget a little (needs must and all that) and I've managed to stay in the black. BUT ... on the downside, I've spent way too much money on rubbishy food/takeaways. I've been able to afford it cos I saved on other categories but I'm just not happy to waste money on it so my main goal is to reduce spending there. Also, even though I'm within budget, I really need to be saving money. So I hope I'll do better with these goals this quarter.
I thought I'd share some frugal pleasures I've had today: - Cups of mint tea made with leaves from the plant in my garden (a whoopsied dying mint plant for about 20c which flourished when replanted)
- Freezer surprise which turned out to be a veggie lasagne made ages ago from veg that needed using up. Surprisingly delicious!
- Returning unnecessary stuff to Ikea bought ages ago on a splurge (really, how many candles do I need ) and using the credit to get a steamer insert for my pots.
- Being able to donate the rest of the credit to my sister towards a new wardrobe
- Enjoying the purple flowers that have self-sown in the front garden. They're really pretty and didn't cost a penny!
- Hello,
I am hoping to have a better second half to the year, and get back on track. It wont be my Ј4000 budget as that was when it was just me, and now there is DGD too. I hope that I will be reducing my car costs this second half of the year though.
I have to confess I need to redo my budget. I have the luxury item of DGD going to Nursery and that is Ј136 a month, just for one day a week. So I have to rethink the rest. But I need the time off!. At least they give her Breakfast, Dinner and TEa on that day.
DS is no longer living at home. He only came back for about a month, but he wont stay as the cottage is in the middle of nowhere for him. He wants to be near his friends. But he was eating all the "luxuries" that I get from Dan at App F00d.!
I shall try and work on a better budget and catch up my bankstatements with my spending/on the computer. Then kick myself for letting the budget go.
I must remember to follow this thread better this time, as it will probably "shame me" into acting!.
I have had 5 no spend days this week so far, (from Saturday till today). Only spending on Tuesday. Which is the first time I have had so many in a while. Which to me is a good start. - Good morning all.
Frugaldom updates for end of June, the halfway mark, are as follows:
Groceries - Ј391.68
Toiletries - Ј14.42
Cleaning - Ј1.12
Eletricity - Ј490
Coal - Ј69
Logs - Ј120
Internet - Ј106.18
Mobile - Ј10
Landline - Ј67.61
TV - Ј145
Clothing & Footwear - Ј34.96
Gifts - Ј208
Misc - Ј189.62
Travel - Ј237.50
Insurance - Ј50
Other Stuff - Ј160
Total -Ј2,295.09
The amounts are what I have left out of each category for the year from a starting budget of Ј4,000. They'll get jubbled about to adapt to any eventuality but, on the whole, I don't intend the year to cost me any more than Ј4,000. Everything else is being paid for through what I call my 'EEK' challenge, which is a challenge to keep the 'Everything Else Kitty' topped up with enough to cover all other expenditure relating to the garden, livestock and non-household expenditure. At 30th June 2010, I was Ј130.88 in credit, so it's doing not too badly.
Sorry I'm never here to chat but time is precious when relying on home and garden for your income. Latest additions to the Frugaldom household include 'Floppity', my baby German Lop rabbit. I've uploaded piccies here. - Oh your lop rabbit is gorgeous Frugaldom! And your budget is looking great too - well done! When I see what can be done, I feel a big guilty
Today WILL be frugal I hope. If nothing else, I'm not going out so that makes it easier not to spend any money.
I got a new huge plant pot with my Ikea credit so I might sow seeds in that today.
Dinner will be leftover veggie lasagne and lunch is discount quiche.
Hope you all have a good day and hugs to anyone who'd like one! - Hello everybody
ChinaTea - Your home sounds lovely - I love it when people make a home out of 'repurposed' things, so much nicer than one thats picked out of an Argos catalogue
SF - Eeee, how exciting that you and bf are looking to rent together! Hope you enjoyed your last days of being a student and BIG well done on getting your qualification
Frugaldom - Pleased that you have finally got your woodburner, here's hoping to a lower electricity bill for you
Erme - Well done on passing ECDL module first time. My ex and his Dad were on Champix when they quit smoking and it worked very well for them (although every time they talked about it I thought they said Tampax and was most confused)
Top Drawer - ((((Hugs))). Hope things perk up and you get a new job soon x I understand how you feel, I get so agitated at myself when I make a mistake and its awful when people are not understanding about it.
Kiwisaver - So pleased to hear you enjoyed your time in the UK and that you didn't spend as much as you expected. Glad the weather was nice - I tried to arrange it specially for you
Mooloo - How lovely to hear from you, and good that you are being assessed to have DGD permanently. Hopefully you will make some progress.
Well I am back from holiday, had the most fantastic time. Wish I could go back already Had my bag searched 3 times on the way back, as the security staff could not equate the 'battery terminals' on their screen with my hair straighteners. They were most reluctant to let me through but saw sense in the end. I'm really getting the travel bug since getting my passport, if only I had the funds for it!
Speaking of funds, I have not updated my diary since June 5th Someone please give me a kicking. I've ramped my o/d back up again now, so that is not good. Garden is growing well, we had some delicious strawberries - well, Mum did as they ripened just as I left for holiday so she got to eat them all. Tomatoes, sweetcorn and beans are all doing well, although some pest is shredding the leaves on my corn - any ideas?
Apart from that there is not much going on. Sent my Student Finance form off but not heard anything back yet - do they email you or something to acknowledge receipt of the form? OH is coming over this weekend, and we are going to a local fete and a motor show (free entry) which should be nice.
Right, off to watch the Wimbledon semi and more ebayage. Have fun! - Dh has just nipped home (works 5 mins walk away) his boss has said he will have to cut hours and pay across the board to help keep the business afloat. We don't know what exactly as yet, but he wanted to let them know what is going on.
He is putting together a package for the accountant & bank to see what needs to be done including re-mortgaging his own house as well. (very small company boss plus 5 workers).
Will know more next week hopefully. - On a lighter note I've got my first batch of Elderflower Champagne brewing (used Hugh F_W recipe)
- Try not to worry too much mama until you know what's going on. these things can be a blessing in disguise sometimes altho that doesn't always stop the immediate panic. Don't forget www.entitledto.com can help you plan for a reduced change of circumstance if things get tight.
We're not tracking our budget too much at the mo (althou I'm eyeing up cheryl's spreadsheets and thinking that I really need to use it). We seem to be doing okay so far with a bit left over at the end of June - unless I've forgotten something major. Got given a pack of mature cheddar earlier in the week, and an extra book of 12 first class stamps for Royal Mail surveys, sure there was a third good thing but can't remember. Have a loverly weekend one and all. - hey,
I feel rotten, i'm not even sure why but I just feel awful. I've been at work today and felt truly irritated everytime anyone did anything so I was just trying to keep out of the way and get on with doing something, anything so that at least I haven't done nothing.
I've had to put another appeal in for uni to ask for them to reconsider, I'm not holding my breath but really hoping that it will be ok. There was nothing jobs wise in the paper yesterday so nothing there. I've thought a lot about the breadmaker and am not sure whether to go for a cheap one or look into it properly and go for the cheapest of the best make (seems like good advice from the old style board). Who is the best make in breadmakers? The one Morphy Rich's was offering at Ј49 down from Ј129 doesnt look good, apparently the fancy lift up kneading blade gets stuck in the bread!. Are they all basically the same now do you think?
Jen - Hi all
just dropping in from lurkdom to update finances and let you all know I'm still here !
Have updated sig, and keeping on track (so far). Having a nightmare of a time with benefits agencies mucking me about. Now have to go for a medical with ATOS/ESA on Thursday so not looking forward to that. Any good wishes gratefully received !
Dunno if this will help anyone, but LIIdl supermarket's new brochure says from 1st July they are selling electric mincer/sausage makers at Ј34.99. I know some of you were thinking about making your own HTH.
Hugs to all - Heya everyone.
Well as it stands we have spent 36.6% of our budget (Ј1,830.53) which looks very good as we are half way through the year now .
We do still have my partners bike insurance to come out which we have a budget of Ј600 for (this was the cheapest we could get last time as his last bike got stolen but we are hoping for it to come down) which is 12% of the years budget. We plan to pay this off in one go when it comes along as we should have the money to do so. We will be looking around for the cheapest quote when it comes to re-new the insurance but my partner does this every year anyway.
We have been careful with our elctricity so the bill wan't as much as we had budgeted for.
We have been careful with our gas usage and haven't spent as much on our PP meter than we thought we would. However we have been putting most of the budget money on now in anticipation of a cold winter. Also if it snows or becomes icy going to where we top it up could be very difficult so it will be good to have the extra on it incase as the emergancy balance on it isn't a lot.
We have been careful with our water usage (we are on a meter) and have come in under the budget for that so that has helped us.
Unfortunatly we are over half our budget for pet costs (vets lol) as our rat had another operation the other day that cost us quite a bit (my face looked like this ). She is however very active for a rat with one eye that isn't far off 2 and a half years old .
We want to take the chinchillas we rescused a about a month ago to the vets just for a check up - as they have never been to a vets in their 3 years alive - and so the vet knows them. I know it's probably not the right place to ask (the pet board would be better I know but I'll go out on a limb here to) but does anyone know what a vet usually charges to do a check up on two chinchillas? - Nice to see a few of you still here going into the third quarter of 2010.
Breadmakers - I haven't bought a loaf since getting mine and it's a Morphy Richards. The folding blade does sometimes get stuck in the loaf but aesthetics and bread aren't an issue in our household. I think, however, I might prefer it if the loaves were loaf shaped instead of tall; that would be my only criticism, as I end up cutting the top off mine and eating it like a roll!
Vets & pets - vets can charge whatever they like, there's no governing body overseeing their fees, so I'd phone and ask first, then make sure they don't talk you into all sorts of preventative stuff. I used to breed chinchillas and had no problems with them at all. As a vet nurse, main problems I saw at work were ignorant owners feeding rabbit or guinea pig food instead of chinchilla pellets and not providing proper sand for their pets. You'd also be amazed at how many people assumed they could keep these furry little critturs outside in all weathers without knowing they couldn't survive the wet conditions.
Budget doing fine here but just discovered the But|in$ free scratchcards have been reduced to one a day - no second freebie on Sundays anymore, by looks of things.
The guy never appeared to install my logburner and I haven't heard from him, so have no idea when it'll get fitted. It won't be today, that's for sure, as the weather wouldn't permit anyone to go anywhere near a roof to fit a chimney liner - it's horrible out there at the moment. Guess the grass & garden does need watering, though.
Got eggs due to hatch today or tomorrow, still keeping very busy here and still need to get my elderflower champagne started. I have the rhubarb one bottled and it's already started to fizz.
Good luck with your medical, Pagangirl. - re Breadmakers
I tend to like get it cheap from Mr. S about 7.30pm. I enjoy hunting for the bargains...
Sleep kerfunked again (story of my life - sorry to be such a bore)....Up at 2/3am till 6.30am so no kirk and it's blowing a gale and like I'm chesty .
Well asides from the washing machine all is good here. I don't know about my 6 monthly thing (don't think that's for me till the end of the month) but like my main whoopsie was the first month. Now it's settling down to about Ј450 a month (excluding debt, rent, CT and tithe).
Current aims =
Elec = 78 every 4 weeks
Broadband = 10 a month
Landline phone = 30 a month (can't get down as started new contract just before FL)
Mobile = 30 (pre cashback)
Food and cigs (smoking a lot) = 180 a month
Insurance = 5 a month
Laundry (to pay 'off' the washing machine) = Ј10 a month
total = Ј363 a month (plus debt = Ј250 and like tithe = 85 a month)
Save/necessary extras = Ј162 every 4 weeks (if I stick to budget)
Expected reality = Monthly spend = Ј450 + 250+ 85 =785 = save Ј100
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