Frugaldom: budgets

Frugaldom is a voluntarily run recreational project. It is home to an abundance of wildlife, ponies, goats and feral cats. Set in rural southwest Scotland, we have dark skies and views of the Galloway Hills. We promote frugal living, recycling, sustainability and nature conservation. The site offers park-up for self-sufficient campervans & motorhomes (max 7.5m), off-grid hutting and wildlife watching opportunities. Open all year. You can join Friends of Frugaldom to help support the project.

Showing posts with label budgets. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 February 2023

There's a Whole New Generation of Frugal Living Folks

The Frugal Bank

Hello to my frugal friends, family and fellow money savers. It's been a while since we discussed household finances - too long, in fact! It's now come to my attention that I've been living this frugal lifestyule for so long that I've forgotten that an entirely new generation has joined us, many of whom haven't, yet, discovered the joys of frugaldom. But what, exactly, do I mean by 'frugaldom'? Read on and find out for yourselves.

What is a Budget?

A budget is probably the most important thing you can have, as far as your finances are concerned,. It is your budget that dictates the lifestyle you can comfortably afford to lead. It's as simple as looking at the overall amount of money you have coming into your household and deducting all of the regular payments you have going out - everything from your rent or mortgage to repaying debts, paying household bills, food shopping, holidays and everything in between. If you add up all your out-goings (be brutally honest with yourself about this) and deduct them from your overall income, whatever is left is what you can realistically afford to save or overpay any debts to clear those off first. If your regular out-goings are higher than your regular income, then the bank of you is broken and needs some emergency repairs. It doesn't matter if you have savings in the bank - if you are eating into those just to live from day to day, rather than for emergencies, then you need to stem the flow of cash and balance your books.

What to do if your bank is broken

Stop spending immediately
Prioritise - essential household bills and debt repayments need paying first
Make a list because lists are very versatile and help you focus
Needs not wants - you need food and water to survive so think survival! You don't need tobacco, alcohol, cosmetics, expensive toiletries, 1,000 TV channels, takeaway mealsm big brand names or the latest gadgets.
Reassess your budget in a more meaningful way - keep a spending diary and record every penny spent. Your role has now become that of accountant and manager of your own home, no matter what form your home takes.
You need to count in all costs - from the cost of living to the cost of working - have you ever counted up how much your job is costing you? Are you wasting money on travel, coffee breaks, lunches etc?
Look at ways of generating some emergency income - extra work, sell stuff you no longer need, decluttering your space can declutter your mind.
Analyse your overall debt total to start chipping away at that, paying whatever is commanding the highest interest rate first.
Become a frugalista in the kitchen and adopt a zero tolerance for waste. Believe it or not, it is still possible to live on an average of £1 per day for all your meals, based on £365 per person over the year. I'm not saying that it is easy and you may need to find your nearest food bank, community larder and Olio food hero, plus find a friend prepared to share so you can take better advantage of offers - it can be done.
Learn to make and love porridge, soups, stir fries, stews, curries and strange concoctions of leftovers.

How can I save money?

Get creative. Consider what you do as your daily and nightly routines: how much fuel, electricity or gas are you using, how often do you socialise, how far do you travel, what paid hobbies do you enjoy, do you buy takeaway food... the list is endless. Pay attention to how you feel and why you feel that way about giving up anything that is eating into your funds. Think of alternatives: do you like art, writing, blogging, reading, walking, cycling, crafting, gardening... anything that can get you through the toughest of times without costing you money. Keep warm with wool or fleece and a hot water bottle but keep your home aired to prevent condensation and dampness. When you boil water, fill a flask with any extra to use later. Cook from scratch, search this blog for simple soup recipes and challenge yourself to create magic meals from leftovers, free food or home grown fruit and vegetables. There are so many ways to save money so I hope you will spend some time reading past posts while I do my utmost to bring this blog up to date. I can only apologise for drifting but it's been full on chaos trying to keep up with everything since the Covid-Brexit combination saw off our Frugaldom volunteer exchange students and lost us previously agreed foster homes for rescue animals that still remain in our care.

Find some like-minded friends who understand your financial situation by joining us online - just look for @Frugaldom on social media or search for '2023 Frugal Living Challenge' in the Moneysavingexpert.com forums. Together, we can fix this.

Find your frugal living mojo and life may never be the same again.

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Stay financially strong throughout 2016

So, did you enter January full of good intentions to eat less, exercise more and cut back on non-essentials? If the answer’s ‘Yes’ and you’ve been holding out for the month to end, hang on in there!

Just because the month is over, your salary’s been paid and you’ve recovered from Christmas’ financial hangover, it doesn’t mean you should revert to your old ways. Making a few simple cutbacks can keep your finances fighting fit throughout the year.

Still not motivated? What about that holiday in the sun you fancy, or that new car you’d love to drive about in? Asking yourself what you can afford to live without and sticking to a budget comes with financial rewards.

Our ten top budget tips will help you strengthen your finances. Take a look at the Money Masterclass and fun interactive quiz to see how a few daily cost-cutting measures will fatten your piggy bank: Fix Your Finances - What are your money-saving tips?

Our Facebook competition is designed to find Britain’s savviest saver - FreedomFinance on Facebook - so share your ideas to encourage others to stick to a healthy budget.

As your piggy bank gets fatter the financial outlook for 2016 gets brighter!

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Frugal Living from Scratch 2

Part 2 of 2: Getting right back to basics - Each step forward can be seen as another step back towards the starting line. Each tiny achievement marks the successful completion of part of your lifelong challenge, your quest for freedom. Along the way you will meet many sceptics, cynics and even a few cheats and liars whose only ploys are to get your money. As long as you have your 'get out of jail free' card then you know you'll be back in the game soon.

So here I am, sat in my latest home, looking out the window at a pretty grey and wet day with 'pretty' being the most important word in that sentence. The curtains are quite awful, but that's an easily remedied problem once I get around to making some new ones. Perhaps I'll add a pelmet or even some nets, who knows? I haven't decided yet. For now, the curtains serve the purpose of shutting out some of the cold at night.

Most of my days will now be spent between here and Frugaldom, planting and sowing, clearing and cleaning, plotting and planning and wading through all the meetings that these projects seem to involve. The site where we have the caravan is quite busy with fishermen, so I'm managing to hog the satellite wifi connection very easily from my makeshift office corner. It has great views and has all the facilities I could possibly need.

Buying a bigger caravan and siting in on a holiday park may seem like a major luxury to some - indeed, it has already been commented upon! However, this suits our needs and was within a strict budget. Now my new neighbours will know who and where I am, as this lot's sitting outside the caravan waiting to be built into the new decking. I can't wait to see it completed and then I'll be ready for welcoming visitors. I'm using this week as a trial run to work out what is needed, having come here on Friday with only the barest essentials. There's hot water and a heated towel rail, hand washing items of clothing isn't a problem. (Neighbours, if you happen to be reading this, come and introduce yourselves. Just make sure you get the right caravan, as I see several had decking delivered this week.)

This is frugal living! The little fridge is rather bare but I've cooked up some pasta salad, made some fruit jelly and strawberrry whip for desserts and will waste nothing - anything else is from a packet and most of it is vegetarian until I get the groceries brought over from the house. Meals are interesting! I had a box of individual milk portions at the office caravan that came free with an Approved Food order some time ago, so I decanted all of their contents into a jug and used it to bake some rice pudding with sultanas. Had some for lunch today and can have the rest as breakfast, snacks or pudding tomorrow.

Each of the tiny milk cartons has been washed and will be used to plant a single pea, so I can have some home produce. No point wasting good cartons when they can be put to good use. This is frugal living - waste not, want not. We'll grow what we can wherever we can and hope to have enough produce to swap and share. It's just a little chilly out to expect miracles at the moment.

This is my frugal life! The view of our barn dwarfed by the snowy Galloway Hills on the horizon is an awesome reminder of how small we all are in the grand scale of life. Only we can choose how we live and if we choose to live in a simple way then so be it. We don't own the land even when we buy it, the land ultimately owns us and will dictate what grows where, no matter what. Frugaldom is very much about watching the lie of the land and working out what might do best where and when in the future. Some people choose to spend their money on a big house, expensive jewellery, a luxury car, designer labels or visiting foreign and exotic places - we choose this.

Tree planting on a chilly but sunny day, overlooked by hills and snow, with the sheer joy of this being no more than a short walk from home - for some it is a nightmare they would never want to have but for others, it's their lives' work, investing in a better future.

Just to make sure we truly appreciated these days of walking, fetching, carrying, digging and tree planting, we were honoured by the presence of this beautiful bird in flight as it soared above us on our walk between field and caravan - the Red Kite has reached Frugaldom.
Believe it or not, in the beginning it is quite difficult to stop spending money when you're on a roll - no matter what you buy, it becomes a habit, just like smoking, drinking, gambling, even clothes, shoes, handbags or hobby stuff. We each justify our spending but any manner of excuses but we are wise to remember that the ends justify the means - and I'd rather end up with the freedom to soar wherever frugal life takes me. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that, but taking your first flight of fancy into your own future of freedom is like starting from scratch over and over again. You just need to quit spending on stuff that weighs you down, then spread your wings and work like crazy to reach each goal.
Join us in Frugaldom, give up spending on what you don't need and shape yourself a new and affordable lifestyle while you invest in your future.

Frugal Living from Scratch 2

Frugal Living from Scratch

Part 1 of 2: Getting right back to basics - this blog is about frugal living in a way that affords you a simple life of freedom from debts and the luxury to choose how and when you earn and spend your own money. You aren't completely free until every penny is your own. A complete, photo free 'rantathon' to get the penny rolling.

Let's get one thing straight - you don't own your own home if you have a mortgage, just as you don't own your own car if it was 'bought' on finance. It simply means you have borrowed these goods and made a personal pledge to pay over the odds for them while you use them and continue to pay over the odds for them even if you don't. It is a contractual obligation which is meant to keep you making payments that, in turn, bind you to earning whatever amount of money is needed to service the debts and live your life - whatever that may be. Likewise with everything you have in your possession - it isn't your own until you have zero debt and are no longer making payments of any description. It always baffles me how some folks can't see a mortgage as debt.

The battle cry I hear most often is that I (me, myself, I) cannot be frugal if I can afford to make major purchases for cash. Well, folks, it is by being frugal that we can afford such things in life and they are not so major when you look at the whole picture. I would go as far as declare myself a frugal living expert, having trained in the art for decades, learning by experience and honing my skills. Over and over again, I have show what does and does not work for me. Getting a 9 to 5 dead-end job and living in fear of interest rate or rent increases just doesn't cut it for me and I fail to understand why anyone in their right mind would want to torture themselves enduring that for fifty years of their life only to retire with nothing. Kudos to those of you who enjoy or endure that lifestyle, it's just not for me. I'm neither lucky nor privileged, I simply made a choice in my own life and stuck with it.

Absolute essentials, in my opinion, are shelter, suitable clothing and good basic nutrition that contributes towards your overall wellbeing. If you can get to a point that you can meet these needs with enough of your income left over to service all your debts, you have succeeded in the first step. The next step is to cut out absolutely everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that you really don't need and start saving to invest in your own future. Some really tough choices need to be made - if you can't afford a car but really need one for work, can you relocate then walk or cycle? Failing that, can you change jobs to one within walking or cycling distance? I don't really understand sentimentality towards bricks and mortar, it's a stupid concept to me. Yes, by all means love your home, but if it's just a millstone around your neck filled with memories, pack up those memories and take them with you to some place you can afford to relax indefinitely without checking your bank balance every other week.

Why worry about what others think of you? Something like that is learned behaviour and is a rather evil trait to instil in any child, in my opinion. It's also one that is really difficult to free yourself from, but it is worth it in the end. Learning one's own worth based on non-monetary values is far more revealing than finances and fripperies.

Very little money is needed to live my chosen lifestyle. For me, understanding how anyone ends up in debt when earning what I'd consider a small fortune is intriguing, despite having seen the facts and figures for myself. There really is nobody to blame but the individuals who got there in the first place and more shame them if they choose to ignore it or, worse still, pass on that burden to others.

This blog isn't about becoming a superstar, a guru or a celebrity, it's about sharing my own journey to freedom. Knowing where you want to be is the difficult part but once you have established that, everything becomes so much clearer and easier. It's all down to budgeting - knowing exactly what you need every penny to do and making it happen, come what may.

Home is where the heart is and the heart shouldn't give a stuff what friends, relatives or neighbours think. It may be a glorified shed, a caravan, a bed-sit, a tumbledown cottage, a boat or even an underground bunker conversion! For some obscure reason, people attribute worth and status to bricks and mortar, but that's not for the frugalers starting from scratch. Financial riches may come later, but in the beginning, you need to liquidate everything and clear your minds, your schedules and your debts so you can begin again, frugal living from scratch.

There are always excuses for why this 'can't' be done - but I'm telling you it can, even if it means finding someone with a spare room to rent while you work several crappy jobs and save your way out of the red and into the black. Room renting isn't ideal for families, I can appreciate that, but it isn't impossible if it gives you a base from which to establish your plan. Being free to control the vision of your own destiny is paramount to success but I would always recommend seeing much further beyond that, to the next challenge. Frugal living is a skill that absolutely anyone can afford to master - it cannot be bought, it has to be lived!

How long have you gone without buying a non-essential in an effort to pay every extra penny into the debt pot or savings plan?

NYK in Frugaldom

Frugal Living from Scratch

Thursday, 26 February 2015

Frugal Living Blog

Frugal living blog about how to do some money saving and cost cutting in an effort to live a good life, free from debt, without having to live in self-imposed poverty. You won't find us running for awards or seeking fame, fortune or even national recognition because we live the life we write - it is as simple as that.

Money Saving

The Frugal Blog is linked to and supported by the frugal forums, frugal shop, NYK's chat room and the land of Frugaldom, which came about as a direct result of having stuck with my frugal living, moneysaving challenge unfalteringly until the point of attaining debt freedom, and then for the next 7 years thereafter. This is now year 8 of my debt free challenge and almost all of it has been documented online as a frugal blog with forum posts.

Frugal Living Challenge

This is an adaptation of the original 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge, which has been running online since 2007. Some of the NYK challenges date back to the late 1990's, so I do have a considerable amount of experience in balancing my own books, while living within my own means, always done on a budget that some consider to be impossible. Utter nonsense! It is entirely possible and is an achievement of which I am particularly proud. I can say with confidence that frugal living, free from debt, on a small income is 100% possible. You do, however, need to exercise will power and keep yourself focussed on your plans in order to achieve these otherwise impossible goals.

We have seen many changes over the years, so each stage in the development of our frugal living and working plans takes us a step closer to the good life and beyond. Your budget is personal to you, it should fit with your personal financial situation and it should be something you are happy to achieve. If you can achieve a point at which you spend less than you have coming in, then you are halfway there. Getting to the point that you are spending less than you are earning while also absolutely free from debt is the ultimate goal. You just need to believe it is possible and stick to your plan, no matter what.

You can join our quest for financial freedom by visiting us in our members only frugal living forums.

My frugal living challenge is not about self-deprivation or self-imposed poverty just for the sake of it, it is about providing genuine support for those who are prepared to try making a real difference to their own lives while sorting out their difficult financial situations. Once the debts are gone and you are in full command of your own spending (or not spending, as the case may be), the world is your oyster. Whether you choose to invest, explore, plant a forest, see the world or lead a comfortable life knowing you are financially secure is entirely up to you.

Many former and current challengers have achieved debt freedom and now follow frugal lifestyles in order to stay free from debt while pursuing better lives without the entrapment of credit. Others are tackling debts, including mortgages, while following a frugal lifestyle in an attempt to reach their debt-free or mortgage-free day. Whichever stage you are at, feel free to join us and share your journey.

2015 saw the return of the live NYK Chat room, complete with scheduled chats for the purposes of additional support, plus live question time. The new platform has been tested over the past few months and it is hoped that the increased potential for even more real time interactivity can help many more people who want to embark on their own money saving journeys to financial freedom.

This challenge is about establishing your true cost of living, sticking to your budget, clearing debts (if you have any) 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 frugalers include batch cooking, stockpiling useful bargains, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), vegetable and fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cash-back sites and doing whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt.

For some it is about clearing debt, for others it's about increasing savings, buying property, becoming stay at home parents or paying off the mortgage early. Some choose the lifestyle on ethical grounds, others seek early retirement or self-sustainability. Above all, this is meant to be a fun and supportive way to manage a minimal budget so you have control of your own money.

It's about NEEDS and not WANTS
Living on a budget = living within our means
Frugal = thrifty, living without waste

Fifty Shades of Money Saving

Recognise the differences between needs from wants
Spend within your means
Set a proper budget
Quit expensive habits
Houseshare or get a lodger
Shop via cashback sites
Always price compare
Buy reduced items in stores only if you need them
Stockpile & bulk buy long shelf life groceries that you will use
Batch cook
Make the most of charity shops
Join Freecycle or other similar waste awareness and recycling groups
LETS trading - become active members of trading & exchange groups
Barter
Grow herbs, fruit & vegetables
Preserving - jams, jellies, cordials, pickles, relishes & wine
Bake your own bread using cheap flour
Learn easy bake biscuit, cake and pastry recipes
Make your own greetings cards
Give homemade gifts
Share orders with friends, colleagues and family for better discounts & reduced delivery costs
Landshare, garden share or apply for an allotment if you have no growing space
Make the most of all freebies
Develop your own home-based business
Sell your surplus through the likes of eBid and eBay trading
Do a kitchen cupboard inventory of foodstuffs
Use lists for grocery shopping
Know exactly what is in your freezer
Use up everything in your fridge
Learn how to make soups, stews and casseroles
Make the most of your slow cooker, if you have one
Learn how to knit, crochet and/or sew
Make do and mend rather than buy new
Engage in clothes swaps and accessorise your outfits rather than have to buy new
Learn to make your own laundry cleaner
Make your own household cleaning agents: invest in soda crystals or sodium bicarbonate,
Get inventive in the kitchen with herbs and spices to use up all leftovers
Use the free gym whenever you like - just open your door and step outside
Use housework as an exercise routine
Dry flowers so they last forever
Collect seeds for sowing
Go foraging for free wild foods
Trim your own hair or ask a friend to do it for you
Turn down the thermostat if you have central heating - wear an extra layer of clothing instead
Early to bed, early to rise - based on daylight, it can save on lighting
Collect fallen sticks, twigs, dry leaves and fir cones for kindling if you have an open fire or stove
Save all suitable containers for freezing or preserving food
Eat a sensible diet: over-eating is one of the costliest mistakes you can make, along with wasting food
Food is NOT bad just because it has passed its 'Best Before' date. Undamaged tins and properly stored dried goods can last for years beyond that
Stay focussed and stay strong - debts have to be paid before saving for rainy days and luxuries

By basing your frugal lifestyle around a combination of the above suggestions, you will soon begin to recognise many more ways of saving money but the easiest way to get started is simply to quit spending it until you have assessed your real cost of living. Monitoring and revising a budget is part of any frugal living plan.

IMPORTANT

Please respect others' lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support. Feel free to join us by following the frugal blog, registering for our free forums or joining us in the chat room sometime soon. We aren't here to score points or win prizes, we are here to show how simple life can be and then the fun can begin.

Frugal Living Blog

Friday, 16 January 2015

Oat and Sultana Energy Cookies Recipe

Just because we are embarking on a super-duper new food budget regime does not mean that we need to cast out all our luxuries, so here’s how we are dealing with the £5 per person per week for all meals challenge.

Breakfast is nearly always porridge, as a 1kg bag, costing 75p, provides sufficient for 20 servings. But I prefer to think of it as 7 days for 2 people will use up 700g porridge oats, leaving 300g each week for baking or other recipes.

PORRIDGE
2 x 50g scoops of porridge oats
5 x 50g scoops of water
Sprinkle of salt
Cook in microwave on high for about 5 minutes (depending on wattage)
Serve with a little milk and 30g of sultanas
7 days for 2 people will use up 700g of a 1kg bag of porridge oats, leaving 300g for baking. Sultanas are one of our 5-a-day and a 30g serving per person per breakfast for two equates to just 420g sultanas, leaving 80g for baking. So here goes...

OAT & SULTANA ENERGY COOKIES
100g porridge oats
80g sultanas
200g SR flour
100g sugar
170g melted margarine

Mix all of the above into a soft dough.

Split into 24 pieces, roll into balls and flatten into round cookies,

Sunday, 23 November 2014

Join the Spending Revolution

Vendetta Against Debt! It's that time of year again, the time when we are planning ahead for 2015, renewing our vigour for the on-going battle against debt, building up our forces to thwart needless spending and fight for the right to protect our own financial security. This is a war against waste - financial and otherwise. Join us in our quest for financial freedom.

Frugaldom is no fairytale fantasy of mythical castles, dragons and miracles. You play your own part in this quest for freedom.

This is an adaptation of the original 'Living on £4,000 for a Year' challenge, which has been running online since 2007. Some of the NYK challenges date back to the late 90's, so I do have a considerable amount of experience in balancing my own books, while living within my own means, always done on a budget that some consider to be impossible. Utter nonsense! It is entirely possible and is an achievement of which I am particularly proud. I can say with confidence that living free from debt while on a small income is 100% possible. You do, however, need to exercise will power and keep yourself focussed on your plans in order to achieve these otherwise impossible goals.

This challenge is not about self-deprivation or self-imposed poverty just for the sake of it, it is about providing genuine support for those who are prepared to take on the challenge of making a real difference to their own lives while sorting out their own difficult financial situations. Once the debts are gone and you are in full command of your own spending (or not spending, as the case may be), the world is your oyster. Whether you choose to invest, explore, plant a forest, see the world or lead a comfortable life knowing you are financially secure is entirely up to you.

2015 sees the return of the live NYK Chat room, complete with scheduled chats for the purposes of additional support, plus live question time. The new platform has been trialled over the past couple of months within the members' section of our host site at Scottishmultimedia.co.uk and it is hoped that the increased potential for even more real time interactivity can help many more people who want to embark on their own money journeys to financial freedom.

Frugal living isn't for everyone, but everyone is welcome to join us. Methods employed by frugalers include batch cooking, stockpiling, preserving, foraging, mending, shopping in charity shops, reducing, reusing, recycling, Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), Vegetable and fruit growing, allotments, keeping hens, using cash-back sites and doing whatever it takes to become self sufficient in managing the cost of living without incurring debt.

It's about NEEDS and 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:

Recognise the differences between needs from wants
Spend within your means
Set a proper budget
Quit expensive habits
Houseshare or get a lodger
Shop via cashback sites and 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 & vegetable
Preserving & wine-making
Bread-making & home baking
Card & gift making
Order splitting for better discounts & shared postal costs
Landsharing, allotments & frugal garden systems
Making the most of freebies
Develop your on home-based business
eBid and eBay trading
Monitoring and revising a budget is part of any frugal living plan. Gifts & cards could all to be homemade, livestock needs to pay its own keep, anything else needs to be cash neutral and pets are like people in a household - they need to be budgeted for in a 'what if' manner.

If you would like to be in contact with like-minded others while stretching your money further than you ever thought possible, join us online and be prepared to take the frugal ride of your life.

IMPORTANT

Please respect others' lifestyles and beliefs. We are not here to judge, we are here to support.

Thank you.

Join the Spending Revolution

Thursday, 20 March 2014

How will the Budget Affect Frugalers and Frugaleurs?

Let's Make a Point of Looking at the Budget

Here in the UK, we were treated to the latest Chancellor's speech by way of yesterday's budget. I will hold up my hands now and state that I did not listen to it all live, so I am still trying to find anything relevant to frugal living households with less than national minimum wage incomes... still looking!

Basic Income Tax thresholds, UK

As you'll can see by the above, the threshold for income tax is still climbing, apparently taking a further 288,000 out of the 'tax-payer' category. Personally, I can't imagine ever earning sufficient income to pay income tax if I pursue my current lifestyle. But how much of my £5,000 household budget actually goes to the Government?

Estimates

Council Tax - £1,000

General shopping - £25

Heating & lighting the house - £60

Telephone & Internet - £80

Television - £145.50

Travel/Deliveries - £48

Gifts - £70

Clothing & Footwear - £20

Everything else - £75

National Insurance (Class 2) - £140

Estimated total = £1,663.50

In REAL terms, if I was earning £5,000 per year, as per my challenge budget for running a household that feeds 2 people, that would equate to almost a third of my income going to the Government in assorted taxes! Moving swiftly on... I'm leaving the budget to those who have pension funds and the financial capacity to aim for £15,000 saved into their ISAs.

Growing My Own Investments

Peas

As previously discussed, I decided to try and save some of the damp, mouldy peas I rescued from the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. They were planted into recycled tin cans and sat in the window to try and get whatever little heat they could from any brief glimmers of sunshine reached them - it hasn't been much! Still, 3 of the 4 tins containing peas now have little plants growing from them. Nothing to be seen from the beans but I won't give up hope just yet.

Red Cabbage

Here is an up to date look at my cabbage experiment - I remembered to change the water and checked the base while doing so. As you can see, we now have some good strong roots and those are definitely cabbage leaves growing from the sliced off top.

Using up the Eggs

We now have 2 of the 3 ducks laying and 2 of the bantams, so eggs aplenty. I'll be sharing the surplus eggs with friends and neighbours who are kind enough to barter. This afternoon, I made a tray of sponges to use up the bantam eggs but today seems to have been one of those 'oops' days... those aren't chocolate sponges! Never mind, they'll taste just fine in trifle, under custard or even just scoffed with a cup of coffee. No point icing them for visitors, is there? Guess I'll need to make a lemon drizzle cake this weekend. :)

Being 20 days into 'Making it in March', I thought readers may like to see what a gew of the others have been making. My 'makes' have been restricted to the normal daily domestic stuff recently owing to the amount of work involved in resuscitating and rejuvenating my frugal business empire.

Making it in March

Visit the forums at www.frugalforums.co.uk to find out what others are making in March.

Friday, 28 February 2014

Day 28 of Extremely Frugal February - Pizzas and Cannelloni

It's the Final Day of February! We Got Triple Nominated!

First of all, some exciting news! Our frugal blog has received three nominations into the 'MAD Awards this year - isn't that great? If you would like to nominate, the web address for this blog is http://frugaldom.blogspot.co.uk and you can vote for us either via the badge on the right hand side of this page or else by going to http://www.the-mads.com/ and nominating from there. We have been nominated into categories for BEST THRIFTY BLOG as well as BLOG OF THE YEAR and MOST INNOVATIVE BLOG, but I'm not quite sure how that happened. :)

Now look away if you are easily offended by weird food concoctions and past BBE dates!

Cheap bread and roll mix - 99p for 3.5kg

Last night was a late one - we met up with neighbours and went walking in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis after seeing the alerts for sufficient solar activity to bring it this far south. We stayed out until about 1am and saw nothing. I was so disappointed, having convinced myself that we would catch a tiny glimmer. It just didn't reach our corner of Scotland, despite being reported as far south as Essex. I did spot four meteors/shooting stars streaking overhead, though, and the sky was amazing with the millions of stars on display.

By way of compensation, my Approved Food* order arrived today, all £15.01 of it! 400 bread rolls' worth of mix for £3.96, so that's less than a penny per roll and enough to see us to the end of the year. Bit disappointed in the quality of the potatoes but I have my seed potatoes at the ready to start chitting (sprouting prior to planting) them soon. With luck, we'll be eating home grown by summer.

Now for some really extreme frugaling!

When opening the orders, they are always strapped with the nylon braided tapes. I have used these in the past to make streamers to hang in the garden as bird scarers but I thought I would try a bit of weaving. Seems to work, so I won't be throwing any more in the bin - I'm sure there are plenty of other things that can be made from them.

I used up the remaining 4 mini-naan breads from the open pack with another tin of tomatoes, herbs, pepper and a single portion of cheese for each of us - I had my usual pickle with mine.

Last night's chilli con-coction was too much for two people and H doesn't really like chilli, so I can't serve it 2 nights in a row. I went rummaging again and came up with a plan - but now the leftover chilli and rice has turned into another 6 meals! Look away now if you don't like to see the 'before' version of frugal meals...

Mixing the rice and chilli concoction with sage & onion stuffing

I mixed a cheap pack of stuffing with last night's leftover chilli and added the rice into this, as well. I haven't a clue how this is going to turn out but I do have a vague idea of how I expect it to taste.

Filling the Cannelloni tubes with the mix

I've less than half a box of the cannelloni tubes left but after filling the 11 of them, I still have some of the chilli mix left to use - I spy cabbage!

Filling in the gaps to use excess mix

I peeled off a large cabbage leaf, split it and wrapped this around the remainder of the chilli concoction mix - haven't made stuffed cabbage in a while! The last scoop of mix got packed into the corner of my dish.

Frugal version of cannelloni - Frugalloni

I poured the jar of tomato and herb sauce over the filled pasta tubes and used half of the 25p tin of cheese chopped over the top. The other half has been wrapped in tin foil and put in the fridge for later use. This is my largest lasagne baking dish, which usually provides enough for 6. Everything was crossed in the hope this tasted OK.

Looks OK to me! Tasted lovely!

Baked the dish in the mini oven for about an hour and then gave it a quick blast under the grill to bubble the cheese. It tastes excellent to me, even H was quite impressed with it! We followed our Frugalloni meal with a bowl of 10p strawberry instant whip - not the healthiest option, but there has to be some vitamin and calcium content in milk dessert, hasn't there?

This living on £4,000 for the year is still fun! I have been doing this for years and, as all the debts slowly disappeared and savings began to build, I stuck with it to enable me to build up more savings. This year is no different and it's certainly no easier, what with the price of electricity, coal and fresh produce forever increasing in price. Hopefully there will be a point at which the garden has been sufficiently reclaimed and redeveloped to provide all the fruit and vegetables needed by the household but, until then, most foodstuff needs to be bought. Spending during February has been kept to an absolute minimum, although there were still a few pounds spent on non-essentials.

My £4,000 is for absolutely everything relating to the household except Council Tax, as I have no control over the price of that - it is compulsory and costs just shy of £1,000 for the year. We don't pay the waste water part, as there's no drainage system where we live, but we do have mains water here, so that chare is included in your Council Tax if you live in Scotland. Extremely frugal February has seen the following spends:

Groceries: £36.39
Electricity: NIL - I topped the pre-payment meter right up to last us all winter
Coal: £70 for 5 bags
Other: £6.32 + £7.52 in vouchers for coffee filters, firelighters and some thermal mugs.
Telephone & Internet: £15.79 (line rental paid in advance for 12 months)
Deliveries: £10.50
House Insurance: £145.78 (buildings & contents for 12 months)
Donations: £5.00 to a very brave friend who is doing a charity abseil down the Forth Bridge in May. (See here for details)

Total cash spends for February £289.78

Monthly average budget is £333.33, so I am about 13% under this month, despite a couple of big spends. I haven't ventured further than neighbours' houses other than our late-night walking expedition in search of the Northern Lights.

Tomorrow is day 1 of 'Making it in March'. It's about making absolutely anything except debt - food, gardens, clothes, gifts, recycled goods, savings, money, changes, amends... almost anything goes, you decide! You can join us free in this forum (registration is free). Before anything else, I still need to sew my blanket together!

NYK, Frugaldom

*Friend referral link.

Friday, 10 January 2014

Frugal Bytes

Bite-sized Updates from Frugaldom

Keeping everything up to date online is difficult, so I am going to begin sharing my 'Living on £4,000 for a year' personal challenge from www.frugalforums.co.uk to here by way of 'frugal bytes'. I hope you enjoy them.

My budget spreadsheet looks like this:

The Frugaldom budget spreadsheet

My January spending already looks high at £475.60, however, the freezer has been filled, the electricity meter topped right up and I paid 12-months telephone line rental up front, which will save me about £45 overall. I cancelled the 'free' 1571 service some time ago, as we seldom made sufficient calls to qualify. There's a £10 allowance for 'mobile' just in case I go gallivanting further afield, otherwise no need for it as there's no signal here. Figures on the right are for my 'EEK' (Everything Else Kitty). Feel free to ask questions.

Managed a trip to Co-op with a friend and a second trip is scheduled for two weeks' time to ensure I can spend my £5 voucher before it expires. Logs have been ordered for delivery next week and the coal bunker will need to be refilled soon. The kindling has been well topped up thanks to another big bag of scrap wood from local yard by way of a bartering agreement we've struck between us.

23rd March 2013 - last winter's snow

Winter preparations are on-going in case the snow gets here. Last year we were completely snowed in and, at one stage, without power for about 4 days. Luckily we had the stove, fuel, plenty of food in stock and sufficient feed for the livestock - I am grateful for the fact that we were able to cook and share what we had with neighbours who didn't expect such a bad winter.

This is our local construction company, 3B, digging out the main road down to the village last winter - a reminder of what Mother Nature can throw at us, whenever she so desires.

Over a year, my household spending averages almost £11 per day, £76.71 per week or £333.33 per month and has done so for the past 7 years. Despite inflation, I seem to be improving my lifestyle with every year that passes. Strange, but true!

FREEZING TIP

If you have a power cut during a freezing winter and have no access to a generator - pack your freezer with bags of snow and ice! There is no point in risking losing good food for the sake of a few days without power. Throughout the year, I have zero available space in my freezer - all gaps get filled with tubs or tins of water. If you have just a fridge and it's colder outside than in your fridge, use a sealed box sunk into the snow or sat in a shaded corner.

NYK, Frugaldom

Saturday, 4 January 2014

2014 Annual Frugal Living Challenge

Happy 15th Anniversary to our Published Frugal Challenges.

Christmas Day walk

It was March 1999 when the first edition of 'Now You Know' came off the press as a monthly newspaper, as opposed to just being online or as part of a page in someone else's publication, so I'm planning on making 2014 extra special in as many ways as I possibly can, to celebrate out 15th anniversary without it costing extra money or incurring any debts.

In 1998, one of my first personal money challenges was featured in the Scottish Daily Record and then, not long after that, the FT.com inadvertently sent investors streaming our way when Cyberdosh (another of my online money 'games') got a mention within the pages of their prestigious online publication. So much has happened over the years that I do tend to discount the true origins of Frugaldom and relate back just as far as 2007, when I first took NYK's frugal living challenges into the Moneysavingexpert forums. We're still there, for anyone who prefers the vast anonymity of that version, otherwise join us in the www.frugalforums.co.uk

What's in Store for 2014?

My annual frugal living budget has, once again, been set at £4,000 for the year to cover all the essentials like food, toiletries, cleaning products, electricity, coal, logs, TV, telephone, Internet, travel, clothing and footwear, gifts and donations, household pet supplies, home insurance and any other routine expenses that can be controlled by strict budgeting.

After so many years of doing such challenges, we are fortunate to now be living in our own bought-and-paid-for fixy-up, the result of yet another challenge to buy a house without a mortgage. This puts us in the lucky position of not having to worry about rent or mortgage repayments.

Council Tax is something that can no longer be shaved, since the councils saw fit to abolish the annual 'pay it all up front' discounts. No savings to be made there, so they get their £100 (or whatever) each month, instead. Being rural, we do save a little bit by way of not having to pay the sewage charges - we have septic tank - and there are no separate water rates here in Scotland.

Over the years, we have learned continually what we can and cannot live without - distinguishing between absolute needs and basic wants has been paramount to the success of our moneysaving, cost-cutting campaigns for a simple lifestyle. Many of the items in my budget are non-essentials and I could live without them if I had to, but being self-employed while working from home does bring with it the need for communication with the outside world and that necessitates a telephone line, Internet and yes, even television, as part of the household income is derived from broadcast media related work.

What's nearby? Deer!

Many people who skim read my posts fail to grasp the concept of rural living combined with frugal living. Frugal living in a rural location is totally different from living a frugal life elsewhere - we have added expenses, we can't rely on power supplies, we have no public transport, no amenities within easy reach, very little by way of regular employment opportunities, no diverse range of shops, no supermarkets and I choose to live without the added expense of a car, so no popping out for a pint of milk if we run out or a hot food takeaway, if the notion takes us.

We don't get yellow sticker bargains for pennies, we can't pop into the pub, library, museum or local hall for a free heat and we certainly can't traipse around the high street looking for bargains. We need to make do and mend plus make the absolute most of any opportunity that takes us away from home. I would love to 'shop local' for everything, but it is impossible while frugal living without transport in a rural location. We need to turn to our gardens, friends, neighbours and yes, even the Internet.

I hope to keep the blog updated regularly to reflect how each and every pound of my £4,000 gets spent over the coming year and to share with you some of the other things that are made possible by this simple lifestyle, one that relies heavily on living within my means.

Here's what I have done, so far, that will impact on my 2014 spending and the household budget:

Got a meat order for the freezer, making the most of some discount codes and free delivery from MuscleFood* (This link is a friend referral link that offers new customers free chicken fillets with their first order.)
Topped up the electricity pre-payment meter by as much as possible to reduce the number of to-ups needed over the coming year. The meter was in the house when we came here and I hope to have it removed as soon as I have reduced the 2014 spends against previous years by at least the cost of removing it.
Bought a couple of bags of coal
Paid for a full year's BT line rental, which cost £141, rather than pay £15.99 per month - an overall saving of £50.88
Got two new bunnies - completely NOT frugal but who can refuse such a fabulous present when it also includes housing, food and bedding for the cuddle-bunnies?
Umm... this is a very tricky one, so I will attempt to explain it first. My previous 'expensive habit' was smoking - I published my challenge about quitting and practised exactly what I preached, making a point of saving every penny I'd normally have spent on cigarettes. At today's shocking prices, this now equates to over £700 over a year. That's a huge amount of money for a frugaler so I opted to split it among the following: a tax free savings bond with life assurance, fun money and the garden. My previous 'expensive hobby' was horses. I have not been able to save the equivalent of what I used to spend on them because it is impossible for me now. This year, to celebrate, commiserate or commemorate the above, I bought a small share in a racehorse. If any of you out there have ever been bitten by the horse bug, you'll know it is not something you can simply shake off and forget - it's in your blood for life. This is my indulgence for 2014.

Looking forward to watching the progress of 'Winnie' this summer

Tried to teach the frugaldom bunnies why they shouldn't try typing, but fail..lkshavsi\l luHK.EN8xm z,///////Ncj....ed

Hmemade decorations now all gone for another year, but hoping the horseshoe brings us more luck, rather than more horses

So far, this year's meals have all been from food in stock and, while the log-burner is lit, I am making the most of it by cooking whatever I can on top of it - right now, it has a pot of chicken stock simmering away after I defrosted a chicken, made a slow roast dinner over the stove and am now preparing a nice stir fry: leftovers will go in a casserole with the meat that comes off the bones in the stock pot and then I'll get a pot of soup from the rest of it. The actual carcase can be boiled down further, or possibly even slow-cooked overnight, and then blended to make into cat food.

I should probably add that we did not succeed in completing any of the rooms in the house, although most of the 'big stuff' has been done. We're without an actual cooker in the long-term temporary kitchen, but I do have all the mod cons essential to cooking without one - electric hot plate, mini grill, slow cooker, microwave, steamer, bread maker, toaster, kettles, coffee maker... we are quite civilised here, despite what some seem to think. :)

We don't have central heating so, in winter, the house is only warm when the fire is lit. This, in turn, heats a few radiators and the tank of hot water - as long as we have electricity to power the pump that circulates the hot water. Electric blankets, huge woolly blankets and hot water bottles are great during winter. The persistence of power cuts is one of the main reasons I chose to have the stand alone stove, lovingly known as Wilbur, my pot bellied 'pig'. He is probably the hardest worked object in the Frugaldom household, unless we count 'H', who has to chop all the logs Wilbur consumes on a daily, even hourly, basis.

Extra note here - 'Wilbur' was an eBay buy and cost about £100 including delivery. The more expensive part of this project was having the old chimney lined before being able to install the multi-fuel stove. 2014 will be my first full year of using this to save on electricity, so the bicycle will be back out of hibernation soon so I can get out there and start collecting more sticks and I am still faithfully filling in my www.imeasure.org.uk stats every Monday.

What do we do for frugal fun? Well, so far...

Went out walking on Christmas day.
Had relative staying between Christmas and New Year, so we visited a local historical site that's within walking distance - weather was lovely.
Had several neighbours round for drinks on Hogmanay then
We all went out first footing one another until the 'wee small hours'.
Visited the newest neighbours (en masse) to handsel their house on New Year's day

I really cannot see anything sub-standard in this lifestyle of what some perceive as self-inflicted poverty. Yes, it is certainly living well below the breadline and we probably would spend much more than 10% of our annual income if we'd to even attempt to heat our homes to what the Government states is an acceptable level but so what? We aren't cold, we aren't hungry, we aren't living off the state and we own the roof over our heads.

I promise to do my best to keep you all up to date with how I stretch our pennies into pounds throughout 2014, so feel free to join me on board my debt free wagon as I bump along and fight to stay on there. If you fall off, be sure there'll be a virtual friend ready with outstretched hand to help you back on again.

As I always love to say - the less I spend, the more I can afford and, with this simple life costing so little, it leaves huge scope for finding better things to do with my time (and money) than waste it on money worries.

|Frugaldom Plans for 2014:

Keep on beating the budget by focussing on needs and saving for wants.
Grow more fruit and vegetables.
Complete the living room, kitchen and bathroom.
Create a 'secret garden' complete with 'tiny house'.
Watch the progress of 'Winnie' in the hope she makes it onto the racetrack
Enjoy having the rabbits, hens, ducks, quail and wormery while seeing them all 'help' cultivate the garden.
Meet up with friends for another frugal expedition - it's looking like Schiehallion will be the 'big hill of the year' but I'm sure we can fit in several other trips. It's not like walking costs money, is it?
Take eldest grand daughter on another big adventure.
Encourage more friends and relatives to visit Frugaldom.
Knit, sew, craft, bake, make, mend, reduce, reuse and recycle more.

I hope you'll all join me for yet another epic, roller coaster ride into Frugaldom.

NYK, Frugaldom.

Thursday, 21 November 2013

#Win with NYK - What Type of Savvy Shopper are You?

What Type of Savvy Shopper are you and what are 'Freedom Rewards'?

I’m a Bargain Hunter Gatherer and proud of it!

Frugaldom is giving you the chance to learn about Freedom Rewards while taking a short quiz to determine what type of savvy shopper you are, plus the chance to win £60 of Amazon vouchers, courtesy of our sponsors at Barclaycard.

A new consumer study carried out by Barclaycard - which processes nearly half of all card transactions in the UK – together with consumer experts at Brunel University, shows that the recent economic climate has made a lasting impact on how we approach shopping and saving money. Bagging a bargain goes far beyond just saving cash, people now place far greater value on the emotional investment of smart spending, giving rise to our four new modern shopping 'tribes'.

The Bargain Hunter Gatherer
The High Street Pounder
The Screen Saver
The Profit Prophet

I took the quiz and am pleasantly surprised at how accurate the results are! Now it’s your turn to see what you think and share your views. An extra £60 to spend is a much appreciated opportunity and, thanks to our sponsors, we have just that!

Take part in the quiz here

Edited in: Results of the free draw can be found here

(Original image URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mukumbura/4052671706/)

Saturday, 16 November 2013

Food Prices Past, Present and Future

Having kept notes, I thought you might be interested in seeing my price comparisons. The average price increase in foodstuffs since 1999 to 2013, when comparing my 'shopping list' of cheapest available items, amounts to almost exactly 100% But of course this only holds true if you have easy, cost-free access to a modern, all singing, all dancing supermarket…

… But what does this mean in real terms to the supermarket shoppers of today? We keep on ploughing our energy, time and money into making ends meet, while feeding the household and saving what we can, in the hope that the sun shines and we don't have to afford too many rainy days. - Read more

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

20 Hints, Tips and Suggestions to Help you Save Money

How to Prepare for Frugal Living

As we fast approach the end of another year of challenging ourselves to living a productive yet frugal, life, many of us are turning, once again, to preparations for the new year. It may only be early November as I write this but the latest monthly challenge is under way - Novus Frugalus has begun! You can see how to take part here.

It is a chance for newcomers to frugal living (frugalers) to give it a go, if you like, sampling the lifestyle before committing to taking part in our year-long challenge to cut costs and live well within our own means. It's much easier said than done, I might add, so I thought I would lay down a few hints and tips to help newcomers - 'novus' literally means 'new' - prepare for 2014. Are you sitting comfortably? You may be in for a rough and bumpy ride if you've never before tried this.

Decide exactly why you want to make your lifestyle more frugal - is it a financial necessity for the purposes of clearing debt, a savings exercise so you can afford something special, a major cost-cutting exercise to help safeguard your own financial future or simply because you are so rich that you can afford the extravagance of being eccentric? (Believe me, it will surprise you how many people think this may be the case!) In the beginning, my reasons were for debt-clearing and then gradually graduated onto buying a fixy-up house without a mortgage. Now it is so we can afford to renovate the fixy-up and I'd like to think that within the next couple of years that I'd graduate further towards safeguarding my own financial future. As for eccentricity, well... I continually aspire to that and put in as much practice as possible! If all else fails, I shall simply make myself a big, floppy hat for my own retirement.
Take a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil and draw a line down the middle of the paper. On one side write the heading 'NEEDS' and on the other, write 'WANTS'. Now take a close look around you at home and list what you can see in the appropriate columns. Needs are things that the human body simply cannot live without, whereas 'wants' are everything else. This, in itself, can be a real eye-opener once you see how little of the stuff that surrounds us has any impact on actual life. These are luxuries - whether it's a phone, a television, a games console, an electric gadget, cosmetics, fashionable shoes...
Imagine a sudden and complete loss of income - it doesn't matter the reason, it just matters that you are prepared to ride out that financial storm because for many, this could mean disaster.
List your outstanding debts - everything from the month's credit card bill, overdraft or loan repayment to catalogues, contracts, mortgage, membership fees, subscriptions, insurances and even regular savings plans that may be set up as regular standing orders or direct debits - if the payments are expected, then the companies and organisations concerned are going to attempt to collect them whether or not your income has stopped. If you don't have the financial wherewithal to cover them, banks and creditors are pretty rigid in their rules where fines, fees, penalties and increased interest rates are concerned. For how long could you cover your weekly or monthly outgoings if you suddenly lost your income?
Declutter to make space for storing absolute essentials.
Take advantage of bargains that can be stockpiled, but always remember that a bargain is only a bargain if you will actually use it.
Learn the basics of home cooking - cooking from scratch can save an absolute fortune and let's face it - if you suddenly lose your job, that could provide you with sufficient time to learn a whole load of new stuff.
Quit spending on anything that isn't 100% essential to life itself.
Assess how much your current job costs you - few ever analyse these interesting figures, so fail to see that spending £6,000 extra each year to go and work in a £20,000 job is the same as spending nothing and walking to a £14,000 job, or even one that involves fewer hours. How much do you spend on work-associated expense once you count in cars (or other transport) child care (where needed), lunches, coffees, cosmetics, extra grooming, suitable clothing and all the other little things that add up over the space of a year? Every mile you drive costs more than the price of the fuel you put into the tank.
Bin raking! This may sound like something the proverbial tramp on the street might do but I mean it in a slightly different way; I mean start looking at what is being binned in your household, because everything that goes into it has, most likely, been paid for out of your income. Even the packaging stuff comes in is paid for somewhere along the line and everything you bin is money wasted.
Quit buying takeaways - how many meals do you make and how many arrive in the house ready-made by way of supermarkets, takeaways or fast-food drive-through type places? Basing costs on my own £1 per person per day for ALL meals, it is fair to say that the cost of a takeaway meal for one can cost as much as some might spend on groceries to make meals for the full week. Frugal living while debt-busting does not include buying ready-made food.
Quit eating out - a single meal out in a hotel or restaurant can equate to a full month's worth of food supplies for one adult. Only the seriously affluent can afford to eat a month's worth of meal at one sitting.
Quit non-essential habits like smoking, alcohol or any other drugs, for that matter - even sweets and certain types of fizzy juice can be perceived as addictive and rack up a small fortune of spends! They simply aren't worth it if you are serious about becoming debt free, solvent and financially secure for the long-term.
Count up how much toilet paper your household gets through in a full year. This may sound ludicrous, but once you have calculated the true costs of what you're flushing down the drains, you'll understand the importance of being prepared to grab a bulk bargain when you see one.
How many loads of laundry do you do over the period of a year and at what cost? I was horrified to see some laundry detergents costing as much as 40p per wash and then some folks still needing to add on another 10p per load in fabric conditioner/softener without including the electrical costs of running a washing machine and, perhaps also a tumble dryer. Yes, this is the top end of the scale, but dyed in the wool frugalers will be washing at low temperatures, using white vinegar as the basis for their fabric softener and a soap/washing soda mix as their detergent. (See how to make homemade laundry detergent.)
Start saving good jars and bottles with screw top lids that will be suitable for jam, jelly, pickle and chutney making. Save plastic tubs for soup and other meals that can be frozen.
Start looking at what you have from the point of view - could I make that myself? Even clothing can be handmade easily and cheaply once you know how.
Get acquainted with your local charity shops, exchange trading groups, freecycling sites and like-minded others in your area. You might be surprised at how many are playing this moneysaving game and you'll also need an outlet for decluttering if you don't have the time or inclination to sell it to raise a few extra pounds.
Set aside a corner and a box to keep all those handy crafting essentials together - the world of make do and mend is a rather fascinating one that can lead you in many directions. For many, it opens up a whole new side of life that involves crafting. Handmade can equally mean individually designed and unique. What designer label can offer you that and at what cost, I ask?
If you need to spend, try to get cash or loyalty points back on all your purchases. Despite my living in a fairly rural location, I make the most of Topcashback, Approved Food, MuscleFood, Nectar card and a cash-back credit card.

There are so many ways to help you cut costs and save cash while going about your normal day-to-day life that no single post could ever cover them all. I'll post another list soon, so watch out for that. meanwhile, my suggestion is that you join us in the Novus Frugalus moneysaving challenge and take full advantage of everything that everyone has to offer by way of what they are doing in their own homes and workplaces, so you can prepare to launch headlong into a frugal lifestyle. It needn't be boring, nor need it be miserable, self-imposed poverty. Yes, it is a tough lifestyle to adapt into while desperately trying to claw your way out of a quagmire of debt, but the rewards are rich, in every sense of the word.

If you don't like admitting to cost-cutting DIY, refer to your exploits as hobbies.
If you don't like admitting to being skint, refer to it as austerity measures while saving for X, Y or Z - it was a good enough excuse for the Government!
If you can't get out of gym membership then make the absolute most of it - shower and wash/blow dry your hair before you leave.
If you don't like explaining to the kids why they can't go gallivanting with their friends to cinemas, fast food takeaways or whatever, make it fun for them - let them entertain at home on a budget
If you can't go a month without a visit to the hairdresser or beautician's, ask yourself some serious questions!
If you can't simply quit an expensive habit, start now and gradually phase it out between now and new year then say it's a New Year's resolution.
If you want something, make it affordable to your budget rather than over-stretching your budget in an attempt to afford the unaffordable.

Pages