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Preparing for a frugal January

6 replies

blanketboxx · 22/12/2024 23:07

Evening,

I have spent the last few hours thinking ahead to our January finances. It's fair to say that December has been a car crash! Here's a little context -

DH and I have been on a budget and debt pay-off journey for 18 months. We have exceeded our own expectations and have managed to stick to the budget and clear a load of debt. We aren't finished yet but we've proved to ourselves that we can..... and then comes December!!

Our car packed up and left us with a huge repair bill. We did have some car repair savings but these were wiped out and we had to find quite a chunk of additional cash A week later I crashed the car and had to pay the excess on my insurance. We also under budgeted for Christmas a little. This led to a massive 'fuck it' moment and the rest of December has been a car crash. We have run up a credit card bill - the first time we have done this since starting our debt-payoff journey. One positive is that this has freaked us out, whereas a couple of years ago this was just how we lived!!

We are determined to get back on track in January and this means clearing the mess that we have created this month. it's also a good lesson that our budget needs to be tweaked to stop this happening again.

To clear the Credit card balance in January we are going to have to cut back significantly. This means that after all of our usual bills, plus the additional credit card spending we will have £700ish to live off for the month. Food will need to come from the £700 ( family of 4). My plan is to use all of the Christmas food/leftovers and try to not to a food shop until week commencing 6th January

AIBU to think that this is doable? It is only one month I suppose

OP posts:
Baileysfeverdream · 22/12/2024 23:15

I think it's very doable, to cut your food costs you could go vegetarian and cook from scratch for the month, see it as a health kick and it'll be easier to stick to it.

Hskatkat · 22/12/2024 23:27

Totally doable, and you will feel good to start the new year proactively.
Sit down together to make a plan of attack and make sure everyone is on the same page
Good luck with it

Gingerkittykat · 23/12/2024 00:00

What do you need to cover with the £700? Is it just food or are there things like petrol, school dinners or other regular expenses?

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ZippyCat · 23/12/2024 05:05

What else needs to come out of the £700 that's a factor in your cutting back

blanketboxx · 23/12/2024 07:40

Gingerkittykat · 23/12/2024 00:00

What do you need to cover with the £700? Is it just food or are there things like petrol, school dinners or other regular expenses?

Food will be the biggest expense however I am aiming to meal plan and spend as little as possible whilst still giving the kids health meals. The money will also have to cover DS's birthday although I have already got some presents for him - we will have a party at home this year so I am hoping I can budget £50 for this - food etc

Keeping food costs down will be the big one for us - I can spend £140 some weeks although I know that I can massively reduce this by being more mindful about what we actually need.

OP posts:
Elleherd · 23/12/2024 10:36

We're veggie which really helps from what I can tell.
I'd do it the other way around and use that money differently, now's actually get it cheap time! TBH it sounds a decent amount, but it's all relative. Lots to feed here, and it's time vs money vs earn vs spend. Cut your cloth accordingly.

We live frugally generally so we can save money for repairs and things we really want. We may be much too heavily frugal for you, (never mind not 'proper' MN demographic) but maybe something here will help you or someone.

Utilise your freezer properly. If you don't have a freezer, buy a cosmetically damaged one, or 2nd hand from a dealer (gets you some protection) the worse they look cosmetically the cheaper they are.
As long as it's running properly it will pay for itself. (mine was brand new with a badly dented and scraped door from a fork lift for £15. (Recently got a good replacement door/ seals from a scrap dealer for £1 and bring in the old door.)

If neither option's available utilize the weather: raw veg will sit outside in a criter proof box or cage, well enough through Dec/Jan, often Feb. If refrigerated some is often good to April.
If you have freezer gaps, fill with 10p bread and leave till space is needed. Reduces running costs.

Buy up lots of 8p/15p Christmas veg now, and batch cook it at the same time you're generally cooking. Spuds, broccoli, brussels, red cabbage, shallots, sweedes, parsnips and carrots all out there really cheap this week.

Get into pickling and chutney if you have time. A litre of vinegar goes a long way and helps with variety.

Learn all the different names and buy herbs and spices in packets from simpler hard working shops, not glass jars in supermarkets. Same with some fruit and veg. Persimmons are expensive, Aki aren't. A quince is costly, but a safarjal is affordable, same with fenugreek vs methi.

Birthday: Really good carrot cake's cheap to make and can be layered with creamy filling and slathered in frosting and decoration. Cream cheese filling for older ones, younger just want sugar paste. Pound shop sparklers and candles - multi colored or silver/gold if teens. (multi colored stars/sprinkles or silver balls 70p to £1.25) Cheap/recycled ribbon on paper band. It's all about the visuals.
Try out a small one on Dc and sell it without telling them what it's made from. (Ours are always decorated with carrots and Dc's friends loved them but didn't think they would.) Parsnip cup cakes with 1/4'd glace cherry in a dab of icing on top - no one ever guessed! Beetroot makes amazing icing from light pink to deep reds.
If young, food coloring and jelly is your friend, if older add pound-shop ladies fingers and cream for trifle. IME teens actually often love something that verges on younger party food as long as they can laugh at mum for thinking this way. ('Your last chance to be 6 again' was surprisingly popular with older teens. Taking the crust's of the sandwiches touched them, using them for garlic and herb croutons touched me!)
Grab cheap crackers post Christmas and remove anything Christmas related. Get the others to write jokes and puzzles preferably personalized to Dc, school, hobbies, pets, etc, to refill. Pound shop balloons can also go a long way.

Brave the supermarket's Christmas eve for the big reductions bun-fight. If you can get there for free, the week after Christmas is usually good for random reductions and only those in need of them, bothering.

We've graduated from a hay box/ oven heated bricks, to polystyrene beans in a bag for fueling additional free cooking. Saves lots of money. Bit of a faf at first but soon becomes easy and a way of life, allowing lots of cheaper but more expensive to cook stuff like beans, and lentils to be cooked up cheaply and a regular supply of houmous cheaper. Reuse your foil. If you don't have a heavy pot, freecycle etc often offer up good but ugly heavy casserole dishes.

Helps if you're in a poorer area as markets price themselves to local pockets.
Our flea market has stalls selling past sell by date food. One sells lots of lovely imported things, but it's random, so you learn to be inventive.
Yesterday saw 5x packets of mango, 2 x bulgar, six small baclavas, 2 x bulgar loaf (wet Turkish nut loaf) bottle of good maple syrup, tin of golden syrup, jar of pistachio coffee, 3 tubs of processed cheese, two cans of spinach, 3 x dates, and a tube of tamarind paste, all for £7. (lots of meat products and tea available) Majority was November 24 dates, couple of Oct's, (spinach and dates) and the (indestructible) golden syrup is dated 2018.

Bin bags, cloths, cleaning products also cost less at market and obtainable in smaller units.

Fruit and veg market '£1 bowls,' often become '50p bowls' if you ask what they'd like to shift most. Don't be afraid to barter if you can see it wont shift fast or needs lots of prep, ie mushrooms that need peeling. Space is valuable.

Look for independent cash and carries for many things to buy in bulk at considerable savings. See if you can split cases etc with a friend. (or another person looking at the same items if you're like me.)

(For the future; if you have a garden, yard, balcony or window sills, start utilizing them. Start with spinach and tomatoes and if poorly lit etc, dandelion leaves are invincible, and bulk out spinach, as well as edible in their own right.)

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