No-spend January/Frugal February - the no-spend challenge continues

[roguepixie]

OK - am attempting to start the second thread ... hope this works.

Hello, can i join pls.

We are already pretty thrifty as we are attempting to pay our mortgage off within 5 years!
I think that i could spend less on food ( my only expense bar playgroup and SH books for lo's) i shop at aldi so not overly extravigant but we eat lots of fruit and veg. Roll on the veg garden being productive once more. My goal will be £40 a week inc wine.

I have looked at my weekly shop and i am challanging my self to make my own bread. ( will save me a lot) i'm a SAHM so i have time.

Ihave also just pushed youngest out of nappies! Yipee £10 a month saved.

Today we made a loaf of sundried tomato and parmasan and four pizzas with HFW pizza dough recipe. I have been buying aldi £1.49 pizzas. These four just cost about 30p each! Wow. Two for the freezer.

No spend this month :-) i assume bills are not inc, husband pays those.

Thanks, dinky. We're lucky in that our dds get pocket money from their Granny rather than from us - but yes, if I'm suggesting a cheaper thing and they want the expensive one, then I could ask them to put something towards the difference. Then they'd have to properly consider it - which, at 10 and 13, they're capable of doing.

DN is pregnant so maybe not the vodka - but perhaps I could make cookies and put them together with some fluffy socks that I found in the present box. That's a really good idea!

Am sure you know how it is - gets wearing having to scrimp, thinking you have it worked out then along comes something else, even if it's a small thing. But we WILL get the debts paid off, and once the interest payments go down it'll be much easier .

Oh dog, sounds like you need to get back under the duvet. Could you make something for your niece?? Chocolate truffles/bark (Lorraine Pascale has a recipe I think) - might be cheaper and save you from giving your Lush set away!!!

boffin, you and me both then , although I suppose we could swap with each other???

Can anyone tell me which app it is you guys are using for expenses? Just been to have a look on my phone and there seem to be loads (some free, some not). Do you have a name for it and I can then get the right one. Thanks.

Might have a new client??

Off to start baking now ...

In return for the help, here's a link to a ridiculously cheap and tasty veggie recipe that I found recently:

spicy root and lentil casserole

I only had a couple of small potatoes, so put in an extra parsnip and carrot, and dropped the amount of stock down to 1 pint. Didn't have yogurt/coriander so didn't use them. That fed me, dh and an unexpected (large, male) dinner guest, PLUS enough left over to put in the freezer for dh and myself another time.

Btw dinky, love the title for March's thread ... Meagre March it will be

Love that recipe TheDog - have all the stuff in so will be trying it out tonight.

not a NSD here but a careful one. DS off with the pox so having to entertain him. Luckily he was interested in inventorying (sp.?) the baking supplies cupboard. Went to tesco with a £4 clubcard voucher to stock up on SR flour, caster sugar and butter. And Piriteze in case he feels worse but currently not looking likely. Clearly we didn't stay within £4 but I had a list and stayed within it.

My trick against myself is to put a couple of things on the list that I can buy if there is a deal, which means that the way the shop makes you want to pick up extra things is channelled and limited.

Someone asked what money app to get. I'm on an android phone and there are lots of free ones. I chose 'money lover - expense manager' and so far it seems v easy to use.

February is going to be more of a struggle than January. My dh paid the tax bill and I paid the NI contributions from my budget, which leaves me with about £200 after all my debits have gone. I also had to pay my car tax on Monday so £95 there. Today I laughed hysterically as our accountant bill landed on the mat. Pants.
Had a rubbish trip to Tesco last week, spending far too much - was giddy with excitement that dhs wages had come in.

Still, managed to convince a friend to come here for lunch instead of meeting in town. Served up home made soup and home baked bagels so some cash saved there.

Hi all, been following this for a while but wanted to jump in and say hi!

We are scrimping and saving to build up the "moving fund" - we are relocating (again) and will be moving 700 miles away!

i have spreadsheets for everything! Selling like crazy and literally watching every penny.

Have had a good few days on the selling front, by the time the last item is collected tomorrow morning, I will have gained £105 in 36 hours! We have some good local groups on Facebook for selling, which obviously cuts out a lot of fees associated with ebay and paypal.

Todays spends were £1.19 for kitchen roll and £1.15 for 6 soft rolls that we probably didnt need, but were lovely at lunch time! (only got the kitchen roll for DS as he has brought cress seeds home from nursery with instructions for an experiment!)

We shop mainly in Lidl, and anything else that is needed is Tesco. That is the extent of our supermarkets up here! (Far north of Scotland!)

The thing crippling us at the moment is gas and electric (meters - no one will take them away without charging £££) and fuel for the car (1.48 a litre)

Anyways, will try and keep up to date with you all!

Have had a great month of watching spending and have managed to save £550 in savings account .Feel a bit ashamed actually as have managed it without to much hardship
Anyway onwards and upwards .Have got some large sizes of Ecover washing up liquid,fabric conditioner and Delicates washing liquid .All in 5L sizes that I got when Ocado had an offer .About £7.99 ish.
Also buying catfud in bulk which is so much cheaper.
Also ordered from Approved foods and got about £150 worth of stuff for £40 I ordered the catering sizes of biscuits and also boxes of hobnob flapjacks,cereal bars ,conditioner,wraps,pepsi (29p!)cereal and lots more I have forgotten about!
Getting things delivered seems to really stop me with the bits and bobs spending.Ocado and veg/fruit box,milkman etc are more expensive up front but I do meal planning on a Sat morning and then place orders and thats that
I have also been really poorly with a chest infection and off work for 2 weeks so online has been great and have barely used an petrol .
Keep going -this is a brilliant inspiring thread !

Forgot to ask .Has anyone tried the approved foods tuna ?
Felt a wee bit confused] about whether it is a good idea to risk it

I have just made that root and lentil casserole with bits and pieces that needed using up anyway, and it's fantastic. I needed a curry to serve with the 32 naan breads for a pound I got from Approved Foods!

I have eaten the tuna in a tuna mayo roll the other day. It tasted like catering quality sandwich tuna, comparable with Tesco Value tuna, and I am still alive to tell the tale.

The reason for this is that this firm sells 'Best before' which means the stuff won't damage you if you eat it after the date. 'Use by' is the one to watch - that means you might poison yourself if you go past the date. Approved Foods don't sell food in this second category. And even though their Best Before food is past the date, I have not been able to perceive any deterioration in quality whatsoever.

So order away!

FWIW when DH was in the cadets at school, they were still feeding them tinned 'compo' (i.e. rations) from World War 2 and they all survived. If a tin is intact it can go on forever.

at 32 naan breads !
I think Im going to invest in a new chest freezer for our newly cleaned out garage -Thanks to DH.
I will give the tuna a try - was chuffed to see the delivery charge was 25p

Boffin have you tried all the things you've got from AF? Well not ALL natch but SOME of all.

I'm the same with tortilla wraps as you with naans, but they'll soon go, we love fajitas & the girls like wraps instead of sarnies for a change for lunch.

SarahLund I've ordered the 20p tuna too & will feed back ('scuse the pun) what we all think.

I've never been one for paying much atttention to the dates on stuff. They were brought in to help with stock rotation (Dad had a Spar shop at the time so we were in the know ) but everyone started thinking it was the Use By dates, so that 's when we all got in the wastage habit.

Apparently they leave a food to go off & work back 2 weeks to get even the " Use By" date.

In our house we tend to use the sniff/ dip a finger/ has it got mould? test.

NSD so far- must resist in a bit though as going to collect and cash paycheck. Was planning to spend the whole lot on bills and petrol as it's only 2.5 day's pay, but have decided to wait and pay bills next week with the tax refund I'll get. Takes a bit if pressure off and I can get some groceries if inclined rather than having to keep eating from the cupboard. (not that anythings bad with eating from cupboard but I haven't had any fresh meat or cheese or yogurt for ages and starting to really resent it.)

Shall pop in later to record my spend for petrol this afternoon.

Good, isn't it, Boffin? Glad you liked it.

Rogue It most definitely wasn't HEAT, how very dare you . It was Kerrang which DP buys for DD1 and his TV magazine. HE is meant to pay but I did, as usual. I bought my trashy take a break today. We only tend to buy the 3, plus 1 every so often for dd2 if she has been good. I get Readers Digest on subscription, I cancelled my renewal when I saw they were doing an intro offfer at £1 an issue for the year, saving you £24 and opened one in DP's name. My guilty pleasure is Baked and Delicious which is expensive but we do bake a lot and I have used the recipes and the cookware.

Spent even more today on cards and bills and lunch out again, I must seriously stop that but it was freezing in town and we had to sit down and eat. It was only Subway so not too expensive and I collect the points to gain a free sandwich.

I use the expense manager for android. There are loads but this was at the top of the list with 4.5 stars and free. You can enter in different shops, types of spend and regular spends. I break down my receipts so I know if I spent on clothes when I should of been food shopping

£45 yesterday on a Boots.com order that included tons of Berocca (2 for 3 offer on all vitamins). Felt we needed it. Still living off medieval banquet leftovers 5 days on and can feel vits and minerals leaching out of it as each day passes.

NSD Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and today.

Debs ... thank the Lord

Not exactly a NSD today ... but necessary. £2.70 on oyster bus fares ... so far so good. Then DS wanted to go into the local Army & Navy store (don't ask) and I thought it might be good idea to do the butchers shop ... £72.00 later [sock]. I do have enough for the month now (with judicious use of the store cupboard). Ah well, necessary but ...

Just got this recipe sent to me, it could adapt very easily to use cheaper ingredients such as value natural yoghurt and frozen fruits of the forest.

here

By the way, if anyone is fed up of store cupboard food, it's comparatively easy to make your own gorgeous yoghurt from cheap sterilised milk, I used to do it when a very poor LP. Likewise with cottage cheese.

Spent £5.05 today at Tesco (jars, milk & yoghurts), so stuck to list but forgot soft cheese Nothing else spent.

So, back to Tesco tomorrow for soft cheese & kitchen cleaner which I have nearly run out of. Need to put diesel in car, but a tank normally costs about £70 & I don't have that much until my cheque clears so will put in £20 to keep going.

Also normally meet with a friend on Friday afternoons. Normally go to park but is too cold for that so will probably do soft play, unless she invites me to her lovely big house . So will spend entry for DS1 + cup of tea there.

Tomorrow looks expensive

Have applied to test Viakal today (I know, but every little helps)! Also earned £1 on a Valued Opinions survey & possibly £10 on a panelbase survey (I heart my surveys

Forgot to say - I take pretty much no notice of dates on food! I reckon that people survived before food had dates & they didn't even have the refrigerating/freezing options that we do! A large percentage of my groceries are yellow label goods i.e. those with a best before/sell by/use by date of that day. Fresh meat, fish, bread, lots of veg & even cheese & milk can be frozen, fruit can be stewed then frozen (or berries frozen straight away) & other veg can be blanched then frozen. Can you tell I love my 2 freezers