FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

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Richard
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FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by Richard »

Of all the things you did, what was your one biggest success, the one you are most proud of?

Did it surprise you?

Richard )t'
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LittleBrownFrog
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by LittleBrownFrog »

I wrote my CV, dusted off my teaching certificate and have registered with a tutoring agency. It doesn't sound much, but it's a huge thing for me - I've been out of teaching for so long now, and although I don't want to go back to it while the children are small, we've had a bit of a scare recently which made me realise how vulnerable we are on just one income. So ... this is a step towards making myself more employable again, a kind of insurance against the time when I need or want to return to teaching.
Not necessarily a 'Frugal February' thing maybe, but I made it part of mine.
"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder..." Thoreau.
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MissEllie
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by MissEllie »

Good on you LBF, looking forward to heaing how you get on :-D

I haven't done a FF diary (mostly because I'm rubbish at keeping things updated and my finances would turn most people's hair grey) but I've been following everyone's and picked up tips. Well done everyone {hug}
The most important thing I've taken from it is to leave my bank card at home so im not tempted to keep taking money out when I don't need it. I'm really hoping I can continue to budget in a sensible way and save myself some extra cash. >fi<
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manda
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by manda »

Good on ya LBF :-D )t'

Ironically February proved to be a rather expensive month for us :? ..but the one thing I suppose I am glad about is that despite that we managed it all....
Frugal Feb is always a good memory jog to keep me going through the year and then the next year another idea gets added to the pot from people's diaries.

I didn't start it in Feb but I am glad I started doing save the change with the bank as it's amazing how quickly that has added up....I will keep that going I think.

Oh and my online auction thingy...well we're charging towards $200 so that's something I'm very happy with ...Frugal Feb spurred me to get my backside in gear and sort things...so thanks for that :-D )t'
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by Stef »

I surprised myself by not really missing anything, those little things normally deemed so necessary - magazines, coffee, window shopping, time wasting stuff...

We lived really happily out of the freezer/cupboards and had fun designing meals that didn't need anything added. We are making list of stuff to buy to use up what is left and have crossed out half of the 'essential' things (like chocolate :-D ).

I think that, for the moment, frugality may have stuck, in a really enjoyable, get some more 'us time' way, which is really nice.

Luckily we don't do 'stuff', you know things for things sake. So the recent staffroom discussions about which phone/pad/movie company etc have completely passed us by and we are looking forward to this year's small things - thankfully we already paid out for the camera :-D
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Spreckly
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by Spreckly »

At the end of February I still had three figures left in my current account!

January was a nightmare financially, OH's birthday is at the end of it, and though I had bought his small pressies over a couple of months, it still made a hole, though we never push the boat out nowadays.

We didn't buy as much meat in February (I don't eat much of it), as we had three pork joints in the freezer, which lasted for several days. The girls started laying again, so we have one egg meal in the evening per week.

Apart from the cash balance, and the meat issue, nothing startling.
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p.penn
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by p.penn »

I didn't do too well either, what with the mods meet up, my daughter's and my grandaughter's birthdays, and a trip away :?

Also my walking the dog to her walk was abandoned, largely due to lack of time, bad weather and hurty hip :oops: However, I am hoping to restart that too
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by clunie »

I must admit that there wasn't too much went right for me re family illness !
More trips to town etc. However we did make meals from the freezer and managed some days without spending.Also delved into cupboards and found out of date jars of sauces which I decided were fine to use. Just shows that you buy things and forget about them, :oops:
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by davina112 »

I didn't do too well generally, although I ve cut back on luxury food items. But I did get £960 refund from my gas/electricity account. It has mounted up over time and I just hadn't been bothered to look online to see it. So I got my refund and my monthly bill has gone down )t'
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by Freeranger »

A couple of things - one is foraging for wood in an area where we were given permission, and collecting a trailer-load of waste wood. This collectively saved us about £300. The other thing is being better about planning meals from existing ingredients, though somehow this hasn't translated to the huge savings I'd expected and offset by expenses as well. I think it takes a little while to get into the swing of things and I feel we got better as time went on, so we're going to carry on into Miserly March.
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by Freeranger »

Oh, and the thing that surprised me is how well we've eaten.
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lancashire lass
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Re: FRUGAL FEBRUARY - My biggest success

Post by lancashire lass »

I suppose my biggest success is that I didn't overspend but I haven't exactly saved or reached my goals either. I made a big effort with grocery shopping at the supermarket - I went in with a list and more or less stuck to it, and cake was always on special offer and never full price .ang. . Even my coffee purchase was about holding back until the special offer was on so I'm even more pleased about that (I have a theory that when prices go up sharply in the supermarket, this is because there is about to be a "sale" or so called price reduction within a couple of weeks after on those items - and I was proved right)
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