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How to save money in 2008: July review. Frugal living – cool or cruel

Japanese anemone“Do you think that people will revert after the credit crunch?”
Danny mused this evening. “If you won the lottery, what would you do now? You know you can easily shave pounds a week off your food bill with a bit of ducking and diving. Would you continue your challenge or just purr into Newmarket and buy the freshest and best?”

A question that has had me thinking seriously for the last 24 hours. Our save money challenge 2008 has taught me such a lot. Largely the difference between want and need.

We are shaving our over the counter costs. If we had more money, why spend more? As my mum said this afternoon as she fingered the wide range of liquid soap.
“Any saving means more money for other things and ideally for fun.”

It’s now cool to shop in the cheapest outlets. In the Independent Newspaper this Saturday Janet Street Porter was featured shopping in Netto. I propped the page immediately beside my home smoked bacon and toast.

She made some very pertinent points. Although Netto sells few UK ingredients most are flown in from abroad. Organic is not part of their language. If you worry about air miles and your carbon footprint, Netto is probably not for you. Most people that I’ve seen shopping in Netto are on tight budgets and have to keep costs to a minimum. Netto is a godsend. Similarly the marked down food section of Tesco.

So many people are switching and going to the cheaper supermarkets such as Asda and Netto that the next tier up is now fighting back. The price war has people like me singing as I shop. Sainsburys, Morrisons and Tesco are slashing prices.

This afternoon I bought half a duck from Tesco for £2.14. I had been searching for chicken wings and drew a blank. The duck was a far better option. They were also pushing their organic veg today – two items for £2.00. Even Waitrose were selling three for the price of two across a wide range of vegetables.

So for the first time in two years we celebrated these bargains, took time out from the computers and had a barbecue. We feasted beside the wild life pond and lingered in the warm still air until midnight. The Min Pins snoozed under the garden table, hoping for scraps. Then we dressed the bed in crisp clean sheets that had dried quickly in the sun this afternoon.

Savings this month have been 35%. Largely down to eating far less meat, buying food and household goods on offer and cutting food waste to a minimum. Frugal living does not necessary mean compromising on quality. It’s more a shift in mindset. How can I have a well rounded life for the minimum cost?


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14 Comments

  1. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Moonroot

    Great that you did the meme!

    No we are not suffering at all with the 2008 save money challenge. The buy no flowers 2007 challenge was far harder and still hurts – it’s been continued forever.

    Hopefully the save money challenge will be forever too!

    Hi S.O.L.

    Your comment on the stick blender must have been lost in the ether. What a shame.

    Good game “ how little can I get by on? Must try this. I find it so easy to make excuses to spend.

    Hi Lizzie

    We are talking a big, life changing, shake to the roots win. A million pounds plus.

    I think that I™d do the same as you  – Waitrose rather than Asda.

    Hi Kate(uk)

    We™ve found the same. Loads of veggie meals are superb and we also eat semi it a meat garnish! He cost of meat is horrifying. We are still eating steak every week but last week Danny finally suggested that we just buy one to share. Thumbs up for the budget!

    Hi Quaker Journo

    We talked about want and need and it hit home. Thank you for underlining an essential.

    Hello Gordon

    This was sale price meat. Half price. This means that a whole duck would normally be the average price paid for a supermarket duck “ around eight quid. How much do you pay for duck? I also buy half price free range duck from Waitrose. Even more delicious. Three for two vegetables are a godsend for people on a budget.

    We have bought free range chicken for years. They just taste better and we are quite happy to pay a bit more for the privilege but are aware that it is a privilege to be able to afford to buy free range meat once in a while.

    We™re raising ducks for a friend. This breed of ducks are egg layers. If they eat them at the end of the day they would be mad as they don™t have much meat, being a slim and rangy breed. Normally we just raise chickens for their eggs. Ours are not knocked on the head at 2 years old when egg production diminishes. They are here for life. They are friends.

    Hi Magic Cochin

    I went to Aldi once and wasn™t keen but finds have been recently and apparently things have changed!

    I never buy turkey meat. No prinky middle class stuff about origins, we just don™t like the texture. We eat goose at Christmas. With less than a handful at table a turkey would be crazy. We get goose fat for a year (take £30 off the price of the bird) and it™s the supremo treat. The investment is huge (free range) but the enjoyment is enormous and the by product makes it a bargain (if you use goose fat in your roast potatoes!).

    Hello Organic Viking

    You are so right, why spend more if you can live happily on less.

    Hello Pamela

    Your comment made me think very hard about our 2008 challenge. And thanks for that. I™ve never thought of Newmarket as a shopping Mecca but now I realise how lucky we are. We have a market (usually and Saturday “ generally I™m working so can™t visit). But we have Waitrose, Netto and Tesco. Plus a few corner shops, two butchers and a deli.

    I can™t imagine a worse hell than having to shop solely at the co-op. My mum has one just around the corner from her house. It is light years away from the original Cooperative stores. As you say it™s expensive. The fresh goods are wilting before you buy them.

    Why not visit the allotments and talk to the people about the fallow plots. You might find that an allotment materialises a bit faster. Just a thought.

  2. Pamela

    I think we should all be looking at how much food we buy regardless of our individual budgets. Recent reports in the press about how much food we throw away certainly rang true for me in the days when I didn’t need to take too much notice of how much I spent in the supermarket. Now on a very tight budget I have no choice but to buy from the condemned counter and special offer section and don’t have the financial freedom to worry about foodmiles. We are losing our Somerfield store soon and will be left with just the Co-op which is more expensive so more pressure on my budget and which also opens the door for Tesco to move into the town but their proposed site is also the site of our weekly market – my other source of reasonably priced fresh food. So, unless another location can be found for the market, that might go too. Roll on the day when I finally get to the top of the allotment list and I can grow my own veg as serendipity did not smile on me and I’m not moving any time soon.

  3. The Organic Viking

    With regard to ‘reversion’ in spending patterns, one of the really heartening things for me about an income that has vastly increased this year (the end of student days!) is that our spending patterns have barely changed at all. In part this is because we have a really small flat and garden, but we also don’t really see the point of suddenly buying stuff that we were managing perfectly well without!

    Having said that, the (ex-)vegetarian in me really distruste cheap animal products. Bring on the discount cabbbages instead!
    Sal

  4. magic cochin

    We sometimes go to Aldi – one of our nearest stores – as neighbours tell us we’re missing out. But the list of “great bargains” didn’t include antthing I usually buy! Eggs – our hens supply them and I wouldn’t buy battery or even barn eggs (no free range available), bottled water – what’s wrong with tap, biscuits – try to avoid, especially ones with dodgey fat in them.

    I also avoid buying duck from a supermarket as I don’t want to endorse mass rearing of ducks – kept in horrid messy conditions. Just as I avoid cheap turkey meat – a traditionally reared bird is a treat at Christmas. Stick to buying meat from that nice butcher!!!

    On a positive note I don’t have to rummage quite as much to find British and often local veg and fruit in our local Sainsbury’s – so easier to avoid having to buy imported out of season produce. and they have started selling bags of mixed size/mishapen veg at a cheaper price. If you’re going to chop them up why do veg need to be perfect and uniform!

    Celia

  5. Gordon Watt

    Heartening? Sickening more like… I am totally aghast. Either I’ve missed something or I haven’t been following this blog long enough, but how can someone who rears ducks celebrate low price duck meat. Or 3 for two veg? Why not go the whole hog (excuse the mixed metaphor) and get some half price chicken while you’re at Tesco? Cheap food is just that – producing good food simply costs more.

    While enjoying your “bargain” duck, why not have a read at “Shopped” by Joanna Blythman. Don’t choke…

  6. Quaker journo (with red bathroom )

    Heartening piece, Fiona. Thank you. Some folk never give a thought to the relationship between want and need.
    There’s a Quaker maxim: “the simple life freely chosen is a source of strength”. Be strong.

  7. Kate(uk)

    Meat really is ruinously expensive-well, good meat is- my daughter has been a veggie for years, so the easiest thing was for us all to eat the same, so we just had a little meat occasionally. We feel much better for eating less meat and the food bills are much smaller. Even though she has left home we still eat very little meat, I look at the cost and nearly faint away… suddenly the urge to have a large joint for Sunday lunch fades as I think we might as well just roast some tenners and be done with it, anyway, there are just so many lovely veg out there waiting to be cooked!

  8. lizzie

    I think if I was overcome with cash I would still cook from scratch, or maybe have someone cook for me (how much cash are we talking about here??), and I like to think I would use up leftovers and not waste food, just like now. However I would probably pay more for the source material than now. Shopping at Waitrose though instead of ASDA.

  9. S.O.L.

    I read a variety of blogs that run along the same lines of your own. Although I dont smoke my own bacon I am finding more frugal ways. It is becoming a game. How little can I get by on?

    I thought I also left a comment about your stick blender, but it didnt appear. I save huge amounts of time using my stick blender. It has other attachments and I use it every time I cook. I have blogged about it before. I love it! lol

  10. moonroot

    I find your frugal living experiment inspirational. And it’s very interesting that you don’t seem to feel you’re suffering as a result. As you say, it highlights the difference between want and need.

    I have finally done my meme by the way! Thanks for tagging me.

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