Frugal February

Chocs/sweet have gone to DGC ( not good for them really, I should have eaten them myself and saved their teeth), only two pieces of cake left but DH bought himself a trifle today (M&S £10 meal deal).
We have until Thursday.

Everyone welcome.

Use these last few days to eat/throw out/ feed to the birds or grandchildren/compost that left over Christmas cake/Quality Street/mince pies ???

Roll on next Thursday

OldMeg I think that February is a much better month to be frugal and/or try to lose weight. There seem to be so many things left from Christmas and I can never understand how some people manage to start a diet on 1st January.
We've nearly finished the Christmas cake, should be well gone by 1st February.
We still have some bottles of wine that may need finishing though.

I'm with you. I'm doing Slimming World, its working slowly.
It can certainly be pretty frugal.

I'd like to join you please. I do the 16:8 and was doing well but I've lost focus a bit lately.

16:8 works for me too.. and it is worth taking a more 'focused' approach on going down to frugal eating during the 8hr window every now and then with weight loss and money savings as added bonus! I am joining

How delicious lbc but it is still only January and February is another month !

I'd love to join you but I'm afraid I blotted my copybook by buying a packet of five white chocolate cookies and I ate all of them.
I'll go and sit on the naughty step.

I read about the 16:8 diet but I did wonder if it would be dangerous for anyone prone to anorexia. The buzz the promoter of it described by not eating breakfast reminded me of the buzz that keeps people with anorexia high and addicted to endorphins that encourages them to starve.

I generally stick to 16:8 but with only having about 7lbs to lose I find that’s more about maintainence. This is just to skim off that extra few pounds so I’ll be 16:8 but being frugal for those 8 hours.

Merry March sounds good to me - enjoy

Nanny41, I'm living the 16:8 too and finding it suits my lifestyle perfectly. One of the beauties of it for me is exactly as you describe with your husband in that I can eat anything I fancy and that most certainly includes items which would be a huge no on any other weight loss programme I've ever seen. I've lost the desire to over indulge but I still do rather well. The secret seems to be in the 16 hours when the body 'rests'. I'm so grateful it's working for me. I've had failure in the past after real effort and now I'm finding this effortless. Joy!

DH is on a 16:8 and has lost quite a bit, dont know how, as he eats all sorts of things during the eight hours he is allowed to eat, cream in food, also a lot of cheese dishes and loads of eggs, maybe these are good for you, but I am doubtful, any thoughts on this gratefully received

OldMeg

gillybob - a trick to ration butter (which I love and will not supplement). I buy those plastic boxes that have butter wrapped in portions - 10/15gr, the kind they give you in hotels. It costs more but I put it in the freezer so it stays fresh until finished. I remove one before I go to bed. In the morning it is soft. I cut it into FOUR pieces and spread these on 4 buckwheat or rice cakes to which I add apricot jam. That is my breakfast with good old builders' tea. No good for baking cakes though!

Going on big birthday trip to America with my son, his 30th my 60th, in May and want to be a stone lighter if I can so will gladly join in. Trying to keep calories to around 1200 per day with no snacking apart from 2 pieces of fruit.

My eating regime is already considered frugal by some peoples' reckoning but I now consider it as my regular lifestyle so, sorry, won't be joining you but good luck to all of you who indulge and hope you have a satisfactory outcome.

Welcome Greenfinch a girl after my own heart I see - waste not (or should it be waist not?)

I’m using these last few days in January to look out a few recipes and ideas and use up anything tempting in the house.

Who said I did a dry January David? It’s a silly idea when all that Christmas alcohol needs to be used up ?

We're supposed to follow "Dry Januaty" with "Frugal February"?
Oh dear. Wonder what March will bring ....

I will join you too.
I wasn't ready for it in January with all the festive leftovers but now with only two mince pies to go I am ready .

Yes not knowing what your income will be from month to month is difficult. But perhaps you could construct a basic income from the past year and try to work from that? Anything extra can be saved or if a month is short then you may have a little to fall back on.

Hark at me!! The worst saver in the world I know all the theory, putting it into practice is the difficult part.

I was losing weight nicely before Xmas and gained a few lbs over the festive season but am back on track again. 1 lb to go to get back to pre-Xmas weight. It is hard work!
I am due a diabetic review in latter half of February so that is a great incentive to keep on track.

It’s the unexpected things that throw me whitewave as we don’t have savings to fall back on. It doesn’t help that we don’t get a steady regular income so hard to budget too far ahead.

I agree about avoiding processed foods. Not only do they cost more but they can’t be healthy. I am now batch cooker extraordinaire. I even manage to get some into my own freezer sometimes before “the gannets” descend .

Thanks to the lurgy we spent most of January surviving on mugs of tea and comforting slices of toast.

I intend to make up for all that in February!