The Frugal February savings challenge I set myself was to save £250 during the month by adopting as many money saving ideas as I could and living as cheaply as possible. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying my best to eliminate all non-essential spending. Read on for my mid-challenge review.
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Frugal February Savings Challenge – How Much Have I Saved So Far?
I’m now more than halfway through the Frugal February Challenge – hooray! If you haven’t read my first post on this, you may be wondering what the challenge is all about…
The Frugal February challenge I set myself was to save £250 during the month. I’ll do this by adopting as many money saving ideas as I could and living as cheaply as possible. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying my best to eliminate all non-essential spending.
So far the challenge has been… well… somewhat challenging! The purpose of this post is to update you on how I’ve been progressing. For those of you completing the challenge with me, I hope this post helps keep you motivated. I’d love to read in the comments how you’re getting on. For those yet to take up a challenge, I hope this post inspires you to start saving and review your spending behavior. Maybe in March you can take up your own Frugal March Challenge. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it but the sentiment is still the same!
Review Period: Week 1 (1st February) – Week 3 (21st February 2019)
This review covers weeks 1-3 of the challenge. It includes the goals, savings targets for each goal, the amount saved to date and an update on how achieving each goal has been so far. I’ll do a final full review in March once the challenge is complete!
Frugal February Savings Challenge – Goal 1 – Renegotiate Mobile Phone Contract
While this goal should have been the easiest to achieve, I’ve been procrastinating with making the call to my mobile phone service provider EE. I l briefly looked into SIM only contracts online yesterday and saw that the plan I want to switch to is currently £20. I need to purchase the contract for £16 or under to save £20, but I’m confident I’ll be able to get this as I’ve been a loyal EE customer for over 10 years – that has to count for something, right?
Target Savings Amount: £20
Current Savings Amount: £0
Frugal February Savings Challenge – Goal 2 – No More Breakfast On The Go
Photo by Madison Inouye on Pexels.com
I was off sick from work during the first week of February. This made it easy to avoid the temptation of buying breakfast on the go.
Week two was where the challenge really began as I had to resist the smell of fresh pastries as I passed by the coffee shop on the train platform and waited for my train every morning. Some mornings I woke up early enough to prepare breakfast before work, while on other days I had to endure the hunger pains until I reached the office and ate cereal that I keep in my pedestal.
In week 3 I had a cheat day and treated myself to a pain aux raisin and coffee! I enjoyed every second consuming it but felt guilty immediately afterward for not being disciplined enough to resist the temptation. Unfortunately, it’s no longer possible to hit my target savings amount for this goal which I’m annoyed with myself about, but I’ll still keep saving in week 4 so that I can get as close to the target as possible.
Target Savings Amount: £40.80
Current Savings Amount: £27.20
Frugal February Savings Challenge – Goal 3 – Reduce Weekly Food Spend By 35%
It was easy to reduce my food spend in week one by £25 as there was quite a lot of meat and staple food supplies in our cupboard to keep us going even without the weekly food shop. However, as the challenge has progressed, I’ve found myself having to become a lot more creative with our meals.
By week three it was impossible to reduce the food spend by £25 as the cupboards and freezer were becoming bare. I think at this point we’ll be lucky to save anything on the food shop in week four as I’ve literally just defrosted the last packet of chicken so Saturday’s food delivery can’t come soon enough! I’m definitely going to try and save money on food in week four – I’m just doubtful it’ll be £25!
Target Savings Amount: £100
Current Savings Amount: £65
Frugal February Savings Challenge Goal 4 – Apply The 72 Hour Rule
Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com
So far, so good with this goal! I’ve surprisingly found this goal the easiest to achieve as I’ve been somewhat of a hermit this month so haven’t actually been out. I’ve not spent any money on any luxuries or not essential items in the first 3 weeks of February so I’ve been able to save the target amount so far for the month – result!
Target Savings Amount: £40
Current Savings Amount: £30
Frugal February Savings Challenge – Goal 5 – Sell Things From Around The Home
Well, this goal has so far been an epic fail! I’ve not been able to bring myself round to going into the attic to sort through boxes and boxes of old things. I’m going to make the excuse that I’m 7 months pregnant and this will be too physically challenging a task to complete at this stage of pregnancy!
However, I will sort through my wardrobe and the kids’ wardrobes to see if I can find a few items to list on Shpock this week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sell a few bits in the last week and not end the month with a big fat zero in savings against this goal. This goal was meant to be my biggest cash cow in February so to end on zero would be very pitiful!
Target Savings Amount: £100
Current Savings Amount: £0
Bonus Money!
As mentioned earlier in the post, I was off sick during the first week of February. I decided to add the money that I would have spent on travel to the savings pot for Frugal February instead of spending it.
Additionally, I’ve taken two days annual leave from work in February to look after my boys, as their Grandma who would usually watch them on Tuesdays has traveled. I’ve added the money that I would have spent on travel to the savings as well.
Target Savings Amount: £0
Current Savings Amount: £50.50
Summary
So far in February, I’ve been able to save £172.70 of my £250 target which is fantastic! The additional savings from Travel definitely helped me get closer to my target amount. This is great but I’ve still got a lot of work to do in the last week to ensure I smash my target! My focus in the final week is to get selling and switch my mobile phone service provider.
Frugal February Savings Challenge Table
If you’re taking part in Frugal February, let me know how you’re getting in on the comments section below. Also, if you have any additional frugal suggestions let me know. Finally, if you’ve made it to the end of the post please do me a favour and like/comment below to let me know what you thought of the post – I’d love to hear from you!
More Like This:
If you enjoyed this post, ‘Frugal February Savings Challenge – How Much Have I Saved So Far?’, then you will also enjoy my other blog posts on similar topics, check them out below:
8 Ways To Motivate Yourself To Save Money
Frugal February Challenge – Save £250 In 28 Days!
Frugal February Challenge Results – How Much Money I Saved In 28
External Resources:
As well as drawing on personal experience for my blog posts, I also get inspiration from other amazing bloggers. Here are a few blogs that inspired this post.
12 Money Challenges To Help You Save More Money This Year
8 Different Money Saving Challenges to Try
I appreciate your honesty in this blog Tolu!
Thank you Rex!