2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

tryingtodobetter · 8 February 2008 at 9:21PM

I too am a bit confused with the ability to live on £11 a week. In previous posts you have talked about car insurance, have you now got rid of the car? Car expenses are a huge chunk of our budget but living in a rural area we have no other option, the nearest train station is 15 miles away and buses are very few and far between. Please don't stop posting it seems we all have a lot to learn.

CharliesAngel · 8 February 2008 at 9:44PM

Yes - got rid of the car on the 18th January, 4 days before insurance renewal! i get the train free through work.. didn't see any point.. the train station, even though i'm in a rural village, is literally down the bottom of my road.. one of the benefits of living in an old mining village!

I use the net at my parents, which is where i am now.. so no landline.

i grow asparagus, brussels, beans and my sister has chickens so i get free eggs... bluddy loads of them. I buy cheap aldi pasta and tuna (takes me back to student days when i got beans on toast for a week for 50p!) for practically nothing; the kittens get tuna alot of the time and they don't go outside so don't need defleaing.

New clothes? don't buy them. I don't see any need in buying things when what you've got is perfectly okay, can't remember the last time i went into a real shop...

i'm happy.. even if i won the lottery tomorrow i wouldn't spend more than i do now.. but when my debts are paid off i'll not be working three jobs! They are just to pay off the taxman as i was vastly 'undertaxed' in my last job and won't be for much longer, maybe til april.

tryingtodobetter · 8 February 2008 at 9:50PM

I so wish that we could get rid of our cars (yes we have 2) but unless we move there is no way. Our aim is to be more self sufficient so we are starting this year with some container gardening growing potatoes etc.

richoneday · 9 February 2008 at 12:16AM

tryingtodobetter wrote: »

I so wish that we could get rid of our cars (yes we have 2) but unless we move there is no way. Our aim is to be more self sufficient so we are starting this year with some container gardening growing potatoes etc.

we're the same = can't get rid of cars otherwise kids wouldn't be able to go school and I wouldn't be able to go to work. HAve you been to Lidl recently as they had mini containers with veg seeds. I got tomatoes but they had others like squash etc and only cost 69p. Their seends are only 29p too.

Mollymop5 · 9 February 2008 at 12:54AM

I had a bit of a blow out today.DS is away at camp this weekend so I bought him some warm clothes to take with him.I will add it to my spending diary and update at end of the month

Frugaldom · 9 February 2008 at 1:39AM

elantan wrote: »

you sure you wouldnt mind i know i'm late starting but i was thinking £80 a week to do both hubby and i for food,petrol,work (for both) drink,takeaways ,holidays birthdays,xmas,gas,electricity car insurance,car tax,mot...i dont really want to add in the extra that i plan on paying to the mortgage as i really want to get this down likewise i dont want to add in pension payments ...does that sound about right? have i missed off anything?

Elantan, we'd all be delighted to have you join us here and £80 per week isn't so far from the £76.50 that us 4k'ers are supposed to average. Welcome on board :j I'll get your name into post one asap.

Apologies again to all who were offended by my response to CharliesAngel, I'm still baffled as to how anyone can keep a house, 2 indoor cats and themselves on £11 per week. Sorry, just bamboozled.

Apologies, also, for not having been online tonight to catch up with the posts and report back about Billy Can before now. So here goes... :rotfl:

Frugaldom · 9 February 2008 at 2:05AM

Will Power, is my tin can. For fun, I call him Billy Can and he is a true demonstration of what will power can do for you. To all who have already created their little tin friend, I congratulate you! :T

My Billy Can is sitting on my desk right now - empty. Being a handy shape, he can double up as a pencil/pen holder and various other things but mainly, he's there to remind me of Will Power.

A few posts back, I included my recalculated budget to reflect the impact certain bills & expenses have had on my annual spend. There are few places I can cut back other than the grocery shopping so I joined the grocery challenge to do just that. My initial allowance of £30 per week for 3 adults was shortened to £120 per month and, from there, further shortened to £100 for the shorter month of February. It takes quite a bit of will power to stop you buying something your really want, especially when it is on special offer or reduced! But my trusty Billy Can is here to remind me and this is where things get a little bit confusing. Can you control your own will power and demonstrate free will? Or are these 2 completely different things?

Longwinded this may be, but it's quite intriguing and I was amazed the first time I tried this. Keep in mind that the object of this entire challenge is to save money, clear debts and live a frugal life whilst aiming to hit whatever targets we have set ourselves. Will power has brought you this far and now it's sitting on your desk with a nickname - Billy Can.

Work out your grocery allowance - On £120 per month, mine is £3.93 per day (1440/366). It's a good idea to double check your figures against what you have already spent, just in case you need to adjust your budget. Using nothing more than will power, see how much you can shave off one week's grocery bill and, whatever it is, place the cash in your Billy Can. Make sure that you use the correct figures and that you know what your budget is. At the end of next week, there will hopefully be something in your billy can and then we'll see how frugalized we have all become and, hopefully, have a little bit of fun.

hopeless_spendthrift · 9 February 2008 at 6:55AM

Have just rescued an old spinach tin from being sent to the boring old recycling plant! Will 'Billy' it up later today

elantan · 9 February 2008 at 9:50AM

Ok I’ve had a look at this living off of £4,000 a year and I just cant see me doing it even at £80 a week which is £4160 a year I am not gonna make it …I would even struggle on £100 a week or £5200 a year …here’s my breakdown for what I have so far

£100 a month for gas and electricity I have tried to find cheaper but this is the cheapest for our consumption
£50 for t.v/phone/internet we are on the xl package for all of these and use them to the full extent every month, sometimes more for phone bills.
£30 for my mobile I work shifts, long hours and some days the only contact I have with family is by mobile I get 500 any time any network mins and 500 texts per month I also get stop the clock I use the 500 mins every month (sometimes more) I often use my stop the clock twice weekly and my 500 texts per month get used up within 3 weeks
£16 car insurance I just managed to renew my car insurance I got it for less than £200 it was more than £200 but I should get £70 back via quidco taking it to £196 for the year
£10 t.v license I’m not sure exactly how much a t.v licence is I don’t think it is much more than £10 a month however
£4 car tax I’m lucky in that I have a very cheap car to tax
£100 diesel I rarely drive unless it is for work reasons but having two jobs and working shifts I need to think safety and time constraints I travel from one job directly to the other, but basically the diesel consumption is for work.

This comes to £310 a month working on £80 a week multiplying by 52 and dividing by 12 I come out with £346.66 this would leave me with £36.66 a month to give hubby and I work money (hubby works out side and needs hot food he does take soup but understandably get’s fed up with it sometimes) I pay £3 a month for coffee and milk. Also to buy all our food and put money by for birthdays xmas presents and buy alcohol for hubby …without any treats

Now if I do it at £100 a week I am left with £123.33 a month to do all that …I would struggle to even manage to feed the two if us on that a month never mind work/birthdays/xmas etc

And I havnt even budgeted for a holiday (only camping which is really cheap) ..and I’m pretty sure I have missed something else out as well. I also havnt added in the pension payments I am making or the extra payments I am making to my mortgage I am a member of the mfw 2008 challenge and am trying to make payments to that hence the reason I would like to give this a go the more I can shave off my spending the more I can pay towards my mortgage

Now I do plan on growing my own veg etc this year but this is also gonna cost me in start up money buying seeds spending money on the garden etc so I don’t know what is a reallistic goal for me to set …I don’t want it to be impossible but I don’t want it to be easy either.

Sorry for going on but does anyone have any advice?

elantan · 9 February 2008 at 9:52AM

can you tell i was night shift last night lol...i really want to give this a go so please help if you can ...off to sleep for 2 and a hlf hours before i go to job no2 then back to job no1 will catch up soon ...thanks

2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

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