Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

EagerLearner

I still have mine and am guilty of not having used them the past 4 or so washes as I forget... I do add half washing powder and half soda crystals though.

Must use them some more - just need a decent bag for them...

Frugaldom

EagerLearner wrote: »

I still have mine and am guilty of not having used them the past 4 or so washes as I forget... I do add half washing powder and half soda crystals though.

Must use them some more - just need a decent bag for them...

I ordered mine from here It was only £4 for a whole year, the little bag came along with them free of charge. :T Just goes to show that you can be both frugal and eco-friendly.

bails

I still use mine, although OH doesn't, but I do most of the washing. Still having the hair problems though and we did also buy some Ecover stuff at OH's insistence.
Having a truly rubbish day here, hope everyone else is doing much better than me! To top it off, got to shell out £280, possibly more on my car + MOT this month and another vet visit plus more flea stuff :eek:
Does anyone else get truly fed up with being so skint sometimes?

dfw844

Bails - all the time! Especially when it's smartprice pasta for dinner. Again.

Redglass - I started using soapnuts a few months ago (the actual nuts you put in the bag), and I'm sorry to report they really didn't work. My washing was still visibly dirty when I got it out of the machine. Does anyone have any tips? Should I get another bag and use double the quantity? Or mine did come with a recipe to make liquid detergent from them by boiling them, might this be better? Thanks for any ideas.

I've had a busy but productive day. Tidied the bedroom, cleaned the bathroom, did a load of washing, cleaned all the kitchen surfaces, made blueberry muffins to use up fruit & oven space while lunch was cooking, and listed 8 things on ebay.

So why do I still feel like a lazy c*w who should get on and do something? Maybe because if I'm honest, despite all my effort, the rest of the place is still a bit of a tip...

x

mama67

DH is on holiday this week so today we have done a carboot sale with the boys outgrown toys/books etc and some of my jams /chutneys and niknakks.

Have managed to raise £35 profit, there are others on Saturday and Sunday, so we will be heading to those as well trying to sell off things which would normally just be donated to charity or binned. They wanted a dart board; bought one there for £3, so just need to get some darts with some of the profits raised.

After we have finished the carboot season any things which will sell in cash converters will be taken there and then the rest donated to charity.

There are loads more boxes of baby toys/clothes etc in the loft which can eb sorted for next year.

Any profits made after finishing for the year will be used for a family treat, as all memebrs have contributed to the sales.

lyndasharp

I've got my car back, hooray! I really need her to drive to work with all this horrid weather.

Had a slightly traumatic day at work throwing things away. Old stock from the 1990s that has been stored in pallets for ages. There's a limit to how much wrapping paper myself and the co-workers can keep for ourselves. Some has gone to a local school, but the rest is going in the skip. It has the old logo on so can't be sold, and as we've been told to skip it all we are worried that we'll get in trouble if we charity shop or car boot it. It just seems such a waste!!!! My 6 month contract extension is a work in progress but it looks like that'll be sorted out soon, so really don't want to upset the people in charge right now! However if there are any requests for molecule/alien/spaceman wrapping paper or spaceman/alien stickers for personal use only (if it turns up on ebay I'll be :mad: ), collection from my house in Wroughton near Swindon, let me know by about 10pm tonight as we'll be chucking the rest away tomorrow. 50ish sheets of wrapping paper in the big packs, or single sheets with gift tags available!

Nyk, good luck with the house buying!

I still use soapnuts, but have temporarily switched to Asda 2in1 stuff just for a few washes now that I've been using soapnuts for 6 months. My whites are looking a bit dull so thought I'd get some 'normal' tablets to see if that gives them a colour boost.

Off to see if I have ingredients for cheese straws. If not I'll have to venture to the shop in the rain, as I've got no food for lunch tomorrow. Might make a sponge cake too if there's enough butter....

Edit: there wasn't enough butter, but I am making meringues from the egg whites left over from the cheese straws instead!

Marru

Hi all,

I have had a mixed feelings day today.

Morning went to tidying up the house and cleaning my ratties ready for my lovely cleaning lady to come and do her stuff. Then with a terrible rush to my mystery shop, I got there later than I expected so went to meet my friend first and then did my mystery shopping. I forgot to do the basic thing to check what was on the left and opposite my target (did check what was on the right) so I hope that as I got everything else that wouldn't matter. Back to pick up DD in a traffic, had to call the nursery that I was going to be late. And that is it, day gone.

The service man for the fridge-freezer came and went. He came and said that the compressor had gone and that is due to fact that it was low on gas. Doesn't say anything to me but fair enough. So off he went and said that the company needs to decide if it is economical to fix or should they send me a new one. Needless to say that I haven't heard from the "company" ever since. This is now fourth day without fridge and freezer. I didn't even go and check my food yesterday and don't really feel like doing it now so that will be egg and cheese on toast again for supper for me. Luckily DD eats at the nursery for couple of more days. I am so overdue a stock up shop but can't do it until I get a working fridge and freezer where to put that stuff.

DD's dad called this morning out of the blue like nothing had happened and asked about tax return deadlines and if I could help with the enquiry from last year. He does have cheek. I promised only to talk to him after he calls the tax people and finds the letter they sent him.

I should clean my piggies but really can't do it as I feel I am going down with cold. I have to leave that for the morning as I am feeling really rubbish. Thank goodness I didn't have any trouble putting DD to bed. Especially as I had difficulties getting her up this morning - she also has cold.

Tomorrow is going to be exciting day as the broadband switchover is due to happen. I am hoping that my message tomorrow evening (if I can get online in first place) is going to be full of these: :j and not these: :mad: My phone line has been switched over today. It was so funny, first they called me that they need to charge me around 120 for engineer visit (luckily went into answer phone so I never agreed) and then I got letter adressed to Mr Marru saying that no engineer visit was necessary. I was happy about the saving money fact and have done "gender switch" today to get my records correct to avoid conversations in the future where they won't talk to me about my account as they can only speak to Mr Marru about it.

Needless to say that I haven't got a reply to my reply to that personal ad so I will retire from the world of personal ads and dating sites and please remind me of this decision if I end up venturing there again.

Those were the news from our mad world today. Off now to feel sorry for myself and to eat yet another meal of egg and cheese on toast.

Nighty night,

Marru

PS almost forgot the good news - got £4 worth of luncheon (?) vouchers from a survey sent to me today. I have decided not to add this to my free money challenge but to keep them as a treat to use for a meal or coffee out.

Brighton_belle

Just done 1/2 monthly accounts. Things are going to be a wee bit tight here for the next 2.5 weeks. Got loads of food in mind, so much practice using up what I've got in. Cost more to restrap and battery a watch today than buy a new one, but at least I didn't make landfill I guess. And it is a fab tintin watch. Haven't worn a watch for 2 years though and been generally fine without but needed wrist 'jewelry' for smart do at the weekend:o . Bought flour and yeast from asda today to try the no knead bread recipe:j . And got very close to planting a sprouted potato but last minute diversion of OH tax problems sorting and asda.
Co-op are selling 36 weetabix for price of 24 at the mo. Can't stand cereal in the morning but it's a great filler before bed for me.
Sounds like one of those days best over Marru :grouphug: .
Managed to avoid the temptation of charity shops today as I walked home from mosaic class. So nearly a NSD if you ignore the watch and asda and the bus:rotfl: .

Frugaldom

There's only 20 WEEKS left to go!

Can you believe it? 20 weeks today and we'll have completed this challenge and be ready to start 2009! :eek: I'm just hoping that food prices don't go up as it's my grocery part of the challenge that's the most difficult, I think, but I know there is so much more I could do to cut down on utility bills if I had my own house, rather than month to month rentals. This one's like trying to heat a lighthouse! :rotfl:

FREE BINGO!! Must go claim my tickets and then see what's to be done before DGD wants amusing. It's been so miserable during July & August so far that trips anywhere have been off the menu! :mad: We haven't even been to the beach once since holidays began and the schools go back next week!

Janey51

Hi frugal friends.
Haven't been around for a while as life is getting difficult as the reality of being a widow sinks in. It's pretty c*** really.

Anyway, good friend's partner has made me 2 huge wooden planters which will be big enough for me to grow vegs in :j

It looks as if things are finally starting to happen on re-building the burnt out bits of the house :T

I am going to totally blow my budget and decorate my bedroom :eek:

Marru many years ago I had a great time when I joined Dateline Met some nice men but nothing really clicked I would say go for it and as long as you are careful about personal safety, you will have a ball. I did

Soapnuts: I am still using them but I have to admit that I do use detergent on tea towels and dish cloths. But only the cheapie stuff from Aldi. I find soapnuts great for the quick washes I do. I am still on the first bag I bought ages ago.

Yesterday I made a big batch of curry sauce from Curry Queen's recipe as I had all the ingredient's in the cupboard. I have a load of sad vegs left, some reduced chicken drumsticks and some cream so I will be making up single meal portions and freezing them. Should feed me for the forseeable future