Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Frugaldom

dfw844 wrote: »

Hi Nyk,

I'm redoing my figures this morning. I'm wondering if you could help me out on what to include. I track all my spending in Microsoft Money, and have the following categories:

Bank charges
Bills (except buildings insurance, council tax and water rates)
Car
Clothing
Food
Healthcare (except private healthcare insurance)
Holidays
Household
Leisure & Ent
Misc & gifts
Personal Care
Transport (I call this travel, for petrol, bus fares, train etc as I don't own a car and don't travel much)

So far I have been including all of these except Bank charges, bills, holidays.

But now I'm not sure whether or not to include clothes and things.

Would you mind writing next to each category inc / do not inc or something along those lines. Then it will be a very easy sum in my spreadsheet to give you an up-to-date total of my spending this year.

Thanks very much,

xx

I've marked in red what I include, hope this helps. A car, holidays and entertainment are not essential to life, these are luxuries that usually correspond with our income levels, so cannot be compared

Frugaldom

Agreeing with Janey - I am SICK, SICK, SICK of the rubbish 'summer' weather. Today we have showers interspersed with drizzle and I have a washingmachine load of bed linen that will end up going in the tumble dryer because there's nowhere to hang it indoors that dries it before it sours!

Ddraig, could you look on Freecycle for a tarpaulin, hap or pond liner type thing to throw over the logs and then tie it down? Or what about a portable plastic greenhouse? Again, these need to be tied down, but they are dry and the rare glimpses of sunshine would help dry out wet logs.

I will be struggling to keep to my grocery budget because the weather has meant that my well planned out summer menu using all the organi, homegrown produce is NOT coming to fruition, unless we eat boiled potatoes every single day and these don't count as one of the 5-a-day! with hindsight, veggie growing cannot be cheaper than buying cheap stuff when done on this scale and risking losing most of it to marauding creatures and foul weather conditions.

Off to the postie now, will catch up with the other posts here as soon as I've finished work.

looby-loo_2

Janey51 wrote: »

DdraigGoch wrote: »

[whinge]
Oh yes...the wood is getting used already. At least mine is in a proper shelter
DH always used to say that if wood is well seasoned it doesn't matter how wet it gets but I'm not convinced. And wet wood tends to bring other problems....like slimy slug trails on the carpet.

I am SICK SICK SICK of the rain. It is a case of "what type of rain is it today?" not refeshing showers and periods of sunshine.
I think Mother Nature has gone on holiday or the other Gods have upset her in some way.
It doesn't seem to matter how much incense I go through I'm not connecting with the right deity at the moment :rotfl:

I shouldn't be cooking warming pans of soup in the middle of August.

I'm with you on the wood. My DH always says it doesn't matter if it's wet but I prefer not to have an abundance of little creatures brought into the lounge on the wet logs.

I've been trying to put weed killer on the drive (the only time I use weed killer and only every 4-5 years) for about 6 weeks now but haven't had a dry, none windy day with no rain forecast yet.

slowlyfading

I agree with the weather :mad: not because of wood though, but because I was meant to be at work all day today, but I've been sent home as the shop was dead. BECAUSE of the stupid drizzle-y rain that we've had all day. I needed the money really so yes, not the best day today.

looby-loo_2

nykmedia wrote: »

Agreeing with Janey - I am SICK, SICK, SICK of the rubbish 'summer' weather. Today we have showers interspersed with drizzle and I have a washingmachine load of bed linen that will end up going in the tumble dryer because there's nowhere to hang it indoors that dries it before it sours.

I peg mine on coat hangers from the curtain rail in the back bedroom and leave the window ajar. Seem to work. I've also got some of those oval things with pegs on and I use those too.

I will be struggling to keep to my grocery budget because the weather has meant that my well planned out summer menu using all the organi, homegrown produce is NOT coming to fruition, unless we eat boiled potatoes every single day and these don't count as one of the 5-a-day! with hindsight, veggie growing cannot be cheaper than buying cheap stuff when done on this scale and risking losing most of it to marauding creatures and foul weather conditions.

Opps! I didn't know that - thanks

sukielou75

:hello: Hi All,


Nykmedia, just to let you know that I'm still here, I'm just lurking mostly and reading all of the posts, there are so many useful idea's I pick up from this forum, I wanted to say thanks to the person (I'm sorry I can't remember who it was....long time ago) that recommended a Rose Prince cookery book to me, I bought it and I have to say how wonderful it is, I have been recommending it to all my friends. And also to the person who gave the tip on how to freeze orange juice by putting a sandwich bag in to a glass and filling it up as a means of portion control, I have been using this method for all sorts of things like pasta sauce, curry sauce, rice etc, it's a simple but ingenious idea, many thanks to that person. I only post myself when I think I may have something of use to say (which is not very often as you can see)!


I'm over target for this year but like a few of the other's have said, I'm thinking of it as a training run for next year, I have already made great progress with saving my receipts and writing down everything I spend and also carefully deciding if a product I'm thinking of buying is a “want” or a “need”, if it's a “want” then I don't buy it, I wouldn't have done that several months ago.


Nyk, your little “fixy up” find sounds like a dream come true, How wide is the river from bank to bank? here are a couple of bridge websites but no where do they mention how much it would cost so I can only assume they will be very expensive but you never know, it might be worth a try.


http://www.blackburnfraser.co.uk/?gclid=CPKI3Yi1l5UCFQuJ1Qode0LkgQ


http://beaverbridges.co.uk/


http://www.oakuk.com/bridges.html

dfw844

Thanks Nyk for sorting that all out for me. OK, here are my updated figures (to end July):

Bank charges...£91
Bills................£596
Clothing..........£261
Food..............£876
Healthcare......£107
Misc & gifts.....£325
Personal Care..£220
Transport.......£219
TOTAL SPEND £2695

So I'm not doing so badly after all! 7/12 through the year, so if I'm aiming for £4000 I should have spent £2333.33.
Budget remaining £1305 for 5 months = £261 / month.

I don't know if this doable but I am going to really give it a try. So sorry for all the messing about but Nyk, would you mind putting me down to £4000 a year again? sorry.

I'm fed up with this weather as well. Can't say it's affecting the budget though, as I have just been putting more and more pairs of socks and jumpers on. It's august and I had to get my furry boot slippers out the other day :eek:

Anyway, have a nice day everyone.

I'm a bit down at the moment as it seems like I have been at this debt-busting malarky for ages and I don't really seem to be getting anywhere... I usually update my signature on 1st of month (no particular reason), but I've decided from now on to update it on payday as each month I owe a lot less on payday then it all goes back on the overdraft! I think this will make me feel better, and, after all, the first time my salary goes in the bank and I'm in the black I will be debt-free won't I? It will just take a couple of extra months to get completely out of the overdraft.

Right, sorry for rant. I'll be updating my signature mid-week, so hopefully that will make me feel better.

Hugs to everyone else, we seem to be having a hard time collectively lately don't we. Sophiesmum and Janey are on my mind particularly. On the positive side though I can't stop hoping Nyk gets her dream home (shell?) complete with land for growing veggies, animals, a river, and of course a few marines...

redglass_2

Agree with all the posts about the miserable 'summer', firewood and washing. Like Janey I am also cooking hot soup in August! Chicken with veg, to be precise, which I would normally start having in October or thereabouts. And I'm using my hottie! :eek:

As for the woodpile I foraged, most of it is in a nice dry shed but some has got wet. Does anybody know - if you put tarpaulin over damp wood, does it dry out slowly even in cold weather? Or does it just stay damp until the weather gets hot?

Marru

Hello all,

The rain is driving me bonkers too. I am stucked inside with very energetic almost 4 year old. And I can't get my washing dried. I am seriously considering that when next time tumble drier comes on offer in freecycle I will go for it.

NSD so far but if I manage to get out of the house I need to go and get some food as now I have a working fridge. Also need to make a new appointment for my piggy and collect a new bottle for urine sample. And as recently every time I have had a cold it seems to go into my eyes so need to pop into chemist to get something for them.

I had a look at one of those bridge sites and now I wish I had a river to put one of the bridges over it :rotfl:

Better try to get out before it rains again...

DdraigGoch

unfortunately, re covering up the wood, we have a pile that is - unchopped lumps - about 20' long, 6' wide and 4' high .... I worked out that I need about 2-3K logs just to keep warm!! Logs being 20" long by 8" square - I have a big stove! It's a 20Kw Woodwarm and EATS logs, but it doesn't half chuck out the heat.

Not whingeing really, just fed up. I really don't know how we'll manage without going into debt. I budgeted for the wood and now have to buy more AND the price has gone up - hey ho. It could all be so much worse - at least I am not living in Georgia and being chased to hell and back, so I'm back to PollyAnna.

Sorry, feeling really grim today.

I'll take my misery somewhere else - see you later.

oh and I did go shopping ..... not a good idea when I'm in a bad mood, I spent £10.40odd on 2 loaves of bread [reduced to 46p each], a bottle of £2.99 wine as a treat [oh, how the mighty are fallen!], a bottle of cloudy lemondade, a bag of brioche rolls as a treat, a bar of hazelnut heaven as a treat, a bag of mozzarella as a treat ... beginning to see a trend here?

Thanks for the advice, I'll go and make a frugal cup of tea and sit and fume for a while *grin*

all the best to everyone
DG