Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

taka

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi fruguys and gals, you know how exciting it was for me to get a new bathroom suite? Well, here's one better - today, there's an 18ft fixy-up boat available on our local Freecycle! :rotfl:This would solve my river-crossing problems! What a joint-project that would make!

Thats way better than mine then... its mostly baby/toddler clothes, old tvs and bits of computers :rotfl: Anything better goes in about 0.000001secs :rolleyes:

sophiesmum_2

Welcome back
It's scary how much things grow when you are away for a while, you can check them daily and things don't appear to move but take your eye off them and they run amok;)
Good result with the runner beans:T , Did you do courgettes Shaz?? Just wondered as mine didn't do so well, was wondering how yours had done and where you had grown them? I had mine in greenhouse but think they may have been better outdoors

Janey51

Nyk I obviously didn't read the website properly. I'll go back and have look.
A boat....Have you got the means to actually get it to the river?

Hi Shaz glad you enjoyed yourself. (((Hugs))) now one little fledgling will be flying the nest.

Today I saved £2.75 on my shopping with coupons printed off another thread on MSE.
Managed to get some wood hardener :rolleyes: at 80p cheaper than I had seen it advertised in B&Q and Homebase by nabbing the last tin on the shelf in Wilkinson's.
Parked the car in a disc area and walked into the town centre so saving £1.80 parking charge :j

All savings to go into my holiday terramundi :T

Frugaldom

Hi Shaz, welcome back from hols, hope you had fun and hope you didn't burst into floods of tears in recruitment office when DS signed on the line! Not sure how I'd be with that: makes mental note to ask expensive feeding habits DS if he fancies enlisting

Janey, I was thinking that with this weather, a boat on the river might be good for keeping frugal hens - gives a whole new meaning to 'chicken ark' :rotfl: Nice work with your coupons & savings, too!

Sophiesmum, we had courgettes growing outside in the garden here when we moved in last year but never planted any, as nobody really likes them here. But I froze them all and slowly used them up by hiding them in stir fries, stews, soups and curries, just like I'm doing with all the whoopsied celery, cauliflower and parsnips now. :cool:

I'd defrosted steak & kidney yesterday and cooked it overnight in the slow cooker. Unfortunately, DS spotted the packaging and found out about the kidney. Coincidentally, he's disappeared to DD's under some lame pretense, and I've received the phone call saying he's eating dinner there! :rolleyes: what he doesn't realise is that it'll be put in the freezer to become a pie at a later date! That'll teach him.

shaz_mum_of__2

Sophiesmum - did courgettes outside and they are doing fab i did 4 plants as last year only did one and it wasn't enough getting about 12 a week i have chopped and frozen about 4lb too got loads of big juicy tomatoes which are just starting to redden still using potatoes too

Have a few bits ready to go in for winter well i say a few i bought something similair to this
http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/?PAGEID=20670&STK_PROD_CODE=1080-5380&CTL_CAT_CODE=M21889


and i have curly kale and white sprouting broccoli too oh and leeks and kohl rabi unfortunately the caterpillars ate the sprout plants and the caulis

still eating peppers, cucumbers, chard ,spinach ,runners ,lettuce spring onions and red mustard and pak choi ..............................oh and i give up on carrots???

Nyk my food bill will halve when ds goes and he gets 3 meals a day for £35 a month!!!!

Chicken housing - in John seymours book he shows a chicken ark type house built using overlapping fertilizer/gro bags for a roof

Shaz

BlueFleur

nyk the house isn't anywhere that exciting: we're looking at moving next door but one. They have a roof terrace and a garage, for only £5 more a month I figure that I'll save that on the car insurance alone!

Had a fairly frugal day today. £1 spent on lunch that could have been avoided really, but I'm still nowhere near as organised as you guys.

Frugaldom

BlueFleur, that sounds like the kind of move I can cope with - carrying the furniture out one door, along the street and into the next - just like our last move. :beer: Just wish ours had been financially beneficial instead of costing us 50% increase to find out we'd probably need to move againsooner rather than later. Still, there's been no sign of a surveyor or estate agent yet, unless the 'wee man in a dark suit' outside in the street taking photographs was him?

Not long until interest pay day again! I get so impatient now that I know it'll all be getting spent soon. Ciggie money is creeping up but that's meant for DD's frugal wedding. Cashback is trickling in with £50+ due during September and then, of course, it's almost pay day; thank goodness!

EagerLearner

Hi all and sorry haven't been around much since joining...

It's a confession, we did not do well this bank hol... well, I justify it in my mind though...!

We had been looking for a pepper grinder and bin for a while and managed to find both - cost £25 all in. Got an £8 storage rack from Argus to get more shelf space in the kitchen. Then we also wanted a shoe rack, microfibre cloth and pillow protectors - luckily the £1 store had all these so that was just £3. However, we'd also had lunch out in a pub as we got hungry during shopping - around £16 there... so not great BUT they are all functional and will hopefully last, enabling a less cluttered, fresher smelling house!

Can't see us needing anything in September, so all hands to the pump to save any household money left over at the end of the month. I am confident we will beat the Aug and September grocery challenges too...

BlueFleur

I hope that house works out well. This one has been ok, but the other would be much better value. In theory... I like the idea of the garage as we'll have more space to stock up on store cupboard type ingredients.

I'm so excited about my pay day- first permanent pay check after graduating! Pity it'll only be four day's worth :rolleyes: I think it is the last day of the month, so it should come through on Friday.

MrDT

nykmedia wrote: »

Things have been fairly quiet about here and, with only 20 weeks left to go, I'm hoping that there are still more than just a handful of us left taking part. Could I make this post a list of who is still doing the challenge along with an update of how everyone is doing? I think that may help us to keep track and give us a little boost by seeing who is and who isn't still attempting this. I'll be back to edit in the list with names of those still here

Hello Ladies!

Here are my totals for the year so far (I started April 1st, and am trying a 9 month challenge @£3k):

562.67 - trips (holiday, weekends away, day trips etc)
401.58 - boozy nights out (drinks, taxis, club entry etc)
317.84 - groceries (food, toiletries, household stuff etc)
210.00 - electric
176.21 - eating out (proper meals, also work canteen etc)
80.98 - misc
58.05 - tv license
47.52 - gifts
43.00 - clothes
35.19 - alcohol (beer and wine at home)
17.50 - charity
12.00 - medical

Total spent so far - £1,962.54

Money remaining for the rest of the year - £1,037.46

I can't see there being ANY chance of me managing this.

I'm off on holiday next week, I expect to blow at least £300 in spending money, and don't want to be 'tight' about it either - there's no point going even if I'm going to stress about watching the pennies. No, I'm going to take £300-350 worth of euros with me and will happily wax the lot, that decision has been firmly made Then there's Christmas to come, and more birthdays... There's also the fact that things are shaping up rather nicely with my ladyfriend and it's nice to go out for drinks or meals or whatever with her (yes, we have a lot of nights in and homecooked meals too lol ), and given the chance I might like to disappear away somewhere with her over the New Year... This is all stuff I don't really want to cut back on!

I'm lucky enough to be in the position that this challenge is just an 'experiment' for me. What I've learnt will stick with me, but the 3k for 9 months target will almost certainly go by the wayside. I will keep it as my official target, but really I know I will fail. I guess in the back of my mind I know I'm likely looking at a 4k for 9 months challenge really. Still, that's a huge improvement over what I used to spend I'm sure, and I'm way ahead on my savings target for 2008 (94% of the way already, will pass my target Sept 1st ) so I'm happy

I'll stick around if you'll have me, not that I post much these days! Glad to see loads of you are still doing so well