Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Janey51

Hi MrDT. Personally, I think money spent enjoying yourself is well spent and your frugalness in other areas will help to fund your hedonistic lifestyle :rotfl:
It's amazing how money accumulates when you think twice about what you are spending.

Are you going anywhere nice?
I am off to very hot climes in 2 weeks time :j and I am so ready for a bit of sun before winter proper sets in :rolleyes: although how we will tell the difference is debatable.

Janey51

The Squirrel Saga

I am blessed to live in Squirrel Nutkin country and used to see them regularly on the bird table until the arrival of Extremely Noisy Feline in the Janey household. Beatrix Potter eat your heart out

We are being invaded by the southern grey squirrel aka Tree Rats or Tree Vermin locally. They carry the Squirrel Pox and are wiping out Squirrel Nutkin's family.

So, one morning I am in the shower and hear DH coming into the bathroom. I peered round the side of the shower curtain to be greeted with DH complete with red squirrel sitting calmly on his hand :huh:

A little unusual but I was used to that with DH :rolleyes:

Being an observant soul, I noticed it had not moved.

"Is it OK?" I asked.

"Well" said DH, "It's not very well" :rotfl:

Dead as a doorpost in fact :eek:

DH had been outside and seen Nutkin sitting by the hedge. He knew something was wrong as it never flinched when he walked up to it.
We do not know whether it died of fright or just decided today was a good day to die

"Shall I freeze it?" asked DH.

"Ok" says Janey and went back to her shower.

This gives you the flavour of life with DH.

I now have a frozen squirrel in the freezer (triple wrapped) which is a great conversation stopper when taken out at parties.
For obvious reasons, his visits are short :rotfl: but provoke varying degrees of disgust and fascination.

And I could always eat him.

Squirrel on a stick :T
Munchity Crunchity :rotfl:

Buzzbox

Janey51 wrote: »

The Squirrel Saga

I am blessed to live in Squirrel Nutkin country and used to see them regularly on the bird table until the arrival of Extremely Noisy Feline in the Janey household. Beatrix Potter eat your heart out

We are being invaded by the southern grey squirrel aka Tree Rats or Tree Vermin locally. They carry the Squirrel Pox and are wiping out Squirrel Nutkin's family.

So, one morning I am in the shower and hear DH coming into the bathroom. I peered round the side of the shower curtain to be greeted with DH complete with red squirrel sitting calmly on his hand :huh:

A little unusual but I was used to that with DH :rolleyes:

Being an observant soul, I noticed it had not moved.

"Is it OK?" I asked.

"Well" said DH, "It's not very well" :rotfl:

Dead as a doorpost in fact :eek:

DH had been outside and seen Nutkin sitting by the hedge. He knew something was wrong as it never flinched when he walked up to it.
We do not know whether it died of fright or just decided today was a good day to die

"Shall I freeze it?" asked DH.

"Ok" says Janey and went back to her shower.

This gives you the flavour of life with DH.

I now have a frozen squirrel in the freezer (triple wrapped) which is a great conversation stopper when taken out at parties.
For obvious reasons, his visits are short :rotfl: but provoke varying degrees of disgust and fascination.

And I could always eat him.

Squirrel on a stick :T
Munchity Crunchity :rotfl:

:T

:rotfl:

Now this is where I'll have to agree with the other folks on this thread, you definately need to write a book...:rotfl:

fizzel81

good morning, i hope all are well

a quick update from me, been hetic here with the holidays (plus im trying to ween myself off being on the computer so much)

had quite a frugal holidays i brought the boys a trampolene and its the best 20 quid ive ever spent (its one for under 8s based on the bigger versions)

so im just i think still nicely on target, off out in a bit but promised a proper catch up later.

ds starts reception next week and little 2 playschool, that will give me more me time

whitewing

Wonderful news. MIL is moving out this weekend into a tiny flat in our home town. She is excited but I think she feels a little pushed out. (Which, if I am honest, she is!).

I seem to be fab at organising other people, but things for myself are really going awry at the moment. Nasty situations are getting worse. And our tax credits are halved, which would be okay but I hadn't realised until I checked my account and saw a much lower amount. I wanted that for DS' new clothes. I'm cross with myself that I don't know what I'm looking at on these official forms.

bails

If you're talking about benefits forms Whitewing, I can empathise :mad: I'm embarrassed that as a postgraduate I can't understand them fully and then get angry at how anyone on benefits is meant to comprehend them. It summed it all up for me when I took one form into the benefits office to ask them to explain it to me and they said 'Oh, we have no idea what it all means either' :eek: Great news about MiL moving out, it will be fab for you to have your space back.
Nice to see you MrDT, glad things are going so well with your 'ladyfriend' (are you in fact 80? :rotfl:). I agree with Janey, socialising money is money well spent and you are doing brilliantly anyway, especially with your house deposit :T Maybe you'll be moving in with your OH one of these days...;)
Hiya Fizzel, nice to see you too! Trampoline sounds like an ace idea for keeping the little ones happy!
:rotfl:at the munchity crunchity squirrel Janey, and more support for your book!:T What ARE you going to do with the squirrel really? As they're protected, maybe you should get rid of the evidence in case someone thinks you killed it purely to pull out as a dinner party piece :rotfl:
In the Bails household, I have finally made the chilli this morning. PHEW! The weather is hopeless and doesn't help with amusing myself all day :rolleyes: Gis a job someone, anyone...

System

keeping hens in a boat on a river?

keeping deceased squirrels in your freezer?

I thought i was slightly eccentric, but you lot take the biscuit!

i have finally toted up my spends for this month (so far) i spent £110 on my holiday week, so not sure where to include that/if i should start a mini challenge to pay for it (don't want in ruining my beautiful beautiful budget!)

ps Janey, did you ever see the episode of 'come dine with me' where the woman whipped out the (stuffed) pet mouse she had had as a 9 year old? maybe you should invite her to your next soiree... :rotfl:

MrsHayes

Ahh for some reason I cannot get onto this site on my computer this week! The only way I can do it is if I use a proxy server which is making everything look funny and run so slowly so I\'m sorry I\'m not replying to posts very much. I wish it would sort itself out it was fine last week!Thanks Nyk - I was just surprised that we were so far out but as you say we have 4 months to fine tune things and hopefully get the budget down. I was hoping to have a NSD today but had to go to the shop over the road to get some sausages as the ones I bought in Lidl at the weekend had a very odd taste to them after we tried them for the first time last night! 3 of my meals were planned around sausages this week so had to replace them. Oh well at least the dogs enjoyed them! Hope everyones well xx

Brighton_belle

Right, I 've just had one of my free pig's trotters for lunch. Enjoyed the whole experience but don't think I will use the other two. I don't want them to go to waste - would they be something I could give to someone with a dog? Ooh, perhaps I could offer them on freecycle.
Janey the squirrel; that reminds me of an episode of the dating prog 'Would like to meet' in early 2000's when a chap kept stuffed former pet mice/gerbils in his living room. The presenter felt this contributed to him not being sucessful in the dating stakes; just shows how wrong she was - some women wouldn't bat an eylid obviously:rotfl: .
Taking a leaf from Nyk's book and decluttered on freecycle a popcornmaker. The Foreman grill probably going the same way.
Marru - great you have at last got the new f/f. I do hope both you and DD feeling better at last. I'm not suprised you've not been able to be very frugal lately, or put some weight back on. I think things will pick up for you once your new routine starts in Sept + new fridge. August can be a very difficult month. Have a fab time on you course next week
Whitewing - what great news re the m-in-l. Even if shes the nicest woman in the world, I think it will be lovely for you to have your own space. And maybe ultimately help her make more of a social life for herself (I say this knowing nothing about her so maybe she does that already). Living on your own does mean you have to make more effort.
Eeking out food and petrol till the weekend as don't want to break in to Sept pay until 1st Sept.
Bails, if you move to Brighton I'll job share with you:)

tryingtodobetter

Just had to share the fact that I have listed my first ever item on ebay (it's only taken me about 2 years to get round to it!) Hope everyones having a good day.