Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Woodyrocks

This is just another perfect example of why I love this site. It can and does encourage self betterment :T I shall be signing up for the 2009 challenge please, if you will all have me that is, as it is too late for this year I would imagine. I shall be aiming for £415pm and will be saving for the sickest and most luxurious of holiday

Thanks for the link Nyk, I wasn't aware of the site but I am signing up right now.

p.s the kids I teach assure me that sick means fabulously amazing btw :rotfl:

bails

Aah, thanks Nyk! As for the growing your own, it has only been partially successful here too, but I figure we can only improve next year My courgette flowers are currently falling off which is where I figured the courgettes would come from, so I'm just waiting to see if they magically appear from somewhere else (as in some other part of the plant rather than the market :rotfl:). I guess that's the great thing about not having a clue what I'm doing, there's always an element of surprise; it's like being a kid again actually :jI've only had 3 ripe tomatoes so far, a few more are coming but who knows if the others will ever ripen? What about making chutney for pressies if you don't like it yourselves?

Yae, another teacher!:T Ooh, tell us about your sick hol then! And you are more than welcome to stick around for the rest of the year, lots of peeps have joined late and are practising for next year, which in effect is what we're all doing anyway

Janey51

Hi Woodyrocks. Always nice to find another MSE person who has contracted the deadly Frugalitis.:laugh:

This afternoon, me, Cat and the wheelie bin went for a walk to the end of the road.
Wheelie bin had a rest and Janey and Cat sauntered on through the woods as the sun was shining :eek:
Saw a red squirrel boucing along the path which confused Cat a little. He made a mad dash towards Nutkin who was totally unconcerned and leapt up a nearby tree.
Cat sat down and cleaned his tail to show he wasn't really bothered
Found a load of mushrooms which I think are Chanterelles. My nephew loves mushrooms so me and Cat gathered a load and then brought them home.
I have spent an hour on the web learning about identifying edible fungi and I am 99.99% sure they are Chanterelles
It's the other .009% I'm a little concerned about
Went back outside and picked up a load of cones to dry for lighting the fire and some oak leaves to dry for Christmas (the C word :eek: ).

Have now got a freezer full of apple pies and crumbles. All I need now are some more visitors

I am going to make my Christmas Puddings at the end of September. (the C word again :eek: )

I have half finished the back of the jumper I am knitting....first knit project for years. I am going to look out for cheap wool to make Christmas presents.

Friend and I are going to do a car boot next month.

I need to make some biscuits :T

To all of you lazing on a Sunday afternoon...hope you feel guilty :rotfl:

Skint_Lynne

Hi there,

I am going to go back to the very beginning and read all parts of this thread. I think I'm going to give it a try next year. I've got a load of debt (mainly business) that I need to shift so I am trying to address that. I'm looking for a job and am going to keep my shop running at the same time. so, when I get a salary, I want that purely for my living expenses (and perhaps to pay some debts), so that anything I get in the shop will stay there to pay off the bank etc. Things have been sailing pretty close to the wind lately, so I need to try and gain some control back. I will be looking at everything to try and claw money back. I am fed up of not being able to afford things and living like a pauper, so if I live as frugally as I can for a few years, then I will have some cash to live comfortably when I am older. (37 just now, so need to think about later life!!).

Looking forward to reading through all of the pages and it will give me some tips on what you have all being doing to save the pennies. Jan 1st will be d-day for me, I still have a while to get myself ready for it!!!

SL x

Brighton_belle

Woodyrocks wrote: »

I shall be signing up for the 2009 challenge please, if you will all have me that is, as it is too late for this year I would imagine.

Hi woodyrocks - I only joined in july and am using these months to get in training for 2009. Learning more each month, so i'd say sign up now, even if it only means learing to log every single penny of your spends - this will build a picture over the months as to where your spends are going. This really helps focus on what is and isn't important to you and where you can begin to trim back.
Janey - I will now leave the comfort of my sofa, and venture forth into 'doing something useful land' . Task one: my turn to clean the bathroom. Task two, who do I need to ring as wkend = free calls and 3: tackle paper mountain, currently balancing precariously on my 'desk' (freecycle teatrolly to everyone else)

Marru

Janey51 wrote: »

Have now got a freezer full of apple pies and crumbles. All I need now are some more visitors

ME, ME, ME :j

Yes I am lazing and was watching that dog programme by Martin Clooney. My excuse is that I spent 2.5 hours today in the toddler birthday party :eek:. And I have two different spreads in the fridge and bread baking in the BM. My batch cooking came to the halt when I realised that after my stock up shop yesterday and my first load of cooking my freezer is full. I have put a plea on Freecycle to get another one. I am now thinking that perhaps I should go and do a massive pot of potato mash as I really should do the fish pie today and then if I manage to sort out my storage problem I can do my shepherdless pie and use the rest of the mash to that. Also thinking of putting another soup into SC over night. The one that I made last night smelled delicious this morning. Can't wait for lunch time tomorrow to taste it. :T


Off now to ponder about the chaos in the kitchen (haven't found place for everything I bought yesterday yet) and make a plan of attack.

Marru

PS: DD is using TV remote control to iron her trousers, I really don't know from where she learned that, definitely not from me!!! :rotfl:

Brighton_belle

Marru wrote: »

PS: DD is using TV remote control to iron her trousers, I really don't know from where she learned that, definitely not from me!!! :rotfl:

Do you mean where did she get the concept of ironing anything?:rotfl:

Examining my accounts in greater detail again today, after 2 complete months behind me, I can see what I want spare cash for - days out, a few nice clothes and my hobbies. This is in the context of sporadicly rubbish health limiting a lot of life's pleasures/oportunities so just having enough money to have tea and cake on one of our jaunts makes us very happy, plus a regular evening/day class doing something fun. So i'm going to re-jig them again so that any savings I make can go into that virtual pot:j .
Holidays will be remaining off agenda I think but I would really love to have work done in my kitchen to make it more user friendly. I'm guessing that might be several 1000 though, so just can't imagine saving up that if it means foregoing living now. I think maybe I'll keep that as plan b [strike]if and [/strike]when Mr bb gets more work/sorts himself out financially. perhaps I'll start keeping an eye out for kitchen worktops and a 1.5 sink on freecycle in optimistic anticipation.
PS did clean bathroom between posts. Now onto the paperwork...

Marru

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Do you mean where did she get the concept of ironing anything?:rotfl:

Exactly

I have my snack bars in the owen, they are more expensive than the 10 for pound I found from the pound shop but as long as I have incredients left I think I will keep making them myself as they were so much fun to do. I am really getting into this cooking thing. :beer:

My aim is to be able to concentrate on my studies while doing "real" work as little as possible and at the same time reduce my debts and get some money to ISA and CTF. So this challenge is a real help towards all that. Off now to rescue the bread from breadmaker and start mass mash producing.

whitewing

I'm thinking of getting DS an electric blanket for his birthday (to try to encourage him to stay in bed longer at the weekends). Are they a good investment?

Frugaldom

Woodyrocks wrote: »

@ Nyk I just have serious issues. In my defence I did buy Woody 3 pairs also! I just need to STOP but I convince myself that a BINB Rupert Sanderson for £180 just has to be bought otherwise it is criminal not to

NYK has scuttled off to Google 'Rupert Sanderson', back in just a mo'! :rotfl: