Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

shaz_mum_of__2

Same goes here Nyk i think lots of people we know have their heads in the sand .............................strangely it's the ones with extravagant lifestyles and big mortgages(inc my sis,who laughed when she saw my stockpile)


Lean times are coming and it will be sink or swim dependant on resoursefulness and adaptability


Rant over

Off to cook party leftovers for tea !!

Shaz

Skint_Lynne

Hi Folks,

I have seen the stockpile challenge mentioned at the earlier parts of the thread. What is this and is there a different thread for it? It sounds very interesting.

Speak to you later,

SL x

Frugaldom

Ddraig, it's like walking into an era of bewildering expectations of doom and gloom! (Ooh, how poetically tragic sounding was that? :rotfl: ) Every time I see a bargain and can afford to stockpile it, I feel that it's my duty to do so, 'just in case', which is a crazy situation to be in! Bad enough that us frugalers are thinking this way but what's going to happen when Jo Public HAS to stop forking out on non-essentials in order to keep the roof over their head? I have to say, though, my 'pay now while I can afford it' symptoms aren't stretching as far as DD's wedding next year, as I can't quite get my head around WHY they want to spend so much on one day when there's already debts hovering, neither of them can guarantee their incomes and they can't afford a deposit, let alone a mortgage for a house.

DFW does your remaining balance for the year include Christmas spending? I've only got £1086.29 left but have already spent £164.80 of the £400 I allocated for gift shopping. I'm hoping that the next electricity bill will be the smallest yet, but it's the stockpiling syndrome that's a little bit worrying. Like it says above, I feel compelled to buy it whilst I can afford it, 'just in case'. Is anyone else having this side effect as a result of suffering chronic frugalitis?

Shaz, the phrase 'being prepared' has never meant so much and it's reached dizzying heights in this household. I only wish I owned the house so I could construct suitable and secure storage in the garden - something like a bomb shelter sounds good! :rotfl:

DdraigGoch

I can only give my personal take on this issue. I am working towards having a year's worth of food and essentials sitting in a "pantry" throughout my home so that if everything goes wrong at least we can eat.

I am including staples such as bread flour, rice, pasta and some beans, meat in the freezer, tinned goods [we don't use many apart from tomatoes], loo rolls, soap, fuel for the heating, light bulbs, candles, etc I've started saving a "pantry fund" so that I can take advantage of good buys when I see them and BOGOFs too. I'm drying any suitable leftover vegetables [raw] and just generally keeping my eyes open and my mind as alert as it will get [not very!]. It's amazing how you can find space for "stuff" if you want to .....

I think that there is a separate thread for this. I'm sure someone will have a link for you very soon.

Hope that helps
DG

BlueFleur

The credit crunch recession is one of my motivating factors to get out of debt. I have got a lot better over the last month, but I have yet to reach the dizzying heights of nyk et al! When I look at other people my age, the minority are saving and looking to buy a house. Everyone seems to spend as much as they can as soon as they can. One of my friends is on nearly twice the monthly wage I am, but every month they have run out of money within two weeks! This month it stretched for four days :eek:

Janey I did seriously consider the moral implications of feeding it to my bf :rotfl: I decided against it in the end, but the kitchen floor now sparkles!

Frugaldom

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I have seen the stockpile challenge mentioned at the earlier parts of the thread. What is this and is there a different thread for it? It sounds very interesting.

Speak to you later,

SL x

Hi Lynne,

The stockpile challenge was introduced by Sophiesmum as a mini challenge within this challenge, so there isn't a separate thread. It's about bulk buying products for the entire year whilst they are available on offer or cheaper than when buying individually. None of us actually have room to stockpile a full year's supply of groceries, toiletries and cleaning products, but some of us do stockpile what we can.
As an example, my pre-stockpile weekly grocery budget was £25 then I reduced it to £100 per month. With the stockpile method now in place, I'm hoping to further reduce my grocery spending to £1089 for the entire year, which is the equivalent to £1 per person per day (there are 3 of us here). I was hoping to squeeze it to £1000 for the year but the stockpile bug bit too deeply and ate into my regular £10 per week top-up fund by tempting me into buying some things that I didn't actually need - like packs of biscuits, packs of savoury rice, quick custard, strawberry dessert, assorted cake toppings, food colouring, flavouring, cooking chocolate etc.
My understairs cupboard is still choc-a-block full and will probably remain like that as long as I have the bug because I now top up the stockpile! :rotfl:

Edited in: or ease of understanding, my grocery budget includes everything food, baking, toiletries, laundry & cleaning products.

Ddraig I LOVE the idea of the 'pantry fund' for stockpiling bargains, I may rename my 'continency fund' for next year's challenge and drop whatever is left from this year's challenge into it Now THAT'S positive thinking for you

taka

Yep the whole "credit crunch" scares me too. I mean what on earth have the banks etc been up to? What is still to be uncovered? I shudder to think. It is making things so difficult for so many. I'm so glad my debts are now paid off (except my mortgage). Its scary to think how much I'd be struggling if this had happened 2 or 3 years ago. Some of my friends are in precarious positions - 100% mortages with loans on top. Its seriously scary.

Its partly why I wanted to do this challenge (and was beginning to decrease/cut my spending anyway before this challenge started). I want to be able to survive the increases (and try and save) and get the best value for what I do spend. Realistically in around 8-10 years :eek: I will need to change my career or accept I can get no further (and will be too expensive to be hired for most jobs in my field with my qualifications and may have to have a salary decrease to stay in continuous employment) so I NEED to get the most out of my earnings (while still trying to have at least a hint of a life ) As it is I have funding for my job for just under 3 years then who knows... :eek: Funding is horribly tied up with the stock market... not good in these times.

JAMIEDODGER

hi guys:)

managed to get quite a lot done and quite a lot spent today!

while in town, i picked up:

- 4 small presents for dd for xmas
- 1 small present for ds3 for xmas
- 3 new pairs of socks for me (only one pair left without holes!)
- 6 bday cards (for october birthdays)

so i have done quite well:) am slowly tucking in to the xmas budget, am going to go back down the town tomorrow and start on the bday presents!!! have got quite a tidy pile of xmas presents now, its a relief to know that there will be no last min rushing around:)

i like to stockpile too.......i have been running down mine for a couple of months now as i am having a new kitchen later this month and everything has to be cleared out, but once that has been done i am going to start again!

2008 will have def been a practice run for me, i am to be a stayer through 2009!!

Frugaldom

Next time around, if the interest rates ever hit 15% again, I want to be in a position to benefit from it, unlike last time (1989) when we had an interest only mortgage, a lousy endowment policy and had to give up the house and dig our way out of negative equity. If anyone else here got caught up in that then it's feeling the same again this time around except the interest rates aren't yet being hiked to curb the borrowing.

Edited in: I just checked back dates against rates and when we (ex OH and I) got our first mortgage in 1985, the Bank of England base rate was 14% and, despite it wavering a bit, it was still 14% in 1990 (15% mortgage rate), when they abolished rates and introduced the Poll Tax in Scotland. Poll Tax was triple the amount of our newly abolished rates. (This later became Community Tax and then got changed, again, to Council Tax). Oh to have had the good sense to stay out of debt and have savings back then. Isn't hindsight a great thing?

Jamiedodger - have fun practising I'm going to keep on practicing staying out of debt and building savings until the interest rates go up and will always plan my budget around 15% mortgage payments just to be on the safe side. Makes sense to me

Woodyrocks

I feel like such a dopey mare. Did as intended and left all cards at home but found money in my Jeans pockets at lunchtime so ended up spending money in Iceland & Superdrug. What I will do though is take it off the food & household shopping total for the month. I am also starting to write down all I spend in each monetary 'division' so that I know where I am at.

Re: the credit crunch, I am not burying my head in the sand exactly but I won't lie, there is a part of me that is trying to pretend it is not happening/shall not effect me. I have a little side business I run and my income is purely derived from hobbyist. And you know that when money is tight, these are the first things to be relegated :eek: