Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

whitewing

You know, Nyk, I've been thinking about this challenge for next year. I have learnt a lot this year but mainly through muddling along.

I was just wondering if we would benefit from having a 'preparation' thread starting soon, so that we can start actually planning for next year, which would be exciting. For example, I intend to make personalised birthday cards for family. And need to set a gift budget.

What do you guys think?

Marru

Good evening all!

I am an idiot! I thought I had turned the heating for water on to have my late Saturday night bath but instead of water I had turned on the central heating. And I have been sitting here completely unaware of this. Oh well - it will be shower in the morning then.

My cooking hasn't progressed today as much as I would have hoped for. I managed to get the mash done for the fish pie (without masher, doh) but that was the end of it. I need to go and nuke the fish in the microwave so it won't go off and then just need to do the sauce tomorrow.

I really need to get my spreadsheets updated to see how the next year will look. It might be a good idea to have a separate thread but I am quite happy to use this one, what about the others?

Nyk - if you start earning tenner per day starting tomorrow to the end of 2009 and every day put this tenner into savings account and then 1.1.09 start in the beginning of every month transferring the money needed for that month according to my calculation above into your current account you would have by the end of 2009 earned £4,740.-, spent £4,000.- and earned interest £36.92. Please don't quote me for this as it is very late.

Night night,

Marru

sophiesmum_2

whitewing wrote: »

You know, Nyk, I've been thinking about this challenge for next year. I have learnt a lot this year but mainly through muddling along.

I was just wondering if we would benefit from having a 'preparation' thread starting soon, so that we can start actually planning for next year, which would be exciting. For example, I intend to make personalised birthday cards for family. And need to set a gift budget.

What do you guys think?

Hi Whitewing:D ,
Maybe we could all list on this thread our budgets for next year and also make a list of things we are going to aim to do in order to reduce costs. That way we can bounce ideas off each other in preparation.

Mine would look something like:

• Menu plan meals
• stockpile/bulk buying
• batch cooking
• growing own veggies and fruit
• making own bread/yoghurt/jams/chutneys
• using library
• recycle and reuse as much as possible
• try and be money neutral for gifts/christmas etc
• Offset any extra expenditure by raising free cash- e bay,amazon,quidco etc.

I like Nyks idea of actually using the cash to do the challenge. :rolleyes:

Skint_Lynne

Good morning,

I am drinking coffee now instead of G & T!!! I have been busy this morning, last night I bought new soles for my boots from woolworths for the grand sum of £3.99. I have just fitted them and they look quite good, hopefully, they will not fall apart:p . I got one of those jumper shavers as well, as I have a few cardies that have went bobbly but are still good, I have been shearing them like sheep!!! I would ususally bin all this stuff and just buy new things, but not anymore!! Make do and mend!!!

That woolworths is brilliant, there is a big clearence section in it, so I'm going to back and have a good rummage, might be some treasures lurking in there.

Speak to you all later,

SL x

JAMIEDODGER

nyk I love the idea of having the money in the bank to start with, although, I dont think I could find a spare £6+ k to start the year with lol. I could perhaps set myself a mini challenge between here and dec 31st to find a months money upfront which would be about £570 ish.

If I could do this then it would mean I wouldnt have to touch most of my income for the month, except to pay rent, council tax, water and work expenses. I would also have enough left at the end to transfer in the next £570:)

I think that after a few months I would have enough money left in main account to transfer over 2 months money, which would mean I could utilise this to bulk buy/start buying things towards xmas/buy bargains when I saw them etc

The money left in my main account could be then transferred to savings after I had managed to send over the whole £6k+ to the '4k challenge account':D

I am liking this idea more and more......

Other thoughts to save money:

Pay car tax for 12 months instead of 6 (did this this year!)
Pay car insurance in full at start (save a small fortune)

I like sophiesmums ideas for making money stretch further over the year too, especially the idea about being money neutral for birthdays and xmas! I will be working hard on this next year:) and offsetting any extra expenses by raising free cash:D

Off to fiddle around with budget to see how possible this would be for me....

BlueFleur

I’d be interested in seeing how everyone splits their 4k, because I’m sure I could make savings on mine but I’m still a bit of a newbie. I’d love to have the money set aside at the beginning of the year. Making £1000 last a quarter somehow sounds much harder than 4k for a year… The preparation idea is a good one. I might do a big store cupboard/kitchen shop in December with anything I have left over from this year's challenge. As we’ve only just moved out, we haven’t got a good set of supplies- Marru I can sympathise with your lack of a potato masher! My mum always asks me what I’d like for Christmas, and I think this time I’ll ask for a breadmaker or a slow cooker. I’m not a very artistic person, so I’m not sure if anyone would appreciate a homemade card from me!

I hope it’s ok to post how I’m doing the split so far, if not then let me know!

Contents Insurance £5
Water £15
Gas £15
Electric £15
Bank fees £5
Petrol £50
Virgin tv/internet £25
TVLicence £15
Food £90
Cleaning products £5
Mobile Phone £15
Pocket money £70

These figures are all per month and add up to £3900 a year. The £100 spare will be for hair cuts/nasty surprises. Paying a bank fee isn’t ideal, but it does guarantee my overdraft and get me free RAC membership. The mobile phone amount has decreased from this year as I’m going to cancel my contract and get a PAYG. Some bits are higher than normal, but I figure it’ll give me some flexibility. Household bills are halved as bf also contributes. Critique away!

Also allowing £4290 for rent/council tax over the year, and £636.36 for car tax/insurance etc. I realise I haven’t allowed for clothes etc, but I thought I’d try to make a monthly saving on the above and use that.

Sorry this has turned into such a long one!

JAMIEDODGER

bluefleur - you dont count water bill in the challenge so thats £15 saved already or £180:D over the year!

BlueFleur

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

bluefleur - you dont count water bill in the challenge so thats £15 saved already or £180:D over the year!

Where is the 'I'm an idiot' smiley...

JAMIEDODGER

have noticed a couple of other things....

the £5 bank fee i would call a debt which you shouldnt include in the challenge! yay!

i did also notice that you havent got xmas/birthdays included ? I am going to try and make mine money neutral next year so that might be a way to offset some of the cost against the challenge

and your not an idiot!

lyndasharp

My car broke down again yesterday :-( At least it was a free fix, as I was in a convoy of Morris Minors at the time on our way to a bus museum just outside Oxford. There were enough people there who knew what they were doing, and managed to get my petrol pump working again! Two breakdowns in two months... but only the third time in nearly 4 years. Just bad timing I guess! Classic cars are reliable, really :-) I spent £3.45 on museum entry and a cup of tea and a cake, so I'd recommend the bus museum at Long Hanborough if anyone wants a cheap day out.

I've now been working for a year, and I've spent just under £9k in total for everything, but managed to add £7k to my savings pot (£3k was a very kind gift from my Nan, so won't get that extra another year). I was living rent free for 6 months so that's why my overall spend is quite low - though I was being paid less then too.

I'm going to look at another house to buy next week (with help from Dad would probably only need £35K morgage for that one). I think my challenge budget for next year will be very different if I'm in my own home rather than renting, so will have to work it out when I'm more organised. Because my bills are included in my rent at the moment, I'm counting pretty much alll my spending in this 4k challenge, just excluding rent, car repairs and work based spending.