Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

shaz_mum_of__2

My thoughts are with you sophiesmum and thanks to skint lynne for the poem it was lovely

Shaz

Brighton_belle

Thinking of you Sophies mum - I have such a positive image of andrew in my mind after your photo and description of how he lived and affected your family life. Thanks for sharing that.

Right, if I have got it right, after re-jigging my accounts spreadsheet,
the following are in the £4000 challenge:
food
toiletries
cleaning & laundry products
essential hsehold repairs/maintainance
essential clothes
gifts
bus & parking (not including car/petrol as work essential for OH)
tv/internet/mobile
gas/elec/b. & contents ins.

Not included: considered luxeries but i am still going to try and cut costs:
haircuts & general tarting up:)
books
house tarting (eg. decoration)
petrol
unessential clothes
mtg
c. tax
water rates

all to fund:
hobbies
outings

Does this sound right?

Frugaldom

Hi Brighton belle, your list looks good to me.

This being Monday, I have fed my electricity meter readings into the i-measure site and also decided to do same at Scottish Power site for bill calculation. I have 2 more weeks to go before the quarterly readings are due, but balance to date is sitting at £88 for past 10 weeks! If I estimate another £25 onto that, my total (and final) bill in 2008 will be under £115 for 3 months! This time last year, it was £182 so I have managed to shave over 35% off my electricity despite all the increases! This means my utilities (electricity, phone, mobile) costs should stay within my budget. That's going to be incredibly difficult to maintain next year, though, but we can try.


I've updated my targets against spends as we are getting closer to the 3/4 way mark (30th Sept), when we SHOULD have approximatley £1000 left out of our £4000. Household, for me, is insurance + TV licence; cashback from insurance went into my cashback savings rather than affect the 4k budget. Here's how everything is looking (red is what's already spent and balance in brackets):

2008 budget targets

TOTAL FOR GROCERIES £1098 / £912.55 (£185.45)
TOTAL FOR GIFTS £400 / £164.80 (£235.20)
TOTAL FOR EVERYTHING ELSE £366 / £259.67 (£106.33)
TOTAL FOR UTILITIES £1500 / £1280.44 (219.56)
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD £200 / £191.90 (£8.10)
TOTAL FOR INTERNET ACCESS £240 / £121.85 (£118.15)
CONTINGENCY FUND - £196

TOTAL £4000 / £2931.21 (£1068.79)

I haven't touched the contingency fund, I have £8.10 left over from household and £106.33 left for 'everything else', which includes travel. But I would really like to tackle my 'wanted' list, so am trying really hard to get as much as possible for as little as possible. I really would like to invest in a dehumidifier before winter sets in, so will offer DD the tumble dryer. If she doesn't want it then I'll sell it and the proceeds will go towards the dehumidifier.

lingojingo

Hi Sophiesmum, so sorry to hear about your loss, but just echoing everyone's sentiments that it was so lovely for him to be able to spend his last days at home and surrounded by family. You all sound really nice and caring and my thoughts are with you.

redglass_2

Janey51 wrote: »

I have on a vest, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, a jumper, a cardigan, a fllece and we have just lit the log burner.
But with the British stiff upper lip we have sat outside in the pouring rain and drank Cappucinos.

Laughed out loud at this and wanted to add a row of ROTFL smileys but they are still kaput.

Also wanted some 'mad' smileys to talk about PayPal. I lost most of my morning trying to sort out my account with them and it STILL isn't working properly. Has anyone here tried using their 'virtual helper'? All i can say about that experience is Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...!



:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: OOOHHH! They're back, but in the wrong place.

BlueFleur

I've been following the Lehman Brothers story with avid interest. I feel so sorry for all the people involved, but I can't help be fascinated. I blame 3 years of economics at university If this situation continues to spiral, I think this site will see a lot more people looking for help and advice on living a frugal lifestyle!

I'm going to aim to pay off all debt (apart from student loan, I don't count that) next year and then fill an ISA. If I managed it would be my first step towards savings

Marru

Hello all,

News from college: we were feeding the rabbits, guinea pigs and other rodents today. I had couple of fluffy bunnies and some really cute degus to feed so that was wonderful. :j

News from dog walking: had a chance to practise my growling skills as after sitting down for a moment to enjoy the view two dogs started a fight what I can only think could have been over my attention. Little bit growling sorted that out. I wish it would work on DD as well. :rotfl:

News from frugalism: messed up my most latest soup and it is now going down the toilet . So no food for tomorrow as I am not in a condition tonight to get organised at all. So I need to pick something up from the shop in the morning. Also without thinking if I can afford it splashed out at the chippy (AGAIN!) and bought a bottle of wine. Feeling sooo good with full tummy and after relaxing glass of wine...:p

New budget: has to wait until my braincells will recover enough to produce some action. :rolleyes:

DD is claiming that she is not well just to get some Nurofren for children - I don't think so...:cool:

Have a great evening everybody, for me it is (fingers crossed) very early night indeed.

Marru

Brighton_belle

Thanks for vote of confidence re my challenge £4,000 list Nyk. I've spent all evening re doing my accounts/calcs and had great fun colour coding different sections. It now looks like 2.5 months in I've over spent by £131 (i.e. 3x £333 = 999 and spent £1,130). This gives me a great starting point now to hone this by end Dec 08.

Skint_Lynne

Hi Folks,

I was aiming for a 9pm bedtime as am travelling down to West Yorkshire for my interview tomorrow, will now be nearer 10 I guess. Everything is ready, clothes ironed, boots polished, sandwiches made and flask ready for hot water, (motorway services are a rip off, no cash from me!!!).

They are giving me £80 for expenses so that will probably be enough to get me there and back. I've filled up already and it cost me £55.

I was showing off my boots to mum tonight, I bought the new soles for them in Woolies for £3.99. In the past, I would have bought new ones, usually around £50, so that is a fantastic saving. The boots themselves were fine, it's just that the soles were becoming holey, so I am delighted with my re-cycled boots, if I had have started this years ago, I would probably be loaded by now!!!:p

Speak to you tomorrow,

SL x

sophiesmum_2

Hope everything goes well with the interview tomorrow.