Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Marru

Hello all,

Taka - I hope your day went well
Bails - Hope you had great time at college today
Sophiesmum - Were thinking of you today. I am sure everything was beautiful and that your speech brough tears to everybody's eyes. You have always found the most beautiful thing to say.
Mrs Hayes - Very difficult to say anything when I can't be there to see the situation. When I took my collie I already had a younger labrador (both !!!!!es LOL got edited, I meant girls) and initially they had fights over food and attention but after being very equal when it came to greeting them in the morning and after work day and being sure that both feeding bowls hit the floor at the same time the situation got better and they actually started to play together and eventually grew old together (I had to let my collie go two years ago when she was 16 and my lab is now 14). If you could find out what is the trigger I might be able to give more of an advice.
BB - well done with the paint! and good luck with your GC
Janey - nice to have you back, I hope thing that need settling will get sorted for you. I agree with the others that don't cancel your trip to NZ yet especially after being tired after one trip.
Whitewing - I salute you on your emergency fund!

I had a bit of an eventful day. I managed to make two loafs of bread in BM over the weekend and got sandwiches for two weeks in the freezer (I measured and DD poured the ingredients to the BM and boy was it delicious bread - she must have a magic touch). But then this morning left my coolbag on kitchen worktop and had to rush home on lunch break. (Didn't have any money on me - need to put few pound in the car as and emergency fund)

And then when I was supposed to go and get DD my car didn't start again. Getting a bit worried about it now as there always seems to be a new thing that is going wrong.

Oh - DD just fell asleep on my lap. Need to carry her to bed. Have a good evening all.

Marru

fizzel81

evening all im sneaking in here hopeing ive not been gone to long as well everything here has changed!!


i have a job!!! customer care assistant at maccy d's (its a job) im now signed off is etc and working part time fitting everything in, boys have a fabby childminder and i have a man (well kind of) who is good with them

hanging onto this challenge by the skin of my teeth need to update in a mo, and now at least i can having savings without being on benifits affecting what i can have, also this challenge has made me see how where to cut back etc

i hope everyone is well, im going to pop on when i can and update how im doing asn im squeezing everything in to keep house running, everything done work kids and a bloke (anyone want to swap lol)

cw18

just peeking in to ask.......

Is this challenge likely to be running again in 2009?

Whilst I'm working on cutting down and trimming back at the moment, our 'crunch date' isn't until 26th November (which is when we have to start living at benefit levels due to me being made redundant - at which point I'm becoming hubby's registered carer). So joining in from January 2009 would be a good "fit" for me.




Off to trawl properly from the start of part 1 again, as I still need to work out exactly what expenses are coming out of everyone's budget, as the £4k doesn't seem to fit for us at all

If I include everything except mortgage and council tax we need the full amount allowed by the benefits agencies (which is a scarily high figure compared to the £4k most people are declaring, but is still only around 50% of our income at June 2006 - when we started a downhill slide). But for 3 of us I'll have less than £2.5k a year for all grocery shopping, clothes, pressies etc once I pay regular bills, minimum payments on debts and repayment part of the mortgage (which we have to find even once we qualify for help with mortgage payments).

Brighton_belle

Hi cw - yes it certainly is going to run again: I suggest you read the last 10ish pages of this forum, as various peeps including Nyk have clarified what they are incluing. Gotta dash...

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Thanks for all your lovely thoughts yesterday. It was a lovely day, the church was packed with people, many of whom were in wheelchairs and had travelled a way to be there,which was very touching that they had made so much effort.
I made my little speech but it was really difficult as it was such an emotional time, I was willing the words on the pages to come to an end, even though they were mostly about happy times. I WON'T be volunteering to do anything similar again:o I kept getting choked up but could feel the hundreds of people in the church willing me to be able to finish so somehow managed to get through it. The rest of the service went past in a bit of a blur apart from the few minutes when we were left to think about our memories of Andrew and the song "Precious Child" by Karen Taylor Good was playing, I think everyone in the church lost it at that point.

After the service there was lots of laughter and memories shared with Andrew's friends and carers, and relations and it was a special day that I am glad we were ble to share with so many lovely people.:A

Skint_Lynne

I'm glad it went well sophies mum, you can take comfort in the fact that all you will remember about Andrew are nice things.

Take care,

SL x

MrsHayes

BB & Bails - Thanks for your kind words. Dh and I were in tears all last night every time we looked at him however I know in my heart that it is the right thing to do as he can't be happy if he is stressed all the time and he will be happier in a home where he is the only dog and can be spoiled rotten. I have asked everyone I know to spread the word and see if anyone is interested and I have put an ad online. Just done some posters now to go up in work and the van window and my best friend is going to take some into her work so hopefully we will find him a lovely new home. If anybody on here knows anyone who might be interested we are prepared to travel with him just as long as he gets a good home I don't mind.
Janey - I hope you are doing ok
Sophiesmum - Glad the funeral went as well as could be hoped for. I get choked up now even thinking about my uncle reading my grandads eulogy I'm sure you did a lovely job
Marru - Thanks, its hard to explain really but the problem seems to be to do with Dh and I. When the dogs are alone together they are fine, they walk together fine, they don't fight over food or toys. Basically the fights occur when little dog thinks big dog is misbehaving and starts to growl at him. It can be because big dog has picked up a sock or something he shouldn't or is trying to get on my knee or even the other night because I grabbed his collar. Its as though little dog thinks we can't control big dog and has to step in for us but sometimes there doesn't even seem to be a trigger and he just follows him round growling at him. Big dog is already becoming wary of little dog and moves away from him when we are in the house where as when we first got them they would play and sleep together etc. This is why I feel so bad and that it is our fault even though I am not sure what we have done/could do. Maybe we are not strong enough leaders for him? I don't know.

Hope everyone else is having a nice day, it really felt like Autumn this morning here - cold and sunny. Went food shopping last night and in our sad state only spent £18.75 in total plus we got some free nectarines in Lidl as they had no barcode and the man serving us couldn't be bothered to get a code so just gave them to us! We need every spare penny at the moment though with the bills... xxx

DdraigGoch

Sophiesmum, sorry for your loss and glad that your memories of your life together are so happy, also so pleased for you that the funeral and celebration of his life with you went so well.

On an entirely different note - i-measure .... now, put down the coffee/tea, stop eating your lunch/dinner [to save cleaning the screen!]. I started up the MSE i-measure group and have now only just entered in my second reading!!! :rotfl:

I have a puzzle though. I'm ranked as an A+ home, only use 6KwH per person and yet am 20/40..... good lordie! How on earth do you people do it?! I am in total awe of everyone on there. I'm scurrying around, switching everything off, turning things down, switching ovens off early etc etc etc and STILL I'm only half way there ....

Aaaaanyway, I'm in a much better place today than I have been the past month and glad to be back on here. I've not even been lurking, so please accept my apologies for all the congratulations/sympathy that hasn't been forthcoming. But be warned, I'm back, so it's back to all the dim questions and utter amazement at your general wonderfulness:cool::D

It's nice to be back

DG

bails

Ah, it's nice to have you back DG. You've perplexed me with your numbers re i-measure - I'd like to get over there as I have already registered but can't take any more on right now.
Sophiesmum, your post made me cry, it must have been so very hard to stand there and yet you got through it for Andrew. I think you're amazing, big hugs xx
Mrs Hayes, what about a local rescue centre if you don't have any luck? Tell us a bit more about the type of dog, age etc and I'll see if I can think of anyone I know who might like him/her. I'm sorry this is so hard for you both, I would hate it too xx
All plans are out of the window as OH slept really badly so I can't do anything today, sigh. I really wanted to try out a new yoga class today, will have to wait til next week now :rolleyes: I hate days like today - duvet day anyone?
I did have a lovely time at my class yesterday though and sat in the bath last night practising all my signs It's so amazing to be able to do something worthwhile :j
Have a lovely day everyone whatever you're up to x

Frugaldom

Good morning fruguys and frugals, and welcome back Ddraig!

Janey, don't even think about NZ for now, get back into the swing of things here and then consider all your options. With the way things are going in the UK, I think I'd be scared of going in case I didn't come back! I hear NZ is an absolutely fabulous place and probably warmer than here at the moment.

Ddraig, well done on starting the MoneySaving Carbon Club but I'm surprised you missed out on the chance of winning the £250! :eek: Perhaps you still have time to make it up to 6 sets of readings? I have been quite curious about how others are managing on i-measure as I am now ranked 37/40 and have jumped to a carbon rating of C! I can only think that it's because we don't have any other form of power in the house. Plus, the site has no option for those using woodburners or coal fires, so I'm betting that if I had solid fuel heating and hot water tank, my electricity useage would plummet. Maybe the carbonclub rating is just our challenge numbers or else in alphabetical order or is based on increases against when we first started. We are home 24/7 and consumption has almost doubled since switching on the first of the heaters, but I don't really care - I KNOW we are wasting far less now than ever before, so I'm happy at that.

Fizzel - welcome back and congratulations on the job/man/improved situation