Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

dfw844

Hi Penny2myname I totally agree with what you just said. A fair and open community comes not from hiding your opinions for fear of upsetting people, but from being able to express them (calmy), and knowing that people will respect you enough to accept them as yours even if they personally disagree. I think that's what our little group is good at doing!

I also see you're in the 100 day challenge as well - I am too! I'm giving up buying cosmetics / toiletries. Since joining this challenge I have been trying to work my way through all the stock in my cupboards - mainly body lotions etc that I received as presents that I don't like the smell of too much! But I have such green-guilt that I can't throw anything away, so I'm using it all regardless, and loving the days when a bottle is finally empty (I mean really really empty) and I can pop it in the recycling. I'm trying to switch to natural/organic skincare as well (I have really sensitive skin) so this is a good way to start afresh.

Janey great news on your mum, I'm so pleased you've got some peace of mind at last x

Hope everyone is well. All the pies look / sound lovely! I went looking for blackberries but only found a few really scrawny ones, I obviously don't know the best places (or one of you lot got there first!).

I'm really going to struggle for the rest of this pay month - and I was only paid on 19th. I've got £50 cash until the 19th of next month, which is nigh-on impossible when I've already run the freezer stocks low and know I have £9.20 to spend on bus fares. However, I have done two really good surveys this past week, paying £50 and £70 each. I've also got £15 in vouchers ordered from surveys, and another £25 cheque in the post for surveys. Plus £100 in Quidco which it says should pay out this month but has not yet been received, so I'm not holding my breath.

Long story short I've got to live on £50 for 3 weeks, unless this lot comes through in which case I have £310!! It's feast or famine around here! (Literally, she says, tucking into yet another bowl of bran flakes).

Have a good day everyone. Sorry for the essay xx

bails

Oh Janey, I'm so pleased your mum's got the place you wanted - I've been thinking how heartbreaking it must be to have found a perfect place and then be told she'd have to go elsewhere. Putting a relative in care is incredibly difficult anyway so I'm over the moon that you know she'll be in the best place you could find for her x
I completely agree with knowing what's important in life - people not things. I fully intend to spend money on a bouquet of flowers today, for my lovely uni friend in Scotland who's just found out she has breast cancer and has to have a mastectomy in 2 weeks, at only 34
Welcome Bobbie and Michelle!
Blimey DFW, where do you get surveys like that from?! I haven't got into surveys yet, any tips? As for your £50 for 3 weeks, it will be hard but is doable. Make a menu plan of basic meals to help you, pop over to Weezl's thread for v cheap meal inspiration!

MrsHayes

Morning everyone hope you are all well
Janey - so pleased to hear he news about your mums home
Marru - Thank you so much for that link. I have found a lady in our area and phoned her yesterday. She sounds lovely and is coming to see us and the dogs tomorrow. Will let you know how we get on

I made £21 last night putting some Cd's on music magpie and have done £3.25 in surveys today (every little helps!) We have loads more old cd's in the loft so I will be going through them this weekend seeing is I can get anything for them. I also realised last night that we only pay council tax and water on a 10 month basis so Feb and March we don't pay anything which will save us £110 each month right about the time frugalmite is born which is a big help. Talking of which I've just started to feel frugalmite kicking which is lovely but abit strange and keeps taking me by surprise! xxx

taka

Janey - Thats good news. I'm glad your mum has a place in the home you wanted her to be in.

Woodyrocks

Hi Guys, hope everyone is well. Will read up and catch up when I get back from visiting friend in hospital and taking her some provisions (she has been voluntarily sections but it reall is for the best) Just received a letter from the college I am doing the Access at and they have granted me a learning support fund of £700 to assist with books & travel over the 3 terms :j

bails

Great result Woodyrocks, well done!

lyndasharp

Janey, good news about your Mum, I'm sure she'll enjoy her new place once she starts making friends there.

Woodyrocks, congratulations on the funding!

Scary clothes eating rabbit also ate the bamboo around the chicken pen, which does explain the escaped chicken.

I've forgotten who mentioned it several pages ago, but I live (at the moment) in a 3 bed mid terrace with a garden the size of a postage stamp... so we're managing even though it's not exactly rural!

Brighton_belle

whitewing wrote: »

BB, if you try to last until october without spending a penny you will probably get cystitis, lol!

:rotfl:
Janey - that is wonderful news about your mother:T . So relieved for you both.
Phew, tonight I have made: a carrot cake, a flapjack,(one on top of the other in the remoska) a huge pot of sweet potato soup, a very large cottage pie currently in the remoska, (2 portions to freeze),ice cream (will need whisking agin before final freeze over night), more HM yoghurt, and I have a loaf of no knead bread waiting to fill the remoska after dinner has been served. Oh, and boiled some eggs for tomorrow's picnic.:j . Am now having a well deserved sit down.
And frugalisingly, I walked home from work, rather than caught the bus (not always an option) and haven't spent a bean:D . It's going to be hard pushing through to wed 1st not spending anything or buying anymore food, but I know I am going to do it: this challenge is really helping so much: before I would have got through another £20-30 before the 1st of the month.
Any money left in my bank account by the eve of the 30th I will tansfer direct to my savings account:j .

Marru

Hello everybody!!

Janey - great news about your Mum!
Woody - congrats to you!
Mrs Hayes - Glad you found someone that sounds right for you. Very excited to hear about the progress :T
Bails - I was scratching at your door today in a hope for a cup of tea for a tired traveller
Everybody else - HELLO!!!

New Indian restaurant/take away just opened into my village. I spent at least 15 minutes today drooling over the menu but then talked myself out of it. I only had to think about DD's CTF. That didn't stop me buying chocolate and wine thou. Tomorrow is exactly eight years from when I first met DD's dad. Very appropriate day to question him about his support (or more like the lack of it) when it comes to his daughter.

I have some chips in the owen and need to go and fry some steak (whoopsied down to £1.-) as I am still soooo hungry. I eat more red meat now than before I became a vegetarian. How stupid does that sound?

Off now but back with proper update and a task list for the weekend tomorrow.

Have a great evening everybody!!!

Marru

Frugaldom

What busy, busy bees everyone has been!

Janey, I am delighted to hear that ythings have worked out for your mum, that must be a wait off your shoulders knowing that she'll be living somewhere nice and not too far away for visits. Send her all our love
Also, your comments about power cuts, slugs, jachdaws in chimneys... that sounds more like the house we are in now... am a country lass at heart, bring on the farm life. I always had sheep in the garden before because when I'd finished bottle rearing the lambs, I couldn't bare to send them to the butcher. We named them all and kept them as companions for the ponies (and goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits etc, etc, etc. Yes, we even used to halter train our favourite calves.):rotfl:

cw8,first thing to remember about the OMG cash-short problem is don't worry, you can work something out by improving on your juggling skills and living on your wits. Grocery shopping can be cut to the bone, utilities curbed, ALL extras stopped, free socialising & entertainment only, evening earning even if it's only a few pounds extra, decluttering, sharing & swapping within family & social circles to avoid the need for spending and a few well chosen words in the correct ears can also help to work wonders. Prioritise and then re-prioritise, it always works for me and helps make a little bit of better luck go a long, long way

Welcome to Cha and Bobbie, don't worry if you can't work out £1000 for the final quarter from October 1st (we'll be starting a new thread) as this is just a little practise run for you before 2009.

National Trust membership - it's available via some of the cashback sites. We have annual membership to the Scottish one and I managed to get 18 months for the price of 12 by paying £6.50 per month DD. I only renewed my membership (it had long since lapsed) in July, so we have right up until December 2009 and have already visited enough local places for the membership to have paid itself.

Also, as part of the challenge, vouchers and money off coupons are used EVERYWHERE POSSIBLE in this challenge. The less of our own money it costs, the better, so start gathering the points, rewards, coupons and vouchers and if they were free, then think of them as an added bonus.

Regarding the bulk buying, Sophiesmum started us off on a bulk buying stockpile mini-challenge within this one, so the answer is a resounding YES, if it can be bought cheap and it's something you use regularly, stockpile it anywhere you can find a space. I believe some people on here even have supplies stashed under beds! :rotfl:

Sophiesmum, lovely pies! Don't worry about baking at 1am, last weekend I was having a marathon 'Friends' DVD night and fancied something nice for munching whilst watching another disc... I had a plate of crepes with lemon juice and sugar ready by about 2am but sssssssssshhhh... I tried not to waken anyone lest they wanted to eat my pancakes.

dfw spill the beans on those whopping great surveys! :T :beer: Well done finding them!

Now I need to chyeck back and see what else has been happening, I've forgotten everything else already. Apologies to those not yet mentioned