Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

RebekahR

Err hello all. Just read breiftly and went back to the 1st thread. I am just wondering why water is removed as not to be a bill today? And I persume electricity/gas you still have to pay so why do we not have to pay water too as a bill (extra living)?

So I take it that extra living also includes internet, phone, mobile, gas, electricity, food etc etc etc??

Is this just for myself and what I pay or for the household as a whole? And If I start on October 1st - 31st Dec what is my limit I need to stick to?

Thanks in advance.

cw18

Rebehak,

The way I've been reading this (and like you I'm on catch-up), the things you list are what most people are including.

I'm also confused as to the water being exluded -- I understand some of us are probably on meters while others aren't, but if you're on benefits the rent/mortgage interest and council tax are the only things you're likely to not have to pay for -- and on that basis I would have said it should be building insurance rather than water that's excluded if anything, as those who rent don't have that expense (or central heating breakdown, or plumbing/electrical insurance).

I'm going to be running this for the whole household including ALL outgoings, so my target (which will be what we'd be entitled to if in receipt of nothing except benefits and with no capital behind us) will be way above anyone elses. If you want to aim for the £4k (there are already a variety of targets) then 3 months would give you £1k on a straight pro-rata. Those in receipt of Child Benefit seem to be generally including that on top of the £4k. But I thinks it's very personal depending on what you include/exclude and the size of your family.

(People also exclude work expenses, which can be vehicle, fuel, public transport fares, uniforms, tools etc.)

Optimisticpair

Just thought I would call in and confirm that since joining the practice challenge in August I am spending below my 3k for one target and state what the 3k covers.

The 3k covers everything except my rent and council tax. I've had one night out in two months as a treat which is included in the 3k and apart from some chocolate weekly the rest has been taken up by travel and phone calls to do with house buying or is saved for paying my share of gas and electric bills when I quit my current tenancy.

I will draw up a new budget for two of us when we move to our own house probably next month (Oct) and when I know running costs I'll set our challenge target to start 2009.

bobbie78

redglass wrote: »

Hi, Bobbie 78.
What's bookcrossing? Is it swapping?

Yeah basically you register the book on the site and then the idea is you track where it goes once it leaves you. In the forums though they do bookrings and book boxes where if you want a book you sign up for the book you want and say if you want to post uk only or international and it goes around 10 people or something being posted between them. A book box is normally by genre eg sci-fi / chick lit etc and you put in books your done with and take out ones you fancy and post the rest on. There are also book crossing zones and events where people leave books for you to find or just to swap them. You can also do wish lists where I've had very kind people just send me a book out of the blue from all over the world as it was on a wish list. The link is bookcrossing.com but there are associated swapping sites built from the ways things developed on the forums too.

redglass_2

Thanks, Bobbie78, that's really interesting....and very frugal!

mumzyof2

Hello everyone, from next year i will be counting EVERYTHING in my challenge and will be working everything out and setting myself a target

Frugaldom

Hello, just a quick post to clarify on the water - the challenge was originally started here in Scotland a couple of years ago and we don't pay water rates, so we didn't have a bill to include. We pay for water, waste water and council tax all on one combined bill. As an example, we are band C, which is about £1250 per year, and this includes all water charges.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend, we are viewing properties this weekend, plus it's the start of the annual festival here, so I haven't been around the computer much. (Haven't been spending anything, only a few more days to go and I'll be bang on target at £3000 for the first 9 months and £1000 left to last until 2009.)

Skint_Lynne

Hi,

I was out with my family tonight, it is my sister's 21st birthday. Now the old SL would not have batted an eyelid at the cost of tonight's dinner, but I am now becoming a frugalchick. It was £178.00:eek: :eek: :eek: . My brother paid for it, but i feel that I need to offer him something. It was a special occasion though, but I will really need to calm down with the meals out. I think spending this type of money on dinners is obscene now.

I feel that I am turning a corner now, If my DH is going to be home at weekends I will be spending more time with him and less time eating out hopefully.

I've told them all about my challenge next year, but not telling DH. I like to do my own thing, and he will just slag me off and say stuff to me, my family just laugh about it. But I will have the last laugh when I've got rid of all the debt:D .

Hope you all have had a nice Saturday.

SL x

Skint_Lynne

redglass wrote: »

Hi, Bobbie 78.
What's bookcrossing? Is it swapping?
Re the beetles, a few pages ago, they came inside the sealed plastic packets, not out of my store cupboard, but I can't remember where I bought the packets - I buy at lots of different places. Anyway (look away now if you're squeamish) I've rinsed and checked and I believe I've got everything out of the lentils so I'm going to boil them. I got over worrying about this kind of thing when I saw a market in West Africa where the sacks of pulses were totally unprotected from insects, including flies. They were the same pulses we were eating - local women picked them over and soaked them and boiled them, which sterilised them. I ate them every day and was absolutely fine - never felt better! (Thinks: some people are going to look like this :eek: reading my post, good job we're all anonymous!) :rotfl:

OOOOOOOOOOh redglass, I couldn't have ate them, cause I would be thinking about the creepies. I once got broccoli and there were earwigs burrowed in the stalk, they came out and I binned it. I've never eaten it since, daft I know as there are creepies all over the fields and stuff but that's just the way I am.

Hope I haven't offended you.

Squeamish SL x

whitewing

SL, I measure everything in terms of monthly grocery spend now. Even takeaways seem expensive. Got to have a life though.

Night, all!