Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

Hi gang:D

Been a bit of a strange day today, one of oldies set fire alarm off so had a visit from six lovely firemen:D ... 5 policemen ... ...

4 Royal Marines...
3 French Lieutenants...
2 American Airmen...
and a soldier in full dress uniform!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Sorry, couldn't resist that.

Been out in the garden and had to dispose of every single carrot I had planted. Despite all attempts to keep them away, the neighbouring cats, slugs and snails have completely wrecked that patch of the garden. Not giving up, though, as the brocolli, leeks and onions are OK, so I've thinned out some beetroot and some cauliflower seedlngs and planted them where the carrots used to be. Finally, I dug some lovely, frugal potatoes and have enough for tomorrow's dinner. For new potatoes, there are a few biggies amongst them and that's just from one plant! :j Going to load up all the pictures for my frugal website now

Edited in: potatoes

JAMIEDODGER

evening all:)

spent a fair bit today, but none of it is counted in this challenge:D

paid:

overdraft - 50 (debt)
cc - 70 (debt)
rent - 98
cartax stamps - 75 (savings)


so another nsd for me:D

sophiesmum_2

Where is everyone tonight - have you all found more free bingo?:D

Nyk - spuds look great, :T Don't you love it when things are starting to become edible,wish the sun would come back so the tomatoes would get going quicker , there are hundreds on mine but only a handful red up to now. It has persisted down all evening here and still no sign of it stopping. Oh well, at least i don't have to water the baskets tonight:rolleyes:

JumbleBee - The life coaching and seminars sounds like a master plan:rotfl:. I am happy to voulnteer to be your frugal caterer,:p the hours sound great:D

Marru - (((hugs:heartpuls ))) sounds like you are having a bit of a rough time, hope you feel better soon and get a good night's sleep, Why don't you try getting DD to choose her clothes etc in the evening before she goes to bed and put them out ready, you won't get so stressed then as you will not be under pressure to get to nursery. I had to do this with mine when they were little as I had 4 under the age of five, I would never have got them up and out otherwise.

Marru

Dear me Sophiesmum, however did you manage!!! No wonder you are such a whirlwind and get so much organised. Yes feeling better today as my cleaner was here today and getting the house sorted is so great. She is fabulous! I will always going to have a cleaner from now on even if it does mean that I will just eat potatoes and beans (which I did tonight and it was actually lovely and I really stuffed myself).

Here is a recipe (sort of ) that some of you might try. My mum used to make this rhubarb pie. She didn't use base as you would use here it was more like a cake mixture. The cake mixture was put into a big baking tray and precooked. Then she made like jam out of rhubarbs and if we had been picking raspberries added them in and then spreaded this jam on the base and finished in the owen. Heavenly and needless to say - my favourite. The base was rather thin perhaps 1.5 cm when cooked and it was quite light and moist.

The problem with getting dressed today was because someone hasn't been uptodate with the washing and her favourite pants were in the wash. As long as I can keep her drawers stocked (and I don't force her to have a shower in the morning especially wet her hair) we are ok. Everything has now been washed but getting it dried is another matter. There was a tumbledrier in freecycle this week but decided against it as I am on credit with my electricity bill and don't want that to change. I am now working on getting gas on credit as well. However I did get some puzzles for DD from freecycle today so next rainy weekend we have something else to do than get eachothers nerves.

I took a picture of my favourite room in the house today and am off now to figure out how I could get it here. So hang on a minute - back soon...

whitewing

I'm here. Was on the exercise bike. I'm trying to do half an hour on it each day. Mostly while watching GMTV. Sometimes I even remember to cycle.

Some movement on the work-issue front; they have decided to talk to me. Not sure if this is a good thing or if they are trying to gloss over certain procedures that they haven't followed correctly. Anyway it means that I will have another two days' wages at least. Just as well as the car failed its MOT today, so we have £100-£200 of replacements (bargain actually as my brother will do it; car was really cheap last year. The only downer was that no one remembered until last week that its MOT ran out this Saturday as we bought it second hand last autumn with some MOT still on it.)

Marru

Here it is where I spend majority of my time:

Bottom left Bails' piggies. As it it pouring out I brought them in for a bit socialising, up left my piggy boys. Between piggy boys and window on the left my ratties and on the right my girl piggies. I am squashed in the middle [STRIKE]spending time in MSE[/STRIKE] working. And no - I wouldn't have it any other way!!!

sophiesmum_2

whitewing wrote: »

I'm here. Was on the exercise bike. I'm trying to do half an hour on it each day. Mostly while watching GMTV. Sometimes I even remember to cycle.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Good luck getting the car sorted out, you have just reminded me , my mot and car tax are both due 31st December, so I will have to save some money in my £4000 budget for the last day of the challenge:eek:, or if I have already blown the budget by then I could get them a day late and use 2009 budget;) - oops just realised that will be new years day and won't be able to:o

Marru - That recipe sounds yummy, I might try it this weekend and post a picture, you can tell me if it looks how it's supposed to - should have enough rhubarb ready by then:D

mumzyof2

Ok lets try again, as i was trying to send it my internet cut out and i had written loads

I am here!

Sorry i have been busy, been to my friends and then to nursery then town and then just finsihed watching the sweetest thing - its hilarous

My mum is arriving tonight at 22.15 but has been delayed till 22.55 because of bad weather in London (i did not know they were any bad weather in London untill she rang from plane before take off to tell me) I have been up since 6am and i am not going to see my Mum and stepdad till 12-12.30 so i dont know what time i will get to sleep because they will want coffe after coffee... they are lucky though as the plane before them that left paphos to manchester was due in at 9.35pm and wont arrive untill 2.30am!!

I am going to let them have a lie in tomorrow as they have caught 3 planes in 24hours because they went on a day trip to Egupt yesterday. Thats if my kids will let them lie in because it will be first time they see them in the morning

I cant wait untill SATURDAY when i will be out on the town with my friends, i have my fairy wings that i got given from DS4 nursery today so all i need now is the bright pink rave type of top and a tu-tu skirt i have seen..and some kind of shorts. On saturday i will be staying at my friends house as im not coming home drunk to my Mother.

Then on Sunday i will be 21 and we are all going out for a family meal if im feeling up for it...of course i will be..free meal and all.

Tomorrow im at youngmums group so my Mum and step Dad can sleep when im out..But think my DS4 wants to stay with my Mum so we shall see what happeneds

Yesterdays spends are

0.55 bleach
1.34 on drinks

Should i add my DMP payment on to this 4k challenge?? what do people think? Its only £30

Total (without DMP) is £2.84

I think im doing great and i have inproved since i first started doing this challenge..Iam so proud of myself.

Im sorry for the long boring post again, Hope everyone is okay and Hugs to Janey

I wont be on till nightimes for about a week while my mum here so hope everyone is okay.

Mumzy

PS: Dont know why my post come out without it having any breathing space whats so ever (paragraphs) btu i have fixed it now)

sophiesmum_2

Marru, if I had all those in my office I would never get any work done I would be too busy watching them all day:D ,We had a house rabbit (lop ear) and once or twice he came with me to the office but I had to stop taking him down when he chewed through my computer cables.

sophiesmum_2

Mumzy hope your mum and step dad arrive safely and don't stay up all night.
Enjoy your birthday night out with your friends, you are only 21 once:beer: . Think the chances of you not having a hangover the next day are very very small :rotfl: :rotfl:

I wouldn't count your DMP payments in the challenge as they are not cost of living expenses, and yes, you are definately improving on the frugal front:D

take care,and enjoy having your mum here for a while.:D