Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Frugaldom

:rotfl: Sorry! I suddenly had the urge to do a Robin Williams impersonation for Frugallers!

WELCOME to InTheRed - You can set your own target, whatever you think is do-able. Remember it doesn't count rent/mortgage, council tax/water and actual buildings insurance. Everything else is fair game, so long as it's frugal, sensible and aimed at clearing debts and then making savings. If you can make it a nice round number then that would help.

Re the scam alert - has everyone checked their bank accounts for bogus direct debits? Also, for the self-employed among you, do NOT respond to any emails from HMRC. PM me for details if you have any questions about either of the above points.

I'll be back soon to update properly - need to get to 'work' for 10.30 then reconnect via the laptop :rotfl:

MrDT

Shiny new thread! :j

I'll be spending the first bit of my '3rd quarter 2008' money today lol, straight in there haha! Need to go grocery shopping, and will be stocking up on wakestock supplies whilst I'm at it

Lots of biscuits, pizzas, and beer on my shopping list (and a baggie of tobacco and some skins too) Still, sure as hell beats paying £5 per cheeseburger on the festival site! :eek: We're going for 4 days so taking my own food and beer should save a small fortune!!

Bonus:

• I have a 100 clubcard point voucher for buying a particular bottle of wine, that's woth £4 in deals so if the wine is around the £5 mark I'll grab a bottle
• Bought the news of the world on sunday so have a shiny £5 off a £30 shop voucher to use

I'll be taking my home brew cider too. I've calculated that it has an alcohol by volume of 8%+. I can vouch for the accuracy of my arithmetic having tasted a small glass and feeling instantly woozy :rotfl:

Hope everyone has a good day and a fantastic second half to '08 :money:

JAMIEDODGER

been to tesco's, done my two shops for today. total spent £62.49 but total saved.....

£12.47 yay!!:D

will be going back tomorrow for the other shop!!!

Mollymop5

Good morning everyone
I will be totalling up my spends for last month and will post them later.It gets quite scary to see the budget going down but I feel I'm managing ok and just need to tighten my belt a little.My grocery budget seems to grow in the summer as it's all fresh fruit ect to buy.I prefer winter with lots of cheap soups lol.
Hope you all enjoy the sunshine (if you have it).

barefootlinzi

This is so insprational.....can I join too? I want to be more frugal and self sufficient so this is a perfect thread for me! Hopefully by living on £76.50 a week will help me out of my overdraft and have money left over to pay off the debts!

has anyone got any tips for a newbie? and does car insurance count? cause i have got to get it today so thats not a great start!!!

my total is £2000 plus child benefit

linzi

the_cat

Hi everyone

I started this challenge along with you all back in January. For the first few months I did well but although I have stuck to all the frugal principles I lost count of my spending totals. TBH after a while I stopped writing them down at all:o. So I would like to re-enter for the final 6 months at half my original budget - £2900. To my deep embarrasment that is more than most of you, but even that is going to be very hard!!!

Even though I haven't posted I still read this thread avidly and have picked up lots of great tips. I have cut my food spending in spite of the price rises, my gas/elec bills have gone down, I have started a few (very few!) veggies in pots which I will do much more of next year and put my name down for an allotment (long term project though, as waiting list is about 3 years:mad: ) It has changed my mindset from fairly frugal anyway in the past to totallyoverthetopdon'tyouhavehomestogotofrugalnutcase. OH now constantly says that we can't afford for me to go to work as I save more now than when I earnt a wage!:D

So thank you all for a wonderful thread.

Just wanted to make a special mention to Janey. I read about your very sad news on the previous thread and wanted to add my hugs and thoughts to the many received at the time. As an 'outsider' I felt it was a bit out of place to post immediately, especially as you had such magnificent support and beautiful messages from the regulars. Thinking of you and hoping that you are able to continue posting.

bails

WOO HOO, new thread for even more frugal fun!! :j

How's everyone doing this fine lunchtime? Just off to catch up on the first couple of pages before heading off to Westonbirt for a picnic.

This quarter I'm all guns blazing again on the recording spends front and working on the garden to hopefully reduce our food bills.

Good luck everyone, and especially any new frugal friends starting today *off to see if BB has announced herself yet *

InTheRed

nykmedia wrote: »

:rotfl: Sorry! I suddenly had the urge to do a Robin Williams impersonation for Frugallers!

WELCOME to InTheRed - You can set your own target, whatever you think is do-able. Remember it doesn't count rent/mortgage, council tax/water and actual buildings insurance. Everything else is fair game, so long as it's frugal, sensible and aimed at clearing debts and then making savings. If you can make it a nice round number then that would help.

Re the scam alert - has everyone checked their bank accounts for bogus direct debits? Also, for the self-employed among you, do NOT respond to any emails from HMRC. PM me for details if you have any questions about either of the above points.

I'll be back soon to update properly - need to get to 'work' for 10.30 then reconnect via the laptop :rotfl:

Hi NYK!

Can I go for a more manageable (although still very difficult) £3,300 for the 2nd half.
Next year I will have to make more radical changes as I would love to be able to do the £4,000 + child benefit challenge.
Have so far this morning cancelled a membership for experion (to monitor credit rating £6.99 a month) and cancelled magazine subscription £12 a year. Total annual saving from 2 phone calls £95.88!
Also, cannot believe that my gas/electric is £105 per month!!! Need to look at my readings - I have a 3 bedroom semi house, I know gas and electric has gone up this year - but this seems extreme.

My July budget is:-
Monthly spend of £550

Charity donation £8 - May need to cancel this
Gas/Electric £105 - Will be checking the bill and reads
Mobile £21.35
Internet/Home phone £26.93
Interest charges £ 2.99
Food £130.00
Petrol £ 86.00
Slimming World Subs £ 18.00
Sons Clubs/activities £ 29.17
Monthly total £427.44

Contingency for Food and car service £122.56

Does anyone have any thoughts on Internet and home phone companies/deals?

Welcome barefootlinzi!

bails

I LOVE how upbeat and excited everyone's posts sound! :T

A big wecome to InTheRed and Barefootlinzi, and welcome back to Moanymoany, the_cat and Jamiedodger, great to have you all on board!

Jumble, :rotfl: at the birthday song

ITR, My internet/phone package is with the 'YabberYabber' people at about £16.79 me thinks - that's for broadband, line rental, all calls after 6/weekends and free international calls. Best check the articles for the latest deals though depending on what you need.
Ooh, I have a kitten sniffing my foot and it tickles lol!
As for the charity donation dilemma, I had to cancel all mine when I gave up my job but I click here every day to do my bit, and sponsor people etc. When I can go back to work I'll start up my DDs again.
I'm having a couple of days quality time with OH today and tomorrow so everything will be on hold, but Thursday I'll be in the garden hopefully and then on Fridy while I'm dogsitting at Marru's I'll overhaul my budget again and see what's what.
Got to go now or the picnic will be at dinnertime Have a lovely first day of Part 3 everyone x

whitewing

I am very excited with the new thread.

I checked business banking, Nyk, and no DD's that I don't already know about. Mind you, if my accountant submits my tax returns for me online.

Charity donations. I cancelled mine. However, as I am too lazy to get to grips with ebay, I do donate all unwanted goods to our local charity shops.

I'm going back to my Good, Better, Best technique.

Good: Since my burst of present-buying in the sales after Xmas, we have lasted half a year without having to buy a present or card. And everyone is still very pleased with what they've got.
Better: Have renewed vigour now we have a new thread and everyone else is excited.
Best: Have worked out a summer budget for MIL and H2B is going to go thro it with her, so that we can set a realistic date for her to move out and become more independent in her new country.