Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Marru

Hello Everybody!!

Great to have a new thread and the mood is definitely upbeat!. JB the song was priceless :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Now - I am off to spoil the mood. This has absolutely nothing to do with being frugal or moneysaving and is completely off topic but I have to vent!!

I took my Darling Dog for a walk after dropping that other DD to nursery. On the walk we saw this woman training her dog. I have seen this dog before and the owners behave like they were taking out a problem dog with serious dog to dog agression. But when one looks at the dog this is so not the case. The dog is lovely, level headed, well balanced, beautiful in and out with great sweetness and lovely loving character and she is very chilled and relaxed and calm (I love her! - can you tell?).

When I was walking past with my dog off the lead this woman had her dog lying down, she held her muzzle and told her to look at her. Now if I was a dog and someone did that to me every time another dog walks by what would I learn? I would learn that it is very unpleasant when other dogs go past and I would BECOME aggressive towards other dogs. Luckily this dog is so balanced that it will not happen but with somone more sensitive then yes.

What did I found out when I talked to her later? She spends couple of hours every week to train problem dogs!!!!! She told me that she tried to take a rescue dog but wasn't given one and asked me what was the problem. I wanted to say that you treat your own dog as a problem dog when she isn't one and that it would be scary if she really had a problem dog but I bit my tongue. And the owner said that her dog is so nervy and that was sooo off the mark. For a moment I looked into this dog's eyes and got the feeling that the dog was actually laughing, if she could have winked she would have.

I see this all the time when owners come to tell me how their dog has a problem behaviour and they don't or if they do it is initially created by the owner. What do you say to these people? (I hope this dog owner is not one of the lurkers of this thread or I will now have one less place to go for a walk)

Oh - that feels better! Thank you!

Back to the subject. I have had three NSDs but today I will need to get some fruit and cheese (and chocolate).

I haven't checked my online banking yet. I am waiting to get £50 from Quidco as finally the Grand National Betfair money and my Gala Bingo money are due for payment. :T

Off now to finish my paperwork as will need a holiday even if it just for couple of days.

Bails: Glad you are feeling better after we knackered you on Saturday. Take it easy and enjoy your OH time!!!

Marru

Edited: NYK: What about Ani*fan and Smartt21? I thought they would want to start now as well? Can you two confirm?

dfw844

Hi everyone,

Well here we are half a day into the new quarter, and already on the second page! There is obviously lots of enthusiasm out there, so a big thank you to Nyk for organising us all.

Also, I have had a busy week and only just read Janey's terribly sad news. I must admit I too shed a little tear even though we have never met. I'm sure there's nothing I can say, but I am thinking of you.

I particularly loved the story about his buying lots of rucksacks and shopping bags from charity shops, instead of using the 10p bags for life. It reminds me of when I bought a fold up shopper from Mr S (I have been using my own shopping bags for years, and preach to everyone about the environmental benefits - it drives my mum mad). Anyway, when she saw my new purchase she just frowned at me and said, 'you know, you'd save the world a lot quicker if you stopped buying so many bl**dy reusable bags'! So good on Tom for doing it the proper way and rescuing those bags to be used again and again - he was 'recylcing' the proper way!

Good luck to everyone for the next part of the challenge - I will post how I've been doing so far later on today when I've updated my spreadsheets.

xx

Brighton_belle

hello lovely people, may I join you please for the 3rd quarter (and 2nd half:D ).
I've been intermittantly lurking all year but have been rather poorly and felt I just didn't have the energy. But now I'm up for it, even if in baby steps. I'll set a budget of 2,000 and just do my best and see how I get on.

I've recently changed from sainsburys on line shopping to supporting our local butcher and grocer, and bought a loverly trolley (not tartan:D ) to help in this, which I love trundling around with to the shops. I generally cook from scratch but hope to cut my food bill further.
Looking forward to getting to know you all and learning loads.
Off to number crunch...

Bb

dfw844

Brighton_belle wrote: »

I've recently changed from sainsburys on line shopping to supporting our local butcher and grocer, and bought a loverly trolley (not tartan:D ) to help in this, which I love trundling around with to the shops.

You know how when you become frugal you start suddenly sounding like your mum? Well, good on you Brighton Belle, mine always used to say (of local shops) 'use it, or lose it', and I'm trying to follow her example by doing the same.

Must say the trolley made me laugh though, more like my gran than my mum! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

LOOK AT THIS! We've broken through the 150 barrier! What a party that would make and I could probably do the buffet for under £200! :rotfl:
I've just updated the challenger list and want to officially welcome the following newbies:

148. Wendywitch - £2000 from 01/07/08
149. Barefootlinzi - £2000 + child benefit from 01/07/08
150. The_Cat - £2900 from 01/07/08
151. InTheRed - £3300 from 01/07/08
152. Ani*fan - awaiting confirmation
153. Smart21 - awaiting confirmation
154. Brighton Belle - £2000 from 01/07/08

My frugal exploits haven't been logged yet as being on dial up is rubbish! Never mind, work is work and it pays the £4k challenge. :rotfl:

Re the scamalert - UN - BE - LEIVEABLE what's coming out of it and I can't even tell you here because some of them are reading these posts!
:hello: Hi there, hope you ******** like porridge! :rotfl:
We best teach them a bit more about frugal life as I've heard it's pretty sparce living behind bars. Heard other things too, but that's another story.

sophiesmum_2

Jumble-Bee wrote: »

:wave:

'Happy second half to you,
happy second half to youuuuuuu
happy second half dear frunchkin
don't waste your money on old poo!'

hip hip horay!

:bdaycake:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Brighton_belle

dfw844 wrote: »

You know how when you become frugal you start suddenly sounding like your mum? Well, good on you Brighton Belle, mine always used to say (of local shops) 'use it, or lose it', and I'm trying to follow her example by doing the same.

Must say the trolley made me laugh though, more like my gran than my mum! :rotfl:

hahahahaha:D Oh but it a groovy funky cool one...really, no really :rotfl: and saves on plastic bags and I hate carrying stuff like a pack horse: just doggon tires me out. Goes away to try and think of something that makes me sound young and groovy...

Just done my first thing as a new frugalite - reusing a v lge clean yog pot to store broken crumbs from wheetabix box rather than throw then as ususl (as I hate eating with my wheetabix) but can use in a carrot cake recipe I do instead of using up the whole ones.
Question: is it too late to grow a few veg from scratch in a couple of tubs?

barefootlinzi

Hmm, have been number crunching and this is what I have come up with:

4k a year challenge
£76.50 a week

overdraft cost: £1.25
cleaning products: £2.30
mobile bills: £17.50
food: £40
car tax: £2.50
petrol: £20
pet food: £3.75
gym: £7.50
christmas: £7.70
birthdays: £5
loan: £51.25

TOTAL= £158.75

As you can see, far far short of the target!

The overdraft charges will go once overdraft is gone.

Cleaning products refer to a bulk buy of ecover washing powder. Not the cheapest, but cheaper in bulk and have just got one which I hope to last me 3+ months (this is the first time I have got it so hard to tell exactly how long it will last). I know ecover is extravagant but I am trying to balance saving money and being eco (something very dear to my heart).

The mobile bills are mine and my OH.

Food includes a organic box, and I hope to bring this down more but will have to see what I can do. I am going to be growing more next year so can cut out the veg box.

Petrol is high but unfortunatly I have to use the car for my job, but I do get 21p a mile (so should I still include the petrol on here?)

Gym is for my OH....he won't give this up so it has to stay!

Christmas and birthdays......this is a project estimate, I hope it to be less as I want to make more presents in the future.

And the loan...we put the repayments up to pay it off quicker.

Can I take the loan, overdraft fee and phone bills out of this? Or do they count? If they do then I am never going to make the target
If they aren't counted the total is; £88.75, this I can work with and bring down further.

Any help and suggestions to lowering these (especially food and petrol) would be appreciated.

Linzi

Just edited to add that I get £10.22 child benefit a week....which takes my weekly total to 86.72

MrDT

nykmedia wrote: »

Re the scamalert - UN - BE - LEIVEABLE what's coming out of it and I can't even tell you here because some of them are reading these posts!

This is reminiscent of the feeling I got when reading the teenage dyson scammer thread... Oh wow, drama ahead!

I'm over the moon today, I've had a load of interest paid into my savings accounts, good times :j This saving malarkey is getting a bit addictive, I just want bigger and better 'free money' payments every month lol, I'll be gutted when I eventually spend it all! :rotfl:

Since I'm in a great mood (as is everyone else it seems, except maybe Marru ) let's just ignore the fact that I have to pay my TV License and Concil Tax for now ok :rolleyes: Actually, that's not all bad either, I've discovered that I can claw back some of my council tax by paying it using a cashback credit card. Ok ok, it's gonna net me a whopping £2.20 a month in cashback lol, but £2.20 is better than a smack in the mouth :rotfl:

If you organise a party nyk, I'm there :beer:

(I have some 'strawberry wine' on the go, so I'll do my bit and help get everyone drunk )

dfw844

Ok, half of the year done... it's confession time:

Spending so far this year

Hobbies 218
Travel 130
Clothes 152 how much??!!!
Groceries 758
Toiletries haircuts contact lenses etc 174
Household 273 where did that go?
Fun 612 (are you getting the idea as to why I'm over budget?)
Gifts / charity 228
TOTAL £2545
Target £2000 over by £545.

Remaining for the year £1455
I don't think I'm going to do it, but I shall certainly keep trying, this challenge is amazing.

As a comparison by this time in 2007 I had spent £4706!!!! :eek: That's under what I think I will come in at for the whole of 2008. (Yes I've been obsessed with spending diaries for a long time).

Good job I found you lot though - before I was recording how much I spent but didn't realise how ridiculous it was. How you've all changed me. I even take the left-over milk home from the office on a Friday so it doesn't go to waste (erm, so I don't have to buy any!).

Oh and I've updated my sig. Here's the old one:

Debt at highest Nov '06 £17,822.98
Debt at LBM Nov '07 £14,231.63
Debt at 1st June '08 £8,037.98
AIMS: 1) Pay off credit cards by Dec 31st '08 Only £2,920.01 to go!
2) Pay off overdrafts & loan by Dec 31st '09 to be DEBT FREE! £5,117.97 to go.


xxx (sorry, v long post)