Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Prudent

NYK, I watched that programme too. The pay seems to be completely yours - no expenses. With all the skills we have gained on here, I think all of us would be good at that job. I wasn't too sure about some of those employers though !

Marru

Nyk, you need to wait till I have made my fortune and I sure will employ you. It will be veggie with fish diet thou but we don't mind tuna as long as you keep my household budget under £4k . Bails - you can be my live in PA and nanny . All sorts of animals welcome as well.

About the idea of renting out Sophiesmum, what a brilliant idea!! Sophiesmum - fancy a national tour? You can come and organise us and if you take Jumble Bee with you we get life coached at the same time! :T

Had a nice school ending party and ate some goodies so it is not a NCD (= no chocolate day) for me today. They gave me DD's file and it was so great to really see what she has been up to all these months that she has been there. I am so very proud of her. Haven't done my second walk as couldn't keep The Dog waiting in the hot car for over an hour so will try to make it up before picking DD up from the nursery. I did manage to finish my report last night (at 1am) so can take it a bit easier today.

From very sunny part of the Frugal land,

Marru

sophiesmum_2

Good afternoon frugalites,
just having my lunch break
Nyk - if you are serious about that sort of work you could always check out being a resident scheme manager in sheltered housing;) you only need to be a responsible person with lots of common sense.;) Although my salary is only £13,000 actual wages which is really poop, but i do get free rent, free electricity,gas, water rates - I only have to pay council tax, but some associations even pay that for their managers. Some single managers even qualify for tax credits on that income . No good for me as OH has a very good income.
I was assessing where we are up to with our wish lists and long term plans the other night and between us over the past 12 - 18 months we have managed to save over £24,000 of our income for our future life in Malta, we are aiming to have £100,000 of savings behind us when we go which will be entirely possible if we stick to this challenge for a couple more years:T :T so a few more years of frugal living then we can have a life in the sun and neither of us will have to work.OH is older than me and as well as currently working has a substantial final salary pension from his previous home office career which we will then live on. This challenge is helping us put these plans into action:j

fizzel81

afternoon all

been to town what a joy ds1 wet himself (thats ok you say well he is nearly 5!, i wouldnt mind if he had told me)

he is now stropping in his room i swear he is worse than a teenager, just picked up photos they had done (ex is footing the bill) there nice, also found the icing i needed in sainsburys (was good only brought icing and the candle) to make ds's birthday cake next friday

ds3 spent his birthday money (he is into thomas) and ds2 has a little one i have hidden away untill next week that i couldnt get for love nor money last christmas (it was 7.99 bargin)

ive also brought xmas cards, £1.50 for all the cards i should need this year.

im off now need to cook something for dinner, i usally meal plan but this week ive been using up as and what i have, needs to be quick and easy and its so hot i dont feel like anything

sophiesmum_2

Have made big decision this afternoon, have decided to rejoin the health club I used to go to. It is part of trying to be more healthy/active and lose some weight. Doing okay with the weightloss so far have lost 17lbs doing the SW plan up to now, still lots to go though:rolleyes: Anyway the only sport I really like or am any good at is swimming, so I have decided to rejoin the health club and go daily for a swim, sauna and jacuzzi as i don't get any proper exercise during the day at work. the cost is £32 a month but if I go daily it will work out at about £1 a visit roughly which isn't bad really. Once I get a bit fitter i may even use the gym area or go to one of the free exercise classes or even play squash which is also included in the fee, but for the time being i am happy just to swim which I enjoy. My totals are going to take a big drop as in a minute I am going to deduct the cost of 5 months gym membership which is £160:eek: but at least then I can see what is remaining and can forget about updating every month. I will be going each day with a friend and driving us both in return she is going to pay for a coffee after our swim each time. Luckily it is only 5 minutes drive away from home.
I need this relaxation time at the moment as there is a lot of stuff going on in my family which is quite stressful, and sometimes it is nice to just be able to take an hour out and unwind. So swimming and this thread will be my relaxation time:D
Off to update my signature now

Penny2myName

Dreading doing this months calculations, as it has been an expensive month with the move. Somehow I have managed to lose the burner caps to my cooker, during the move, so Have had to order a completely new cooker, as the corgi fitter, couldn't locate any for my brand of cooker.
Due to not having a connected cooker for two weeks, was expensive with chippy and pizza takeaways. Also used lots of electricity using toastie machine, forby grill style machine and steamer, to try and feed us.
On a good point, I called into the works last week and picked up Marguerite Patten's Victory cookbook, I think its all three from the series combined into one, as it goes from 1940-1954. Anyhow for £3.99 I'm happy with it.
Another thing is, since my move, I have taken on an allotment, That has cost with inital layouts, water rates, key, tools (too far for me to carry tools on a daily basis, so need one lot for allotment and one lot for home). It has two apple trees, two plum trees, a broadbean patch (which non of us eat) and lots of weeds. Me and the kids have deweeded a second veg bed, which I have planted some free pea plants into (kindly donated by the guy in the next plot). So even if I end up failing this years challenge, the allotment, should help a lot towards next years attempt.
Well best get back to filling in my spending diary with everything I can remember, I did try keeping all reciepts, as it was a good 3 weeks before I got back online, after I had moved.

bails

I think that sounds like a great plan Sophiesmum! You work very hard and deserve to have some quality time to yourself doing something you enjoy. Technically it doesn't count as part of the 4k in the sense that it is a luxury, so why not save up for it (or allocate some of your IB) to cover the costs? Congrats on the weight loss too, fantastic!

I am shattered! The lovely Marru arrived bearing a yummy lunch which was much appreciated and I dragged myself out for an appointment. I've also just sent a bit into the TES for the chance of earning £30 - unlikely but you never know! And now I fully intend to wipe out for the rest of the evening, maybe with a sneaky look at some of my MA modules to get me excited

Prudent

help please

Reading some of the advice here, I think I am including things in my total for this challenge that I shouldn't.

Please can someone help me check?

I have only excluded:
- council tax
- union membership
- petrol to work
- daughter's travel to school (placing request)

Do I include other car costs? just paid £130 for a service, plus road tax, insurance, tyres etc

A big part of this year's total has been £1000 (including spends) on a holiday for dd and I. This was a one off special holiday as will probably be dd's last with me for some time as she is 16. Should this be included?

Thanks

bails

Hi Prudent, it's a little tricky as everyone has slightly different things included in their totals. Nyk and some others are including everything except council tax, water and rent, but many of us have chosen to leave out certain elements e.g. I leave out anything health-related as my costs would negate the challenge before I started. The idea is to include 'cost of living' items, not luxuries (such as holidays) and anything work-related (as some don't have those costs due to not working/working from home). At the end of the day, I see the challenge as helping us to cut our costs and spend in a careful way to maximise whatever finances we have - I fully expect not to meet the 4k target but it all helps to improve our quality of life.

Brighton_belle

Sophiesmum - I think joining the gym, with the use you plan to make of it is a very good idea. Looking after yourself is so very important. Gym's only become an poor expense if you just don't have the money to cover it in the first place, and/or you rarely/never use it. Swimming is a very good over all exercise and you get chill 'me' time :j . I'm an SW'er too and lost 2 - 2.5st last year and am now maintaining. I can't exercise regularly due to tiresome health issues but do swim now. And tackling unavoidable stress by finding time to chill is very important. Because once health is lost it can be very difficult to regain.
Results of yogurt straining are in - straining HM yog through muslin thickened it up loads over 1.5 hrs. Trying another batch for 2-3 hrs now (got too excited to wait any longer for the first lot:o . Battery on scales failed at the crucial moment so I can't give stats on how much weight worth of yog you lose through straining. But I likw the thickness for some forms of cooking/pudding use. Oh and just reclaimed sausage maker I gave my dad for xmas 10 yrs ago and he's never used:j . Will collect next week.
Not sure if you saw the peadpod soup recipe Nyk that I posted at the same time as your post yesterday eve and came up on a previous page to yours.