Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Prudent

Thanks Bails. I think I might keep going as I am then. It would be really interesting to know exactly what I had spent at the end of the year and just teh four things makes it really easy to work out both the challenge total and the full total with the complete costs.

I am really enjoying this and think a year on year challenge might be good

I haven't been nearly so frugal as usual this year. Mainly beacuse work has been really demanding, leaving me less energy for money saving activities and competitions. I hope this will improve though.

The good news is that my bf that I have been going out with for just over a year is totally converted and really encourages my thrifty ways.

whitewing

Am so pleased you all talked me out of the £400 shoes. We have been shopping today as had to drive for an hour to a meeting, so thought we'd go to the rather large shopping centre nearby afterwards. (Got given lunch too which was very nice, and a wedding present).

Anyway, big achievement of the day: wedding shoes for H2B £85 discounted to £40. (They are a strange style to match his suit and spot on what he wanted, but never thought he'd be able to get. I don't like them, but he is so delighted that I don't actually mind).

And then, when he went to pay, they had been further reduced to £28.50 (including some cleaner stuff).

So am very pleased, especially since I saw them (actually I pointed them out scarcastically, never dreaming that he'd buy them).

And then we popped to M&S foodhall to get a drink (had 20% off entitlement) so I thought we'd need to spend to take it over a £5 as we wanted to pay by card. Normally H2B begs for sweeties but I am mean (I mean I am a frugaller) and won't let him. This time, he insisted we bought milk as we had totally run out at home. What a step in the right direction!

nevadagirl

Hi everyone,

I'm jumping in on the conversation late, but I watched that programme too and have been following the series, because I used to do that job. They may pay your living expenses and sometimes you end up with nice days out and using the posh car for a weekend but boy do they get their money's worth. And when your employer runs out of money/gets deported/is sued, the 'help' is the first thing to go. And no matter what your life experience or qualifications or background, or how well you end up getting on with them, you are always the 'help' and looked down upon appropriately.

I know a couple of people who are resident scheme managers and I would go for that option out of the two Having said that, my leaving bonus was equivalent to the deposit on my first home (if I hadn't ended up being seriously ill a year later once I'd changed jobs and needing to live off it, that's what it would have been spent on). And I did have a very interesting life for a little while there.:D

Frugaldom

BB - I'll check out the pea pod soup recipe, I must have missed that, somehow. Thanks for letting me know. Of course, nobody else in the house will even try something like that, so I may have to adapt it and call it green lentil & ham or something. :rotfl:

Sophiesum - my cooking skills would let me down. There's no way I could do a cooked meal for a hallfull of people, it doesn't even bear thinking about. Unless they all want pasta salad :eek::rotfl: But I really do need to have a complete rethink on my future income plans, because there's little left to be cut back on or given up, except Internet, so I'd lose what little income I do have and my access to MSE & eBid! :eek: Good work on the savings! I don't think anyone would grudge you a gym membership.

Whitewing - I AM MIGHTILY IMPRESSED! :T :j The shoe offer must have been like a weight off your mind amidst all the other traumas you have to cope with at the moment! Well done on being strong and NOT buying the £400 shoes. I'll bet your Billy Can is pleased! :rotfl:

Prudent - Work a budget to suit yourself and just try to keep cost of living seperate from cost of working & extras. I'll be running the challenge for a long time yet, so plenty of room for adjustments, as I can't see me getting out of skintdom any time soon! Like Sophiesmum, I'm aiming to save £100,000 , except I earn about half what SM earns and don't have an OH contributing to the pot... mine's a very, very loooooooooong term savings plan. :rotfl:

So far, today, we have had 4/5 of our 5-a-day.

Brekkie - Fresh OJ, toast and a banana (2)
Lunch - Souffle omlette with grated cheese and tinned tomatoes (1)
Dinner - HM [STRIKE]fishcales[/STRIKE] cutlets with cauliflower & cheese sauce (1.5)

I added tuna and sweetcorn to the [STRIKE]fishcakes[/STRIKE] cutlets!

DS loves sweetcorn, hates all fish
HS hates sweetcorn and tuna but likes white fish

DS had one bite then saw/smelt the fish and refused to eat. Eventually, he finished one single fishcake the way a 2-year-old finishes dinner under threat of no sweets afterwards. (DS is 19!!!)
HS ate 3 but I don't know if he knows it was tuna - I think he maybe thinks it was white fish and now I'm not sure if I should tell him.

Anyhow, I thought that since I was boiling potatoes that I may as well make it worth my while, so I dug up quite a few, boiled & mashed them all, then split the mashed potato in half. One half got tuna & sweetcorn added and the other half got white fish & sweetcorn added. (I cooked fish whilst potatoes were boiling.) I sampled one fishcake (just to make sure they were OK ), served up 2 each and then made up the rest of the mix for freezing. I did some as rounds and some as croquette shapes, and have them all breadcrumbed on trays in the freezer now. Grand total made from one pot of homegrown potatoes, one large can sweetcorn, one can of tuna and 3 small fillets of white fish = 18 large rounds and 14 large croquettes. :j

I prepared the whole cauliflower, weighing it into portions, and got 9 full portions. There are now 6 portions in the freezer for a later date. I just need to go and find a way of getting the last 0.5 portions of F&V into today's diet, so will need to pop some sultana & oat biscuits into the oven. 9 servings of raisins or sultanas into the mix means that a couple of biscuits each with a cuppa will amount to the missing 0.5 Anyone know how long it takes to notice the difference in a new eating regime? I'm still struggling to get enough fat into the male diets, so told them to buy themselves chocolate & crisps and eat extra cheese and peanuts. :rotfl:

Brighton_belle

Here it is, to save you looking:
"Nyk - peapod soup:D on the menu me thinks:
reject strings when podding, then rinse & put inpan with chopped onions & just cover with chicken stock. Add bayleaves & mint. Bring to boil & simmer for 20 mins. Remove leaves & liquidise and strain through a sieve. (It was on posted on the 50p thread by seakay a few days ago and you may have seen it)."

Frugaldom

OK, my productive day is nearing an end - one tray of fruit & oat biscuits bakes, a 'wodge' of cookie dough in the fridge and my version of a pineapple upsidedown cake in the oven. That should keep the fruit count and the fat count up for the male diets in the household. Peapod soup can wait until I have more peapods

Janey51

Good morning everyone.
I am still plodding along and trying to come to terms with my new life which didn't figure in my plans at all.

On the Frugal front, I contacted SKY and cut the package right back to basics. DH loved a lot of the SKY channels so we had the 4 mix before and as we never went out, I didn't begrudge it at all. So that will save a few pounds a month.
During the last month since DH died I have only spent £40 on food, housekeeping and cats. My freezer is still full and I really want to cook but everyone keeps inviting me out so I have no need to.
Can you believe it cost me £51 to have his name removed from my Car Insurance Policy as a named driver :mad:
And the last thing the Customer Service Advisor said to me was "Enjoy the rest of your evening" :rolleyes:
I presume she was reading from a script.
DS is going to write to the company on my behalf as all my fight has gone and ask them to refund the charge in the circumstances.

As DH and I were in a DMP with the CCCS (who have been wonderful) I will now be contacted by his creditors about his Estate :rotfl:
If they think he had huge insurance policies ready to pay out, they are going to get a surprise.
Of course, they may have souls and just send a message of sympathy.
As executor of the will (a great investment) I am left to deal with everything which is hard when your brain doesn't function properly.

sophiesmum_2

Nyk - you don't have to be able to cook to be a scheme manager, I do that as an extra unpaid thing for my oldies. Also i have internet at work and out of work hours we are allowed to use it free as much as we like, another perk of the job.I think it would be an ideal job for you;)
We have a broadband wireless network set up at home as all 3 of us have laptops, a while ago our broadband went down, and we didn't even know as our system automatically picked up on a neighbours wireless network and we had been piggy backing their broadband for a couple of days before OH noticed.
After that out of curiosity DD tried usng her laptop in a few places, car park, my mums etc and each time hooked onto a wireless network, I'll bet there are a few people out there not paying for a connection and just piggybacking onto someone elses:rolleyes: although this probably works better in non rural areas.If anyone remembers the freegan programme a while back I wonder if that is how they got their internet in the camper van???

last night i joined my health club again. Then i went and had a lovely hour swimming, followed by a sauna, and a while relaxing in the jacuzzi. Had a shower before I left using their shower gel/shampoo,picked up a plastic bag for my wet cossie,got weighed for free, used the free hairdryer and even some hand lotion from the dispenser, then we went and had a coffee and read the daily papers, before going home.Might as well get my moneys worth:rotfl: My membership card also gives me 10% discount in their high street sports shops so that will be handy when DD needs new trainers or OH needs stuff - that is a new perk they have just brought out:D

F&V totals yesterday;
Brekkie - Tomato juice, HM toast with marmite (1)
Lunch - Scrambled egg,tomatoes,baked beans (2)
Snack - fruit smoothie (1.5)
Tea - chicken, green beans, sprouts (2)

sophiesmum_2

Good morning janey,
Sounds like you are getting down to the prcticalities now - hope you have a lot of support helping you deal with everything.
Re the car insurance you may have been better just cancelling the policy and starting another new one completely rather than make changes, but in the circumstances surely they could use their discretion and waive the fee:mad:
Good luck sorting it all out.

Frugaldom

Hi Janey, Glad you are still popping in to post here and hope you are doing ok. How are things going with the house situation? As for the insurance company, I would certainly make sure this ridiculous situation got brought to their attention via official complain - mention the newspapers if they get stroppy about it. Are you alright about all the going out and visiting others thing? You can always say, "no thanks, too busy frugaling" if it gets to be too much.

Sophiesmum it sounds like you had a great time yesterday. You seem to be in a very fortunate position far removed from my personal reasons for the challenge - mine is for survival purposes. :rotfl: The kind of job you are describing would be impossible to find in my neck of the woods; relocation is out of the question, as DS lives with me and works fulltime nearby, plus DD's work during nursery holidays means I am handy for babysitting DGD when the two clash.

Latest news in the area - an increase in chimney fires! Makes me wonder if I should be saving twigs, sticks and branches for winter fuel when my landlord can't guaeantee the safety of the chimney. They are blaming fuel prices, people just can't afford to heat anything so are resorting to burning stuff that theu shouldn't. Could also be the fact that it can take weeks and cost a fortune to get a chimney sweep. I know this is really not a good time to ask you, Janey, but what was the cause of your housefire? I'm always a bit paranoid about being in a rental, especially as ours seems to have dodgey electrics what with the cooker blowing up and the downstairs hall light turning on the upstairs bedroom light and none of the groundfloor storage heaters working. Heating the place via one of the fireplaces may not be such a good idea.