Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

sophiesmum_2

Got back later than usual from swimming and didn't feel like cooking, others had eaten so decided to have all the bits out the fridge. It was quite an unusual tea:rolleyes: but very frugal. Wouldn't like to have it every night though:D
I had a hard boiled egg, some houmous, a piece of stilton, cherry toms, some leftover pork, and some cooked runner beans

looby-loo_2

sophiesmum wrote: »

Got back later than usual from swimming and didn't feel like cooking, others had eaten so decided to have all the bits out the fridge. It was quite an unusual tea:rolleyes: but very frugal. Wouldn't like to have it every night though:D
I had a hard boiled egg, some houmous, a piece of stilton, cherry toms, some leftover pork, and some cooked runner beans

That sort of eat up meal is my favorite! Like having a free meal and very little to prepare.

I did chicken in white wine sauce tonight but missed out the white wine as I didn't have any :rolleyes: . I put in 1/2 cup of lamb gravey which I did have to use up but they didn't seem to notice. DS1 who is a bit of a foody was impressed that I hadn't used a jar - just becaue I used one about 5 years ago he wont let me forget.

Today I made two fruit cages, one for £12.50 and the other for £8.50. My mum said she would buy me one for my birthday but I just couldn't understand how they are so costly. (3m x 3m was upwards of £112!) So I did a bit of lateral thinking. I had an old frame tent in the loft which will never be used again. I put it up using just half the legs and covered it with butterfly netting. Tied it on with bag ties and secured it with tent pegs. For the other I bought a gazebo for £4 from a car boot and did the same. This is smaller, 3m x 3m, but just goes over the strawberries, so I will use it next year. This year I have very little growing so I am determined to keep what I have for us not the catterpillas.

DH came home, took one look and said I give up it gets more like the Good Life everyday - why can't I be like everyone else and just buy a normal one??? He just doesn't understand:rotfl:

ps - Normally he wouldn't come up to the lotty for a few weeks so I would have been safe but he came up especially to find me to ask me where the doors were (all 9). I had forgotten to tell him I had taken them to be dipped and stripped:o Poor man - he does put up with a lot.

On the way to the out of town shopping centre to buy the netting I noticed 3 lots of people blackberrying. OS must be catching on, that's the first time I've seen anyone around there picking. :T

slowlyfading - I hope works gets sorted out soon.

Janey51

looby-loo thanks for your comments about going back to work. Part of me feels guilty for being off but I know I will be straight into a really busy time when I go back and I know I'm not ready. Sorry to hear about your own loss.

nyk fuel poverty :eek: At the moment my income is about £16000 including the bereavement allowance. I pay a DD for oil of £200pm to keep ahead of price rises and £27pm electric which is on a capped rate until 2010. I also use about 5 gas cylinders over the winter @ £18ish each when its really cold. Luckily my logs are free this year but I do use the electric log splitter so I have no idea how much that will cost.
So I am definitely fuel poor. Just as well my rent is cheap. And I don't eat much.
I am collecting jumpers from charity shops and have a lot of body warmers And quilts and throws
In this neck of the woods, its only cold in the house when you can see your breath :rotfl:
I posted last winter to say the temperature in the bedroom was 6C at times but it makes bed so cosy. Or at least it did when DH was there to cuddle up to :rolleyes:

As I am off on holiday in September to sunnier climes for 10 days I am hoping to leave the Rayburn off until the end of that month :T Hopefully the oil suppliers will have taken pity and reduced prices by then.

Marru

AAAAARGH!!!!! :mad:

I managed to get through to BT. I was kindly told that I was locked into 5 year contract with my landline!!! :mad::mad: And they want me to pay if I want to get out of this contract, not a chance my pal.

After talking to 4 different people my call got cut off. :mad::mad::mad:

My whole gross margin goes to pay BT. What is the bloody point in working! :mad::mad::mad::mad:

Ah - feeling better now. Ready for next round with them...

Marru

Ok I am back,

Have raised a complaint and also will send them an email (but that has to wait until after breakfast)

I will try the Whitewing method here:

Good: Managed to get my washing dried outside yesterday and brought inside before it started raining again.
Better: DD got up this morning when she heard me and got herself dressed without squeaking and fuss and we actually were 5 minutes before schedule
Best: Got a big duvet from freecycle of which I am going to make two beds for The Dog, one for inside to pad the existing one and one for the car.

Better go and get that breakfast

Hope you are all having a good day.

Marru

Frugaldom

Good morning, it's another sunny one here today again

Looby-Loo, LOVE the gazebo and tent ideas, we spoke about that a while back on here but I think you are the first to actually try it out, awaiting the outcome with baited breath. :T

Janey, isn't it ridiculous how much it costs to stop from freezing? Our current house is a nightmare, 'not so cold today' here means you can't see your breath in the hall and we could still see our breath in the hall at the start of June! I can't wait to find out how much the place surveys at; landlord's already been on the phone telling us to expect surveyor in the next couple of weeks but not to worry about it, it could take months to sell the place if they decide that's what route they're taking! :mad: Yeah, right! It could also take just a couple of weeks, it only takes one good offer! :mad: And my garden is just beginning to look like a mini-self-sufficiency project!

Marru, that's really rubbish about the BT contract - 5 years?!! :eek: Can't you check to find out if you are entitled to working and child tax credits and, possibly, some help with rent? If you live alone, you should also be able to get discount on your council tax. Or, have you enough space to houseshare?

OK, off to get some more work done, catch you all soon

Marru

Nyk - thanks I do have all the benefits covered. I did let the housing benefit slip as I wasn't keeping up with the updates but have been sorting that out last Monday and yesterday. Also it seems that I will be getting some help from the college financially. I was just so upset as I have been waiting for a year to get out of the Broadband contract to be told that my landline was tied up for 5 years. Just got an email from them and they have now promised to disconnect it without any charges. Thank goodness for that so that goes to my "even better than the best" category (see post above).

Still haven't got that breakfast...

Frugaldom

:j Marru! Well done on getting the BT problem sorted out! These companies try every dodge under the sun to tie us in - I did a stupid thing with my broadband trying to reduce costs! The only way they would reduce monthly charges was if I agreed to 18 months and for that I get the first 6 months reduced further, but it'll still end up at £19.99 a month for the 12 months after that! I don't know what happens if we need to move somewhere that doesn't have Broadband! We were 3 weeks without it when moving into this house last year.

Oops! I came back here again! I'm meant to be working. Hope you've gone for breakfast, Marru!

Burlesque_Babe

£19 for gas and £26.50 for electricity gone out on DD today.

Looked at Uswitch and they say Scottish Power get me the best saving followed by EoN. Both have Quidco cashback so I'm going to follow Martin's advice and wait until they've all raised their prices and then look again. He says that comparison tables at the moment just point to the cheapest provider which hasn't upped its prices so I could sign up and if they announce a huge hike, I may be no better off than sticking with BG.

Other than that, should be a NSD

shaz_mum_of__2

Hi all

re the fruit cages well done

Hubby has spent the weekend building me some frames from wood which i have covered in fruit cage netting made 6(2m x 1.5m amd 1m high) approx cost £40 with some bits left to make a couple more

After the day of assembly his wrist swelled up .............................cue trip to A &E he's damaged tendons from to much screw!ng...........cue lots of jokes about wrist action etc etc got a splint on for 2 weeks rest

Then to top it all my 16yo dragged his bike past the frame i covered in butterfly fleece and ripped it :mad: ................cue cabbage white @rgy

i am laughing now but i cried when it happened ........it took ages to staple in place then when i replaced it we ran out of staples:mad:


off on hols on sunday and worrying about my little plot already

Shaz