Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

wendywitch

sophiesmum wrote: »

Good morning frunchkins:D

Off to Wales thiis morning with my oldies, lunch in a pub/restaurant and then off for an hours ride on a steam train round one of the lakes near Snowdon, then afternoon tea and home again.

Last year the coach cost us £400 this year it has cost us £575:eek: :eek: :eek: which is the knock on effect of the diesel price increases etc. At that rate we won't be having many day trips the rest of the year. Add to that 35 meals at £9.75 and 35 train rides at £5.50 and 35 lots of tea and biscuits and it is an expensive day:eek: Just hope they all enjoy it:D

Doesn't anyone every give you discount for buying so much?

wendywitch

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Hello everyone,
Is everyone ok? I have still been budgeting and taking advice from here and the Grocery Challenge. Im cat sitting in Blackpool till Sunday as my sister has gone on holiday to my Mum's. So i have not had to buy any food My milk/fruit/veg tokens have now stopped for my son as he is now 4 (i thought they stopped at 5) so now i only get 4 tokens per month for my daughter. But im still going to have to buy the same amount of food, but im not bothered as fruit/veg is good for them

My fun nights out are over now as everyone who babysat has gone back now Looks like my next night out will be next year on my bday lol. Im trying to look for a babysitter but i did think about putting a ad in local shop but dont think i will be able to trust them. Maybe i could ask my gran to watch them once a month.

Have you asked at school, playgroup etc? Round my area you can find child care students who'll give you references from their college.

Frugaldom

BB - I just dried off the seeds from peppers I had bought from supermarket then popped them into the compost and kept them watered. I'd plant a few just to make sure you get a couple growing and then separate them once they are too big for the one pot as each plant can grow a fair height. Good luck, it's fun witing for them to sprout and then watching them grow.

Jumble-Bee I bought the radiators when I found out there was no heating on ground floor of this house and it was costing me a fortune using electric convector heaters. The oil never runs out of them, it's sealed into the units. I have no idea how these would compare to gas, as we don't have any, but my electricity bills during winter were horrendous. How does gas compare to electricity at any other time? Also, we have E7 electricity with storage heaters, so most of my electricity was used through the night on cheap rate. That reminds me - I need to check and find out what our current rates really are now!

Bails - Mr Locum sounds ideal, although perhaps not the best of business minds if he gives away products to every female client who visits. Marru... get round to the vet's now! They shouldn't charge if you just drop in to ask a question. Would it be out of order to ask the question, "Are you married, Mr Locum?" :rotfl: :rotfl:

I have been very, very good and managed to shave another few pounds off my 2008 budget targets :j Please disregard previous numbercrunch totals as I am now using this one:
Even More Amazing New targets :beer:

Groceries - £1000 (£804.71)
Gifts - £400 (£132.12)
Utilities - £1685 (£1237.94)
Electricity - £1400 (£1116.66)
Telephone - £225 (£110.41)
Mobiles = £60 (£10)
Household - £191.90 (£191.90)
Internet - £210 (£106.86)
Everything Else - £350 (£216.07)
Contingency - £163.10 (£0.00)

Total spent to date: £2689.60
Remaining: £1310.40

My 12 months contract had expired with BT, so I have switched to the cheapest package, hoping to make an extra saving of around £5 per month. I counted up my broadband payments due to end of the year, checked my electricity readings against the last bill and double checked my mobiles (can you tell I don't use them often? :rotfl: ) I'll really need to top up soon to avoid deactivation. 'Household' is for TV License and contents insurance, so I have updated that part of my balance, as I'd forgotten to deduct the TV license fee from my totals and I'd also forgotten to add on the increase in cost! All squared up now, I think!

tryingtodobetter

Not a good day here, discovered a flat tyre on the car this morning (it has a nail in it) It rained all day again so the kids were going stir crazy until they decided to play on the trampoline in the rain, DS2 who is 6 then fell off a broke 2 of his toes :eek: :eek:

Well at least I had a NSD :rolleyes: Hope you all had a better day than me!!

wendywitch

Oh great fun T.T.D.B - NOT! Poor thing, is he ok? At least he'll have a story to tell when he goes back to school

Well, I think I've blown every budget and challenge possible today and I think the 2K challenge is out the window but I think it was all stuff that was needed.
I got some food shopping, a stock pile of toilet rolls from Mr S/field, petrol, about 9 Christmas presents, a birthday present, one pair of school shoes, 2 pairs of "play" shoes, paid my D.D's and took my girls to the Circus . So I'm quite pleased.

I'm pleased to say I've nearly finished my Christmas shopping minus my parents and my girls.

sophiesmum_2

wendywitch wrote: »

Doesn't anyone every give you discount for buying so much?

That's after the discounts, :rolleyes: we got £1 off each meal and £1 off each train ticket for group bookings. and free meal and train ride for coach driver.

Arrived home around 9pm tonight, had a good day, managed to keep track of everyone and not have any accidents:D Weather was lovely first part of day, enjoyed some time along sea front before going for our lunch,then a little more time outdoors after lunch, by the afternoon it was drizzling but didn't matter as we were on the train then, then indoors again for tea,and toasted teacakes. Had a little mooch about the craft shops and slate mining museum before we set off for home tired out.

I spent £2.50 on two little recipe books, and £2 on a box of fudge for DD from gift shop.
On way home went past a farm advertising half a lamb for £20 or half a pig for £30, if I hadn't been in a humongous new fangled coach,full of oldies, I would have been driving up the dirt track to the farm and stocking up my car:p

Penny2myName

Mumzyof2, I'm a lone parent and attend college. orthough my children are slightly older than yours, I still need to get one school for 8:45 and my college starts at 9, and he finishes at 3:30 same time as my course, luckily the tutors understand about this and know that there is the possibility that parents have obligations to their children first, and therefore may either be late or have to leave early. Last year they allowed our group to start half an hour later then the rest of the college, but that cant be done this coming year, so as long as you have it agreed with your tutor that you may be X amount of time late, or have to leave X amount of time early, then you should still be able to attend.

Brighton_belle

Had Curry Queens chicken korma tonight, using her curry base recipe and then using that for her korma. Really really tasty. Think I would try and cook the next batch without the veg oil though, or greatly reduced, not becasue it seemed really fatty or anything, but I'm interested in how much it contributed to ober all flavour vs weight control. I substituted HM yogurt for the coconut milk and that was great. Chucked loads of corgettes from friend's allotment and her spinach. Made enough korma for 4 meals, and frozen enough curry base for another 3 lots of 4 meals:j .

Prepped tomorrows lunch: really getting better already at using up what I have before buying anymore - adapting recipes I normally do to what I do and don't have. PLanning ahead knowing I'm going away for the weekend so need to use up fresh veg. Run out of fruit and deliberately not buying any more until friday now (we eat loads and realising I can't just eat it all the time and instantly fill up basket again. Really beginnning to change my habbits for thr better.
Marru - sounds like you need several vet appointments over consecutive days to me,: it's in the best interests of your animals:rotfl:
Impressive number crunching Nyk :T .

Marru

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Marru - sounds like you need several vet appointments over consecutive days to me,: it's in the best interests of your animals:rotfl: .

Mmmm - or perhaps a home visit! :rotfl:

bails

nykmedia wrote: »

Bails - Mr Locum sounds ideal, although perhaps not the best of business minds if he gives away products to every female client who visits.

A-ha, but he's giving away someone else's stock, so is in fact Robin Hood - taking from the rich and giving to the poor
Unfortunately it was his last day at my practice so booking appointments won't be any good Marru However, he is the locum for all Bath vets so all you need to do is ring around each surgery finding out if their vet is on hol :rotfl:
I should've looked for any wedding ring action but TBH, I was finding it hard to concentrate on anything :rotfl:

Glad the trip went well Sophiesmum. You do love your numbers Nyk, made me laugh! Well done for finding anywhere in your frugal budget to squeeze some more pennies out, v impressive :T Glad you had a productive and good day Marru!
Congrats on the batch baking and planning ahead BB! I copied off Curry Queen's recipes just the other day so will look forward to trying them too.
Sorry to hear about your bad day TTDB and poor DS's toes :eek: Hope you have a better day today.
Sounds like college is a definite possibility Mumzy :T
Hmm, I'm not the greatest start to the day. Without wishing to gross anyone out, we have a flea infestation that is not going away :eek::mad: We've never had fleas before (despite never treating our two ) but we're riddled with them at the mo! We made the mistake of using a cheaper brand but it hasn't worked so back on the (free :T) Frontline. I'm itching constantly, out of paranoia mostly, not helped by the fact I have long hair! Anyone got any great tips for nuking the horrible lil' blighters? (I'm afraid they're exempt from my animal loving tendencies).