Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

Brighton_belle

thriftylass wrote: »

Using frozen yogurt as starter should work fine, those friendly bacteria are quite resilient. It should be ok also since you can buy freeze-dried starter cultures, that contain those bacteria.

Thanks a lot for this thrifty:T , I shall definitely stock up then.

Marru - I developed something that sounds very similar a few yrs ago - mine is contact dermatitis that kicked off with a new hand/clotheswashing detergent. I have major problems now touching any chemical, even picking up a kitchen cloth to wipe the surface. However, I have other problems that may exacerbate this one so don't be alarmed. You may need to try one of those 1% steroid creams from the chemist - ask a pharmacist for advice. It can be very itchy and painful at it's worst.
Just been given a 1.5 sink/drainer and new tap from a freecycler:j :j . So excited. Don't have a draining board andits a pain,and only one sink for 4 of us so would love to change it. Just need to source worktop and a cheap builder now!! SAving towards this and this has lopped £100 of the cost.

Taka - I felt somehow 'disloyal' for switching to A&L form natwest to get the £100. It's funny how we get attached to the familiar yet impersonal. A few weeks don the line and it deoesn't matter any more.

redglass_2

Marru, just to add to the possibilities, there is a kind of eczema that appears as small red blisters, typically on hands and feet. Hope it clears up soon.

mama67

cw18 wrote: »

:eek: That's scarey :eek:

I'm currently paying £870 a year for my g&e in a 4 bed detatched with 2 adults and a 17 year old (so as good as 3 adults), and a 19 year-old home on leave about 6-8 weeks a year. And this is paying £10-15/month more than they asked for, so should be able to reduce it to £700 a year without getting into debt (currently £140 in credit).

(We do then have servicing/maintainance on top of that, which is currently £200/year -- must shop around and see if I can find cheaper, as our BG contract keeps going up while I see them advertising it for not much more than half of what we pay!!!)

My Oil payment is based on Aug 2007 - July 2008 ordering, and I filled the tank in June which was approx £400, which will last us easily through the winter and will hopefully not have to order anymore until ready for next winter. I'm hoping I won't have to order anymore until into August 2009, which will easily decrease the payment for 2009-2010 as I won't have ordered any during 2008 -2009. I hope this is clear!!!

The service is approx £180.

I have only been on this budget scheme for the last 2 years, and before that we were paying as we ordered, but this was easier as it is a set amount per month and when/if you are in credit they pay you interest. I just have to remember not to order oil just before the anniversary time so it doesn't hike the monthly payment figure.

taka

Well I am now the proud owner of a Nationwide Flexaccount . Lets hope the transfer of the direct debits etc go as painlessly as applying for it! :j It is a bit worrying though... even they were trying to flog a credit card to me as part of the application :eek: If i'd taken it I would have had just over half my annual salary available as credit (taking into account credit cards I already have). Thats scary! :eek:

I also opened a Tesco internet saver account to get some clubcard points (the one mentioned in Martins weekly email this week). :j Lets hope I have the money in the right account at the right time to get the points :rotfl: Its going to get confusing!! I think I'm going to have to close some accounts -today's applications will take me to a silly number (3 ISAs, 3 current accounts and a whole heap of savings accounts) In my defence half of them were opened for quidco cashback :T :rotfl: :beer:

Off to do the mystery shop now..._pale_ :eek: :rolleyes:

thriftylass

taka wrote: »

.... Its going to get confusing!! I think I'm going to have to close some accounts -today's applications will take me to a silly number (3 ISAs, 3 current accounts and a whole heap of savings accounts) In my defence half of them were opened for quidco cashback

Hi Taka, how did you manage to open 3 ISAs? I thought one can only have 1 (or 2 counting the mini cash and the investment option ISA)? Do you have three but are still only allowed to put in 3600 pounds all together?

Cheers

P.S. Just updated my signature, well, to say the least my testrun isn't going too well :mad:. Although I made improvements in terms of groceries, smoking and NSDs, I still spent loads of money. Luckily, I wrote it all down and will go through the items next week. Next month should be better, because we're, for instance, not planning on going out (had quite a few in october:o). BF will be away with work for a week (so I can be my frugal self without being frowned upon) and then we'll be on holiday for a week:T (which was already paid for before I started here and I had some extra money put aside in savings account).

Brighton_belle

Hi thriftylass - you can open a new isa with a different comapany (i.e the one offering the best rate each april) every april. Once you have opened one within a single tax year, you cannot open another. However you can transfer previous years ISA's into one with a better overall rate. I have just done this with NAtwest - consolidated several years worth of ISA savings (never reached my max on any of them) into the new one, as I hadn't used any ISA so far this TAX year I was free to open the Natwest one which is offering agood rate.

Hope the MS went well taka - I did a few last year and the first always feels more difficult.

cornishinfens

I just changed for the A+L Premier Direct account. I also declined the CC. I have enough debt thank you very much.

I'm going to like the not paying £12. a month for the benefit of having a bank account though

[Deleted User]

Hello all

I just wrote a long post and then it vanished :mad:

Its taken me a couple of days to read this thread and I've finally made it to the end!! I'm 22 and I live with my DH (25) and we're expecting our first baby in March. I would like to lurk around on here for the rest of the year but I would like to sign up to the challenge for next year (not sure how much it'll be yet, want to play aorund with some numbers first).

The main motivation is that I want to spend as much time as possible at home with the baby and if I have to go back to work (almost definate) then I would ideally like to find a part-time or evening job.

We already live quite a frugal life, grow our own veg, have a greenhouse which was packed full of tomatoes this year, was good and made passetta and things out of them but I know that theres always room for improvement.

Waffle over xx

Frugaldom

Welcome Deleted_User and congratulations on the impending arrival of your frugalmite

We've been contemplating how and where to run this challenge next year and I think it will probably end up on the OS (Old Style) forums, as it has proven to be more about lifestyles with debtbusting, moneysaving, career changes and everything else being the by-products of frugalling. Feel free to hang around all you like, post and, definitely, compare notes on the home produce. (Tomatoes, here, were a complete waste of time this year.)

I'll add your name to the list of 'trainees' on post one and good luck with your challenge. Let's hope you can achieve your goal of reducing working hours to fit in with motherhood, as we'll all be rooting for you.

Penny2myName

Welcome Loopylou
Fully understand where you are coming from about wanting to spend time with baby after its born. After my first one, I worked evenings, and partner worked days, we might not have spent much time together, but DD got plenty of attention from both of us, and when relationship ended, meant she had a good close relationship with her father, that has kept her close to him over the last 10years since we split. Only regret is that we were both bad with money back then. Ok £60 on Ice-cream in one week isn't the best way to do the grocery shopping:o:o:o:o:o