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

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

I had budgeted £1,500 for 2008 for ALL utilities, including telephone & mobiles. It's looking impossible.

Don't beat yourself up about it Nyk -- it's not your fault when you're in a rental, and you're working on rectifying that for next year...... by moving :j

whitewing

gosh, I am so disgusted with myself. Have totalled up my 'stockpile' for my eventual 'Eat your excess weight' challenge to myself. 39kg (39.1kg actually) is:

3 bags flour
1 bag sugar
1 packet cornflakes
1 packet of porage
2 packets of other cereal
3 jars of pickled cabbage
2 jars of pickled onions
5 tins of sweetcorn
5 tins of creamed mushrooms
5 tins of sliced mushrooms
7 tins of chopped tomatoes
5 tins of ratatouille
8 tins of baked beans
12 tins of soup
4 tins of sardines
4 tins of mackerel
12 tins of tuna
3 tins of potatoes
1 jar of salad cream
2 jars of tartare sauce
4 tins of sild (don't even know what this is; thought I'd picked up sardines)
2 tins pilchards

This weight is actual food weight only (not tins or containers). I needed a trolley for all this. And I'm carrying this lot around every day. I should feel motivated to get rid. But I may just sit and stare at it for a few years.

thriftylass

nykmedia wrote: »

FUEL POVERTY:

"The definition of fuel poverty is when a household needs to spend more than 10% of their household income on all domestic fuel use including appliances to heat their home to an adequate level of warmth."
...
Answer - "Adequate warmth is generally defined to be 21°C in the main living room and 18°C in other occupied rooms during daytime hours, with lower temperatures at night, following the recommendations of the World Health Organization."

Basically, fuel poverty would apply to nearly all of us then if we tried to heat our homes to that level.

Just watched Martin's show for the first time after it was mentioned here, always missed it before. I would have won the piggy in the money quiz

P.S. Whitewing Sild is pickled Matjesherring (a young herring processed as a sardine in Norway). Your challenge may seem daunting after the visualisation of 39 kg, but I'm sure you can turn that into motivation. Go girl, you can do it.

Brighton_belle

whitewing: you sound a delicious feast of a woman to me:D .
Nyk - I feel a complete wimpy wuss 'braving' 17 degrees:o . Can't imagine coping with 10 degrees:eek: . Roll on your move pronto.
Mmm like the sound of a fleecy throw.
I don't know if any of you live near a robert dyas. But I bought something there today for £1.99 and got a 'spend £10 get £5 off' for saturday

Frugaldom

cw18 wrote: »

Don't beat yourself up about it Nyk -- it's not your fault when you're in a rental, and you're working on rectifying that for next year...... by moving :j

Not beating myself up over it, don't worry - it's first year I've compared notes with anyone else outside my neighbourhood so we weren't even aware of how much cheaper it was to live elsewhere. I'll just keep turning up the heaters until it's warm enough to walk about indoors without a jacket. If it takes 100 units a day then so be it, we'll officially fall within the Government figures for fuel poverty, although how they'll know that, I haven't a clue. Maybe I should tell them! :rotfl:

Dear Mr Brown, you are cordially invited to join us in the kitchen, please wear a minimum of 2 jumpers, a wooly hat, scarf, gloves and thick socks under apres-ski boots.

PS: Bring a (hot water) bottle.

In the meantime, we of the old, cold, eco-unfriendly houses will continue to drag down the national average in i-measure. I'm going for an 'F' or a 'G' rating on Monday.

Did you all hear the interest rates have been cut in US again, now at 1%? :eek:
RIP stoozing if ours go that low. Next year's interest beater challenge is looking like an absolute dawdle and Premium Bonds starting to look good.

whitewing

Thank you, folks.

In case I don't make it (lol!) I made sure to enquire about Will Aid earlier today. Have you seen it? Get your wills done in return for a donation to charity (suggested donation £110 for DH and I which seems reasonable).

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

Did you all hear the interest rates have been cut in US again, now at 1%? :eek:
RIP stoozing if ours go that low. Next year's interest beater challenge is looking like an absolute dawdle and Premium Bonds starting to look good.

I saw something on the TV a couple of days ago where someone said ours were likely to have to go pretty low to aid recovery -- possibly as low as ZERO !!!

That's going to be fun when we're on IS Mortgage Interest assistance, as they pay BofE base rate + 1.58%, and I can't see the banks/building societies voluntarily dropping as low as 1.58% so we'll be well out of pocket :mad:

skintwellie

Well impressed with the baskets SM. As a family we were going to forgo the present giving this year, but decided it would be no fun without any pressies to open. We've decided to spend a maximum of £5 per person. I have got gifts for my grown up kids using vouchers, etc gained over the year. My son is getting an Olympus digital camera worth £300 - but free from 'foodservice rewards' and my daughter has books from Amazon (vouchers from various survey sites) and goodies from Boots - using vouchers from Pigsback and various catering promotions.
I've still got vouchers left for pressies for my parents and stockingfillers for my kids.
I've been inspired by everyones' basket ideas so am planning to find some cheap baskets and filling them with goodies up to the £5 limit for everyone else.
Sorted out my cupboards today and found that I don't need to buy any wrapping paper or labels. Also found some Christmas cards, so won't need to buy many.
Am going to do a Boot Sale with most things priced at 50p or a £,(well 280 things at £1 is a nice profit!). The better things I have put on Amazon or our local Friday-Ad. (Hopefully will raise enough for big Christmas Eve and Day dinner).

Just to say to all of you feeling the cold - wait until you hit the menopause - I have my own combustion - we have NO heating on in our house at all!!

Skint_Lynne

Spend report for the day, brace yourselves:eek: :eek: ,

41.49:eek: :eek: ,

£3 carpark
2.74, somerfield, shopping
2.00 jigsaw for wee fella (half price)
5.00 co-op, shopping
5.95 B & M, shopping and prezzie fr xmas
3.62 instore shopping
19.18 Tesco, shopping, birthday card and £12 on xmas prezzies.

I have spent 57.29 this week so far. It really opens your eyes when you count it all to the penny, I am amazed. I will let you know how it breaks down at the end of the week. Some of it like the car park and stamps will be business related, but I have opted for counting all money that I am parting with for now. At least I got some gifts with it though.

I am really impressed with the baskets sophiesmum, I hope I can do some like that for next year.

Hope you are all well frugallers, I am getting more miserly by the minute. There is no way that I would have ever thought I would be counting things to the penny, you are all to blame of course:rotfl: :rotfl:

SL x

bails

I never thought I'd wish for the menopause Skintwellie Those official figures are laughable! We don't have a thermometer so I don't know how cold it is, except bl00dy freezing! I'd like to get one just so I can test it.
I gave in and put the heating on at half 4 again today but switched it off for a couple of hours while we were at the gym - blimey, it was so warm there! I wanted to move in
I'm getting a will done too Whitewing, spotted it in the email. Not sure what I have exactly but I would like to know that my things go to the eople I'd like them to go to. Well done for weighing out your food, it sounds like a great plan to me. I need something to kickstart me too as I have no energy to get started at mo.
Sophiesmum, you're an absolute angel! :kisses3: I'll PM you when I know.
Gotta go, OH wants to cuddle on the sofa (which I'm more than happy to do as I'm well chilly!)