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

Janey51

I could scweem and scweem :mad:

Came downstairs to discover I hadn't shut the door properly on the Rayburn last night and the temperature had plummeted. If you haven't ever used an Aga/Rayburn you won't know what a disaster this is as it takes hours to get back up to full temperature again :mad:
So, temperature in the kitchen was down to 12.5C...normally about 16-17 which I actually fnd perfectly adequate but I can see that level of warmth would cause a lot of MSEers to stay in bed :rotfl:

I think I need to put the winter quilt on the bed now as it is a little chilly without a DH to snuggle up to

I have to be out all day today which is a shame but I am going away for the weekend which is good.

Thanks for asking about Mum. She is more settled but cries all the time. She has stopped being horrible to me but it breaks my heart to think she is trapped inside this miserable world inside her head :sad:

Nyk I think you need a little donkey to pull a cart with your scavenged logs for your new house Next time I visit, I will bring a bag of kindlers
whitewing I think you have done really well to get all your "weight loss" food. I would have done the same before my gastric bypass but I would have needed 3 trolleys
sophiesmum what a clever little frugal crafter you are :T
skintlynne I diagnose a truly rampant form of frugalitis taking hold :rotfl:
redglass words cannot adequately descibe the joy that fills my little frugal heart when I see my log store full to the brim. I even recognise some of them when I put them in the burner

Mum's Memory of the Day

Mum never learned to drive. She was a really patient person but when Dad...not a patient person... tried to teach her she abandoned the car in the middle of the country after he told her off for braking for a rabbit. It took Dad about 20 minutes to persuade her to get back in and she never got behind the wheel again.

Marru

Good morning everybody,

Sophiesmum: I absolutely adore you!!! :smileyhea

Janey: :rotfl: when I was in driving school I went to the other side of the road to avoid a tiny little bird that was sitting on my lane. The instructor wasn't amused :rolleyes:. (I was driving a lorry :eek:) I hope you can get your heating sorted!!

I was very good girl yesterday. Had an NSD, sorted out some MB stuff and ticked 12 things off my to do list. I am heading out soon to go to council offices, college finance office, library and to pound shop to get some stuff for party bags. Oh and need to pick up DD's birthday pressie from Arg0s, I have already reserved it.

Perhaps another cup of tea is in order while sorting my todo list for today and finalise my pound shop shopping list. Bails, I know now how to trim piggies claws and am going to get the nail cutter today. Let me know when you want a nail cutting session .

Catch up later...

Marru

bails

Ooh, yes please Marru! :T
Sophiesmum, you are in fact amazing!! They look lovely! You also have a great pound shop too it seems. If those fleece blankets are really only £2 in Prim@rk I may just have to drive to my nearest one and buy [strike]some[/strike] lots.

Sorry about the Rayburn Janey, I understand your pain. I'm sorry to hear your mum is so unhappy too, it is just so hard to watch someone you love go through that xx

I am togged up today and felt warm for about 10 minutes but now the cold is seeping into my bones :rolleyes: The good news is that I have washing on so if the weather doesn't hold I'll need to put the heating on to dry it I really can't bear being this cold but I hate to think how big our bills will be if I made myself comfortable each day. How long til India?...:rotfl:

redglass_2

Re heating, I have a hunch that 21 degrees is recommended because if you're elderly you need a warm house to keep you mobile and active rather than huddled up under a quilt and losing muscle tone. I saw this figure mentioned on a local govt leaflet targeting older people.

kintwellie, you are so right about the menopause!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

bails

Well, I have developed a bad cold now with streaming eyes so I've had to put the heating on. Off to bed now, sigh.
Have a good rest of day everyone x

Marru

Good afternoon,

I am back from my gallivanting (sp?) trip. Spent £9.99 for DD's pressie and £16.75 for other things that include: party bags for 9 kids, gluestick, nail cutters, hat, 2 sets of gloves one for college duties and one for cleaning animals at home, serviettes, pack of 10 birthday cards, small serving basket, present for birthday party for next weekend that DD has been invited to, snacks for college for two weeks and gift wrap. I think I did well.

Bails so sorry to hear that you are not well. Try to get some rest!!! If you need anything just give me a shout.

I am now off to do some MB before spending the rest of the day with my assignments. Perhaps a bite of lunch first thou .

Take care everybody,

Marru

sophiesmum_2

Bails the fleeces are £2 and they have them in about 6 different designs and several different colours, browns, blues, reds etc - great fillers for hampers:D

DdraigGoch

Hello from a very cold bit of Wales :cool:

Although I must say that the house is considerably warmer lately, due to the fitting of my new woodfired range :j:T:j:T:j It's only heating one end of the house but it's making such a difference - the house doesn't smell horridly all the time :j.

My frugality has now got to the stage that when I announced that yes, we were going to go for the £4K a year challenge my eldest just went - hmmmm, ok. Especially when I pointed out that his wedding would be paid for by any excess we could find :rotfl: So, I think I have at least one person on side already:j

Please forgive me for not commiserating/sympathising/encouraging/cheering/thanking people in this post - I'm so far behind in keeping up that I just don't know what's been happening lately So, for the record, please accept my support and encouragement to all of the £4Kers, even those of us who just "Lurk and Learn" [anyone else remember that comic?]

As a consequence of having a range on all day, we are having rice pudding almost every night, a "proper" meal every evening, "proper" lunches and breakfasts .... oooh, I'm going to be spending too much money on food if I'm not careful. Off back to Frugal U - The Glasgow Cookery Book, Cooking, Household Cooking, I Hate to Cook Cookbook and Cheap Chow - my favourite cookbooks to peruse when inspiration is needed and there is more month than money :rolleyes:

purplevamp

:hello: Just popping on to say hello and hope everyone is well. Have read much of the posts but will try to later. We've spent the day in the apartment as it's chucking it down and is very cold. Luckily we've missed out on the floods and snow. We nearly didn't make it as the back tyre was as flat as a pancake yesterday. Hubby managed to change it and got totally covered in oil/grease :rotfl: . Left 1.5 hours later than expected and got to Dartmouth about 5.30pm, so that was a total of 6 hours driving with an hour for lunch, saw stonehenge on the way down, much smaller than I thought!

Going to have fish and chips for dinner tonight, then watch sky later. Spending hardly anything as we can't go out.

Glad I brought the laptop with me, if only to keep the children occupied

See you all soon xx

Frugaldom

I've decided to try my best to keep to my 4k budget INCLUDING the house move. Not sure how well this will work and I'm still doing calculations, but I've just ordered a shiny new galvanised coal bunker.
All figures are rounded for simplicity:

My Coal Bunker Adventure.

I had seen these in various places, including €bay, the cheapest being £70 inc P&P, so I used that as my base figured before setting off on my virtual MSE expedition to beat that price. I found one for £79 with free delivery, but also found a 10% off voucher code, reducing it to £71, I purchased via TCB for a further 10% cash back to make it £64 but I have graduated to the 101% discount, so that makes it 11%, which is closer to £63. Not content with this, I paid using my cash back card, that'll be another 1% back bringing it closer to £62 but, whilst paying, I completed the reminder box to collect my !points - 710 of them - and they are worth approximately £7, depending on how you cash them, so my end result SHOULD be a brand new, galvanised 5cwt coal bunker for £55 including delivery. All of the above took about 20 minutes to complete, that's the equivalent of earning £45 per hour if I could do this for a job. :rotfl:

I have added £71.10 to my 'everything else' budget as any cashback and vouchers are saved up, like overtime or bonuses, to be used for other things.

My DVDs arrived this afternoon - 2 boxsets (with 70% off), bought through a cashback site and paid with a cashback card. That accounts for 2 main Chrissie pressies plus a (nother) special treat for ME! :rotfl: It's the special 13 episode edition of 'The Good Life' - stuff free bingo, it's an early night, electric blanket, hot chocolate with marshmallows (got them in a gift) and that's what I call a good night! :j Have also added this expense to my signature total.