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

sophiesmum_2

Good evening frunchkins:D

Well the party with the kids yesterday went great, everyone had a fun time,we nearly had a riot over pass the parcel:rotfl: , then there was a couple of anxious moments when few of my oldies (80+) decided to join in with musical bumps:eek: but luckily they survived without any broken bones:D . It was really good fun, very loud, very boisterous but we all had a great time. Before they went home the kids gave the oldies handmade thankyou cards and little decorated boxes with chocs in, then they sang for them accompanied by an acoustic guitar, it was a lovely end to the night. We have already made plans for another joint party over xmas time with them .

Today I went into town with a friend, had lunch out on way home at the two for one pub spent £5 there, also spent £3 at the market on veg, and treated DD to a lovely black wool coat from Mr A which was a great buy at £15:D So £23 to deduct from totals - have had a very reckless week spending wise:eek:


Oh almost forgot - my remoska arrived yesterday but haven't had time to investigate it properly yet;) will make something in it tomorrow

Off to visit mumzy later, OH at work and DD out so would have been a quiet night in otherwise.:D

Janey - hope mum settles in soon, it is a huge upheaval for her and total change of lifestyle but she will settle eventually, she will need you to be the one dependable constant thing in her life whilst she makes the adjustment. Take care:A

Frugaldom

Mollymop5 wrote: »

...sorry if i shouldn't ask here but I understand your answers Nyk and sometimes the quidco thread replies fly way over my head

:rotfl: You must be a genius because half the time I don't understand my answers! :rotfl:

From what I can remember, they don't let you withdraw the matched money so you need to play it through. If your cashback has tracked OK then you should be quids in whether you win, lose or draw. Play through the money and then once it's all used up, and hopefully replaced by winnings, you can withdraw the funds. If it's below the minimum withdrawal amount then just deposit enough to take it up to the required balance and then withdraw it all. Try to use a debit card so you avoid 'cash advance fees' made by credit card companies. I made that mistake with Gala and can't be bothered with the hassle of registering another card. It means, however, that every time I win on free bingo, the balance goes onto my Tesco card but it pays the groceries, allowing me to transfer equal amount into savings It's money swings and roundabouts.

Janey, I hope your mum calms down and gets settled soon, it can't be fun dealing with that along with everything else. don't be scared to give me a call even if it's just to chat about the rotten weather and the price of cheese

Mumzy, your weekends will just seem a bit dull after hectic weekdays of college and seeing other people your own age for 'grown up' talk. You'll soon get used to the new routine

I'm still decluttering and listing, I think I maybe could catch the listing bug if it resulted in recycling all my clutter for cash! Here's hoping. :cool:

whitewing

Janey,

Don't you fret about your dear mum. You have done the right thing and she will come to love it.

When we got back from the wedding, we (I) had to decide about MIL. I think her and DH both thought if they ignored the fact that she had to move out (except on Wednesdays when they'd pretend to consider seriously the rentals in the free weekly paper) then it wouldn't happen.

But apart from the fact that I was newlywed, I knew the longer we left it, the more difficult it would be. So I had to force things along. No-one said much but I wasn't popular.

Then I had to wean DH off checking up on her all the time. I know she was lonely but I had to force him to see that she had to become lonely to force her to do something about it (we did help her introduce herself to neighbours etc).

5 weeks later, she's in and out of neighbours' flats and really having a great time. There are still occasions when she finds it difficult but mainly she realises she is very lucky indeed.

It will feel worse for you without Tom there to talk it through with. But you must not feel bad.

(PS the others are right, I blubbed when I left DS at nursery, and he didn't even notice when I was out of sight).

Mollymop5

Thanks Nyk.Even if i can't withdraw the matched deposit i will have fun playing with free money.I've 2 amounts tracking at the moment on quidco.£30 and £10.Will wait and see what pays out

Marru

Buhuu - I can't log onto my account might have something to do that I already have account with a certain related bookie I have to come clean as to get my tenner back

Frugaldom

Mollymop, my Mecca tracked and paid out £30 cashback, so I was pleased with that. I'm now considering trying the free scratchcard idea, so will pop over to the make £1000 in 100 days thread and follow the 'research' links from there Sadly, I'm more excited by the 30p per ad I'm tracking whilst selling via Gumtree, don't ask me why, I haven't a clue! :rotfl:

mumzyof2

I hardly use cashback sites now not because i dont want too, its because i never buy anything online or have anything to renew except my contents insurance next month. I do pigback's daily clicks. I would love to be having a payment each month from cash back sites.

cw18

I can't even find out how to get into Mecca through Quidco

But I do have a nice payout from Quidco on the way through to my bank ATM -- includes the £45 cashback for my car insurance. Wasn't really a saving though, as the premium for the policy I took out was about £44 more than my renewal -- but has a zero excess instead of £250. Wasn't sure it would be honoured as it's actually with the same company, but my Quidco account shows it as being paid to me now

Skint_Lynne

Good evening,

I had some bargains in Mr T tonight. Reduced filo parcels with cheese and bacon filling, £2.99 down to 60p. I've never tried these, but they look nice. Black pudding, 75p reduced to 16p. Cocktail sausages (these are for my brother's pups, 1.99 reduced to 38p. Birthday card for nephew, 24p, it's a value one, but really nice. Biscuits, 1.50 reduced to 25p.

And got 5 pairs of kids pyjamas for £15.00, took advantage of a £5 in today's paper, so some christmas presents in.

I am proud of myself, I would never have dreamt of looking at the bargain bit, but you can find really good stuff there, the only thing is, you really have to jostle about to get into it, they just push their way into it, the people are really bolshy that use the reduced section:rotfl:

I was reading the old thread and noticed that NYK and others make their own tortillas, I use these a lot and they can be very expensive. I am going to try making my own and see how they turn out.

The learning process continues...............

SL x

Frugaldom

Good evening

I'm getting right into this biscuit making caper, thoroughly enjoying experimenting and it isn't costing extra in electricity because I bake them whilst oven is heating up or cooking down. The recent batch made with the bargain muesli and oats are almost gone but I now fancy trying some with coconut and chopped cherries. and some choc chip ones. Does anyone know if I can just use pieces of cooking chocolate or do I need to be really extravagant and splash out on special chocolate chips? Maybe I'll just experiment with that too, if it melts too quickly then they should still taste OK DS has requested home made muesli bars, so I'm off to find the recipe for them, hope it's in the links on post 1