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

whitewing

lingojingo wrote: »

OOh, I got one of those yesterday, wondered what it was
Having it sent to village post office tomorrow as i can't get to the sorting office during the incredibly short opening hours - will cost 50p, but not bad to get £10

Shame it's not December - PO sent an info leaflet thro saying that if you do miss a delivery in December, they're waiving the 50p charge for Local Collect.

Maybe see if they'll let you have an early Xmas offer!

slowlyfading

:hello:
Well, I finally hit the £3k spend mark - is it silly that i'm disappointed? ah well, it was bound to happen some time. Today, I spent £17.34 in Boots :eek: on bits and pieces, I was so shocked at the counter! I mean, its all stuff that was needed, and will be used pretty quickly, but still, thats insane!
Nyk, oh my goodness, a puppy sounds amazing! Please take pics
Hope everyone else is okay. xx

Frugaldom

whitewing wrote: »

Shame it's not December - PO sent an info leaflet thro saying that if you do miss a delivery in December, they're waiving the 50p charge for Local Collect.

Maybe see if they'll let you have an early Xmas offer!

:eek: I didn't even know there was a payment fee, I've never heard of that. Perhaps we don't have them up here? If I miss a delivery, it's normally left at the PO for me and I collect from there.

Lurchador news - I'm not even sure when the puppies were born, probably within the past fortnight, as neighbour said it would be another 6 or 7 weeks before they'd be homed. I was more interested in making sure they were being kept, seeing as they were little 'mistakes'. Neighbour is going to phone or text me as soon as she finds out if there are any left looking for homes but I won't build up my hopes and I won't tell DS just yet. I did check with the local animal shelter, but they have nothing available at the moment, not even a cat! Did I mention that we heard Mr Mouskie again last night? I think he may be trying to chew his way back in after I filled in all the access holes! he won't win! I'll find a cat or a dog to keep him at bay soon! (My excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

My parents seem to have taken my whole rural frugal-life to heart and have offered to get us coal for Christmas/New Year. Now, if you've ever spent Hogmanay in Scotland, you'll know that taking coal to your friends, family and neighbours when 'first-footing' is normal, but I haven't heard of it being delivered on a lorry by the sack load! :rotfl: Still, it's nice to know that we'll still be warm even if the power goes out in winter and it IS a brilliant idea, considering I used to get dad sacks of pigeon feeding for his Christmas and I used to get a bag of pony nuts or poultry mix or bird feed 'from Santa'!

Still howling a gale here, there's absolutely nothing to break the force of the wind when it blows in from the north. I can just imagine if we get a snowy winter! The drifts could go up the front of the house and we'll need to plough our way out the front door! :rotfl: Ooooh... plenty space for building snowmen, though! Years ago, we built a 7' rabbit in the garden, must see if I still have the photos. Why am I talking about snow?! When the north wind doth blow... :eek: Nooooooo... I still need to get my cooker and washing machine delivered before winter sets in for real.

catznine

Just been trying to catch up after having to drop out of this challenge early on (poor confused cfs addled brain couldn't cope!:rolleyes: )

Firsly big (((Hugs))) to CW and to Janey - so very sorry to hear of your losses!

:hello: A quick wave to Bails who was so friendly and supportive when last we chatted here, hope you are keeping well! I had to give up the part time work at the school but am glad I tried. I think I manage to save more at home though!

:beer: Congrats on your housemove Nyk! It looks wonderful, lots of room for growing food too! we managed to grow lots of runner beans, courgettes and tomatoes this year. Hope you get that lurcherador baby - I will keep my fingers crossed. Laughing at your Jack shitz! :rotfl: Mind you we have a Cockapoo - Poodle x cocker spaniel - we had hoped she would be called a cockerdoodle!:D

Well I may not be part of the challenge anymore but I shall cheer you all on to the finish line!

Catz x

Skint_Lynne

Hi all,

i'm just in from taking wee sis for a pair of trendy shoes. They should have been £50:eek: , but they had a mark on the side of them, I asked for a discount and got them for £45, better than nothing I suppose.

I am really tired tonight, I had a rep in the shop today, so bought a lot of stock from him in the hope that I sell it before christmas. I have 6 parties next week, so hopefully I'll shift a lot of it at them.

I didn't spend much today personally, but I will really need to dig out all of my paperwork for insurances, gas and leccy and phone etc and make sure I am getting the best deals before the challenge starts for real.

I also want to make my kitchen more 'stockpile friendly', so will need to tackle that over the weekend.

I'm off to bed now, nite nite. xx

mama67

cw18 wrote: »

For those of you who applied for an on-line quote from AXA Healthcare (as per Nyk's heads-up on 22nd Oct), be prepared to have to sign for some mail !!

Postman was here 10-15 mins ago with my £10 M&S Voucher -- they've shelled out for Special Delivery :eek:

Thanks Cheryl that explains what the card was for yesterday now, have arranged for mine to be delivered to my local post office (50p charge)as I'm not at home when postie comes dues to my dinner lady job. Costs me approx £4 in petrol to go to collection office so this is an easier option and cheaper.

andromache_2

Whoops... thought I'd just check out the M&S 20% off sale online and ended up £30.80 lighter I have a geeky spreadsheet which tells me that I've spent 22.23% of my budget with only 12.88% of the time elapsed, which doesn't sound so hot; if I exclude textbooks and societies, though, then it's only 14.54% spent, which doesn't sound so scary. I really need to stop buying things just because they're discounted, though!

Happy Friday everyone :T

sophiesmum_2

Spent a few quid tonight in asda on bits and pieces but not counting off my totals as I used my asda savings card so free money;)
Been trying out some more frugal gifts:

Made some snowman soup tonight for a friend, but decided to put it in a jar instead. This one is the prototype might fiddle about a bit and make a few different ones.

I used the large sized douwe egbert coffee jar, instant hot choc, white and milk choc chips and mini marshmallows.



the hot choc ws (54p), choc chips (38p) and (42p )and marshmallows 90p but only used 1/3 of bag (30p). Canes were 89p for 18 in quality save, so bout 20p for the 4 i used.

Used a circle of smart price wrap (16p for roll) to cover top of jar, used matching smart price gift label (40p for 20)



I pt the marshmallows in a bag and added a closer of the matching gift wrap then put all together in smart price gift bag from same design (19p)

All told my jar of snowman soup cost about £2.06 including the gift bag. Just have a ribbon and poem label to put on and it is finished.:D


Forgot to add - between the layers i used the cellophane circles that I got from lakeland for making quarter pound burgers


Now I am just thinking what I could make for my oldies - will need to be cheap though as I would need about 50.

shaz_mum_of__2

sophiesmum - what about mugs with their names on(buy cheap mugs and use ceramic paints)

or picture frames from grandkids pics or fleecy blankets for snuggling under our local dept store advertising 2 for a fiver (westgate)

what about personalised baubles

Sure you will come up with something fab anyway


Nyk - love the idea of getting you coal ,we are really a sad lot - most people hate getting useful presents for christmas!!


Lynne are you self employed then ? what kind of shop? if you dont mind me asking

I think if i were opening a shop now it would be a pound shop!!

Did anyone see the programme on BBC2 about Aldi and Lidl last night?

Shaz

Skint_Lynne

Hi Shaz,

It's a jewellers and gift shop but things are really quiet just now due to the situation re: money for everyone. I'm actually looking for a job to keep things ticking over, if I have a seperate wage to live off, I don't need to dip into the shop money, that's the plan anyway. I was away for an interview yesterday afternoon actually, so was harassed when the rep was here, I needed to be away for 2pm to get there in time, but I did.

It's working with the disabled, trying to get them into work, so I would really like the job. Maybe Lynda's good luck will rub off onto me!!

Hopefully I'll get something after Christmas if I don't get this one.

The snowman soup looks interesting sophiesmum, I've saw it being mentioned in various places, but I actually don't know what it is or how it ends up being soup. Do you just add water?