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

lingojingo

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Nyk: I'm going to print off thse two post and stick them on my wall as my guidinglight fir next years challenge:D .

Already printed them last night!!!!! They should really help keep me focused - I can't do that well, but every little bit helps!

Marru - hope you enjoy your time off and DD has fun too.

Big hugs to Janey and CW (and anyone else whop needs them.

No snow here, but it's really cold, I'm wearing my £1 fleecy gloves from Mr T while I type!

whitewing

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

Imagine getting all of this off of the 4K,.

I think part of the trick is knowing that you want or need it. That's where planning, getting organised and decluttering comes in.

Also, from my own point of view, I know that I could write a list of all done/learnt things this year as a result of the challenge and it would probably seem really impressive. It won't however show the stack of unsorted boxes in my hallway, the fact that DH has pootled to Tesco today on an unscheduled trip for washing powder etc, and all the hundreds of other things that are moving generally in the right kind of direction in a messy shambles as opposed to marching along miltary style.

Summary: don't try to do too much, and be pleased with what you do achieve. We've a lifetime ahead of us.

sophiesmum_2

I agree whitewing half the fun is enjoying the journey towards becoming more frugal. It's great taking each step and trying it out until one day you realise you are doing it automatically now and what used to seem hard work is now second nature.

What's great about this thread is that everyone can bounce their ideas around and there is always something new to learn.
Returned from costco soaking wet, didn't get my turkey yet as the crowns they had in today were very big, (£5.99kg for fresh)picked up 5lb pack of bacon though - always good value t £7.69.
I just sat and ate my lunch of HM broccoli and stilton soup with chunks of HM granary bread,in a minute going to turn the remains of yesterdays slowcooker chicken casserole into a pie for tea, and defrost a rhubarb crumble.It's definately crumble and custard weather today.
After that nipping back nearby town with my friend, I have the £10 m&s voucher:T , £28.97 worth of boots points :T , and two full loyalty cards for free lattes etc from macdonalds(courtesy of friend) so will see what I can rummage up towards next years challenge - toiletry stockpile,birthday gifts, and have a free coffee whilst we are there, will also get free parking as friend has blue badge:D

See you later frunchkins:D

Brighton_belle

whitewing wrote: »

Summary: don't try to do too much, and be pleased with what you do achieve. We've a lifetime ahead of us.

I think this is really important whitewing. i know I am going in the right direction, but for example I simply ca't conceive of reducing my food bill to Nyk levels, who does fantastically, but I have cut my food bill quite a lot and am enjoying that and will chip away slowly at that at a pace that is comfortable for me. I could have searched 20 more companies yesterday for the Buildings ins, but my exhaustion levels were rising so I stuck with as far as I had got: vast improvement though.
I find it has been very helpful to set 'that's it an no more' limits on how much we can spend for example on petrol per month, and food - it makes us cut back and make do, rather than topping up here an there and suddenly an extra £20-£40 has gone. Or sometimes, it gives us enough spare cash to be able to crash with a take away.
Generally I am so much more aware of where every single peny goes, which helps me be in control and save better: anything spare instantly gets syphoned off in to my saving budget, that funds the fun things I want to do.
I continue to learn and be inspired by you all and most of all, as SM says, I find learning to be frugal is great fun and brings immense satisfaction.
I think a priority for me, having had a lot of illness & disabilty to contend with, and therefore a loss of many opportunities in life, is to be able to fund a life now, not something in the future. By cutting back where I can, I can afford to indulge a few hobbies.

Frugaldom

Good afternoon all

Marru, I think it's a great opportunity for you to relax and let OH take DD out on a regular basis on the condition he's not expecting you to tag along with him. It'll only take a couple of outings for him to get used to it and then he just MIGHT start sharing childcare responsibilities, which could enable you to start living a little, even if it is just a long, hot bath without having to worry about what DD's up to if she's awake.

My list is still growing as I seem to have hit a 'spending spree' patch. I had a £5.00 off £25 spend on Mr T Direct from clubcard booklet, so went on there and ordered some bits and pieces. Umm... 2 new lightweight double duvets, (as these are cheaper than throws for extra winter warmth), a set of wicker baskets for Christmas hampers, a washable rug and a set of storage drawers for the kitchen. That should flummox Mr Mouskie if he manages to get back in and nibble on my binbags! :rotfl: It came to £56 but by the time the various discounts and coupon had been deducted, it was £42. I also went through oily hand for an eventual 1.5% cashback.

Parents arriving tomorrow and they'll bring my Mr T grocery order (no deliveries to our area). It only came to £18.99 after deducting all my clubcard vouchers, but most of it is top-up for the store cupboard. Instant custard is still 8p per pack and so handy for serving over sponges when doing a soup & pudding lunch in a hurry. :T

I have a jug of broth mix soaking from last night, so that'll be into the slow cooker tonight with beef stock and homegrown veggies. I'll let you know how it goes with the leeks, as this'll be the first ones to be used from freezer. I definitely think it's soup weather, although we haven't had any snow here, just torrential rain, now sun, now hail. Weather forecast is for sunny, zero degrees for Monday and Tuesday but my bet is that it'll just be typically Scottish weather - everything mixed together within the space of a day. :rolleyes:

Whitewing, you should make that list, even if it's just to compare with next year. I've been doing these lists for some time now and it helps to see what progress you have made when things get in a rut or everything seems to be going the wrong way. Mine started as a 'things to do before I'm 40' list but then it had to become a 'things to do before I'm 45' and that will need to change again at the end of next year! :eek: Some of the items, I just keep moving them from one list to the next - I suspect 'buy a house for cash' or 'live off the interest from my savings' may be deferred repeatedly. :rotfl:

Off to finish drying out bed linen - I'm guessing the lid of my hot water bottle wasn't on properly and I found out the hard way in the middle of the night!! I'm glad I have one of those teddybear covers on it, as it soaked up quite a bit, but teddy now weighs a great deal more than it should! :rotfl: Oh, the joys of frugality! Except I don't even need the hot water bottle as the heater is on and I have an electric blanket! Just as well these are washable nowadays, or I could have been fried!

Janey - thinking of you and, hopefully, will see you soon. Chaos can't reighn here forever, I can see most of the livingroom floor now and have only 3 more plastic crates to sort through before tackling the kitchen before the washing machine & cooker arrive!

whitewing

Phew! I'm mentally shattered. Just done my 50th review for Qype. I wanted to do them properly and fairly (of course) so I have tried my hardest to really reflect what I feel about the place.

Skint_L, did you get an email through yet about the Amazon voucher? I got one when I was halfway there, and I got more when I qualified for Qype Insider and the 500 points thing. But nothing to say that I have reached 50 (except it says it on My Qype). I will carry on until I qualify for Ninja status as DS would love the freebie ninja. Am going to have to start going out to visit places though so I can write the rest. I'm lucky we started Xmas shopping early as normally I don't go out to spend money, lol!

Nyk, yes, we are pretty good at carrying lists over too! This will be the first time we've have enough lists to warrant a folder full of the things though, ha ha. DH is still in shock at having to do his will at such a tender young age. So I'm breaking him in gently. Doing the will has changed my perception. While we were in the solicitor's I was saying that if I die, then half goes to DH and the rest to our child(ren). The solicitor said husbands and wives usually leave to each other and trust their spouse to take care of the children. I do trust DH to include his stepson equally, but it has made me question what we are trying to achieve with our moneysaving. Are we expecting to be able to leave any assets/estate? Or just to live the life we want? Not sure that we have an answer yet.

[Deleted User]

Hello all...

I'm in need of some help......... Getting myself very confused with this. I'll post what I've done so far, please correct me and give me some pointers, I originally said that I would like to do the challenge on 5K.

Buildings & Contents Insurance - £212.55 (This is due for renewal in Feb 09 so will shop around for better price then - but put this figure in for time being?)

Gas - £360 (Fixed price until Oct 09 with Npower) £30 per month

Electricity - £300.00 (As above) £25 per month

Homephone & Broadband - With Tiscali (£30 a month IF DH doesnt phone mobiles etc from it! Anytime calls to landlines, inc line rental & broadband

TV Licence - £139.50

Mobile phones x2 - £300 (I'm sure mine will be cut down alot next year, currently £10 a month - am starting maternity leave in Feb 09 and signal's rubbish at home!)

General household - groceries, toiletries, cleaning & laundry products - £1,820.00 (This is £35 per week, some weeks it can be alot less. Will be growing even more veg next year so hopefully I can cut this down abit more - this is for 2 adults, baby will be here in March & a spoilt cat!)

Petrol & parking costs - £1,040 (I put this as my current useage which is roughly £20 per week petrol but this is mostly going to and from work. I dont think I'll be going out as much when baby arrives or if I do it wont be every day but dont know how much to cut this down by?)

Gifts - £500 (Found this one quite hard as I tend to buy alot of things in the sales but dont always remember to write prices down so am sure can do this easily

Everything else - £180.50 (just to make it up to 5K)

Then I realised I havent got a contingency budget... this is alot harder than I thought it would be Should I do 5K plus child benefit? which I'll get March 09?

Also if I managed to save alot of buildings and contents insurance does the left over money go into the 'everything else' pot and get used as and if it needs to be?

Sorry to be a pain everyone - please help!

Thanks x

cw18

loopylou - you will also get CTC from when baby arrives. As long as your combined income isn't in excess of £52k (it's somewhere in that region), you will qualify for at least the minimum -- which is £545/year, but you get double up to babies first birthday so you'll be looking at just short of £91/month for that. CB for a first/oldest child is £18.80/week, so just short of £978/year (or £81.47/month, though it's actually paid as £75.20 every 4 weeks).

ETA: If you assume 'arrival' late March, so these start early April, then that's an extra £1500 from April to December.

Edited again! Don't forget 'baby' will bring extra expenses..... washing, drying, nappies, probably more heating, (possibly baby milk), a few jars of baby food for odd emergencies/trips out, clothes, toys............ :eek:

Skint_Lynne

whitewing wrote: »

Phew! I'm mentally shattered. Just done my 50th review for Qype. I wanted to do them properly and fairly (of course) so I have tried my hardest to really reflect what I feel about the place.

Skint_L, did you get an email through yet about the Amazon voucher? I got one when I was halfway there, and I got more when I qualified for Qype Insider and the 500 points thing. But nothing to say that I have reached 50 (except it says it on My Qype). I will carry on until I qualify for Ninja status as DS would love the freebie ninja. Am going to have to start going out to visit places though so I can write the rest. I'm lucky we started Xmas shopping early as normally I don't go out to spend money, lol!

Nyk, yes, we are pretty good at carrying lists over too! This will be the first time we've have enough lists to warrant a folder full of the things though, ha ha. DH is still in shock at having to do his will at such a tender young age. So I'm breaking him in gently. Doing the will has changed my perception. While we were in the solicitor's I was saying that if I die, then half goes to DH and the rest to our child(ren). The solicitor said husbands and wives usually leave to each other and trust their spouse to take care of the children. I do trust DH to include his stepson equally, but it has made me question what we are trying to achieve with our moneysaving. Are we expecting to be able to leave any assets/estate? Or just to live the life we want? Not sure that we have an answer yet.

Hi Whitewing,

I done all of my reviews last Sunday, around 60 of them. It took a few hours for the emails to come through, but I got one to tell me that I had qualified for the voucher as long as my reviews are okay. I also got to 1000 points so I am a ninja and should get an ipod shuffle. I hope I do, as I will give this to my brother for christmas if it comes off!!!

whitewing

Hi SL

I have got my email through now. And uploaded my profile picture, which I hadn't realised was part of it. I'm wondering if there were any other guidelines I missed. I think perhaps my reviews may not be long enough? There's only so much you can say about each branch of Tesco, lol...

I am definitely going for ninja. I'd forgotten about the ipod, so cute is the little fella.