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

sophiesmum_2

My xmas pressies are got too, except DD's who will probably want cash as her big pressie.:rolleyes: I've also gone money neutral on gifts and used my vouchers,points and cashback etc to get my pressies in the sales or other bargains. Will be adding some personal home made gifts in too - mostly edible stuff - jams, chutneys,mini xmas cakes , fudge, choc slabs.
Food wise i have got £144 saved on an Asda card which has been added on from grocery savings. Everytime I have used a coupon/voucher when shopping over the year I have put the amount saved onto the card -in November Mr A will add £6 for free to make it £150 for food shopping.I have even got £2.10 on next years card:p Alcohol and choccies are covered as I get tonnes of both from my oldies as pressies. realisticlly I won't spend anywhere near £150 on Xmas food as there will be so many social things going on at the court that basically this will be for xmas dinner. So will probably stock up things for my storecupboard with the excess.
I also bought all my cards and paper etc in boxing day sales.

So I am all prepared - bring it on:j :j

Marru

I don't "do" Christmas as I am not religious. I will send cards thou (I have enough left from last year), everybody gets books from my book pile and for my mum I bought a pressie for 20p from table top sale. DD's pressie I got from eBid already (and have adviced her dad about things that she would like), only her godmother to sort out. One year I will learn to cook Christmas food that my mum used to make but this year I think I will go to Mr T around lunch time on Christmas eve to get the bargains and then cook what ever I can get hold of. So my Christmas budget goes easily under "other" and normal grocery budget.

Frugaldom

Sophiesmum, thanks for the suggestions re 'Phil the Pig'. I made several of these as banks, including 'Cash Cow' and 'Penny Penguin', my sister made pinatas as well. We had a discussion elsewhere about all the different uses for papier mache, it was quite amazing the number of ideas mentioned.

Lilac_lady, the gifts budget is included in the £4000 and the spend is spread out throughout the entire year so we can take advantage of bargains and offers, plus there was a splurge of homemade cards & pressies this year, so I am well within my budget, especially since I use every code, discount and voucher I can lay my hands on at the time. I've had some fantastic buys from The Body Shop, plus Woolies have had some brilliant offers if you have children to buy for and most of us collect vouchers and cashback, which can be used for shopping without impacting on the £4000 cash. Once you are well and truly addicted, it becomes like a game to see how else you can pay for everything without it affecting the 'earned income' part of the £4000 cash total. :rotfl: Here's the breakdown of my current year: black is budget, red is what's already spent. I have spent a fair part of my cashback amount on helping throw an engagement party for my DD plus I paid for my greenhouse and garden stuff using £2 coins saved, so these things had no impact on my £4k budget overall. Somewhere, there's a list of all the 'everything else' stuff I have bought, which amounts to quite a bit

2008 budget targets

TOTAL FOR GROCERIES £1098 / £957.86
TOTAL FOR GIFTS £400 / £180.28
TOTAL FOR EVERYTHING ELSE £366 / £290.17
TOTAL FOR UTILITIES £1500 / £1025
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD £200 / £191.90
TOTAL FOR INTERNET ACCESS £240 / £136.84
CONTINGENCY FUND - £196


TOTAL £4000 / £2782.05

lyndasharp

Well done on your budget Nyk!

I've been saving up my survey vouchers for Christmas, so will try and get as much shopping done with them as possible. I asked Dad to start his list of what he'd like for Christmas and Birthday... he said he'd wait and see what I take with me when I move, he might need to restock on house bits :rotfl: Think he's worked out my plan...

Still, I've done well on freebies today. Housemate 2 has moved out (will be very strange without her here!) but left me an orange octopus that swims round the bath, and some chrome bathroom storage. House owner has given me some curtains and curtain poles, and I've got a kitchen bin from freecycle which is the exact blue colour I was planning to paint the kitchen walls. House owner has also given me a cat from the local stables, though I can't take the cat quite yet!

Edit: I'm going to aim for £950 per month next year, or £11,400 total. That may be a bit of an overestimate as it's tricky to guess heating bills etc for somewhere I'm not moved into yet, but will see how it goes!

Marru

It is quarter past three and three hours ago my ex kindly emailed me that my car insurance has expired and not to use the car and that he is not taking any responsibility if I do use the car and get fined or be in accident. I tried to convince myself that it was his problem, not mine as he has failed for over a year to hand me back the ownership of the car despite letters from solicitors etc etc. Anyway, I failed in my attempt of not getting stressed about it and have spent last three hours in wonderful world of car insurance. It has been such a pain as my car is import and even if the quote comes up in the comparison site it doesn't always mean that they do insure left hand drives. (emoticon where one is pulling one's hair)

Anyhoo - got my insurance - got it with monthly payments - got it with £55.- cashback. AND sent a stinking email to my ex. I hope he finally gets the message of what I think about him and leaves me alone from now on.

I have two loaves of bread waiting to be sliced and made into sandwiches but they have to wait for the evening. Better go to bed now as I need to get up in three hours to finish the paperwork to DVLA and get my breakfast and lunch sorted for the day (and DD showered - she fell asleep on my lap again so no bath tonight).

I tried to do some accounting tonight (hence being awake at quarter past midnight to see that email) but managed to mess it up so that as well has to be done in the evening.

Hope you all have a better start for new week.

Marru

Mollymop5

Hugs Marru I hope you got some sleep.Ex partners can be such a pain.At least you've things sorted now Hope you have a good day.

cw18

((hugs)) Marru. I hope the rest of the day runs smoother for you -- but at least you know the insurance is sorted now.

Due to not having had a car for a while, I've ended up with my insurance, service and MOT all due at the same time...... and my road tax fell with them for the first couple of years as well :eek:

I finally caved and bought a 6 month road tax to shift it to a different part of the year...... which has an added bonus of being able to do it on-line next year, as the MOT and insurance won't be running out at the same time!! If I can find my MOT and insurance documents I'll still get it at the PO as they need all the support/custom they can get, but I've lost count of the times that one or the other hasn't been filed where it should be and I've had to take the car off the road for a couple of days while I find them :eek:

sophiesmum_2

Marru wrote: »

It is quarter past three and three hours ago my ex kindly emailed me that my car insurance has expired and not to use the car and that he is not taking any responsibility if I do use the car and get fined or be in accident. I tried to convince myself that it was his problem, not mine as he has failed for over a year to hand me back the ownership of the car despite letters from solicitors etc etc. Anyway, I failed in my attempt of not getting stressed about it and have spent last three hours in wonderful world of car insurance. It has been such a pain as my car is import and even if the quote comes up in the comparison site it doesn't always mean that they do insure left hand drives. (emoticon where one is pulling one's hair)

Anyhoo - got my insurance - got it with monthly payments - got it with £55.- cashback. AND sent a stinking email to my ex. I hope he finally gets the message of what I think about him and leaves me alone from now on.

I have two loaves of bread waiting to be sliced and made into sandwiches but they have to wait for the evening. Better go to bed now as I need to get up in three hours to finish the paperwork to DVLA and get my breakfast and lunch sorted for the day (and DD showered - she fell asleep on my lap again so no bath tonight).

I tried to do some accounting tonight (hence being awake at quarter past midnight to see that email) but managed to mess it up so that as well has to be done in the evening.

Hope you all have a better start for new week.

Marru

:T :T Good for you Marru, that is one less thing he can hold over you , bet you feel so much better now it is sorted.:D

thriftylass

Good morning,

Well that's it, first day of my personal challenge (before I join officially next year). I updated a spreadsheet I already had and made a rough budget. My main goal is to stick to £1000 over the next three months (excl. mortgage and council tax) and see where my money goes exactly so that I can use that to make a proper detailed budget for next year.
Stopped smoking (i.e. didn't buy ciggies this morning, hope it lasts) and already saved £2.95. Still have 2 weeks worth of homemade lunches in the freezer, which should help at the start.

Have a nice day!

Marru, hope your day ends better than it started .

dND

As Sophiesmum says :T Well done Marru :T

I think some ex's just like to feel they have control over your life. Mine waited until a week before my daughter was due to fly out to be with me for the first time to suddenly demand my contact details or he wouldn't put her on the plane.

At first he said it was OK for me to give it to his solicitor for use in an emergency; I said I'd give it to my solicitor and others in my family so he could get it out-of-hours too. Then 2 days before he said that he had to be given it directly or she wouldn't be coming - I pay for her flights btw.

So I had to give in. All that 'concern' about contact in an emergengy is quite false, he regularly takes her on foriegn holidays, places like the Lebanon which I don't think are that safe, without telling me she's going let alone giving me contact information.

So well done on breaking one more piece of control over your life.

With the car tax I eventually did what cw18 did and despite how much it pained me to have to give more to the tax people I bought a 6 month licence to separate it from the insurance.

Did you know that you can apply for your MOT one calander month before the end date. It doesn't change the start date of the MOT but can let you pay for it a month earlier plus it gives you time to get any problems fixed while the last MOT is still valid.:j