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

shaz_mum_of__2

Hi Nyk

pleased you are settling in ok ,i am so jealous of your red squirrel we are surrounded by grey ones down here.

Still unsure whether to officially join in in January as i think 4K is unrealistic for us but will do some sums and get back later

Shaz

1274

nykmedia wrote: »

Co-op dividends have been paid out but, sadly, I only qualified for £2.20 because I had shown them so little loyalty owing to the stockpiling methods of shopping elsewhere. But it's still free cash, so it's also been added to my savings pot.

Ooooh, thanks Nyk for reminding me. I've just checked and I'm getting £18 (due to my mortgage with the Co-op bank). Last year I got almost £200, so shrinking my mortgage has had the small downside of losing a lot of my divvi. Still, co-op is the only bank which offers rewards for having a mortgage, so £18 is better than nothing!

cw18

HUGE ((hugs)) for tryingtodobetter and Cat Addict

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

Co-op dividends have been paid out but, sadly, I only qualified for £2.20 because I had shown them so little loyalty owing to the stockpiling methods of shopping elsewhere.

I got £7.85 in vouchers arrive some time last week -- and that's just from banking with them !!! For some reason I never received a card to waive in the shop, which I must chase up as I've spent quite a bit in their markdown sections (and hope to continue doing so).

Thanks for the reminder though, as I've just dig them out to put them into my purse for next time I'm in...... I was rather pleased they came split into smaller denominations though (£1x1, £2x2, £2.85x1), as I rarely spend more than a couple of quid at a time in the shop

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

Was anyone else a member of the 'Tufty Club' at primary school? I can't remember what t was for, just remember the badges we all got. :rotfl:

Road Safety -- "stop, look and listen" and all that

I had the badge, and pretty certain I also had booklets, a poster and other bits as well

cw18

Shaz -- think my budget will likely be over £4k, but need to revist my calculations from last month given the change in circumstances



Boys are now kitted out for tomorrow. They both needed a suit, shirt, tie, belt and shoes -- plus younger one needed black socks. 3 hours and £261 later ( :eek: ) we were done !! Most of the time was spent trying to find a suit for younger one, as he's tall but with no meat on him. Kids sections are too short, but the 38" chest all the mens sections started at (even on suits over £130 each) drowned him. Ended up being pointed to a mens outfitters by a member of staff in MnS, where I got them matching suits at £65 each -- which I have to say was a lot cheaper than I thought we'd be looking at!!!

But all my plastic is now in terminal meltdown :eek: :eek: I can't wait to be able to pay them all off (now I'm never going to qualify for means tested benefits I plan to clear them off completely ASAP, as the monthly minimum payments are getting to croppling point), though I'm going to keep one to be used and paid off in full each month -- purely to keep a credit rating, as I won't have a mortgage to provide that anymore.........

Cat_Addict

Cheryl,

I just wanted to wish you all the best for tomorrow. It is my Dad's funeral on Friday. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

Skint_Lynne

nykmedia wrote: »

Was anyone else a member of the 'Tufty Club' at primary school? I can't remember what t was for, just remember the badges we all got. :rotfl:

I was in the tufty club, in fact, my mum was the tufty woman!!! You can see him on you tube for a bit of nostalgia!!! You must all be a similar age to me then, I am 37, so you all must be early forties at the most!!

Speak later guys,

andromache_2

((hugs)) to TTDB, Cat Addict, Janey and of course cw. Thinking of you all.

So today I wanted to buy one of the nice chocolate advent calendars in Thorntons as a surprise present for OH, as his family don't celebrate Christmas that much and I want to get him into the spirit :xmassmile. Trouble is they're at £5 for two and £3.49 for one, and I wanted to keep that extra 99p in my challenge budget! So I loitered round the store looking like a shoplifter until a lady came in who was only buying one and asked if she wanted to come to a mutually beneficial deal... Think she thought I was a bit weird, but she did agree! Is that going too far?? :rotfl:

I've been in a really 'spendy' mood recently, keep spending money online. Everything I buy is a bargain, but it still adds up overall! I think it's the fact that Christmas is coming up: it makes me want to buy lots of nice gifts even though almost everyone is sorted already. I still have one NSD to get for this month's challenge so I'm going to focus on making tomorrow a NSD. No spends, even bargainous ones!

andromache_2

Meant to say - welcome to the challenge, sillylittlejill! :T I'm doing the challenge as a student too; in some ways it's easier I think as there's pretty much an expectation that you're skint, so no pressure to flash the cash! I'm doing it for the academic year since that's how my budgeting cycle works but you can tailor the challenge to fit your needs.

*Ouch* to the train fare - I assume you've looked into a season ticket? And you're making maximum use of your YP Railcard for the post-10.00am journeys? In any case, you can definitely exclude it from your budget for the purposes of this challenge since it will count as an essential study-related expense. I've chosen to include all my academic costs (textbooks etc) in the challenge budget since I want it to be an accurate representation of how much I actually spend (the only thing I exclude is travel to see OH), but that's just me, and I can walk/cycle to lectures so I don't have the same problem as you!