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

candygirl

Marru, I like the idea of writing a list of tasks and breaking it down each day to make it more realistic and manageable;) .It seems obvious but i'd never thought about it so ta hun :A

Brighton_belle

Candygirl - your butter comment in your sig always makes me laugh:D
Marru - well done on doing yourself justice with the assignments. Every one you hand it is another step towards the life you want.
Just sold a pair of boots on ebay. More wrapping tonight:j

candygirl

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Candygirl - your butter comment in your sig always makes me laugh:D
Marru - well done on doing yourself justice with the assignments. Every one you hand it is another step towards the life you want.
Just sold a pair of boots on ebay. More wrapping tonight:j

Good innit, I love your siggy too hun:D and well done on the ebaying, I used to love it till they changed the postage charges:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

thriftylass

Hello again,

managed to read through most of the 355 posts I missed while on holiday.
My thoughts are with all of you that are having a rough time at the moment :grouphug:.

Congratulations to those with new houses, brilliant new budgets and those who managed to loose weight and all other achievements made.

Hello to the newcomers.

Had a great time away but I hate being back, it was 26C on holiday, came back to -1C brrrrrrr. Already miss wearing flipflops and factor 40 . The flat was freezing when we came back so we had the living room electric fire on highest setting. This plus three washing loads already cost 5quid :eek: in leccy .

Now I got the task to sort through my spending during the holiday, well luckily I had already put that money aside before I started test running this challenge and I was quite good keeping my spending to the essentials (well if eating out every night counts ) and the budget I set.

Had an unfrugal take away dinner last night after arriving back home but I made up for it by having lunch from the freezer and making lasagne for tea tonight from the freezer stock.

As there are only four weeks left in this year I also make a more serious attempt to make up my detailed budget for next year. Can't wait to start properly.:T

N.B. Can't believe the Americans complain about fuel cost, they pay $1.80 per gallon, which equals roughly 30p per litre.

redglass_2

Well, the plumbers came....and everything's going to be fine....but right now the bathroom looks like a punishment cell with a new (secondhand) toilet installed, nothing else. :eek: So before I go to work tomorrow I have to strip wash in a bucket of hot water (can't do it at the kitchen sink - no curtains! :eek: ). Which takes me right back to being a kid, when we had a house with no bathroom. Still, I'm happy because I saved/freecycled for months to get the bathroom done and I couldn't have paid for the job without all the little tricks I've learnt from MSE and particularly from you lot. It's a huge achievement, believe me. :beer: The 'boss' plumber knows I'm skint and when I showed him the electric shower I want installed he said, 'Do you know how much this costs?' It was a freebie from a colleague, and it turns out to be top of the range. I always have the cheapest of everything so this is an unexpected treat. :j

Skint_Lynne

Just back in from the jewellery party, but I feel really p****d off about that job. I feel as if I have been for so many inteviews, it is unbelievable!!! Why do they ask for a second interview and then tell you don't have the experience and that having your own business is a concern for them. That has happened to me 3 times now!!

I really have thought about this and I think the truth will need to be bent when I next get an interview. I will either say that my business has been sold or I will need to change things round a bit on my CV.

It's terrible that I feel I need to do this, but I honestly think that being self employed is making me unemployable. I can't even do temping cause it doesn't pay enough, I have to pay someone to mind the shop, so I need a certain level of income for it to work out.

Sorry for moaning on about this, especially when some of you are having a real rough time of it. I wish that I could waken up and all my money hassles would be away, but it does not work like that.:o

On a better note. I had a personal money no spend day, but had to buy ink for the printer in the shop, that is business spends tho.

sophiesmum_2

redglass wrote: »

Well, the plumbers came....and everything's going to be fine....but right now the bathroom looks like a punishment cell with a new (secondhand) toilet installed, nothing else. :eek: So before I go to work tomorrow I have to strip wash in a bucket of hot water (can't do it at the kitchen sink - no curtains! :eek: ). Which takes me right back to being a kid, when we had a house with no bathroom. Still, I'm happy because I saved/freecycled for months to get the bathroom done and I couldn't have paid for the job without all the little tricks I've learnt from MSE and particularly from you lot. It's a huge achievement, believe me. :beer: The 'boss' plumber knows I'm skint and when I showed him the electric shower I want installed he said, 'Do you know how much this costs?' It was a freebie from a colleague, and it turns out to be top of the range. I always have the cheapest of everything so this is an unexpected treat. :j

Well done redglass, bet you can't wait for the finished thing. Great result with the shower too:beer: , it's great when people freecycle, and pass things on instead of dumping stuff which could be used by someone else.

sophiesmum_2

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

Just back in from the jewellery party, but I feel really p****d off about that job. I feel as if I have been for so many inteviews, it is unbelievable!!! Why do they ask for a second interview and then tell you don't have the experience and that having your own business is a concern for them. That has happened to me 3 times now!!

I really have thought about this and I think the truth will need to be bent when I next get an interview. I will either say that my business has been sold or I will need to change things round a bit on my CV.

It's terrible that I feel I need to do this, but I honestly think that being self employed is making me unemployable. I can't even do temping cause it doesn't pay enough, I have to pay someone to mind the shop, so I need a certain level of income for it to work out.

Sorry for moaning on about this, especially when some of you are having a real rough time of it. I wish that I could waken up and all my money hassles would be away, but it does not work like that.:o

On a better note. I had a personal money no spend day, but had to buy ink for the printer in the shop, that is business spends tho.

would it not work out to close the shop and concentrate on the party plan side of the business?? You wouldn't have to pay anyone or any of the overheads of the shop - rent /electricity etc. We have a lot of party plan/sales that come to the scheme who make a good living from doing circuit of schemes - once they have been and people think they are okay they rebook on a regular basis say every 2-3 months, but are also on rolling bookings with other schemes too in between.

Business overheads are a nightmare, I had own business when I met OH but sold up when the rates became ridiculous.

Skint_Lynne

sophiesmum wrote: »

would it not work out to close the shop and concentrate on the party plan side of the business?? You wouldn't have to pay anyone or any of the overheads of the shop - rent /electricity etc. We have a lot of party plan/sales that come to the scheme who make a good living from doing circuit of schemes - once they have been and people think they are okay they rebook on a regular basis say every 2-3 months, but are also on rolling bookings with other schemes too in between.

Business overheads are a nightmare, I had own business when I met OH but sold up when the rates became ridiculous.

This is exactly what I am going to do eventually, but I am tied into the lease until August. This is the plan:

Get a job which pays enough. Before the shop, I was a sales rep who earned good money and had a company car.

Run the shop in tandem - anything that is made in there goes towards paying off the bank etc. I still have some of the loan outstanding from when I bought the place. I want to get a job so that I can live off of that and anything I get from shop or parties goes towards paying off business debts.

Build up party plan side of things. Next year, I am going to write to as many organisations as I can. I have found that groups of people as opposed to house parties are best. Women's guilds are good, that's what I have concentrated on. I have got research to do to see what else is out there.

As soon as business debts are paid off, try and sell lease of shop. I am hoping to achieve this in a year to 18 months, then I will get rid of the lease hopefully.

I can work during the day and the target is to have 3 or 4 parties per week. I think that is achievable.:D Even better that if eventually, I could live off doing just that, but that is way way down the line.

Skint_Lynne

I've been looking at Direct Debits for household stuff this morning. They total £252.53 per month. £120 of that is for my phone and internet. This is due to DH being abroad at the moment, but I checked out the my BT details on their website and I am in credit at the moment. Come 1st January, this bill should more than half, so that will mean more spends for me.:D

I have calculated that my direct debits cost me 8.30 per day just now.:eek:

This needs to improve dramatically in order for me to succeed. I have decided on £4000 to live off with a £500 contingency for emergencies and stockpiling purposes.

Money neutral should take care of gifts (I am hoping so anyway). The first thing is a leather jacket that was my dad's, I am going to try and sell this on ebay. I am not very good at ebay, but I hope that this one will sell as it is a really big size. We shall see, I'll load it on soon and hope for the best!!

I will really need to knuckle down, all of you can manage this, so I should be able to as well!!!!:rolleyes: