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

cw18

((hugs)) Lynne. Really sorry to hear that your shop venture hasn't worked out for you But well done you for having the courage to take the plunge :T

As kids my brother and I both fancied running a newsagents, and often talked of doing it together -- close to our roots so the family all stayed close enough to 'pop in'. But we both drifted into IT, and now my parents still live Blackpool side of Preston, I'm Preston side of Manchester, and my brother is up in Leeds !!!


I'm running an "all in" challenge in terms of household/car/pet/present expenses next year, and it looks like I'm working on a budget of £8k.

I've also just subscribed to a monthly scrapbooking kit which will cost me another £30 or so a month, and will need £10-£15/month for crops (days where scrapbookers get together) which I'm not giving up as they're my only 'social' life. I don't drink (apart from a very odd 'one-off'), and plan to work really hard on giving up the fags again once I've got all the current flurry of paperwork sorted out -- but I'm not counting any of these in my budget as they're things that [strike]could[/strike] would go if we really came up against a brick wall financially.

But if my rough calculations of income are right, even with these extras I should still have money left at the end of the year just from income, which astounds me.

We used to have a nett income of around £36k/year (even before CB and CTC or bonuses/overtime - and they probably gave us an average of an extra £4k/year), and we never had anything left for saving. Granted £7k of this went on the mortgage and just over £1k went on life insurance premiums I'll no longer have (plus I've now got a reduction in Council Tax of around £350/yr and one less person to feed/clothe/water -- and no trips to the pub which DH spent a hefty chunk of his income on, or commutes to work which cost me £600/yr on the bus, plus the running of a second car for DH as his job was off the beaten track and unsociable hours), but I still can't see why we never had anything left :eek:


I think joining this challenge in 2009 is going to be a real eye-opener to me -- even though I've been working on cutting back on bills (especially clothes, presents, crafting goodies and groceries) in the last 18-24 months. Without the reductions I've already made I really don't think I'd have thought it possible to get to 31/12/2009 without eating into capital -- and as for being able to add to the capital..... well, I'd have laughed at anyone who'd told me it was possible :rolleyes:

lyndasharp

:j My Icesave money has arrived!!!!

cw18

:T :T Woo-Hoo :T :T

Skint_Lynne

That's great news Lynda, good for you:beer:

Frugaldom

That's great news about your money, Lynda! Let's hope it's a good omen and see your house sale go through quickly

Not much to report here today other than I'm going to attempt to get into town and get rid of my Woolies vouchers! According to news snippets, everyone seems to be doing the same and shelves are emptying where stores are open! I'm blooming sure and I'm not losing out on free vouchers after losing my £500 worth of shares! I'll try not to spend too much, but a trip into town is still a trip into town - I need to make the most of it!

SkintLynne, have you tried www.dialwise.co.uk for codes to phone abroad? I call USA & France for a penny a minute and was calling my sis in Cyprus for 2p/min NEVER dial direct from a BT line, always check for an add-on code first. Hope there's one there for you, it works for mobiles too, just make sure you select the correct code Saves a small fortune!

tryingtodobetter

:j

lyndasharp wrote: »

:j My Icesave money has arrived!!!!

:j Great news, what a relief for you :j

I have finally done one piece of work for Uni so I am feeling a little better about that now. I've got 3 things listed on ebay and have sold a book on amazon :j

My Dad is really down and being kept in limbo by the hospital isn't helping him, so I have been visiting him daily to try and help out.

DS1 finally gone back to go school,after a bout of nasty tonsillitus, so I can get some more christmas shopping done without prying eyes!!

Hope everyone has a good day.

Penny2myName

Happy Birthday to me, I got my animals micro-chipped for FREE, so defiantly a happy birthday for me. Saving me around £50 at a guess.

Skint_Lynne

Penny2myName wrote: »

Happy Birthday to me, I got my animals micro-chipped for FREE, so defiantly a happy birthday for me. Saving me around £50 at a guess.

Happy Birthday Penny,

Many happy returns!!! Good result on the free micro chipping!!

Janey51

Good afternoon from frozen frugal land.

I have been hibernating but feel ready to get back into the fray again. I think Christmas is looming as a big difficult monster for me to battle at the moment but I have such good friends....and that includes all my friends on here....that I hope I can make it through without too much trauma.

I have been trying to catch up on the posts I have missed but still have a lot to go.
I know that a lot of us are having problems at the moment....cw, slowlyfading I hope you are OK.
Pleased that Nyk is settling into rural bliss
I am getting very low on logs so I will have to be dropping hints to strong male friends with chainsaws

I have been cooking a lot. Yet again, my freezer is too full and I keep giving things away to extremely grateful people :rotfl: I know it's not very frugal but it is very good therapy for me to cook even if I can't eat it all within a reasonable amount of time.
This morning I have made mince pies and a batch of herby pastry to top the pies I made yesterday.
All I need is a load of hungry people to eat them.

Perhaps I could put a sign up on the main road..."This Way if You want to be Fed for Free"....I could ask for a bag of logs in return

My food stockpile worked quite well and I am tweaking it to start on Jan 1 as I discovered I totally over and underestimated some things that I thought I used.
I have rather lost track of my overall budget but I think I have about £85 left to last until the end of the year.
I have all my Christmas presents and I will be away for 10 days in December so I think I am OK.

I must get my head around my Tax Return before Christmas. I submitted my DH's and it came back saying he owed £288!! I really don't understand this as everything was taxed at source
I spent a tearful half hour on the phone to the Inland Revenue. The advisor was very helpful but the only thing he could suggest was going back to the Accountant who did our returns last year. I pointed out that it cost £374 for the Accountant last year so it would be cheaper to pay the £288 DH didn't owe than pay the Accountant.
The Taxman was appalled but to me it's logical :rolleyes: It's nearly £90 cheaper.

C'est la vie.

Skint_Lynne

Nice to see you back on Janey, I've missed you. xx