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

Janey51

Hi Smlsave. You are more than welcome to our friendly little group.

Well, I stared hard at the fuse box but it wouldn't have mattered how much of a Paddington Bear stare I gave....a tree had come down in the blizzard and demolished the main power cable :rolleyes:
Power was off for 6 hrs but I am now back in 21st century.
I wrote most of my Christmas cards and cleaned a couple of cupboards out.
Reassessed the budget for this year and I am going to be over by £150 by end of the month but I am very pleased considering everything that has happened this year.

Next year, I am going to persevere with the bulk buying if I can because I know it has saved me a lot...money and time. My petrol bill is definitely less (although that is not part of my Challenge budget)

The comments about the falling interest rates is very thought provoking.
I opened a fixed rate savings account 6 months ago at 6.4% which is stunningly good now. I am going to move what I can into that account because my other savings accounts are dropping like a stone :eek:

I know I will lose out on a bit of interest but I am seriously considering drawing the money I need for housekeeping out of the bank in one lump sum 3 monthly. Whatever is left at the end of this period I can top up at the end of the next 3 months to the full 3 month amount again...hope that makes sense!

Personally, I know I do better at being frugal if I have a finite amount of money in cash that is all I have to spend. So when it's gone, it's gone. It's all about knowing your own personality I suppose and doing what works best for you.

cw18

I'm also considering becoming a 'cash shopper' in 2009, at least for things like groceries and petrol that are ones I don't pay on DD. Problem is that I need to find a couple of small but sturdy (and secure fastening and cheap) purses to make this a viable option, as if I have everything in one purse I'll never remember how much I have for what each week/month (probably pulled monthly for me)

lilac_lady

I find I stick to a budget better if I use cash. Like Janey, I'm thinking about taking 3 months cash out of the bank at a time. The loss of interest won't be much nowadays and it will help me concentrate on keeping within my limit.

I'm going to try and bulk buy and store "bargains" too, although I don't want to change my diet too much. I don't fancy eating something like couscous all year just because it was on offer if you bought a gigantic bag of the stuff...

bails

Hi everyone :hello: sorry I haven't been around, it's been v busy since we got back. Hope everyone is doing well and welcome to any newbies!

I'm in the process of working out our plan for next year so I can then work out a budget. There are so many variables I can't find a definitive answer to (of course :rolleyes:) so I'm wondering if I'll even have a plan by the time the new challenge starts! My benefit is about to go down due to a change in circumstances, so that's going to hit quite hard. Anyhoo, still battling on with The System and hope to have some answers eventually. I've been manically number crunching this week about going back to work as I'm just so desperate to be out of it all but OH has given me a stiff talking to about my health :rolleyes: I am still finding out all I need to know though so it can happen as soon as possible
Trying to catch up on everyone's news but thread moves so fast! xx

mama67

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

I recently had a BG rep at the door offering me a better deal when i told him who we were with he shut the laptop and said he couldn't beat them :rotfl::rotfl:

He did however show me how much better we would be getting rid of the Economy & meter as we no longer have that heating the night time rate was of little benefit and the daytime rates are a little higher ,got the meter changed for free and we are now in credit despite the rise in prices


we are also £100 in credit for Gas and we only pay £40 month i think this is mailny to do with refusing to put the heating on til november ....................well ok i put it on one evening :A

Shaz

Shaz, so you got rid of Economy 7?? I always thought this was cheaper!!

I tend to put the washer and dishwasher on overnight whilst on Eco 7. we use approx 20% of our total electric overnight.

What we pay each month pretty much covers our usage, so not in credit there.

We have oil CH and water and are in credit with them and they pay us interest on any cr balance.

Frugaldom

SmlSave wrote: »

Hello :wave: I'm ashamed I've been spying on you guys for ages May I join you for the challange next year? Gosh, it's only 4 weeks away now.

If I posted what I think my budget is would you mind taking a look? Just to see if I've included everything and what I could possibly cut back on.

Hi SmlSave, there's no shame in lurking and we'd all love you to join us here for the new year's challenge. Feel free to post your ideas, sample budgets etc and if you have any new moneysaving hints, tips or ideas, share them here. I'll get your name onto the challenger list asap.

Bails, hope everything is working out for you and that the change in circumstances isn't a bad one.

Janey, I'm glad you have your electricity restored! I now have logs, so the fire is always on here if you are over this direction, and I'll even have a real cooker wired in by next week - my landlady said to call the electrician, so I did, but only after a close inspection to see if it was worth my while attempting to wire the cooker myself. Umm... no! :rotfl:

:j My logs arrived just as I was making the dinner! They are now in the garage waiting to be stacked out properly tomorrow during daylight. :T They are all small cut, mixed wood and well seasoned, ready for the fire. I just hope that we can make them last until the end of the year and then start stockpiling for next year. I even have a photo I can link to, as logman had an advert running online! :rotfl: Here's how many logs you can get for £40 delivered.

We've filled the cubic meter builder's bag, plus 4 sacks, the big log basket and there are still some piled on the garage floor. :T I am so glad I didn't go for the online log supplier offer! These are much less expensive and my money stays within the local economy - something I'm becoming more and more conscious of as the Internet takes over from the High Streets.

1274

Now I've sort of got my all-in figure for next year (well, at least until I redo my spreadsheets for the fourth time!) I need your votes on which method of budgetting to use next year now I'm self-employed. My income comes in very irregularly e.g. it could be 7K one month and nothing for the next 2.

Just so you have some baseline data, I've been using method 1 for the last few months, but it doesn't seem to be working very well as I've had to dip into my emergency fund and get money back from mortgage overpayments to pay bills. My EF is now £3K, roughly 2.5 months budget, is that enough do you think?

Method 1 Put a fixed amount away in savings (£300) each month to cover annual spend purchases like my holiday and the new computer I will need to buy. Spend as normal during the month and put anything left over into mortgage overpayments.

Method 2 Put aside all next months bills , spending money and fixed amount savings money from each payment e.g. January's cheque pays February's bills. Feed the remainder 50/50 into emergency fund savings and mortgage overpayments

Method 3 work on an annual basis i.e. build up a savings fund equivalent to my all-in costs (at least 17.8K) before paying anything off. This method looks the most complicated because the all-in costs go down during the year, so I won't have much clue how much the fund needs to be at any one time without consant spreadsheet checking (mind you, I've become quite obsessive about that since joining this challenge :rotfl:)

Method 4 zero based budgetting (an american thing I think). "Spend" each pay cheque when it arrives by allocating it all to fixed and variable expenses, savings and mortgage overpayments so that the end result is 0. If I overspend in one category, the equivalent has to be deducted from another category so that the budget is always 0. I quite like this idea, but no idea how it would work in practice. The web suggests it is mostly used for businesses

I'm sure there must be other ways, and as quite a few of you are self-employed, how do you do it?

Thanks

sophiesmum_2

Just clicked on the new xmas moneysaving link at the top of the page - and joined the WHSmith privilege club. One of the vouchers for joining is £5 off any book £10 or more. Think I will treat my dad to a book reading is one of things he can still do.
Might be worth a look if anyone on here isn't already signed up with them.:D

whitewing

1274 wrote: »

I'm sure there must be other ways, and as quite a few of you are self-employed, how do you do it?

Thanks

Well, I just dabble in so many methods that I can't remember what I'm doing, lol!

I think now I have some savings (first quarter's for next year), we will try to spend from that and have all income as it arrives shuttled off into another acct. I lost track this year with stuff that's included and isn't. Frankly, i think the banks should let us design our own range of challenge-useful accts.

I save more if I don't think I have money. Today I have £10 in the joint acct (as mortgage has just gone out). This has stopped me going late night shopping, even though I have some cash in savings and could easily transfer.

MrDT

Hello all I've already bust on this challenge but keep reading up so I don't miss out any tips

Did a little Christmas shopping this evening, worked out rather nicely £22.50 worth of gifts and it only cost me £5.16 (actually a little less than that lol) here's how:

M&S 3 for 2 Christmas stuff, picked up three items at £7.50 each. It was 20% off day, and I guess there's something a bit squiffy with their prices since the VAT cut as I was actually given 21.7% discount. Not only that, but they applied the discount to the total BEFORE deducting £7.50 for the free item. Oh, and I had a £5 voucher thanks to the direct line offer a month or two back...

So, £22.55 worth of goods (3 gifts and a 5p carrier bag)
-4.89 for the VAT cut and 20% promotion
-7.50 for the 3 for 2 offer
-5.00 for the gift voucher
equals a grand total of £5.16 paid.

That £5.16 was paid on a cashback credit card lol so I should see two or three pence back from that too haha!

Anyway, I'm well chuffed with that and had to come mention it here haha!

Will keep reading, will weigh in at the end of the year with my totals, and be back at the start of January with my 2009 budget and targets