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

lilac_lady

Isn't this a great thread? Thanks again nykmedia for starting it (and proving that it CAN be done). It caters for every size of purse now as we can all pick our personal limits for 2009 and strive hard to keep to our personal budget.

After going round in circles thinking about how I can manage to keep on target, I've come back to the cash only method. I like some leeway in my spending but in 2009, if I don't have any cash from my monthly stash, I don't buy it. Some months will be easier than others but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Frugaldom

Hello everybody

Today I have been to the bank and cashed in the contents of 'Phil', so that I have some cash to play with for extra Chrissie pressies. Had lunch with DD and DGD was asking if I'd got her a pony yet, apparently it can live with the sheeps and cows and chickens at our new house! :rotfl: Keys have now gone back on the old house, deposit returned and we no longer need to worry about the place. :j I'll miss the garden a little, though, as it was becoming quite productive just when we were getting ready to move. Never mind, it's time to start afresh and I have this year's savings to use for next year's preparations for my self-sufficientish veggie production. :T

Beautiful pink sky here, that's something that no amount of money can buy on demand.

Brighton_belle

hi smlsave. Good start with the budget. With your building/contents insurance, you may be able to reduce this (depending on the size of your home). I've just reduced ours from £326 to £149 using the advice from the insurance board (and the inducement to do so from this forum).We're in a 2 bed hse.

OH came home yesterday from the estate he works on with 2 woodpidgeons (complete with heads/ feathers etc):D . Felt very MSE. Tasted rather like chicken giblets & served with roasted sweet pots ,butternut squash and sprouts.
Unexpected cheque from santander this morning (buyers of A&L): to do with dividends, for £22. & several more items sold on ebay:j . £48 made so far, but letting in accumlate til I can take it for free from paypal.

Janey51

Absolutely gutted.

Sold another couple of books on Amazon and then horrible cat knocked coffee over onto them so I had to refund :eek:

Anybody want to try Slow Roasted Moggie ? :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

I don't know about slow roasted, but I'm needing a moggie to keep a watch out for meeskies here! :rotfl: I've replensihed the peppermint oil in the dish under the sink and sealed the only other gap I can see with steel wool and this SEEMS to have prevented anything getting in for the past few nights but I still think a nice furry moggie (or 2 ) would help.

cw18

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Unexpected cheque from santander this morning (buyers of A&L): to do with dividends, for £22.

mine arrived yesterday (sure it was £23 and pennies, but not at home where I can check ATM), which was incredibly useful as I was out before the post arrived today -- and I was local to a branch of my bank, which isn't local now I don't work :mad:

redglass_2

Meanwhile back in the Frugal Bathroom....Yes, I'm still on about it! :oEverything was supposed to be finished by Wednesday but there was still some tinkering going on this morning, and it turns out the new white tiles make the old ones look pink, so the old ones now have to be replaced and that can't be done until New Year! I'm happy though, the room looks loads better and these things always take more time and trouble than you think, so there's no point in getting worked up about it. Plus, the men have been so nice and unobtrusive that I haven't minded them being around all the time. I'm about to fall asleep after all the excitement, so have a lovely weekend, everybody. I'll soon have found something else to talk about, honest. Nighty-night...

cw18

I'm baby-sitting tonight, as DD is out on her works Christmas 'do'.

As normal I borrowed elder DS's "dongle" to use with my laptop, but it's been playing up since Tuesday -- and wouldn't hook up at all once I got here :eek: Tried the SIM from my phone (same network) and that worked, so clearly a problem with his SIM rather than the dongle. Called the network and checked I won't get charged for using mine (I have web 'n' walk via my handset on my package, so the nice lady confirmed it's still free using the dongle -- as long as I don't start downloading photos and music or such). Also queried if there was a problem with DS's account (he set a password so I can contact them on his behalf before he went to Germany at the end of July), and the lady said it all looks fine at their end. So she's sending out a replacement SIM to him, and has credited his account with £10 to cover the charge they make for replacements as she was convinced it was 'their' problem and not 'ours'. I think it helped the call came from me rather than a teenager (he's not 20 until March), so DS will be happy when I tell him I've since put him SIM in my phone, and the handset is telling me there's no SIM in it, so definitely a problem with that !!!!

Work are messing me around though I was told redundancy pay-off would be within 10 working days of final pay-check (which came through last Friday), and I was counting on having it by next Friday at latest (10th working day) to pay house insurance in lump sum (get charged 16.9% to pay in instalments, but can't find anywhere else will give me the cover I want at an affordable price) and to pay the balance to the funeral directors.

Took my passes back in today (after meeting an ex-team mate who took voluntary redundancy for a coffee and catch-up first), and a couple of people asked if I'd signed some forms??? Turns out they won't release the money until I attend an appt with a work appointed solicitor to sign some document or other -- and in the 13 weeks since they told me I was being laid off not one person from HR or finance has been in touch with me about it. Everyone else signed on their last day, so it sounds like I should have been given an appt for the middle of last week -- and the chap I need to speak to about it was off today, so it won't get looked at until Monday now..... which means I probably won't get the payment until closer to Christmas and I currently have no other income :mad:

I also have to decide what to do about a savings plan that's due to mature. I thought the last payment was due in Feb, but I got a letter today saying it's January (and only one more payment due next week). But it's a Unit Trust type, so is currently valued at £3k compared to the £3.6k I've paid in :eek: They have, however, "kindly" offered me the opportunity to keep it running (subject to continuing paying premiums) for a further 10 years -- which I should be able to afford to do (though it means an extra £240 on my annual budget) and I don't need the capital at this moment in time due to the change in the home situation So I need to decide in the next 3 weeks whether to cut my losses and run now, or take a gamble and hope the stock market isn't at another all time low in Dec 2018/Jan 2019

cha97michelle

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Unexpected cheque from santander this morning (buyers of A&L): to do with dividends, for £22.

what sort of account do you have with them? I have an ISA with them but i bet i don't qualify. Shame.

janey51 wrote:

Anybody want to try Slow Roasted Moggie ? :rolleyes:

if it becomes popular i will let you sell mine too. It is in the bad books as it ignored the litter tray, then climbed right to the back of my chocka block pantry, did poo and wee, then put my shopping bags ontop of that lot. It then spent the next night outside. I'm getting so i can't trust it.


On a serious note, i've had a bad day as i found out a good friend had lost his battle with cancer, so i'm afraid i drank a little too much last night and have suffered today because of it.

today is a new day though. My frugality was, i ran out of xmas cards, and rather than buying more, i remembered i have several odd ones from different years, some not that tasteful, but i used some of them up.

I will have to go food shopping tomorrow. I had some not very nice food today as i fed the kids the best of what was left, and i didn't have enough milk for my DS1 until DH got back from work at 7pm. His routine is he has a cup of milk with a cartoon between 6 and 6:30, then stories and bed between 7 and 7:30. I managed to do his tea a little later, and i pressed pause on the digibox, so he watched the cartoon late and was none the wiser. DH got in just as he twigged and started paddying. Couldn't fool DS2 into waiting, so i had to sneakily do his bottle of milk and thankfully it was gone before DS1 noticed.

The things we do. I'll need petrol too tomorrow, but i can't honestly remember the last time i bought some, and i have a mr M 5p off per litre voucher.

Do we have to do an all-in budget for next year? I have loosely worked one out, but it is a bit in the air as i am not sure what my pay will be when i go back, and our child tax credits will change too. I have a rough idea of worst case scenario. Don't forget child benefit goes up on the 5th of January too. That will make me £7 a month better off.

Penny2myName

Hadn't thought about the CB raise. No idea how much mine will change, I have 3 kids.