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

Frugaldom

Good afternoon to all

Bails, as per Marru's question.... who, what, where, when????

Janey, get some heating on, it's FREEZING out there. Frugality isn't about risking hypothermia. Hmm... I wasn't sure what you meant by 'that's hardly a forest', though, sorry. It's dense, it has thousands of trees and it's just over the back from the house with a track leading all the way through it. In fact, here's a piccie I took. Loads of kindling sticks in there.

This will be the location for my frugal exercise in 2009, when the new year's resolution is to get fitter, not fatter. We may even have a dog by then.

Not sure who mentioned budget versus spending diary, but I have both. My budget is the amount of money I actually have for spending (£4,000) broken down into each category and my spending diary is a record of all my spends as and when I make them. I also have a basic accounts spreadsheet to show me if/when the 'books' may not balance, so I can make contingency plans, 'borrow' from savings or earn a bit extra to cover the unforeseen costs (eg: DD's engagement party, the house move etc). These are all separate from my business based accounts, for which I use a really simple programme called 'Dosh' that came free when I opened a business account with Lloyds many years ago. I must look into the Office one, as Dosh is a bit outdated and is on floppy disk. I don't even have a floppy disk drive on my computer any more! :rotfl:

New thread for 2009 challenge will automatically be linked from this thread. If you read post 1 of this thread, it has all the links for previous parts plus the handy ones for spending diary, recipes etc.

To any newcomers who may have missed our original posts about the book, (living on £1 per day) it was discussed here some time ago, although I can't recall when it was, or I'd add a link Apparently, the lady concerned lived on her £1 per day AFTER paying a full year's rent, utilities and council tax up front for her room let, so the £1 per day wasn't to cover her actual cost of living. I think the title is a little misleading and will upset a few people as it isn't everyone who would have the cash in the bank to pay that amount 'up front' and she obviously didn't need to rush out and spend the best part of £100 to get her passport for her 'free' trip to France. personally, I'd be really annoyed if any of my sisters went to all that bother, then got a book deal and moved in with a [STRIKE]rich[/STRIKE] solvent bloke, then gave me a membership to whatever as a wedding gift bought from their savings! Why couldn't she just have bought her brother's wedding gift with what she already had in the bank, rather than pay a full year's rent etc up front then live like a city-slicker pauper? Must try to find a copy of the book after Christmas, I've never lived in a city before. :rotfl:

Brighton_belle

Marru - I'm very cross with your dd's godmother - the promises you make as a god parent are serious, and not to be taken lightly and she is supposed to be there for your daughter. I'm sorry you ex is such a trouble maker. I'll keep an eye open for any portable dvd player super bargains.
Oooh, bails you tease:D . I've got a pretty good guess who's it might be though... Great news about the firming up of the india plans:j . Not so good about your leg - hope that gets sorted soon as infections can be so depleting.
Whitewing - men eh - gotta love em:D . Enjoy the £90. I am sad to report that another month has passed with out me winning with my premium bonds...
Sweet pot soup cooked and cooling. Tom soup bubling away and lentil lunches in slow cooker. Now got to finish making my mums pressie as it has to be dry and wrapped for wednesday.

EDIT - |Nyk I agree I am was a bit irritated that she did all that to give her bro a wedding present of a £1000 or more (life time NT mem). Why not just give them a toaster if that's all you can afford in the first place....or something homemade.

lingojingo

sophiesmum wrote: »

- doing the tree. I helped mum do hers last night as she is just a littlie and can't reach the top of the tree and dad isn't well enough to help this year. Otherwise there would have been a zillion balls at bottom and bare at top:rolleyes:.

Our tree has to be a bit the opposite - zillions of baubles on the top 2/3 and no dangly bits near the bottom - otherwise my lovely cat thinks they're an extension to her scratch post and plays with the balls till they come off or the tree falls over!!!! When she was a kitten she used to climb up into the middle of the tree, but now she's too heavy!

I've just discovered I won a comp on pigsback yesterday, so have ordered an HMV voucher for nephew's birthday in early January. It's always difficult to know what to give him so soon after Christmas, but with a voucher he can choose for himself and delay a while if he wants to (he'll be 20).

I've missed birthdays again, hope you had good ones!

Hugs to all that need them, especially Janey, Marru, Bails and CW.

I'd also like instructions for making the cookie tree (think it was purplevamp?)

Nyk - I think it was you who planted some garlic recently, was it whole bulbs or separate cloves?

It's quite chilly here, hard frost but no snow, but we're managing to keep the heating much lower than last year so far, still sitting in sleeping bags if we watch TV in the evening, whip them off quickly if anyone knocks on the front door!!!!!!!

bails

He he, of course you do BB, it's not that tricky to work out peeps but mum's the word til January...
The concept behind the book is an interesting one: the original idea presuably stemmed from the pressure to buy something 'big' for her brother and, to be fair, the bet was made under the influence I guess it's to be taken in the spirit into which it was entered, as a game and a short term lifestyle choice (and it was most definitely a choice). Perhaps the title is misleading but then that's the name of the game in marketing and well, if she's made money out of her experience then fair play. As BB said, even if there's one good idea in there we haven't thought of, then it'd be worth a read. For lots of other people, it might hold lots of new ways of thinking about money.

Ha ha, I love the sleeping bag idea Lingo, and I've got a 4-season one - guess what I'll be snuggled up in watching Strictly later?...

Brighton_belle

Just a quickie - I've been alerted to an innocent mistake in my listing for an item that closes in 2 hrs. It seems it is too late to change the listing as the system isn't letting me in to do it. Any suggestions as to what I can do?

bails

If someone asked you about it in a question you could reply to it so everyone can see the answer, explaining it was a mistake?

Marru

Even than you can't change it you should be able to add to your listing, can't you add a comment in the end?

PS: Bless DD, she asked me to get my bed out for her and instead I put the futon chair down. She didn't eat her strawberries which is a good indicator how ill she is. Now she is sleeping under my duvet and only thing I can hear is her quiet snoring due to blocked nose. So please shout at me if you see me posting here in next few hours as I have now no excuses of not getting on with all the things I need to do.

Frugaldom

Hi BB, depending on where the listing is and if it has any bids, then you should be able to edit it or, at least, add an extra bit into the description. Or, like Bails say, if someone has asked about it, post it in the reply. Good luck with whatever it is.

Bails, I'd forgotten that pound lady did it for a bet, but still can't work out why she didn't just use her savings for the gift, as she had enough in the bank to cover a full year's rent including utilities - that couldn't have been cheap. Also, I don't know who's baby it is... is it human or animal?

LingoJingo - I split the garlic bulbs into individual cloves and just pressed each, pointy side upwards/flat side downwards, into the soil/compost about 3 or 4 cm below the surface. I have one growing in beside 'Big Jim' in the house, too, and it has suddenly sprouted! I think it must have been the shock of the house move that did it! (Making mental note to take a photo of it for blog, just in case it doesn't come to anything. )

Edited in: My main tasks for the day are to print labels for all the Christmas pressies, so I can see what I've still to make/buy, wrap up what's here, write the cards and start preparing the boxes that need to be sent by courier. My polythene bags haven't arrived yet, so I can't make up the 'snowman soups', but I can print the little labels.

bails

:rotfl:human

I'm wondering if this is another thing that is misleading and that she didn't strictly pay her rent/bills upfront ie she just had a DD going out of her wages each month so her landlord was okay and for the purposes of the challenge she wasn't 'cheating'? If she did have savings then I'm confused like you as well I guess one of us had better read the book when we can get hold of it :rotfl:
Managed to sort it BB?
Go away Marru, definitely nothing interesting happening here to distract you

lingojingo

Silly me! Just realised the quiz win is enough for 2 vouchers! So have ordered another for BIL's birthday at the end of January

Bails, did you miss post weeks ago about the selk bags?
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/selk-bags/index.html

We can't afford them, but have our own version using really cheap arg*s sleeping bags, effective at keeping warm but useless for moving about:rotfl: