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

cw18

Hi junglegirl

Nyk is planning to put the 2009 thread up shortly (though it sounds like it will be in 'Old Style' rather than 'Debt-free Wannabe'). The date she was suggesting (so we can post / discuss budgets) is 18th December -- and I think she's putting a link to it in the first post on this thread.

Penny2myName

Just got a strange letter from Daughter's school. So will need to to grill daughter to find out what its on about.... Unless some nice person here has a clue??

Can I take this opportunity to thank Serena for teh excellent way in whixh she acquitted herself during the AST Science interviews on Monday 8th Dec
She was a credit to herself and to the school.

What are AST's????

Only thing she told me about on Monday was that she is considering quitting her paper round as a bunch of kids are threatening her and she doesn't feel safe.

thriftylass

findingmyfeet wrote: »

i think grocery budget horrendously high. Was over £600 when i started last december( per month). Januaryt and feb i got it down to around £560 and now its between £350 and £400 a month. After xmas im going to try and get it down another level to £300. Really do able if i plan a bit better. I do things gradually then it seems to take the sting out a little- i dont feel i have suffered as much then. lol. Thanks for the welcome

Whoops, yes 400 is still quite a lot, I was looking at the £220 in your signature for december, doh, which is obviously not over yet. I'm sure you'll get there though, you already reduced it by a third over the last year. There are loads of people on here with similar households.

Marru

Hello all,

I am not destined to get out of the house. Just when I got DD washed and dressed and into the car I found out that my battery had gone flat. RAC has two to three hours waiting time :eek: and local garage would charge me £30 to come and jump start the car. I think I need to invest for a jump pack as this is second time in a year this has happened to me.

Anyway, I did something positive: My utilities that come under this challenge are £60 per month and I just transferred that into my savings account for January. The theory is that in January from what I earn I need to transfer £60 for February utilities into savings account before I can spend any money for anything else. It might be plenty of potatoes and beans for me, I think...

SiannieLaz

Afternoon All:T
Just spend ages typing loads and it kicked me out so gonna be brief! I haven't been keeping up with this thread as I should have and have therefore just spent over 4 hours trying to catch up! Anyhoo, have been sticking to a £65 pw budget, despite a few blips with regard to smoking, but have now stopped for the final time:j
Worked out next years budget and to stick to under £4k in 2009, I need to keep below £38.56 per week:eek: - tough, but not unmanagable. By the end of 2009, I want ALL my debts gone and a minimum of £5k in the bank. Gonna have to start thinking of more ways to make money but I will do it!

Just wanted to say what an inspiration you all are and I'll be checking much more from now on.
Cheers all

lilac_lady

I'm in for Nyk's new challenge although I'm not doing such a stringent one as £4000 for everything that some of you have opted for. I'm excluding DDs and SOs, have no debt or mortage now so the £4000 will cover everything else in 2009.

I'm going to draw £330 monthly in cash (will rollup the monthly £3.33s left each month and withdraw an extra £40 at Christmas 2009). I pay car tax, insurance, household insurances annually as the bill comes in so I'll repay the money due for them (from the £330 cash ) into a savings account . I know what I mean!

I was going to draw £1000 per quarter but don't want to keep a lot of money in the house.

Cash only for me from 01/01/09.

Good luck to all, whatever your method. (love this thread).

Frugaldom

Hi guys, welcome newbies, best wishes to Bails and more good luck to SF for her job hunting.

Junglegirl & Findingmyfeet, I'll be starting the new thread for the 2009 challenge on the 18th December, but will get your names added to the list on post 1 of this thread. Good luck with the challenge and I hope you can manage to succeed living within your chosen budgets. These don't have to be £4,000, only you can work out what your figure can be, but budget wisely, don't stretch things too far in your first year. We'll be here for a while, so long as this site keeps going.

My cone-shaped cello bags arrived this morning! That means I can finish making the last of the Chrissie pressies and filling the gift baskets this afternoon. :j

It's freezing here, completely white with frost outside and no sunshine to thaw it! It's a month today since we moved house and I have only just noticed that I can see the tops of the windmills from my livingroom window! I hadn't realised we were quite as high up, because we sit at the foot of a hill! :rolleyes:

Today's main task - complete my Christmas shopping!!!
I must, I must, I must! If you see me back on here, yell at me to go away and spend money or make up the snowman soup packs! :rotfl:

Edited in - OK, so I'm back ALREADY! But could everyone please check post 1 to make sure I haven't missed out any names, thanks

slowlyfading

nykmedia wrote: »

more good luck to SF for her job hunting.

Thanks sweetie I can't wait for the start of the new challenge now!

cha97michelle

Penny2myName wrote: »

Just got a strange letter from Daughter's school. So will need to to grill daughter to find out what its on about.... Unless some nice person here has a clue??

Can I take this opportunity to thank Serena for teh excellent way in whixh she acquitted herself during the AST Science interviews on Monday 8th Dec
She was a credit to herself and to the school.

What are AST's???? advanced skills teachers usually

Only thing she told me about on Monday was that she is considering quitting her paper round as a bunch of kids are threatening her and she doesn't feel safe.

sounds like she has been part of a pupil interview panel for teachers applying for advanced skills teacher. Just a nice letter by the sounds of it.

thriftylass

I did another number crunch. Nyk please put me down for the £4000 a year challenge rather than the £4800 I posted earlier. I'm not going into details yet before the new challenge starts, but our situation will change next year and we'll be able to save money on some items of the budget list. [STRIKE]I'll put the new numbers together in a post soonish.[/STRIKE] See below

thriftylass wrote: »

£ 0 telephone/internet/tv (paid by BF)
£ 10 my mobile PAYG £ 5
£ 40 electricity (paid by me)
£ 7 pet insurance (paid by me)
£ 27 long term storage (only my stuff, includes insurance for it; our house is just too small and there are things I definitely can’t part with)
£150 groceries +hh (paid by me solely; includes food for two and my work lunches,
pet food, toiletries, house hold items) £130
£166 going out, clothing, gifts, miscellaneous £100
£24 contingency
£400 per month £333

[STRIKE]£4800 per year [/STRIKE] £4000 [STRIKE](plus £500 contingency for the whole year (emergencies, also to take pressure off a bit in case I run over the budget)[/STRIKE]