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

sophiesmum_2

2nd xmas lunch now out of the way;) , not much impact into our storecupboard this week as have been mainly eating with oldies;) - won't be eating an evening meal tonight that's for sure.

Marru

Good afternoon,

Car is sorted and it cost me a new battery. The old one didn't hold a charge at all. After I got jump started and I left the house the engine shut off just when I was approaching roundabout. Luckily nobody was coming so I was able to keep the speed up (:o) and give it a boot to get it going again. So went to my local garage to get new battery and oh boy does it start easily now. And I saved almost a tenner from what RAC was quoting me.

Just came back for long enough to have lunch and cup of tea and will be shortly off to walk the dogs before it gets too dark. Byeeee.....

sophiesmum_2

Marru - bad news having to spend out on a new battery but at least it should give you peace of mind and it shouldn't let you down now.:D

cw18

I was having problems getting my car to start a few months back -- which didn't bode well for the winter. Had a chat with my local garage, and they agreed with me that the battery should be fine as it was only changed in March of last year. My problem is almost certainly that I'm only doing low mileage (<4k/year) and almost all of that in trips of less than 6 miles at a time -- so the battery isn't getting chance to charge. But it was really only in damp and/or cold conditions it was playing up

Saw Netto had one of the 'jump box' things coming in, and was already planning a walk to Tesco the day they were due in (Netto isn't much further up), so I called in on the off-chance, and managed to get the last one!!

Has to be the best spent £20 of the year, as I've already used it several times on my car, plus twice on the car of a chap visiting our neighbours

lyndasharp

Bails, thinking of you and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Marru, my car battery is starting to complain a bit too due to the cold and my short trips to work. It was better today as bf fixed the garage door last night so Betsy is back inside again. I'm just hoping mine lasts for another couple of weeks, as my battery charger is at my Dad's in Cambridge.

I'm off to spend money soon, the first of 4 Christmas parties! Luckily two are free, and tonights and one next week should only cost £10 each.

I think this challenge will really help with the new job. I had another induction day today and it was all about handling excel spreadsheets and spending on conservation projects at all the properties.... I think I'll just sign all the historic houses up for the £4k challenge in 2009 :rotfl:

Edit: did anyone else get snow this morning or was it just Swindon?

Janey51

Here we go :j

Budget 2009:

This is based on my Debt Management Plan (DMP) drawn up by me by the CCCS which is why it seems ridiculously generous compared with how we are used to managing things on our challenge.
After the pretty c*** year I have had, I don't want to set myself up for a fall so I am erring on the side of generosity

It is an absolutely honest breakdown of what CCCS allow me and it looks pretty scary when it's written down.

I am not including Debt Repayment, Rent, Council Tax, diesel or heating oil because these are absolute essentials that I can't really compromise on.

Housekeeping (self and 4 cats/to include vet bills etc) £1521
Electric 372
Contents Ins 91
Medical (Denplan,Prescriptions,Optician) 186
Gifts/sundries 3980
Personal (Hair,entertainment) 240
Car expenses 232
TV Licence/SKY 348
Telephone/Broadband 612

Total £4000 :eek:

Now, I know that this is a humungous amount for one frugalite and 4 felines but....

I am stuck with my contents insurance and car insurance following the house fire and car accident this year.

I get a pre-payment certificate for prescriptions and that will be reducing in April because of the phasing out of prescription charges in Scotland.
I belong to a private dental scheme. I love my dentist and, as I have a lot of treatment it is worth every penny.

I have Sky because I choose to....no excuse

I like my ISP for Broadband and want to stay with them. I have just signed up for another year. I have not included mobile phone expenses because I spend about £10 a year on calls :T

I am planning to put 25% of the budget into an instant access savings account every 3 months. I am really lucky that my big car bills come in December so I have a whole year to budget for those and my other bills are spread over the 12 months so it should work out OK.

That's the plan fellow frugallers

Nice comments only or I will send a big hairy cat to savage your ankles :rotfl:

lyndasharp

What do people think is a reasonable amount to budget per month for owning a cat? I'll get pet insurance and I think I'll find enough volunteers for cat sitting that I won't need to pay cattery fees. Just trying to sort out my budget for next year!

thriftylass

Janey, your budget sounds sensible to me. The housekeeping sum is very frugal and the other high items (car, broadband) can't be helped or are a personal choice you obviously thought about. Also having a private dental plan is worth it especially once you have found a good dentist, I think.

P.S. hope that was a nice comment, if not I got my own cat that could savage my ankles

Lynda, we have a cat and pay 7 pounds pet insurance and about 12 on food (she gets treats like lean meat from our dinner which saves cat food money .

Marru

lyndasharp wrote: »

I think I'll just sign all the historic houses up for the £4k challenge in 2009 :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Janey, please do send couple of moggies down here!!! Always welcome.

I don't think I will even attempt to break down my challenge amount, keeping in budget is task and a half as it is. So well done all you who have better grip of things than me.

I am not that bothered re the battery as it served me well for nine years and the difference is very noticable when I start the car. I am hoping to have money for full service (and hopefully full valeting as well) in the summer. Yes they have been included into my all in budget that I ran along this challenge to keep taps of the over all ins and outs.

Just picked DD up from nursery, she is still not well. She will miss her preschool's christmas party tomorrow. She fell asleep as soon as we got in.

Relaxing evening everybody, it will be hot bath and early night for me.

Marru

Frugaldom

Back to update my signature to reflect this afternoon's spending splurge. Iit came to quite a bit, but I did manage to get us something that I had previously priced at £118. I found it in a sale for £49.99 AND will get 7% cashback plus a further 1% cashback from paying with a cashback credit card, so that was a bargain! Can't say what it is, just in case anyone from this household is sneaking peaks into the MSE forums. :rotfl:

I didn't manage to make up the snowman soups, as I still haven't been anywhere to get the sweets! Maybe I'll just grate/break up some chocolate and see how that looks, as I have dark and milk in the cupboard?

Found a really good deal for anyone who normally spends part of their grocery money on food for the wild birds. I haven't bought any of the seed&fat balls for months, as they tend to cost about £1 for 3 here, so when I saw 10% off voucher code and a special offer for a box of 100... :rotfl: I had to have it! I also had to have a few half price clearance items, like snail traps for the garden, wild bird feeders and a couple of the items will do for extra gifts. (We all feed the birds in this family ) I've only one pressie left to get, there's always one! :rolleyes: As usual, I have overspent on gifts but, I am pleased to say, the budget has included my DS, DD and DGD, which I'm quite amazed at, as I was expecting to have to dip into savings for theirs. :j

HS came back with milk, bread and rolls today, so that hacked nearly £5 off my shrunken, almost non-existent grocery balance! :mad: