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

Penny2myName

cha97michelle wrote: »

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.

Yeap your right, she told me when she came home from school, after I gave her letter. She was quite pleased as she was chosen for it, and not volunteered (a first for her). Chosen because she is in the top 4 of her class.

Penny2myName

I think 4k for a single person is ok, after all most of us with kids also include child benefit on top of the 4k, which if I included full Child Benefit would take me up to £6282.80 and that's without the new amounts.

Penny2myName

Just totted up my toiletries spend from my bulk buys for next year (admittedly been buying it over last few weeks) Worked out my initial budget for toiletries to be £120. So far I have spent £108.96, so £11 left for last 6 months worth of loo roll.
Bought so far
£13.94 12 Toothpaste
£10.37 30 Soap
£30.00 12 Shampoo 400ml
£30.00 12 Conditioner 400ml
£13.75 45 Toilet paper
£10.90 8 Body wash (treat instead of soap) 400ml

I will be deduction this from next years budget, just wanted to make use of the special offers and points for this year whist available.

Brighton_belle

Thanks for letting us know about bails Marru:eek: . That's a lousy thing to happen.
I've been given a pair of old roller blinds to cover my kitchen window and door which are currently bare. They are a horrible colour and I'm wondering if I can cover them with material with spray adhesive. Has anyone any experience of doing that?
SM - I'm a bit poorly today but will hopefully post some pics tomorrow:j .

Janey - that budget sounds fabulous (not the moggies, please don't send the moggies, I've got lovely ankles:rotfl: )

sophiesmum_2

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Thanks for letting us know about bails Marru:eek: . That's a lousy thing to happen.
I've been given a pair of old roller blinds to cover my kitchen window and door which are currently bare. They are a horrible colour and I'm wondering if I can cover them with material with spray adhesive. Has anyone any experience of doing that?
SM - I'm a bit poorly today but will hopefully post some pics tomorrow:j .

Janey - that budget sounds fabulous (not the moggies, please don't send the moggies, I've got lovely ankles:rotfl: )

Cant see why that wouldn't work BB, as long as the material wasn't too thick as that might affect the rolling mechanism, apart from that should work okay. Hope you feel better soon.X x

thriftylass

Penny2myName wrote: »

Just totted up my toiletries spend from my bulk buys for next year (admittedly been buying it over last few weeks) Worked out my initial budget for toiletries to be £120. So far I have spent £108.96, so £11 left for last 6 months worth of loo roll.
Bought so far
£13.94 12 Toothpaste
£10.37 30 Soap
£30.00 12 Shampoo 400ml
£30.00 12 Conditioner 400ml
£13.75 45 Toilet paper
£10.90 8 Body wash (treat instead of soap) 400ml

I will be deduction this from next years budget, just wanted to make use of the special offers and points for this year whist available.

I might start a stockpile containing similar items for next year too. Have to hide it well though otherwise BF will think I'm mental if he discovers those quantities in the house . Trained a bit in stockpiling this year and will definitely make more use of it next year.

Does anyone know a good place to buy larger quantities of standard dried herbs. The big supermarkets like Mr T only sell small portions for too high a price? Thanks a lot.

Skint_Lynne

I don't know if the indian grocers would be the best place to try - this is the place to go to for spices. I have also bought spices from Julian Graves before, but i think that sophiesmum is defo the person to ask. xx

Very busy in the shop today, I had a 15% discount day, it's on tomorrow and Saturday as well.

I've nearly finished the Christmas shopping, then I'll start to tackle this place. Time is ticking away and soon DH will be back, only for 3 weeks, then he will be away back until April.:eek:

Frugaldom

Late round-up

Managed to get 9 lots of snowman soup made out of all my 'ingredients' and have printed out the labels and tied them on with gold ribbon saved from a previous Christmas. I could have got a dozen packs out of what I had but umm.... yum! We all had lovely snowman soup whilst watching an incredibly bad movie called, 'Bad Santa'. :rotfl: Will get a piccie once all the gift packs have been done, as I intend doing a few more with other things.
Another item ticked off the 'to do' list! :j

On the stockpile front, I should really do an inventory of everything I have, as it will all contribute to next year's challenge. As far as I'm aware, I have enough shampoo, conditioner, bubblebath, shower gel, soap and bath salts to last the entire year, thanks to my bulk buying this year. (I followed the Sophiesmum way of shopping for the latter part of this year.)

Tomorrow's list of to do's:

1. Finish making up the gift baskets
2. Do an inventory of toiletries
3. Do an inventory of store cupboard
4. Stack more logs
5. Attempt to bake a loaf of bread in the mini cooker
6. Find a present for the one niece I haven't got for yet

Hope everyone is OK, tomorrow is another day

sophiesmum_2

Herbs and spices - some good buys to be had at costco , catering size jars of various herbs and spice mixes, peppers, paprika etc and some kinds of spice mixes such as chicken seasoning, spicy cajun seasoning etc. I buy the 425g jars at costco when I can get what I want as they last ages.Think the last one I got was Schwartz paprika 425g for about £2 compared to the tiny jars from supermarkets.(just checked cheapest jar 46g for 67p)

If you have n asian supermarket they are generally good for big quantities at decent prices too.Wish I had one nearby:rolleyes:
Cheap to grow your own too and use fresh for cooking:D

sophiesmum_2

After pennys post earlier I also checked my toiletry stockpile, have enough shower gels, soaps, handwash, toothpaste, conditioner and lotions and potions to last most if not all of next year. Just need to stock up on some roll on deodorants,(still haven't tried the pitrock thing out) shaving gels for OH and shampoo, apart from that main expenditure will be toilet rolls:rolleyes: but still got enough to probably last to costco's next offer on bulk buy.
Still have some points to use on boots card so might stock up on those at the weekend and lessen the damage.:D
Will probably get a pile of bath stuff from oldies at xmas too which I now make sure we use up.Biggest saving on bthroom stuff for me was having hysterectomy last xmas - saved a fortune