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

cw18

findingmyfeet - I stockpile meat on Whoopsies (clearance), and other items when they're on special offer (if they're things that will keep obviously). I think some people use vouchers, or stock up when places like Boots are doing double points days (so the extra points offset some of the cost).

As for clothes etc., they'll be coming out of my 'anything else' budget. I probably have enough clothes to last me for years anyway, but shoes will be my problem. I currently have an 'anything else' budget (which also covers unexpected house/car/vet bills and anything 'small' that needs replacing round the house) of just under £290 for the year -- and given I expect to need at least one pair of shoes (and the ones I just got cost me £85) that's a serious dent into it :eek: Unfortunately, with wide-ish feet and back problems I can't compromise on these

Fun/leisure/nights out -- well I don't do the last Leisure/fun for me is papercrafting, and I'm not including this in my budget. I go to a 'crop' (get-together) once a month which costs £10, and another every couple of months which costs the same -- so £15/month for those on average. I also have a 'kit' subscription I've just started, which - with postage from the USA -- will come to about £25/month. So that's £40/month or £480/year before I buy anything else !!! But as my outgoings are looking to be around £2k-£2.5k less than my incomings for 2009 (before loyalty vouchers and cashback and interest on savings and winnings from free scratchcards), my main aim is to not spend more than I have coming in.

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Thanks for adding me to the first post. Am looking forward to 2009 and being tighter and meaner than ever! My poor BF won't know what's hit him. have been looking through this thread for tips. Not sure if £3300 is a bit much for 2 adults. But my plan is if there's some left over it'll just go into savings or towards debts.

Nykmedia - what is snowman soup?? Sounds yummy. Guessing it's not got snowmen in lol.

I think next year i'll be looking towards more handmade presents. This year has been taken over by uni work and working extra shifts. But I finish in Jan so next year should be more relaxed. Not sure that it makes sense that'll now (hopefully) i'll be earning more i'll be tighter on Christmas pressies

Thank you everyone for all the tips you've posted, just wish I could remember them all in my head!

LMMS x

grandma247

findingmyfeet another way to start stockpileing is just buy a couple of extra things like say beans, if you normally buy one then get two or three.
Or you could aim for 1 weeks food then 2 and so on. Just be sure what you buy has a long date if it is tinned etc Some of the food from cheaper shops is shorter dated so you need to keep an eye on the date but it is still useable for a while after that date and it will save you money over several months anyway. Frozen fresh stuff will keep well long after its use by date.

findingmyfeet

cw18- thanks for that info really useful to know for a beginner.Probably sounds daft to someone whos been at it for a while. I ahve already been trying to prepare for next year. Parents , hubby etc have all asked what i would like for xmas as they dont want to buy anything that will go to waste or be unwanted etc. So i have asked for vouchers for clothes shops or cash, a magazine subscription , toiletries/perfumes etc. Dont know which i will get but all should save me money somewhere or other.
I have also recently bought myself 2 cross stitch kits and think these will take me months to do if not all year as im a beginner at that and dont have much spare time.
Food im already trying with, buy the reduced bread and stuff already and make most of my own cakes, biscuits etc . i have also found a new farm shop near me and will be buying potatoes by the sack until i can grow some, a sack at approx £6 will last me about 6 weeks or so.
Shoes- im the same as you, broke both my feet at different times so have to get well made and comfortable ones, i refuse to suffer that for fashion. Clothes are too tempting. I dont have heaps , lots are years old but every now and again temtations gets the better of me. I thing my best option is to cut any shopping trips to the minimum .
Last few weeks i have been thinking about this constantly and trying to come up with more ideas....I think i have so much to learn.......

little_miss_moneysaver_3

findingmyfeet wrote: »

morning all
together.

could i ask a couple of questions? is that ok?

How do you all manage to stockpile so much on a low budget?
How do you manage for new clothes? Thats my big weakness im afraid.
And what do you all do for fun/leisure/nights out etc? (not that i get many nights out but im interested.

Hi findingmyfeet

Just saw your post so as a newbie I thought I'd tell you what i've been doing. I just think that if you have to give up everything to stick to a budget you'll just give up so put a little bit in your budget for that.

Like others I'm always on the look out in the whoopsie section, prob too much so, but is especially good for meat. Got a big brisket of beef for £1.88. Thats now in my freezer but will be a sunday roast in the near future. Also have got sausages, mince and fish there before.If I see freezeable veg cheap I get them. Got some vine toms and froze them They'll be a pasta sauce one day so another cheap meal.
When anything I would normally buy is on special offer I buy double. If it's BOGOF I might buy even more! Also I've "downgraded" toiletries from branded to Mr T's own brand so for the price of one shower gel I can afford 3 or 4 own brand bottles. So i've down that the first couple of months and stocked up. I'm lucky I have room to store things.

I was always buying new clothes and bags etc so to go cold turkey would have been hard. I love charity shops, often find bargains in there. Although don't know if it's me getting more like Scrouge but I think they're getting dearer! Also I look on ebay if there's something specific i'm looking for. Sometimes grab a bargain on there. If your good with a needle and thread you could adapt something you already have into something new. Or if you have friends who are a similar size to you could always try swapping clothes?

For nights out, we're not pubbing/clubbing people we like going out to dinner instead. We use vouchers mostly from this site mainly 2 for 1s.Or we might get the meal in for 2 at M&S for £10. Altho Mr T is doing a similar thing with its posh range for £9, still including a bottle of wine. Not bad compared to the £30/40 we may have spent before.

Leisure - I go to a gym and my BF plays squash so we included that in our budget. I'm into crafts but I have so much stuff i'm trying to use things that I already have at the minute. I probably have enough to make everything i would want to make for the next few years. Also i like cooking and having people round, so I use cheap ingredients and make them look posh. And then the guests bring the wine so works out great!

Hope that helps a little

LMMS x

findingmyfeet

grandma247- thanks, not thought of buying the extra like that. i dont worry about dates on tinned stuff if its over me and hubby eat it anyway- not hurt us yet!!! do get in to a panic with meat and fridge stuff though but wont throw anything away we just have to have a meal from whatever wants eating(even if it does loook a bit strange). How much is a decent/comfortable amount to keep in would you say? Would be nice to know if im skint theres always something to eat.

Frugaldom

Good afternoon frugalites

The thread has been so busy that I had missed a full page of posts, so apologies to those of you I had missed last night and apologies to Shaz_mum_of_2 as I thought I had already added your name, will do that asap whilst adding Zelie (welcome on board, thanks for joining us :T ).

I haven't got any of my list done today, so far, as I've been catching up with work and trying to empty boxes to make space for the Christmas tree to go up this weekend. I may need to do another splurge of Gumtr€€ ads to shift some more clutter!

Stockpiling - I buy in bulk whenever I get the chance of something that is cheap, and big supermarkets are cheap for stuff like own brand savers shampoo, bubblebath, hair gel (for DS), handwash, soap and shower gel. I think they all fall within the 10p - 30p price range, so a year's supply costs less than £20. These items also make excellent basic ingredients for decanting into fancy bottles after storing them for a few weeks with homegrown stuff, like lavender or rosemary. Ideal presents, just print your own labels and dave all old packaging, ribbons, baubles and bows for decorating them. I also started stockpiling tins, especially when Mr T had curry saice at 4p! I wish I had bought loads more, as it's now 26p! But custard and strawberry whip are still ridiculously cheap at less than 10p per pack. I don't live anywhere near a large supermarket, although I'm now within a 50 mile round trip, since moving house last week. However, I am no longer within walking distance of anything (other than fields, rivers and forest), so I need to take advantage of any opportunity I get for visiting a town. This is probably why I am seldom able to stock up on 'whoopsies'. If I can't fill the freezer with reduced bread, I bake my own.

My ultimate aim is to be as self-sufficientish as possible in my own, fully paid home; no rent or mortgage to pay, homegrown veggies & fruit, a couple of hens for eggs and enough time to make it all work, as it's practically a fulltime job. I don't go out socialising, although I do have friends & family who visit and/or come to stay and vice versa. Hobbies are mainly of the frugal variety and extra entertainment is by way of DVDs, games nights at home, days out to National Trust locations, picnics in the local forest or at the beach, BBQs (often, even in winter if the power goes off :rotfl: ) and I spend a great deal of time online, as I work from home on a shared network. I've been doing moneysaving challenges for many years, 2009 will be my third year on 4k. I think that's all the basics about me for the newcomers, other than the fact that my annual electricity consumption has an adverse effect on the national average.:rotfl:

Cost of keeping a cat - This depends on whether or not you have it insured, which can cost anything from around £70 upwards, whether it's an inside or outside cat (cat litter etc), method of feeding, worming, flea prevention/treatments & vaccination costs. I would allow at least £300 per year, per cat. I did a budget analysis for a friend (now ex-friend), who was verging on bankruptcy. She was spending over £10 per week on her 2 house cats (without insurance and not counting the health related / veterinary amounts). She was also smoking about £30+ worth of cigarettes per week and spending £15+ per week on 'comfort food', then wondered why she was couldn't afford to pay her bills. She became an ex-friend very soon after I pointed out the reasons! :rolleyes:

OK, have waffled on enough, need to bank up the fire again and go do my inventories whilst work is downloading. Catch you all soon

grandma247

The comfort level on stockpile items is personal as we all have different ideas and motives. I have been married 351/2 years and we have been through three recessions ,we lost our home in the last one. My husband was out of work for increasing amounts of time with each one and you could not rely on your benefits getting to you before the food ran out. In the days when it was a giro in the post it was often 2-3 days late and if you did not have any extra food you had to beg and borrow or do without.
I am aiming for 1 year of most stuff although I have 2 years of some none perishables as we are trying to pay off our mortgage in the next 3 years or so,sooner if we can do it.
It gives me peace of mind when jobs are threatened. My hubby is no longer in the building trade but even a big company like he works for now could go under ( just look at the car manufacturers)

bails

Hello everyone and welcome to new challengers, always great to see you! I'm finally out of hospital At first I was relieved to be getting out but that has turned to frustration and disappointment as I've actually had NO TREATMENT on my leg :rolleyes: I eventually got my ultra sound yesterday morning which told us what we already knew (that it isn't an abcess) and then I waited to rest of the day for the doctor to come and tell me the next steps, only to be told they're not going to do anything for me just discharge me Why waste 3 days of valuable resources on me for that?! I'm gutted too as I'm £75 worse off, and I know this could've been a lot worse if I was self-employed but it's more that I've missed the tutoring I love (among other things). Anyway, thankyou so much for all your good wishes while I was in - I did write a post but it wouldn't let me post it :mad: Now I just have to sit it out and wait for my leg to heal itself - for a 'normal' person that could take 3 or 4 weeks but with my immune system it'll take much longer (and the lump may remain permanently :rolleyes:).
Right, I will try and catch up on this week - I hope everyone is okay, sending hugs to SF about the job and hoping you can take Nyk's advice and rest up ready for good things in 2009 xx

shaz_mum_of__2

Thanks Nyk for adding me to the list

I am a stockpiler and i buy either when offer (cheaper than normal/whoopsied) and when on bogof i buy extra most offers are cyclical and come around every 3 months or so

Get to know your shops i live in a village and i know what time stuff gets reduced at in the 2 local shops

ethnic food shops are great for pulses but always compare as some aren't - red lentils are cheaper at Mr T around here

Speaking of which Mr T has a 10kg sack of chappatti flour for £5 is this suitable for normal bread does anyone know ?

Also have big bags of rice for a fiver and olive oil pomace(low grade) for £8 for 10litres

I need to go to my local indian shop for mulled wine bits(cloves, cinnammon sticks,star anise ) and some ginger and mixed spice for baking as well as seeds for bread making(sesame,poppy, flax) i also need some bits to make an indian cooking hamper for my dad......................my last present!!!


Shaz