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

sophiesmum_2

DdraigGoch wrote: »

Just popping in - am too grumpy to post much at the moment as I have just found out about over £1500 of bills to be paid out of an overdraft which won't bear it .... hey ho, back to the drawing board, so I'm not putting myself down for £4K next year as I haven't a clue how I'm going to get through it all.... but I shall, never fear.

Wish me luck

DG

Good luck Ddraig, Those bills sound bit nasty:eek: Keep lurking you never know 2009 may be your year for getting sorted.

Good to have some more gardeners on board:j saved lots this year with my veggies, intend to save lots again next year:D
Thriftylass - you can start sowing tomato seeds etc indoors from january onwards, so not long now:)

Skint_Lynne

thriftylass wrote: »

Glad to have you back Bails, hope you're back to full health soon.
Hello to all the newbies.

Only skimmed over the many long posts from today (read them properly tomorrow), those budgets look all really good. Not done much today. Had a day of presentations to sit through and then we had our work christmas dinner which was lovely and free so had another NSD after not having one for a while. just back home and finally put all the christmas deco up.

Off to bed now, see you tomorrow

I've got a question for all you good with growing your own. I've tried a few things last year but started to late. I got tomoato seed, herbs, and chillies mainly (can only grow on window sill). When is the best time to start the seedlings? Thanks a lot

P.S. just found an email from T@k3 a br3@k bingo. They're requesting a copy of some ID and my credit card otherwise my account will be discontinued. Sounds a bit dodgy, did that happened to anyone else? I'm rather reluctant to sent this out.

I think that I would be reluctant as well. Why don't you contact them by letter or telephone to verify this? If they already have the details, why do they need them again? I don't do the bingo sites, but I agree, it does sound dodgy!!!

Skint_Lynne

Good morning all,

Well, I hope that the shop is busy again today, the last 2 have been good!!! I am nearly finished my Christmas shopping now, just a couple to get, and I don't need to go back to the city to get them.:D Just to get a voucher for MIL's hairdressers, a set of cufflinks for FIL, and bingo vouchers for mum.

I am really looking forward to the 1st of January, to start the challenge properly. This has not been a good year for me or my family, a lot of horrible stuff has went on, we had a real problem with a family member, (drink), but he seems to be on the mend now, thank goodness.

A few of us (family) run our own businesses and we have all been hit with the credit crunch. I know that we will all get through it, but it is difficult. If I get a job soon, I will weather the storm and come through the other side. I just think that this year for me personally has had totally bad vibes and the sooner that it is gone, the better!!!

This time next week, my DH will be on his way back, I have not seen him since July. He is going back abroad until April, then he will be based in the UK.

Sometimes you cannot change your fate, but I believe, that sometimes you can prevent things happening. I will, with the help of this challenge.

Speak later, xx

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D
Lots to do today, huge batch of split pea and ham soup bubbling awy in slowcooker for freezing in batches, just lifted bread out of breadmaker:D too and the place smells yummy.
About to sign up OH to the whs club thingy so I can get £5 off Delias frugal meals cookbook;) will cost me £5 then:D, also going to pick up a few more bits from boots for toiletry stockpile with points , will have free coffees and free parking too so cheap trip;)

May pop into woolies and see if there is anything left worth buying but probably down to the rubbish by now. I will be really sad to see them shut down for good.

SL - 2008 has been a really bad year for us too - roll on 2009 and new beginnings

Have a good day everyone, I have full day to myself today no shopping or anything for oldies so I am going to make the most of it:j

MRSMCAWBER

Morning all

JennyBee, PM me your address when you get time and I will get them to you;) -glad I have found another Tomato fanatic :j ... I roasted and froze loads this year..enough to do us a pasta dish every week right up until the new seasons will start being ready

Im another one who will be glad to see the back of this year.. Mum was trying to remember who let the new year in as they are banned in future :rolleyes: .. The worst for me this year was obviously losing my lovely sister, and my mamma in 1 week.. my other sis has been in and out of hospital, I have been doing the same recently, and now 1 brother is being made redundant :eek: ..roll on 2009 :T
Come on folks we HAVE to have a good one this time

kerron7

Morning All,

Even thinking about doing a budget for next year is giving me brain ache but will have to tackle it at some point.

Just a loaf of bread for me today, DH has work this afternoon so he can take a packed lunch for tonight & will have chilli con carne for lunch before he goes.

DD1 isn't well sore throat, cold, temp etc so won't be going anywhere today, hoping DS1 & 2 will help me to tidy the bomb site that is upstairs later & keeping my fingers crossed DD2 will allow me to put her down for 5 mins.

Need to find some money from somewhere to finish the xmas shopping probably another £100 not including food eek!

Hope everyone has a good day & will catch up later.

K xx

bails

I'm so sorry to hear about the terrible times people have been having this year, and I hope for a much better year for everyone in 2009. Draig, please stick around and I hope you can get the bills sorted somehow xx

Hi Jennybee and welcome officially to the thread! :hello:

:j I have approval from Nyk for the mega-expensive map! It is a huge amount of money but we'd far rather have one thing we'd really like than lots of 'stuff'.

I've had 10 hours sleep, sweating the infection out hopefully. I'll be a good girl today - I'm desperate to go for a walk but my leg is twice the size it was in hospital so I won't risk it even though they said it'd be fine :rolleyes: I would really like to start wrapping my presents though and I need to write the few cards I'm sending or they won't get there! It's so frustrating having all these things I'd like to do and having to stop myself - you'd think I'd be used to it by now but some days it still gets you :rolleyes:

Have a lovely day everyone whatever you're up to, I'm off to check out the Approved Food link;).
edit: okay, I see that a lot of it is short-dated or out of date, has anyone had any delivered and was it okay? You can't really stockpile stuff that's already out of date can you? Edit 2: ah, I see it's best before dates not use by dates :T

Frugaldom

Good afternoon to all, welcome to JennyBee and welcome back Ddraig & Kerron.

ThriftyLass - Tak€abr€ak email is genuine, they always request absolute proof of identity before sending out winnings to anyone, you need to do this again if you change address. Just block out any info you don't want them to see, such as security number on reverse of card, transactions on bank/cc statements etc. It is so they have proof of your being who you say you are and that the account you are using is registered to you at your home address. As far as I'm aware, they also use this to cross reference for multiple user accounts.

JennyBee, this challenge is about the cost of living, it doesn't include any work related, holiday related or luxury items, just essentials for living. Everything else is paid for using whatever you have left over after paying to live. I also notice that you haven't included any amounts for utilities such as electricity, gas, oil, coal, logs etc. Good luck with your budget and good luck with the challenge.

MRSMCAWBER, not my grumble and absolutely no offence meant, but we aren't allowed to request details for other users or to offer anything, even freebies, as per the MSE forum rules. Please don't get struck off as we need your input here for 2009.

Ddraig, I sincerely hope that things can be worked out with your finances. Please stick with us, your budget is personal to you, I'll even change the name of the challenge, as this is more about beating inflation and living within our own budgets than living within 4k. That's just my personal budget and, selfishly, I named my challenge after my budget without considering all the various lifestyles that we'd amass when I moved the challenge onto MSE.

Martin - thank you for allowing me to run this challenge on your website :money: :T

Oh, and I don't have a dog (or a cat), :rotfl: I only mentioned that, IF I had them, I would buy my petfood from the Approved Foods website. But ask me the same question next year, if I have managed to work the costs of keeping pets into my budget.

Off to catch up with the other posts now. Back later.

cw18

Still working on my budget.

Have finally decided this morning NOT to enlist the services of a gardener for mowing the lawns next year. If I don't start child-minding (or find some other job), then it's a bill I'd have to ditch in 2010 as my income drops (due to younger DS leaving college), and if I do start child-minding then they'll probably need mowing more than once a fortnight (or the back will anyway, so the kids can play out). But this does mean buying a new mower, as the one I have (which DH chose) doesn't do my back any good A new mower would totally blow my 'anything else' budget, so I'm going to "cheat" and not include that as an expense !!!!



The other thing I'm also considering could make my budget a bit tricky -- but I was wondering if some of you would kindly try and make sense of ramblings and say whether you think it could work or not, especially in terms of the financial side of things

Apologies in advance for the length of my ramblings, and please feel free to ignore them -- even writing them down like this has made me check things (like bus times) more carefully before putting the suggestion to DD!!!



As things stand at the moment, DD works a different shift each month, on a 4 month rota. Nov was 7:30-4:30, Dec is 8-5, Jan should have been 8:30-5:30 and Feb should have been 9-6. From finishing work it takes DD about 20 mins to get up here by bus, and she then has to collect GD(s) and get two buses home. (The bus journey from here can take 30 mins on an early shift, or 45 mins on the late shift as some of the buses have stopped running)

This means that some months (certainly the 5:30 and 6pm ends), I need to provide tea for my GDs the days I have them. From Jan to mid-July this is the younger one 3 days a week and the elder one 5 days a week (but only term-times) - and I've built something into my budget for this.

I also know that by the time she gets home (even on the earlier shifts) DD is regularly too tired to cook and GDs are often too tired to eat (GDs do get a cooked meal at lunch), so they all often end up with junk food - and DD will often have ready meals in as a fall-back.

But as of a few days ago DD has been told she's now on a permanent 8-5 shift, which she's happy about -- but this is the one shift that's the "do I, don't I" in terms of feeding them.

Added to this is the fact that DD wants me to help her get her budget under control next year -- and is quite happy (at the moment anyway) with the fact this means me questioning every penny she spends. (She has an overdraft she can't get out of, has struggled in the run up to Christmas, and really wants to take the girls on a 'proper' holiday in the next few years but can't see herself getting enough saved up).

So I'm now wondering whether to offer to cook for them ALL when I have one or both of my GDs here for collection -- which basically means that I'll be cooking for 5 rather than 2 during term-times.

So by eating here, she'll get home 55 mins later than if she just collected the child(ren) from here and went for the next bus (I've just checked the current bus timetables, and based times on her and the girls having/taking an hour to eat if they stay here for tea) -- but the way I see it, she'll be more relaxed eating with the girls and they'll all be eating the same thing together (which I know they don't do now), they'll all be eating "better" (non processed) food, and she probably spends more than 15 mins (the extra time they'll spend on buses) trying to find them something to eat anyway

I'd be asking for the money for the food if I do this (meaning I could shave something off my budget), but as I can get out and Whoopsie hunt (and in theory have the time to batch cook), it shouldn't cost her as much as she spends now. Plus I can't see my gas and electric bills really going up because of this (apart from the odd time the combi oven is too small and I have to use the full sized one), but it will reduce her gas and electricity bills -- which are frightening her this year, as she's on prepayment meters that are swallowing whatever credit she throws at them due to the price increases. It would also mean her heating can go on later in the evening, so she can either run it for the same length of time but stay warm later, or turn it off at the same time meaning she uses less gas for that too.

I was thinking of suggesting it at a 'flat rate' per meal from her, deducting the cost of ingredients from what I get (hopefull will average at more incoming than outgoing), and then banking the rest into my 'anything else' budget. I did consider splitting any 'overpayments' with DD towards Christmas, but I can't help thinking this will make her feel even better off then she really is -- especially given I'll almost certainly already be 'charging' her less than she spends now on food and fuel. I may keep half back, and if she really buys into getting her budget under control then give it to her -- but if she carries on spending like she does now, then I don't see why I should put myself out for nothing just so she has more to spend on stuff she doesn't need....


Any thoughts from anyone before I suggest it to DD? I'm sure she'll ask lots of questions I haven't thought about, and I don't want to get the budgets for two households into a total pickle? I'd be especially interested in thoughts from anyone with young children who currently rushes home to prepare meals like DD does.....


I know that I'd have had doubts in her shoes, but (once mine were at school) I used to finish work at 4:30 and be home by 5pm -- with DH finishing half an hour before me, so he'd have already collected the children -- so I was starting to pull a meal together by the time she's finishing work (and if she heads straight home she doesn't get back until about 6:30). I also drove, so never had the hanging around for buses -- which also means that she has to be out of the house much earlier for an 8am start than I ever did for dropping the children off on my way to work for an 8:15 start. So all-in-all she has a much longer day than I ever did, and earns a lot less for it too

Brighton_belle

Nyk - I really like the fact this is called the 4k challenge: it has made me work hard to hone my budget so I can get under 4k for living costs. I may not have had that extra push if the title had been more vague. As long as peeps feel free to adapt their figures/targets to their own circs as necessary then I would vote to keep this as the '4k'.
Today I need to dedicate to xmas stuff as time is running out and I have a few things I need to make and some cards to write. Fortunately the weather is vile so no pull to get outside:D .
I've also noticed since tracking present cost that the cost of b'day cards is totting up (as I include them in present cards). I need to do a bulk making cards session sometime so I always have something HM on hand to send.


CW18 - I would consider the new lawnmower a 'work cost' if you need it becasue of chioldminding, so would form part of the challenge anyway:). Re the meals issue - I don't have young children but I think it sounds a great idea - I think it will improve the quality of her family life - she gets to have a relaxed quality meal time with her girls and they get to learn about good home cooking and have a less tired mummy. I think you do need to charge her as you suggest so she doesn't think she has more money than she does. And it's great she has asked you to help her with her finances - this does give you permission to help her over haul how she spends. I wish you well with this. I also think a single mum would probably benefit in un quantifyable ways from this extra very practical tlc