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

cw18

Nyk - isnt' the Life Assurance Bond a form of savings? I wouldn't have expected to see something like that on your list

bails

Oh p@nts, I really really want to get started on my budget - can I, can I? I could do it just til Strictly results and then promise to put the laptop down for the night...PWEEEAASSE

Marru

Ok but as long as you do it sitting down covered with duvet and four cats

sophiesmum_2

love your new sig marru:D

Marru

See - I am ready for new year!!! :cool: And wanted to put there something positive instead reminding myself of my debts and DMP

bails

Okay, I'm back already, with the duvet on but minus the cats as they would get in the way They are casting 8 stern eyes over me though to check I don't do too much.

Here's my initial budget for 4k part (I'll be doing an all-in too, which will exceed yours 1274 so don't worry). This is for the whole year which won't be how it really is of course but I'll need to adjust it once I know where and more importantly when we're leaving the country.

4K
elec £300
gas £300
house/contents ins. £240
TV licence £139.50
phone/broadband £300
mobile £100
groceries £1,440
presents £500
animals £800
TOTAL £4120
The insurance is an estimate at the mo, I'm hoping to get it cheaper and with some lovely cashback too So a little over budget but I'll work on it. I'm hoping the groceries will come down although I won't be growing hardly anything this year which could make that trickier.
Although India should in theory be cheaper, I'll need to include the costs associated with renting the house out and the flights over there etc...unless I counted it as a 6-month long hol and then I'd be laughing :rotfl:

With the money neutral thang, is the idea to offset as much as possible through freebies, vouchers etc etc ie wages don't come into it?
Thanks for the links Grandma, will have a read of them now x

the_cat

In honour of new challenger list I have amended my signature too. Budget is as follows
gas 500
elec 400
phone 180
broadband 180
clothes/shoes 600 (a lot but inlcudes 2 fast growing teenagers!)
mobile 20
house insurance 220
food 2400
gifts 400
everything else 800

This should cover all essentials but does not include hobbies/leisure, car costs, holidays or savings. By doing the challenge I am hoping to have enough spare money to choose to spend on these things if I REALLY want them (but could live without easily enough) or to pay off a large chunk of the mortgage. If worse comes to worse it can be used for rainy day saving/pesky tax bill payment re shares thing.

As a sideline I intend to do as much as poss to offset my costs by using surveys/bingo/quidco/vouchers/ebay etc. This is probably the area I most need to pay attention to as procrastination seems to be my favourite pastime with this. Need to investigate some threads on the Up your Income board etc - any suggestions gratefully received for good survey sites etc

bails

Darn, I realise clothes aren't on my budget! The_Cat, do you have a TV? This is going to require lots of thought, esp. for the all-in budget. I'm scared to relook at my figures! Must reduce present budget too...

the_cat

I'm sort of cheating I suppose but the DD for TV license comes out of OH's sole account and I never see it. Is it wrong to not include it? Oh hell, I know the answer to that one!!:rolleyes:

TBH Bails, I was wavering about doing an all-in budget too. Only I started adding it up and came over all faint:rotfl: :rotfl:

Cat

Marru

Ouch, ouch, ouch... I had forgotten the darn TV license... goes off to stare one's budget....