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

Janey51

CW I was on my own when DS1 went to Uni and yes, it was hard. He got a part time job while away and...God love him...never asked me for anything :beer:
I was off sick with my leg in a full length plaster for a year (so on half pay) and had been left in debt (again) following a disastrous relationship :rolleyes:
I had just got myself out of debt following my divorce.

I was a Tupperware lady, an Avon Lady, I baked cakes for sales, I car booted...and we got through and he got his degree :T

You will manage this and I admire you for trying to be prepared....I wasn't :A

Janey51

Love the pictures of the savings receptacles...now, if I could pictures on here, I would post mine as well.

Penny2myName

Janey51 wrote: »

CW I was on my own when DS1 went to Uni and yes, it was hard. He got a part time job while away and...God love him...never asked me for anything :beer:
I was off sick with my leg in a full length plaster for a year (so on half pay) and had been left in debt (again) following a disastrous relationship :rolleyes:
I had just got myself out of debt following my divorce.

I was a Tupperware lady, an Avon Lady, I baked cakes for sales, I car booted...and we got through and he got his degree :T

You will manage this and I admire you for trying to be prepared....I wasn't :A

At least two of mine are planning to go, and I plan to go myself next September, and should just be completing mine BEFORE first child starts hers. I am already the Avon lady.
Being a single and really lonely mother not wanting to get into too much debt via education, is one of the reasons I did the challenge this year, and plan on doing it again next year. Guess I should really only plan first 9months of next year, as come September not sure how my income is going to look.
:mad:Lines, God that Janey must really hate me, I hate lines:mad:

bails

Monring all!

I went to boarding school...but as a day pupil, how gutting is that?! Mind you, my parents gave up pretty much everything to send me there in the first place so it would've been ridiculous for them to shell out loads more when we only lived 5 miles away! I basically lived there anyway, literally, even stayed over sometimes and hid in the bathroom if anyone came round (hope my housemistress isn't reading this she was scary and woud still kill me :rotfl:) Them were the days, I LOVED school!
Good luck with all the uni hopes, I really hope you can work it out. In the back of my mind I'm already planning how to save to help my kids go (if that's what they want to do, and if not there'll be some money to help with whatever they choose) and I don't even have any kids yet I guess that may come from seeing my parents struggle so much and hoping if I start soon it won't be such an ordeal; that's the theory at least :rolleyes:
Right, my bank accounts have been frozen for several days so I'm back on the phone to try and get it sorted out, v annoying! Catch you all later.
ps must find my old Enid Blyton etc books in the garage and see if I have any of the Chalet school books

grandma247

Good morning all. The sun is shining outside so might go for a walk soon.

I did go to boarding school for a few months courtesy of British armed forces in Germany as my parents were splitting up. My brother and I got packed off to boarding school and I only found out later that we could have gone to a day school nearer to us but I guess they wanted us out of the way.
I also love Enid Blyton and I read her books whenever I am stressed or otherwise going through a bad time. Books were my retreat from unhappiness as a child.

bails

What a great idea Grandma, I think I might try that, I'd love to read some of them again. Unfortunately, food was mine :rolleyes: but I'm happy to say I'm almost free of that now :j

Ooh, just seen a £2.50 Amazon deal on £1000 in 100 days challenge - not working at mo but rumours that it might work again after 8pm so worth a shot? Just off to get the link... Here it is.

brokeandworried

Hi

I've only joined MSE in the last 2 days - came across this thread and am very interested. Can you tell me what is an isn't included in the 4K? Surely it can't include rent, otherwise my budget's blown!

Many thanks

lyndasharp

I've been having a look at my budget and I'm going to aim for £12000 all in next year - makes it a nice round number! I'm hoping that I've overestimated on the bills for having a house, but will just have to wait and see...

I'm also including my mortgage payments so it does depend on whether the interest changes, I might have to adjust the budget if interest rates start going up again sometime in '09.

CW, though it was 10 years since I started uni (eeek, now I feel old!), I was one of the first years with loans instead of grants. I paid for everything from loans and bursaries, and from working during the summer holidays. The only thing my parents did was pay my mobile phone bill (no excuse not to call them), and for me financially I had no problems. So it's not always down to the parents to pay!!!!! If the loans are still reasonable compared to the cost of living then it's a very good way to learn about budgeting. I did work for a year beforehand as well (which might also be something for your son to consider), but actually came out of uni with the money I'd saved from working still in the bank.

Edited to add: it's good to choose a rich university to attend, so you have more chance of getting the bursaries...

cw18

Thanks Lynda

I was thinking this morning that if he had a PAYG mobile (that he actually turned on -- it's normally turned off at home when he's at college!), then I'd probably put a tenner on month on it -- on the proviso he phoned home once every couple of weeks (even if I then called him back at my expense) just to let me know he was still alive.

But that's only if he goes away to Uni. We're only a short(ish) - and direct - bus ride from the Manchester one, so there's always a possibility he might stay at home while studying anyway. Probably a serious possibility, as he's been telling me for years he's never moving out :eek: And having seen me take his brothers' room over as a craft room within two weeks of him leaving, I suspect he'd be terrified of not having a room to come back to for the holidays :rotfl:

He has always been the one of my three to be most careful with money -- and is the only one to have ever managed to save paper-round money to buy a games console -- so I'm not worried about him frittering away anything he qualifies for. It's more a case of how much it would realistically cover.....

cw18

brokeandworried wrote: »

Hi

I've only joined MSE in the last 2 days - came across this thread and am very interested. Can you tell me what is an isn't included in the 4K? Surely it can't include rent, otherwise my budget's blown!

Many thanks

rent/mortgage is generally discounted
as are any work related expenses (including a car if you need it to get to/from work), debt repayments, and holidays.

I think Nyk still has the list of what she included/excluded in the first post

ETA: Or there again, maybe not. If you click through from the first post of this thread to Part 1 of the challenge, then I'm pretty sure it's all in the posts on the first page or two