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

the_cat

Sorry Nyk, think you have missed the boat on this one.

Over the last 4 weeks you needed to collect receipts of £40+ spends in order to qualify for the £20 off this week. As far as I know this is a one off offer and they don't do a loyalty/points thing year round.

I have a Morrisons at top of my road so keep a lookout for deals. If anything similar comes up again I could post details early if you like:D

cw18

Had a chat with DD on the phone this evening regarding her getting me a list of her incomings and outgoings so I can start number crunching her budget for 2009.

She asked how I could cost things that change through the year like water rates (she's not on a meter like we are), council tax, TV licence etc. Told her not to worry, I could make an educated guess on most of them.

She then asked what I needed other than her direct debits and standing orders -- and I told her everything she spends including groceries (haven't yet mentioned the 'catering plan' to her).

She went into a blind panic at that, as she's no idea what she spends. Told her to try working out a meal plan and costing to that, but that made her worse -- her words were "some nights I can't be bothered to cook at all, and other nights I eat far too much as I can't find the energy to cool and freeze left overs" and continued to say she knows this doesn't help with her weight problem and means she throws a lot of unused food away :eek:

So I told her to try a meal plan assuming she'd stick to it, but that I have a few suggestions up my sleeve I want to bounce off her once I see how it fits alongside her own calculated figures.

That got an immediate "there's no way I'm moving back in with you", and an audible sigh of relief when I said that wasn't even a vague suggestion from my end :rotfl:

So I think I may get her on board with the idea of eating here, as it means she'll know exactly what her grocery bill will be for school term times at least -- and I can probably batch cook at least some meals for her to have in over school holidays.

The other number crunching I've been doing today has been her transport. I reckon that from 5th Jan to 2nd August (best fit I can get for bus season tickets, based around one week I know she has booked off work) the bus fares for her and elder GD using the current system of buses//lifts works out at £597.

If I charge her the full mileage costs to pick up from her house every morning and run her home every night (term time only), then this comes to just short of £562 -- but she still has to find just under £130 for buses in the school holidays. So for an extra £95 over 7 months (actually equates to around 80p/school day, or 40p/trip) she can get up later and not rely on buses/stand around in the cold and wet to get to work, and get home from here in 20 mins instead of 45 on the buses plus a walk to and from the bus stops.

My initial calculations show I should just stay under the 4k miles/year I've tied myself to on my car insurance (I've allowed for the mileage I need for my craft days out, and am left with about 50-60 miles/month until I renew on 1st August), and would mean she's paying half the annual costs of having the car :T

(And I may be able to give her back a small amount of that as well, as I've averaged fuel at £1/litre -- despite the fact it's under 88p here at the moment which would mean a £30 rebate for her if it held steady at that price).



So my £8k budget may well be safe

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

...Within about 8 mile radius we have a massive Walmart supercentre (asda), Aldi, Lidl, Tesco extra, 2 Morrisons, Sainsburys, Costco,and Somerfield, so plenty of scope for bargains.

:eek: WOW! :beer: I can't even imagine what that must be like! Within an 8-mile radius of us, we have Co-op, a small [strike]Safeway[/strike] [strike]Morrisons[/strike] [strike]Somerfields[/strike] Co-op has now bought it over, and one of those little Costcutter stores. However, next year, we should have a new Aldi right next to where the above ever changing store is (or was, as the case may be).

And £40 per week spending? Wow! That would be impossible for me, as I don't get to the 'big shops' anywhere near as regularly as weekly. I'm lucky to make it monthly, hence the mega stockpile idea being more fully adopted. :T We aren't within delivery distance of anywhere, except someone introduced me to 'Approved Foods', who offer nationwide delivery, so watch this space. Lucky I ordered last week, as they have stopped taking online order for Christmas hols! [strike]Anyone know how long it takes them to delivery on their nationwide scheme?[/strike] OK, just checked and it says National Rate 1 - 28Kg for £5.25 at the cheapest rate (delivery in 2 to 3 working days} so I can expect mine on Wednesday. (Was secretly hoping for tomorrow, as I added some Chrissie hamper stuff into the order.)

cw18

Nyk - there is a Morrisons around us (closer than yours, but further than several branches of Mr T and Mr A, plus a Mr S, and our local C00p and S/flds), but when I saw the offer I knew that I just couldn't bring myself to spending £40/week for 4 weeks just to get a £20 voucher -- especially as I hate paying full price for meat these days. The local C00p and S/fld seem to turn up enough Whoopsies for about 50-60% of our meals -- and the rest of the meals are mainly value mince (with lentils) or frozen value bangers or things like a chicken on offer that does at least 3 meals.

ETA: I also have Ald! and L!dl in easy walking distance, and a N3tto that it walkable in good weather......

Skint_Lynne

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I have just cleaned my kitchen and made a curry for dinner tomorrow. I am knackered so should sleep well tonight.

We have all the supermarkets near here. Lidl, less than 2 miles, a morrisons literally next door to that as well. Then we have Tesco, Asda, Costco, and somerfield all near by as well as Iceland and farmfoods etc. I cannot complain as I have everything really near to me. I will need to get into the swing of whoopsie hunting. As I have mentioned before, I tried to practice this art, but there are a lot of well practiced people around here and they do not like a new face trying to muscle in on their turf.:rotfl: :rotfl:

Off to bed now,

Nite Nite xx

Janey51

sophiesmum wrote: »

my stores definately increasing in value better than interest rates on savings.:D

Me too :rolleyes: Even though I have only recently started stockpiling, I am well ahead already. Especially as 2 of my savings accounts have had their interest rates slashed :mad:
I am going to move as much as I can to my fixed rate account which was fixed at 6.4% in April last year. Now, this looks fantastic :j

Janey51

Good morning from Frozen Foggy Frugal Land.

Hello to all our new recruits. It's lovely to have so many new faces. Please note newbies....no cliques on this forum..we love everyone :smileyhea
We have big hugs, big hearts and want everyone to make this a good place to be. There's enough sadness out there.

This year, the Frugal Few have supported each other through some very difficult times.
We have discovered new ways of saving money....even if it is by using our friend's toilet paper......and helped each other to look at the way we use money in a different way :T

And, have you noticed how often you hear the word "frugal" on peoples' lips now?
We shall prevail mes amis :rotfl:
Onward and upward, wings unfurled, into the new year.

Now, can someone help me down off this soapbox and hide the Baileys :rotfl:

the_cat

We are really lucky and have all the supermarkets within a five mile radius. 2 of them are walking distance (morr and lidl) although I'm ashamed to say I rarely walk! Hmmm, that could be doable though now I have got such a huge stockpile. The only way I could reach the £40 targets for the Morrison offer was to each week add more and more from my stockpile wish list to make up the amounts. I now have almost all cleaning, toiletries, tinned food pulses (....well everything really except fridge stuff,fruit, veg and meat:o ) to last for at least 3-6 months Some things will last for much longer:T Wouldn't be worthwhile doing lots of long trips and wasting petrol for though.

Did happen to notice while browsing ebay though that people were selling their receipts for various weeks for a couple of pounds re the offer so worth a look if anyone is short of one.

Right off to start peeling veg for charity dinner soon so need to get cracking
Cat

shaz_mum_of__2

The Morereasons deal requires you to spend over £40 when you spend your voucher too so £200 spent for £20 off ??

Until the recent fuel price wars Mr M loyalty scheme was the equivalant of 1.5p per litre back ...................but always cost 1p more than mr t so i went to mr t as after clubcard points it worked out 1/2 p better per litre

In my opinion MrM does more BOGOFs than the others though

We have @sda T3sco @ldi Libl N3tto morereasons and S@insbury closeby but envy sophiesmums costco

I am a booker member but the discounts not great and a lot is cheaper at supers

Nyk - interested in how the approved food thing works out re quality etc

Shaz

the_cat

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

The Morereasons deal requires you to spend over £40 when you spend your voucher too so £200 spent for £20 off ??

Well £180, as £20 voucher comes off final spend. I may be wrong but looked on it that 11% off my food shopping was better than leaving the money in a savings account. I have had to be very disciplined and only buy stuff that I can use next month (oh, and hide stuff from the kids/OH!!!) and will just spend a tiny amount on fresh stuff to compensate in Jan/Feb