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

dND

I'm nearly ready for next year. I think I've input the final receipt - they went back to May :eek: :eek: - and am now in shock at the staggering total I got through this year.

Thankfully a lot is on the house renovation so they should be one-offs along with buying all sorts of tools so hopefully I should be able to reduce 2009's spending. With the £ being strong over the summer when the children were here it was a bit of a spending time. With the pound/euro equality at the moment, the spends look really high - when I moved over I was getting 50% more euros for my pound.

Right all :rotfl:I have to do now is decide on what I think should be realistic spends for next year and I will post the budget on the new thread.

2009 here I come! :j

grandma247

Sophiesmum That food looks delicious.
I got another load of bargains this evening and it only came to £14 including 48 toilet rolls. Mr.T cheapest.

redglass_2

I agree, Sophiesmum could teach Jamie Oliver a thing or two....

Nyk, I'm gutted - i was hoping for a puma at least....:rotfl:

Bought myself a diary today (in the Woollies sale) to record all my spending for 2009 - a bit of a splurge at over £2 but it's strong and will last all year. It motivates me to have something nice and neat to write in.


Have to admit I've gone mad on presents (at least by my usual frugal standards). My parents are having a rotten time just now so I'm taking a big basket of stuff with me when I go to see them and I hope I can jolly them up a bit. I'm not spending money I don't have, so there's no debt and I suppose it can go under luxuries, but I'll definitely have to tighten the belt next year!

JAMIEDODGER

Had a lovely meal out last night with 2 friends. One of them drove so no taxi costs and I paid £30 in clubcard deals vouchers towards the meal. So just £10 for the babysitter for me!:) A really cheap night out!

Today I have a chilled day planned. Need to do an inventory of the freezer, and come up with some kind of meal plan for the next week, not including xmas day as we are up my mums for that.

I joined i-measure yesterday and put in my meter readings, so I am now being really conscious about everything that is being left on standby and how often i am putting on the heating as I want the gas/elec cost to come down in my 2009 budget. we all have hot water bottles but I think I may have to invest in some thick fleeces for myself for the evenings as I really feel the cold and dont want to flick the heating on because its easy.

shaz_mum_of__2

Sophiesmum the food looks great(and so does your kitchen )

I made this yesterday my first ever pork pie



Its huge...............almost 5lbs in weight i made some mini ones too and they were yummy so have have high expectations of this baby


Shaz

sophiesmum_2

Wow shaz that looks great, never done one of those yet. Made a long gala pie one once with the egg through the middle, but that looks fantastic.:T :T :T

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Off to costco in a while to get the turkey /meat for oldies xmas meals and also for home. I've decided to get a turkey crown and a ham joint for home, we won't be eating that much of the meat on xmas day itself so wanted to be able to make the most of the leftovers. I figure the ham is more versatile for recycling into other dishes and freezing;)

Not much else planned for today - head is full of cotton wool and feeling achey, hope it wears off as the day goes on:o Need to go and see my dad but don't want to give him the lurgy as he is already very low after chemo.

Catch up with you all later:D

bails

Shaz, wow! I think you may have just found your cottage industry :T (and I'm a vegetarian :rotfl:) Thanks for posting your pics both of you, it really does inspire me to do more batch/home cooking :T

Hope you feel better soon SM xx

redglass wrote: »

Have to admit I've gone mad on presents

Redglass, if it helps I've splurged this year too, on my parents as well They've done so much to help me through my illness (and always actually), even buying a house for me to recover in so I wanted to be able to show them how much I think of them. I can't do or make things in the way I'd like at the mo so I've got them tickets to a show and a hotel package. I did use the 15% Fleabay discount though (thanks again Nyk :T). Like you, it's money I have and I feel it's the best way I can show my appreciation at the mo. Next year I'm planning on being more frugal; being in India will help with that

Wraped some presents yesterday, still more to do but taking it easy as I'm pretty whacked. Off to lunch with my parents and the people we usually spend Christmas with so that's my Christmas lunch with them, then just mooching with OH for the rest of the day, maybe make a couple of little pressies for my new extended family
Have a wonderful day everyone, 10 days to go! :j

whitewing

Hullo everyone.

I have been skimming thro the thread, but not yet excited about next year's challenge as I still have a huge list of jobs to get through between today and Wednesday.

Totally forgot about Xmas to friends/extended family until they started turning up in the post. Then got all sentimental as it's our first married Xmas and decided to send cards to everyone on our wedding list. Most caught the post yesterday; some didn't but I sent them anyway. Had to go via my parents' for the addresses so had a pre-Xmas argument with them. It is a very long story (you wouldn't believe it if I told you) but we aren't going over there for Xmas lunch, and they can't accept it. Never mind.

I spent £34 on cards/stamps in Clintons. Beautiful cards and definitely not bargains. Then £174 in Tesco. (Bargain lego in woolies for DS though). Apart from the lego, none was a planned spend; just late night Xmas shopping thrill. That's bad. Tesco stuff was food mainly though so should see us thro for a while.

Earlier this month, I went on a career transition course (part of my redundancy package, where we rewrote our CVs and got tips on applying for jobs, interviews etc). It was excellent. I saw a perfect part time job advertised in our local shop last week so rang up about that, but it's for the 2 afternoons I can't do. I shall send a spec CV in and hope that someone else leaves!

Blitzed the bathroom yesterday, while DH blitzed the kitchen. All presents to family delivered to them. Presents to clients mainly handed out. Chased up some payments owed and most have been paid promptly.

Need to finish my Qype reviews, need to aaarrrrggghhh ...actually need to get dressed so I shall do that a minute and then start tackling my list systematically. Should be able to collapse in a heap between Thursday and Sunday. Throat is a little sore.

DH is now being 'timetabled' in for baby-making. I am due on Xmas day, so have a test lurking quietly in the back of the cupboard. I am trying not to get my hopes up (twinges anyway in the back which usually means the onset of the period). But I do keep thinking how special it would be to be able to tell DH on our first married Xmas morning......

andromache_2

Aaw, I love how romantically you think about your marriage, whitewing, it sounds so special. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

OH and I have our Christmas treat today - our £1 Hoxton room :T for which we paid 50p each, lol. He's been cooking some nice things for us to eat so we won't be spending on a restaurant meal or anything though I might use my free M&S vouchers (acquired thanks to this thread!) to top it up with some other nice food. I have a massive bottle of champagne which I won for us to share as well so it's going to be very very cheap! I've been dropping hints about Christmas presents so I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got me :rotfl:

Christmas hugs to all