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

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D
Can't believe it is only a couple of days to xmas, today is last chance to get shopping etc done for meals/events I am doing with oldies tomorrow and xmas eve, busy time coming up, but should be fun too.
Looking forward to meeting another frunchkin tomorrow :j cw18 has volunteered to come and help out with oldies xmas meals etc:A , hope you know what you are letting yourself in for Cheryl:rotfl:

cw18

I'm sure I'll survive sophiesmum

More a case of your oldies coping with my GDs on Christmas Eve me thinks :rotfl:

findingmyfeet

morning all
sophiesmum/shaz-loving the foodie pics. You have both done really well. wish i could get as organised and get stuff looking so nice. Think i will have to get chatting to you two in the new year for some tips.

well really busy for xmas at the moment, pressies still to be wrapped but spending stopped now (unless i have forgotten something). shouldnt need anything until the new year. Starting to make lists of stuff we regularly use and see if i can buy better/cheaper/etc. Finding it a bit like walking through treacle at the moment- feels like hard work but will be easier when im more organised!.
Saturday i was asked if any garden pots would be of use to me as some friends were going to put them in the skip. i came home with around 20 terracotta pots various sizes and about 100 or so plastic ones. That should be useful for my gardening and veggies next year and save me a few pennies too. Now all i need is some free compost!

see you all later, have a nice day

findingmyfeet

ooohhh-- i just got another star!!!

Marru

Good morning!

Haven't been posting as been feeling a bit off but have [STRIKE]drooled[/STRIKE] admired all the cookings. I think I will abandon this living in the south and move somewhere close to SM and CW. My DD would love to play with CW's GDs and I can go and kiss the frugal pony never mind eating all the lovely stuff SM is cooking

Oh SM that ham looks divine. That is what is part of my xmas tradition and I am hoping to find cheap pork joint on Wednesday to cook to bring back all the lovely xmas memories.

Busy day here as I need to now do all the things I didn't do yesterday, get changed, go and see my counsellor, clean my animals, finish one assignment...I almost quit college because of a dog. This lovely dog is looking for a home and I was soooo tempted but knew I wouldn't be able to keep her if I was still full time in college, oh well I am sure she will find the right place and I am just going to stick with college.

DD is in nursery so it gives me time to get my college work up to date and my shopping done before we settle for xmas. So off I go now to tackle today's list.

Whitewing - lovely to have you back. I have everything crossed for you!!!

Have a frugalistic day everybody!!

Marru

lyndasharp

All the cooking looks great! I spent the weekend at bf's, and we made marzipan to go on his Christmas cake. I decided my new landlady should have a prezzie, and found something perfect for her in a pound shop, hope she likes it. It's a photo cushion where you put a picture of your cat, and it's embroidered underneath with the words 'The Boss'.

I had some worrying news on Friday as my Nan is now in hospital, she should be having a stent fitted to unblock her arteries either today or tomorrow. She just went in for a routine check on Friday, and they insisted she stay as otherwise she wouldn't see Christmas Apparently she is feeling a lot better now she's having enforced bed rest. She was supposed to be cooking the meal for us on Christmas Day but there's no way she's going to be allowed to do that, I just hope that she's out of hospital and that my cold goes away so I can see her without passing on any nasty germs. I have to work until Christmas Eve, so I'm sat at work just hoping my phone doesn't ring. They had refused to give Nan the op before and said she was too old for it.

cw18

((hugs)) Lynda. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes OK, and that you get well enough to see your Nan over Christmas.

bails

Hugs Lynda, I hope your gran is okay and you can see her soon.

Love all the excited kids stories! Sorry to put a dampener on the thread but I just received some bad financial news. I phoned up today as the HB part of my rent hasn't been paid, to find out they suspended it without telling me or my landlord (who luckily happens to be my dad)! Anyway, I'd taken in the figures for OH's self employment on Friday and they calculated them on Saturday!! Anyone who's had any dealings with benefits will know this is incredible - it's amazing how quickly they can do things when it's about clawing money back from you! :rolleyes:
The results are disastrous I had steeled myself for them to be bad and had been trying to get it across to OH who thought it would be reasonably okay. I was gutted and he was absolutely horrified! :eek: I'm still muddling my way through the PHD that's required to make full sense of them but what I can't understand is how we can do the right thing ie OH goes out to work as soon as he finishes uni and we tell them accurately how much he earns and then we lose far more money than he earns What possible incentive is there (if you put aside self esteem and self respect) for anyone to go out to work? I was already finding the whole idea of having to lean on him financially excruciatingly painful and now it's even worse than I'd imagined. All it does it stresses me out and makes me feel I have to go back to work now, even though I'm not well enough yet. At this rate, we'll have to move to India permanently as it's the only way we could afford to live!! SIGH... Sorry for the venting, I'm just so frustrated and demoralised by the situation I find myself in. Give me time and I'll be back fighting, just need a bloody good cry first.

cw18

((hugs)) Bails.

If you need a hand with any number crunching (or want anything double checking / looking up to see if someone else agrees with "rules") drop me a PM. I'm only nipping out briefly today, as I'm glued to the TV (it's Craft Day on a certain shopping channel )

bails

Thanks CW, that's really lovely of you. And that is precisely why I love this thread xx