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

skint_chick

wow BB your mosaics are amazing - you should make some stuff to sell! I really like the fish one -I'd love to be able to do more artistic stuff as I have an A Level in design and communication but since then haven't had the time to do anything. Now I do and I have some sketches done and want to do a photography course but I'd really love to do mosaics. I used to do a lot of sculpture with chicken wire and papier mache too- sounds weird but it was used in plays and theatre productions! Am going to be more creative this year by handmaking presents - I made all the favours for my wedding and everyone commented on how lovely they were.

Brighton_belle

Gosh:o thanks for all the nice comments. SM - good point about the handmade:T . As for the coloured grout, in shops like B&Q you can buy basic colours like charcoal grey (as with the fish) and white and brown. But you can buy a larger range of lovely colours from online mosaic shops, but I haven't got that far yet - don't want to go too mad with the spending yet. JD - no, it doesn't take long to learn the basics: I started classes in August and I confess the fish was the 2nd thing i made:the design isn't entirely original - I was insprired by something I saw in a book but mine is my own interpretation. I still have loads to learn and work fairlyslowly. I'm looking at some of my clock designs that are all my own design to see if any can translate into mosaic stuff.Most mosaic books teach the basics, but I'm someone who works better going to a class to pick it up.
Redglass, the base of the green one is infact another tile, as I intend it to be used in a kitchen so it mean keeping the underneath clean is easier. The fish one is a wooden chopping board from the pound shop...
Skintchink - hail fellow chicken wire & papier mache lover:D . That's my first love really but haven't done any for ages.
Bails says I ought to show you some of the clocks I used to make, so here goes.I cut them out from from MDF and hand painted. Edit - removed 31 dec by BB. Didn't want them up long term and forum will be locked once ended tonight.

skint_chick

BB your clocks are lovely really funky and unusual. I really want to be more creative- when I lived at home I used to make my own bags and skirts back in the days when those long floral numbers with Doc Marten boots were all I wore I've seen some lovely material on ebay but I know people who tried to sell their stuff and it was amazing and hardly anyone bought it. So I can't justify the cost of a sewing machine because I can't make an income from it and clothes these days are so cheap - although I do have a certain level of guilt over the child labour/Asian sweatshop issues - I did buy some New Look organic t shirts in the summer if that counts :rolleyes:

You can colour white grout with food colouring -just like icing -although it takes a lot of mixing it's good for arm muscles and moneysaving:D.

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

I have £25 left in this years budget which I intend to spend before end of year, but would like to buy something that will help in next years challenge - any suggestions folks????

You could get some CHICKENS! [STRIKE]Homemade[/STRIKE] handcrafted hen house could easily be knocked up from freecycled furniture, (wardrobe, perhaps?) some old roofing felt and some wire mesh, and a portable run can be made from freecycled child's playpen if you can get the old-fashioned wooden type, just wire mesh around it. That's how my first lamb pen was constructed. Umm... yep, I did the bottle-rearing thing too, back in the days when 40p to £1 bought you a day old motherless lamb at market. But at least I didn't buy a calf for a tenner, like a friend did! :rotfl:

bails

Yae, I was just going to say how lovely the mosaics were and prod you again about the clocks...and there they are! :T Fab, really fab BB, great stuff! I'd buy one if you're taking commissions...;) xx

Ooh SM, get some chickens! Then when you go to Malta if there are no other takers nearby I could purchase them :j

Brighton_belle

thanks skintchick. Being creative is important to me too, I've not been creative for the last year or two and returning to it with the mosaics has made me realise how much I need it,but unfortunately I am hampered by ill health so my efforts are a bit sporadic. But I've been chatting to bails, and this year I what to focus my spare energies on seeing what I can achieve creatively. So with the new 4k challenge, I'm not going to spend my energies on things like bingo or just trawling too far for the cheapest food item etc. These are great things to do but I now need to try and utilise my energies to meet my needs for a better quality of life and for me that means expressing myself creatively. I get very tired though. But this is my own challenge for the year. I did sell some of my clocks a number of years ago but once I started a proper job (immensly important as illness had left me very isolated) I couldn't do both and certainly couldn't make enough to live off the profits.
As for the cost of a sewing machine - I would definitly ask for one on freecycle. I know what you mean about selling though, even more so in these downturn times.
Thanks for the food colouring hint - excellent! You've got me thinking about papier mache now:D . No no bb, one thing at a time:rotfl:
Thanks bails xx

bails

You've inspired me again to get my thinking cap on BB - need to go and watch a film with poorly OH but will be mulling things over...

tryingtodobetter

Hello everyone hope you all had a good Christmas

BB- All your creations look fantastic, I wish I was more artistic

SM - Definatley get some Chicken with your spare £25, I only wish I had the space to keep some.

I ordered myself a 'Learn to Knit' book today with some of my Christmas money. I have promised myself that I will not look at it until I have finished my Degree, only 5 months to go :j :j (but 26 thousand words to write in the mean time :eek:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all just in case I don't make it back on here until 2009.

TTDB.x.

sophiesmum_2

nykmedia wrote: »

You could get some CHICKENS! [strike]Homemade[/strike] handcrafted hen house could easily be knocked up from freecycled furniture, (wardrobe, perhaps?) some old roofing felt and some wire mesh, and a portable run can be made from freecycled child's playpen if you can get the old-fashioned wooden type, just wire mesh around it. That's how my first lamb pen was constructed. Umm... yep, I did the bottle-rearing thing too, back in the days when 40p to £1 bought you a day old motherless lamb at market. But at least I didn't buy a calf for a tenner, like a friend did! :rotfl:

Believe me Nyk, the one thing I covet more than anything is chickens:o I am just about working myself up to asking my area manager whether I could have permission to have one or two (or 3 or 4) even after that I would have to have a vote with all the oldies and get a majority agreement before I could have them in the communal grounds.I have managed to sneak in a greenhouse, fruit patch and veggies already;) We did used to have a rabbit and guinea pig and they agreed to those:rolleyes: , and there is a chicken breeder about 15 miles away, and a lady on the eglu website has "hen parties" regularly only a few miles from here where you can go and learn the basics,and we do have a lot of slugs handy for them to snack on:p

Watch this space .. chickens may make an appearance yet There is already a chicken takeover going on in my kitchen

Skint_Lynne

Hi everyone,

Well, there's only 2 full days to go until the challenge starts afresh, and the first time at trying it for me.

I have decided that I am going to write a journal over the year to document how I have changed my lifestyle and how much debt I have paid off. I will use extracts of it on the thread and vice versa.

I am on my own most of the time as DH works away from home. He will be abroad until April and then will be down south working after that. My phone bill is high due to his working away, but I will just need to work round that for now , I try and talk to him as little as poss as it is, and he trys to phone home so we can save on the bill.

Food spends should go down dramatically. I am with my family a lot due to DH being away all the time, and I eat there mostly, but I do a fair bit of the cooking and contribute to the food bill there. We used to eat out a lot at swanky places, but I have told them that I will not be doing this as often due to the challenge. They have all decided to 'eat in' a lot more now as we were spending horrendous amounts of cash in resturants, so this is stopping. I like cooking anyway, so we will be healthier in ourselves and in our pockets.

I have found that stockpiling is good for me, I will just need to organise myself a bit more in this area. It saves on time, petrol and money.

As I said, I will be experimenting with cooking, baking and sweet making. I am good at making tablet. so will try other sweets and biscuits, with a view to giving these as presents.

I am going to do a small bit of growing my own, as I hope to get a job in the new year, I will not have the time to do this properly, so will do tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce and possibly potatoes in some buckets.

Presents are hopefully going to be money neutral. I got a good bit in the sales, and hopefully will get some more. However, for the first time, I have listed everything on a spread sheet, who they are for, what occasion it is for and how much it cost. I will then list any free money I get back from surveys, selling stuff at car boots or on ebay and getting cash from money coupons and tesco card, boots card etc.

Lastly, present wise, I might try and take up knitting again. I have got the christmas edition of the knitting pattern book for dolls. I will try and make my wee nephew a knitted santa and snowman etc in time for next year. I'm sure that I can pick up some cheap wool here and there.

I am so glad that I found this thread, and cannot wait until the new year starts. Thanks for your continued support everyone. xx