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

whitewing

Hello everyone.

I went shopping yesterday with my friend.We pootled into the crystal shop as she felt in need of some healing crystals. She bought me some rose quartz (I don't normally like pink much but felt very drawn to this). It's for unconditional love and trust.

We also went into a secondhand bookstore. Love them, such comforting places. She was over in the 'grieving' section when the bookseller asked if she'd lost somebody close to her. When I heard this beautiful, vibrant, young friend say 'My husband' I felt the most tremendous sadness. Especially since I know I don't even feel one thousandth of the pain she is carrying.

She got some great books, which I hope will help her through next year. I spent £7 too on (more) Xmas presents to myself, including 'Chicken soup for the woman's soul'. I blubbed my heart out yesterday afternoon.

Today is back to a more workish feel. And I have a week's worth of banking to sort out, where I had to buy pressies on behalf on my brother (typical last-minute man) and I also swapped accounts whilst shopping as I could not for the life of me remember my balance on the normal account. So I'm in a bit of a muddle for the end of the year.

Have a good day folks. I am not reading the new thread at all yet. Can't manage more than one at a time. Have a constant feeling that I am running out of time.

Penny2myName

whitewing wrote: »

Have a good day folks. I am not reading the new thread at all yet. Can't manage more than one at a time. Have a constant feeling that I am running out of time.

I feel like that pretty often too, which is why i have only ventured onto it twice, once to put my 2009 budget on, and the other time just to be nosey at how many pages there was to it.

bails

How heartbreaking Whitewing, I'm glad she has you to lean on.

On a lighter note, I love secondhand bookshops too - this is where I would spend my money if I was rich (well, in secondhand bookshops around the world ). I so hope books don't disappear in my lifetime, it would be awful.

As for feeling you're running out of time, it can be easy to get overwhelmed when there's so much we could be doing. Don't worry about the new thread til you're ready for the new challenge and just post from then. You haven't missed anything essential, just lots of excited people eager about 2009. All we can do is our best so hold onto that crystal and give yourself some unconditional love xx

Marru

Helloooooo!

BB: I looooove your mosaic and the clocks. They look really professional. You said you want to do one thing at a time but I happen to have a perfect book here for you .
SM: OOOOH Chicken run!!! :j I wish I could get some chickens. There was a rescue operation near here only Sunday just gone. But I don't really want to push it too much as I shouldn't have had my foster dog or all my piggies and ratties and my LL has been ever so good about it!

Bails: We love you tooo!!! :smileyhea Enjoy your spreadsheet

WW: Crystals and second hand books, a woman after my heart! Second Bails re your friend.

Janey: Lovely to have you back! I am also so sorry for your losses.

Ok, after lots of pondering and going through my options with Bails last night it seems that I really need to quit college. I will make one phone call today that could change that but neither I or Bails have high hopes of that phone call to be able to solve my financial situation to the extent that I can carry studying full time. I will still fiddle with my numbers (thanks to this threat I am in full picture of what is coming in and going out) and see what realistically needs to happen for me to earn what we need AND at the same time have a way to move towards my target of working with animals.

Tasks today:
- [STRIKE]Do washing[/STRIKE]
- Call Jobcentre
- [STRIKE]sent sold books (x4 )[/STRIKE]
- clean animals
- [strike]make a list of recruiters[/strike]
- [strike]cook cheesy potato cakes for mid afternoon snack[/strike]
- cook more fried rice for supper (last night's one was delish! somebody ate it all )

Might need to buy more bread as DD doesn't like my HM one, I use that only for my lunches.

Have a frugalistically fantastic day everyone!

Marru

lingojingo

Hi all fellow frugallers! hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

It's just taken me an hour and a half to catch up on this thread since the morning of Christmas Eve and now i can't remember who said what!

We had a great time at Mum's although sadly my brother and SIL were ill the whole time so we only saw them briefly on Sunday.

Going to work out my budget for 2009 today or tomorrow then post on the shiny new thread (wonder how long it'll take to read through that one). I've overspent this year, but not by much, and it's the first time since exOH left us 5 years ago that I haven't resorted to the credit card to cope with Christmas, so I'm really proud of that:j - and it's thanks to all the tips and support on here :T :A

slowlyfading

I don't think I'll be on now until after the new year.

Just to say, my dog passed away yesterday, and I am heartbroken. I'll miss her so much x

Marru

Oh no SF! I can fully understand how you feel.

taka

((((hugs)))) SF

MrDT

Hello everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas Sorry I won't get a chance to read through all the posts from the past week, looks like some of you were posting from the kitchen table not eating your christmas dinners lol! I've returned back to my place having spent the week at my parents house, a week of no internet, a week of central heating, a week of spending time with family, and a week of eating far too much good food Back to normal now, freezing cold (no central heating here), but a bit of peace and quiet and internet overload trying to catch up on everything!

I won't be spending anything today, and will have another no spend day tomorrow except for the money spent down the pub celebrating the new year. I want to start 2009 with a clean sheet on the new thread, so will declare my year end figures now - you can just add about £50 for tomorrow nights drinks to the 2008 figures lol!

The target was £3000 for the period 1st April to 31st December to cover everything other than rent, council tax, and commuting. I haven't managed this, but have spent far less this year than I have done in the past. My total spend was £3526.28.


Here's how 2008 (april-december) breaks down:

Trips - 939.30 (104.37 per month average)
Supermarket (groceries, toiletries, household, etc) - 635.06 (70.56 per month average)
Nightsout - 511.65 (56.85 per month average)
Other food and drink (canteen, takeaway, pub lunch, sandwich, meal, etc) - 423.66 (47.07 per month average)
Electric - 380 (42.22 per month average)
Gifts - 256.82 (28.54 per month average)
Misc - 156.94 (17.44 per month average)
TV - 103.85 (11.54 per month average)
Clothes - 88.00 (9.78 per month average)
Charity - 19.00 (2.11 per month average)
Medical - 12.00 (1.33 per month average)


Lots spent on holidays and daytrips in 2008, I'm chopping that down in 2009. Still do the trips to visit mates now and then, but can't see myself going abroad, europe is too expensive as the pound is so weak, and going further afield is never going to be bargain territory. I figure if I win a holiday, or a lot of money, then I'll go away in 2009, otherwise, not gonna happen. House deposit is a higher priority than a week in the sun getting drunk and sunburnt!

The supermarket spends are pretty good I think, averaging £70ish a month. The 'single' months were obviously a bit cheaper than the 'couple' months, but shopping for two isn't really much more expensive than for one. GF sorts her own lunch and toiletries etc, so won't need to increase this budget by too much (so long as food prices don't rocket again).

Nightsout being third on the list suggests a lot of wasted money, but £57 per month is pennies compared to the time when nights out were at least twice a week and I'd have little change from £80 each night! Fewer nights out, cheaper nights out, and more 'no drinking' cinema etc nights out have saved me a fortune. I'm going to try shaving a little off the nightsout budget in 2009, but not much as I don't feel to bad about the spends.

'Other food and drink' spends are way too high. Takeaways etc instead of an expensive night out drinking I can justify to myself, but a lot of this money has been blown on snacks, or canteen lunches when I've been too lazy to make a packup the night before. Intend on cutting this down a fair bit in 2009.

Electric, not a lot I can do about this. Coin meter in rented flat, very expensive. It's freezing here, and the only heaters are electric ones. Plus a very inefficient electric oven. I can try cutting down on the oven, more slow cooker use etc, but the heaters I can't really cut down on too much (use the bare minimum as it stands). One thing I can do to reduce consumption is try to take shorter showers, I don't really need to be in there 20 minutes a day lol! With the price going up now and then I'm going to increase the electricity budget for 2009. Any left over can be spent on another category, I'll probably be needing the slack somewhere!

Gifts came in far below budget this year, so many good deals, especially before Christmas. I've been lucky this year, not sure what gift prices will be like next year though, so budget will be higher just to ensure I can afford what I want to buy people. Additionally, in 2009 I'd like to make gifts money-neutral by earning a little extra each month to cover the cost of birthdays and christmas. We'll see...

Misc - a few lotto tickets sneaked in here along with lots of other 'bits and bobs' that I can't remember. Premium Bonds are a terrible bet as far as savings rates go, but I'm considering sticking a few quid in there as lotto replacements. At least you don't lose the capital. Most of my savings will go in decent savings accounts to gain proper interest, but I'm happy to lose a few pennies in interest for the chance of winning a million pounds I think. Not sure what else made it into this category, I think some cigarettes perhaps, very naughty!

TV cost is just the license. I have freeview, and that's more than enough for my needs. Not sure how much the license will cost next year but have increased the budget a little to ensure I can cover it.

Clothes shopping. Not a fan. I spent very little on clothes this year. Probably be the same next year, have some wiggle room in the budget if I need something though.

Charity, not given as much as I should maybe, but I have given a lot of time, taken part in multiple fund raising events etc, and will no doubt keep that up in 2009.

Medical, bit of a wildcard. 2008, a few quid for dental checkup, 2009 - who knows!? Hopefully I won't need root canal or anything lol, keeping the budget low as I've never needed any dental work in the past. Will just come out of 'slack' money, as have no idea what I'll need!

So, with all that in mind, and the length of this post sprawling out of control, here's my...


Budget for 2009 - 4k challenge:

Shopping - 1080 (90 a month)
Electric - 600 (50 a month)
Night out - 600 (50 a month)
Eat out - 360 (30 a month)
Trip - 240 (20 a month)
Gadget - 240 (20 a month)
Christmas - 240 (20 a month)
Birthday - 180 (15 a month)
Clothes - 180 (15 a month)
TV - 150 (12.50 a month)
Other gifts - 60 (5 a month)
Charity - 60 (5 a month)


The only things not included in my budget are rent, council tax, and the cost of commuting (or running a car if I decide to run a car next year). Mobile and internet are paid for by employer, water rates covered in rent.


Aims for 2009:
Meet deposit saving target (at least 25% of purchase price, actual amount changes)
Career development
Money-neutral gifts
Have fun and still manage to stay true to MSE


Hope you all have a great New Years Eve, and of course, a great 2009. Catch you on the new thread!


eta - Sorry to hear that SF

Penny2myName

So sorry to hear your news SF, hopefully our dog had a long and wonderful life beforehand.