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

lyndasharp

7 is supposed to be lucky, so that's got to be a good number of guinea pigs.

I'm feeling lucky at the moment as I've just sold the unused part of my Longleat tickets for £10 on ebay. My ex bf paid for them so I'm in profit! His own fault for leaving them here. I maybe could have used them, but wasn't too keen on taking my nice car round the safari park!

Must try out my new iron (also got the Bzzz agent tester steam one) on the Ben Sherman shirts that he also left here... should get a few pounds for them as well

Penny2myName

Well just been going through all the Xmas stuff I have in. Just need to get main gifts for two boys now. Using shoe boxes to make hampers out of. each one has a 'freebie teddy' in which I have got one way or another (t-bags, washing powder, freebie board) a small bottle of wine. home made Christmas cracker (pamper, tea, fitness. makeup) a shower gel product for all the hampers that are going to men. and all the gifts have been bought when reduced.
Ex's household £11.25 instead of £41.75
Y Brother & G/F £5.75 instead of £10.75
O Brother £7.75 instead of £14.75
Sister £14 instead of roughly £45 (cant remember what boots where full priced)
Niece 75p everything else was freebies from avon.
Mum £14.75 instead of 50.50

So dont think I have done too bad
Kids gifts so far have been either from sales or avon demonstration items so about 1/4 of normal sales price.

Also have plenty of avon stuff to do towards adults for next year. All ready planning what is needed to complete the gifts.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Skint_Lynne

Hi All,

had a busyish and quite productive day.

Went to costco and got my kitchen rolls and orange juice on special offer. It was really busy tho, so would go on a weeknight instead of a sunday. Got a tin of wine gums for dad for christmas and the kirkland soap powder, I've dated it to see how long it lasts. I'll check the booklet every week and see what if I fancy any of the offers.

Then went down into the city centre to the disney store with my sister. I got 2 bags for presents, £12.99 reduced to £3.50. They are really nice.

Went to visit inlaws. Then went home for dinner, ran mum to bingo and went into tesco. got some 10p shower gel for hand dispensers (suggested on another thread), it smells quite nice, pack of organic biscuts for 16p and 2 tubs of raspberries, 2.99 reduced to 60p. I've put them in the freezer as I make a really nice white choc and respberry cheesecake. I can use the biscuits for that as well. I'll make it at the weekend next week. do you think the raspberries will be okay, I've never frozen fruit before, but I know you can buy frozen fruit in the shops, so thought I would try it out.

I'm tired now, time for bed methinks!!

SL x

cha97michelle

skint lynne probably too late for this time, but the best way of freezing berries is to space them out so that one is not touching another, if you freeze them all together they can get a bit mushy when they defrost - this is only a problem if you want them whole at the other end.

also, the gel in hand wash - i was in stitches when my sister asked me which brand of hand wash i was using as it smelt so nice - it was an avon passionfruit bubble bath - not only cheap, much gentler on my hands, less drying than soap or handwash.


I'm having a good and bad day:

good frugalling -

• cooked extra dinner today to do myself and DS1 for lunch tomorrow,
• discovered MIL is going to provide the party bags for DS1's party
• no spend day, DH painted the garage door some more, i did a wedge of ironing and moved DS1 into his big bed.
• i managed to dry a load of washing on the line
• we cut DS1's hair with the clippers
• I have a fellow MSE'r visiting me tomorrow, and she is bringing me some clothes and a little tykes slide for my boys - i'm really looking forward to it.

bad frugalling:

• i forgot to frontline the cats the other week, and one of them had a tick on it
• we managed to pull it out, but it doesn't look that clean, so please keep your fingers crossed for me that it doesn't become infected and require a trip to the vet
• he wouldn't stay still long enough for us to check if there were any more of them. He's a timid thing who doesn't like being handled, so we upset him :cool:

but this is small compared to lots of people's problems, so i will forget about it for now, and see what happens.

This week may be an expensive one as we are at a wedding on Friday and it is DS1's birthday on Saturday. We are also going bowling with my nephews, and i need to make sure i have something to wear for the wedding. I am going to try and borrow something from my mum or sisters before i even think about getting something. Although, i am a weird shape at the moment after having the baby, so will see what i can manage.

Skint_Lynne

Thanks Michelle,

I'll only need a few whole ones so they should be ok. I'll remember that for next time tho!!

SL x

puss14

cw18 wrote: »

I'm self monitoring until the end of the year..... partly 'cos our major changes kick in late November, so I'm juggling money around as much as possible until then without specific budgets (pay everything I have to, blow saving for annual bills, throw as much as possible at the c/cards!)

I am going to practise for next year although I am not sure how much would be an appropriate amount(I am Aussie) 1000 pounds converts to approx $2500 so I guess thats what I am working with?

Janey51

bails forgot to comment on the maggots. Oh yuk, yuk ,yuk :eek: I hate maggots..and worms. Which is why I couldn't be an archaeologist

whitewing DH and me were going to have ballroom dancing lessons when he had recovered form his op and lost weight. I feel so sad that we never got the chance.

cha97michelle yuk to ticks as well. My cats are always picking them up when the sheep are about. Don't forget you can get Frontline cheap online.

Re my possible New Year invasion by the family. The cats never go into a cattery, I just have friends who come to feed them. I have very good friends :T And the cats have access to the warm kitchen all the time via the cat flap. But they miss knees to sit on and DS and DIL love them so that is good.
DS emailed me to say "do not worry about the CH" ....is he trying to say I am tight :rotfl:
He then followed it up with "We will just use the log burner" :eek:
I have replied telling him to bring fleeces and hot water bottles, never mind the log burner.
I am really pleased how much they love this place and want to bring their friends here. Over the years I have had people from Australia, New Zealand, USA, China and South Africa staying.

Today I am going to attempt to teach myself how to use the bench saw This should be an interesting project. There is a lot of wood that needs cut and I'm the woman to do it.
As long as I keep my fingers out of the way, I should be fine

I am also treading a fine line as to whether my nerve holds out to see how low the oil price drops before my oil tank runs out. It is on "3" at the moment which, by my calculations means I have about 3-4 wks supply left if I don't use the heating at all. I have no intention of putting it on until there are icicles on my nose so I think I will try and hold off ordering until 14 Nov.
The significance of this date is that the oil company take 2 days to deliver and they send invoices out from the 15th of the month. So, if I get a delivery on Nov 16th, I won't have to pay it until Dec 12/13 which means a few more pence interest for me on the household savings:T

I sold my first book on Amazon and have made £4.20 profit :j

Mum's memory of the day

Mum took up deep sea fishing in her 50s (to keep Dad company) She won quite a few cups including one inscribed "For the biggest bag"
She actually appeared on the front page of Angler's Mail.

Penny2myName

Just done my final reading for first monthly rating on the i-measure site, my electric usage is pretty good from what I can tell, the problem and what makes my over all score so bad is the gas
Carbon emissions Kg CO2
Per person 29 (22) 27 (18) 0 (14)
Per household 118 (88) 107 (73) 0 (54)

Gas use as kWh
Per Person 97 (51) 89 (38) 0 (27)
Per Household 388 (205) 357 (151) 0 (109)

Electricity use as kWh
Per Person 18 (22) 16 (20) 0 (15)
Per Household 72 (87) 63 (81) 0 (61)

Since you started measuring your total household -
Energy use is 1,682 kWh (Gas: 1,429kWh | Electricity: 253kWh)
Carbon emissions are 427 Kg CO2 (Gas: 294 Kg CO2 | Electricity: 132 Kg CO2)

Last week you spent:

* £13.58 on gas
* £8.64 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (4 weeks ago):

* £50.02 on gas
* £30.36 on electricity

Anyone know who's rates the site uses to calculate costs. Oh and I got a carbon rating of E would like to at least get into the C rating without freezing.

mumzyof2

Good Morning All

Well my income support is not in my bank today so just rang them and they said they sent it out one day late and it will be in my bank tomorrow
I am waiting on my friend coming to my house for a brew and then we proberly go to town as she has to pay bills and i need some bread.
I have a asda del coming tonight between 7-9pm (it was cheaper del then) and i think i spent about £43 should last me till end of month though.
Have a good day all

cw18

Janey51 wrote: »

Mum's memory of the day
Mum took up deep sea fishing in her 50s (to keep Dad company) She won quite a few cups including one inscribed "For the biggest bag"
She actually appeared on the front page of Angler's Mail.

What a fabulous memory