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

Marru

bails wrote: »

(Marru's going to check some figures for me)

Marru hasn't forgotten but she has eaten herself unconcious and aided the effect with rather nice fortified wine so she will get back to you and everybody else when she is in a bit sharper mood.....

Frugaldom

Marru wrote: »

Marru hasn't forgotten but she has eaten herself unconcious and aided the effect with rather nice fortified wine so she will get back to you and everybody else when she is in a bit sharper mood.....

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: That sounds like someone had to respond on your behalf, Marru! My imagination is running riot now... :rotfl: who is this mystery frugal thread responder and how much chocolate has he fed you?

Bails, I had a think about what you said and came up with (not) an entirely new budget for 2009. Here it is:

Contents Insurance - £47.50
TV Licence - £140
Electricity & heat - £1100
Telephone - £180
Internet - £180
Mobiles - £120
Groceries (including toiletries, cleaning & laundry products) - £1200
Gifts - £500
NTS membership - £39 (got 6 months free)
Everything else - £365
[strike]Contingency money[/strike] - Cat care - £128.50
Total - £4,000
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sophiesmum_2

:hello: good evening frunchkins

Feeling quite envious of all you people talking about pets, we aren't allowed any animals here:o i would love a dog(s).Frugal pony is lovely but it isn't the same as having a pet in the home:rolleyes:.

Nyk - glad the house is definate now :j :j look forward to hearing all your plans in the future:D.

Not much to report here today, have just made some more flapjacks to keep DD and OH happy and used up the last of my 20p bananas making a walnut and banana cake.
My mum bought me the new jamie oliver cookbook the other day, have been looking through and it has some lovely recipes in it, that i will be trying out soon. Lots of them are on the ministry of food website too. need to see what I can adapt for the remoska.;)

Haven't used the car today, and haven't spent any money so I suppose that is something:rolleyes:

looby-loo_2

Good evening everyone. A farm nky, how exciting!

Cheap quick pasta for us tonight. DH proud of himself for buying a reduced loaf but then blew the saving on a pack of four tins of tomatoes costing £2.12 eg 53p a tin compared to my 21p a tin variety:eek: In fact he managed to spend £42.80 on a 'few bits'. As he's now retired he thinks he is doing me a favour by getting in a 'few bits' but TBH it's costig a fortune. I went shopping on Friday after work and got eveything for the week except for the farm shop stuff on Saturday, eggs and carrots. I made tomato soup from the last in the greenhous and a cake on Sunday and 723g butter from reduced cream (15p each tub)

So he comes home with:-
4 Anchor butter @ £1.21
4 KitKats @ 2 for £2
4 mars @ 2 for £3
free range eggs £2.04
crisps @ 1.05
3 Tomato soup @75p

Tonight I have started to make curtains for the lounge from fabric delivered in error about two year ago. 27 meters, perfect for our room. The company said to keep it (someone else got a nice headboard).

I'm on option 3 and it annoys me when we have to call the doctor between 8 - 8.30 on an 08?? number and then hang on for ever.

Jamie Oliver in Rotherham just starting

lingojingo

Nyk - great news about the house, especially as you'll be in there for most of the winter.

Finally managed to read the energy use thread and posted my 12 week summary. I'm amazed to see it suggests my bill will be similar to this time last year, despite the price rises. If that's true (should find out in a week or so) then it will be thanks to all the tips and support from everyone on here, so thank you all in advance :T

Mollymop5

great news on the house Nyk.Janey loving todays memory

whitewing

I'm off to spend a few frugal days with my friend in the city.

Need some reflection time as I have been made redundant. Was not entitled to much redundancy pay but it all helps, and I will get all the counselling/career advice too. DH has signed up for some extra shifts at work. Have half got it in mind to see if I can recoup the lost salary by other means (eg paying attention to gas/elec and car bills to cut them down). That's the trouble with being addicted to challenges, lol. Feeling fairly positive but I don't know if I will come crashing down in a week or two.

Last time I got made redundant I was a single parent, so feel quite lucky that I now have DH to ease the burden. Mind you our mortgage is 3x higher than last time, but no childcare fees (or £400/month supermarket bills, lol).

(*plaintive cry* why me? )

Janey51

It's hard typing with a huge cat lying on your arms. But he does act as a heated muff which is good :rotfl:

Have now made £22 on Amazon so well chuffed :T
Really struggling to think what I want to save for because I don't want anything....apart from DH back

Going to tidy the garden. Failed miserably to figure out how the bench saw worked and had horrified exclamations of disbelief from friends that I would even attempt to try

I should really make my Christmas Puddings as well so they have time to mature.

Checked the oil monitor and was dismayed to see that the usage rate has gone up a bit. I usually reckon on the numbers decreasing by 1 every 10 days. I think one unit is about 100L. But the last reduction went down in 8 days. I did turn the Rayburn up a bit because the kitchen was cold and I spend most of my time in here so that must be it. I am a bit stumped really because I feel the cold a lot because I have lost so much weight and it doesn't matter how many layers I put on it doesn't make a difference.

I think it's a cold in my soul :sad:

So, it looks as if I will have to order oil next week sometime. I did check oil prices and according to a graph they are at their lowest this year. It will be a big bill for a 1000L but it's my only "luxury" I suppose.
If the weather was really bad, I could live in the kitchen. There is a TV in here and it's 25 foot long by 16 foot wide so almost a house on its' own

Mum's Memory of the Day

Mum was born in Hull and lived through the terrible bombing of the docks during WW2. She said the flames were so bad one night that they could read a newspaper by the light. Each time the air raid siren went off, they had to run to the Anderson Shelter which Grandad had made in the garden. They had to take their gas masks to school but Mum and her friend used to "forget" them if there was a lesson they didn't want to do so they would be sent home to bring them back. She said the worst bombs were the Doodle Bugs because when you couldn't hear the noise of them in the sky any more, you knew they were silently dropping. Mum was riding her bike home from school one day after a cookery lesson when the siren went off. She was heading for the nearest shelter when a bomb landed at the end of the road she was on. She fell off her bike but saved the cake she had made.

Janey51

:grouphug: whitewing
Hope things look up.

Janey51

looby-lou reckon your OH has the same genetic programming as my DH had.
They sabotage all our Frugal efforts with gay abandon.