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

thriftylass

nykmedia wrote: »

Sorry to hark back to the free giveaways via freecycle and gumtree etc but here is an example of the kind of emails I am constantly receiving:

"interested in your kitchen stuff were first time buyers and dont have much wots you address????"

The above is the entire content of one of the many emails I receive in response to items I list as free for collection. Am I just overly sensitive about these things or does anyone else get annoyed at the likes of the multiple question marks (it's sometimes exclamation marks, as in, "wen can i collect!!!!"), the lack of any introduction or, in my opinion, a blatant lack of good manners? :mad: I hate feeling judgemental, but ...

I agree with you. Not only is the grammar appalling but so are their manners. No intro, no politeness and no thanks or kind regards or similar. I'm too young to be old fashioned but certain standards should be kept up no matter what age you are or of what background, especially if you want something for free from a stranger.

Frugaldom

Moving swiftly on, I've replied apologetically, explaining that the items have already been claimed and are awaiting collection.

Does anyone do !points? My bottle of J Lo just arrived and it is the full 50ml eau de toilette spray, so that's saved me about £20, although I marked it into my savings total as £14.99, as that was the very cheapest I could find it if I'd had to pay cash. I've also had loads of click through emails from !points since ordering, plus a couple of surveys that have actually completed, for a change, so I'm already back up to over 450 points since almost emptying my account. :j I've just clicked through the most recent email and it's got a competition to win a draught excluder snake Apparently, we could save an extra £30 over a year by using draught excluders. :T I'm going to have 8 doors in the new house but I currently only have one tiny draught excluder at the moment, so... guess what I'm going to attempt to make between now and the housemove date from things I can find around the house? :rotfl:

Back again - here's the link to the snake-making for energy saving, just in case anyone misses it. If you joined !points then there's 25 points for signing up to the 'together' newsletter

taka

nykmedia wrote: »

I've just clicked through the most recent email and it's got a competition to win a draught excluder snake Apparently, we could save an extra £30 over a year by using draught excluders. :T I'm going to have 8 doors in the new house but I currently only have one tiny draught excluder at the moment, so... guess what I'm going to attempt to make between now and the housemove date from things I can find around the house? :rotfl:

I clicked that too! I should make some too as my front door and bathroom door let out so much heat (well would do if I had my heating on :rotfl: ) What is the best material to make them with and fill them with?

On the freecyle email... I'm terrible at spelling and grammar and I have a very annoying habit of using too many ellipsis and multiple exclamation marks . However, there is no excuse for not being polite! They could have at least said please and thank-you and added some capitals and full stops!

Frugaldom

Hi Taka, I was raking out old clothes and stuff for taking to the charity shop or textile recycling but have decided to hold onto them and shred as stuffing. I have a jumper that I'm going to try cutting the arms out and then sewing them together to make one snake, I'll stuff it with the remains of the jumper plus whatever else I can find. You can even make them out of old tights or stockings, it's anything that will lie along the bottom of the doors, I guess. Anything goes, so long as it's free and blocks out draughts. I've posted this into my free hobbies thread as well, so we can share photos once they're made. :rotfl: I still remember when we used to win these at the fair! My first one was black and red made from furry material. It had black shiney eyes and a felt tongue.

mumzyof2

I help a young mums group and county council other week (not just me, my whole group did) and we all got £20 argos vouchers today!! Going to get some lamps for my room, kids room and downstairs!

Parents evening doctors and swimming to get too so il post later

sophiesmum_2

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

Hi All,

It's cats and dogs here, I've had 1 customer and 1 person in for a chat, not a lot of bodies around today, and I can't blame them either.

The party went well last night, the final one of this week tonight, so hopefully that will be good as well.

I'm going to have a look at the prezzie threads today and want to work on my stockpile. I will have a look at mysupermarket to see what the cheapest prices are. I've decided to work on the storecupboard first, I've got some tins from Lidl's and farmfoods. I've found Instore to be good as well. They have quite a selection and for good prices. Will need to try homebargains too, had a quick squint in there once, cause it's only arrived recently in my area.

I want to check the prices of lentils etc. Sophiesmum, how do you find costco for lentils and the like, are they cheaper or do you think it's best to get them from the supermarket?

Off for a nosey now, will check in later.

SL x

SL

Costco is quite cheap for good quality rice, they have huge bags and also the plastic storage containers of rice which are good for dispensing. 5kg 100 portion sized container was less than £5 at costco - like this one ;



(I favour this type as sad person that I am I am saving the jars to store my pulses in so they can look all sleeping with the enemy in my cupboards:rotfl: )

I haven't bought any of my pulses from there. I have mostly bought from asda, or holland and barrett and julian graves when they have sales on. Morrisons have also started stocking large bags of lentils, chickpeas etc at quite good prices - they are in the ethnic foods section.
If you have an asian supermarket nearby try there for good deals - unfortunately we don't have one nearby.:mad:

Skint_Lynne

Thanks very much,

I'll get a couple of these next time I'm there, it's better than getting a bag because they spill all over the place. As you say, they are great containers to keep for storing other stuff. I use a lot of rice and the price of it has shot up lately.

Going to get ready for tonights party, thank goodness it's the last one this week.

SL x

sophiesmum_2

When I restock my stores for next years challenge I am going to use this supplier;

www.gfd.org.uk

They have bulk sizes in all the pulses, soup mixes and other bits that I use and their prices are quite good too.:D

cw18

Been shopping today, and was near a Morr!sons (not something that happens often for me). So I bobbed in for a quick check on the baked bean situation. Their cheapest are also 29p, but they have the Branston ones at 52p each -- or 2 for 50p !! As I only use the cheapest when cooking them into a meal, but then use dearer ones when serving as a side dish (the menfolk complain the cheapest are too runny as a side dish, but I don't eat them that way to know the difference) I picked up 4 tins of the Branston ones for the next couple of months.

I also picked up a couple of jars of Rose's Lime Marmalade (bogof), which will get put away until Christmas..... when I have a jar of that open I have toast for breakfast, elevenses, afternoon tea and supper, so I don't buy it very often

Janey51

Reading all the posts about the rising food prices, it is making me think even harder about buying enough food for a year. Sounds like investing in food could be the best home for any spare cash

I am lucky in that I have a large house for storage and I could utilise DH's shed as that is slowly emptying.

Of course,these plans all fall apart if I should decide to move :rolleyes:

But, buying things like cat food and tins should be good.

Tins should be OK in a wooden shed shouldn't they? I suppose I could store dry foods like sugar etc in plastic storage boxes with lids of which I have quite a few.