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

redglass_2

Brighton_belle wrote: »

. Picked up 2 11watt energysaving lightbulbs for 98p from B&Q today. Need 2 more to complete the hse then need to find some cheap screw in ones rather than bayonet cap for the lights we read by in the front room.

I do try to be good about energy-saving bulbs but sometimes I find they can be a bit depressing. My house lacks natural light (it's overlooked on three sides) and an old-fashioned lightbulb, a really bright one, can lift my mood. Not very frugal but I suppose it's cheaper than a bottle of whisky. :rolleyes:

cornishinfens

Want to save a bit of money on your House insurance AND dissuade burglars from your home?

A lot of police forces are rolling out SMARTWATER - they are doing this at cost in most cases - you get a vial of smart water enough to dab most of the property in an average home - certainly all the nickable stuff! you also get stickers for doors and windows advertising the use of smart water. if you are burgled or items taken from your car and someone is found in possesion of the stolen items they will be arrested on suspicion of theft / burglary or handling...

Real results in high burglary area's with burglaries dropping...
Mine cost me £15.00 inc registration etc.

When you next pass your local cop shop pop in and see if they are dealing in it yet...

You can buy it from the company but they sell it at a profit!
My insurance comp knocked 5% off my premium... but i had to do a lot of talking to get it - Smartwater is still new!

http://www.smartwater.com/Home.aspx

sophiesmum_2

redglass wrote: »

I do try to be good about energy-saving bulbs but sometimes I find they can be a bit depressing. My house lacks natural light (it's overlooked on three sides) and an old-fashioned lightbulb, a really bright one, can lift my mood. Not very frugal but I suppose it's cheaper than a bottle of whisky. :rolleyes:

Glad its not just me then.A while ago I made OH take the ESL's out of the lounge as they made me feel really ill. If I spent any time in there I was getting headaches and feeling very low - changed the bulbs and never had any problems since.
Interestingly - last week we were sent a notification from the helth and sfety gurus at work to check all the ESL bulbs in the communal areas and remove any of the single tube ones which were within a few feet of where someone would be sitting, apparently these single tube unencapsulated ones ( look like a coil) have now been found to emit some kind of radiation which can affect the skin if they re in a reading lamp/bedside lamp etc within a couple of feet of you We have had to remove them to protect the company from anyone making a claim against them in the future. First i had heard of this issue

Janey51

Good morning from a Frozen Frugal Land It is really really windy and chucking it down.

I have ordered oil and the lady at the suppliers said it goes up on Monday but I can have it at today's price which is 42.5 per litre. Sounds a lot when I am getting 1000L and there is 5% VAT to add. But I will get a discount for paying promptly and as oil was 47.5 in Sept and 61.5 in Feb I am very chuffed :j

I have made a sponge cake in anticipation of visitors arriving. And I have all my storm lanterns and log baskets filled in case the power goes off. I have taken stuff out of the freezer I will need this weekend and put it on superfreeze so I don't have to open the lid and have more chance of saving the contents

DS1 and DIL came back from a posh holiday and brought me all the "free" toiletries which is great.
I have realised that using one of those net scrunchie things in the shower means a shower gel bottle lasts for ages...but I bet you already knew that :rolleyes:

Mum's Memory of the Day

Mum took evening classes in woodwork for a couple of years. I still have a video unit she made from an old walnut table. At the end of one year's lessons, the tutor brought in some home made wine. Mum was brought home in a wheelbarrow some hours later.

Brighton_belle

sophiesmum wrote: »

Interestingly - last week we were sent a notification from the helth and sfety gurus at work to check all the ESL bulbs in the communal areas and remove any of the single tube ones which were within a few feet of where someone would be sitting, apparently these single tube unencapsulated ones ( look like a coil) have now been found to emit some kind of radiation which can affect the skin if they re in a reading lamp/bedside lamp etc within a couple of feet of you

:eek: Thanks for this info sm. I will keep a close eye on this.
Redglass, I completely agree -I'm only changing where it works well. Light is really important to me too: I was fortunate enough to beable to choose where I live and i only looked at south facing properties with bay windows so I would get plenty of natural light. The energy saving bulb I just put in my hallway suprised me with how bright it is though: I was expecting gloom.

thriftylass

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Also, I'm sure someone has written somewhere that they freeze yog they later intend to use as starter for HM yoghurt. I can't get my head round the science of that: surely that wouild kill all the friendly bacteria that convert milk to yoghurt? I'd be grateful if someone could tell me if it worked. If so, I could stockpile some very cheap yogurt from asda.

Using frozen yogurt as starter should work fine, those friendly bacteria are quite resilient. It should be ok also since you can buy freeze-dried starter cultures, that contain those bacteria.

Skint_Lynne

Morning,

It's not a pleasant one here, the weather is awful. I dropped into Morrisons before opening the shop today, bought 8 tins of beans, so that cost me £2. Thanks penny2myname for pointing those out. The offer is running till next week, so I'll go in and get more, I like beans so eat a lot of them.

I don't think we'll be busy today, will perhaps close early, I'll need to see what the boss says, she nodded her head at that:p .

Just had a roll and jam for breakfast, it was nice.

Have a good day everyone.

SL x

purplevamp

Sorry to hear some of you are having bad weather. I'm just about to put my washing out in my cold but sunny garden .

I've just completed an online shop using my £10 e-voucher with Mr S. The results through mysupermarket were as follows:-

Mr T - £62.07
Mr A - £63.36
Mr S - £49.89
Mr O - £81.91

Next time I'll try Mr T and see if he's cheaper...

Have a lovely day everyone, I'm off to do washing & housework (dirty job but someone's got to do it :rotfl: )


Edit: The Mr S amount was before the e-voucher was taken off.

fitzal

Hello all,

I have just spent the past 2 days reading all of your posts (phew!). And think that what you are doing is reall great and inspiring. I am currently in a period of change, so don't have regular income/outgoings. But think I will be trying to keep up with the thread with that hope that maybe I will be able to join in at some point.

Anyway I just though I would say hi, and also give you guys something to look into (apologies if this is 'old news'). But have you read about Healthcare cash plans on this site:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/healthcare-cash-plans

I have been reading up on it and have recently signed up, and basically you pay an amount per month (£5-£30) and then you can reclaim certain amount back for things like opticians (contacts/glasses/checkups), dentist, and lots of other things.

Anyway also on the contact lense note, (I think it was T Rex who said they spent about £250 a yr), I used to get them for about £20 per month from D&A and (again I found this out on MSE) now I get exactly the same ones for £9 per month from Tesco online (which I am going to claim back from the cash plan).

Anyway I hope that helps someone.

Fitzal

Frugaldom

Good morning frugalers, it is pouring rain and high winds here today - surprise, surprise! :rolleyes: Just awaiting collection of next box of stuff from the on-going decluttering process plus I've just counted out 60 paperback books that I'll need to dispose of en masse, as I'm not taking them with me! I've a feeling I could make it to 100 before the day is out!

Sophiesmum, isn't it ridiculous the number of things that we have to do nowadays purely for the reason of avoiding being sued or penalised?

Is anyone here being charged in their areas for overfilling wheeliebins? I'm beginning to think that is how they'll 'solve' the global warming problem - just charge us all for exhaling carbon dioxide and refer to it as 'carbon offsetting' when they spend the millions constructing windfarms. Have you SEEN how many lorries and various machines it takes to build one of those 'power plants'? :eek:

Redglass, when I couldn't find a specific plan called 'Austerity Eating', I just assumed you meant basic home cooking, but I think I may have seen a picture and some sites relating to what Whitewing said. However, if it was the same, it made me think of Weezl and her pig's head (sorry Weezl) :rotfl: Must go see if I can find out how she's doing as I haven't checked that thread in a while.

I've gone off at a tangent now, but this just popped into my head - keep in mind that I may have 'media' in my name but I don't necessarily buy into media hype or spin (I hardly even glance at a newspaper, far less actually read it). On the contrary, I'm probably more of a conspiracy theorist, AKA paranoid :rolleyes: , and reckon that the New World Order theory isn't meant to be about a handful of elite politicians ruling the world whilst pretending we don't know about it. By the looks of things, it's more likely to be a bunch of judges with juries comprising ONLY health & safety officials. :rotfl: I can just hear them now, arguing the case...

Argument - M'lord, Energy suppliers and housing associations are giving away energy saving lightbulbs every single day, paying the postage, mailing them all over the country to all and sundry, costing them a fortune that's resulting in huge increases in electricity costs.

Counter argument - All these giveaways! It's ruining the price of a lightbulb, share prices are tumbling, bulb manufacturers will go bust, people will lose their jobs - millions of old bulbs will be binned, smashed and buried and there are dangerous, nay, toxic, halogen gases inside that will leak into the atmosphere, the landfills and the water table and pollute the environment. We need a get-out clause!

The (secret) big chief - I know! Let's ruin the festive period! If we start planning fast, we could be ready by mid-December!

Now for the small print - Please note that the above words are the ramblings of an overly active imagination boosted by several cups of strong, liquified caffeine mixed with a concoction of sweet, energy boosting, granulated carbohydrates and diluted with homogenised white liquid that originates from [strike] a genetically enhanced[/strike], an extremely well defined breeding programme that creates bovine creatures suitable for the job of producing sufficient quantities of the stuff in the first place. :rotfl: