Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 1

sophiesmum_2

Annie021063 wrote: »

How about taking some carrots to a local horses home of rest or stables, they would go down a treat.

If my DD sees these they will be off to stables for her horse and his pals although he already gets pony carrots as part of his diet.No horse sanctuaries near here anywhere - if there had been car would have been full of £1 bags of carrots - they had lots more;)

jtb2412

Had my first spend of 2009 today (food bits and bobs that I need to see me through for the next couple of weeks). Spent £38.30 so not too bad, most of what I bought was on offer too. :T

Got a sack of spuds from the farm shop which should see us good for at least a month (I'll have a batch cook-up of mash, roasties if they start to go a bit funny in a couple of weeks).

Chest freezer is totally full as is the little one so I'm really hoping not to have to go shopping for at least 2 weeks (may need some milk but that should be it).

We're having Jamie's turkey and leek pie tonight - been looking forward to that since Xmas Day lol ! Hubby has made a home-made trifle for dessert using up some of the many pots of raspberries we have in the freezer (autumn bliss from the garden this year were abundant and I have loadsss !:j ) However, it's not doing the waistlines any good but if I'm going to be anything like Mrs M (well done by the way :T - that's a fantastic loss !) then I need to learn I CAN eat some nice things, just not eat the whole pot :rotfl: so, i'll have a small portion and be done with it. We've also got lots of wine and a bottle of Baileys to get through so again, it will be a small glass and then the bottle will go away :A .

Purple_Sparkels, sorry to hear about your DM. I hope she has a speedy recovery ! Regarding the spending, we're all going to have 'emergencies' that we haven't planned for so don't be too down about it - I've no doubt unplanned spending on an emergency will happen to quite a few of us during the next year !

Sophiesmum ...... you're so lucky ! Seems like you've got the carrots sorted but I'm at a loss too as to what to do with the sprouts ......... I'd just be inclined to parboil them and stick them in the freezer in portions and pull them out when you want them. Never seen any recipes for sprout soup or chutney but i'll have a looksie for you soon and see if I can find anything in my many (100s ! :eek: of recipe books) .

I've upated sig with spends today (does anyone else hate doing that too or is it just me ? Don't like to see it going down lol)

Right, off to heat the oven up ready for Jamie's pie ! :drool:

cw18

sophiesmum wrote: »

cw will also be sending some home with you tonight , if nothing else the puppy can eat them

:T You're a real star Not sure DS will agree if he sees sprouts in the house, but my 'big pup' will love you forever and ever and ever.....

(I like them too !!)

mk_wotsit

Used a Clubcard Voucher DVD Token for a DVD tonight.

Dragged a big log home for the woodpile while dogwalking.

OH is sweeping the chimney. There's a lot of huffing and puffing going on!!

Got 2pks of seed potatoes from b+Q for £5

kittiej

Well I'm off to Lidls in a bit. I just knew I'd have to spend money today (big groan) . I need sugar and might as well get 12 pints of milk whilst I'm there.

I hope they haven't got stollen reduced cos I think it's yummy.

Have to try and avoid the vodka as well.

savingfortravel

HELP!!!!!!!!!I knew I'd regret not copying the spicy carrot soup recipe down....help!!!! wanted to make some!!!!

Sophiesmum-Love the 'Aims for today' and 'Frugal Menu'.. might jump on your bandwagon if thats ok.. and 'Fitter not fatter' has appealed to me too, Nykmedia...3 months till the MS wedding.

Frugal Achievements of the day:

• Non-Car Day-OH walked to town and back. Both walked to Tesco and back earlier.
• Tesco result-Used £2 worth of MOC in Tescos to pay for 6 packs of 250g British Mince, 90p each=all in came to £3.40, OH told me by bulking out with porridge he can make 36 dinners. Result! Pleased that it wasn't a processed whoopsie as he shouldn't eat too much processed meat. Also saved 1.98 on some facial washes... and Bought the Express for 70p. It has TV mag (we usually buy one for 37p) and it has £1.70 of non-store specific vouchers...so should be about £1 better off.
• Taken the plunge and bought the Fridge for the shed... £130 from currys..pick it up ourselves so cuts delivery charge of £19.99 and is A grade efficent. Just as well with the mince situation.
• (Very sad confession)..found a receipt for Tesco clubcard points on the pavement.. will add to our total. Want to pay for our breakdown cover again this year... Then use clubcard points for weekends away at Youth Hostels.. there are some very nice ones, with private rooms and you can self cater making a really cheap break in some beautiful locations. Tesco has paid for our YHA hol accom in Pembrokeshire and North Devon in the past.

Frugal Menu for today

• Missed breakfast...not to save money however..
• Homemade spicy parsnip soup for lunch with white bread, half apple and slice of cheese.
• Homemade fish pie using up remaining piece of frozen salmon and BOGOF prawns. Usually can make 4 portions out of this amount of fish.

Sorry for long post.

SFT

1st_time_mum

Hi all,:j

After having slept half the day away (and with heating on full...oh the shame!!:o) , I've been taking some action on a few of the things on my to do list. I figure small steps in the right direction is better than no action at all.

So, I've contacted severn trent about getting a free water meter installed and they should get back to me early next week.
This should roughly take my water bill from £564pa down to £220pa approx. Although maybe it will be slightly more when baby comes in Feb...but still, thats saving something!! (whats the consensus...is a water meter ok for 2 adults in a 2 bed semi-detached?? My mum swears that water meters are the spawn of the devil...but when pushed she and other rellies haven't given any valid reasons to stop me going down this route!:mad: ......whats the MSE opinion on them???!!)

I joined i-measure today.:j I'm looking closly at my gas & elec suppliers current package, whilst I'm deciding whether to move companies, i thought it would be good to track my gas/elec useage and mend my ways. Every little helps!:p Last year we paid mnthly DD's for £24pm & 45pm. I'm sure this is high as we are always always at mum and hardly cook at home...plus I'm in credit on my account by a few hundred pounds, why is that??:eek: Can't i pay my bills exactly for what I have used, rather than storing up credit?? That money could be used for bump's new pushchair or cot!!....grrrr :mad:

Also today, I emailed Work to get them to confirm in writing my mat pay, this should help a lot with budgeting and living within my means.
I also asked them to look into my bupa plan, although the company have a really good package and they contribute a significant amount, we just don't need it, my hubby is never easily ill and as an expecting mum I get stuff on the NHS exemption card. Basically I'll cancel this year and if we are better off situation maybe join again next year. Anyway thats a saving of £24pm.:D

Ok, so thats all the changes that I can make for now, I'm going to at some point,work on the kitchen cupboard inventory and menu planning:eek: ....however just thinking about it is making me feel tired:eek: .....I think its round to mums for tea tonight!!!:T Being pregnant I'm resisting cooking even more than I usually do....I wish OH could/would cook.

Ok, I'm off to get changed out of my PJ's...:o ...I know!!! Cath up with you all later on!!


Love,
1st time mum
:A

wornoutmumoftwo

OK, well I've done my big shop at Tesco's so my spreadsheet worked out quite well.
Still have a few bits to get but run out of money until Thursday.

I spent £70,;

including 3 chickens and 3 lots of minced beef and lots of veg, all I need to do now is have a major cooking session.

Went to lidl for my bread flour as the tesco one was marked up at 75p in the extra store?

My NTL bill went out today - £33, I've redone my contract so it should be £28 in future months providing I don't ring mobiles or 0845 numbers so I am going to sit and put my numbers in the saynoto0870.com site.

Electric - I am on a PPM, so I deduct it daily (I'm obssessed with electric), at the moment it's £5 a month as the immersion heater switch is bust and I can't turn it off, so it's costing me about £2 a day more then it should. I will be getting this fixed at some point this month.

That's it for now.

BTW - Tesco 5kg potato bags are half price, plus a lot of other veg if anyone needs to stock up.

Oh, and we got a £30 christmas tree down B&Q for a fiver.

bails

Hi all and happy new year, hope you had a lovely time! I see you've been v busy posting - p51! - so lots to catch up on. Back sometime...:D

1st_time_mum

P.S. the great thing about being really lazy and not leaving the house very often, means I have lots of NSDs so far this year and during most of DEC....:j :beer:


Love,
1st time mum
:A