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

redglass_2

I finally caught up again! :j Nice to see so many enthusiastic people posting, though I may have to start skim-reading or speed-reading or something unless i want to spend all day at the computer.

Hello to everyone. I sympathise with the person who posted (who was that?) and put all the different symbols on, hugs etc, as she couldn't remember who had said what. I reached that stage some time ago, so will just say: Commiserations, congratulations, well done, keep at it, better luck next time, hooray, how annoying, fair enough, my point exactly, where did you find that, welcome, welcome back! :rotfl:

Have just made my first order from Approved Foods and feeling very excited...

bails

glendam wrote: »

Only good thing was didn`t pop in for the usual latte and muffin. So probably saved £4 there alone. Good job i am only in training.
Glenda

This reminded me of something I was going to mention, which may help some other people. Because my earning capacity is very limited, my main focus is trying to streeeetch my money as far as possible. Quite often though you do things, like Glenda, where you choose not to buy something or get a cheaper alternative etc etc - it makes you feel good at the time but that can soon be forgotten with all the money you feel you're haemorraging elsewhere! So last year I started adding up what I'd saved myself by doing these little things...and the result was staggering! It was easily over £5000 :j(maybe more but I didn't keep 100% records) and I am by no means a big spender. I didn't physically have this amount of money put away, as the 'saving' then got spent on something more worthwhile, but it really helped give me a psychological boost that all my hard work was paying off; I could 'value' it in some way. So I'll be doing this again this year, as well as keeping a total of any physical savings I have in my pots.
Just a thought, especially for those of you who love number crunching

Skint_Lynne

Good morning frugallers,

The thread is moving fast, but I know things will settle down when everyone is back at work, it's great to get all the tips though.

Today, I went back to boots with my £5 vouchers (I had 4). I rummaged around the no7 and ruby millie kiosks, and thought that make up has really went through the roof since my youth:p .

My thing is lotions and potions and in my spending days would think nothing of spending £50 on a pot of face cream:eek: .

Today, I got some clearance no7 moisturisers, which cost £5.62, so brought it down to 62p with my voucher (I got 3 of these), that's all that was left.

I got a no7 facewash as well, £7.34 so, cost me £2.34. I spent a total of 4.36 on my haul, which would have cost 24.20, so have saved £19.84. But, I had a look on the boots website and searched for the cream I bought. They have put it into new packaging, hence the clearance of it. It costs 11.24 usually, so if I look at it that way, I have actually saved myself 31.86:T :T

I think I might be getting the hang of this now!!

angelatgraceland

cw18 wrote: »

I've not built in lessons for my son either, but as they're not a year-on-year cost I made a decision not to. They (like my crafting) will come out of the income I have above my £8k budget, as they're things that could/would be stopped if income dropped any lower. Mine doesn't actually seem that bothered about learning -- he'd had a couple of free lessons (he was registered with Connexions from Jan-Aug '08, and they paid for his provisional licence as well :T), but can't see the point in learning while he can't afford a car -- and I certainly can't afford to put him on my insurance :eek:

Is that £30 for an hour? They're not that much here (thinks DD's latest quote was around £22), but one of our neighbours is a fairly newly qualified instructor and has said we'll get a 'family and neighbours' discount if we go with him I guess it's to his advantage though, as no dead driving at the start/end of a lesson if DS is his first or last of the day -- plus if neighbour gets a cancellation he can easily check if DS is around to change a lesson and fit in......

Its for an hour and a half. He did start learning last year and didn't get on with the instructor whereas he is doing well with this one who is one of his mates Dads(a qualified instructor). My main hope in getting him his licence is that its one more ace up his sleeve to get a job. Although he won't bother with a car until he is working, a lot of the jobs he would have liked to apply for did require a licence so it would just extend his opportunities. It is one thing that will go up year on year oso the sooner he passes the better. He thinks he is paying half(when he gets a job)which gives him incentive to try harder if he thinks he is paying for it too. In fact-we will pay for it but Im not letting on until he has passed! Once you have your licence thats it-after all-can always have a couple of refresher lessons if needed.
Another expense this week will be bees as we are not sure if our hive will survive so will invest in an extra one for the spring/summer. May just pay the deposit for now as the bees are £130-undecided though as they may give preference to those customers who have paid in full and some places do actually run out of bees. We used to sell honey but have had 2 disastrous years with the bees dying-we are not alone on that.

Bails-Ive spend money rewarding my efforts of all of this moneysaving by buying myself and DD some theatre tickets. Its something Ive not done before so I got my neighbour to help me as she has access to a discount and also is an avid theatre goer. Im seeing Joseph on 13th Jan as my DD wanted to see it and have also booked to see the "Elvis on tour"(Lee memphis king)-that will be good also as my neighbour will drive us to that one as she is seeing it also and she parks at a friends house not far away so no parking or petrol. Have booked 2 more shows also later in the year so all those bargains and cut backs have paid for something which #I would have regarded as luxury. Paid for last year so no expense on this budget either. It is good to have a reward for your efforts sometime. Bristol Hippodrome-here we come!

angelatgraceland

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Ok Im setting my total for £12,000

This is for everything which inlcudes:

Rent £6900.00
Gas £840.00
Elec £720.00
Card £100.00 but need to ring them up as dont know how much paid off
Tv Licence £240.00 (dont know if this is right but pay £5 a week at mo)
Dvd rental £152.52
Phone £550
Food £1200.00
Water £270.84
Internet £432.00

Total £11,405.36

I know some things are pretty high but they will change when contracts end and some things paid off and i will be putting what i should of paid into savings hopefully.
Im thinking of changing my Tv licence to every 3 months as dont know why i pay £20.00 a month and it works out dearer.
Hopefully this is all correct

Income is £13,560.00 per year

left over is £2154.64

Works out at £1000 a month for everything.

Money after bills will go in my "everything else pot"

Your phone and internet sounds rather expensive? I pay approx £25 per month for the 2 combined and my calls are free to other "normal" landlines and also most calls abroad. Its unlimited package too. Could you make some savings there? Yours seems to be about 3 times the cost of mine. We have 5 people using ours so we really do benefit from it and its 24/7 not just after 6pm or weekends.

sophiesmum_2

bails wrote: »

This reminded me of something I was going to mention, which may help some other people. Because my earning capacity is very limited, my main focus is trying to streeeetch my money as far as possible. Quite often though you do things, like Glenda, where you choose not to buy something or get a cheaper alternative etc etc - it makes you feel good at the time but that can soon be forgotten with all the money you feel you're haemorraging elsewhere! So last year I started adding up what I'd saved myself by doing these little things...and the result was staggering! It was easily over £5000 :j(maybe more but I didn't keep 100% records) and I am by no means a big spender. I didn't physically have this amount of money put away, as the 'saving' then got spent on something more worthwhile, but it really helped give me a psychological boost that all my hard work was paying off; I could 'value' it in some way. So I'll be doing this again this year, as well as keeping a total of any physical savings I have in my pots.
Just a thought, especially for those of you who love number crunching

Never actually added up these sorts of savings Bails, but this is the sort of thing that i encourage people to post on the small dfw things thread. I think it is great to keep you motivated just keeping track of the small stuff, and like you say the amounts saved can be huge over a period of time - which all frees up money for other stuff:D It certainly makes your money work harder for you :T Firstly you resist spending it by tactics such as the above, then when you do spend it you have searched for best deals,cashback, sales etc before parting with it, so when you finally do spend it wisely it is doing the job previously done by much larger amounts. In effect being frugal means you spend less time working to accumulate the same goods/services as others who don't do the above:beer: Hope that makes sense:rolleyes: :rolleyes:


Almost forgot -I got £10 tonight by default as OH won the football card at party and won £20 of which he gave me half

eilo1007

Hi folks
Still have not spent a penny yet this year. Though haven't been out the house since New year's day. I think I may be oming down with the cold
. Need to buy shampoo tomorrow as ended up using shower stuff for my hair this morning. Also have to get lunch stuff for going back to work on Monday. we have a kitchen in the staff base so i may just take the stuff in and make up sandwiches at lunch time. Saves me preparing in the evening.

I had never thought of freezing milk before but a lot of people have talked about it on here. I only use a little drop of milk a day. If I keep old 1pint bottles, can I fill them up from a bigger bottle then freeze them and how long does the milk keep once brought out the freezer?

Someone was asking about the TV licence. If you pay by quarterly direct debit you pay a bit more as they slap on interest. It's somewhere btween a fiver and a tenner a year I think.

Right, off to bed! Should be church in the morning but we'll see how the sniffles are and if they have turned into the dreaded lurgy.
Night Night
Eilo x

sophiesmum_2

eilo1007 wrote: »

Hi folks
Still have not spent a penny yet this year. Though haven't been out the house since New year's day. I think I may be oming down with the cold
. Need to buy shampoo tomorrow as ended up using shower stuff for my hair this morning. Also have to get lunch stuff for going back to work on Monday. we have a kitchen in the staff base so i may just take the stuff in and make up sandwiches at lunch time. Saves me preparing in the evening.

I had never thought of freezing milk before but a lot of people have talked about it on here. I only use a little drop of milk a day. If I keep old 1pint bottles, can I fill them up from a bigger bottle then freeze them and how long does the milk keep once brought out the freezer?

Someone was asking about the TV licence. If you pay by quarterly direct debit you pay a bit more as they slap on interest. It's somewhere btween a fiver and a tenner a year I think.

Right, off to bed! Should be church in the morning but we'll see how the sniffles are and if they have turned into the dreaded lurgy.
Night Night
Eilo x

Yes you can refill the 1 pint bottles just wash out thoroughly first, and leave a tiny space for expansion when it freezes. When it defrosts just give it a shake/stir and it then lasts its normal shelf life.:D

bails

Right, I am finally caught up now so no more posting okay? Great to see so much enthusiasm and it's frugal really as none of us will ever have any time to spend any money as we'll be so busy reading on here :rotfl:
Def sleeping now as still poorly here too - would be already but OH annoyed me (a rare thing thankfully) and I had to calm down. He of course is sound asleep :rolleyes: Need to plan my lessons tomorrow and practise my sign language so shout at me if you see me on here lots
Hugs to those with family in hospital or ill x
ps anyone for a sweepstake on the first frugalmite to arrive? Pips seems to be in for good! Or we could guess/pick names? Okay, okay, I'm going now...:D

Kittikins

:j morning everyone

With all my freecycled magazines from different sources I should be shot if I dare to buy any more until the end of the year (unless they have a can't live without freegift, lol) - I had a fun time sorting them out by month and read the December issues snuggled up under a blanket on the sofa. Rock n roll eh?:rolleyes:

Feeling a bit grr this morning, my BG bills came in online for duel fuel - gas was ok, I seem to use 1 unit a day (for heating, water and hob), leccy....well, my direct debit is far too low for the amount I'm using which is distressing as apart from being a bit naughty and leaving TV/freeviewbox/ modem on standby overnight, everything else gets turned off the moment it's served its purpose. I had a £63 shortfall on my bill, so decided to pay it off in full now and work out ways of cutting my usage.

Luckily I bought a 2nd hand standard size remoska just before Christmas so hopefully I won't use the cooker again (although had to put it on the other day for a pizza, will have to make our own and make 'em small :rotfl: )

Off to be beaten at bowling again in a bit