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

Marru

Good morning!

Another NSD planned here. I have promised DD that if she doesn't come to "help" me with the washing up, I will take her to the play ground later. Thank goodness I got her to change Fimbles to Chicken Run as that daft frog was driving me insane.

Too many posts to comment all just hoping everyone will have the best day possible is it quiet, productive, relaxing...

SM: I was browsing a Gary Rhodes cook book yesterday and he had a recipe where he made risotto and then finely grated sprouts and blanched them for a minute and added to the risotto and then made cakes of them to fry on the frying pan. I am sure you know what I mean.

Other option would be to coarsly chop sprouts, blanch them, boil rice, brown mince, grate carrot and put it all in the owen dish with some stock and let cook until the stock has been soaked into the stuff and the top browned. nom nom nom...

As I only started to sort out my kitchen yesterday I need to finish it today, take DD out, write application letter for a job and that is me done.

Frugalistically fantastic day to all,

Marru

fizzel81

morning back from asda

1st time round grabbed 10 bottles of activfizz and then straight to tills, assistant put them all through and then was scanning the 10 coupons through and said she had to call a superviser, apparantly can only use 3 of the same coupons at any time ho hum, brought the 10 home, then we went up a second time

3 in one transaction with a roll of black sacks (ive run out) and 3 with a bag of apples, the bloke serving didnt bat an eyelid, i reckon if it wasnt getting busy i could have carried on hehe

not going back up today if all else i have 16 bottles now, i think 2 times today is enough plus they didnt have as much stock as yesterday of them

just off to find somewhere to put them, felt a little the 2nd time round for going into asda twice

gillst_2

sophiesmum wrote: »

Good morning frunchkins:D

My general aims for today are:

• get batch cooking and be productive with the sprouts and carrots
• make a loaf in breadmaker
• join Nyk on the "fitter not fatter" challenge and go swimming
• update spreadsheets
• reduce. reuse or recycle at least one item - today's item -buffet food
• Do one thing just for fun -
• go to costco for oldies, see if any bargains for me whilst there
• clean house with stardrops and microfibre cloths

Today's frugal menu:

• muesli with HM yoghurt and fruit, OJ
• salmon/egg mayo sandwiches leftover from buffet, satsuma
• tuna pasta salad left over from buffet with shredded carrot/chickpea salad

F&V portions - 2 Veg ,3 Fruit, 1 Pulses

Today's extra income / expenditure

How do you find time for all this - you are so organised. It is as much as I can do to just stay on top of reading this thread. DH keeps asking why I am spending so much time on the computer - he's a bit confused when I answer "saying us money":j

dND

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

To those of you that grow your own can you recommend the easiest ones for a terrible gardener such as myself?

(I'm ok with potatoes and peas)

Just found this place for seeds; http://www.alanromans.com

I always have good results with Suttons, Unwins and Mr Fotheringills. It's Thompson and Morgan that I can't get on with even though other peole swear by them and can't get Suttons to grow Lidl packets tend to have slightly smaller amounts of seed but are cheap and I've had good results with those.

So I would buy from more than one supplier and see how you get on with each brand - remembering that some seeds are harder to germinate than others anyway.

Deborah

JAMIEDODGER

jtb2412 wrote: »

I also think (my own opinion) that Mr T's has scuppered Asda's plans to open a store in Bognor Regis (maybe JamieDodger might know more about this?) ...... seems funny that they didn't even get past the first hurdle .... I know I'd have definitely gone there for my shopping instead of Mr T's or S'bury !

Jtb - yes I think you are right about that....and totally annoyed about it I am!!!:mad: I use tescos but my nearest asda is in havant!!!! would have been good to see some healthy competition for tescos!!!

lilac_lady

Hi to all you fellow frugalites.

Spent £6.41 in local co-op yesterday. I was VERY careful with my purchases and bought some reduced stuff so felt that my year's started off well. I hope I can say it ended well in December!

I've decided my financial week will start every Monday with me drawing £50 from the ATM as I have to leave the rest of the week's money to cover car and insurance bills.

I visualise my £4000 as a big stack of notes that I don't want to spend. It'll be an interesting year.

Edited to say that I'm not going to list everything I spend here but will deduct the money from my total in my signature.

Raychee

Hello

Just wanted to say that this challenge is making me think!

I've started to write down everything I'm spending now. I had a habit of just getting the card out and whacking it on there. I'm now getting the cash I need out at the beginning of the week, and when it's gone, it's gone!

Fab thing is, I've only spent 60p this year! Think I can go without shopping for a couple more days, then need to stock up on some fruit and veg.

Thanks for introducing me to a new way of thinking!

Raychee

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!!!
Looking forward to catching up with thread as I do some school work. Each time I complete something I'm allowed to read 3 posts.

Aims for today (copyright SM)

• Nyk's Fitter not fatter* (copyright Nyk) campaign-I will walk to Tesco..searching for those illusive Branston beans/or pick up raincheck voucher. Will use some Money off coupons. Look in reduced section etc..
• NCD-Not no car day*..we've already had to use it but a No Choc Day..Wish me luck
• Use Boots Gift Card -only £5 but I'll see what I can get.. reading some of the posts on here has inspired me.
• Pick up new freezer and install.
• Cook ham pies (using frozen ham from Xmas) and mince pies (my friend was given homemade mincemeat in a pretty jar for Christmas but doesn't like the stuff. Plan to use the jar-with fresh label for a present for next year).

Todays menu:

• Breakfast: Apple
• Lunch: HM spicy parsnip soup with bread
• Dinner: Deep fried camembret with aubergene chutney, roast potatoes, carrots and peas. Brother gave me camembret for Xmas so found this BBC Good Food recipe to try.

I will......start decluttering spare bedroom. I will spend time on exercise bike*.

SFT

P.S. OH is the meat eater not me!!

HH62

Hello everyone - too many posts for me to read to comment on each but hugs to those who need them, especially those of you who are suffering with colds and flu !

Well so much for my NSD today...:o
I spent £15.30 on train fare yesterday as expected. Saved on a bottle of wine as my relly insisted I shouldnt take a bottle round to her house - very kind of her - so I saved £7 on that. But...I had three train connections to make and it was rather freezing hanging round waiting for trains, so I ended up buying a very overpriced and hideous coffee at one station, along with a chocolate bar...sum total of unecessary impulse spends, £2.54..
Spent nothing else yesterday and had yummy food at the party.:j

This morning,coming home again on train ended up in M & S Simply Food on the railway station and spent... £11.51 again on impulse buys that I don't really need

Still not got over the shock :eek: of the £72 renewal fee for my passport, but I have to renew it. The money comes out of my £600 for the month because that's my total income, so I have to include it...

Today I'm busy at home, catching up on posts on here and trying to sort out my storecupboard for some meal ideas.

Hope everyone's keeping warm, it's cold up here in rural Cheshire, been trying to snow.

loveday69

Hi All,

Just thought I'd mention a couple of money savers that I haven't noticed mentioned yet (if I've missed them just ignore me)

Homepage friends search engine gives cashback and cash for clicks http://www.myhpf.co.uk/mypage.asp?OrgId=306258

I don't have a tv as I don't agree with the extotionate license fee but you can watch tv on the internet at zatoo http://zattoo.com/ it's legal to watch without a license and it's in real time so your programs are on at the same time as on tv.

For catch up tv there's bbc iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ or itv catchup http://www.itv.com/catchup/

Hope that's helpful - hope I've done the links ok