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

grandma247

Hello to all the newbies and congratulations to all the mums to be.
So sorry about your news Frizzel its sad to lose someone no matter what time of year.
just had to pop in and catch up after shopping and visiting DD2 and family. I went in to a cheap shop near her and they had bags of nescafe hot choc for vending machines 500g for 39p! I bought four bags but asked Dd to get me more once I had got home and tasted it. It is very good and cheaper than Mr.Ts cheapest.
Had a grumble about marge in Mr.T's they had put up [EMAIL="st@rk"]st@rk[/EMAIL] to 48p from 37p on wednesday and I have used all I bought then in cakes and biscuits. I made three more cakes yesterday 9 altogether and 90 biscuits.
I will check out other shops tomorrow to see if I can get it at the old price. We got loads of other bargains though. Brie at 35p, Vege's 8p, pies lots for 20p each,cold meats 20p a pack, yoghurts 15p, and a few other bits that I can't think of plus I got some stockpile stuff. It came to just over £52 and the trolley was overflowing.
It is getting exciting now I can't wait to get down to finalising my budget and tackling sticking to it.
Goodnight all

Buffythedebtslayer

Hugs for Fizzel, that is very hard to deal with. take care hon.xx

I was going to ramble about my budget but instead will just say thank you for the lovely thread xxxx

mini_huny_money

As to monitoring G&E - there's a thread here where a number of us are doing just that (along with a whole bunch of other folks). Why not come on over and join in [/quote]


Thanx for pointing me in the direction of that thread cw, subscribed to that thread, will post soon .......Ive just signed up with imeasure....this will be interesting to find out how much Im using.

JAMIEDODGER

Thanks for the tip CW I have just signed up to i-measure as I want to keep a close eye on my gas and electric usage in 2009. I am currently on a capped until 2011 tariff but would still like to bring my costs for the year down.

I have paid all bills up to date for 2008 and have some leftover money which I will be using to stockpile before the end of the year.

Took an inventory of toiletries yesterday and pleased to say I have enough stuff to last about 6 months:) This should help with 2009 challenge. Will be looking out for only BOGOF offers on toiletries from now on to stock up for second part of 2009.

Cleaning is another category I have looked at how I could save money, I have plenty of soapnuts left, a small box of washing powder, essential oils and washing soda. this should last me a while, although might stock up on this before new challenge starts.

sophiesmum_2

Morning Jamie and everyone else,
I'm off to stockpile cleaning stuff today too. I only need stardrops,starclens,bleach,washing soda and some dishwasher tablets. £20 should do for the year on the quantities I use.Money left in 2008 budget so will be stocking from that:D

JAMIEDODGER

Thats brilliant SM Im not sure how much I use but I expect cleaning would not exceed £50! I have 2 x £5 vouchers for tescos to use before year end but have to spend £100 to be able to use these, so that will be the start of my stockpiling for 2009, I still have quite a bit of food left and certainly enough to see me through to year end with the exception of fresh stuff. will be having a major overhaul of freezers in new year and know that I have stuff that needs to be used up. Id like to make better use of my freezers in 2009!

shaz_mum_of__2

Snow_White wrote: »

Hey another newbie :T. That's a good point about social pressure. Do you think there is less of a stigma attached to being frugal now that the recession has hit?

I don't know about stigma but coverage is huge, newspapers,magazines and tv are all doing money saving articles ..........................even gardeners world is promoting propogation and recycling ................but that could just be Toby Buckland's(new presenter) style


Fizzel sorry to hear your sad news .....................
welcome to all who are joining

Shaz

1274

First post on the 2009 thread:j. My all-in budget is £16K. I'm deliberately not breaking it down into categories, so that I can use the money any way I like, so long as it doesn't go over that total. This includes everything, mortgage, council tax, holidays etc. but not mortgage overpayments. I surprised myself (pleasantly) last year by the amount I could overpay on the mortgage, so this year's plan is to clear it (and then anyone in the 4K challenge can PM me if you're up in London and fancy a cup of tea and some (non homemade - Sorry Sophiesmum - biscuits) in my MORTGAGE FREE flat:beer:)

So, I need to earn £4K per quarter to live off. Hopefully that will happen before the end of March!

thriftyscotslass

Hi Nky,

I am new to this challenge but am keen to give it a go - please can you add me to the list. I'll post a budget later but right now am off to wrap Xmas pressies :T

lilac_lady

I've just caught up with the posts and am pleased that so many are joining the 2009 challenge. When I read through all the budgets, I am feeling slightly guilty that my one is (should be!) easier than most. I then remember that I'm retired, have had my belt tightening days (3 years) in the past so I'm sticking to my more generous one.

I'm going to use the old fashioned envelope method to separate my cash. Any surplus in one category will go into an "emergency" envelope in case I have an unexpected bill.

Raring to go!