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

shaz_mum_of__2

igiveup wrote: »

I'm going to be on a really low budget this year - it's always been pretty tight but this takes the (home baked) biscuit. Am student not entitled to any help rent/council tax etc, so just student loan & money from son and daughter.
Will need get p/t work later, but coursework and placement enough for now, need pace self cos have fibro.

Don't know if I can do this but need try to get by on @ £80 month for groceries, cleaning stuff / toiletries etc for self and 20 yr old son, plus things like gifts and any items. Need encouragement of like minded people !

Cheers in advance !

Hi there not sure of your circumstances but do you know as a HE student you are exempt from council tax but depending on the amount of adults in the house it may make no difference i got 25% discount as hubby and i are the only adults but single people pay nothing



Sophiesmum - do the sprouters have to be kept in a dark place ?? i am doing some mung beans(chinese beansprouts) on a tray of damp kitchen paper and my instructions say keep in dark place bit of a faff so thought sprouter might be better and our garden centre sells the for a fiver



Got the mung beans from local chinese grocer 75p for a huge bag 500g i think aiming for chow mein on sunday...




Shaz

igaveupnowimback

Thanks Shaz, I applied but because elder daughter lives here part of week she counts as 3rd adult so we don't qualify - even tho she's out of work through illness. Oh well, not exactly relishing the challenge but will be in good company on here ! Such a lot of interesting stuff I'm not sure where to start, will browse a bit and have joined monthly grocery challenge to try keep me on track.

sophiesmum_2

Shaz, mine just said to keep it out of direct sunlight but it doesn't have to go in a dark place, I just have mine in a shady corner in kitchen.OH is really getting a taste for the sprouts and eager to try different ones.

In my sprouting book it says butternut squash seeds make lovely tasting sprouts - so everytime we have a squash now I will be recycling the seeds into the sprouter - just need to dry them for a few days first. Might try and recycle lots of veggie seeds that way - peppers etc - could be interesting;) and all free nutrition:D

BB - another ingenious way of sprouting:T :T (in the cafetierre )- wish I had asked you lot first before getting mine as along with a redundant electric steamer I have a spare cafetierre:rolleyes:

Frugaldom

My moneysaving tip of the day - have a power cut for 2 hours! :rotfl: Ours went out at lunchtime and only came back on about 3.30ish, so the cooking plans went out the window. :rolleyes: But at least it settled one debate - I've decided against setting up the incubator to hatch out the quail or hen eggs, I'll just wait until I can 'cadge' some young birds from elsewhere. Not very frugal getting 2 weeks in and then losing the lot to a power cut. :eek: I can keep us warm by kindling the fire early but 8 dozen quail eggs is a different matter. :rotfl:

I had to spend £3 on milk and sugar from our nearest post office/general store, so I'm guessing a trip into town is in the offing. I saw an advert for half price Charm!n toilet rolls, which works out cheaper than the cheap stuff, so I may 'treat' us to some of that (if our local autumn meadows has it in stock). It'll compensate for having to pay top whack for sugar. The sales leaflet also mentions cheddar cheese half price and if that's in stock then I'll save myself a day trip to the main supermarket; I'll ust get the bare essentials for now and pop into the f & v / health shop for some mung beans. I've never tried sprouting anything else, but like the beanshoots for making frugal version of chow mein. (No fancy sauces, just a spot of leftover gravy mixed with soy sauce with whatever I have stir fried in the wok. Noodles, like pasta and spaghetti, are part of our staple diet here. :rotfl:

Back again, van man was at the door to collect out-going work stuff.

I've split up the lentil soup, one lot for tonight, 2 lots into freezer and on single lot into fridge for DS flask lunch tomottow. I rinsed double lot of lentils when preparing the soup, so will do the rest of these in the slow cooker tonight with mince & veggies that can be split again tomorrow. That will give me enough for cottage pie dinner and one lot to freeze for another meal. I am learning, I really am. It's taken a long time to sink in, but I think I have the hang of what it's all about now - stick to the plan the best I can!

Must find out when the coal price-rise is due so I can stock up and keep within my 2009 fuel budget. I'll also need more logs to see us through the next couple of months, then I'll have all summer to [STRIKE]stock[/STRIKE] log pile for next winter.

Stewed apples have defrosted, so I'm off to pop dinner & an apple sponge into the oven. I might even try a few baking a few choc chip cookies later to save wasting any of that heat. Still not used to the new oven yet! I forget this one doesn't overheat and burn stuff like the one in the last house. :rotfl:

fallen_angel_shelley

Just got back from MrT's and stuck to my list bar a couple of thing, staright to wok noddles ans sauce for them, they were on offer and are they handy to have for DD when she stays. total spend was £23.77p and Took £10 out of the cash point, must remember to put £3 to one side for the window cleaner. I need light bulbs when I was out and when I went to get them MrT's shelves were all most empty of them but I found some others, just hope they work. Going to try and dig out my last elec bill then read the meter and try and work out how much my elec bill is going to be, so as its not as much of a shock (no pun intended) when it arrives. think I will have one more brew befor getting the washing out of the WM, then I need to see if the bulbs are o.k, its a right pain in the you not what changing them but I can't sit here again tonight with the main light on its to bright. MrT had surf, small & might on offer £2, I love the pink one and only buy it when it's on offer, I compared it to what we normaly get and it just works out that I will get 2 less washes from it, I might try using half the amount and see if its still cleans o.k.

Shelley x

lingojingo

candygirl wrote: »

Morning all:hello:
My DD's just been to see the midwife at the docs and she reckons the baby's small:(

When i was expecting DD everything was fine until we moved house 2 months before she was due, then everyone at the new hospital kept fussing that 'this baby is much smaller than your first'. Well, she weighed 1 1/2 ounces less, but was a bit shorter and fatter than he'd been! :rotfl: (they were 8lb 1 1/2 and 8lb exactly, so not small by any means).

edited to say Nyk our summer meadows hasn't has any chrmin in stock ever since that offer began - just checked again today, don't they stock up when there is an offer

fizzel81

afternoon everyone

so much for my no spend day, got the boys a set of mr men books from the book people, we love to read so the complete set for 29.99 was enough of a bargin for me

spent 3 hours earlier and 1/8th of a bottle of star drops doing the kitchen floor to top of tiles (its tiled floor to celing) it looks great in there now, decluttered alot and have a bag of bits and bobs that im hopeing will be taken via freecycle

slight dinner change, oven baked sausgeas cooked with olive oil, sweet potato and onions with homemade chips, not sure what its going to taste like yet

just the ironing tonight, will be giving in to myself and giving ds3 his medicine before bed, but they are thinking of trying him on something else next time were at the hospital as what we currantly use doesnt always work so i tend to only use it after a week of bad nights

once the ironing is done i think im going to finish reading the book my little bro got me for xmas.

im also going to do a little planner of the bigger jobs i need to do when the boys go away next to there days (no idea when that will be though) my carpets need cleaning, curtains and the sofa as well my poor little batterd vax was tempted to hire one but there is still lots of life in mine yet

off to finish dinner

cw18

Just picked this up from the "it's tough now" thread

Maxjessdru wrote:

Bearer of even more bad news (very sorry!!!!). My OH owns a small catering wholesalers and the policies of our wonderful government have just kicked in big time. A large proportion of our food is imported from Europe, and what with the Euro/Pound exchange rate being what it is now - all of the prices have just gone sky high this week - chicken & bacon have already gone up by over 20% and we have been told will go up again next week. Can only be a matter of time before this filters through to consumer prices. I am going to stock my freezer as much as I can.

think I may be stocking up in the next day or two :eek:

fizzel81

cw18 wrote: »

Just picked this up from the "it's tough now" thread



think I may be stocking up in the next day or two :eek:

thank you think i may have to as well, chicken is very much the main meat we eat along with mince

Cat_Addict

Uh oh. Me too - I might go to Iceland and get a few bags of frozen breasts - I love those.