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

shaz_mum_of__2

Sophiesmum - how much do you pay for juice at costco i need to replenish low stocks of orange,grapefruit,cranberry and pomegranite juice and wondered how much it is nowadays last orange juice i bought was 31p per litre:eek: i bet its nearly 3 x that now



I am also an advocate of value washpowder (and dishwas tabs broken in half of course) the only other one i get is easy lavender from poundstretchers 79p for a small box with 30% free



Nyk get the shed built when the gales subside and reclaim the pantry i have been rearranging mine and will post pics later ...its not as neat as sophiesmums though

Back to uni tommorrow and on cue caught some kind of bug.............three weeks off and i get ill on the last day
Shaz



Shaz

mk_wotsit

Packets of Seeds are 19p in Netto

I got 30 pks of veg and flower seeds yesterday. They were all 19p!
I had some last year. Germination was good but my giant yellow sunflowers turned out to be small red ones!

.

cw18

finally got a breathing space -- and my living room back

Elder DS has been deposited at airport -- and I've since had a text to say the airline decided to accept his military card and travel warrant, but only after a "heated debate". If they hadn't accepted it, then I'd have had to head straight back out to pick him up again :eek:


Deffo not an NSD for me -- not even in terms of challenge spends.....

My bill at Costco came in at £142.56 :eek: :eek: :eek:

However, £46.89 of that is crafting items -- which I'm not counting out of my budget, but am monitoring over the year (£20.45 of this was photo paper, as I can get through a lot of that due to my scrapbooking, and I now have 300 sheets of 4"x6" and 150 sheets of A4).

A further £11.14 is to be billed to my younger DS. He's responsible for paying for food and drink when at college (out of his EMA money), and normally gets his bottles of pop at 2 for £1. Costco had trays of 24 for £11.69+vat, but one of the current voucher books (which someone had kindly left untouched in my trolley ) had a £2 off the type he said to get for him when I phoned home. So this works out at around 46.5p/bottle instead of his normal 50p. (only a small saving, but a saving none the less!)

Then theres a £4.71 block of cheese for DD

And I need to find out how much of the chicken breasts and pack of bacon she wants to take off my hands....

If she takes half the chicken and bacon, then that's another £13.64 which doesn't come out of my budget

So I guess I'm probably looking at around £66.18 today

For which I got

2x6pts full fat milk (£1.69 each - normal cheapest is £1.49/4pt from A!di)
large tub crushed chillies
large tub italian seasoning
100 swing bin liners (normally use 1 a week, plus possibly an extra one every couple of months -- so about 60 a year - but expect to need extra due to major dejunk I need to start tomorrow)
2.2kg of frozen chicken breast fillets (plus the same again for DD. these are £4.40/kg compared to £3.57 for S/Price, but they don't have any added water and I'm told by friends they use 2 of these instead of 3 pricier supermarket ones)
4l bottle of R0binsons 'no added sugar' orange cordial (GDs like this - good price for a "label" at £1.95, and only slightly dearer per litre than Mr A as I don't like the S/Price)
bag of babybel (22 in the bag for £3.79, compared to £1.58 for 6 at Mr A - the one 'luxury' item I bought that isn't normally on my list)
1.135kg of unsmoked back bacon (the other half of the 2.27kg pack to go to DD)
36 fish fingers (omega 3 type from B/Eye) - I normally get the 49p for 10 and we have 6 each, making 30p/portion. Figured these are nicer, so if I cut us back to 4 each that makes it 40p/portion. Much the same price as at Mr A as these are one of the £1 deals they've just launched, but saved making a special trip for them.
1.3kg block of mature cheddar
10 tins of tuna chunks in brine (came in at 45p per 185g tin compared to 55p/tin for S/Price)
12 litres of pure orange (47.8p/litre compared to 56p/litre for S/price)
12 tins chopped toms (30.75p/tin compared to 33p for S/price, and they're a nicer brand)
24 tins Br@nston Beans (22.8p/tin compared to 29p for S/price - and nowhere near me has offers on any ATM)

so I made the most of SM's very kind offer to take me to Costco, and stocked up on several bits that have saved me on my shopping over the next few months

plus another £2 for the mushrooms SM got for me yesterday :T (and which elder DS started to help himself to as soon as I brought them in from the car -- should have remembered to leave them in the boot until I'd got rid of him :rolleyes2)

sophiesmum_2

Shaz the OJ is princes and is £5.74 for 12 cartons. SP orange juice is currently 56p so it beats that at just over 47p a litre:D
The cranberry and pomegrannate are sold in packs of 6 and are more expensive at around £4+ a pack but that is for ocean spray etc.
There are quite often offers on the OJ at costco too when I stock up on a few more.

jtb2412

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Ohhhhh dear ! Hubby is cooking dinner tonight (as I mentioned before) and he's just put cinnamon (instead of pepper) in the mashed potato !!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

This is going to be interesting (he scraped most of it out but there is a dinstinct hint of it) - I shall return and let you know how it tastes - could be a new culinary delight :rotfl: ......... either that or we're going to be very hungry later tonight :rolleyes:

sophiesmum_2

jtb2412 wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Ohhhhh dear ! Hubby is cooking dinner tonight (as I mentioned before) and he's just put cinnamon (instead of pepper) in the mashed potato !!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

This is going to be interesting (he scraped most of it out but there is a dinstinct hint of it) - I shall return and let you know how it tastes - could be a new culinary delight :rotfl: ......... either that or we're going to be very hungry later tonight :rolleyes:

:rotfl: :rotfl: Ooops, smother it with gravy might hide the taste;)

cw18

fizzel81 wrote: »

2 cake mixs (i wanted the cookie cutters with them) 40p

I've been guilty of that one in the past too :rotfl:

I was eyeing some up for the same reason last week (or was it the week before), and managed to talk myself out of it as they weren't reduced !!!

fizzel81

hehe they were intg ones so wanted the cutters for the boys, we will still make them up so worth the price for them, the cutters are plastic so can reuse them

i need to start on utlity room once little ones in bed, if i can move the loo roll/cleaning stuff into there i can then have more space for a storecupboard, i then need to rehome my carpet washer to someplace else in the house, the ironing board and a pile of cardboard, get some more plastic storage boxs with lids and i will duble stock cupboard space, there is only a few shelfs in there and its on an outside wall so there is slight damp, using plastic boxs makes it a bit easier to store things in as the damp doesnt affect them (and only get the damp in there in the winter

looby-loo_2

Welcome - you just have to get into a different mind set, try to avoid the big shops, shop local with a list and when you feel tempted ask yourself if you really need it

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Hi after spending the last 11 days lurking on the sideline Ive decided I am going to join in, if thats OK with everyone. I have been keeping to my budget of £668 per month since 01-01-09 which equals to £8019. a year. Ive come to this amount by including everything I spend money on including annual expenses which I just divide by 12 and add to my monthly expenses. I notice lots of you count your child allowances in your monthly spends, I dont have one but I do have two pensions and live on a set amount each month. I live alone so it makes sense to me to include everything I spend out on and try and reduce some things as I go along so that I can perhaps have a holiday in 2009 or 2010 and maybe geta bit of cash put by for emergencies.

Ive included the list of monthly expenses so hopefully wil get some input of where to cut down/out.

Heating oil £100
TV Licence £11.61
Charities £4.00
Council tax £98.00
Water and sewerage £23.00
Insurances £67.70
That includes personal, dental, kitchen appliances, Car, Buildings and Contents.
CCP £1.50
Towards Next Christmas £25.00
Car MOT and Service £21.00
Magazines £ 16.00 have already cancelled 2 subscriptions this year.
All credit card purchases. £ 200.00
This includes Food, Petrol, Cleaning materials, Gardening stuffs, Toiletries, Clothes and Shoe repairs.
Telephone, broadband, mobile and 18185 £42.00
Dancing £20.00
Electricity £40.00
I hope Ive printed this on the right place.