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

xnatalie81x

Really really pleased! Decided to check out topcashback and saw they have an 18% cashback on body shop, so followed link and found birthday pressies for sis, mum, mum in law and dad in the sale for a total price of £25!!!! Bargain i hear you say but then i got really cheeky and found this DHAD000994 discount code which then applied a £2.50 discount!!!!!!!!!!!! so with the 18% cashback total pressie price for them all is just under £20!!!!!!

My present budget is 240 for the year and now i just have 1 more sister and my 3 kids and 2 neighbours' kids!!! (plus the extra bday parties son gets invited to)

Quick question would you count this as 22.50 off your budget until you get your cashback and then amend or just call it 22.50 and then keep the cashback as a treat for yaself.

On a roll here - sold my running machine today for 150 and i am getting organised with b'days A REAL FIRST FOR ME

JAMIEDODGER

evening guys!

Just been working on spreadsheet and updating it after this weekends spends.

Spent so far £116.39

Budget 19.08 per day x 11 days = £209.88

Still well within budget:T

Off to update signature, then off to bed, catch up with all of you tomorrow:)

xnatalie81x

ps body shop also sent me 2 more 10% off codes pm if you want them one expires in 1 month, the other lasts till midnight 31st may 09 - quite a few sale items left too

Sarah147

Evening all, just a quick catch up on the forum whilst watching Celebrity Big Brother. Nice low spending day today; just the NOTW and a bag of crisps, £1:15 in total. So pleased with that.

And also a very productive day, got loads sorted, washing all done, made a beautiful veggie quorn lasagne and planned my food "intake" for the rest of the week. Tomorrows lunch and tea already in fridge ready to grab tomorrow morning when I will wake, zombie like, ready to go to work.

Going to a free cinema screening tomorrow night ('Milk'- looks very good) and I am very determined I will not spend money when I am there, I am taking my tea with me. Believe me, this is progress, inspired by you lot!). I must remember to redeem my £5 Boots voucher tomorrow though (fancy a nice nail varnish as I seem to have lost all mine in the de-cluttering :rotfl: ), think it will cost around £1.50 extra on top of the voucher so will see if I can pay with that with my card points.


Edit: I have decided that I am going to bite the bullet and go for this challenge proper, instead of just trying to spend as little as possible. Why the hell not eh?! Nyk, please can you add me to the list? I think it will inspire me to go that extra mile and start recording things properly [rushes off to log onto online banking and get spends]

Skint_Lynne

sophiesmum wrote: »

The chicken fillets we bought today had a freeze until 2010 date on them and the pork joint we had for out tea tonight has been in there at least 12 months and was still as moist as the day it was bought.

Thanks for that sophiesmum, I'll defo get theirs emptied asap and mine too, then get them defrosted to start over again. I might even try and buy my chest freezer at the end of the month. DH decided that we needed a new suite, he is buying it, but wants me to get new carpets (which we don't need). I'll clean the carpets downstairs and maybe get new ones upstairs and a freezer while I'm at it:D . The carpets upstairs do actually need replacing as they are getting a bit manky and have been cleaned a few times now, so this spend is justifiable.

Getting back to shopping, my mum can go through about £300 a week as an educated guess on shopping:eek: , 5 of them and sam (the shi-tzu) live in the house still, 6 children with 3 still at home and me most of the time as well. She also sends me most nights after work for something she has forgotten to get or run out of.

My dad said today that it is funny that my oldest brother is a spendthrift like my mum and I think about money and what to do with it like he does. I am learning so much more on here now. Your menus always sound really nice and yet, comapred to a lot of people, you don't spend that much on food and you certainly don't live a basic lifestyle by any manner or means. Keep posting all, you are helping me out big time.:D

wornoutmumoftwo

Good evening everyone,

I've been busy in the kitchen cooking and trying to get some sort of inventory system up and running.

I havn't been to good (frugal wise) as I bought two gardening magazines - they DID have free seeds though, gave me some info and I found a place that sells cheap greenhouses which I'm considering investing in as I had a disaster in the garden last year and would like to do better this year.

The mini plastic greenhouse things I bought last year are ok but the plastic on both are ripped beyond repair.

I made some soup this weekend - tomorrow I'm doing a paella without any fish in it, just chicken and veg. Fingers crossed it works.

bails

Hi all, I'm only up to the end of p98 but just wanted to say, my friends in Cumbria who we visited at New Year have a pantry with sconces in -both OH and I were in love with the place! If I can I'll get a photo, you'd love it!
Lying on the floor with a bad back so can't catch up properly now but will do soon x

sophiesmum_2

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

Getting back to shopping, my mum can go through about £300 a week as an educated guess on shopping:eek: , 5 of them and sam (the shi-tzu) live in the house still, 6 children with 3 still at home and me most of the time as well. She also sends me most nights after work for something she has forgotten to get or run out of.

SL - At that rate there must be lots of stuff getting thrown out or wasted - You should go on a mission to liberate any stuff not getting used and make use of it. Sure your dad would rather see you use stuff up than it being wasted;)

Skint_Lynne

You are right, there was (and the 300 did not include takeaways and meals out), she likes Marks and Spencers, so there is the answer. She also used to fill the freezer with all sorts and then give it away to people.

She is not very well just now, so not much has been getting spent, I have actually been taking the meals round for a few weeks, but can't keep doing it for nowt as there is a lot of them. Her freezer still has a fair bit in it though, so I will empty it for them moving house, no use in carrying loads of stuff to there.

She has never been a good manager, she is a great mum, but is just too generous for her own good. It's about time she thought of herself, so I will give them a helping hand and she will soon have some cash in her purse again, and not giving it all to M & S.;)

scrooge2008

I used to spend about £700 on groceries a month, but after being made redundant, I have been following the tips on these boards religiously.

I am totally amazed that we are eating much better than we ever did and each month I am spending less and less. My husband is quite excited by the fact that i've turned into a bit of a yummy mummy. I was always the one who bought Tesco's finest and Waitrose food and scorned the idea of home baking, but not anymore.

It's the same with entertainment. I don't feel like I am going out less, but i've become a dab hand at 50% off/free cinema seats etc.

We are debt free so the money i'm saving through this challenge is going towards a weekend away for our anniversary.

I would never have though that the frugal way of life could be so satisfying, but it is.