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

ladyroughneck

Ok i've poured over the facts and figures and this is the budget i've come up with: £6,000 for everything except rent, council tax and water.

Groceries 1440
Electricity 480
Gas 600
Telelphone/internet 420
Mobiles x3 360
TV 144
Petrol 960
Kids Allowance 480
Car insurance 240
Presents 360
Home insurance 72
RAC 96

Clothing/shoes/car tax etc 348

I make this add up to £6000 or a nice round £500 per month, does this look about right to you guys? This is £273.60 over the £4000 + child benefit.

fizzel81

:rotfl:

nykmedia wrote: »

We're a friendly bunch most of the time but I don't know what would happen if you shut us all in one room and threw in a free fiver
.

fight you for it :rotfl:

thank god for this challenge otherwise i be heading to a takeaway shop right now

savery porridge ive had it all now still the boys are eating it

cw18

fizzel81 wrote: »

...... still the boys are eating it

sounds as if they've been [strike]dragged[/strike] brought up the same way as my 3....

that's what I've made, and if you're hungry you'll eat it.
if you don't eat that then there's nothing else.
if you don't empty your plate there's no pudding.

and so on :rotfl:

Geez.... I turned into my mother at a very early age :eek:

fizzel81

thats it, if there hungry they will eat it

actully its not bad at all, not that im planning to repeat it! just a bit too much porridge was put in

dont have faddy fussy eaters here its eat up or go without

Blairweech

Thanks for the response regarding ISAs, I did think you get a brand new allowance every year.

Nyk - that is indeed correct about the £12k - even better! There must be some sort of glitch on the page as when I logged on earlier it said I had 103 days til it ran out, now it says 73 days

Just doing my menu planner for January - I am attempting a monthly planner, making use of leftovers e.g. roast chicken, chicken pie etc

I read on these threads someone taking their electric readings twice a day, but I can't remember why now....I think it might have been you Nyk?

fizzel81

sorry post deleated was rubbish from kids

fizzel81

also now removed

angelatgraceland

Well I had a huge Asda order today-well-huge for me! Hopefully with all thats in the house we are ok for about 3 weeks! Still got about £100 of grocery money left and theres no way I will use that up! Ive got a feeling that there are a few things unaccounted for during the year such as a couple of short breaks away-school trips-various one-off outgoings which ?Ive not got in my totals!
So-I could have horrible surprises on my budget figures-but Im still aiming for 10k and at least I will know the facts. Writing down everything is a bit of a chore at times, which is why Im just going to stick to 2 purses!
After the first quarter I should have a good idea of whats what. as the first quarter will be easier on my pocket due to a house full of food and not needing any clothes I plan to be hard on myself during this 3 months and really trim things back. Doing this will give me a surplus for the 2nd quarter-holidays etc-well-thats the theory! We shall see. Just filled up my oven with 2 bread and butter puddings-just emptied out the breadbin so I can fill it up with fresh. Also put in a "happy" chicken which in Asda was £3 per kilo. Thats my one resolution for 2009-happy chickens. Id love to keep my own but I fear the kids would want to keep them forever as pets and moneysaving would disappear. Only get FR eggs generally so its one little step at a time. I am also hoping to cut my fuel costs by about 20% and make everyone use their legs more. Thats another reason for the deliveries-apart from keeping people in jobs it saves me time and fuel and I never pay for them anyhow. I did splash out on some booze which is unlike me and even a bottle of champers as I do have something to celebrate with a freind. Also bought same friend a bottle of his fave Jack Daniels but considering what he has done recently for our family its no big deal! Poor hubby has no food today as he has barium meal and scans tomorrow(routine)so he will look forward to the chicken and a nice big rice pudding which is going in next.
Savoury porridge? Well-I had savoury bread and butter pudd recently! Just like stuffing and ~I love stuffing.
Savoury porrdige-well-the way some of us bulk out our spag bolognese it could indeed be described as savoury porriidge! Eat it-or else!

fizzel81

omg how embarassing

excuse the kids whilst i did the washing up

bails

Ooh, exciting, I spy another West Country frugalite Angelatgraceland! :T There are quite a few of us now (Marru and I only live 10 mins from each other) but I think the Scots are still outnumbering us! Anyone else want to declare their allegience to the SW?

Welcome to everyone who's signed up recently, great to see you all and to hear so much enthusiasm. Things might get a little daunting in the early days but stick it out and we'll definitely help you save money (and possibly become a little crazier).

Right, I've decided that one budget is not enough for me so I'm going to run two One will be the 4k and the other will be my all-in amount. Part of the reason for this is that we're planning to move abroad for 6 months (destination as yet unconfirmed but hopefully India) so once that happens in August my bills etc will all go out the window. Once I've got Christmas sorted I'm going to post what the budget totals will be.

Good luck with all your preparations everyone, not long to go now :T:j