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

Frugaldom

Hello fruguys and gals

I'm definitely going to have to start a monthly thread for this challenge, otherwise MSE will have us outta here by Easter. :rotfl: If it helps for 'gabbing' purposes, I use my frugaldom messageboards linked to my blog/site in my signature. I don't mind if it gets chatty, anything to keep us all on track and frugaling for the year. :beer:

This was a major spending day for me - £78.08 in total! :eek:

Groceries, pet supplies, stockpile, coal and umm... 10 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper & a 'Dear Santa' letter pack. :rotfl: S0merf!elds are selling 3m rolls of fancy wrapping paper, previously priced at £3, for 10p! It was a bargain too good to miss, wish I could have bought loads to keep and sell on at [strike]5[/strike] 3 for £1 next Christmas! :cool:

Coal has increased in price again, by another £1 per bag! Cheapest here is now £11.50 a bag and I have no intentions of spending any more than £1 per day on coal! More cut backs! :mad: I'll need to make a bag last an extra day! I need more logs, too, must price them soon. Food prices are getting to the shocking stage! I used to buy DS the single serving packs of curry noodles for lunchtime snack. At first, they were 4p per pack, then 8p, then 11p in December and now 16p! I didn't buy any! Let him eat [strike]cake[/strike] soup! :rotfl:

Whilst in town, I went to look for mung beans in the F&V/healthstore - but it's gone! C0ral bookmakers there now! Ham stock cubes have disappeared off the face of the planet again, so I picked up 2 smoked ham houghs instead; one will go into the SC tonight and the other is in the freezer. Cereal prices are escalating, too, but I managed to find half price Shreddies in C0-0p and S0merf!eld's own brand fruit & fibre was only 99p per 750g box. Dairylea cheese spread also half price in C0-0p and £1.99 for 400g mature cheddar from S0merf!eld. I didn't bother with the half price toilet rolls, too expensive for me. There were no signs up to say when the store is closing down! :rolleyes:

Loved the quote about poking the money to see if it was dead! Soooo funny! Banks pay no interest to our money, they're only interest is in our money!

Mumzy, stay a while longer, it's just a temporary glitch that means you need to keep practicing Remember it takes at least 3 weeks for it to become routine every time you stop and then start again and we aren't even into week 3 of the new year yet

Lynda - congratulations on exchanging! Everything crossed for you that there are no more hiccups

Oh! Mumzy! Chemist? £6? Few more days before you can tell us??? :eek:

Marru

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Looked at getting a mooncup but they were 21 in boots plus look huge!!! further investigation/thought required plus unsure about the ikky factor!!

Uh, oh! I went and googled it :eek:. Goes off to do something to take that image away from head...

PS hope your migraine is getting better soon.

xnatalie81x

oooooooooo forgot to say bonus todya, before my money saving began in dec i bought a bottle baileys to take to MIL for party - well no one drank it so she bought it back today and i have drunk 1/2 of it - BLISS i love baileys lol

angelatgraceland

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

Bread - The bain of my life, I have had that breadmaker a year and I still can't get a decent bread out of it. I want a soft, white loaf or roll, and wondered if anyone had a recipe. I don't mind baking in the oven.

And finally, there was a strange object in the sky this morning....I think it was the sun but it's that long since I've seen it I can't be sure. (We're in rainy, wet scotland).

How about just making the dough in the breadmaker? Then cover and let it rise again then make into rolls and put in the oven?

That is the hard work done for you then and I think you will be pleased with the results. I much prefer my bread baked in the oven and often just make the dough in the BM.

Mumzyof2As you find keeping totals difficult why not just draw out £x per week and put in in your purse and only spend that. At the end of the week just deduct whats left?
Thats what Im doing-besides me keeping track I have £125 in my purse and when its gone-its gone. Seeing it dssappear will help you keep on track. Ditch any plastic!

Mooncups-well it took me a few years to brave it but Im glad I did! I dont look back on it and it doesnt have to be icky. Depends if you have a loo area wherever you are with a sink in the smae room to wash it? Or take a bottle of water to the loo with you. Wont go into more detail than that but anyone whohas any questions-however graphic-just PM me and Im happy to give you completely honest answers!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

mumzyof2

In search of me could you pm me about how you keep track.. i struggled to understand your post..sorry. I seem to go corner shop and forget how much i have spent as i dont get a reciept.

NYK I just realised how that sounded about the £6 and boots and tell you in a few days... Ermm if anyone is thinking if im pregnant..Im deffo NOT lol. Its something else... Nyk you must know what it is hehe

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!!

Sounds like lots of you have had a really positive day.. Well done!!
Hugs to those feeling down or unwell.
I don't mind having a monthly thread.. as long as you promise not to disappear...
Well our Baked Beans stockpile is going well... just need to buy those on our raincheck vouchers and 10 more.
Think we might use surplus money we have this month towards buying cooking oil. So Feb food spend will be relatively low.

Aims for today

· Positive Mental Attitude-Have a great day at school-one momentary blip but a pretty good day. Children were lovely.
· Fitter not Fatter-Exercise bike, sit ups and arm lifts-All done.
· Fitter not Fatter-No 1 choc day again!!! Shared some Christmas Dairy Milk with OH last night...all I can say is that we've finished the Christmas choc...
· Tidy a box in the cupboard..Probably all I’II manage on a school night...No chance.
Have a good day everyone. I’ll catch up later.

SFT

Skint_Lynne

Hi Whitewing,
I got the email tonight about the goodies (3 times like you:D ), so I'll be giving the ipod to my brother for his birthday, I'm glad it's a good start to my money neutral gift fund.

I wonder if we will be entitled to any other offers from them if we carry on writing reviews. There's another one called Doo you, but I've not looked into it properly yet. I think they strike you off if they think you are writing too many reviews in a short space of time though, so would need to look into it carefully:p .

[Deleted User]

Hi all

Just caught up again.... :rolleyes: Had abit of a scary day yesterday, been having stitch like pains in left hand side since Saturday then they got really bad yesterday so phoned Doctors Urgent Care thing and they wanted me to go into hospital to be checked (32 weeks pregnant) but everything was fine, baby must have been lying on a nerve or something. Scary now tho, I thought you cant come yet, I've got so much to do! :eek:

DH was in major panic mode, full on decorating again!! Realises now that there is a real baby in there!!

Mumzy - I try to get receipts for what I've bought (our local shop doesnt do receipts but has price stickers on everything) and then at the end of the day (or every couple of days ) I write it in a notebook, then once a week I update spending diary online. I then keep all my reciepts in a shoe box (v.sad but it works for me).

Hope everyones ok xxx

mumzyof2

Ok ok.. so after much thought I can afford to draw out £90 a week.. Im not going to do this challenge for everything. Im going to count all DD's etc but not debt payments. Gas 15 a week and elec 10 a week will come out of the £90. Im starting this on thursday as thats when i get paid. I will try and not use my card anymore. does that sound ok?

Guesty6

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Ok ok.. so after much thought I can afford to draw out £90 a week.. Im not going to do this challenge for everything. Im going to count all DD's etc but not debt payments. Gas 15 a week and elec 10 a week will come out of the £90. Im starting this on thursday as thats when i get paid. I will try and not use my card anymore. does that sound ok?

Go For it, I find that not knowing my Credit Card pin helps ALOT! Its impossible for me to get into further debt!

Maybe cut your Credit cards up and just have a debit card for emergencies?