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

sophiesmum_2

Forgot to say the cheque for recycling old mobile arrived today £26 free money for me for £1000 in 100 challenge - to be used for extras if needed:D
Off to update my sig.

Skint_Lynne

Hi all,

Well, I've had a busy(ish) day. I ran my uncle to a local town today, he had an appointment and his car was broken, this is the kind of thing you need to do on your day off.:rolleyes: Then took my repairs to Glasgow and swapped them over and collected DH's urgent cleaning from the dry cleaners, it cost him £14.10. He insisted that I took it to the most expensive place last week as he needed to take it back to work. It lay there until today, he left here on Saturday:mad: . Well, at least it's not out of my budget!!

Went to T's and bought some liver for dinner tonight, I cooked it in the slow with onions, gravy and bacon. It turned out really well, I'll have it tomorrow, my sis took us out for dinner tonight to our fave (very expensive) chinese. I must say, I did enjoy it, but I am not missing going out all the time and I would not lose any sleep over not going back at all. The challenge is defo working on me, I think it's a waste of money to pay through the nose for a meal when you can make something nice yourself. She insisted on taking me as I am the driver and she thought it would be nice to treat me.:A

Got a nice nail polish set in Boots sale today, 75% off, but will need to see if there is anything else worth getting. I'll try online tomorrow or go to local shop tomorrow night after I've looked at gift list. Also got 2 boy's jackets from T's today £20 each reduced to £3.30 each. Great for christmas gifts, I am quite well sorted for gifts already. I just need to earn the money back to pay for them.:D

ram_murdock

Thanks for the tip about the boots sale - spent £31 odd pound today and used some of my boots points and ended up with goods to the value of over £150. Have therefore sorted my dad's bday,mum's bday, sisters bday and loads of friends bdays!! The sale was really good at my local store- lots of items left. :j

Had a really low spend week but feeling a bit down and grumpy today!! Feeling a bit skint and fed up with being back to work. I'm off work sunday which will give me a bit of a rest...although thinking of cutting down my part time job hours as i'm feeling really tired and worn out. Also annoyed that despite all my healthy eating ths week - i didnt lose a pound at ww's - apparently i wasnt eating enough... and thats why didnt lose weight?!

anyone else make a bodyshop order thru tcb this week and it didnt track? Mine hasnt yet

On a positive note - made lunch and dinner for tomorrow so wont have to buy out - i'm having mash and sausages .... yum!

Off to get ready for work in the morning.

Night all xx

Guesty6

Just a quick update before I go to bed, have just used £21 of Clubcard Vouchers to buy...

£40 Pizza Express Vouchers

Mens Health Yearly Subscription

And also getting £28 for an old phone on Mazuma and £1.50 on Quidco!

jtb2412

Evening all :beer: and firstly CONGRATULATIONS to pipsmum ! We're all very proud of you :j

Hugs for all those feeling a bit down and :beer: for those who deserve well done's xx

Really good to hear how everyone is getting on. Not much to report here over the last 2 days so I've been trying not to natter and clog up the thread . Spent all of yesterday doing the Guide end of year accounts and various other Guide planning and prep for this term. Finally got around to registering on I-measure so now I can see how much i'm spending on gas/elec. I just wish I'd joined a few months ago so that I can compare it with my huge bill that I got before Xmas - have really made an effort to switch of lights/appliances and make sure heating is set a bit lower when the weather allows. Hopefully next bill won't be as much of a shocker (just glad I was sitting down when I opened the last ones :eek: :rotfl: ).

I was really pleased with my little self today. I resisted the boots 75% off sale (something which is unheard of !), especially as I really, really wanted one item (but didn't need, you know how it goes). I could have popped to my local shop and probably got it (had loads in yesterday) and even managed to get online (that in itself was a miracle considering how bad the website has been today :rolleyes: ) but I didn't put it in my basket and I just logged off so yipeeeeeeeee for me :j . Equates to £20 not spent so giving myself a big pat on the back

Went shopping tonight and shockingly :eek: I managed to find some whoopsies :T . (Having a great day, can you tell? lol) Some carrots for 12p per bag, a few swedes for 21p each and a bag of pears for 41p (pears needed for tomorrows dinner so a good buy !) I split my shop between Mr S (had some better offers than Mr Ts) and Mr Ts (had some better offers than Mr S) :rotfl: . But, they are both on the way to each other so no extra petrol used. Spent a total of £67 and if my meal plans are right, then I've got enough for the next 9 days. Leaves approx £115 between the 24th/25th to the 31st so I should be on target for the GC . Anything left will be spent on my newly started stockpile.

I'm going to up my GC budget next month to account for extras spent on offers/whoopsies (providing I can find them again :rolleyes: ) for the stockpile. Not quite sure what to set it at yet but i've got 2 weeks to decide.

I received some survey vouchers today so I'm £3.50 in credit for my money neutral for birthdays :T . Should have a few more arriving over the next week or two so that figure will go up. I must remember to put it on my sig (need to make a record of it somewhere !)

I think that's it for now (apologies for the long post - again !)

Really enjoying reading/being part of this thread - it's certainly keeping me motivated :beer:

Keep up the good work everyone, 1/2 way through the month now

purplevamp

Evening everyone (for those still up!)

Had a relatively low spend day today. Bus fare was 60p less than normal as I'd bought some tickets online. Bought some naan, and a couple of marshmallow flumps for the children as I had to take them shopping for DD shoes and tights. £19.82 in total but only counting £9.82 as I had a voucher left from Christmas.

michelle - let your DH take the lights back, it's worth a try, do you still have the receipt?

bargain-chic - welcome! Hope you enjoy yourself with us

nyk - I won't be dropping out, I'm in it till the end, thanks to your great thread

candygirl - the boots site is still down

Well I'm off to my SIL's wedding tomorrow in Dublin so I won't be back until Saturday, no poota for 3 days :eek: . I'm not including any of the wedding in the budget as it would be pretty much blown what with air tickets, accommodation, food and drink. Also we do have some Euros left over from Disneyland 2007, never got round to cashing them in, luckily what with the exchange rate.

I noticed my new Aldi has taken down its wooden boards so it looks like it will be opening soon :j (sad eh?)

Have a good rest of the week everyone.

savingfortravel

Right. I’m going to have a good day.

Positives:

• I get a free lunch at school each day. This week’s menu has included fish fingers, chilli con carni and sausages and the cook always provides a decent vegetarian. Not sure what’s on today’s menu.
• We’re eating at one of my pupil’s parents’ house on Friday…Going to talk about travel..as they’ve been to Costa Rica and get a tasty dinner!
• I think I’m going to go back to my previous eating plan which was just not eating puddings or junk. Everything else was fine. I’d lost half a stone that way. I also think portion control would help.

I really like the idea of Aims for today but I think I’ll leave mine for the weekend.

Today’s Menu
Breakfast: Muesli and Costa Rican coffee.
Lunch: School menu
Dinner: HM tomato soup, apple.

Have a great day everyone! SFT

scrooge2008

savingfortravel wrote: »

Hi Everyone!!
Well I'm struggling a little at the mo.

Not so much with the spending as I'm lucky in doing the Grocery Challenge last year that the frugal mind set is well and truly stuck.

Firstly as someone said here about the diet making you want to sin more.. well since Friday I've eaten chocolate and sweets..at least the Christmas stock is finished now. And I've done less exercising!


You've proved that you can successfully stick with a challenge. You're where I was on the dieting a few days ago. Normally I would quit at this point, but this time, thanks to the motivation on this board and NYK's reminders about 3 week and three month targets, I forced myself to get back on track. We will get there :beer: . Went to see 'Australia' last night, 2 for 1 Orange Wednesday, with a few friends. I'm in love (again). Daniel Craig has now been officially replaced by Hugh Jackman in my affections.

FrankieM

Morning,
I'm going to try and just stick to my 3 meals as well. No snacks or junk food...I can give it a try! Not sure what my meals are for today..

To Do Today:

Meal plans
Work
Dog training
General tidy

I'm trying to keep my lists short cause I'm struggling to get and keep motivated.....

fallen_angel_shelley

Good morning. I'm feeling really tired this morning, had a restless nights sleep and my neighbour didn't help, he is a posty and when he gets up in the middle of the night, he starts slaming the doors in his flat:mad:.

I have had my 1st DD of the year go out today, so I need to up date my sig, I'm over budget already and we are only 15 days in to the challenge, but I know it will balance out as I go along. My elec bill arrived yesterday and it wasn't the £400+ that i thought it would be, it is £329, still alot especially as the HA tolds that the new heating system would be cheaper that what we use to have.

I'm of for a nice hot shower now to see if it helps my aching arms and back form carrying the heavy b00ts bags yesterday:rotfl: :rotfl:.

Have a nice day everyone, I will catch up with you all later.

Shelley x