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

Frugaldom

nickynoo08 wrote: »

...does anyone have a recipie for brocolli and cheese soup? The last one i made was far too thick and the cheese went all gloopy, tried to thin it down but it looked and tasted awful so ended up in the bin.

Broccoli & stilton is listed in the recipes threads, linked from post 1 of this challenge. Alternatively, [strike]do[/strike] I've just done a search for broccoli + cheese + soup and [strike]see[/strike] this is what comes up

sophiesmum_2

Good evening frunchkins:D

General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard tea - lunch with new manager at her court
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item - lots of shredding and recycling paper in managers office today:D
• do something nice for me - Had a nice quiet half hour to unwind after work and do NOTHING again!!:D
• do something nice for someone else- took office warming present for new manager from my stash
• do one thing just for fun -
• fitter not fatter - swim and jacuzzi later

Todays frugal menu:

• porridge with banana
• prawn salad ,apple ( ate with new manager;) ) OH and DD had beans on toast at home
• HM broccoli and stilton soup,tinned pears and HM yoghurt topped with flaked almonds and honey

Fruit and veg portions;
3 fruit, 0 pulses, 3 veggies,:D

Expenditure or additional income
No spend day:j £6.23 refund from Approved foods

Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £262.04 left from budget of £400.
No spend day

Hope you have all had a good day, need to go and check my approved foods order on google to see if any delevery date yet. Also must decide what i am doing with the chicken house currently in my office:p. Going to stick my soup on now to simmer whilst I give our bedroom a quick tidy and iron 3 things from todays wash.Then rest of evening is all mine:j hopefully will get to gym later for a swim and jacuzzi.

Back later xx

sophiesmum_2

:T Bedroom tidy and clothes ironed, soup simmering away in kitchen for tea:D

Just checked google for order info and received this;
" Refund of £6.23 given; Out of stock in: Knorr Chinese Mix (£0.98). Second postage not required (£5.25)"
This was for 14 sachets chinese sauce mix - cost 98p, so not unhappy about this as have now gained £5.25 back on postage costs:j obviously the weight now falls in the lower postage charge bracket, So need to add £6.23 back onto my budget:j :j Very fair of AF to reduce the charges accordingly I thought:T

findingmyfeet

hi everyone,

well couldnt resist a trip into town today but did real well. Got a lift there and back ( so no fuel or parking to pay for). Went into boots again but nothing there, think our store is just way too small, then went into wh smiths oh i got the quivers......love books and loads of gardening and cook books at huge reductions, i stood i looked i drooled....then i walked away. All around town i was thinking go and get one go on..but i resisited. wants not needs.
I did however get the rest of my veggie seeds , strawberry plants and garlic bulbs, so all going well on planting prep. My dad also rang to say one of his neighbours had given him so raspberrry plants/canes so now i will have those too in a few days. Spent approx £9 on stuff in total. My only unplanned purchase was a pair of pjs for DH £3 in sale so that will keep him going for a while wondering whether to get him another whilst they are so cheap??

MUMZYOF2- keep up the no smoking you are doing so well, think about your savings and the good you are doing your health. go on you can do it

LOOBY-LOO- glad to be of service, im sure you will sort out your situation too one day it took me over ten years! Your alteratioons had me in stitches, i couldnt have coped with 4 kids though my two have been a handful.

menotmoneyexpert

I love enthusiam in this room. I am envious of people who can do it. I want to do it and can set up a target (i think) but sticking to it is another story.
we got rid of our car thinking we are going to save soo much but didn't work out that way. We ended up getting taxi as there are hardly any bus where i am.
I want to ask people who have done this in previous year how they stuck and implemented it. Did you manage to stay within the £4000 target and not spend on 'wants'? Is that really how much you spent in the whole year and nothing more?

I have to say that i am proud of myself as I decided to send back recently ordered mobile contract. We have one already (broadband/mobile) and decided to get rid of it and get pay as you go. Not sure which is the cheapest broadband. Brought by bt quarterly bill from £53 (revently found out we had the maximum rental) down to the minimum of £30ish a month.
Sky from £19 down to none (soon)

Marru

Hello all,

I am back from Ik*a. and yes I got the shelves but I need to get them delivered. Yes it will cost more but I really didn't realise how blimmin heavy they were. So on Wednesday I should be able to reclaim my sitting room. What I am proud of is that I didn't go to the Swedish food store. But on the other hand I have plenty of pickled herrings in my cupboard thanks to my SIL. Yes I know us Scandinavians do eat some weird stuff.

After the trip to get the shelves things went down hill as due to an accident I didn't get to my dog in time to walk him and get paid. I hope the owners got my messages and are not too upset about it. I am as I know he was waiting for me.

I am getting pickled myself so can't remember who said what but hugs and cheers to everyone accordingly.

This is the mess that I am hoping those shelves will help me sort out:



It takes almost one third of my sitting room. There is about 4-5 thousand books in there and lots of other stuff starting to breed on top.....

Will report on Wednesday how I am getting on.

Have a relaxing evening everyone, more wine for me I thinks...

bails

Evening all! :hello: Thanks for your comments Nyk x

As you already know Marru, I'm with Nyk about the bookshelves but too late now eh? I hope you can get your books sorted and sold, it would make a huge difference you're right.

Had a lovely day here: lesson plan took 10 minutes to sort today ( sometimes I love lessons like that ) and then I met Mr Bond. Work was all done so quickly that I popped into the local rescue centre on the way back, allegedly to get some cat food...but I just had to say hello to the dogs.. and unusually they had lots of border collies :happyhear including some puppies UH-OH!!!! :eek:;) When I see OH I'm going to tell him about them and how desperate I am to adopt one...that might inspire him to get the placement applications in :rotfl:
My lovely adopted godfather has fitted two fire doors for me today, which was a lot of work so I'm very happy about that :T OH is going to use some of the WTC to support himself so he can take time off work to finish converting the attic :T:j The house is slowly slowly coming together.
Lesson was great - for all you teachers out there, the light switched on :j:j- and his work was so much better so I was over the moon; nothing beats that feeling!

In unfrugal horror news though, I had a craving for H£inz tomato soup and paid...85 PENCE for a tin :eek::o I was having convulsions in the shop! Erm, I will definitely stock up on this ready for the next craving
Night to myself, may do a little planning for tomorrow so it's out of the way and then chill out time. Tomorrow I'm off to my local charity shop as they have a 99p sale on. My mum has a jumper I can use for the felting :T oh, and my notebook arrived today, it's luverly :heartpuls
Hope the smoking's going well Mumzy :T

Have a great evening peeps x

Marru

Oh, oh, oh!!! Remember when I said that I got something else from 1po1nts as well as the solar light? I got that today as well and immediately put it to be sold in Amazon. It has already been sold!!!!! WOOHOO!!!

Ok, I am off now and not going to bother you any further this evening.....

angelatgraceland

lilac_lady wrote: »

I'm so envious of you getting your orders from Approved Foods. I'm definitely not a fussy eater but I keep an eye on fresh food and bin it if it's even a day out of date. I just can't eat it. I know this doesn't make sense as the food would be ok but something prevents me from eating out of date food. I do buy yellow stickered food as long as I can either eat it or freeze it the same day.

Has anyone else got a peculiar "habit" that goes against moneysaving ?

Yes-producing 3 children!

Anyhow-a nospend day today and found out I can now get exemption for my prescriptions-tho I had to pay today. It all adds up over the year! So-if theres anyone else out there on thyroxin for underactive thyroid-you can get your scripts free-ask the pharmacy if you are paying and at the doctors for the form for exemption. There was me the other day thinking - oh yet another expense! How wrong I was!
Spent all day working and agreed to a 7am start for one day later in the month for stockcheck-on reflection I must be mad! Still-at least Im not driving to the other store to do it-and I finish early to make up for it.

sophiesmum_2

Marru - wish you lived nearer I now hve an overwhelming urge to come and organise your living room:o :rotfl:

Going against the general feeling about the book shelves - I would spend the money - putting up with those boxes all the time would make me depressed and demotivated. It will be worth it for you to feel liberated from the clutter and motivated to get the books sold somehow. Good luck.