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

candygirl

sophiesmum wrote: »

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

Come and do mine instead, though even I don't have that many books:eek: :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

angelatgraceland

sophiesmum wrote: »

: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

I jiggled my order about a bit for the reason you state above. In theory-those extraa sauces would have added £5.25 delivery as they would have taken the weight of the box just over! I kept adding things and taking them off to get the most I could for my postage. A had a few out of stock items too so Im glad Id done this.

sophiesmum_2

angelatgraceland wrote: »

I jiggled my order about a bit for the reason you state above. In theory-those extraa sauces would have added £5.25 delivery as they would have taken the weight of the box just over! I kept adding things and taking them off to get the most I could for my postage. A had a few out of stock items too so Im glad Id done this.

I did try that at the time but started off with lots of sauces as the items that I really wanted then made up the order with a few other bits, I did remove a couple of things when the rate jumped to next level and it dropped again but ended up at the £10.50 level as lots of heavy stuff in order.:D

angelatgraceland

Marru-it rather looks like my bedroom! Its driving us mad and is everyones "dumping ground" -also includes some books. Need to get new central heating this year so it will have to be sorted. You are brave letting us all see!

bails

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Yes-producing 3 children!

:rotfl::rotfl:

Sophiesmum, I have a spare room you can stay in and help Marru with the lounge I agree the bookshelves themselves are a great idea..

Right, off to check out Approved Foods, see if I want to place another order...;)

menotmoneyexpert

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 ?

I'm the same. I am very iffy about out of date food. I'm sure its fine. It doesn't help that i am fussy eater.

How are you getting on with your budget?

cha97michelle

Hello. I'm having the same urge to go and help Marru with those books. I luuurve books, and my virtual spends are definitely on them. I would have bought the bookshelves too i think, as clutter drives me barmy and it could be dangerous, plus it will probably be inspiring to start sorting it out, and you could find lots of stuff you have forgotten about completely.

Thought i would pop in now i have cheered up a bit. DH's car was fixed, and cost us £228, so the cars have had about £400 spent on them in a week, so scary stuff.

We had the 3rd thing go wrong. Dhs laptop completely died (semi-old age) but as he uses it for work mainly, he has managed to get his boss to replace it for him. Phew.

The light fiasco, we haven't been to sort that out yet, but i have a feeling i don't have a receipt but it should be on a debenhams card statement. we'll see how it goes at the weekend with that, should be a busy one as we are at centre parks next week (less than £300 break bought as a xmas pressie for DH's parents, brother and girlfriend so a cheapy) so needing to pack and check our bikes and get some food for self-catering from costco, plus bake a cake.

I've survived 2 days by the light of one desklight and one table light with a bio bulb, but to save me needing glasses i may visit my parents tomorrow.

Spendswise, high today as my gas and electric DD went out, but foodwise i have been using up leftovers, and have made a lovely pizza tonight (veg and cheese frozen rather than thrown before xmas, bacon my dad gave me, plus pineapple opened the other day for a curry.) I got paid though today and some money went in from my savings so we are a bit more fluid than we were.

Approved food. My order was fantastic. We have tried the spicy tomato sauce which was lovely, chilli peanuts were rather hot but very nice, and the box of baker boy cakes, well my boys enjoyed the ones i let them have. I was most impressed with the company, and i will maybe order some more in February when we have cleared some room in the pantry again. :rotfl:

Michelle,x

cw18

I don't have a problem with dates on food at all -- I trust my senses of sight, smell, touch and taste to tell me if I should be binning it instead of eating it :rotfl:

However my DD is slightly more paranoid (and freaks when she finds out I've given my GDs yoghurts that are a couple of days past the 'use by' or cordial that's a couple of months 'past'. (At 3.5 and 5 they've already learned it's sometimes better not to tell Mummy that Grandma got yellow/orange stickered things today for tomorrow/yesterday that they're finishing off tomorrow )

But the worst is my younger DS -- and unfortunately he's the one still at home, so the one who regularly checks dates on things in my fridge and cupboards :eek:

(I'm getting very good at moving whoopsie labels to hide the dates :rolleyes2 )



Have looked at Approved Foods a couple of times, but it never seems worth buying from there by the time I've added on the postage And I'd have to watch what I ordered, as if I ordered treats for DS he'd take one look at the dates and refuse to eat them (I'd also be on the look out for hiding places in case DD takes it into her head to look and see what I'm feeding my GDs)

nickynoo08

Thanx nyk. I'll be making it once i've got my bum in gear and got my shopping list sorted. Really want to hold off doing any more food shopping till next week but i also want to get my soup on the go:rolleyes:. Spent another tenner on food today, had to pick up milk for little un and some veg.

Plan for tomoro....
put dishes away
make pack up for lunch
do meal plan for next week (prob do this while i'm at work)
continue sorting/de-cluttering
go on wii fit
start eating more healthily - i'm wanting to loose my last 7lb of baby weight - ok so my little un is now 2:o, i've just been a bit too laid back about it lately and its time i got my bum in gear.

Food...
B - porridge
L - ryvita, banana
T - left over hm lasagne

I'll try and catch up tomoro evening, off to watch hustle, then an early night.

xnatalie81x

Well my day has been super productive. I have sorted the kids room and with mil help put up their new unit which fits all 3 kids' clothes in so will be getting rid of chest of drawers and the other unit will go in that space giving the kids more room! 3 of them share 1 bedroom.

Have also worked 2hrs and been offerred the cover slot as a permenent one so i now work tue and thu!!! wahooooo. My income will go up for a cple mths and already earning what i wanted to for April as building hrs up. Will just use any additional income as that until April - have a feeling i might get a lot of cover from my old council which is gonna boost my income no end! Dunno how it will affect my tax credits. Prob need to tell them my income will be about 300 more as there are only 3 mths more left of the tax year!

This site is like my good luck horseshoe. Ever since i've joined here everything has gone perfectly lol. Maybe it's just all my hard work but thank you guys for motivating me to tackle my debt and get my butt in gear. Only thing that would top my mood off is to get my housing association house as this private renting is sooooooo expensive and i'll never afford to rent a 3 bed place. We are seriously overcrowded here.