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

Sarah147

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

I like them too, saw them at Wembley first time round.

Thank goodness it is not just me

Frugaldom

mumzyof2 wrote: »

...£38.00 to last me the week. easy done now im not smoking and i dont intend to start.. I even sat with 3 people smoking in a room today and didnt even feel like i wanted one!!

:beer: Well done, Mumzy! Keep it up and remember to take it in stages. It soon mounts up; as per my signature, I have saved over £500 already. :j

Skint_Lynne

I'm a take that wummin myself, but was into U2 and simple minds etc. The first 2 albums I ever bought were Dare by the Human League and Non Stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell. I was 11 years old and got them in John Menzies, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. My mum was with me, (have often thought why did she let me buy the soft cell album, the name itself would put me off, she probably didn't realise or notice). I must ask her why she allowed me to buy that:rotfl:

I went to see The Human League last year and they were fantastic!!!

candygirl

OOh SKINT LYNNE, I went to see U2 in 1981 and it cost £3.50 and we thought it was dear:eek: :eek: .I also liked Human league and soft cell:D Oh the memories:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: we must be a similar age;)

cw18

Have to say I have more books than I'm ever likely to read -- and I'm sure I have duplicates amongst them too !!! Really must get them all into one place at some point (that alone will probably take me a couple of years as I work around the house, through the loft and through the garage -- and I guess once I've done that my living room would look pretty much like that photo :rolleyes2 )

I've spent most of this afternoon and all this evening (since 7pm - bar a couple of quick internet catch-ups) pulling stuff out of a room to make space for a bed delivery tomorrow -- and I'm not finished yet :eek: I'm going through all the bags and boxes as I pull them out, as I desperately need to find 2 computer disks (DS's computer crashed last week, so he's lost word & excel that he needs for college so he's having to borrow my laptop for assignment work, and my laptop has decided to corrupt my Paint Shop Pro that I need up and running for photo editing (and will be need to be hammering the weekend of 6th-8th Feb for an on-line scrapbooking event).

There are a couple of other places/rooms the disks could be in, and it's looking more and more likely they're not amongst the stuff I'm sorting now

But I have found huge piles of videos and DVDs I've never watched -- I reckon I could watch one a night and not run out until at least September :eek: And loads of magazines I've not yet read (been taking several subscription mags I cancelled mid/late 2006 , including Good H0usekeeing and a couple of crafting titles, out of the plastic wrappers) with dates as far back as December 2005!!!! So I guess I've no need for any new reading material for this year (and probably not next year either)

I'm also gathering together quite a pile of DH's medications I'll have to take to a pharmacy for disposal, and will probably have a couple of black bags of his clothes to take to a charity shop by the weekend -- just from the dining room he was using as a bedroom, and I know there's much more in what was our bedroom -- so I need to try and get that done before too long.

Need to put all DH's book, music and film collections to one side too. He and I had totally different tastes, and there's very little amongst them I want to keep (quite a few amongst mine to go as well, as I've lost interest in them and can't face reading/watching/listening to them again). But I'll leave DH's tucked away until elder DS is next home on leave (likely to be Easter) as I know he had/has similar tastes so may want to take some/all of them (though that's still likely to mean storing them here for now).

This not hoarding thing is coming as quite a shock to me, but is one I have to get to grips with if I'm going to stand any chance of the house passing inspection for child-minding.



Have had several very low-spend days, though not NSDs. Am still doing regular 'shift abouts' in the freezers to make space for things..... Last night was for 7 portions of steak, kidney and mushroom from last nights batch cook (cooked quantities I used to do for 5 of us, and forced myself to reduce portion size to make 9 lots from it), and tonight was for more pasta sauce from c00p (5 tubs at 20p tub instead of £2.49/tub or 2 for £3). We HAD to have chips tonight to make space for 4 of the tubs of sauce, and will be having sausages with pasta and the 5th tub of sauce tomorrow :rolleyes2. I also got some vastly whoopied brocolli to blanche and freeze - which will use up the space released by the sausages and the pasta (and then some). Am considering depriving the dog of the stalks and using them to make a soup Mrs M posted a recipe for on the GC thread earlier today -- especially as I have some philly type cheese in the fridge needs using up


Anyhow -- back to the clearing up! I'm 6th on the delivery route (all addresses apparently fairly local), and they do the first delivery at 7am

Brighton_belle

After a much needed crash to bed for the 2nd half of the afternoon, I have actually now got my list done:j
Todays frugal/simlifying aims:

• rewrite notebook 'to do list' and prioritise: choose top 2 tasks to get done DONE
• update accounts DONE
• clear clutter that has reappeared on hobbies desk DONE

Glad I did the accounts. I realise I need to try and live on the £17 cash I have left to the end of the month. I'm not sure I'll make it but I'll have a good try which willl help me last longer than I might have done. Have a number of 'house doing up' spends (not in 4K budget) that I am trying to make from this months income rather than savings to make my savings last.
I've made £23 on my new cash back card so far, by putting all non cash spends on it (includes a 'welcome' bonus) (and then instantly transfering the spends from bank account to credit card, so I don't fall in the trap of thinking I have more money in my account than I truely have. Thank goodness for internet banking.)
PLumbing costs will be met by the £30 I made through Bingo last autumn:j .

Mumzy - well done on the no smoking:T .
Marru - I can certainly understand the drive to get those books on shelves. I think I would find all that in my living space very depressing. Well done for posting the pic:T . I have an OH who's default natural living conditions , are living surrouded by piles of stuff. Once one pile is as high as it will go, he moves on and starts another one. The original probably will never be touched again...:eek: I find clutter and piles of undone jobs stifles true peaceful relaxtion and creativity in what ever form. He finds change very difficult, and I love rearranging and creating new storage solutions: so ahem, a harmonius household:)
Sophiesmum - we could have a weekend away in the west country and sort Marru out:rotfl:. I can feel the thrill already of getting each book on to those shelves. I find it so much easier to sort other people's clutter. Being a professional declutterer/ efficient storage & space maker would be one of my career options next time round. Imaging being paid to spend other people's money to buy storage (BB takes moment out to content place such a state of heaven...).

Solved my own dish drainer question by creating a 3 tier heath Robinson affair with various things I already had. £20ish saved:j .
Fizzle - tomorrow I am going to be cooking chicken curry & rice(1 cup of rice to 2 of boiling water and place in a dish in the moski for 30 mins plus) & cabbage all at the same tme in my remoska (Using 3 different containers I already had) OH will have a portion of the huge crumble I made straight in it in it last week reheated.

bails

Thought it might be worth mentioning that Marru's books are ones she bought to sell on, not accumulated, hence the reason there are so many (I think about 7000 is that right Marru?).
Ordered from App Foods tonight, will take a little while to come but that's fine.
Off to bed, see you at some point tomorrow x
ps BB and SM, if you go into business together, I'll hire you :rotfl:Well done for getting your list done BB x

cw18

Brighton_belle wrote: »

I have an OH who's default natural living conditions , are living surrouded by piles of stuff. Once one pile is as high as it will go, he moves on and starts another one. The original probably will never be touched again...:eek:

he and I would get on very well :rotfl:

candygirl

bails wrote: »

Thought it might be worth mentioning that Marru's books are ones she bought to sell on, not accumulated, hence the reason there are so many (I think about 7000 is that right Marru?).
Ordered from App Foods tonight, will take a little while to come but that's fine.
Off to bed, see you at some point tomorrow x

oh right:D That explains it then;)

sophiesmum_2

bails wrote: »

Thought it might be worth mentioning that Marru's books are ones she bought to sell on, not accumulated, hence the reason there are so many (I think about 7000 is that right Marru?).
Ordered from App Foods tonight, will take a little while to come but that's fine.
Off to bed, see you at some point tomorrow x
ps BB and SM, if you go into business together, I'll hire you :rotfl:Well done for getting your list done BB x

woo Hoo!!! BB we have our first comission:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I spent the day today with the new manager at her court sorting her office out, decluttering , shredding, moving furniture and generally making it a more efficient working environment for her to take over.......and all the time I was getting paid for doing stuff I enjoy
Personally I have a bit of a basket fetish - you can never have too many baskets,and hampers, and leather storage boxes, and wooden storage boxes, and box files, and lovely preserving jars, and plastic crates, and lock and locks........think you get the drift.........hve to have somewhere to keep my stationery fetish items

janey, whitewing hope you are both okay missing your posts