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

HH62

cw18 wrote: »

My CT is paid over 10 months, so I don't pay in Feb or March !!

Mine is usually, but I moved house a fewf months ago. Even though it was still within the borough, and the new house is the same CT band, they missed my November payment :mad: so they're taking it in Feb instead
Funny how it feels like those are 'free' months though, even though they aren't !!

bails

I like those months too and also think of them as 'free' - free to use my money for something else :rotfl: I was hoping to use them to overpay on mortgage but as my claim was reassessed recently I now have two mammoth bills coming out those months :rolleyes: Need to work out where to find the money from...

Right, work squared away til lesson this afternoon - last one before exam and week off :j - so I'm off for a shower and a mooch round the (charity shop) sales Have a great day everyone and I second what SM said, hope you're both okay Janey and Whitewing xx

lilac_lady

Reading about cw18's DVD and video collection, it dawned on me some time ago that our local library rents them out very cheaply so since taking my older (unwatched) ones to a charity shop, I haven't bought any more. (I can't say the same for books but I've limited myself drastically).

When I "purged" my books I had to resort to choosing the ones with the smallest print as I couldn't decide which ones to let go!

Still on track moneywise but I'm eating out of the freezer and store cupboard so next month will probably be a bigger spend.

scrooge2008

hgbels wrote: »

Hi,


Quick question to those who have given up a career --- how long did it take you to adjust? I stopped work just before Xmas, and seem to have had a constant cold since, and don't seem to be acheiving anything in the day time. I need to get cooking and home baking. Oh well - I will continue with my excuse of waiting for the builders to leave.

Good luck to all

Hels

I was made redundant last February after working for the same company for 13 years. I was in a bit of a daze for the first five months, and really couldn't cope with very much. I started pulling myself together around June 2008, and began doing my lollypopping and cleaning in September/October.

It has definitely helped doing some work again to get structure back into the day, but I couldn't have coped with anything more taxing, and i've really enjoyed the last few months.

Funnily enough today one of my cleaning jobs has asked me if i'd be interested in doing their debt collecting and accounts for 14 hours a week, to suit me. Am thinking about it seriously. Will stop there though otherwise i'll get myself back into the can't cope with everything mode!

candygirl

OMG I can't believe it just rang EDF to give them my reading for gas and leccy and my gas is IN CREDIT £79.16 and leccy is only £9.54!!:eek: :eek: Although I don't have central heating I have had my gas fire on 24/7 as well as heaters etc so hope it's right:o
Just jumping in shpwer then going to ALDI to get bits and some carnations for Dads grave as they seem to last longer:D

MrDT

Haven't checked in for a while, and this thread grows too quickly to catch up properly! I've skimmed the last six pages, but nothing much has sunk in sorry.

Just updated my spreadsheet and I'm pleased to say that on day 16 of the challenge I still have £3921.04 of my budget remaining Only spent £78.96 challenge qualifying money this year so far (don't count rent, council tax or commute). I won't be able to keep this up though lol, the past week we've been using up all the odds and ends in the freezer (so I can defrost it) along with accompaniments from the store cupboard. Big shop is due tomorrow, doubt it'll be cheap!

I'm also pleased to say that I got a free £1 from the littlewoods scratchcards today, that's taken me over the £10 withdrawal limit, once that's cleared in my bank account I'll have something to add to my 'extra income' spreadsheet column I'm also expecting about £50 from quidco at the start of February, so the 'free money' thing is off to a decent enough start.

I've been eyeing up my big whiskey bottle (which is about a fifth full of loose change) recently, I'm trying to decide if I want to keep adding to it til it's full up, or bank what's in there now and start again. It'd earn a few pence in interest in the bank I suppose...

Oh, and I'm pleased to say it's a little warmer here this week, last week was terrible (hoping to spend less on heating!). All I need now is for it to stay light a little longer in the evenings - as soon as it's light/safe enough I intend to start cycling home from work at least twice a week. The cycling won't help with this challenge as I don't count commuting costs, but it will save me a few quid, and I'll be "fitter not fatter" too!

fizzel81

afternoon

i apologise for my lack on contribution recently i must try harder to keep up but im slacking

tried the remoska today for lunch so far so good, will cook dinner in i later and see how it compares to using the gas guzzler (sorry i mean cooker)

also had emails! to do with 2 of the debts confirming full and finl (i had asked for letters) if i print these off to keep would that be good enough if they then hassel me for the rest? if i sort these next week thats 2 more debts gone and means im well underway to be debt for end of year

also had a letter from the legal services commission and a certificate for my legal aid so think i will hear from my soliciter shortly its for family help higher which im taking is what i need for divorce/kids and the financial order thing so nearly time to start that ball rolling, 2010 i will be a debt free single woman again.

my jan spends look worrying, this includes the gas bill i need to pay tomorrow, not included my boots sale spends as ive made that money via ebay and lots of gifts now sorted for xmas 2009 i also used my points on getting bits and bobs.

also been to aldi today to stoc up on a few bits there 5kg bag of spuds for 49p is a great bargin i am tempted to getting a second bag and storeing them in the big cupboard at this price

Marru

I have been immobilised :eek:

Went to the college mainsite for meeting and when I was heading back home my car wouldn't start. It seems that the immobiliser in the car suddenly didn't want to recognise the key and refused to keep it going. While I was being toed (sp?) away I was thinking why did this happen? And shortly my phone rings and my ex wants me to go to London on Tuesday with DD to see his consultant. I have been telling him that I am not going and now I have the perfect reason not to. :rotfl:

So I have called the nursery and asked DD to be delivered home this evening and it will be carless weekend for us. Monday will be tricky as I should take DD to nursery and go to college but I will figure something out over the weekend.

I need to go now and tackle my todo list and will be back later with proper replies.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Marru

wornoutmumoftwo

Finally sat down to work out my bad debts (cc/catalogues etc etc), and it comes to just under 6k, well sort of, I calculated 12 months interest in the figures so I can get them all paid this year. Works out at about £120 a week over 50 weeks.

I WILL BE DEBT FREE (by the end of 2009).

Council Tax - I rang them yesterday as I am paying my final bill of £400 this week, then from next week I am setting up a weekly standing order so I can basically pay it over 12 months as I should always be ahead of myself.

It annoys me that everywhere else does 12 months/choose your own payment date and the council does not (you can only choose your date if on dd - but I hate dd as we are on weekly pay).

AND, they send out arears letters 14 days after it's due,, instead of the following month like they used to.

They're worse then a debt collection agency. No flexibility whatsoever.

(Deep breath!...)

Paid half of this months TV license today, besides that haven't done too much, feeling rather lazy.

I did a survey with Toluna and it asked me at the end if I wanted to do a 3+1/2 hour one paying £40, I said yes so I'll look forward to that. (maybe).

That's it for today. Going to have a lazy dinner and then make some soup for tomorrow as I have some veg to use up.

grandma247

Marru so sorry to hear about your car but maybe its a blessing in disguise?;)

Wornoutmumoftwo My pet hate is how councils make you pay. I personally would prefer it to be paid out of the bank every payday which is weekly in our case. It would take so much pressure off. One day I might be able to set up another account to pay into it weekly and then just let DDs go out of that but we are a way off that yet.