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

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Just spent an hour cleaning through flat with stardrops and microfibre cloths,then quick hoover through and it is now all done again - no more housework to be done this weekend;)
Need to buy eggs today and will be having a trip to market so may see a bargain or two in the vegge line, although cannot fit another single thing in either of freezers have even had to take out a big HM lasagne yesterday to fit in some of bacon from costco that I split into packs.If I see an unmissable bargain I could always commandeer a drawer in oldies freezer which is never full;)
General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard meals
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item - nabbed all gift bags from OH's birthday pressies this morning, 3 bags for charity shop.
• do something nice for me -long soak in bath with some of xmas smellies and book
• do something nice for someone else-making cake later for OH's birthday,sorted stuff for charity shop
• do one thing just for fun -started my mosaic project
• fitter not fatter - lots of walking around town,

Todays frugal meals;

• Hm seeded bread, poached egg
• broccoli and stilton soup, satsuma
• HM lasagne, carrots.sprouts, sweetcorn

Fruit and veg portions;
1 fruit, 0 pulses, 4 veggies,:D

Expenditure or additional income
Total spend today £12.96 of which:

£1.70 food spends
£2.30 postage costs.
£1.47 superdrug sale items for gifts
£7.49 Boots sale items for gifts

Also DD for cable/telephone/broadband out of bank today £82.00

Total deductions from budget £94.96
Additional income £8.20 found in old fleece when decluttering wardrobe



Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £260.34 left from budget of £400.(17/1/09)
Veg and eggs £1.70

nickynoo08

Morning peeps, was a bit naughty last night and bought a few bits online. I spent the last of my xmas money on a dvd and a couple of books, but then i had a look at the tesco direct sale:rolleyes: . I've only gone and bought myself a slow cooker:D. Is it wrong that i'm excited about this:p. I also picked up a few recycling boxes and an electric sweeper - all in the sale. Only spent £36 for the lot, which i dint think was too bad full price it should of cost £68, plus i went through cb site and got double tesco points too.
I'm not totally convinced the electric sweeper will be any good but all of the reviews i read said it was brill. My hoover conked out on me a few months ago and i've been borrowing my grans sweeper and it seems to do the job. I've only got carpet upstairs so seemed daft buying an expensive hoover.
Have to do some more spending today too. Have to buy little un some more nappies and wipes so wont be having my nsd as planned.

Todays plan....
Walk to and from town
Quick tidy of house before work
put w/m on and dry clothes on airer
No heating today

Have a good day eveyone

grandma247

I have finally got around to uploading the file . It was free so should be ok to share. you can download the file from here.

kittiej

Morning all!

Just popping in to show my face (at bit scary atm tho, still got my bed hair going on :eek: )

I bought another purse from ebay which cost me all of £1.68, still waiting for it to arrive.

This is for my diesel money because I have found my idea of paying for diesel on my bank card not to be what I expected. Instead of my underspends on diesel staying in my account it all seems to be disappearing.

So I think it's better if I actually withdraw the full £30 and just leave whatever is left over in my purse. I'm currently spending only £15 per week so I'm very pleased.

Not sure whether to save all underspends up until the end of the year to go towards this challenge next year, or whether to make a payment towards mortgage or debts each quarter.

Any ideas anyone? I keep dreaming of having a lump sum ready for next year that I can do a mega big shop to cover the whole year :rotfl:

cw18

If you have debts at well above the BOE base rate, then I would seriously consider paying underspends off these (if there's no penalty for paying quicker/earlier than agreed).

If you have something charging even 5% interest, then if you pay off £100 now it will save you £5 in interest over the year. If you leave that £100 in a bank you might be lucky to get £1 interest. So by paying off now you save £4 over the year -- so if I were to hang on to the money for 'bargains', then I'd also feel I had to save over £4 before the item really was a bargain.

(And if you kept it in a purse you'd make nothing, so would have to save the full £5!)



I've been monitoring one of my c/cards all week -- as I knew the next statement was due. This is the one that had the highest interest rate and the highest balance (so was the first I paid off). The bill has appeared on-line this morning.......

Interest added - zero
New balance - zero
Minimum payment due - zero

:T

It's a loooooong time since I've seen a credit card statement like that, and I've been bouncing around the house with the sheer excitement of it :rotfl: Now I just need to call them up and cancel the account (and chop the card up into dozens of tiny pieces!)

kittiej

Thanks CW and well done with the cc.

I wouldn't make anything if I left money in my purse I know but at least I would have something.

I don't currently see any of the leftover money

I think I should really do the debt slaying thing shouldn't I.

fallen_angel_shelley

Good morning, my fellow frugalers. It's a beautiful sunny day here, but i'm sure that wont last. I'm just watching saturday kitchen and they might be cooking hogget (1-2 year old lamb) in abit, it looks delicious, have any of you ever tried it? I need to nip to MrT's later and pick up some bits:rolleyes:, I have made a list and am going to stick to it and whatI need should come to around £15.


I got a rent statment of my HA yesterday and it seems that HB haven't been paying the right amount of rent to them:mad: , I did try ringing HB when I got home but its allways engaged, so I will try them on monday afternooon.


Welcome to the challenge Silkbeast, you will find lots of support and advice here.

Shelley x

shaz_mum_of__2

well done on the cc CW

we have just cancelled 2 cards as the 0% rate has ended (and the balance has been transferred to another 0% til november card with amuch lower monthly payment) i reckon stoozing for the last 18 months has paid for all the veg growing improvements we have made to our garden :the green house, the extra topsoil and a few sleepers well worth a bit of juggling

Still got leeks ,celeriac , chard and kale now and cabbages and psb to come soon as well as the runner beans and courgettes in the freezer

the front garden makeover diary / blog will be up and running soon so you will be able to follow progress if you should wish

Hubby is filling the raised beds as we speak .................. i am resisting buying any more seeds i nearly have as many as mrs mcawber!!


Better go and do some foreman like bossing

See you later

Shaz

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone
Well done CW18!!!
Welcome silkbeast.
Skint Lynne-Yes I've been to Kenya...its beautiful but quite volatile in parts..my friends run an orphanage there and have experienced hi-jacks and threatening behaviour. Hong Kong would be a great choice..its amazing.
Had a super dinner last night: goats cheese and red onion tart, King Prawns and rice followed by Cheesecake. Great company and travel talk.

Woke up to pounding rain but now its blue skies. Looking forward to a 'free' Saturday.
Well here is the plan for today:

• Spend only 3 hours on school work-Have late afternoon/evening and tomorrow free.
• Watch DVD. Dark Knight-Lent to us by friend of OH.
• Clear school clutter from study. This may be tomorrow's job as well as have so many resources.
• Washing and Ironing.

Inspired by Sophiesmum

• Fitter not fatter-No choc/snacks day..
• Reuse, recycle- Start collecting stamps for charity goal at school. Save spare envelopes for school bits and pieces.
• Do something nice for someone-Start filling up another Charity Shop bag.
• Someting nice for me-DVD night

Menu:
Breakfast: Toast and Italian Roast Coffee-Always spoil ourselves with proper coffee at the weekend. Got lots as presents for Christmas. Pour remaining into flask for later use in the day.
Lunch: HM Tomato Soup and apple.
Dinner: Linda Mc Pie, peas, carrots and roast potatoes. Apple crumble-given some apples from Mum this week.
Have a great day all. Catch you later. SFT

skint_chick

Went to the cinema last night to see Defiance with yummy Daniel Craig and it was excellent. Managed to keep spend under £12 by using my student discount so less than £6 each for a night out! Today will also be a NSD -doing 3 mystery shops then going for a long walk to keep my mind off chocolate. Buying a few odds and ends of groceries for mystery shop so won't need to go to supermarket for another week at least. Have to advertise on freecycle for new printer as mine has given up -typical I have about 5 letters to print off!

I need to get new clothes for new job - I have trousers and shoes but need to get a couple of blouses but I'm heading home next weekend. My parents think I'm crazy doing this challenge and I think have visions of me eating soup and sitting in a cold house shivering. So it is wrong of me to accept if my mum offers to apy for some new clothes?? I don't get to see them that often so she likes spoiling me.