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

fallen_angel_shelley

Evening. I have got half way through my essay, but got to the point where I was almost banging my head on the wall:wall: I have been trying to do some other work on excel, i'm clueless as to how it works, and then realised that I don't have to have it done until tuesday. DS is been a good lad and doing the washing up me. At least while i'm busy I can't spend any more money.

I hope everyone is o.k, not had time to catch up on the post, sorry, I still have afew things to do before bed.

Big hugs for everyone,

Shelley x

Frugaldom

slowlyfading wrote: »

just a random question, but does anyone know where i can get a pedometer from? x

Keep an eye open for free giveaways, as some places did freebies this time last year. eBid and ebay have them listed fairly cheaply if you don't mind paying P&P. Mine's still working from a few years ago but I always wait until February before getting serious about fitness & diet because it's the shortest month to complete. :rotfl:

Tonight's dinner was completely vegetarian and, I'm amazed to say, EVERYONE in the household LIKED IT, even DS!:eek: Nut roast with boiled potatoes & assorted steamed veggies, followed by peach crumble. Glad I took advantage of that offer from Appr0ved F00ds. :T

SFT, are you saving for a move to the UK countryside or are you planning to go further afield? I love being off the beaten track but sometimes wonder if I should draw a 10 mile radius circle around a big supermarket and aim to be within a delivery route next time, especially when I read about all the bargains folks here get. But then again, I also wonder if I would survive to resist the temptation of shopping for stuff I didn't really need just because they were on offer! :rotfl:

Thanks for the refresher on Qype, LingoJingo, I may take a look at that again later. I'm not sure if I live near enough places that could possibly be reviewed and I never eat out or go pubbing. Hmm... do they allow village post offices and coal merchants, I wonder? I'd also like to have tried mystery shopping but my guess is that opportunities are a little bit limited about here.

Bails, I realised you weren't wanting overall costs involved :rotfl: it was just that someone DID calculate out the full cost and I found it really funny! Here's a link to one of the reports. If they have their figures right, then my 2 would have cost me £950,000 and neither of the weddings have been paid for yet. :rotfl:

bails

Ha ha, cool, will look at that link Nyk. Okay so I've signed up to Qype and done my first review, it was a first one so should be worth a £1 but how do I know? It says I've got 20 points...have I done something wrong?
EDIT: ah, I've been to My Qype page and it says 1 (first) review so I take it that means it counts? It says reviews have to be at least 100 words long, is that what everyone's done? Thanks guys.

Right, 5 first reviews down, more tomorrow...

In_Search_Of_Me

oo just done my sums and am ahead of myself - not hugely but thats a major achievement for me!!
can relate to the essay frustration S! Maybe have a break until tom to let ideas come?
nyk do you do peach crumble with tinned peaches? I hopefully have 2 sunday lunches in a row to do so want some frugal recipes!!

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello

I haven't been here in ages, my spending for Jan is a little odd, since I massively over spent in Dec and so most of my 333 pounds for this month has kinda gone already ! I had a 100 pounds - to cover transport and lunch and going out. (given up buying clothes, toiletries etc) so it is a little tight!

but the bills are paid thats the main thing.

sorry I haven't time to read, hope all is well with you all xxx

Frugaldom

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

nyk do you do peach crumble with tinned peaches? I hopefully have 2 sunday lunches in a row to do so want some frugal recipes!!

Yes, just tip in a can of peaches, chop them up a little bit and then sprinkle on the hm crumble mixed with some cinnamon. Easy as pie.

Qype peeps - I just went for a look and began the sign-up process. The terms & conditions say, "The Promotional Period is 15/01/2009 to 31/01/2009 and will close at midnight on 31/01/2009. The competition will be open to the first 1000 entrants and it will not be possible to enter the competition after 1000 entries have been made." I'll continue with the sign-up process anyway, as I quite like writing reviews, but when I click on the link to see what can be done with the £50 Virgin voucher, it says, "404 - File or directory not found..."

Shaz - Excellent purchase with the fruit bushes at £1 each! Wow! :beer:

fizzel81

evening all

been a busy day today, was invited up to dads for dinner so up we went, had a lush chicken dinner cooked by him but my dad laughed whe i asked for the carcuss from the chicken, when i told him why he said to me i never knew you were that frugal, my brother who is a chef in training then went on to tell him how great it is to make chicken stock and how much better things taste when cooked using the stock over an oxo cube, he left a decnet amount of meat on it (wastefull man) wrapped it up in foil and away we came with that and £50 quid (he knows im paying off the debts so i wonder if he thinks im dead skint), tried to tell him we didnt want it but he said to spend it on me and the boys.

so i brought ds2 his new shoes from clarks in the sale for £10, then took a wonder into boots nothing much sale wise left but did pick up ds3 2 bits to put away for his birthday and 12 sachets of pantene winter resuce each pack was 97p but gave me 100 points (so 1200 points) i then used the points to pay for ds3's toys for birthday, got some no7 bits with the vouchers to put awy for me or bro's girlfriends birthday

all in all a nsd as i spent dads money lol and still have some left for the week

ebay is proving productive for me, sold most things the other day and 1 thing im taking to bluewater tomorrow and meeting there for cod (which im going to be good and pop in bank)

listed 8 items tonight and 2 have sold already making £67.49 in under a few hours and a running total of £297.48 already in jan since i started listing things agan, most is sat in paypal, ive used some to pay fee;s, 6 things left to sell before i list anymore

tomorrow will be a big day for me, i will be going to nationwide and getting 2 bankers drafts done for 2 debts will then send them recorded with covering letter etc with all the needed details on

so by tomorrow evening thats another 2 debts down, 2 sorted and 1 to sort plus i know i have a credit card with barclays that i need to wait for paperwork on and one more loan, my plans to be debt free in 2010 are comeing along nicely, the need to be debt free is kinda taking over right now and its in my head beforei spend anything i dont need, and ive found myself lecturing my brother who was going to apply for a credit card

will try and catch up fully applogies if i dont i must iron ds school uniform for tomorrow and polish his shoes

whitewing

Nyk,

You may be able to help. I have a list of MSE users and associated info on an excel spreadsheet (and also on Word as it happens). I am trying to post the list into the lapland thread but it squashes up all the formatting rather than listing in columns. Do you know how I can post it properly?

I am doubly frustrated because of the above and also because our washing machine has died and it's not fixable according to my dad. Who moaned at me for buying it secondhand from the bloke whose house I bought so it didn't have a warranty. I wouldn't have needed to buy it if he hadn't given mine to my aunty without asking me, when we relocated down here. Grr. I'm very cross.

All my troubles have taken the shine off the fact that I actually went for a jog today. Well, I walked most of the route. But am still attempting to lose weight. Have lost slightly over Xmas. But just over 1kg a month at the moment so could do with boosting my efforts a bit with exercise, hence the 'jogging'. I have to walk whenever I turn a corner and there is someone else there. Can't jog in front of strangers, lol (or anyone other than DH).

lingojingo

Nyk, here is the link to what you can spend the voucher on

http://www.thevirginvoucher.co.uk/Spend/

Bit worried some of mine might be too short - a lot are long, but not all, so may need to do a few more

I revoewed the village post office,:rotfl: and the amateur theatre, can't see why the coal merchant wouldn't fit in

Glad you liked the nut roast as I also got one. If anyone ordered the C@dbury's choc pud mix, they're delicious, we just had them this evening - wish we had a lot more!

Marru

Hello all,

Busy day as have been trying to sort things out. I was looking for couple of items from understairs cupboard and by accident managed to sort it out. Did find one of the items but not the other. And ended up listing five things on freecycle and two more could still go. However nobody has wanted the five that I did list so far. I also found a big stash of material so eventually these need sorting and selling. And I found my winter duvet that has been waiting to be washed for last three winters and finally today I got it done just to realise that not neccessarily the best time of the year to get it dry. Oh well, it is out dripping now and will bring it in hopefully tomorrow unless it gets soaked until I get to it.

Have been cooking soup in SC for lunches for next week and when that comes out shortly put some chicken legs with tinned tomato for next week suppers. All the washing has been done, most of it has been put away, I have picked DD's clothes for next five days and made a list of all the items for "show and tell" for the week. I don't think I ever have been this organised. I just need to get my school bag sorted and have a look at the deadines for assignments to be able to negotiate managable schedule for me now that I am going back to college.

Also some job hunting and actual paid work to do still tonight. Perhaps a bite of freshly baked HM bread before putting chicken in SC and having a bath. Hopefully will catch second wind later.

Oh, someone mentioned not being fat and fourty this year. I have only just over three months to go so I decided that if I can drop one kg for every nine days then I would be in my desired weight five days before my fourtieth birthday. I shall give it a go. So next time stepping on the scale shall be 27/1/09.

Better go now to check my lentil and spinach soup without the spinach.

Wishing you all a good week,

Marru