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

mama67

nykmedia wrote: »

Hello fruguys and gals

I'm definitely going to have to start a monthly thread for this challenge, otherwise MSE will have us outta here by Easter. :rotfl: If it helps for 'gabbing' purposes, I use my frugaldom messageboards linked to my blog/site in my signature. I don't mind if it gets chatty, anything to keep us all on track and frugaling for the year. :beer:

This was a major spending day for me - £78.08 in total! :eek:

Groceries, pet supplies, stockpile, coal and umm... 10 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper & a 'Dear Santa' letter pack. :rotfl: S0merf!elds are selling 3m rolls of fancy wrapping paper, previously priced at £3, for 10p! It was a bargain too good to miss, wish I could have bought loads to keep and sell on at [strike]5[/strike] 3 for £1 next Christmas! :cool:

Coal has increased in price again, by another £1 per bag! Cheapest here is now £11.50 a bag and I have no intentions of spending any more than £1 per day on coal! More cut backs! :mad: I'll need to make a bag last an extra day! I need more logs, too, must price them soon. Food prices are getting to the shocking stage! I used to buy DS the single serving packs of curry noodles for lunchtime snack. At first, they were 4p per pack, then 8p, then 11p in December and now 16p! I didn't buy any! Let him eat [strike]cake[/strike] soup! :rotfl:

Whilst in town, I went to look for mung beans in the F&V/healthstore - but it's gone! C0ral bookmakers there now! Ham stock cubes have disappeared off the face of the planet again, so I picked up 2 smoked ham houghs instead; one will go into the SC tonight and the other is in the freezer. Cereal prices are escalating, too, but I managed to find half price Shreddies in C0-0p and S0merf!eld's own brand fruit & fibre was only 99p per 750g box. Dairylea cheese spread also half price in C0-0p and £1.99 for 400g mature cheddar from S0merf!eld. I didn't bother with the half price toilet rolls, too expensive for me. There were no signs up to say when the store is closing down! :rolleyes:

Loved the quote about poking the money to see if it was dead! Soooo funny! Banks pay no interest to our money, they're only interest is in our money!

Mumzy, stay a while longer, it's just a temporary glitch that means you need to keep practicing Remember it takes at least 3 weeks for it to become routine every time you stop and then start again and we aren't even into week 3 of the new year yet

Lynda - congratulations on exchanging! Everything crossed for you that there are no more hiccups

Oh! Mumzy! Chemist? £6? Few more days before you can tell us??? :eek:

Nyk, both Mr T & Mr A have Kn0rr ham stock cubes on their on line shops.

Maybe worth a call ahead next time you venture that far.

Skint_Lynne

Hiya,

The housemove is complete - phew. We just collected the last few bits today and that's it. I don't want to do that again for a while!!! Mum gave us our christmas prezzies today, they were in among moving stuff, so christmas in January:D . I got lots of creams and bath stuff etc, so my plan is to get this all organised over the weekend and start using it. I tend to keep this sort of stuff good, but it is for using, so that's just what I'll do!! My hands are like sandpaper, so I'll use some cream tonight on these.

I didn't spend much today, I did pay a debt, but that is not included on the challenge. I sent a parcel (work related), and bought a stamp in the post office £5, I am putting that towards my roadtax. I went shopping for mum in the asda which is near the new house. I met my cousin and took ages, but got whoopsied carrots at 20p for 1kg, for me and spinach for 5p. It was down from 1.28, so not bad at all!!

I'm glad things are getting back to normal, my living room is all fixed, apart from the vax machine in the middle of the floor, I'll find a home for it tomorrow. I got my new tumble drier today, but alas, dad was in and there is defo no room for the fridge.:mad:

Speak later frugalies. xx

sophiesmum_2

SL - Pity about the fridge but I bet you are so relieved that the move is sorted, it is such hard work. It's only when you have to move everything that you realise how much unnecessary stuff we all accumulate:rolleyes:

Hope your family settle well into their new home:eek:

mumzyof2

Thats fine sophiesmum thankyou

Off to bed now if i can sleep because of the weather. Just come on to say I added my £22.27 water bill to my sigotherday and just realised i need to take £22.2 off my sig
New week tomorrow and i will stick to £90! Got to put £10 on elec and £15/£20 (dpending whats left on meter) on gas. £5.00 to a card and £5.50 tv licence.
Total £55

Oh im also starting a food hygiene course tomorrow for free at my local childrens centre. Starts at 9am (DD in creche from 9.30-12) and finishes at 12 noon. Then at same place is youngmums group. Have dinner for a hour and DD goes back in creche 1-3pm I wont see her tmorrow hardly!!

Hope everyone has a good day, hugs to anyone who needsthem.

JAMIEDODGER

Hi everyone!

Cant believe we have done 3 weeks of this challenge already!! Need to sit down today with my spreadsheets and reciepts for the last few days and update them and update signature.

Took my car to garage yesterday as I had a puncture, but it wasnt a puncture afterall but a loose valve, cost zero:D was imagining having to pay out for new tyre!!

Was going to go to lidl yesterday but didnt make it in the end so will be attempting to go this morning instead! Will be stocking up on all those things lidl have much cheaper than tesco:) Hoping that after huge grocery spends in january, that february will be a little lower!

Really need to go out to freezers in the shed and do a stocktake but its such horrible weather here this morning that i am putting it off!

Will be clearing out fridge today and seeing what needs using up and that will probably determine dinner this evening:)

Have a great frugal day!

xnatalie81x

Have been doing my adding up for groceries this month. I have budgeted 240 a mth for groceries and the jan total (with my tesco delivery on 28th) is 168. This is for a 5week month and i have a freezer full at the end as taking advantage of £10 off vouchers to be used by feb!!!

I am very confident i can get down to 140 a mth (some mths slightly more) easily meaning a saving of 100 mth..... I am going to carry on as i am for jan and feb but from march am going to start saving the left-over in a pot and by the end of the year will have around 700 saved. This i will then use to make some debt payments on top of my standard ones VERY PLEASED.

Pre-you guys i was sepnding about 400 mth on food so even 240 was good but to get it down more is amazing THANKS YOU this forum and the old school one - i cannot believe hwo much food i used to waste!

the_cat

Hi everyone

Not posted much recently but I have been reading through most days. That seems to keep me on the straight and narrow and my spends for this month are MUCH less than usual. £201.27 in total, which includes all my direct debits.

Even better I have finally started making a little bit of extra money with free online bingo (although how anyone can get addicted to something so mindnumbing is beyond me!!) and have sold a couple of bits on Amazon. Next on the list is the pile of things I have put together for ebay. Just need to get some camera batteries first!

Have a fair amount of food in but will probably go whoopsie hunting today or tomorrow - anyone else finding there is a lot less of them than usual?

There were lots of things I meant to comment on but they have all vanished from my mind now, so will just say - have a great day all

Cat

grandma247

Well done on the food budget xnatalie.
We have been spending around £35 a week ,some is whoopsies and the rest is often stockpiling.
The cat I find that it depends on what part of the month it is as to the amount of whoopsied stuff. The end of the month ie.last week or so and the beginning of the month seems to be the best days. Check the dates on fresh stuff and you will see what I mean.
Can't post much at the Mo as have gch staying and its hectic. Will update soon.

Marru

Hello everybody,

I was poorly yesterday as got DD's tummy bug but back to "normal" today. Have read all the posts but sorry that can't reply individually. Hugs and cheers to everyone accordingly!

There is a programme on channel 4 at 8 tonight about: the true cost of cheap food. "As the credit crunch bites, a lot of families are cutting back by swapping expensive premium-range food for cheaper budget lines, but at what cost? Dispatches investigates."

I got my shelves yesterday but was too weak to start putting them up so off I go now to start sorting them out. Should keep me warm enough for not needing any heating on.

Have a good day everyone!

Marru

lilac_lady

Ok - my name is lilac_lady and I'm a supermarket addict. I needed milk and toilet rolls and when I left Mr A's I had spent £32.65 I need to keep out of supermarkets. My freezer is complaining, my cupboards are groaning and I'm having to ditch some rolls to make way for chicken fillets that I didn't need. I've also made a lamb casserole but I can't find space in the freezer for it so will either have some family/friends round or ditch some cheaper (whoopsie) bread that I was so pleased to buy at the time.

When will I ever learn? (wasn't that a chorus in a song?)